Once the group got together and readied themselves to move forward, Zeke was the first to move forward with Mikella in tow. It was guaranteed that regardless of any Journeyman around them, she was gonna stick by his side.
It made him feel better that way too. After arriving, the other soldiers in Zacharia’s retinue didn’t look all that happy with him joining, even though it was always a good idea to bring him along. He can’t blame them either–he wouldn’t really feel comfortable with someone who could create precisely what they were about to enter right now.
Still, there was no point in worrying about others. Right now, it was him, and a giant-ass hole that could equate to entering into the underworld below. The biodome might actually be a representation of that. With his will, he conjured barriers that encompassed the wall of the hole, at least on his own side.
As his barriers covered a decent amount, they shifted and changed shape to create stares that spiraled down the hole in a decent elevation. Thanks to his improvements over the months, he could basically create a giant staircase that could go several miles down all at once with barely any loss to his mana.
Still, it went really deep down.
Once the staircase was made, the soldiers marveling at the sight of the barriers making their trek a hundred times easier, Zeke and Mikella stepped forward onto the stairs to lead the charge.
At first, the soldiers on Zacharia’s retinue hesitated on whether to stand on the makeshift barriers, but as each one on Val’s crew followed with no worry written on their faces, they followed suit.
Zeke knew that the soldiers were hesitating on whether to trust the mage that blew up just a few days earlier. However, it was more like they didn’t expect his barriers could be used this way. So far, he only made them to create the training course, and that was with the Journeyman Cloud for help on the side.
So they were more astonished at how Zeke’s barriers could seemingly do everything he wanted, much to the mages’ clear envy in their eyes. Zeke, however, wasn’t really paying attention that hard on the skill’s power.
If anything, he worried whether the barriers might turn on him. Once again, a hand caught his own, getting him to look up to find Mikella–or Mikky now, apparently–frowning at him.
“You’re worried again. Stop that. You’re doing great.”
“I know, I know, but still…”
“No buts. Your barriers never messed up back then, and they won’t mess up now. You keep that up, and you’ll find you only have yourself to blame.”
Even though Mikella wasn’t exactly a mage, it didn’t take a genius to tell that it requires not just concentration, but confidence in keeping up with a spell. How could he call himself a mage if he was worried his main-stay of a spell could blow up on him?
Once this lock starts affecting him, he’ll have a hard time getting out of it. He forced himself to relax. It was harder than it looked, so he began talking to distract himself.
“Really big group now, compared to before, huh?” Zeke asked, mostly being reminded of their tower trip together as they slowly went around the walls, getting closer and closer down towards the darkness and only now seeing the hole to the outside beginning to shrink.
“Tell me about it,” Mikella shook her head incredulously. “I thought it was a pretty big group before, but looked at how it ended up. Now we got even more. I suggest just keeping the priority to just us for your barriers.”
“Already planned on doing that,” Zeke said with a smirk. “Though… I gotta at least pretend to care and put up a barrier here and there.”
“Oh, that’s fine, Just remember–you’re not a battery. Let them suffer for their mistakes instead of healing them. Who knows? They might even get a free Vitality point out of it.”
“You’re really cruel, you know that, right?”
Mikella just shrugged at that. While the two knew that what they talked about seemed inhumanely cruel, it was something they decided a long time ago.
Those he would prioritize would obviously be Mikella, then Myra, Jackie, Philip, and everyone of his own retinue. Cloud and Val are able to take care of themselves, and even Cloud suggested that despite his help earlier, he doesn’t plan on letting Zeke go above and beyond like when he saved Val’s life. He had enough of sacrificing young lives for survival, according to his words.
Walking down, the temperature gradually shifted. First, there was a slight chill from the winds above, but as they kept going downwards, there was a hint of heat forming. Then that heat expanded slightly, covering the entire area. Zeke was actually worried that he might have actually created a pathway to the core of the world.
This new world, according to Zeke’s studies, proved that it was five times larger, if not more so, than their old world. On top of the spatial tears leading to different areas all together, it was pretty huge. But even then, he was worried that he might have resulted in breaking the world.
Further on they went, astounding all the soldiers who hadn't had the ability to scout ahead earlier at the ridiculous size of it. Zeke was the one who was more than shocked, practically horrified.
The light source was gone now, as they finally went further away from the opening above. Some of the mages put up lights all around the retinue, caring little for anything that they could come across. It’s been about an hour of travel, and that hour alone has been enough to put some on edge.
Some grew gradually quiet, while others tried to fill the void with their voices. Both sides had good reasons to do so, as there was not a single hint of danger so far, and the hole just kept going further down.
“Holy shit, just how far does this go?” Zeke said, his voice low as he didn’t want to mention this to the others. He wasn’t sure whether they would take kindly that he didn’t notice just how far his own power went.
“I think we already passed miles at this pace,” Mikella said, her eyes picking up on her surroundings. “Not sure, though, considering we’re only going down and not forward. How are you holding up, Zeke?”
“My Mana is topped off, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Zeke said with a smirk. “Like I said, it’s not draining my mana. But the stairs aren’t reinforced like my barriers, so…”
“If a monster does come and hit the staircase, then bye bye stairs?” Mikella added with a soft tone, getting Zeke to nod. “Well, what better way to start learning how to fight in mid-air?”
“You… you’re so weird,” Zeke chuckled, utterly taken aback by her comment.
“Well, is that bad?” Mikella asked. Zeke noticed that she actually seemed offended by this. Or perhaps worried was the better word.
“Not at all,” Zeke smiled. “I prefer it that way.”
“Oh… good.”
Mikella nodded and Zeke couldn’t help but chuckle again, resulting in him getting lightly slapped on the arm by her for his offense.
Despite the ever growing anxiety building up in their cores, their talks eased Zeke’s mood a little. He still wasn’t feeling great that he was the cause of all this, but at this point, there wasn’t much to discuss anymore. What’s done is done, and if what Zacharia said is true, then they would be rewarded for this.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
…..
Three hours passed since they started walking. Even now, there were no signs of the hole ceasing up and showing what was beneath. Myra and Jackie came up every once in a while to Zeke and Mikella to talk, at least to try and stave off the boredom. Then Cloud and Val came around, and that’s when they started discussing taking a break.
“Is it really okay to just… make a camp here?” Zeke asked, more than a little concern at the prospect of creating a large field-like barrier for everyone to sleep in.
“We’re not going to use your barrier, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Cloud seemingly read his mind and chuckled whole-heartedly. “I planned on getting the earth-attuned mages to make a crevice near here for us to sleep in. With all this ground between us, we should have enough leverage and balance to avoid creating a cave-in.”
“But just to be safe, we hope you can provide us with a barrier from the outside, should the need arrive.”
“No problem,” Zeke said. Mikella looked at him with a rising smirk, catching him off guard. “What? What are you looking at?”
“I think I just found out what your catchphrase is,” She chuckled, and even that got the Journeyman to laugh at that. His cheeks burned red as he remembered how Clara easily read his future words as well.
Was he that predictable now? Even though it should feel natural, he couldn’t help but redden up.
“Oh come on, it’s not that bad,” Val said, easing him with a gentle smile. “Still. I do think that we rely on you too much, though.”
“Times are tough,” Cloud shrugged, and Zeke agreed with a nod. “But don’t forget–we still owe you a debt. We still plan on paying it back no matter the cost.”
“Can’t we just agree that making me the youngest lord in town is a good enough reward?” Zeke asked, hoping that would finally put down the debt part.
But Cloud and Val only laughed harder.
“Rewarding you with a troublesome job with barely any benefits in this town? And in name only? If I start acting like a snobbish noble like that, I would’ve just stayed back home.”
While those words left a lot of questions to the two, Cloud continued on as though Val hadn’t said anything damning.
“I’m about to go ask them now. Though just to be safe, do you mind making the floor a bit more stable? Mostly to assure Zacharia’s group.”
After a few moments of working on the nearby rocky wall, the rest took a small break. The soldiers tensed up on staying above the barrier while looking down at the hole that still seemed like it could go for miles, the glassy look of the barrier not really helping them calm their nerves.
Eventually, the hole was big enough to look like it could house several families at once. The mages put up their spells made to put up light all around, really brightening the place up compared to the absolute darkness outside. They couldn’t see the opening anymore up above–it was just a speck of small light that could be just about anything, or just a random star in the center of all that darkness.
They made their small camp for now, and of course Zeke offered to help make the tents with his barrier magic. On the side note, Zeke noticed Piker still setting up the tent. Following his memories, he recalled Piker having an issue with him at the time, not wanting to spend his mana for anything fruitless.
He approached the man, still bent down on one knee while hammering down on the tent. While the tent wasn’t really necessary as there was no need to worry about the outside world, being in a cave and all, it was mostly to provide privacy for those. Some soldiers can work better more efficiently during a long expedition if they have some privacy sometimes.
“Hey, Piker,” Zeke asked, making the normally stoic Piker look back at him. His complexion showed none of that exhaustion from earlier, something that Zeke was glad for. “Do you need any help on that?”
Zeke wanted to at least make sure not to sound like Piker had trouble at all. He wanted to keep it casual, but he saw Piker shook his head.
“No, but I appreciate it. I don’t want you to spend more mana than you need to.”
Zeke tilted his head. After a few hours, they left the barrier’s regen, so their mana was now filling up naturally. Still, he had plenty of mana to use, and making more barriers wouldn’t really even put a dent on his mana pool.
But what Piker said next caught him by surprise.
“Also, no offense to you, but I still like to do this at my own pace. It’s really not a problem.”
Piker seemed… more passive than normal. It wasn’t unpleasant to Zeke, just a little weird. Then he remembered what Mikella said to him earlier, back at the prison.
Did she ever apologize to him like she wanted to? Mikella sometimes felt hesitant about those matters even though she’s all about confronting those you have an issue with.
“Alright, I understand,” Zeke nodded. “I’ll leave you to it… but, Piker?”
“Mmh?” Piker looked up, being focused on his tent this whole time.
“I…Umm, I wanna apologize for my behavior before. Where I, uh… kinda went all snarky at the General? I just… wanted to make sure there’s no bad blood between us.”
At first, he wanted to apologize for Mikella’s sake. But then he realized that Mikella wouldn’t like that if she found out. At some point, she’s gonna do so herself, so it wouldn’t be good for Zeke to do something she needed to take responsibility for. So he opted to apologize for his own rude behavior instead.
He doesn’t plan on taking it back, he had every right to be mad. However, there was no need to insult a guy’s foster father–which he was aiming to suggest as he looked at Piker straight in the eyes. Mikella always taught him that doing so is not only respectful, but sincere, even if he felt like hiding in a hole every time he does this.
“Ah, don’t worry,” Piker stood up, dusting himself. “I wasn’t offended or anything of the sort. In fact, you had every reason to be upset. I squandered your trust, and you were taken advantage of.”
The words delve deep into Zeke. Piker has always been the rigid sort, but that only meant his words were nothing but the truth.
“I would say the same for you too,” Zeke said half-mindedly, and that got Piker to slowly lower his head.
“I suppose…”
Zeke didn’t mean to bring it up like this. His father doing something so horrid as forcing the oathbound truth out of him wasn’t something a son would expect.
“Well,” Seeing the heaviness intervene, Zeke changed topics. “That doesn’t matter. What matters now is that we’re here to get stronger. And, uhh… well, I know that I won’t be out there fighting with you guys. So I’d like to ask you to look out for Mikella for me. I know that’s asking a lot, but… it’d be nice to have you around her for support.”
With this, not only would he show that he was just worried for Mikella, which was still true, and have Piker help her out, this would give Mikella a chance to patch things up with Piker. He looked surprised at that at first, but then quickly nodded.
“If that’s what you want me to do, then I’ll oblige, Lord in-name only.”
“...D-Did you just make a joke?” Zeke asked, more surprised than taken aback by the gesture.
Piker only smiled and returned back to making his tent. Zeke just stood there for a second, utterly baffled at what he just heard. Figuring that he needed to get away before flying pigs come in to shoot wind spells at them, he left Piker to his business.
After a while, it was decided to rest up for the next few hours. It looked like the trek down to the abyss below would take longer than they expected. As it was now, it was better to arrive there well rested on the way than trying to rush to the bottom.
If there is a bottom…
Zeke was once again stumped by his own power. He didn’t know how they thought of him, but Zeke was sure that the soldiers were just as amazed and shocked to see this. Would they turn against him for that kind of power? Would they think of him as some kind of monster?
Are they going to go after his family in case they can do the same? Zacharia did leave some soldiers behind to keep an eye on Clara as he promised, something that didn’t leave a good taste in Mikella’s mouth at the time.
When the preparations were done for the tents, Zeke stood there, blanked out as he stared down at the abyss by the opening. He put up a barrier because who the fuck would be okay standing by an opening with a deep abyss straight below them? He stared down, his hand touching the glass like barrier that he created so many times before.
Would even this barrier blow up on him? His most trusted weapon and ally outside of Mikella?
“Zeke.”
He was startled to find Cloud walking up to him, looking almost studious as he stared at Zeke. He worried whether he was gonna ask if he was okay, and considering he was just staring at the darkness of the abyss just earlier, he can’t really say he was just ‘okay’.
His next words surprised him.
“I need some help making some tools to cook. Mind using those fancy pens of yours?”
Zeke’s eyes widened, realizing just now that despite resting, nobody was able to eat yet.
They did bring a plethora of ingredients to last a whole month or so with their storage packs, all thanks to the merchants that had traded them their needed goods. His mind whirled as he forgot everything he was just thinking about.
Right now, he needed to be a Runist for the party. And what better way to show off than by smiling at the man and unveiling his four floating pens up above.
“Gotcha. Where do you want me to start?”
“For starters,” Cloud smiled. “How about telling me what you plan to do with all four pens out?”
Zeke gladly regaled him with his plans as he started making the necessary runes to make this little camp of theirs like a luxury room hotel sleepover. Before he realized it, he completely forgot what it was he was worried about as his magic filled his body and soul with the same delight as it usually did.