“I can see the end!” Rel shouted down at him.

“Oh, thank the Crystal!” Nar muttered.

He had been forced to dip into his [Strength] and [Stamina] to make it as far as he had. Parrying those few spears had wrecked him, sapping the strength out of his muscles.

The air cooled as they got nearer to the end, and that seemed to propel everyone to draw from their stamina and willpower with renewed vigor, and climb that bit more quickly.

After what felt like an eternity, Rel disappeared above him.

A hand showed up before his face, and he took it gladly.

Tuk pulled him into a much darker and normal looking corridor.

At a glance, Nar saw normal walls and floor, and a normal low ceiling above his head.

There was no Pressure in sight.

He took a deep breath and exhaled, and withdrew his aura back into himself. Into the bar or the ball, he didn’t know or cared at that moment where it went.

The temperature plunged dramatically. It was so sudden that he shivered.

My aura was hot? Or did it just trap it? Or…

His line of thought stopped dead.

The mystery, another one, would have to wait.

In the low, orange light that filtered in from the hole below them, the party had been split.

One side, everyone else, with Gad standing in front of them, with her shield and mace drawn out.

On the other side, Rel and himself stood.

Oh… Right, he remembered.

He felt like he was back down there again, much deeper into the B-Nex, right after destroying the Sentry. It had been Cen who had been left isolated then, and now it was Rel’s turn.

“Are you under control?” Gad asked.

At her side stood Kur. He favored his left leg, so he must actually be injured. His buckler and mace were on his hands as well.

To the other side of Gad stood Tuk. The trugger looked sad. While his rings were in his fingers, his posture lacked even the barest hint of violence or the desire for it.

Behind them, stood Jul, staring very wide eyed at everyone. She had no weapons in her hands, something for which Nar was grateful.

And finally, behind them, Cen watched over Viy and an injured Mul.

Rel took a step sideways, leaving some room between herself and Nar.

“I am,” she replied.

Gad looked at Nar.

“She is. At least, as far as I can tell,” Nar answered truthfully.

Kur and Gad lowered their weapons, visibly relieved, but did not put them away. A hint of smile gleamed on Tuk’s face, but it was gone before Nar could be sure it had been there at all.

“Rel, what happened?” Kur asked. “And tell us everything.”

Rel nodded and hung her head low. “I lost control.”

“How?” Gad asked. She wanted the truth, and she wouldn't relent till she got it.

“I… I got desperate. I thought that Viy was going to get us killed in there. I-I panicked.”

“How did you regain control?” Kur asked.

“Nar cut me.”

“He cut you?” Kur asked, frowning at Nar.

“The pain… It helps me focus. Helps me stay me,” Rel whispered.

“How did you know to cut her?” Kur asked Nar.

“She does it herself,” Nar said, hiding nothing. “At night, when she thinks we're asleep. And I can’t have been the only one that noticed that. Or her bloody fingers after every fight.”

Kur seemed taken aback at his words. At the implied accusation that they carried.

“And she told me. That hurting herself keeps her sane,” Nar added. “So yes, I knew what to do.”

“Did you tell him with the intention that he would do it, in case you lost control?” Gad asked the archer.

Rel’s head lowered further. “Yes. I didn’t ask him to do it, but I hoped that he would. If need be.”

Kur sighed and put his weapons away. At that, both Gad and Tuk did the same.

“You know how this looks like, right?” the party leader asked Rel.

“Yes.”

“You should have told us everything. It was part of our deal!”

“I’m sorry. I-I didn’t expect this to happen so quickly!” she stammered. “I don’t know how it got this bad all of a sudden! It seemed fine after I joined up with you guys!”

“But you did expect it,” Gad said.

“I… Yes. I did.”

Gad rubbed her chin and considered the sorry looking archer.

“So, what is happening? Tell us,” the tank commanded. “And leave nothing out.”

Rel looked up. She glanced at Nar, searching his eyes. For what, he didn’t know. He could help her, and he had, and he would. But this was her battle.

He gave her a nod, and that was everything he could do for her now.

Rel too a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.

“I think I’ve entered the last stage of the Yearning,” she said.

“And what does that mean?” Gad asked. Her voice had changed into one much the same as a mother would use to talk with her child. The child was in trouble, yes, but the parent was worried, and wanted the whole story, to learn and understand what it could do to help.

“I can start losing control from now on. I don’t know if I will, but most likely, I will. I will do things. Say things. Ask or even… Suggest things. All to stay alive. To get out, as quickly as possible. Before I die.”

Kur passed a hand over his forehead. Nar could tell that he was tired. Tired and injured.

Not only had they escaped with their lives against an enemy the likes of which they had never even imagined possible, he had also been forced to climb for hours, injured and bleeding and smothered by Pressure.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

He didn’t need this. He needed sleep. They all did. But this had to be fixed.

“Is cutting the only way?” their party leader asked.

“Cutting. Pain. It will help. For now, at least.”

“And if it stops helping?”

“I don’t know… All I know is that my impulses will get stronger. They will try to take over. They… I will do anything to survive. To get out. And then, near the end, I will be in control again. But it will be too late by then.”

“That’s so messed up,” Tuk said, shaking his head.

Kur looked up, at the very, very low and dark ceiling above him. Then back at her again.

“You see my dilemma, right?”

Rel nodded.

“Not only can you, and probably will, try to hurt one of us, you can also do it at the worst possible time. There is now a genuine chance that you can get one, or even all of us killed, in your need to get out.”

“Yes,” Rel whispered.

Kur raised his hands and dropped them powerlessly. “What would you do, if you were me?”

“Kick me out. I’m too much of a risk. Also… I deserve it. As punishment for everything.”

“How hard was it to say that?” Kur asked.

“Very…” Rel whispered, looking like she was about to faint.

“Which only makes this worse,” Kur said.

He took a few steps away from everyone and stared into the darkness on one end of the corridor.

No one else said anything. They just stared in awkward silence.

Nar felt almost like an outsider, looking into proceedings that had nothing to do with him. That was perhaps a remnant of the old him. Or perhaps, the part of him that had wanted to use and discard them all for his Climb still lived within him, deep down somewhere. However, he would keep that part of himself down. With everything he got. More than his life, his dad would want him to live without regret and shame, and more and more, he was starting to understand a little bit of what that meant.

“She stays,” he spoke.

Eyes turned to him.

Tuk smiled and nodded.

Gad stared with a blank expression.

Jul smiled too. A shy, but genuine smile.

Mul frowned, but he said nothing.

Cen nodded slowly, biting her lip.

And Viy, Viy stared at him. He couldn’t be entirely sure she wasn’t just staring off into nothing, but he felt like she was focused on him.

“Why?” Kur asked, turning around. “Why should she? Because she’s one of us now?”

Nar shrugged.

“Yes. And also because it’s fair.”

He took a step forward towards her, closing the distance she had created.

He raised his hand and pointed at Mul.

“He stayed.”

He pointed at Viy.

“She stayed.”

He pointed at Cen.

“She stayed.”

He pointed to Jul.

“She stayed.”

He pointed at Kur.

“You stayed.”

Then he pointed at himself.

“I stayed.”

And at last, he pointed at Gad and Tuk.

“The only one’s here who haven’t really done anything wrong are Gad and Tuk. They’ve done their job. They’ve been reliable and dependable in every way. Every day, and all the time except for when Tas got the better of us. And we can’t really blame them for it. At least I don’t. As for the rest of us, we all screwed up at some point, nearly getting the rest of us killed.”

He swept the party with his gaze, feeling the weight of their stares.

“Mul and Viy almost got us killed at the end of the tutorial. Cen hid her [Aura Projectile] from us, when it could have made our lives that much easier and safer. Viy lost it when the cannibals attacked the plant, and when we were running away, and now today as well. Three times she has done it, and always at critical moments. Jul hid her daggers from us, pretending that she couldn’t fight, when we could have desperately used another fighter. And you,” he said, pointing at Kur. “You ran from your responsibilities when it became too heavy, and we almost became food. No, it wasn’t just your failing then, but yours was the worst. And I? I didn’t even think you guys were worthy of dying for. You were my tools for me to Climb, so that one day I could save my dad. I also hid my aura, and I ran from it. Those cannibals would’ve been nothing if I’d just done what I had to do. Yes, I had my reasons, but there were consequences. I, and everyone here who refused to use aura, almost got us all to die then, and in the worst way possible.”

Nar took a deep breath, but he wasn’t finished yet. It was like something had broken within him, and things were spilling out. And they would spill until he was done.

“We’ve screwed up. We’ve learned from it. Forgiven each other for it. Grown stronger for it. Closer. Are we done screwing up? No, we’re not. Are we done with the secrets? No, we’re not. Why did you leave Kur? You’re a management brat? You had the best life of all of us. Why did you throw it all away for certain death? And Viy, I at least don’t know what she did or what happened to her, but I suffer from it, and it sucks, but it’s fine, we deal with it as a party,” he took a quick breath, feeling his heart hammering in his chest. “And why did Tuk leave? Or Gad? We don’t really know. We don’t have to. We will, when they’re ready, or it blows up in our faces. The point is, we need each other. We are the party. We are the whole Nexus. Us, these nine people here. Rel needs us, and we will help her. Just like we’ll continue helping Viy, or anyone else for that matter. And that… That’s why she’s staying.”

Nar’s breathe was loud in the silence that followed his words. Feeling increasingly awkward, but not regretful, he looked from one person to the other, waiting for any one of them to say anything.

“We’re not kicking her out,” Gad said, at last.

“Yeah, man,” Kur said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I just wanted to know everything. Damn. You didn’t have to trash me like that.”

Nar stared in confusion.

“I feel bad,” Jul said. “I’m sorry I hid my daggers. I’m a bad person.”

“What? Wait-No, I was just…”

“Aha!” Tuk shouted. “Bask in my unfucked up glory, you losers!”

“Hey! I’m unfucked up too!” Gad said. “And you should have told us what was going on with you back then. So, I don’t agree with Nar on that point.”

“Ah, fair…” Tuk said, nodding. “That was on me.”

“And I’m sorry I put our lives at risk,” Cen said, in a tiny voice.

“No! I was just saying stuff that already happened,” Nar said, panicking. “Why are you…”

Kur snorted. “We’re just messing you, man. Relax. And it’s nice to see that you care so much.”

“I always knew he did,” Gad said. “Especially after he killed a thousand cannibals just to save Viy.”

“You what?” Rel asked. There were tears at the corner of her eyes, but she seemed to have been shocked out of crying.

“There weren’t that many…” Nar said. He was feeling lost in all of this.

“Probably were,” Mul said. “I wouldn’t be surprised. He was covered in blood, guts and shit when we finally found them.”

“He was holding her up, too,” Tuk said, raising his arms to mimic it. “And he was seating on a pile of dead bodies! It was quite something.”

“It wasn’t like that!”

“Thank you,” said a dreamy voice that startled them all.

They all turned and found Viy smiling at Nar. “Thank you, and for the second time as well.”

“Oh. Uh. You’re welcome. No-No problem!”

“We’re getting a bit sidetracked here,” Kur said.

He walked towards the alfin, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Rel, you were never going to be kicked out. But I needed the truth from you, and for you to understand the gravity of what just happened,” he told her. “Fair or unfair, it’s up to you to stay under control, and I wanted you to understand the consequences of it. We took you in. We decided to trust you one more time. I wanted to make sure your plan wasn’t to just kick us, and jump into another party at the first opportunity.”

“No! Never!” she said, shaking her head vigorously.

“Then understand that you almost did something really bad today, and fight your Yearning. Fight it with all you have. I know it's unfair of me to ask it, but we’re putting our lives in your hands here.”

“I will fight it, I swear!” Rel whispered.

The shocked tears now fell freely.

“That is all I ask. For you to fight, and for you to always be truthful. So that we can plan. So that we can think about solutions together, and with time and preparation. So that we can help you, and keep us safe as well. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Yes, I do. But what about… Before…”

“I wasn’t there,” he said. “None of us were. Whatever happened… That’s between you and the Crystal. We accept you as you are.”

“You do?”

Kur grinned. “Yes, we do… So let me properly welcome you to the party. Welcome, Rel. You’re one of us, and we won’t leave you behind. Not for anything. You understand?”

“Yes, like family,” Gad said, nodding sagely.

Rel sobbed and rushed into Kur’s arms. Her tears were hot and furious, and she cried with all her might.

Kur held her in a tight embrace and stroked her head gently.

“It’s okay now. You’re not alone anymore,” he said. “We’re all in this together, and we will help you find what you yearn for.”

She nodded against him, not able to speak.

“To Rel! Whoop-whoop!” Tuk shouted, bumping his fist in the air.

“Not so loud!” Jul hissed, looking at the darkness around them with a nervous look.

“Welcome to the party,” Cen said.

Mul grunted something, carefully folding his healing arms.

“Welcome,” Jul said, though she still kept staring at their surroundings.

“Thank you,” Rel said, pulling away from Kur. “But please, don’t cut me up from head to toe.”

“What? Why would we do that?” Kur asked.

Rel stared at Nar.

“I swear, between you and Viy, I’m never saying anything ever again,” he muttered. “You know what I meant!”

Rel burst out laughing and the others soon joined in.

Before anyone could say anything, however, a window popped open in front of Nar.

“Ugh! What now!” Mul said. “Can’t you see we’re having a moment here?”

Nar read what was on the window.

The Final Stretch

Uncommon

Reward: Reach the exit to the O-Nex

You have made it to the final stretch. Enough Climbers have gathered. The Gates will open.

Make your way to the Gates. The gates will open in 15 days, 08 hours, 32 minutes and 02 seconds.

If you miss this chance, you will remain in the B-Nex for a time undetermined, until you can try again.

You cannot decline this quest.

“Oh, my Crystal…” Tuk whispered. “Guys! It’s the exit! We’re almost there!”

Yellow arrows sprung to life at their feet, leading from the orange hole and into the darkness at the end of the corridor to their left.

Nar stared in disbelief, between the path at his feet, and the words in the quest. It was real. The exit was real, and it was within 15 days of Climbing. He could scarcely believe that he was actually that close to the end of the Climb.

“We can get out,” Kur whispered, staring just as stunned at the yellow arrows. “We can actually get out…”

“Yes,” Gad said. “And we will! All of us. Together!”