Everyone watched as Ray was walking away, their own thoughts occupying their minds.
Only when they heard a snort from behind them, did they turn their attention away from him. Instead, all of them turned their heads towards the source of the noise from a moment ago.
Sunny.
All of them looked at him with varying, complicated expressions. Some with irritations, some with disappointment, and others with indifference. What all of them had in common though, was that everyone somewhat understood Ray's point of view, but no one voiced it.
Letting out a heavy sigh, their charming archer shook his head, and walked after Ray, "I'll talk to him…"
As for Effie, she still seemed somewhat shocked by Ray's outbreak just now. It was such a different side to what she was used to seeing on him.
The only reason Kai was relatively unbothered by it, was, after all, because he had once seen a rather similar situation, back in the castle, when Tessai had commented on his friend's hair. While this situation may have had been even more extreme, it also carried a different meaning.
Sunny remained seemingly unbothered, while Cassie appeared slightly uneasy, though, no one really noticed it.
"We're gonna take a short break here."
Nephis commented, before starting the healing process of each member present. Most had been injured either in many places, or relatively deep in few.
---
Kai caught up to Ray after about a hundred meters.
He just sat there, his helmet already in his hands, while gazing into the distance.
"Hey, are you okay? That was quite heavy there, wasn't it?"
Ray, at first, only responded with a heavy sigh, before eventually continuing, "...you're not curious about what happened to me there?"
His friend had a wry smile on his face, "Well, even if I am, I can see that it is not what you want to talk about right now. But, should you ever wish to talk about it in the future, I will be all ears."
"...thanks, that means a lot."
After saying this, he stood up from where he was sitting, shook his head once more, before turning around to his friend, "Sorry, for what happened there, but if I hadn't let it out now, I would've exploded later on."
Kai simply nodded in understanding, and when his friend was on the same level as he was, put his arm around him, offering him a comforting smile.
"...you do know that I'm not into men, right…?" Ray asked cautiously, not even sure anymore if it was meant jokingly, or if he really needed to keep his charming friend at an arms length.
His auburn-haired friend simply looked at him incredulous, "Yes. Me too, buddy…"
"Just wanted to make sure…"
With both their moods lifted a bit again, the duo went back towards the rest of the group.
---
"...you want me to give you memories as an apology?"
"Yes." he paused for a second, "Well, I would take echoes too…"
"Sunny…," Nephis wanted to stop her short friend, but was halted by Ray himself.
After a long and heavy sigh, he responded, "Alright. After all, it doesn't have to be my main memories, right?"
The shorter young man smiled upon hearing the positive answer, "Indeed, the worse the better."
Ray shook his head, "I'll give them to you, when we've reached our day's checkpoint. It should be possible by then…"
Sunny looked at him skeptically for a moment, before he relented. 'I'm truly a remarkable businessman. I did something stupid, and now I even get memories for it…'
When the 'deal' was finished up, Neph went over to Kai, to also heal him, after which she wanted to do the same to Ray, who declined, since he didn't have any serious wounds – if any – and because he noticed her current state.
While most of them were tired, below their bloodied clothes and armors, all their bodies were whole. Something they had to thank her for. She, in turn, after using her aspect so long and so many times in quick succession, looked simply horrible.
Everyone began resting soon after, doing so while enjoying the shade gifted by the one-armed statue of the giant statue.
No sound was heard from the group, showcasing just how tired most of them were, and that they were fully focused on regaining their energy as best they could.
Sadly, said rest did not last very long. It had been merely a few minutes after everyone sat down, when Nephis already stood up again. "We need to go."
All of the ones in attendance knew she was right, after all, due to their detour through the catacombs, their remaining travel distance had been extended quite a bit.
The plan had been simple, leave the dark city to the south, by climbing over the wall, and then head over to the scouted high point, which would've been 10 km away from the wall.
Now, though, they needed to first circle around the city and only then make their way towards the safe height, all that with less time than they originally had.
It was a 'wonderful' thing to think about, for the exhausted sleepers. Nevertheless, every single one of them stood up, and made themselves ready again, though, not without making their disappointment known through groans and the like.
After all, the only other way possible would be to climb the wall of the dark city again, but that would only call for disaster, hence they did not even think about this option.
For now though, they first needed to get out of the crater, which would be a long and arduous affair by itself.
Soon, the cohort continued their march in their prior formation. Through the fantastic scouting by Sunny and Kai, they didn't even have to worry about any sudden ambushes by nightmare creatures.
As they continued on, at some point, the walls of the dark city began to slowly disappear from view, and while there seemed to be some activity on them, no one was able to completely make out what it was.
They didn't need to though, as everyone could very well imagine what – or rather, who – it was, that was moving on the walls.
The group of the host.
Walking through the crater seemed endless. It was most likely not even exaggerated, if one were to proclaim that crossing the entirety of the crater would be impossible in just one day. Luckily, they didn't need to completely cross it.
To make it faster towards the relative 'safety' of the crimson labyrinth, Nephis led them towards a steep slope of the crater. Which, with the help of Kai, and the trusted golden rope, was not too hard on the young sleepers.
While they were climbing, Ray couldn't help, but throw an envious glance towards Kai, 'Flying must make so many things easier…'
After getting out of the crater, they continued a bit further along the edge of it, only to finally head west at one point, getting closer and closer to the crimson labyrinth.
Ray himself had not spent a lot of time in these regions, if one would count the spot he was in, when he arrived here, even as part of the crimson labyrinth.
Therefore, one could say, even with all the knowledge he had about the dark city, now, he would be a completely inexperienced sleeper, all over again. Just that now, his strength and adaptability had improved quite a bit.
He hadn't changed much, was at least what Ray would say himself, but there was now definite experience, where previously was mostly training.
As the cohort headed into the crimson labyrinth, everyone remained cautious.
All around them, were endless amounts of gray cobwebs. Those began to appear nearly instantly after they were fully surrounded by the crimson walls.
'I guess there will be spiders, then…' Ray mused darkly, in his mind. He wasn't necessarily a fan of arachnids, but he also wasn't scared of them. It was more like… feeling revulsion towards those things.
Not long after these thoughts came up, there was already movement in the webs around them…