The group walked down an old mining tunnel in complete silence, only led by the light of a single ember floating above Jack's fingertip.
Justin, who walked alongside Chase wore a conflicted look. One that Chase had rarely seen from the loyal ex-general.
Rayan, who walked at the back group was as silent as always, never even daring to take his helmet off, much to the groups curiosity of what lie behind it.
Jack had the back of his head to the group, leading and only looking onward as they steered through the tunnels at rapid speed, homing in slowly on a small ventilation system where they would sneak into the highest chamber of the Durangor's dungeon.
That would be where Chase and Justin would free the enslaved Beast kin, and then Jack and Rayan would venture further down the chambers where the gods know what they could be after.
Chase frowned, mostly staring at the dirt ground as he walked with occasional nervous glances shot towards Justin out of desperation.
Eventually, Justin let out a sigh and began to pick at his nails in frustration.
"We haven't heard jack shit about what were gonna find down there..." He grit his teeth at Jack from behind.
"Relax..." A low tone left Jack's lips, and he turned his head for a single second, revealing a ferocious hunger burning behind his mask.
Chase rolled the stress out of his shoulders, wearing what was left of his ruined ivory armor. Which now resembled that of half of a chestplate and a couple of leg guards. Meaning that the only thing protecting his arms and torso were old leather clothing he had stolen from a tavern.
Apocalypse was faintly humming within his catalyst, and a vacant void sat tucked away behind his mind.
He had fully blocked off Luna from intercepting his thoughts...
The trick was actually quite easier than he had imagined, as it was simply given to him in a dream. And it was just that...
By using the meditation that Luke had him perform... Chase had successfully tricked their Champion's pact into thinking that he was without a doubt... Completely asleep...
Of course he felt guilt at doing so... But Chase knew that he would not get stronger by simply hiding behind the power of a goddess for the rest of his life.
So, it was time to pull his own weight, as much as he had wanted to do so during his battle against Natalia... It was impossible... The Sword of Seh Jenah was simply on another level...
Even though in terms of Star output, Chase was only two or three stars behind her... However, something about their fight had screamed at him... Telling him that there was something more to this whole Paladin thing.
This same dread made Chase fear for Neo... Who had departed to not only fight, but kill a Paladin in the top ten rankings... Completely alone...
"Hey, knock it off." Justin whispered in a low tone, locking eyes with Chase.
"What?" Chase scowled.
Justin rolled his eyes with that same laziness written all over his knightly face.
"Don't make me play adult, I am loyal to you because you a young prodigy with the power to lead people, but when you sit behind and let some wanna-be Head of the House push everybody around for his own vendetta... Let's just say it leaves a bad taste in my mouth." Justin's words trailed off, leaving only behind the sparking of Jack's ember to echo throughout the tunnels.
Chase felt the muscles in his face tense up.
"The hell? And what do you mean Vendetta?" He shot back in a low tone of his own.
Justin's eyes became distant, as if staring straight through the skull of Jack.
"Can you not see it?" He asked, pointing at Jack.
"Obviously not." Chase motioned for Justin to explain further.
"It's rage... The same kind I seen in you..." He scarlet eyes glimmered as they walked past a hanging lantern that Rayan knocked his helmet against.
Chase felt a shiver crawl down his spine.
"Like, loss of a loved one?" Chase raised an eyebrow.
Justin shrugged.
"Whatever it is... It's got that kid putting everything on the line for the sole purpose of descending into these chambers..."
'I see...' Chase thought as they passed an abandoned minecart.
'The reason why Jack has done all of this... Setting up everything from the very start... Coming all the way out from Phoenix Academy just to become the leader of a forgotten House... I think I get it...' He thought further.
"Justin... What- do you know Jack's Mother's House name?"
"Shut it! We're here." Jack growled, placing his hand against a large metal grate and letting his flames begin to eat the metal away in seconds... Leaving only molten liquid wallowing down the side of what looked like a storage room.
"Ladies first?" Justin offered Jack, who violently grit his teeth and shoved Justin by the shoulder into a pile of boxes below them.
"We don't have a lot of time... Vex likes to watch the fireworks, but he will return shortly after the finale ends." Jack whispered, helping Rayan and Chase get down into the storage room swiftly.
Then as if practiced a thousand times, Justin shot a bolt of flames at the locked door- The metal turning orange as Rayan pulled out a purple longsword and smashed the pommel into the hinges, letting the door slam down on the other side with a vicious boom.
They were greeted by three guards... All armed to the bone with swords and expensive looking armor.
Jack grinned.
...
Thirty minutes earlier...
Equan locked eyes with Chase one final time before he turned around for good, leaping over the side of the mountain with the grace of a true warrior.
He frowned.
"This is a bad idea..." He muttered, looking over at Poppy who looked completely out of it, nearly drooling at the mouth in her apparently eternal slumber.
Then he looked down at his body... But not only that he allowed himself to feel his body... Although his heart was screaming with enough passion to follow Chase and Justin... His body simply refused...
He could feel the terrible wounds left behind by the two Paladins, and the toll it had taken on his mental as well.
He could feel Volaris somewhere inside of his mind, muttering and whining about him being a coward.
'I know...' He thought, before steeling his nerve and quietly walking over to Poppy.
He tapped her shoulder several times, letting her eyes reluctantly flutter open and her mouth to immediately twist into a frown at the sight of Equan above her.
"Before you get mad..." Equan put his hands up with a pleading look in his eyes.
"I'm already mad..." She muttered, rubbing her strained crimson eyes.
Equan awkwardly waited, keeping a distance from the princess.
"Well? What is it?" Her frown deepened.
"Chase left. And he left with Jack, Rayan, and Justin..." Equan quickly spat out with a whisper.
"Shit." She palmed her face in frustration.
"They went that way." Equan pointed at the drop off they had departed from.
Poppy instantly stood up, summoning her armor and shaking her head with immense irritation.
"Wait!" Equan yelled, outstretching a hand before she could leap off of the drop off.
"What?" Her shoulders slumped.
"Don't interfere if you don't have too... Just tail them and if it seems like this will work out fine, just pretend this never happened."
"Gotcha." Poppy shrugged, turning around and waving as she let her back fall first down the side of the mountain.
...
Alone inside of a small dungeon cell... Rotted with moss and rust sprawled through the room as a lone Beast-man continued to knock against the stone wall in that same un-rythmatic pattern.
'Knock... Knock... Knock...' The little girl in the corner of the room continued to poorly echo in her mind.
Her golden eyes: The last of the Aureum Retriever Clan glimmered with very little hope left in her tiny heart.
She tilted her head, gazing with pointless curiosity at the wounded Jackal seemingly captured in a strange trance, knocking that same pattern with his large charred hands with gruesomely demolished claws...
His dark blue skin glowed under the singular lantern that hung from a rickety chain attached to the ceiling of the cell. And his big right ear was missing its top half... A terrible scar remaining at the top of what was left.
This made the girl sad... Seeing the puppy man as she knew him, all... Destroyed...
He continued to knock...
Over...
And over...
And over...
...
Laughter boomed from the large living chamber with a large mural dome hanging above the grand room.
Callahan was wearing a satisfied smirk on his face as he recalled his countless tales to the likes of Natalia and his son Oren.
"Believe me! I didn't think the kid had the guts to take his Mother's place after what happened with his Grandmother!" Callahan boomed with laughter once more, admiring the grand scene hanging above his lavish couch.
All of his tales were retold in blood... That was the Durangor way after all... He smiled, looking up at the scene of his slaughtering the once thought last of the Phoenix Clan... The scene of him aiding that man in shoving that House of Void-something's Prodigy into that decrepit abyss.
The scene of him and Vex slaughtering the Earth Dragon that Gaia loved so dearly...
It was all so dear...
"Why are you not enjoying yourself, my child?" Callahan sat up, placing his mighty hand Upon Natalia's trembling shoulder.
Her eyes shrunk, looking up at him with a sense of reluctant fire. Her mouth wore an Oh-so obvious smile of pure nervousness.
Callahan knew that something was afoot with his loyal sword, but he simply chuckled.
"Come on girl, laugh a little at my epic stories!" Callahan laughed again knocking glasses with his son as they drank the festival away.