Sirius walks side by side with Thea as they both ascend the stairs, while Thea's party follows them both behind. Despite their reluctance, after Thea showed them a bright and confident smile that Sirius is a trustworthy guy, they relented.
"I've heard a lot about you from my Father, he really trusts you. How have you been? Father would love to know about your condition."
"... I've been well."
"I see, that's good to hear. But, can you tell me why and how you got here? I'm sure Father didn't mention this expedition to anyone but me and my party."
Sirius stays silent for a bit, Thea takes a short glance before continuing on moving up.
"Well, truth be told. I stumbled here, I was hanging out with my friends."
"Ah... I see, do you mind telling me about that?"
Her words, especially the word telling was emphasized the way it was as if it leans into a demand. But still she keeps a tone of respect as though asking for a request.
Sirius simply oblige by nodding.
"I'll tell you the short version, while the long version will be when we get somewhere safe. I assume you have a safehouse or a momentary base?"
Thea remains silent a bit, she looks back at her party and see them nodding with strange looks. A bead of sweat runs down Thea's forehead as she nods back sheepishly with a smile, looking back to the front, Thea agrees with Sirius.
"Yes we do. Well then, tell me, why and how you came here."
Sirius starts on recounting a short version of his experience, from where he got picked up by his friend on his house. To going near border patrol and sneaking out, though he didn't mention anything about his friend's Rune that allowed them to sneak by.
To then going towards the rainforest on the south and climbing down a ravine before going to the entrance of a cave.
From then on, he told her and loud enough for the ones behind him to hear him about his meeting with the Skull Wolf, to falling down another ravine and recovering his arm while hunting the salamanders.
Then noticing a Skull Wolf going down the hole and him meeting the Boavus of Boidae. Going down here to escape from the swarm of snakes that noticed his fight and escaping here, through the Gate and into the Abyss.
He also explained about how he ascended to the Evoker class just now.
"Huh. What? You're an Evoker and just before you were still a Seed?"
"...Yes."
"How? You were in Father's party which is basically the cornerstone of the Post! Sure you were gone after the first few safe area had been established. But I thought you were doing some secret mission or something! I heard from Father you were really reliable... so how come? After two years..."
After the rambling, Sirius stays quiet, while the others behind him seem to pick up on the fact that Sirius was one of the people that was the cornerstone for making a safe haven for the Southern East Post.
"...Circumstances."
Sirius replies curtly, clearly not intending to dive further down the memory line to explain.
Thea blinks a few time before her face soften as she looks at his eyes.
"Sorry."
Sirius nods as he replies with a smile of his own.
The journey back to the first floor doesn't take long, after going out of the entrance of the pillar, Thea leads everyone to one of the ruined building on the center where the statue area is.
Inside the ruin, boxes and old wooden piles could be seen near the walls, the ceiling of the ruin is gone, allowing the moonlight to shine down on the center of the building.
On the center, burnt piles of stick could be seen and close to the old campfire, four sleeping bags could be seen sprawled near it.
The party of six sits down around the campfire, while. Thea walk to the piles of wood and grab some wooden sticks. Sirius sits alone behind, he's not really afraid of meeting other people or talk to them. In fact, he enjoys it quite a bit, but it's just...
Looking at the party of six that are conversing with each other, some look back to Sirius and shows him a nod with a smile. Sirius simply nods back.
He feel distant from them.
Well it's a given since he just met them, he couldn't really understand how some people could just become comfortable enough with each other to have long talks.
Thea notice Sirius sitting out of the circle, she blinks a few times before looking to a girl with long black raven hair that is tied to a hair stick bun with only two line of bangs at left and right side, the hair stick has a cresent moon ornament on the top. Her skin is pale, her pink soft lips, a vertical scar mars said lips on the left corner that lines up until it reach just below her eyes.
Her eyes are light blue, despite the lightness of the colour, her eyes appear to be hazy as if unfocused. The girl wears a simple black tunic with a black belt that wraps around her hips, underneath the tunic which curtain over her thighs is a black fitted cargo pants. She wears a black high combat boots that covers her calf.
Hugging her knees, she watch as Thea starts a fire by zapping the the sticks. Soon, the fire starts to spread from the sticks, lighting them whole as fire dance on her light blue eyes.
Thea looks back between the girl and Sirius, they both had something in common. The blue eyes and the silence.
"Oh god there's two of them now..."
Thea mutters, but the others take notice and quickly follow Thea's line of sight, which is the raven-haired girl and to Sirius who raises his eyebrows before looking down at himself, trying to look for what's wrong.
Eventually, not finding anything wrong, Sirius couldn't help but frown before looking at them.
"...What?"
The others blink a few times before suddenly bursting out, they laugh and Thea giggles as she smiles at Sirius before smiling at the raven-haired girl.
"Luna? Want to introduce yourself to the new guy?"
Luna, the raven-haired girl tilts her head before looking back to the blue and white streaks haired young man with similar blue eyes as hers.
"Nice... to meet you. Sirius."
"Mmh. Nice to meet you Luna."
The conversation was short, and Luna smiles at him at the short response before looking back to Thea and smiling at her.
Thea blinks a few times before smiling crookedly and shaking her head as she sighs.
"Well, Sirius, now that you know Luna, our ice princess here, why not the others too? I bet they're curious about you."
As Thea said that, the others nod, looking at him with curious faces.
Sirius blinks a few time before sighing and standing up, he slowly walk over to them and see Thea patting on her left side as seconds before, a muscular boy with a buzz cut and brown eyes scooch over to the left from where he was sitting.
Sirius sits in between Thea and the muscular boy, if he remember correctly he was the one that wore a shield and a spear as he defended against the horde of ghouls.
Chad wears a simple black cloak with a sleeveless compressed black shirt and a brown breastplate with motives engraved on it. Brown braces adorn his hand, and a pair of gloves cover his palms.
Aside from that, no armory covers his other body parts.
"Nice to meet you Sirius! The name's Chad!"
Chad extends his hand, offering him a handshake as Sirius nods and take his hand and shake it. Chad's eyes widens as he lets out a happy laugh.
"Mmh? What's wrong..?"
"No, no, it's just... you're one of the few ones that doesn't instantly laugh after hearing my name!"
Chad suddenly pulls Sirius into a hug, confusion apparent on Sirius' face as Chad slaps Sirius' back a few times before letting him go.
Sirius could only silently nod before looking at the one next to Chad.
A tall boy with auburn curly hair and black eyes, freckles hug his brown toned face. Despite that, one can say the boy has quite the looks, better than the average at best.
He wears a cloak that covers his whole body like a warm blanket, his inner clothes are made up of a simple white shirt and brown pants with a pair of fur boots.
The boy nods at Sirius before opening his mouth.
"Name's Adam, my role here is a spotter. I can sense living beings and stuff, so you can rely on me for scouting even from far away. Chad didn't mention it, being the... simple-minded guy he is, but he's our shielder."
"Uh... okay."
Sirius replies as Adam introduce himself and what he do for the party before glancing at Chad with a grin. Chad blinks a few times before clicking his tongue.
"It didn't pop up in my mind okay?!"
Adam merely laugh before patting Chad on the back and then looking next to him and pointing his thumb at her.
"Now her? The girl's name is Anna."
Anna waves her hand with a bright smile, before doing a slight bow as she then salutes at Sirius.
"Hello~! Anna here! Everyone's beloved sharpshooter~ I can see weak spots of inorganic and organic things! Oh, right but I'll also bleed from my eyes and worse, get blind if I use it too much or too long, hehe!~"
"..."
Sirius stays silent, staring at her with a complicated expression, more so cringing. Shock and worry apparent on his face as Anna grins and laugh, her laugh mischievous.
As Anna the cheerful girl so wonderfully introduce herself, a loose braided red hair could be seen draped over her left shoulder. Her face is the definiton of happiness, a cheery atmosphere seems to always plant itself on her face and along with it is confidence. Her red eyes gleam as the moon shines down on her.
She wears a simple black cloak with a black vest that has a lot of pockets, she wears a red turtleneck and a black cargo pants and black and red high combat boots.
"And this is our favourite healer! Sol!"
Anna said with a grin while jumping and hugging the girl next to her on the circle around the campfire, Sol.
Sol, a girl with smooth flowing yellow hair that reach down her back and bangs that curtain her brows. A pair of light red eyes accompanies her yellow smooth hair.
Sol yelp, shock apparent on her face as Anna clings to her like a monkey. Wrapping her legs around the poor girl's waist and hugging her by the neck. Sol falls backward as Anna let out a strangled noise from being pinned in between Sol and the ground as she giggles.
"Ugh... Anna! I'm sorry for showing you such unsightly view Sirius..."
Sol looks at Anna with a glare before sighing and getting back up and sitting normally. She looks at Sirius and bows her head.
"My full name is Sollenis, but most just call me Sol. I'm actually Thea's little sister."
Sol introduce herself with a smile, her face calm and gentle as she looks at Thea with a smile before looking back to Sirius. Her beauty is comparable to Thea, if Thea radiates light, Sol radiates calmness.
Her attire is quite different from Thea, if Thea could be described, it's a greek-styled one. While Thea is wearing a white cloak and a white turtleneck paired with a white pants and a black pair of combat heels.
"I know. Your father told me a lot about you and Thea both."
Sol and Thea blinks a few time, their eyes suddenly widen in horror.
"F-Father didn't tell you anything weird about us... right...?"
Sirius smiles softly at Thea before shaking his head.
"No, not really. Just how much he loves the both of you that he felt like he'd die everytime we went on a mission together leaving the both of you..."
Sirius recounts with a smile, his lips curling at the edges as he look up to the moon.
"Despite how... stiff, aloof, and rigid he was and probably still is, he really brightened up whenever he talked about the two of you."
Sirius looks at the both of them with a smile before suddenly chuckling.
"Thinking about it, it was weird how the others seem to be annoyed or frustrated? I don't know, whenever he talked about the both of you he couldn't stop his mouth. But I enjoyed every talk with him... though I would really like it if he'd stop trying to make me drink a beer."
Sirius closes his eyes, sighing as he tilt his head up. Silence fills the campfire as Sirius opens his eyes back and blink in confusion, due to the fact that everyone is looking at him weirdly.
"Hm..? Was there something wrong...?"
Thea cough before smiling at him.
"Thank you for telling me this, Sirius."
With a warm smile, she nods at Sirius as Sol follows suit. Thea looks to her right to a boy sitting next to Luna.
An asian featured young boy with a black coloured tied hair that reach down his back and bangs which is parted on the middle that curtains over his sharp silver coloured eyes. He sits next to Sol, and to his left is Luna.
He wears a white turtleneck inside of a white kimono that is layered by a blue thin cuirass. A white half cloak is adorned around his shoulder that drapes down his back and front. A pair of blue shoulder plate rests on each of his shoulder, the hem of his white cloak ends around underneath his chest.
The hem of his kimono attire reach near his ankles which is covered by a blue high combat boots.
The boy nods at Thea before looking at Sirius with a smile.
"It is nice to meet you, my name is Yuki, I am from Japan. But I was on a vacation in Australia when... the Apocalypse happened."
Sirius nods in response as Thea smiles before standing up.
"Now that everyone is all acquainted, first I have to ask something."
Thea looks at Sirius as she walks closer to him and extend her hand.
"Would you be willing to help us eliminate all the Calamities in this Abyss? I am not ordering you nor am I going to force you to comply, if you want to just stay here and wait until we eliminate all the Calamities in the area, you can do so. I will get Luna to escort you when we are done, but if you want to help us, we will appreciate it very much."
Sirius looks at the extended hand, the one wish he had of just getting escorted out of the dangers are presented here. But as he look at the young teenagers gathered here, he let out a soft sigh.
"You kids seriously are going to attempt on clearing this whole Abyss? I am quite sure Cassian didn't send you here all for a suicide mission basically."
Thea's hand staggered as sweat run down her forehead.
"W-Well, we were tasked to just simply scout out the area and find a Gate to go back out of the Abyss... But, maybe, just maybe we can clear the whole Abyss out...?"
Sirius blinks a few time before sighing and grasping Thea's hand in his.
"It is too risky... I firmly suggest that we try to escape the Abyss after gathering sufficient information regarding the Abyss. Unless we have groups of Evokers and a... Ruler. I am not going to be sure that we will clear this Abyss just with the eight of us."
"But I want to try. I have to try."
Thea suddenly cuts Sirius off, her tone definite, determination apparent on her face.
"... I suggest we scout the whole city first, gauge their threats and act accordingly. Safety matters first, if there's any Usurper class, we are out. Don't try to force it."
Sirius replies looking at her sternly. Thea smiles as she nods at him, shaking his hand.
"Take care of us, Sirius."
"Take care of me too, everyone."
Sirius smiles before suddenly realizing something.
"Wait, what Class are you all in?"
"Everyone's an Evoker. Though some of us, mostly me, Luna, and Yuki is close to reaching Ruler. We think..."
Sirius stares blankly at her before sighing and looking up the ceiling.
'This is going to be hard...'