Making it to the tenth floor of the Tree, the two men could barely move their legs from all the fatigue they've amassed so far. From the very moment Lem woke up, or in Issei's case when he jumped from the airbike, they were constantly having to wonder about encountering enemies, rushing to Lune and company, and now even fighting amongst themselves. Though they wanted to get this trek over with as soon as possible, it seems their bodies craved for rest still.
"Let's..." Lem huffed and puffed, "Let's take a break."
"Yeah... I'm with you." Issei gulped as he plopped down on the floor, "Bah, dammit. Can we really not use the hoverboots?"
"It's tempting, but no." Lem still chose to die on that hill, "I'll trust my own legs rather than that shoddy piece of crap invention."
"Hey, I'll have you know I poured my heart and soul into them!"
"Yeah, I can tell." Lem shot back with a spiteful glare, "If it was Nel's dad, then it'd probably work way faster and more securely."
This sudden comment was pretty surprising to hear for Issei. Though he knew Lem wasn't at all favoring him at all and would instead much rather hate on him at every available moment, hearing him mention Lune in such a random manner made him quite perplexed. Sure, the kid's spent the summer helping them around Issei's house, but Lem never truly got to see the inventor's side of Lune before.
"Trying to get brownie points even when he's not nearby, are you?" Issei thought to tease him, "All this just to get the girl..."
"Yeah, after all I love her." Lem refused to hesitate when asked this question, "And now she's stuck on some random ass island because I was too weak to win against that old man."
"Weak?" Issei cackled, "Either you weren't giving it your all with the old man or your self esteem is crap, cause what I just saw was anything but weak."
"You think I'm that prideful of a person to go easy on an opponent just cause their skin's wrinkly?" Lem shot back a glare before defusing it with a sigh, "Nah, the old man left me on the verge of death and took Nelly without even breaking a sweat. I don't know how he did that, but it's a fact that I could've at least made sure Nelly was safe."
"...You really think that?" Issei could hardly believe the words coming out of Lem's mouth, "Lem..."
"What?"
"Was that the reason you wanted to fight me earlier?" Issei asked, "To prove to yourself you're not weak? Cause news flash, you're not. I've fought plenty of opponents in my time, and though I ended it early, I'm sure this fight would've lasted ages if we went at it to the death."
"Your pity isn't making me feel any better, Slanted Eyes." Lem looked down, "I got too used to screwing around, I let my guard down. A bandit's supposed to acclimate to any situation, but I met one immortal old man and shit my pants."
"...Immortal?"
This was news to him—The old man who kidnapped Nelly and Lem was immortal. Certainly, it makes sense now how Lem would have lost to him, but it's still an odd adjective to hear. The Vast World is anything but grounded in its logic, but as far as Issei was concerned, there never did exist a person who lived past the standard age of humans. There didn't exist any stereotypically long lived races either, like elves or demons. The closest this world had were beasts, but Issei never bothered to research too much into them past their attacks and weaknesses.
"In that case, aren't we already finished?" Issei pondered, "If he's immortal, there ain't no way we'll be able to defeat him."
"Yeah, fighting's pretty much completely off the table." Lem charted out a plan for them, "So our only two remaining options are to flee or to somehow negotiate with the bastard."
"I vote fleeing."
"Yeah, and I vote for you to shut your dumbass up." Lem groaned, "Just let me finish a single damned thought, okay?"
"...Sorry."
"Geez, fleeing wouldn't be a good idea cause he'll probably just track us down again." Lem continued, "Which is why I think our safest bet is to find a bargaining chip of some kind we could use to win him over. Issue with that is—no one even knows who this old man is."
"Right, we're facing up against someone we've never even met before, much less know what makes them tick." Issei murmured, "But then, what does he have to do with Nelly...?"
To both of them, Nelly was nothing more than an ordinary girl. Neither one of them knew she possessed the Book of Misfortune this entire time, so even that association was unavailable to them. In the end, no matter how much they tried mulling over all their different theories, they kept coming back to the start.
"Gah, forget it!" Lem sprung back up to his feet, "Let's just go find Nel's parents and beat the shit out of the old man!"
"Didn't you say he was immortal, though?"
"We'll just keep killing him until he gets bored of reviving!" He shouted back, "It's decided! I'll make sure I slam him into outer space, then we'll see how willing he is to get back up!"
Though a rather childish plan, it was still the best they had so far. Negotiations proved to be too impossible to pull off, and fleeing was just equivalent to ignoring the problem and saving it for another day, so in the end—they were left with trying to go for the kill.
"Ah." They ran the corner to bump into two fellows.
"Hm?" They too couldn't believe they weren't alone in this tree, "Shit, who are you?"
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***
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Suddenly, two men appeared in front of Lem and Issei. Well, more like these two appeared in front of the two men. Either way, the situation was tense for both sides, since both parties seemed to be wary of one another.
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"Hey! Don't move a muscle!" One guy warned, "Stay there and tell us your names and affiliation!"
"Geez, Max, they're not enemy gang members." His friend smacked him on the back of the head, "Just look at them for two good seconds, the hell are you afraid of?"
"Oi, I take offense to that statement." Lem glared at the blonde guy, "You calling us weak?"
"Yes, he is, and rightfully so!" Issei immediately went to shut him up, "Dude, do you have rabies or something to just needlessly pick fights with anyone you meet? Shut the hell up so we can properly talk first!"
"Aaron, "he" said no one else would be coming here." Maxwell worriedly whispered.
"It's your fault for trusting that blockhead's word, though." Aaron chuckled, "Look, you two enemies or friends?"
The odd question was met with immediate clashing answers from both Issei and Lem. Lem, being the rowdy teen that he was, naturally wanted to say the opposite of what Issei did, even if it might cost him later.
"Frien-"
"Enemies!"
"Will you shut up, man!?" Issei finally couldn't take the anxiety and smacked him across the back of the head, "Look, you two, we didn't mean to intrude, okay? All we want is to get to the top of this here Tree so we can meet back up with our friends and then we'll get out of your hair, honest!"
"Eh? There's more of you?" Aaron tilted his head.
"Hold up, Aaron, he said his friends are at the top." Maxwell gulped, "That's bad..."
"How come?" Lem asked.
"You don't know?" The two Generals pointed up, "The top of the Tree is engulfed in flames."
That there was a fire that had started near the crown of the Tree from the airbike crashing into it was apparent even from back when they were still on the boat, but for it to have already spread so much was something they hadn't noticed until just now. Looking up, Issei and Lem were left horrified after the realization hit them that Lune and the others might be in a way tougher predicament than they had originally presumed.
"Well, if that's the case, then they'll probably be fine." Aaron shrugged.
"What makes you say that?" Lem tilted his head.
"Just like you, we've got other travel companions accompanying us here as well." Maxwell nodded, "They're way up above though. They wanted to rush up there and extinguish the fire before this giant ass tree got burnt to ashes."
A rather noble goal, the two visitors thought, but was there even such a person capable of climbing such a tall tree fast enough to stop the fire from spreading any further? Then again, just these two looked capable enough at a glance, so Lem and Issei figured the people that benched them down here must be way more than enough.
"We never did catch your names." Aaron smiled, "This is Max, and I'm Aaron."
"Issei Kaido, yoroshiku!" Issei struck a pose before dejectedly pointing to his short friend, "And that's Lem."
"Hey, gimme a proper introduction, jackass!"
「これわ」 Issei shouted at the top of his lungs, introducing Lem in the most overhyped way he could think of, 「レム…だ。」
"Whoa, I have no freaking clue what you just said, but you made it sound awesome as hell!" Lem stopped the Command spell after getting his wish granted, "For speaking in tongues, I give you 9 whole points!"
The little comedy act was met with bewilderment and intrigue from the two Generals. Neither of them could understand Issei's Japanese, obviously, but they accepted their introductions as satisfactory nonetheless.
"Alright then, you two fellas uhhh... You two fellas ate anything recently?" Maxwell thought to be polite.
"Boy did we!" Issei replied in a chipper tone before dropping it immediately after, his stomach grumbling an agonizingly hunger-filled tone, "...not."
"In that case, we have some leftover rations from our trip to here back at our lodge, if you're okay with that." He offered.
"Max, it's nice to see you're getting along with our new friends here, but we don't have an infinite supply now that "they're" gone." Aaron sighed.
"ARA policy states we feed others from our own hands first and foremost!" Maxwell proudly shot back, "Besides, "they'll" come back soon enough anyways!"
"Your friends up top?" Issei asked.
"Calling them friends is kind of inappropriate, I'd say..." They danced around the question.
"Ah, guess you're not on such good terms after all."
"No, you misunderstood." Maxwell shook his head, "It's difficult to explain, I think you'll get the gist faster once you meet them."
Thus, two plus two made four, as the law of mathematics planned for it to be. Our protagonists found themselves some allies of their own in this foreign land within a tree, and with allies came food! Still, they didn't seem too thrilled when they learned where exactly said food was...
"Ten floors up!?" They gasped.
"Yeah, we made it pretty far up." Aaron chuckled, putting his finger on Issei's chest before gently pushing him back a bit, "But thanks to a certain two bozos causing a ruckus downstairs, we were forced to come down here and check up on the situation. Didn't want any sneak attacks from the back, after all!"
"Lem..." Issei slowly craned his head to him.
"Yeah? Hey, put that backpack down!" Lem tried desperately to stop him, "You're not using the hoverboots!"
"Get off me! If you don't wanna use them, then walk on your own, but I'm soaring to the top!" Issei decidedly replied, "I didn't make these just to shelf them, you twerp!"
"And those are?" The Generals tried inspecting the iron boots, though Issei was already gone by this point.
"See you at the top!" He said, turning the propellers on at full throttle, "...Ah right."
"You forgot those things are slow as shit." Lem facepalmed.
"So much for a flashy escape..."