Opening his eyes slowly, Loganel could see the same familiar darkness that he has grown so accustomed to over the past few days. He could feel that his whole body was making contact with the floor, and from that he concluded that he was laying down. On his chest, he could feel something soft pushing against him along with a pleasant aroma.

Slowly, Loganel moved his fingers and hands to make sure that he was fine. Then, he slowly brought them over to the whatever was laying on his chest. Upon making physical contact, Loganel could feel the extreme softness and delicate as of whatever or whoever it was. Stimulated by Loganel's touch, the person on his chest started to stir. A pair of azure blue eyes stared back at Loganel. Initially, it gave Loganel a dreamy stare. Then, the gaze softened a bit and gave off a heart warming kindness.

"You alright?" Azura asked as she slowly got up and backed off a bit, giving Loganel some space.

"Yeah," Loganel sat up. "How'd we get here?"

"Probably some magic trap," Azura calmly pointed out as she looked around. "I remember seeing a bright green glow from the patterns on the ground."

"You know where we are?" Loganel slowly got up and checked to see if his sword was still with him. He then let out a sigh of relief as he realized that it was. He then glanced over at Azura. He observed that she appeared fine as well and her belongings seems to be still with her.

"I don't know," Azura shook her head. "This is somewhere we've never seen. What do you think we should do from here on?"

"Try to find the expedition team. It's pointless for us to wait around here. Who knows if they'll pass by us? Besides, we don't even know if we are below them or above them."

"Nice to hear something sensible coming out of your mouth," Azura half-smiled from amusement.

"Something wrong with what I say?"

"Nothing," Azura quickly dismissed the topic, but still, her rare smile was still on display.

"You need a second to recover? We might want to leave as soon as possible. If that was a trap, then we don't know what it should've lead us to." Loganel took out his pocket watch and checked the time. "It's quite late," he frowned, "already ten PM. We should find somewhere to spend the night. No use trying to rush things."

With Loganel in the lead, the two pressed on into the unknown, labyrinth-like streets of the ancient ruins. The roads that were available to be taken were dark and often narrow, leading Loganel to believe that this area must have been the slums of the ancient city. Loganel occasionally glanced over his shoulder at Azura, trying to read her face. However, he gave up after he realized that she still had that apathetic look on her face despite him knowing that she is capable of emotion but just kept it hidden.

Loganel exercised extreme caution as they made their way aimlessly through the winding alleyways and roads of the ancient city. Occasionally, he would hear the sound of rotten flesh smacking against the stone floor or the walls of one of the buildings that were illuminated under the faint, eerie green glow from the few Mana crystals present.

"Zombies," Azura whispered to him as they peeked around the corner of a building and discovered a rotten corpse with skin peeling off and flesh falling off just standing about. "So we are either on the eighth floor or any floors below it since the eighth floor is the floor where we first encountered the Undead," she reasoned.

"So that means the expedition team is near us..." Loganel slowly backtracked from the corner in search of another way. "Let's locate a place to stay for the night first. When we have everything settled we can discuss our future moves."

He entered a small alleyway, weapon drawn and in hand as he proceeded. Him and Azura lacked any real methods for combating Undead, therefore they were careful not to draw the attention of any of those monsters. Well, Loganel believes that he might have a way, that is if he could somehow coat his weapon with Mana of the Holy element. Even though Loganel has talent in all elements, the Holy element is...special. It requires special training for one to be able to utilize it unlike the other elements such as Fire. This is why there's an entire school dedicated to the Holy element.

Continuing down the alleyway, Loganel and Azura encountered a few Skeleton Warriors, three of them, just standing around. They didn't breathed, yet they stood as if they still possessed vitality. Slowly, they turned their skulls over towards where Loganel and Azura was, making a rattling sound with their bones as they moved. They then raised their rusty weapon in preparation for combat as they made their way over towards Loganel and Azura.

"Can't avoid this fight," Loganel muttered. "Knock them out and run."

Azura nodded as she readied her weapon and entered a combat stance alongside Loganel.

"Let me just try this real quick."

Loganel ran his finger along the length of his blade, summoning Holy Mana and attempting to imbue his blade with it. When he was finished, his sword glowed with a faint, white light. However, he was still unsure if this was enough to be able to take care of the Undead.

Loganel stepped towards the first Skeleton Warrior as Azura preoccupied the second one. He side stepped the swipe of the monster's blade and slammed his blade hard into the skeleton torso of the creature, aiming to break the bones of the creature so to engender more time for himself and Azura if the thing were to revive itself.

With the first Skeleton Warrior dismantled, Loganel looked over from the corner of his eye. He discovered that Azura had taken care of her Skeleton Warrior, and that monster was now a pile of bones that laid on the ground. It was still for the moment, but after a few seconds, it should start magically gather itself and form the skeleton once again. Therefore, the two of them knew that they must hurry in dispatching the third and final enemy before they could proceed. This, they were able to do so quickly since the Skeleton Warriors they were engaging weren't the most dangerous of their kind.

"Wait a second," Loganel immediately whispered over to Azura when they had defeated the third Skeleton Warrior. "I wanna see if this actually works." He looked over at his glowing blade and back over at the bones of the monsters.

Only one out of the three piles of bones began to move, and that one was the one that Azura had defeated. Before it was able to regather itself and form, Loganel attacked it with his blade, causing it to fall apart again and never move.

"Looks like it actually worked," Azura pointed out.

"Yeah," Loganel nodded. "Let's continue on."

They were careful to not let their footsteps echo too much, always treading lightly and avoiding any thing that, when stepped on, could make noise. As they meandered about, searching for clues as to whether or not the expedition team has been on this floor before or just searching for the stairways, they avoided confrontation with the large groups of Undeads. One thing that they've found odd was that where they were, there seems to be more of these Undeads. They just seemed to gather in hordes with no obvious purpose.

Finally, due to their increasing fatigue, Loganel decided that they should really be hiding within one of these abandoned buildings and waiting the night out. That was why when Loganel discovered a small two story stone brick house located in an area with not that many Undead, he decided that this place should be fit for a temporary base.

Him and Azura quietly entered, and they quietly closed the door behind them. Loganel summoned an orb of fire from his hands, using it to illuminate the interior of the house. The house was small, meaning that there weren't many places for them to check, but it still felt as if it took an eternity due to them being on their sharpest senses. They looked under the dining table, behind every single door, and checked the walls and windows multiple times to make sure that there was no secret passage ways or areas where the monsters outside could get in. When they had made sure that the house was safe and was all clear, the two of them decided to use the second story bedroom as their camp.

"I'll go and barricade the front door."

Loganel began turning around in order to reach the stairway that led to the first floor of the house. However, he was immediately stopped by Azura, who grabbed onto his sleeve.

"Wait," Azura whispered in a voice that Loganel had never heard her use before. It was a voice that sounded so feminine and cute, that Loganel could not correlate it to be coming from someone like Azura. "Let me come with you."

"Ugh...sure?"

The two of them then proceeded down to the first floor where they quietly and discreetly pushed some furniture to block the door in a way that they could easily just rearrange it when they were to set out the next morning. Afterwards, they returned to the second floor bedroom where they had decided to set up camp for the night.

They sat around the small fire that burned from the wax candle that Loganel had found from one of the cabinets in the house. He had ignited the wick with the orb of fire that he had summoned, which granted him and Azura valuable respite.

Loganel closed his eyes, and mentally reached into his storage ring in search of the emergency rations that he had set aside. "You hungry?" he asked as he retrieved a loaf of bread along with some dried meat and vegetables from his ring. "Here." Loganel handed the food items to her, knowing that it might be awkward for a girl to admit to being in a state of hunger.

"Thanks," Azura accepted the food item from Loganel.

"Here's some water," Loganel retrieved a canteen filled with water from his ring. "I filled this up by the river at the entrance to this place..." His expression suddenly became sullen as he recalled that night when he had saw Azura meeting with Tetsuya.

"Something on your mind?" Azura stared at Loganel, eyeing him with an unprecedented kindness in her gaze.

Loganel shook his head. "It's nothing."

A brief period of silence ensued as fatigue slowly overcame the two of them. Loganel reasoned that the kindness he had saw in her eyes were probably the result of this fatigue. This sluggishness has probably jaded her sharp gaze, making it soft and kind.

Loganel took a bite from the cold, hard preserved food that he held in hand. The bread was hard and it tasted stale and the vegetables lacked any real taste of freshness or moisture. In addition, the dried beef was...well...dry. All in all, the meal was dry and bland, lacking no real pleasant taste. It dried up Loganel's throat, causing him to be more thirsty and take more drinks from his canteen.

He wiped the few drops of water that had gotten onto his chin off with his hand, and he glanced over at Azura. She was silently nibbling on the bread and it was obvious that she found it to be extremely dry as well.

"Here," Loganel offered her his canteen which Azura merely looked at hesitantly. "It's fine," Loganel said.

Azura closed her eyes and gave in. She took the canteen from Loganel's hands, holding it with both hands as she stared at the opened canteen. Her face was slightly red, but Loganel assumed that it was probably due to the light from the candle fire. Slowly, she brought the canteen to her lips and took a drink from it.

"Thank you," she handed the canteen back to Loganel, smiling, and Loganel accepted it without saying much other than blushing a bit upon realization that she had just put her lips on where he had just done so earlier.

With the two of them finished with their meals, it was almost time for them to head to bed. However, the problem is that the bed in the bedroom is extremely dusty and the fact that it was unfit for them to share a bed. Therefore, neither of them moved and both sat on the ground near the corner with their back up against the adjacent walls.

Loganel glanced over at Azura, and saw that she was still sitting upright and awake. "Can't sleep?" he asked her.

Azura shook her head in response. "No," she said. "I'm just...thinking... It's been a while since we're alone."

"When's the last time? When I walked you back to your dorm?"

Azura silently nodded. "It's been quite a while now. A whole season has passed."

"Yeah." Loganel rested his head against the hard surface of the wall, recalling that summer night when he had walked behind her on campus underneath that starry night. "It's been a while." He closed his eyes, but he still maintained consciousness as he conversed with Azura..

"Little did we know that we would be where we are right now," Azura bitterly smiled.

"Yeah," Loganel nodded, mistaking her bitter tone to be about the situation that they were in.

"So...how has things been for you lately?" Azura's voice was gentle as she spoke, almost with a calming effect on Loganel's mind.

"Fine."

"That girl...Iry..." Azura hesitated in her speech, but Loganel didn't give it much thought.

"There's nothing between us," Loganel responded. "Nothing happened."

"But you still go and see her."

"Yeah." Loganel yawned as drowsiness slowly embraced him.

"Are you...in love with her?"

"W-what's with this sudden question?" The drowsiness was temporary repelled for Loganel. "I ugh...I don't know exactly. She just...she feels special to me. I don't even know what love is like. Do you?"

"How would I know?" Azura's voice was so calming and soothing that it immediately acted as the perfect lullaby for Loganel, as if an intoxicating drug that numbed his senses.

"Aren't you um..." Loganel mumbled in a quiet voice out of embarrassment. "Dating him?"

"What?" Azura asked, apparently she wasn't able to hear what Loganel had just muttered.

"N-never mind," Loganel blushed.

A spell of silence was casted on them. The conversation between the two of them paused as the awkward silence prevailed between them. This was a tender moment, a moment that Loganel cherished. He was still recalling the gentleness of her voice as he laid there with his eyes closed. A feeling of serenity and warmth filled his body, causing him to feel a joy that he hadn't felt in quite some time.

"I want to thank you," Azura started speaking once again. This time however, her voice was softer, warmer, and more gentle than before. It was almost as if a whisper, but its a whisper that left its mark on Loganel, something that he'll never forget.

"What for?"

"It might not mean much to you, but I still remember it all clearly," Azura smiled, blushing a bit as she gazed at Loganel, knowing that with his eyes closed, he won't be able to see her flustered but joyful face. "That time with the Succubus, that time in this same ruins, and that time nine years ago..."

Loganel was silent, and he appeared to have fallen asleep from Azura's point of view. However, this did not stop Azura from speaking.

"I want to thank you for risking your life for me," she smiled, some tears forming in her eyes. "Thank you for not leaving me behind when I needed you the most. Thank you for forgiving me when I...when I wronged you. Thank you for staying with me now despite how I treated you in the past. I'm really scared, but...you're here with me." She rubbed away the tears with the back of her hands. "I don't know how to act...how to convey this feeling. But...thank you for not leaving me because of this."

Azura paused and gazed at Loganel. After waiting for a minute and seeing no response from him, she continued. "You're...important to me...I don't know when this all happened, maybe it was when I first met you nine years ago in the forest... But I...I find it hard to not think about you from time to time. And when I do, I feel warm inside, I feel like I want to be by your side. But...because of what I've done," she sobbed, "you became more and more distant. I..."

She buried her face into her hands, weeping for her own weakness. That is, until she felt a sudden warm touch on her arm. She looked up and her weeping eyes gazed right into the dark grey eyes before her.

"Loganel..." she muttered out.

"It's fine," he whispered gently, bringing her into his embrace. He felt an unprecedented warmth coming from the shivering and weeping girl within his embrace, and he hugged her close to him tightly. He then looked up as if seeking for something.

Is this...love?

Author's Note:

Sorry for not posting the past few days. I caught the flu and was very sick. But I'm all better now.

Please vote if you've enjoyed and comment what you think. Also, add this book to your reading list if you haven't and give me a follow for updates. Thank you everyone.