20 Days Ago.

Night came soon, and with all the adrenaline in my body gone after not facing any threats for a while, I almost fell asleep a few times.

Thankfully, I was literally on vines that were pulling and pushing me along the way, so I could literally slump over and sleep and still be pulled along.

We stopped near a lake where Poli settled down. She raised her arms as several of the dead trees shriveled up, moving across the earth to create tall walls to protect us from the outside.

Then, she grasped the ground, causing grass to grow by our feet, acting as cushions for us all. “So that you all may rest.” It felt like she was looking at me when she said that.

“Oh, thanks.” I then lay my head on the grass, taking in a deep breath as Charlie joined me. Koschei, on the other hand, sat in front of a rock, taking out a small book with a few vials by his coat, as if he were making something.

I didn’t really mind. He wanted to help out, and plus, he was falling apart, so it was probably something to help us out.

“Hey, do you need sleep too?” I turned towards Poli, who shook her head.

“I do not require that kind of rest. My body is sustained but the nature around me. However, I can enter into some kind of torpor state similar to your sleep, but I won’t, so that I may help defend you all while the night passes.”

“Aww, thanks, that would be really helpful.”

Suddenly, my stomach growled a bit. I blushed and laughed aloud, gods, it’s been a few days already since I’ve eaten, I almost forgot about that.

However, before I could say anything, the ground broke open as vines shot up into the air, carrying several varying fruits and nuts on their sides to my and Charlie’s surprise.

I turned to Poli, pointing at the fruits. “Was that you?”

“Yes, you need food, do you not? So I shall provide it. If you need water, you may cut off the vines as well.”

Charlie grabbed one of the fruits, taking a bite off of it as her eyes widened with wonder. “Oh… Wow, that is good, thank you so much for this. Are we sure we can eat?”

“You do not need to worry about offering anything to me in return if that is what you are referring to. You have already aided in my escape from my priso,n with our goals aligning upon the Skiper, it is the least I can do.”

I took one of the fruits and gave it a bite. It was soft, creamy, and almost tasted like vanilla as I felt a sense of relief as I began to hog it down.

Charlie patted my back. “Don’t eat so fast, okay?”

“Y-Yesh I know.” I said with a mouth full of food before swallowing.

She sighed while cutting off a piece of the vine, finding it hollow somehow as she lifted it up, drinking the water that came from it with an air of relief. “Gods that hits the spot…” Charlie then offered it to me, and I did the same, drinking it down as the taste of fresh water returned onto my lips and throat again.

“Man, I almost forgot how that tasted.” I laughed for a moment and leaned back against the ground, staring up into the starry sky. I really had to go and rush this, huh. Everything actually kinda did go by like a blur if I really thought about it.

While I was lost in my thoughts, I barely heard someone speaking to me. That was until I was shaken up by Charlie.

“Hey, are you listening?”

“Uh…” Was all I could muster as she sighed, rolling her eyes before smiling softly.

“I’ll take that as a no?”

“Yeah, hehe, sorry. Kinda got lost in the moment. What’s up? What did you need to talk about?”

Charlie lay beside me as I noticed Polina was quite a bit away, as if she was making sure not to intrude.

“You don’t have to protect me, you know? I can handle myself well.”

I scoffed and stared at her. “Maybe if we were in Phorash. Every single monster here is insanely strong for one reason or another. We’ve only been able to survive cause Koschei and the others helped us initially, and I got literal soul-burning flames.”

Huh, wonder how those survivors are right now with the Descendants. I hope they’re doing okay. I’d hate for them to have been hurt because of whatever that whole Nawia explosion thing was. That would be awful.

“I just… Look, until you get super ultra Magick powers, I’m going to babysit you. I’m not taking any chances and I’m not risking any mistakes.” My voice grew bitter as I remembered when Marian pushed Samantha into the Smorodina. Flames flickered by the tips of my hair as my palm burned bright with fire.

“... Samantha wasn’t your mistake-”

“Yes, she was!” I gripped my fist as Charlie flinched, readying herself for a fight.

“I could have stopped her. I should have stopped her… I thought… And, now she’s dead. She’s dead because of me.” Tears ran through my cheeks as I gritted my teeth. “Because I thought… I thought I could handle it…”

I turned towards Charlie, who seemed to be quite taken aback. “I won’t let that happen to you. I can’t let that happen to you.” Without any warning, I grabbed her hand. “Do you understand me? I… I don’t want to lose you, too!”

I cried. Everyone I knew, everyone I cared for. They were taken away from me slowly and surely for the past two years. I was the only one left; the rest now sat in shallow graves or in test tubes. There was only one person left, and she was right beside me.

She had no armor, no insane powers. She only had a pistol by her side in a world where giant serpents spat out venom that could crush your soul. How could I not protect her? Why shouldn’t I protect her? I would be a monster if that thought didn’t cross my mind.

“...Okay, I get it.”

I looked up at her, shaking. “Y-You get it?”

Charlie nodded, tears also welling up in her eyes. “I-I know you want to protect me. It means a lot that you want to, but I keep watching you push yourself so much. I feel like you’re going to tear yourself apart if you go too far.”

“I would rather be ripped apart than see you dead.”

“I would rather be dead than see you ripped apart.”

For a moment, we both stared at each other, teary-eyed, before we leaned in. I hugged her neck, planting my lips on hers. The tears on our cheeks mixed with each other as we closed our eyes.

At once, everything felt… Peaceful, sweet, tangy, that might have been the moment, or maybe it was just the fruit. But I would have given anything to let this moment simply be paused forever. Why couldn’t have it been paused forever…

I let go after some time, wiping my tear tracks with my hand. “I don’t want to see you go… I don’t want to see you in danger. Please, if you want to stand by my side, make some pact with a goddess, or something, I don’t know… Maybe Baba Kira will give you a Magick gun?”

Charlie laughed. “Gods, that would be amazing. Maybe I can ask her to make a rocket launcher too… Maybe some kind of high-powered anti-material rifle too.”

“Maybe a minigun? Thousands of rounds a minute going brrr, that might do some damage.”

“Hah, not unless they’re something like Zmey. Do you remember how he just… Handled all of that?”

I smiled as the memory of the fight filled my mind. I remembered it only vaguely, though, as Peter was the one who piloted it for the most part. “Yeah, kinda craz,y but like, I’m sure he’s some super special case. I kinda think if we could drop a few nukes here, we could get this over with quickly.”

Charlie stayed silent for a bit, causing me to narrow my eyes. “Hmm? What’s wrong?”

“Well…” She began, ruffling through her hair. “We kinda did?”

My eyes widened. “We did?! When?”

“Project Aevum. It was classified, but thanks to the Contract you burned away, I can talk about it. Basically, Ephitet tested out nukes near the coast of Galfania. However, every time it would cross the border, there was no boom; they just sank into the ocean floor like our ships.”

“...So you’re telling me, there’s actual nukes just lying near the ocean floor?!”

“We actually crossed it when we first came here.”

“Why didn’t we try to collect them?! That’s insane, leaving them out there!” All this time, I wonder if they’re still active, or if someone got to it first, like those hundreds of sea monsters.

“We tried, but you know what happens to people who enter Galfania.”

There was an awkward pause in the air as I snorted in laughter. “Oh yeah… Still, that’s crazy. Hopefully, they stay buried beneath the waves; the last thing we need is a nuclear winter.”

“Gods, I wonder how patrolling this place would look like in a nuclear winter.” Charlie raised her head up a bit before I pulled her down.

“Not good at all, I reckon… But you can also just ask for powers. I mean, gods are real here, maybe we can hook you up with someone cool. What god powers would you wanna have?”

“Hmmm… Maybe something like the god of water, so that I can keep you in check.”

I rolled my eyes and poked her cheek. “Haha, but that might be a good choice. Water gods are like, always top tier. They’re usually like, at least top 5 in the pantheon, five-star material. Or or, they’re like ultra rare primordial types that hide in the firmament of creation.”

Charlie just stared at me, confused. “Huh? What are you talking about?”

“You know, like in games, they’re like stars for how powerful the character is, and then rarity. I’m just saying, water gods, very rarely weak. They got summoning water creatures, aquatic telepathy, hydrokinesis, hemokinesis-“

“What kinesis?” Charlie asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You know, hemokinesis, the power to control blood since it’s mostly water.”

“How do you know this?”

“I played a lot of games in my free time. I also read a lot too. I have to kill the free time in some way while I’m hiding from the government.” I gave a bright and obnoxious smile as she laughed.

“What do you do in your free time?”

“You asked me this before, remember? I have no free time, and any time I would gain some, I just go and use it for preparing myself for the next mission, the next goal.”

She turned to the sky. “Honestly, nothing could have prepared me for this. Nothing at all… I don’t think we could have done better if we had an entire army here, probably only the top brass of Ephitet would have really mattered in the long run… I can’t even believe we made it this far.”

I held her hand, gripping it tightly as I smiled. “But we did make it this far, and we’d make it even further. I promise you that… Together, this little snake won’t know what hit him, and that Firebird better be fuckin impressed, alright! You hear me!”

I yelled up into the sky, shouting to no one in particular as both Koschei and Poli looked at me. But I had no shame. What mattered was that perhaps somewhere out there, someone heard it. Maybe they agreed with me, maybe they didn’t. But I wanted my voice to be heard either way.

That’s what mattered.