Chapter 236

Embers and Ashes (VII)

With the exception of Emma, everyone charged to the front, their attacks already unleashed toward the unsuspecting spearman. Locked in a life-or-death situation with Lek, he was simply unable to pay a close eye to his surroundings and note the incoming attacks.

When it rained, it so poured; the combination of attacks by everyone landed squarely on his back, ripping his armor asunder as the cry of pain blew out into the world, the man’s body tossed sideways like a ragdoll, rammed through several walls, blood spraying out in droves.

Lek, beyond exhausted, managed to last a mere second later before also collapsing, passing out, whereupon Jamal rushed over and caught him gently.

At the same time, the raging storm that dug out good twenty-thirty feet of ground throughout its duration ceased. It was beyond abrupt and appeared wholly unnatural; to see the giant that nearly tore their flesh into tiny particles just vanish like that... was shuddering.

Jamal, carrying Lek, elected not to join others as they went to pursue and finish off the spearman, and instead walked over to Emma who was drinking from a can of beer. Resting Lek down gently onto the blanket Emma pulled out, he sat down and took out a can of beer as well, resting.

“I’m gonna take a break after this one,” he said suddenly. “For a while.”

“Oh?” Emma looked at him.

“It scares me, Emma,” he said, his eyes glistening for a moment. “How unphased I-- no, we, all of us, were being genuinely ripped to pieces over and over again, Yeah, the pain was there, sure, but shouldn’t there also be some panic? Shouldn’t have our brains lost their shit at some point?”

“... it’s the Tower,” she said. “Or, rather, Mana.”

“I figured,” Jamal shrugged.

“Cain will take a break as well, by the way,” she said. “Likely years-long one.”

“H-huh?”

“He didn’t say anything concrete,” she added. “But, we did speak about it, especially when it comes to Lana. We’ve been out of her life too much recently, and we both kinda agreed we were parents first and Tower-climbers second. Not even second, I think. He’s had a whole list of things before that.”

“Oh, thank god, I won’t need to make new friends,” Jamal said.

“Pfft, ha ha ha, what the hell dude?”

“That shit’s scary,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s much easier to stick to the people I know. And, well, if Cain’s out, pretty much everyone will take a break as well.”

“Yeah,” Emma agreed as she calmed down. “This place... has changed us.”

“Hah, tell me about it,” Jamal sighed, leaning further back. “I was such a wuss, man.”

“Yea, that part hasn’t changed.”

“Oh, fuck off.”

“Ha ha ha.”

“But seriously,” he said. “Before all this... life was such a chore.”

“...”

“Wake up every day at five, go to a job, work till I lost all the will to live, come back home to nothing... I can’t complain, though. I followed some guys I hung out with in high school, and half of them were baby-daddies or just dead by the time we were 25. It put things into perspective.”

“... what will you do when out? Besides not meeting other people, I mean.” Emma asked.

“I don’t know, honestly,” Jamal said. “Find a girl, maybe.”

“Ooouu~~”

“And clearly never introduce her to any one of you fuckers,” he said.

“Aww, come on, don’t be like that! We gotta approve of her first! What if she’s a gold-digger who’s only after you for your money, huh?”

“And you think I can’t sniff that out?” he asked, looking at her strangely.

“Oh? You can?”

“Any guy who’s gone on more than 3 dates can,” he said. “Like every girl should be able to sniff out creeps easily. Red flags really stand out against boring personalities.”

“I was never actually able to ‘sniff out’ the creeps,” Emma said.

“’cause your only frame of reference is Cain,” Jamal said. “Stacked against him, everything else looks normal.”

“He’d cry if he heard you,” she said.

“... was he really as bad as he keeps on implying?” Jamal asked suddenly, clearly appearing uncomfortable. However, the curiosity seemed to have won.

“Na,” Emma shook her head. “There were bad days, true, but... he never sunk, I don’t think.”

“I kind of get him,” Jamal said. “Stacked against you, it can’t have been easy.”

“Oi, why am I always the bad guy?!”

“Ha ha, no, not that,” he quickly replied. “But... imagine going through your high school days always being told that the girl you love is too good for you. Over and over again.”

“I never said that.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jamal shook his head, sighing. “His confidence probably went a-poop.”

“... I didn’t realize any of it bothered him before years into our marriage,” Emma said, sighing. “I hate that he never talked to me.”

“He’s a lucky fucker, to have found someone who woulda listened,” Jamal said. “Anyway, at least he changed.”

“... yea,” Jamal glanced to the side and saw Emma’s lips curl up into a brilliant smile, one so pure and innocent it felt like the wind itself swept away his anxiousness over the future completely. “He did.”

“Fuck, I hope I can find what you guys have one day...” Jamal lamented.

“Ha ha, you will man, you will,” she slapped him encouragingly. “We don’t have anything that special.”

“The fuck you don’t,” he groaned angrily, rolling his eyes at her. “Aah, whatever, you’re too wound up in your own little fairly tale to notice how the rest of the world struggles to find even an ounce of love.”

“... that went real depressing real fast.”

“Yea,” Jamal shuddered. “If my homies heard me, they’d have ripped me to shreds.”

“... any of these homies got names?”

“Fuck off.”

“Ha ha ha,” just as Emma burst out into laughter, the scenery calmed as the others began appearing one by one, evidently having defeated the boss. Everyone immediately plopped down, and just like Emma and Jamal, took out a can of beer-- even Senna asked for one.

“Save for the whole cyclone or whatever fiasco,” Daniel said. “That wasn’t that hard.”

“Yea,” Kramer nodded. “I think it would have been easier if we fought him normally rather than having Lek go all out.”

“Hindsight and all,” Emma said. “We’ll take a rest here before moving on. How quickly can you top off your Mana, Yuki?”

“Uhm... a few hours?” Yuki replied after gobbling down the entire can of beer. His nerves bad been stretched nearly to the point of breaking throughout this segment, and he was almost ready to collapse from the mental exhaustion. He certainly wasn’t prepared for all this.

“Alright, rest up well,” she said. “Everyone else as well. Take a nap or something. I’ll stand guard.”

“...”

“...”

“W-what?”

“Kramer and I will take first shift,” Sigmund said, standing up and stretching. “We’ll wake you guys up in six hours. Come on buddy. Let’s get blackout drunk!”

“... does he know what standing guard means?” in the distance, Emma noticed others joining them, those who stayed out of the battle. Kramer and Sigmund left and walked to the other side, making a quick, makeshift tower to sit up and have a better view of things, while others sat in a circle.

“You guys okay?” Anna asked worriedly as she sat down with the rest of the group.

“Yup,” Emma nodded. “Anything new happened on the outside?”

“No,” Anna shook her head. “I think either they were too terrified to come here, or they were drawn by the distant battle.”

“Oh, right, Cain!” Senna exclaimed, seemingly having ‘just remembered’ Cain existed; everyone shot her a strange look, since they noticed long since she was extremely jittery, on the cusps of asking something. “Khm... any... you noticed anything strange?” Sera’s lips curled up into a mischievous smile as she replied before anyone else could.

“I heard there were two people,” she said. “Still fighting. Both were missing limbs and such and people were too terrified to get any closer due to how bloody the whole thing looked.”

“W-what?! Khm, I mean, really? Oh, wow, yea, that’s bad...”

“... just kiddin’,” Sera said, holding back her laughter. “We didn’t hear anything. You should go check it out.”

“H-huh? Why... why would I?” Senna protested, but it was impossible to not see that she liked the notion.

“You should,” Emma nodded. “Take Sera with you.”

“H-huh?” it was Sera’s turn to be surprised.

“Alright, it’s settled,” Emma clapped. “The rest of us will take a nap; you two go check out what’ going on. Turn around immediately if they’re fighting,” Emma warned sternly. “Do you hear?”

“... yes.” Senna nodded meekly, and even Sera swallowed a mouthful of saliva, somewhat afraid.

“Alright, see you in a few hours then.”