DD 204 Ch 37 - END

Chapter 37

"Idiot," Crimson growled, emerging from the portal and storming up to me to jab a finger in my chest.

"It was personal, Crimson." I attempted to defend myself, hearing how lame of an excuse I was giving.

"Great, if it's personal for you, then it might as well be personal for me," she retorted, crossing her arms and daring me to argue the point. However, some of the sternness was foiled by how the gesture pushed up her chest, nearly causing it to burst from her leather bodysuit.

"That's not how it works, Crimson," I said.

"I'm pretty sure, Ken, that I've made promises to you that I haven't made to anyone else. We're in this together," she said.

I grunted noncommittally. "Crimson, these people were involved with my parents' death." Not only did I want to deal with that by my own hands, but I didn’t know how far I would go to get my revenge. There had been a potential for great darkness that I didn’t want to be seen by others, especially those whose opinions mattered to me.

"Great, kill them." She shrugged. "You know what? Better yet, we should wipe out their entire families. What you don't get to do is run off and do something like this on your own." She clicked her tongue, a small smile on her face. "Just think what Des would say. She'd probably chain you up somewhere so you couldn't run off on your own again."

I was exhausted and not really ready for any more lectures. "It was personal. Do we need to do this, Crimson?"

"Fine, fine." She waved her hand to the side. "You went, you did it, and it's done. Now what?" she asked.

"Now we keep diving like normal. We go back to class," I offered, unsure what else she wanted.

Crimson shook her head. "No, you're coming with me." She put a firm hand on my shoulder and ripped open another portal.

"Crimson, I think you're taking this a little far," I told her, my voice dropping off at the sight.

On the other side of the portal, I found myself somewhere unexpected. We were on the edge of a mountain, a lawn chair and a cooler sitting to the side facing a breathtaking landscape. The mountains sloped off into the distance, covered in a verdant green landscape, only the very tops dusted with white.

A crystal-clear lake sat upon the top of a nearby mountain, so clear that the sun didn’t reflect off it. Instead, it made it seem like this was all some beautiful landscape painting.

"Where are we, Crimson?" I asked.

She pulled out another lawn chair and unfolded it, gesturing for me to sit down. "One of my little hideaways," she replied, plopping down into her own chair and fishing around in the cooler for a drink. The ice was entirely melted, but the cooler was well-stocked. "You see, Ken, all this shit we do comes at a cost. No one's really meant to be an island. I bet the UG just had their 'talk' with you, right?"

I hesitated before shrugging. "Yeah, they did." There was no reason to hide it from her.

"Talk about how killing these people was part of keeping humanity stabilized, uh-huh, uh-huh. I'm sure you bought that hook, line, and sinker. Did you ever think, Ken, that offering this to you was to satisfy your own revenge? To keep you stable?" She glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes.

My eyes went wide. "Oh." I hung my head. The realization that they were in the same breath managing me hit me like a cold slap to the face. "They played me, but at the same time, I wanted to be involved, especially considering these were the people who'd once orchestrated the death of my mother."

I didn’t necessarily disagree with their methods.

"I'm not discounting that, Ken," she said, pausing for a moment. "I'm just saying... be careful. They're not just managing their own risk. They're managing you as well. And me, by the way. It's everyone, really. But even if you go on a revenge spree or whatever, remember it was they who sent you on it. What's important is that you find your own stability. You can't get lost in revenge. You can't let them lead you by the nose and turn you into their dog."

I gestured at the view. "You have a few hideaways like this... just to relax and remind yourself that you are human?”

She nodded and took a sip before sighing. “Being human comes with all of the nasty bits. Like wanting revenge for someone who killed your parents." She raised an eyebrow as she looked over. "Or anything else that might be going through your head."

I let out a heavy breath. "Understood, Crimson."

"Good. Then that means you understand that for the remainder of the school year and the summer, I want you to focus on diving the dungeon and spending time with your party and myself. This means, if the UG comes to you asking or even requesting a mission, I want you to turn them down. Be an asshole about it so they don't pick you first next time. And then, come to me if 'no' doesn't work or if it's something you want to keep from the members of your party. I assume the deaths weren't entirely painless." She gave me a knowing look.

I decided to take one of those drinks now. "Not entirely," I said, cracking open one of the beers and taking a long drink for myself.

"Well, tell me about it. Have a drink, relax. And then I'm benching you from any UG activities for a while." Crimson pursed her lips. “In fact, I’d really like to bench you from everything that is not getting stronger. At this rate, you’re going to slow down and not be able to keep up with me, let alone catch up.”

“What if Felin’s people come and cause more trouble? It sounded like her long-lost clan would be very interested in her.” I wanted to argue.

Crimson’s blue eyes bore into me. “If a level 84 needed Felin to coerce them, then they are outside your reach to do anything. Ken, we just stepped into a whole new level of the dungeon. Before you make too much of a mess, you need to be stronger.”

I leveled a long look at her. “Really? Am I hearing that from the Blood-Drenched One?” I faltered, a laugh escaping my throat.

She dismissed my words with a wave. “When you can terrify entire races, then you get an opinion.” She grinned before suppressing it by taking a drink.

“Touche.” I shook my head. “So, training?”

“Take the night. Bring the rest of the party up here to have some fun, relax, and maybe make a few escape plans should anything happen like Felin’s extended family or a run-in with demons. Then… yeah. Train, Ken. Train like never before. Because next year, I’m going to start pushing all of you towards these trials.” Crimson downed the rest of her drink, got up, and kissed me hard before ripping open a portal and stepping through it.

I sat in a moment of silence staring out at the picturesque scene for a long while, just letting my mind wander on its own.

So much had happened; so much was still coming.

The path of an adventurer was never-ending. I had made it through one section and turned only to see how much farther I really had to go. There were certainly a few pitfalls waiting for me, but I’d just have to have the strength to seize the opportunities that came, as well as the strength to overcome each obstacle.

Reaching up, I gripped my fist tight enough for the veins on my hand to bulge.

Only after I felt like I was grounded once again, my head centered back around the goal of building up my party’s strength, did I rip open a portal. “Des, come quick. Crimson shared a mountain hideaway, and we should defile it,” I called through.

Her purple head popped through the portal a nanosecond later. “Really? I’ll get the others.”

***

Crimson, after talking to Ken, found herself back at the gravity training facility.

“Welc—“ the angel started, “Again?”

“I want eight hours,” Crimson said, walking past. “Same room as last time.”

The angel at the desk’s face twitched.

Crimson left with a wave of thanks, waltzing back and entering the room. As soon as the doors closed, she stepped up to the screen and just held her finger down on the gravity setting as it beeped and continued beeping.

Weight settled down over her like a weighted blanket before becoming increasingly less comfortable.

She didn’t let up or even look at the number. Instead, she closed her eyes as gravity continued to pull at her, trying to pound her down against the ground.

Once her knees buckled, she stopped and started moving through a slow fighting form.

“I can’t allow Ken to catch up to me easily, and I can’t be so weak that I can’t shelter the rest of them.” She grunted with effort as she began to pick up speed.

Little did any of Ken or his class know that Crimson was actually the hardest working out of all of them.

She gritted her teeth and picked up her speed. Every stat point she could gain was two under [Limit Break].

The words she had shared with Ken on the mountain weren’t only meant for him. She’d needed to hear them as well.

Among the orkai, among these other races, she was no longer the unstoppable force of nature. Only by focusing on her training and casting off the responsibilities that the UG kept trying to foist upon her could she catch up and stay ahead of the ever-growing capabilities they found within the dungeon.

She smiled, a new challenge forming in her head as she worked to move under the intense gravity. After all, Ken was growing quickly after they started gravity training. She projected Ken’s latest stat’s to encourage herself.

Ken Nagato

Race: Demon

Subrace: Incubus

Age: 19

Class: Emperor

Guild: Silver Fangs

Level: 46

Experience: 27%

Strength: 174

Agility: 547

Stamina: 332

Magic: 288

Mana: 157

Mana Type: Sharp

Trial of Speed: Complete

Skills: Shadow Claw, Earth Stomp, Sprint, Absorb, Discharge, Dark Blades, Shadow Arm, Camouflage, Shadow Ambush, Elemental Shield, Portal [Special] [Restricted], Mana Burn, Vampire [Elysara], Cleave [Fayeth], Spell Mirror, Dungeon’s Blessing, Blades of Shadow, Mana Implosion, Shadow Wave [Desmonda], Revive [Charlotte], Shadow Phase, Dodge, Liminal Speed, Eyes of Wisdom [Crimson], Delirious Pleasures, Triple Breach, Arcane Singularity, Static Swords, Greater Charm, True Demon Form, Charm Aura, Dark Vision, Demon Rank - Grunt, Universal Language.