Jonas wasn't sure what he'd expected when Stanley released the hold he had over everyone, or at least most of them. Though, Jonas wasn't completely sure why he hadn't been taken over completely like Elwin had. All he could think of was that he'd gotten a little suspicious of Stanley back when he'd likely used that same ability when it came to deciding on the means to attack the stellar bear.
Not that it had kept him completely free, as he found himself in a bit of a stupor, where he couldn't form coherent thoughts. Especially when it came to trying to get out of that predicament.
When it came to defending Elin, he had to assume it was more instinctual to do so than a conscious thought. That was the only explanation he had of how he'd been able to move so quickly to block Elwin's strike. A strike Elwin now seemed mortified about.
Not that Jonas was confident they should just let him off the hook about, since it seemed a bit of a waste to just let it go like that. To relinquish such a hold over him when he'd been such a pain for a good amount of the time, seemed almost a shame to do so. Especially when Jonas had a feeling they'd ben able to milk that fact for a while and keep Elwin from getting overbearing on his opinion again.
Assuming they weren't able to return to their own worlds when they brought Blot into the dungeon. Or wherever inside the dungeon they needed to take him.
Jonas glanced at Stanely where Elwin was tying him up, as well as gagging him so he couldn't speak. Jonas had a feeling the effort was pointless, but he supposed that it at least made Elwin feel better. An effort that Jonas thought was completely unnecessary, given the fact that Stanely had released his hold on them because his own survival mattered more to him than any symbolic stand or win.
"Hey, should we let Stanley and his group join us as we enter the dungeon?" Elmo asked suddenly, drawing everyone's attention to him. "I mean, wouldn't that be better than just making them all sit outside like this?"
Jonas was so surprised that he couldn't even form a proper response. At least not before Sonya beat him to it.
"Are you kidding me!? Not only did he try to have Harold kill us, but then he tried using his abilities to control us into handing Blot over," Sonya snapped, her tone more incredulous than angry. Though, Elmo seemed to react the same way, looking like he realized he'd really stepped where he shouldn't have, but couldn't think of how to back out of it.
"Well… it's just… I mean…" Elmo stammered, looking around with panic-stricken eyes for some kind of help from a source that wasn't likely to appear.
"Calm down, why don't you?" Patricia remarked dryly. "You're making almost as much of a fuss as Elwin does when his panties get tied in a bunch."
Sonya shot a glare at Patricia, making her quickly back off with an audible gulp for some reason Joans couldn't explain. Not when she'd been willing to argue with Elwin so much during their time together.
"Sorry." Elmo finally squeaked out, which seemed to satisfy Sonya, though Heather seemed to want to add her own statement.
"That's all well and good, but remember, you might have gotten us out of that predicament, but Sonya would have at least found a way to eliminate Stanley even without your help. So, we're not beholden to you for finding a quick way out of that situation or anything. Meaning that anything we want to do to Stanely is fair game and you're not to do or say anything that would stop us," Heather informed Elmo. Then after a glance at the sleeping forms of Frank and Thomas, she added, "That includes everyone in his group. Not when they willingly participated in what he did to us."
Jonas felt a burning desire to know what had gone on between Stanley's group and Heather and Sonya, but at the same time, he felt it might be better to not know. Especially since he'd likely have to ask someone and he doubted that Sonya or Heather would appreciate having to answer that kind of question given the way that they had been making it sound and he had a feeling he wasn't going to be able to trust pretty much anything that Stanley had to say about the matter.
"Well, if it's decided that Stanley and his group aren't going to accompany us, let's just get moving," Owen suddenly said, cutting off any response to Heather's emphatic statement, whether or not Elmo was going to try and make one or not.
Although, Jonas wouldn't be surprised if there were others of their combined group that would have suggested the same thing, but he doubted that anyone would say anything in favor of doing so now.
"Fine with me," Sonya said, her tone carrying a hint of a growl to it, though Jonas doubted she'd lash out the way Heather did if that growl did return in force. Not that he thought it was impossible that she'd do that.
"Let's just move on," Kim added, sounding like she wasn't fully recovered from whatever she'd gone through when Stanley was influencing them with his words. "The sooner we can put some distance between us and Stanley, the better."
Jonas felt a little torn between continuing on and seeing the rest of this play out, but at the same time, he couldn't deny that the sooner they got this over with, the sooner they could potentially be done with this whole competition. Even if they didn't get back to their own worlds, at least this lousy competition would be dealt with and they had other options about getting to their own worlds.
Assuming that Kim was able to figure out some of the points from that book that they'd given over to Stanley's group in place of giving them Blot.
As they left Stanley behind, Jonas was conscious of Stanley watching them walk into the entrance of the dungeon. There wasn't anything Jonas could do about that, but it felt a little eerie to know they were being watched by someone who had been trying to stop them up to this point.
Somehow it felt like they should be only leaving him behind themselves if he had been completely neutralized. Rather than left knowing that he couldn't do anything to them, no matter how much he wanted to. Jonas wasn't sure if it was a good thing that they were doing, but he couldn't argue that there wasn't any real point to killing him now. Not when they'd been able to destroy his will and ability to fight them.
"Sure we shouldn't just deal with him?" Jonas heard Elwin grumble to someone behind him.
He didn't hear what response had been given, or if there was one. All he could be sure of was that Elwin didn't turn back around to deal with Stanley. Though, it did let Jonas know that he wasn't the only one who felt that they shouldn't just leave Stanley at their backs like this.
Regardless, as they entered into the dungeon, their entire group fell into a comfortable silence. No one seemed uncomfortable with the silence, but neither did anyone seem to find the need to say anything. They merely continued walking along quietly.
When they reached the room where they'd fought the troll, Jonas suddenly looked around, feeling like they should expect another monster to attack them, despite the area being calm and the only noise being the insect activity that had moved in since they'd last been here.
Which, as they passed some goblin remains, it was clear what had drawn the insects into this dungeon in the first place.
Jonas wasn't sure if all the goblin corpses would be like this, but he doubted that the smell of decaying bodies would remain after a couple months. Especially since the goblin remains that they passed now were little more than dried skin and bones. Even the meat on the remains seemed to have been taken care of by the bugs that were either still here or that had left their descendants this bounty to live off of.
The others didn't seem to pay any attention to the goblins, if they even noticed them, but Jonas found it a little fascinating. He hadn't spent much time around dead bodies before, but here it almost seemed like it could be enlightening to know what to expect after one's death on this world.
However, he didn't lag behind the others to inspect the remains closely. Instead, he let himself fall to the back before leaving the remains behind and continuing on deeper into the dungeon where they would soon find out if the book they brought would be what they needed to complete this challenge. If Blot was the requirement they needed.