It had been almost 4 weeks since they left Uladia, and throughout the last three weeks, Silas had been trying to prepare himself for the torture he would endure when reaching the Darkless main base.
After his conversation with Archie, Silas understood that he had to get stronger much faster.
After a not-so-long internal battle with himself, Silas finally concluded that the only way to get stronger at the desired rate was by breaking, tearing, and repeatedly destroying every bone, muscle, and organ in his body.
It was the extreme version of going to the gym, and even though he had steeled most of his nerves by that point, he chose to put it off until they actually reached the base.
Healing a shattered limb took two to three minutes, and if they happened to be attacked by some kind of monster beyond their strength, Silas wanted to at least have the strength to run away.
They had left the forest a week ago and were now walking on a public path rather than traversing through the forest like they were doing before.
In total, there were only about 40 of them left from the raid on Uladia, all of them being noncombatants except for a select few.
“-I’m worried about her.” A voice suddenly entered Silas’ ears.
“Are you even listening?” Seraphina, the blue-haired woman, pouted in anger before looking away.
[A/N: Seraphina illustration in the discord server]
“Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind. What were you saying?” Silas apologized while rubbing the back of his neck.
Seraphina looked at him for a moment before sighing in frustration.
“I’ll let it go this time, but if you ignore me again I’ll bash your head into the ground.”
“Alright.” Silas chuckled as a chill went down his spine. He knew she was probably serious about bashing his head into the ground, and from the natural layer of toki revolving around her, he was probably right to assume that she wouldn’t have a problem doing it.
“I’m just worried about Nymira.” she finally voiced.
“What about Nymira.” Silas tilted his head. If he had to be honest, he hadn’t thought of her much since the beginning of their journey, mostly since he was going through his own problems.
“She hasn’t eaten in almost a week now. She’s just drinking water and sleeping. She might die at this rate.” Seraphina crossed her arms in worry.
‘Heh. How ironic. They kidnapped her, killed her two masters right in front of her, and are now expecting her to be completely fine?’ Silas tried his hardest not to sneer.
“I’ll talk to her.” He replied with a shred of contempt that made Seraphina narrow her eyes. However, before she could say anything, Silas was already walking away from her and toward the earth dragon that was carrying Nymira on its back and trodding at the same pace as everyone else.
The earth dragons were being used to carry baggage since there weren’t enough to carry everyone. At first, Silas was worried that Archie would kill off a few of them to make enough space for everyone to have an earth dragon, but he chose to walk it instead.
Walking up to the earth dragon, he saw a little girl, no older than 9 years old, sitting on her steed.
Her pink hair was disheveled and full of dirt. She clearly hadn’t showered in quite a while. Silas didn’t know if it was due to her depression or due to the fact that she didn’t know how to shower, but it was most likely a mix of both.
“Nymira. Are you okay?” Silas asked, but she didn’t answer.
For some reason, Silas couldn’t help but feel a little guilty about what was happening to her. There was no light in her eyes, and even when she saw him, her face didn’t change at all.
“You’re Game, right?” She asked while turning toward him.
There was no fire in her eyes either. The determination she once had seemed to have been snuffed out like a candle flame.
“You smell like blood…” She commented before turning back to her previous position.
‘Does she know?’ Silas thought with narrowed eyes.
“I get it. You’re sad-“
“Silas…” She whispered in a low, almost monotone voice.
‘Of course, she knows.’ Silas rubbed his brows before responding-
“Yes…”
“You came on your own, right?” She asked.
“… Yes.”
“…”
“…”
They didn’t speak for a full minute, but she eventually broke the silence.
“They took my family from me.” She sighed with a quiver in her voice.
“I know…” Silas looked down as the guilt increased. He didn’t even know why. He wasn’t the one who kidnapped her. They were. He was innocent.
“They’re going to sell me, right?”
“It’s okay; I know they will eventually get rid of me.” She smiled for the first time in almost 4 weeks, yet all Silas felt was a dreadful hand grab his heart and squeeze as tightly as possible.
“Are you not angry?” He finally asked.
“Angry?” She looked at him with her dead eyes.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m feeling anymore.” She looked up at the grey sky with a melancholic expression on her face.
“…”
“…”
‘Fuck…’
“I can help you… I can bring you back to your family.” Silas offered while looking at her.
“Family?” She asked, but her voice wasn’t as enthusiastic as he thought it would be.
“You can’t bring me to my family. The one family I had left are now dead. They killed them right before me, and now expect me to smile at them like they did me a favor.” She chuckled.
“I’m sorry.” Silas balled his hands into fists and looked down. For some reason, he couldn’t look her in the eyes.
“I don’t need your pity, Silas…” She let out a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“You’re just as bad as they are…”
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