175 Old Scars and New Wounds (1/2)
What laid before the group was a scene unmistakably unnatural, even beyond what Reed had grown tolerant of. There was a limit to his resolve. Reed was willing to push forward and do what was necessary in the face of great adversity, but what loomed inside of the fissure was something that demanded more than just a determined spirit.
Five mountains stood solemnly inside the fissure, their strange peaks barely jutting out of the miserable scar on the ancient city. As much as the group wanted to deny, they were unmistakably...
”....Fingers,” Ophelia said in a lifeless voice, ”But that can't be—”
”What? They can't be real? Are you seriously listening to yourself,” said Reed mock-disbelief.
He gestured towards the colossal hand inside of the fissure and said, ”You are imbued with the essence of a deceased goddess, can manipulate reality itself as you see fit, and have some understanding of the monumental threat that exists outside this sealed world and yet...
You still cannot come to terms with what we have already explained to you? Even after it's staring at you in the goddamned face?!”
Just do it, Reed. Say the words and don't hold back.
Reed marched up to Ophelia, grabbed her shoulders, and shook them. He knocked on her helmet and said, ”Wake. The. Fuck. Up. Because if this too much for you to accept, then you sure as hell won't be able to handle whatever's down there in that... pit of souls.”
His words were scathing and incredibly rude, but he was absolutely right. Nevertheless, Reed's direct approach had not been the most optimal course of action.
Horatio did not take kindly to Reed's brutish act and quickly interceded on Ophelia's behalf and shoved Reed backward with a strong push. The youngest Silverline of the Restus family did not pursue the matter any further, but the indifferent gleam in his eyes told another story...
He was holding himself back, not wishing to further exacerbate the already tense situation. Where another man might have gone off the rails after seeing their beloved treated the way Ophelia had been, Horatio had kept his wits about him.
It was proof of the quality of training he had received and the level of maturation he possessed as an individual.
Reed laughed when he noticed the buried hostility with Horatio's eyes and said, ”Good on you, Horatio. You're a real stand-up guy, you know that? Must be really hard living like a good dog twenty-four-seven though, am I right?”
You can apologize later. You can ask for forgiveness later as much as you want.
Horatio did not respond, but the glare in his eyes intensified. He would not allow himself to fall for such cheap provocation.
They will still be alive if you do this, friends or not.They won't have to die a meaningless death because of their foolish naivety.
Even though Horatio still kept quiet and had not retaliated in any way, his restrained emotions had begun to unravel out of their shackles. When Reed felt tiny surges of Anima beginning to envelop Horatio, he knew that he had gotten through to him.
Alright, it seems I've finally struck a nerve. One more push should be enough to set him off.
...Still, I think I might be getting too into the role. I should probably tone my insults down a notch before I say something completely unforgivable.
Alas, Reed's plan would never come to fruition.
Lu'um very easily recognized what Reed was doing and slammed her foot down on the ground with a portion of her strength. A small tremor shook her immediate surroundings and caught everyone's attention in an instant.
”Enough. I will not allow this circus act to progress any further than it already has,” said Lu'um with a dispassionate tone reminiscent of an executioner from Hell.
Reed clicked his tongue. He had hoped to sow enough discord to warrant a change of plans, but he had been curtailed near the end of his goal. Truth be told, Reed had expected Lu'um to catch on from the beginning, but he had not anticipated to have been foiled so quickly.
Ahhh... I really can't do anything bad with this girl around. And yet, here I was chastizing Horatio about being a dog. Well,Imade an honest attempt at playing the dickhead.
Lu'um angrily strode toward Reed and did something that left the group speechless. She yanked one of his ears and pulled on it until Reed screamed in protest.
It was a disturbing thing to see a nearly eight-foot man, a genetic monstrosity of a human, howl like a child as he desperately tapped on the arm of a woman who was no less abnormal.
They looked less like real people and more akin to statues in some kind of abstract art piece. The absolutely alien environment behind them also did not help in the slightest, either. It dyed the entire event in an eldritch light in a disturbing sort of way.
Two strange fellows tussled about in a ruined field of interspersed crystal pillars and shattered city buildings in front of a... colossal hand that shot up from the depths of the earth.
Surreal couldn't even begin to describe the spectacle as Lu'um subdued Reed into obedience with an expression of pure wrath.
It was a literal fever dream made real, which made the disturbed trio wonder as to whether they were actually awake or not...
Unfortunately, for Reed and Lu'um it was anything but a nightmare. They knew it to be real and understood that it was something they had to deal with, whether they liked it or not.
To them, everything that the trio had experienced so far constituted a ”normal day”. There was nothing special about it.
And that was where Reed had found it troublesome. He, unlike Lu'um, realized that they were not normal people at all. What they had gone through surpassed the common sense of even the most veteran of Chosen on the continent, much less a couple of contenders like his friends.
To put it simply, he recognized that Astor, Horatio, and Ophelia were clearly out of their element.
They did not belong here. Not in the mess that he and Lu'um were about to get into. The moment Reed saw what stirred within the black maw inside of the fissure, he knew that they could not bring them along.
They would die.
It was not a prediction, It was a guarantee.
Reed eventually capitulated and raised the white flag after a lengthy mental argument with his tormentor and better half. They had discussed at length on how they would proceed, all the while they squabbled physically on the outside.
The couple shot each other a dozen gazes that each had their own meaning as they approached the unsettled trio.
”...Listen, what happened back there when I lashed out you guys... don't take it to heart. I was trying to bust your balls on purpose, but I... have seen the error in my method.”
Reed sideglanced a certain someone when he finished the last part of his apology and received an appropriate reward for his honesty.
The heel of a certain foot subtly crushed one of his own feet with a horrifying amount of pressure. Reed's helmet visor fogged up mysteriously as his staggered breaths obscured his vision. He was gone.
”I'm sorry that happened, you guys. If anything, it's my fault — I should have known that he would have tried something like that. He can occasionally be somewhat imbecilic, but he always means well with what he does,” said Lu'um.
Astor, the first to realize what Reed had tried to do, smiled faintly and said, ”Don't worry about it. I saw through his ruse the moment he started baiting Horatio. I was gonna call him out on his bullshit first, but you beat me to the punch.”
Reed skeptically frowned and said, ”How?”
”You were trying too hard. It came off sort of stale and by the numbers for my tastes. A real piece of shit bastard wouldn't have held back his punches, buddy.”
...What? But I thought I was going pretty hard on them.
Horatio seemed pretty ruffled up, too. What the hell is he talking about?
Astor chuckled when he saw Reed's perplexed reaction and said, ”You have no idea what real poison sounds like. If you want to hear what proper vile is like, you should go and enlist in the Patrol Corps for a year.”
Horatio and Ophelia traded gazes in a language known only to them. A silent conversation was held in the span of a minute and after it was finished, Ophelia spoke up and said, ”Don't worry about us, it's all water under the bridge. We know Reed meant no harm, after all, he's never been the type to speak ill of others. If anything, I was surprised that you were capable of even raising your voice like that, Reed. It really caught us off-guard.”
Horatio nodded in agreement and said, ”You were always rather reserved and somewhat quiet back during our Spire days. It always felt like you were walking on eggshells when you were around us, so your outburst real did catch me off-guard for a good while.”
Astor smirked and slapped Horatio's back before he said, ”It told you it was too forced, bud. Even this blockhead picked up on it.”