"Are you serious? It's not just you?" Victoria looked disturbed as they sat in the dead of night around a fire.
"Yes, at least I was with Mister Windsbery and Old Man Dandan a few days ago…" Kara explained the situation while looking strangely at the fire.
When they first got here, the Skeleton King and the sentient blood were still at war, so they were able to sneak into the mountain quite easily. They even got to know the best ways to survive and had reached the teleportation circle once.
The only reason they hadn't left was because they were waiting for Victoria.
Unfortunately, a few days ago things completely changed. The skeletons stopped coming and the infected creatures became more brazen. They quickly took back the land that the Skeleton King had seized with the help of the Sky Monitor and solidified their position.
The spread was rapid and effective to the point that they started noticing them organize into patrols.
Before they knew it, the sentient blood was aware of their presence in the mountain.
"They were captured?" Victoria asked, looking confused.
Parasites, they weren't known to capture. They would simply infect and move on. A capture was something that a creature with motives would do.
"Yes, I saw it with my own eyes. They didn't seem interested in controlling them in the least," Kara explained as a chill went down her spine.
It was a traumatic experience for her, seeing her friends getting captured. But if they couldn't do anything against the sentient blood, what could she do? When she noticed Victoria, she was already on her way to the circle, planning to escape this godforsaken planet and hopefully bring back backup.
"Lady Victoria, this is a bad idea. That thing knows what it's doing," surprisingly, Thane spoke up, pointing out how strange the situation was.
He didn't trust Kara, nor did he believe her story. It would make sense if the sentient blood was trying to stop Victoria from leaving, but he had already established that it was no longer bound by the Legion's control.
He didn't like this, it wasn't something he could control.
"Lady Victoria… Thane is right," Enzo spoke up too.
They could tell what Kara wanted. Saving them from the sentient blood was just too dangerous. They were too close to the end for such a detour.
"I… have responsibilities," Victoria responded calmly, then sighed.
Her followers were like family to her. She had failed them once in getting them captured by the Red Sun Legion, now she couldn't let them become mind-controlled puppets of some parasite.
Besides, the sentient blood was challenging her to a straight fight by kidnapping them. It would be embarrassing if she let such a transgression go.
'Sigh, I had a feeling she would say that.'
Enzo wanted to slap himself in his mind.
He knew the vision that night would come to pass one way or the other, that great fight. He anticipated it but couldn't help but hope for otherwise.
Unfortunately, his hopes would not come to pass. He would have to fight.
"You don't have to come, Enzo. You've done quite enough, to be honest. The teleportation circle is easy to use," Victoria saw the worry on Enzo's face and spoke out.
They had together cleared all the dangers of Galafray. monstrous sand worms, the seven suns that burned bright, the Guardians, and a myriad of hellish creatures.
He deserved some rest, real rest.
"No, we started together, might as well end together," Enzo said, tightening his fist.
Truth was, he couldn't leave Galafray without Victoria. The voyage's mission was clear: if he wanted to leave, he would have to save her. There were no two ways about it.
"Besides, I don't have anything better to do." Enzo smiled bitterly.
"Ahh, okay." Hearing this, she couldn't help but smile.
Thane and Nibbleskin didn't need convincing. They would surely follow Victoria to the ends of the earth, and since Enzo felt the same, it was a win-win.
"I can lead the way down. I have a relatively safe route," Kara beamed with excitement and relief.
She felt a lot of guilt watching her comrades dragged off by the sentient blood's minions, knowing she wouldn't be able to do anything to save them.
But now with Victoria's help, it would be much easier.
After all, she was immortal.
And so together they joined hands and began the journey down the mountain. Going down was much easier than going up, fortunately, so they were able to do so with relative ease.
Kara also knew a thing or two about the infected and was able to avoid them with utmost precision.
They traveled for just one circle and quickly reached the base of the mountain where they took refuge in a pre-made cave in the walls of the mountain.
"This is where I stayed when I first got here. You guys can relax for the day before we begin descending once again," Kara explained.
After saying this, she left the cave opening and sealed it behind her with the objective of preparing a few more things for the descent.
However, she had no idea that as soon as she left, a figure followed her closely in the shadows.
"Hmm, I wonder what they are up to," Nibbleskin commented, seeing Thane follow behind Kara as she left the cave.
Those two were up to something, and he could feel it in his bones.