Chapter 344

Return Home (IV)

“No, no, absolutely not!” Emma exclaimed, slamming her fist against the table. “It’s way too risky! As it is, we’re lucky we don’t get insta-gibbed by unsuspecting damage!”

“There is no other way!” Senna fired back. “It’s obvious even if we gear our asses off, we won’t meet the threshold without going massive! The boss is clearly the ilk that requires more than just one party to defeat, no matter how good the party its!”

“We’ve defeated bosses like that before,” Emma said, though quickly bit her tongue even before Senna’s retort came.

“Yeah, ‘cause Cain was here,” she said. “Oh, wait? Did he magically return? Are you hiding him in your bedroom?”

“Alright, alright, pipe down,” Kramer joined in, trying to settle the roused atmosphere. “She’s right, Emma. We’re gonna need a bigger group. In fairness, even if we had Cain, I think he’d say the same thing. The boss is... uh, how do I put this--it’s fucking nuts is what it is. What worries me the most is not even our healers barely keeping up, as good as they are, but the fact that they barely have any Mana left before we touch the second phase. And first phase genuinely seems the most relaxing to heal.”

“This ain’t gonna be a quick fight, Emma,” Jamal said. “This is a genuine wall. Not only will we have to gear up, but whoever joins us will have to do it too. No amount of strategizing can cover up for the fact that we just ain’t meetin’ the numbers. The world will have to come together with this one. Alright?”

“... yeah, alright,” Emma sighed, waving them off. “Meeting over, I guess. Everyone take a week off while I reach out to Rick and figure out how to get us geared.”

“Don’t burn out!”

“See you soon!” one by one, everyone slowly left--everyone except Senna. The two stood inside the shoddily-built tent, staring at each other for a moment before Senna sighed and reached into her inventory, taking out a bottle of wine and two glasses, pouring both to the top and sitting down.

“I miss him too, mom, you know?” she said with a smile. Though in public she mostly still called her by her name, in private, it was different.

“Ah, it’s not just that,” Emma chuckled, taking a sip of wine. “I promised him we’d climb hard and high. No... it’s not even that.”

“What is it, then? Why the rush?” Senna asked. “I don’t believe for a second you were dumb enough not to realize that was an unbeatable boss the first time we faced it. So, what is it?”

“... I got into it, you know?”

“Into what?”

“Climbing,” she said. “Being challenged. Both you and Lana have all grown up now. Cain’s not here. So, there’s little for me to do outside of... well, this.”

“What? Are you kidding? There’s still plenty for you to do!” Senna exclaimed.

“Yeah, like what?”

“Nothing comes to mind yet but--”

“Right, right,” Emma chuckled, taking another sip. “I fear that if I slow down... I’ll recoil again. Roll back into that paste that I became.”

“Back then, you didn’t just slow down--you outright stopped and rolled backward down the hill,” Senna said. “Now, we won’t be slowing down. We simply won’t be ignoring entire floors of wonders and amazing things in this primal chase of the bosses. Besides, everyone was ready to go on a vacation after this boss anyway.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. We talked about it all the time behind your back.”

“How nice of you to tell me,” Emma rolled her eyes.

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“We were just following dad’s philosophy,” Senna said, smiling. “When you groan waking up because you have to go fight something... then it’s time to hit the pause button and do something else for a while. And, truth be told, even I’ve been groaning for a while now.”

“Really? I just thought it was you and Sera having fun.”

“... really? You think that still works?”

“Judging by the redness of your cheeks,” Emma said. “Yeah. Works aplenty.”

“Ugh...”

“I know, I know. I went overboard, chasing the phantom,” she said. “But we did climb fast.”

“Yep, so fast our gear couldn’t keep up.”

“And the boss is insane,” Emma scoffed, reeling back in the chair. “I mean, Jesus. We’ve fought hard bosses before, but... right?”

“Yup,” Senna nodded. “If it was any harder, it’d be... I don’t know. I’m not good with penis jokes.”

“And I can’t tell you how happy that makes me,” Emma said. “Lana’s started sliding in a few recently, thinking they go over my head. That girl’s trouble.”

“Relax, nothing’s happened yet,” Senna said.

“How do you know?”

“We’re sister,” she replied. “We talk.”

“Talk about what?” Emma asked.

“Nope. I’m not breaking that sisterly bond.”

“... honestly, it feels like just yesterday when it all started,” Emma sighed, memories swirling. “I noticed the change that day, but I thought, I dunno, he had an insane acid trip or something that opened his eyes. He woulda jumped at the opportunity to skip babysitting Lana, and yet he was adamant about it. She was so young and tiny back then... and hell, I was still young.”

“You’re still young.”

“Nah, I’m old,” she said. “But it’s fine. At least, in this new world, I get to avoid the pitfalls of judgment.”

“Pitfalls of judgment?” Senna mumbled. “What are those?”

“Oh, they’re amazing. Stuff like, ‘damn, she looks good for a fifty’ and ‘I bet she was a hottie back in the day’,” Emma explained excitedly. “People think they’re compliments, but really, they’re just reminders. It’s like being told ‘ey, you, you’re past your expiration date; but if I had a gun to my head, I might eat you’.”

“Wow, girls have it bad, eh?”

“Nah, not just girls. Guys had it too,” she said. “Everyone liked dancing around aging like it’s a bad habit you picked up in a bad neighborhood. And you couldn’t even retort--’cause you felt that shit. I genuinely remember my phone ringing up one morning, me answering it, and Cain on the other end going ‘Em’, I broke my fucking back, please help!’. Turns out, he bent over one too many times for a guy in his thirties and pulled some muscle or something. Could barely walk for like two weeks. Shit caught up to you, you felt it, all the while others tried to neuter any normal conversation with flaccid compliments. Now? Now I can just punch ‘em in the face.”

“Ah, yes, violence--answer to all of the world’s questions.”

“If it wasn’t,” Emma said, finishing off the wine. “We wouldn’t have been abusing it since the dawn of time. Anyway, wanna come with me to the second floor?”

“Sure,” Senna shrugged. “It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, it has. Six-seven months, right?”

“Something like that.”

“Maybe Rick’s finally finished the shop,” Emma said as the two stretched out.

“You think? He barely started when we left.”

“Eh, everyone and their mother wants to work for him. Didn’t you hear the rumors? If you impress ‘Rick the Brick’, you’re set for life.”

“... wait, I thought that was a joke. Something you or dad came up with.”

“Nope,” Emma shrugged. “It’s a real thing. In fairness, he does like throwing money at people. I think he’s addicted at this point.”

“Eh, we got some nice healers from it,” Senna chuckled. “Let him keep throwing. We’ll need more fish.”

“That’s true... that’s true...”

**

There was an unsuspecting, desolate jagged spire located on a small island in the middle of pacific. Save for a few critters and insects, it was void of life, though had plenty of canopy to shade its surface from the sun. It wasn’t a terribly large island, smaller than most neighborhoods even, and it wasn’t shapely either--just another in the row of many that were simply ‘there’.

On day-to-day, nothing happened either on or around the island. It was silent, as it was for decades, until midday where a bolt of thunder appeared in the clear skies and ripped through the void. A spinning vortex of jagged edges appeared, black within, and spat out four silhouettes, tossing them violently onto the island, shaking it as though it had underwent an earthquake.

Quite a few trees toppled over and quite a few rocks were broken and a storm of dust was kicked up as the newcomers slowly began coming to.

Standing up, Cain took a deep breath as a smile broke out from his lips--he was back. The air... felt Earthly, however little sense it made. It was warm and cold and wet and dry and all things combined at the same time. At its core, it was revitalizing. The blue skies above, the endless ocean that spread all around them, the gawking of the birds and the curious small balls of fluff that were staring at them from the distance. It was Earth, his home.

“Your home?” Quinn asked.

“Yep,” he replied.

“Nice place,” she said. “So, is your Kingdom underwater or something?”

“Hm? Oh, no. Atlantis was buried thousands of years ago by the evil, conspiring men wanting to deprive future of the grand technology. Or something. I dunno, it’s been a while since I was into the conspiracies. Anyway, I’ll be honest with you--I’ve got no fuckin’ clue where we are.”

“H-huh?”

“I mean, we’re on an island in the middle of what looks like an ocean. Could just as well be a really big lake or a big sea. See, the thing about my home is... it’s got a lot of water. A lot. And all of it looks the same. But, we’ll just start moving east or west. Eventually we’ll come across some land and I’ll be able to better orient myself.”

“Why can’t we see the Towers?” Quinn asked.

“Dunno,” Cain shrugged. “Magic. Anyway, wanna rest here or immediately look for land?”

“We’ve rested enough and we’ll rest plenty when we settle,” either Nature or Harmony said. “Let’s get you back to your family first.”

“Aye, let’s,” Cain chuckled lightly, a longing feeling emerging in the depths of his heart, taking over. “Let’s.”