After Team Ego was scattered everywhere after a charged shot from the enemy watching them, it took an incredible amount of guts, skills, and a bit of luck for every single member to sneak for fight their way to the rendezvous, all the while only able to see the UI status of their teammates through the party interface. All were accounted for with the exception of Jester who was UI-locked.
More concerning, however, was Jin's status, which the group was able to see. His health bar was empty and it stayed empty for a while, until it began filling again. Somehow, his insane plan to feign death successfully tricked the swarm of sentries heading toward Schilva's direction. After the enemies were gone, it was simply a matter of strategic movement for Jin to make his way through the ruined city to get to his destination.
Seto meanwhile navigated the sewers. Although most people would be completely lost in the stinking darkness, his participation in the assassination of King Theo provided him with guidance that he thought might have been lost to time. After he launched his lightning attack, the hidden creatures decided not to cross his path, for engaging the S-ranker in combat would have meant a swift death for them. And so, they bided their time in the darkness and let him pass. Seto exited the sewer at a discrete place not far from his destination.
Seto arrived at the rendezvous at the same time as Jin and was ushered in by the caenis who beckoned Zelrius and Ilusa inside. There was no sign of Schilva at that time, however.
- ✦ -
After Zelrius, Ilusa, Seto, and Jin reunited inside the Dragonship's Tail, there was an overwhelming silence that wafted the air as the present members of the incomplete Team Ego waited for the last of their group. After what felt like an eternity, both Schilva and a
large-framed caenis bolted into the Dragonship, coughing and wheezing up a lung as they clutched their busted legs. Both men looked as though they were going to die from the amount of running they had had to do. From what the rest of the group could tell, however, no amount of exhaustion would have been able to stop the determined Schilva from completing his quest for redemption and his desire to finish such an important mission.
With five out of the six Team Ego members there, the small-framed caenis approached the group and introduced themselves,
"Greetings Travelers, my name is Haira and I'm one of the escort units tasked with taking your Chief back to your homeland. You might have met my kinsman, Haito. Would you happen to know where he had ended up? There was a terribly squeeze in my heart when I heard the explosion earlier. I hope he's okay..."
Although Haira seemed boyish in her attire choice, it was very apparent to everyone there that she was a girl from her voice and the fact that some of her hidden hair was falling out of her hood. She looked almost identical to Haito, which revealed the fact that they were twins. Despite being nearly identical to Haito in looks, Haira's speech and mannerisms were much more reserved and not as forward as that of her brother's.
After the large wolfman finished catching up his breath, he stood upright and spoke to the group with an urgent tone of voice,
"I'm Sakkarin and am with these guys as well. As much as I would like to stand around and chitchat, we don't have the time. The kid and I barely broke away from the sentries. We need to go now. Anyone who has not made it is on their own at this point or we might as well give the enemy our position."
Haira subtly stirred as if she was about to interject, but Sakkarin's cold gaze kept her from muttering a single word. She was bound by duty that must be fulfilled above all else. Only the most perceptive among Team Ego would have been able to discern this brief interaction and Haira's distressed expression, however.
"Hey, we're going. Not leaving the sixth among you to die, but we need to get going before the Dragonship find our hideout, the kid and I couldn't exactly avoid alerting them as he were tearing through the streets," Sakkarin said.
"Not that way," Sakkarin called out to anyone who began heading further toward the side of the ship that led further into the megastructure.
"Don't let the Dragonship trick you. Even though we're able to access this chamber here, it is sealed from the rest of the tail's interior. Can't break the wall with normal mean either, I tried. Follow me, we've been holed up beneath the tail up until now," he waved the group over to a hole in the ground where he jumped into.
The hole in the ship's floor dropped anyone who jumped into it 2-stories down into a hallway that had fused with the underground. The way the hallway looked indicated that it was an extension of a much larger building, which would have been pitch black had Sakkarin and Haira not picked up a torch each.
After a long walk down various corridors, the group arrived at a series of stairs that took them further down into the lobby part of the massive building. At least one person among the group might have recognized it as Vintergard's Grand Merchants' Hall where a lot of trades were conducted before the building was buried beneath the Dragonship.
Once the group was at the bottom and began making their way to the center of the lobby, they were able to see that the floor had been lifted in big singular sheets, which smashed together like colliding tectonic plates. Ahead of the group was a single torch on one of the lifted stony floor plates where the familiar sight of a gold-haired and sharp-eyed man set itself apart from its dreary surroundings.
Finally, Team Ego has found their objective, who was hawking down at them with great intensity as he clutched his bloodied side.
As the group approached him, Astor's ruby-red eyes made their way through the broken and tattered lineup but quickly softened the moment they rested on someone he hadn't seen in a very long time. Astor flashed the group a bitter smile, though his wet eyes stayed fixed on Ilusa the entire time.
"I've been waiting for you." Time stood still for Astor as emotions erupted at his core as he enjoyed the quiet moment between himself and Ilusa. Before the group got too comfortable with a reunion, however, the awful smell of burnt flesh pulled everyone out of their false sense of safety.
All around Astor were body parts, flesh bits, and remnants of what used to be people that had been sealed into the floor with intense heat. And then there was half of a carcass adorned in broken adventuring gear lying on the floor a short distance away with blood and guts hanging from the charred fleshy container.
One could reasonably infer that whoever they were had all been blown up, and of course, Astor with his powerful pyromancy was a prime suspect. The blond could tell what the group was thinking considering how he pre-emptively cleared any misconceptions that were beginning to form.
"It was already like this when we arrived," Astor said.
He then pointed his chin to a metallic lump lying a few feet away from the torch on the ground. Hidden by the veil of darkness, it was quite difficult to make out what it was until Sakkarin brought his torch closer to the lump, revealing it to be a Dragonship enemy that took on a very
bizarre shape. It was somewhat rounded and bulky with arms and legs. It was one that not a single person on Team Ego had ever seen before.
If any of the Team Ego members reacted to the Magia making whizzing sounds as it attempted to move, Astor would have gestured for them to hold as he knelt down next to it.
"Hey, is there a skilled Magitechnician among you?" Astor asked.
Sakkarin bent over and put his arm beneath the heavy-suited magia to prop its head up on a large boulder he rolled over with his leg.
"Nispa, the core's almost empty," he said, pointing to a broken orb inside the Magia's head, where a glowing liquid's been dripping down into the suit the entire time.
The terrible wounds that made it possible to look into its internals all seemed to have been caused by projectiles or physical weapons. There were magical marks on the rest of its body as well, indicating that it had been in combat with adventurers of diverse skills.
Astor turned back to the group,
"We found this… thing here when we were on the way back to Finweald. The blown-up corpses were still fresh at that time. It's been reciting the same lines since then"
Before Astor continued with what he was saying, sounds came out of the Magia.
「 Roooooooon… ZZ… Saviors… ZZ… ZZ… Egg… Acquisition… ZZ… the will of all Magia… ZZ. Wishes. Desire. Mission. Vault. Help. ZZ… Key Child. Required. Acquire. Roooo—ZZZ— … 」
Before it could continue speaking, the Magia whizzed down as the last of the liquid poured from the orb, snuffing the light from the remaining half of its face.
When Astor shifted his gaze onto Sakkarin, the caenis shook his head,
"Ain't no saving it now."
"Tsk… there's not enough to go on," Astor clicked his tongue.
"Well, you've heard what we've been hearing on repeat for a while now. In case you're new to the game, the Dragonship enemies have been fighting us this entire time since they destroyed Vintergard, yet this one refers to us as 'saviors' and is telling us about an egg. Whatever he is talking about must be at the Dragonship's Head, which is practically impossible to get to from here unless we want to fight our way there." Astor paused before resuming,
"Regardless, we need to regroup at camp and figure out what to do next. There's no way we're going to be able to reach the Dragonship's Head without dying."
