Lee Seng let out a sigh of relief as he landed softly on the other side of the field. Flames danced in the air as Lee Seng turned, raising his arm to block the heat. He clicked his tongue with disappointment.
"It's just all heat and flames now." Lee Seng whispered. He reached out for the flames and pulled. The group watched the heat and flames as they were sucked back into Lee Seng, relieving them of the heat. Lee Seng sighed and stared at his hand. "Sun magic is weird… I feel like it should be called something else."
He folded his hand into a fist and slowly turned around. Ritsuka and Manny's mouths were agape in shock while Calis followed Lee Seng.
"When could you do that?!?" Ritsuka asked, snapping out of it. Ritsuka grabbed Manny and followed after Lee Seng and Calis.
"I died and came back with that." Lee Seng answered Ritsuka's question. "Just a lot of heat and fire… That's pretty much it. It's simple like its predecessor." Ritsuka nodded and walked side by side with Lee Seng.
"You have so much control over where the heat and fire goes, already. Anyone would take one look at you and think your power is that and not…" Ritsuka stopped himself from finishing the sentence. He gave a small nudge and Lee Seng simply nodded at his friend's sensitive attempt.
"Yeah." Lee Seng sighed, letting his hand fall to the side. He looked at Ritsuka, who was dispelling the bow, and summoned Diminished Sun. "You think I could understand what this is, but I don't. I know it was my previous weapon… The sword evolved and matched with my Sun magic."
"Can I?" Ritsuka asked, pointing at it. Lee Seng nodded and handed it off to Ritsuka. Ritsuka's eyes widened. "It's not burning me. The heat waves and the crackle of fire would tell you otherwise, but this sword…"
ραΠdαsΝοvεl.cοm "Yeah, I'm not really sure what the deal with that is." Lee Seng shrugged. The molten blade oozed, spilling onto the ground but never burning anything. The hilt felt cool, fooling the senses of anyone crazy enough to hold the weapon or be attacked by it. The hilt was black with orange and yellow. It reminded Ritsuka of magma.
"Does it do anything special?" Ritsuka asked, handing the sword back over.
"Mmmm…?" Lee Seng thought about it. "I think it did."
"When the Numbers and Manny attacked us yesterday." Calis answered.
"Right!" Lee Seng nodded at Calis's answer. He looked at the molten blade and pointed at it. "The molten blade part can change its shape at will. When Calis and I were attacked for tripping their trap in the telepad shack, Number 2 casted a set of rune spells that would block and explode. I thought about protecting the both of us and somehow did!"
"Annnd that sounds more right." Ritsuka nodded. "If you have time to practice on something, you should. Can it do anything else?"
"I don't think so." Lee Seng released the weapon, watching it flutter into gold dust. "I haven't really been able to see what it does."
"Next monster we come across, you should try it!" Manny encouraged.
"Let's hope that doesn't happen…" Lee Seng sighed.
It was dark by the time they had reached the top of the mountain. The dreaded heat was replaced with a cool gust of wind that quickly became freezing cold. Manny and Calis's teeth chattered while they huddled by Lee Seng's conjured flame. Lee Seng led the way through the bend, witnessing a lit cabin in the distance.
"I-is that it?" Manny asked. His teeth chattered. Lee Seng looked to Ritsuka, who was nodding and starting forward past Lee Seng and the others.
"That's it." Ritsuka nodded. His walk turned into a jog and Lee Seng joined him. Although he took a liking to the cold air, he didn't want to be in such thin clothing. Manny and Calis followed suit, flame keeping pace and continuing to exude heat.
Ritsuka was the first to reach the cabin. The cabin was numbered like the one Lee Seng saw. #55 with little to no vegetation around. Ritsuka knocked on the door, making each second after feel like an eternity.
Lee Seng could hear people slowly walking over to the door, unsure of what to do. The sound of lightning grew while someone else's footsteps moved to the door.
"Who's there?" Olivia's voice came to the door.
"It's Ritsuka! I'm back with loads of things!" Ritsuka shouted.
"Ritsuka?" Liz's hushed voice whispered to Olivia.
"He's back?" Evan whispered. The door unlocked and slowly opened to Olivia pushing her head in between the crack to see if it was true. Olivia's eyes scanned Ritsuka, not seeing anything different about him.
"Where's the stuff?" Olivia asked, opening the door further. "And why are you huge?"
"Hold on." Evan made his way over and looked at Ritsuka. His eyes grew wide in disbelief and then turned into anger. "You went all the way back to get jacked?!?" Evan barraged Ritsuka with hits. Ritsuka lifted his arms to defend himself. Evan pushed Ritsuka backwards. Manny, Calis, and Lee Seng smiled, moving out of the way.
"Wait, who's with you?" Olivia asked.
"I found some people on the way here." Ritsuka smiled.
"W-w— Lee?!? Manny?!? C-Calis?!?" Evan shouted loudly. He stopped barraging Ritsuka with hits and practically pushed him out of the way so he could greet his friends with a hug. "You're alive?!? Why didn't you start off with this, you big musclehead?"
"I didn't have time since someone was hitting me!" Ritsuka replied.
"Is it really them?" Liz asked moving to the doorway where Olivia was. Her mouth dropped and the electricity coursing along her arms faded.
"Hiya." Lee Seng hugged Evan.
"Wow, you're warm." Evan replied. He moved over to Manny, who was staring at Liz. For a moment, everything stopped for Manny. Liz's hair fluttered in the wind, pulling him in. For a short moment, Manny was mesmerized by Liz. She looked rougher but something about her had finally made sense for Manny.
"It's nice to see you again." Calis hugged Evan. The two pulled away and Evan pointed at him.
"Why are you here? Did you get your memories back?" Evan asked the question the rest were wondering.
"Yeah. It took some time, but I got it back. I was immediately worried about you guys and—"
"Keng?" Olivia gave Calis a smug look. Calis nodded.
"Where is he?" Liz asked, looking around. "Did he come with you?" Lee Seng, Ritsuka, Manny, and Calis grew quiet. When no one talked, Liz, Evan and Olivia looked at each other. "W-what? D-did something… happen?"
"Let's talk inside." Ritsuka motioned. "It's cold, right?"
"R-right. C-come in." Olivia motioned. The entire group filtered in. The door shut tightly behind them. Ritsuka locked the door and slipped his shoes off and followed the group over to the couch. Lee Seng fiddled with his fingers with Calis sitting on his right side and Evan on his left.
"So… where's Keng? Can you tell him to come here?" Liz asked. Lee Seng let out a sigh and looked up.
'We've done this three times now. We can do it again.' Lee Seng told himself. Lee Seng began to explain to everyone about what happened to him after Eyes took him. He didn't let any details go. He kept his composure, making sure to not let one detail go to waste. He avoided everyone's gazes at some points. He didn't want to cry, again. He didn't want to let it all out, but eventually Lee Seng was met with sobs from his other friends.
Lee Seng and the others cried for Lee Seng and Keng's situation. They cried for their friend who almost died. They cried for how messed up everything became. At the end, they were all wiping their tears away, leaving Lee Seng silent.
"What do we do now then?" Liz asked, wiping her nose. "What should we do?"
"The midwest turned into a desert… and there's people fighting each other for supplies and water." Ritsuka sighed. "The city isn't the place to be… and my siblings are trying to help whatever semblance of government is left, to get supplies from other cities… but Minneapolis, Lansing, Chicago… They're all suffering the same fate as we are."
"It went as far as Lansing?" Manny asked.
"Maybe further." Ritsuka sighed. "Millions… are suffering the same as us. All the water has dried up. Forests have either burnt away, died or are barely living. Vegetation is dead and the heat has absorbed a lot of the nutrients in the ground."
"And there's those experiments out there, too…" Olivia sighed.
"So what do we do?" Evan asked, looking at Manny. Manny shrugged and looked at Lee Seng. Lee Seng straightened his back out and looked at his friends for the first time in a while.
"What do you think we should do, Lee Seng?" Olivia asked. "Should we try to find those Experiments?"
"Or the Numbers?" Manny added. Lee Seng shrugged and stood up.
"I'm tired… I'm gonna wash up and take a bed. I'll leave the large backpack here." Lee Seng left, pulling the large backpack out of the Void Storage and moved to the bathroom. The door clicked and locked, leaving Lee Seng shielded from the rest. He flicked the lights and fan on and pressed his back into the door.
'I don't know what to do…' Lee Seng silently cried.
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