"Aye, Oi'n rememba' muggin' no wun'!" Nerys sweated profusely, "Ye' got me mixed ap' with somwun else, man!"

"Oh I'm quite sure." He chuckled innocently, "That being said, this happened a long time ago. Back then, the White Monster was still alive and kicking, making everyone's memories reset."

Nerys was by all accounts left utterly clueless, much to her dismay. Energy refused to explain anything to her, and merely sat there in her palms, calmly yet sharply accusing her of wronging him for something she had no recollection of doing. To make matters worse, she was now in a position where he could essentially kill her at any moment. All it took was one wrong callout and that'd be it, so she couldn't even advance without first clearing up any bad blood between them.

"Wot...?" She furrowed her brows, "Hwoit monsta'? Did euwe 'it yer' ead' er' sumthin', man?"

"Oh right, of course you wouldn't even remember it." He reasoned, "You must have just one day woken up with my wings already attached to you, not a single care in the world about how you got them, right?"

"Y-Yeah, bot Oi' didn' kno'..."

"And to make matters worse, you just up and turned one of those precious wings that never even belonged to you into a damned pickaxe of all things." He kept going, "Sigh, if only we had touched the Living World back then, maybe I would have even considered calling it worth it. But no, in the end it was all just... such a waste."

He wasn't going to let her go without a fight. A fight, or at the very least a struggle. Nerys was to think very carefully about each word she uttered and action she committed from hereon out. A single mistake would be the death of her outright. Just then, a clicking sound emerged from below them.

"Oh right, if you stand in place too long, the tile beneath you falls." He let her know at the last second.

"Gah!" She jumped to the next marked tile just as the previous one dropped, revealing a crushing spiral turbine below, "O-Oh dear Lordes above..."

"Kinda nauseating to look at, eh?" He remarked passively, "Just imagine getting your body stuck in there. The turbines don't stop for nothing, they'd crush your body in half regardless of what it was made of."

"Tch, wot's it too ya', anyways!?" She lashed out finally, "Feck ya' need wings fer' wid no body, aye!? Ye' gon' be a floyin' brehn, ey?"

"I don't think you understand, Nerys." He explained, "I may have lost my Heavenly body, and I may not be able to fight you as a mere brain—but so long as I'm within this building, it's essentially even better than having a body to work with."

"Ye' wankah...!"

"Tsk tsk, I'd watch your language if I were you." He clicked his tongue, "Remember, right now the only chance you have of surviving this requires you to take good care of me. By the way, I suggest you duck."

This trick again... Nerys was smarter than before, however. He already said it before, making her panic and duck down for no apparent reason, putting her in a less favorable position. But she had learned from her mistakes, and this time refused to listen.

"Oi' ain't that domb, ma-!"

Blam! A brick fell from the high ceiling, hitting her straight over the head. Given her non-gilded body's invincibility, she obviously wasn't harmed in any way from this, but the scare coupled with the sheer force of the impact made her fall over and onto an unmarked tile. To make matters worse, she had also dropped Energy a few meters away across the room.

"Get out of there!" Energy screeched.

"Gyeh!" She rolled away, a controlled explosion instantiating within the borders of the unmarked tile, "Ack!"

"Keep moving, don't stop until you reach a safe tile!" He kept urging her.

Inside Nerys' head, all she could think of was to question his sanity. One moment, Energy was untrustworthy and dangerous to listen to, and the next he was hellbent on keeping her safe. Then again, she reasoned, this could all only serve to make his future warnings more believable. Even now, every piece of advice he had been dishing out could have been false, and she would have died just like that.

"Ye' sed you's was gon' kill me, man." She heaved ragged exhales after finally reaching a marked tile, "Go on then, wot's got ye' tangl'd op?!"

"...What's the point of getting my revenge if it doesn't even last more than a minute." He said after a brief pause, "Besides, I still need those weapons delivered to those guys down there. I made that promise to Migu."

"Ah?" Her Eyes widened in disbelief, "Buehehe, bahaha, phahahahahaha! Still tryna' keep ye' promise, aye!? Yous' plannin' ta' off me bot ye' cannae' bring ye'self ta' disappoint 'em!?"

"Is there a problem with that?" He asked, "Don't worry, once you've served your purpose, I'll be sure to dispose of you just when you think it's all over. That's my plan."

"Oye, issit?" She jeered, Eyeing him down across the room, "Then y'wonna kno' my plan? Oi'll git thoos weapons, and Oi'll be takin' ye' outsoid wimme!"

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

The way she was to go about this was also quite clever. Her method was one that required a great deal of agility, precision, reaction time, and above all else—bravery.

"From 'ereon!" She announced, "Anythin' ye' say fer' me ta' do, Oi'll jus' do thee opposite!"

"How stupid, you'll only kill yourself faster that way." He scowled.

"Is that an ordah?" She smirked, "Guess Oi' oughta' not die, den! Git ready, man—it's toime ta' show ye' wot a reel seafarer's movement resembles!"

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"Nau den, shall we get goin' ollready?" She asked, "Say tha' warrd, n' Oi'll come ronnin'!"

That having been said, she didn't even wait for him to say anything. Instead, she immediately bolted to grab him and quickly make her way up to the second floor. This task was a daunting one, but nothing she couldn't handle with even a teensy bit of luck on her side.

"Dodge left!"

"Roight, gottit!" She nodded, dodging the oncoming wrecking ball that landed to her left.

"Jump over that tile!"

"Stand directly on it!" She followed the opposite of his words, all of the surrounding tiles dissipating around her, "Phew, this is workin' out too good!"

Her plan was rock solid. She was approaching him too fast for Energy's brain to catch up and say the correct phrase. In other words, so long as she didn't let up with this pace, she'd reach him soon enough.

"U-Urk, get down!" He yelled.

"Jomp ova-!" She got impaled by a spear.

A spear had somehow launched itself clean through her abdoment, though no blood poured out of the wound. Of course, she felt no pain from this, but she was in shock nonetheless. He had lied and actually told her the correct comm to trick her into disobeying it. She didn't want to admit it, but he got one over on her.

"E-Eh?" She whimpered

"What? You're that surprised?" He got offended, "If you wanted to be tricky about it, then you shouldn't have told me what your plan was. See how I tricked you by keeping my mouth shut? Now you lost, all because you couldn't keep it to yourself."

"Ngah!" She yanked the spear out of her, the wound closing up in seconds.

"Whoa, wait..." Energy was pissed, "That's not fair!"

"Gah!" She ran with the spear pointed in front of her, "Say wot' ye' will, Oi'm gettin' os outta v'ere!"

"Hmph, you can try." He smugly replied, "But I'd suggest you jump first.

His words of advice fell on deaf ears, however, so he had to try again.

"Not gonna get fooled twice, I see?" He chuckled, a tad nervous, "I can admire that, but you really should listen well."

"Shuttit."

"N-Nerys...!?" He began to worry, "Stay back, hey! Are you even listening!? You'll get yourself killed!"

Despite his frightful tone, she didn't at all let up in her rush. No longer did she care for a single word that came out of him, all she could focus on was bum-rushing him whilst maintaining a steady pace. She masterfully avoided each unmarked tile, she refused to take even one step more than what was necessary whilst crossing from one marked tile to the next, and she relied solely on her vision and quick reaction time to dodge any stray traps that may have gotten activated.

"Nerys...!"

"Energy...!"

She was relentless. Explosions, darts, arrows, wrecking balls, pits, spikes and spears. None could reach her, nor could they even faze her for that matter. Energy saw for the first time what Nerys had excelled at was her agility, and this one little surprise ended up being the deciding factor of this battle. The result?

"My win." She held the brain up proudly, like one would a trophy.

"Hmm..." He groaned, "I suggest you lower that hand, the game's not over yet."

"Eep!" She freaked out, ducking super low to avoid... nothing, "Tch, ye' basterd!"

"Heh, you let your guard down." He remarked, "But let this lesson be the reward for your victory just now. You may have found your way to me again, but that doesn't mean you're out of the forest just yet."

"Ye' sersly still gon' keep loyin' ta' me aftah oll dat troble?" She sighed tiredly.

"Until you leave this house." He grinned, "Of course, it's entirely up to you whether or not you choose to trust me. But remember, it's your fault if you end up dying."

With that, she quickly leapt from the marked tile she was on to the staircase. The creaky sound of the wooden, rotted planks made her instinctively grapple onto the handrails, which fell off the moment she applied the tiniest bit of pressure on them. Soon, she realized the next obstacle in their way.

"The stairs have a time limit on them, by the way." Energy revealed, "Like climbing up a sandcastle, it's quite the fickle structure."

"Ah, 'course it is." She grunted, "Den, Oi bettah maek a break fer' it-!"

"Stop!" He shouted before lowering his voice again, "The name of the game is slow and steady. Feel out each step before you take it, measure thrice cut once. Don't take too much time, but rushing will certainly lead to failure."

Of course, this could all just be another elaborate lie meant to get her to fail, but she found good logic in his words regardless, so she thought trusting him on this one couldn't hurt. Slowly, she stepped on the next creaky plank, and it...

"Gah!"

Fell.

"Hrm." She frowned, a new determined glint in her Eye, "Next step, then!"

It fell as well.

"Urk, the third...?" She gulped.

Yep, it fell through as well. In the end, the next five steps she had tried all turned out to be duds, leaving her stranded on the first step still. She could no longer reach the next viable step without doing a leap of faith, though the sharp spikes underneath didn't really prove to be a good incentive to do that. Seeing this, Energy just had to toss over a rude comment.

"Wings sure would have been convenient here, don't you think?"

"Oi."

"Just saying, last time we had Vastoria fly us straight to the weapons." He recalled, "Oh, you have wings, don't you? Ahhh, my bad~! I forgot they disintegrated!"

"If ye' dun' shut ye' trap roight this instant Oi'm tossin' ya straight out tha' windoe, ye' hear me!?"

Livid, past her breaking point even. Nerys was done taking Energy's relentless crap, and he could tell. In truth, he hadn't actually planned to kill her, just scare her a bit to fulfill his vengeance quota. But now, he saw what he had done, and it made him feel like a very bad person.

"...I'm sorry." He admitted solemnly.

"Apology... accept'd." She sighed, a small smirk cracking on her lips, "Oi'm still gon' toss ya' out tha' windoe once this is ovah, doe."

"Why does everyone want to physically abuse me!?" He cried out.

"Yer' a fun ponchin' bag." She giggled, "N' yer' kindov' an arse."