BlackRock prison - arrival dock - morning

After grabbing our stuff, we make our way to the dock. A single gondola sits at the docks. Chip and Marie are next to it, waiting for us. Marie spots us, motioning us to hurry. We jump onto the boarding dock.

“Brother, you okay?”

“I am. We need to leave, now!”

Chip slides open the door. “Then why are we standing here? Let’s get out of here!”

We hurdle into the gondola. Gil stands outside next to the controls for it.

“Gil, come on! Gil?” He’s staring at something. Peering outside, it’s the old man, standing tall, even with his battered face, bleeding all over himself. Not good! “Gil, we need to go, now! Come on!” The old man starts moving toward us, a demented smile on his face. Gil just stands there, wanting to fight him. “Please, come on, man! He’s not worth it! Please, Gil!”

His face conflicts, pained with a choice of coming with us or staying to fight. He steps forward but hesitates, looking at me. A defeated expression paints his face. Please…just come with us, please…

“Proxy,” he mutters aloud, sounding sorry for something. “...Make room for one more!”

He moves a lever for the gondola, making it move. His foot breaks it in one go. He jumps up to the boarding duck, running to make the entrance. I stretch out my hand. “Come on, slowpoke! Run…!”

His hand reaches out for mine, doing his damndest to grab mine. The gondola is almost away from the docks, it’s now or never! Pushing his body to the limit, he grabs my arm. He pulls me forward, almost yanking me out of the gondola, but Alex grabs me, keeping me from falling out.

“PULL!”

Screaming with all the power in my lungs, I summon all the strength in my body to pull him in. Right when we were going to hit the end of the boarding dock, we yank him into the gondola, pushing ourselves to the ground, rocking the gondola.

“Close it,” Marie orders, Chip slams it shut.

A large breath of air pushes out of my lungs, with sweat rolling down my forehead. "Everyone good?"

"I am fine, relatively speaking," Alex strains, crushed behind me and Gil.

"Glad I'm not crushed between you guys," Chip comments, pressing against the walls of the gondola.

"Sorry, guys," Gil apologizes, getting up from on top of me.

"Thought I was gonna die for a second there. Alex, you sure you good?"

"Do not worry. I am stronger than I appear."

Chip lets out a dry chuckle. "We made it, we actually made it. We freaking did it!"

"Damn straight we did!"

Chip and I go in for a high five, bumping shoulders.

"Can't believe it either, but here we are," Marie joins in on the celebration, showing off her more expressive side. "But it's not over yet. We're gonna need to leave as soon as possible. The kingdom will send knights to reclaim this place."

"Then we'll let them do that as soon as we book it."

"Sure don't want the knights dragging our asses back in there. I'll make myself scarce when the gates open," Chip states.

"I...guess I will, too. Though, I don't have anywhere I want to go," Gil adds on.

"Then come with us," I tell them. "We just settled down somewhere else, so it's all good."

"I agree. It would be splendid to have you two accompany us."

You'd think Marie would chime in, telling us no, but she doesn't. Either she's not doing it cause her brother said so, or she knew this was coming.

"Yeah, I think it wouldn't be so bad," Chip replies, seemingly half-hearted, but he looks happy.

"Thank you. I won't take advantage of your hospitality," Gil answers, bowing his head to Alex.

"No need. Hopefully, we can all get along. By the way, I am Alexander, a pleasure. That is my sister, Marie."

"I'm Gilhart. Nice to meet you both."

Glad things ended on a happy note. Not to mention, we got more people into our little ground, and I can't say the inclusions are bad either.

New hideout - evening

We made it to the new camp, hidden deep in a forest west-north from the old sight. Grass covers the entrance half of the area, while stone covered the other half, reaching all the way to the back. A sea of trees surround the camp, hiding us deep inside, but giving us more than enough room to move around to set up camp. Plus, there’s a high-ass cliff that’s been dug into. Not that far in, but enough to be able to sit under it. There’s some fancy sitting on a pedestal at the back of that cave.

Stuff is still getting set up, but it seems like everyone is getting settled just fine.

"How did you find this place?" I direct the question to Marie.

"I've known about this place for a while now. Never needed to use it as a hideout since there was no need. But now that we have this many people with us, we needed something bigger," Marie says, coming off somewhat annoyed.

"Oh, come on, you can't say all these people don't earn their keep, can you," I tell her, wearing a confident smirk.

She was about to go off about it not being a good thing, but she sighs, defeated before she can get a word out. "...Yeah, they are pretty helpful and I can't deny that, but we-"

"I like it," Alex affirms, boisterous. "It has been a while since we’ve camped with people, so it is a splendid opportunity to have."

His excitement was outshining Marie's conservative nature, making it even more bizarre that they’re related.

"Proxy!" Spinning around, Richard comes running at me while Nunnalé trails behind him, carrying the couch like it weighed nothing at all.

"Is…is she lifting that by herself?" Chip, his jaw hanging low, was shell-shocked by Nunnalé’s raw strength.

"Yeah, she's pretty damn strong."

Nunnalé put down the couch on the grass. Perfect, now I can finally give myself a deserved rest. I plop onto the couch, basking in all cushions, almost sinking into the thing. This is what paradise is.

"Proxy, why didn't you tell me you were going to jail?" Richard asks, somewhat concerned and angry. He takes a seat next to me. “Why did you go in the first place?”

"Cut me some slack. It kinda just happened. Marie was off to go get her brother, so I thought she needed some help.”

“Her brother? Where is he?”

I point to Alex, who's standing on a slab of stone; looks like a well-carved table.

"Hello, friends, I hope you all had a great time in this camp and I hope you continue to do so. My name is Alexander, and I just broke out of prison thanks to them!"

He gestured towards Gil, Chip, Marie, and me. You know, if this was back home, pretty sure that it wouldn’t end well for any of us.

"And in honor of them, I declare we celebrate their bravery by throwing a celebration!"

The crowd applauded his declaration. Marie, on the other hand, wasn’t smiling. She approached him and the two of them began arguing. I couldn't hear them, but judging by their body language, I could tell that Marie was being pushed back by Alex.

“Okay… We can party.” Aw, hell yeah, baby! “...But tomorrow, we’re gonna hunt like madmen!”

And there goes my good mood. Well, no point in getting upset. I’m the one cooking, so I need to get that ready.

"Richard, I'm gonna need an extra pair of hands. While we're at it, I can tell you all about my exploits in jail."

"I don't think I want to know..."

As Richard led me to the cooking station, I looked back at Gil. He seemed dejected, as if he didn’t think he belonged here.

"Yo, Gil, whatcha doing? I need your help, too."

Surprised, he lifts his eyebrows. "You do?"

"Yeah, I need all the hands I can get, and you got some pretty big hands."

"But I don't know how to cook."

"That's fine. I just need you to hand me stuff and I'll be specific about it, so don't worry too much."

His puppy-dog eyes turn to beaming joy. "All right, I'll be right there."

…

Everyone in the camp went to sleep except for me. My reserves were still 100% after all that food I ate. I wander for a while, trying to walk off that meal… Hm? Is that Gil? Looks like he’s fighting an invisible adversary, dishing out kicks and punches, putting weight into each blow.

Landing his last punch, he notices me, brushing off his forehead of sweat. "Proxy, why are you up so late?"

Could ask the same about you."

"Just training."

"Why? You're not in the prison anymore."

"It doesn't matter, whether I'm in or out of the prison, I need to grow stronger so I can further my skills and surpass any opponent. I can't allow myself to slow down, even for a single second."

So while he was the king, he didn't stop growing stronger.

"Is something the matter, Proxy?"

"No, nothing."

Honestly amazed by his dedication to growing stronger. I never had that sort of thing before, and I don’t even know if I ever will.

"...I only grew stronger so I could keep watch on the old man. I thought it was enough, keeping him contained in there, but I think I was just afraid to fight him. Vengeance was my goal when I went to BlackRock, but when I got the chance, I…got scared. Dying never bothered me when I was a child, but seeing it happen to someone I cared about, I don’t..”

"You didn’t seem so scared before."

“I let my anger get to my head. It helped with my fear, but it just proved that I was weak.” I don’t agree with that. If you win the fight, then you’re stronger. That’s how it is and always will be. “...But when you reminded me I wasn’t fighting alone, it got rid of the fear inside me, and I got to fight at my best. From the bottom of my heart, thanks for sticking with me."

His warm smile expresses the gratitude that his words carried, hitting it home for me.

"No problem, I'm just hard-wired to help someone in need."

Gil backs away from me. "You know, we didn't get the chance to finish our fight.”

Oh yeah, I know where he’s going with this!

I relax my shoulders, taking a stance. "Now that you mention it, yeah, we didn’t."

"I'm glad you're quick on the draw.”

"You kidding me? I was about to bring it up."

The wind gently blows against the grass, whistling past us. Leaves sway from the branches, rustling, creating a harmonious sound with the air. A perfect area for a fight.

"On three, we go," Gil says, letting loose a smirk that says it all.

"Fine by me."

"Then, three, two, one!"

Our body zooms across the field, racing to reach the other. We send out a fist to the other, aiming for each other’s heads. However, neither made their mark. Missing didn’t upset me or grate on me, but the moment before impact, right when we could’ve hit the other, that’s when I got excited about this fight. Sounds crazy, but that’s just how it is for me. I wonder if that’s what it’s like for Gil as well?

Outside of BlackRock Prison - midnight

Violent waves of the water were crashing against the hard, coarse, and jagged rocks below the BlackRock prison. Above them is a single gondola. It’s traveling from the prison. When it reached its end, the door slid open. Inside were the bodies of the knights, who came to disarm the situation at the prison. Before they could exit the gondola, a single person entered while they were inside, killing each of them in the blink of an eye, dismembering them with ease, breaking their bones like tissue paper, and filling the gondola with blood.

His emotions numbed, ignoring their broken bodies as he rode the gondola out of the prison. What about the other prisoners? A question with an answer that would shake the heart of an average man; this single old man killed them. Even in greater numbers, he slayed them with little to no hesitation. He was not content killing them but did it anyway. Similar to eating when sick, he simply didn’t enjoy the fight. This old man was not interested in killing people. He loved the heat of battle, killing was the inevitable conclusion to his battles, a fact he had come to hate.

Alone, he walks into the forest with a destination in mind. What was his goal? To have another fight with Gilhart, but for now, he must regroup with his allies, those who bear the tattoo of a ghostly figure standing in the middle of a flame. The scar of his battle with Gilhart howls inside his soul, beckoning him to the battlefield once more!