72: The Long Path to Vengeance

The Long Path to Vengeance

"Achoo!" Erin sneezed as the lamia slithered through a verdant field. "Oh, nothing is ever just pleasant with you, is it? Here, I thought this would be a nice, casual walk through a quaint piece of nature but, no. Apparently, these 'allergies' you speak of mean I must- achoo!" 

"You're even blaming pollen on me now? Damn. I really have gotten stronger." 

Neve walked beside her with a little smirk, the healer's eyes glued to the ground. 

It had taken a short while to get used to that, but ever since Ahlakan had joined her, Neve tried to make it a habit. Any one of the countless flowers nearby could, in fact, be something Ahlakan could use. 

A few days had passed since Neve cleared the Hall of the Luminous. Since then, she and Erin had traveled from one place to another, seeking out dungeons that had rewards either of them could use or that sounded expensive to the point where Neve felt it was worth it to acquire the item and then sell it in the World Shop. 

Most of the dungeons they'd encountered were, to Neve's surprise, extremely low-level. The highest-level dungeon they found had been 41, while the lowest was 5. Tamira had mentioned that dungeons out here could even reach level 100, but Neve had yet to see any evidence of that. 

All in all, what Neve had gained so far were just WS Tokens and some potions, some of which had been found by her and others that were made by Ahlakan. None of them were particularly useful, just a few Minor Healing Potions and a couple that boosted her stats by minimal amounts, but Neve guessed that soon, once she got her hands on better materials, that would change. 

With such a small amount of rewards to point to for the trouble of searching far and wide for useful things, Neve was finally running out of reasons to keep herself from beginning the next step of her journey. 

Finally, she could safely say it.

"I think it's time," she muttered. 

"Time to leave? Finally. My nose is so stuffy." The lamia followed behind Neve quietly, for a moment, before speaking up again. "You sure don't seem too worried about leaving Ahlakan on her own like that. Is she not at risk of being attacked while we're away?" 

"No," Neve replied, arching a brow at her. Upon hearing Ahlakan's name, she nearly allowed a dumb smile to find its way onto her face, but she stopped it in time. "It would be way more dangerous for her if we took her with us." 

"Is that right? Given that there still seems to be much I do not understand, may I ask how exactly that girl came back? I was there with you, Neve. I saw her turn to dust and then, suddenly, she's back at that camp of yours, what, magically? How does that work?" 

"It's a long story but, basically, Ahlakan isn't... How the hell do I explain this?" She muttered. "She's not completely real. The Ahlakan we know is an image of a person who exists, or existed, in another world. Along with everyone else at Rorvan. When we beat those monsters, those images disappeared, because they were tied to them. Ahlakan did too, but, she came back."

It felt odd to explain what were basically Erin's own circumstances to her, but she tried to give the lamia as good a sense of Ahlakan's case as she could. 

"How?" Erin asked. 

"... Because the people who made her, uh, created this image of her, think that... They have their reasons," Neve said, dismissively waving a hand in the air. 

"You've spoken to them?" Erin asked. 

"No, I know someone who can speak to them." 

"Every sentence you've spoken has done nothing but produce more questions in my mind. Is that your intention?" 

"Let's just go back to the fucking safe zone," Neve replied, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. 

"Fine." 

The two of them concluded what was a minor session of herb gathering and, on Neve's end, an attempt to show Erin around nicer places than underground cities and catacombs. A random field of grass hugging the side of a mountain was hardly a view Neve would call "special", but after everything that happened in Rorvan and learning from everyone she'd talked to, she understood that Erin may have felt differently. 

In truth, even without many offensive options, Neve hadn't yet been in a fight where she truly needed Erin. She was just trying to make her even the slightest bit happier. 

It was a short walk back to the safe zone. In almost the same way as before, Neve could see the woman pacing through the dirt road, staring at what was around her. This time, however, Neve didn't rush to make sure it was actually her. Instead, she stopped for a moment, watching on. 

[... How long is this going to last?] She thought as Erin stopped next to her. [Did I fuck up? Tamira said that she was going to disappear anyway. Should I have just let go of her back at Rorvan?] 

Erin's perception of Neve's contemplation was a little different. 

"Is the sight of her just standing there so majestic that you've lost the ability to walk?" 

Neve jumped as the woman's words reached her ears. Erin smirked back at her. 

"Wh- fuck you," Neve replied. "I just... Whatever." 

"Ha!" Erin laughed as the two of them continued. "You should just fuck her again."

"Dude..." Neve gave Erin some side-eye. The sudden vulgarity from this princess caught her off-guard. 

"Hm? Have you grown shy all of a sudden? You had sex with this woman with the door wide open, with both I and her own mother potentially being able to catch you. I'm surprised you haven't pushed her down in front of me yet."

"I'm not gonna do that!" 

"Why not? I am, after all, just a summon. You don't have to concern yourself with grossing me out through indecent, public displays of inappropriate affection." 

"You sound like you want to watch. I didn't know this princess I'm walking around with was so pervy." 

Raising a brow, perhaps surprised by Neve's counterattack, Erin smiled. 

"I would take you up on that offer if only just to give you some tips. Seems like you need them. I don't know what kind of pathetic performance you put on but finishing in just a few hours is downright shameful." She slithered closer to Neve, leaning in close. Her lips were so close to Neve's right ear, she almost felt them. "If I got my hands on her, I'd keep her busy for days." 

Neve felt chills go down her spine. Partly because Erin was too close for comfort and partly because of the mental image she was gifted upon hearing those words. 

"... Whatever," she murmured, beet red.

"Aw, and here I thought your tongue had grown some thorns. I was excited!"

Embarrassed as she was, she couldn't deny that she preferred this to the two of them just standing next to each other in silence all the time. 

They soon walked back to the camp and Ahlakan moved to greet them. 

The satisfied, easy smile on her face, admittedly, did hurt Neve's heart a little. 

It looked so much like the smiles she'd come to know from this woman but, there was a catch to this one. That being that Neve had a direct hand in painting this smile onto Ahlakan's face.

"How'd your walk go?" She asked the two of them. 

"Well enough," Erin answered, before slithering toward a tent Neve had purchased from the World Shop. "Though, moving along with a lovestruck fool like her does get annoying over time."

"I'm not- ugh," Neve groaned. Ignoring the low cackles from the lamia, Neve looked back at Ahlakan and said, "did anything happen while we were gone?" 

"Not at all." 

Of course. How could anything happen? This was a safe zone. And yet, Neve asked that anyway because explaining to Ahlakan that nothing could go wrong for her here was a move she had no interest in making. 

She'd already walked down that road with Erin. She had no intention of doing so with Ahlakan. 

So, she'd done a few things to make sure she wouldn't have to. Reasonable, logical things. But, still, she felt guilty about it. 

"It's beautiful out here," Ahlakan stated, her eyes admiring the scenery around her. To Neve, this place was a prison until she finished the Final Challenge. To Ahlakan, this was her escape. "I wonder what my kind's home city looks like though. Will we get a chance to see it soon? My mother must miss me terribly already." 

"Sure."

[Probably not.] 

"Where will we go next?" Ahlakan asked. 

That question took Neve out of her somewhat shameful thoughts and instead, brought her attention to the portal looming a short distance away. 

And the deed that had been pending for the past couple of weeks. 

"There," Neve answered. "There's someone I need to see."

[Specifically, I want to see the motherfucker dying.] 

"Ah, that machine... It's hard to believe that if we'd owned something like this, all of my people would have been saved so much sooner."2

[More like saved, period.] 

"When will we go?" 

"Right now," Neve replied. 

[I could spend more time looking around for stuff, but I don't know how far Thomas and his group have gotten. What if they're already on the 10th floor? What if they're about to finish all of this before I get my hands on them? I'd love to be even stronger, but... I'm strong enough right now, aren't I?] 

"Is that so? Let me get my things!" Unlike her summon, Ahlakan didn't have an Inventory. So, she actually had to carry things on her person. 

"Uh, how about I just use my magic on them?" Neve asked. She'd made a conscious decision not to bring up anything System-related to Ahlakan, so she just referred to her Inventory as magical. 

"It's fine," Ahlakan replied. "No need to waste energy on my things like that."

It struck Neve as an illogical response but she couldn't judge her for it. 

Not when the reason Ahlakan was even here now was an illogical one, to begin with.

[Some day, I'm going to have to say goodbye to her again. Someday, I will have to watch her turn to dust again... But, I don't care. This is what I want.] 

Ahlakan all but skipped away then, to the same tent Erin had gone to. She came out with a backpack and some tools in a couple of bags, pertaining to her painting and alchemy. 

A while later, she, Erin, and Neve were all standing side by side in front of the portal. Neve's hands balled up into fists as she thought about her target. 

All of the pain she went through had been for the sake of making this revenge possible. And now, she stood here, with only one thing left to do. 

[... But, after that, what...?] She shook her head. [No. Just focus on the task ahead. All that matters is that you rip that motherfucker's head from his shoulders. That's all.] 

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