Survivor

Around the time the sun was just about to set, we managed to find a big enough clearing in the forest to set up camp for the night. Each of us set up our own sleeping quarters — the men were very rightfully adamant that we all were self-sufficient — and once sleeping quarters were set up, we helped out in setting up a fire.

During the journey, Nato decided to hunt a wild Alk and cooked it over the fire for dinner. To my surprise, he divided the food equally among the whole party. I expected that he would scam me out of the meal, but he didn't.

He must have had an inkling of what I was thinking when he handed me a sizeable chunk of the meat. My look of surprise was pretty obvious. He chuckled and shook his head, "you're a part of the party and the best way you're going to not be a hindrance is to be well-fed and well-rested."

He moved on to hand Saizo his serving and I looked down at the immaculately cooked Alk steak chunk that he had given me. I smelt the mouth-watering charcoal smell that when mixed in with the scent of the cooked marbled meat caused my stomach to grumble quite loudly.

I took a bite of the meal and the flavour outshone the flavour of the Alk steak that I had at the inn the night before. I saw that Nato had made a creamy brown concoction and marinated the meat in it before he placed it over the fire and I looked at him with my mouth full with a questioning look.

He had returned to his spot and saw my gaze. He placed his index finger on his lips and said, "a secret family recipe,"

The other two men seemed to have had the meal during their previous Quests and were silently enjoying their serving.

There was a muffled silence at the campsite as everyone enjoyed the food. It wasn't until most of the Alk meat was finished that Nato decided to bring out the canteens of ale he had brought with him during the journey. He had brought three canteens of ale, which was a substantive amount to bring on a one-night journey.

The thought that Nato might have brought some for the journey home as well crossed my mind before a different part dismissed it with the dark thought that he probably wouldn't be coming back from the Crimson Tower. The thought should have caused me some alarm but I had that warm, fuzzy feeling from my arm back. It always came back with a vengeance during the quieter moments of the journey.

Nato tossed a canteen over to Mobito who sat nearby next to him and the Mobito drank with him. Mobito motioned to the canteen at Saizo who refused but thanked the men for the offer.

"I think I'll take first watch," Saizo said, "ale makes me tired and unreliable."

I was surprised, "first watch? For what?"

"We haven't actually been travelling through the safest part of the world, you know?" Nato chuckled heartily.

"Have you heard of the Religion of the Creator, kid?" Mobito asked after taking another drink of ale.

I nodded.

"What about the Church of the Demon?" Mobito asked again.

"No, not that one, unfortunately," I answered after thinking back to what I read in the Paradigm Help Entries.

"You're lucky then kid," Nato said, "those guys are even weirder than the Creator-folk."

"Because of an old legend, both factions — religions — have been fighting for control over the Crimson Tower lands all over the world," Mobito explained, "and they're not against brutalising innocent third parties."

"An old legend?" I asked the men.

"Aoi didn't tell you kids about the legends?" Nato asked, he looked like he couldn't believe my ignorance.

"She probably didn't," Saizo said, "she was never superstitious, she probably didn't want the children to believe in silly old tales."

"I always thought the Crimson Tower legend was pretty universal though," Nato replied.

"What's the Crimson Tower legend?" I asked, more curious than before and a little bit more forceful in tone.

"It's an old poem that sounds like a prophecy," Mobito started.

I watched him intently across the fire from him.

"Trapped from the times that came before

Two star-crossed souls from the lands of yore

A mage, a princess, whose power dominates

And a prince, a demon whom the System hates.

"A Crimson Tower, a monolith that stands

Multiplied across the lands

When a demon breaks through the System then

Meets the mage; the beginning of the end."

The campsite was quiet after Mobito finished reciting the poem. I thought about the words. It referenced a system, which I assumed would be Paradigm. It mentioned multiple Crimson Towers 'across the lands', obviously referencing the duplicated Crimson Towers all around the world.

"I'm guessing the two religions believe the legend to be true?" I asked.

"Creator-folk believe that Paradigm is a godly gift from the Creator itself, and wants to protect it," Nato nodded.

"While the Church of the Demon wants to break the Demon Prince through the System to fulfil the prophecy," Mobito concluded.

"Do you believe in either of them?" I asked, and looked at all three men. They all shook their heads.

Mobito chuckled a response, "Kid, it's only a legend. A timelessly old legend, at that. Nobody knows where or when it came from."

"It talks about breaking through the System, couldn't that account for the System glitches? Like the weird Solo Quest I got?" I prodded.

"Well, did anything out of the ordinary happen in the Solo Quest?" Mobito asked.

Glimpses of past events and the Hidden Tomb quickly darted through my mind, but I answered with a stable and calm voice, "no. It was difficult for me to complete because of…" I pointed at my left arm, "but other than that it was perfectly normal."

"Talks about glitches in the System have been around since before I was a child," Saizo started.

"That would be what? 50 years ago?" Nato interrupted and burst into raucous laughter.

"Shut it, I'm only five years older than you and Mobito," Saizo chuckled, but then refocused back to me, "anyway, as far as we know, the System has been glitching, but only minor glitches. The System pervades basically every part of our existence, so the amount of power required to break something as all-encompassing as Paradigm is unimaginable."

"Exactly," Mobito added as he sliced a bit more meat from the leftovers that were skewered to the side of the fire, and as he chewed, "it's an ancient legend that weak-minded people latched onto to create meaning in their lives."

"They might be weak-minded, but boy do a lot of them have money," Nato groaned, "why can't sane people like us be gifted with money?"

"They're rich?" I asked.

"Most of them are, that's how they fund their crusades to conquer the lands around a Crimson Tower," Saizo said sullenly, "though the ones that fund the crusades are never the ones who go through with them. You have to keep your hands clean from the bloodshed when you're a politician."

"That's a scary thing to think about," I mumbled.

"Yeah, and as we get closer, we need to be careful not to get in the way of the turf war between the Creator-folk and Churchgoers," Mobito mentioned.

A branch scraped to my right in the dark forest beyond the light of the fire and all of us tensed. Saizo stood and gripped the hilt of his sword and made his way in front of me. I was going to say something, but I saw that Mobito motioned for me to stay quiet.

The scraping sound came again, a little bit louder this time. It was closer, and Nato lowered his body and I could see the veins in his arms pop out as he prepared for a pre-emptive swing of his great sword.

Just as the tension was about to reach its peak, a young, skinny girl about thirteen years old stumbled through to the edge of our clearing and fell down on the ground. She was wearing a baggy, plain, dark-grey cloak that was completely tattered. Large gashes of the ripped cloth showed deep cuts on her back like she had been whipped quite recently.

The men cursed and loosened up. Saizo quickly approached the girl and carefully picked her up and brought her closer to the campfire. When he placed the girl down, I saw that she was dirty, like she hadn't bathed in a few days, and shivering.

Nato looked closer at the girl and her clothes and cursed again, "she's part of the Religion of the Creator."

"From the looks of it she's been tortured," Mobito added as he carefully lifted up the girl's wrists and I could see bruised patterns on them, "and bound."

Nato straightened up and complained, "we should have pretended that we didn't find her."

"What?" I said angrily and a little bit too loud.

"Calm down kid, it's just what it is. If in a bout of bad luck, we meet up with Churchgoers and they see we have one of their hostages that escaped, then they won't be none too happy with us too," Nato motioned with his hands for me to calm down.

"I'm not going to do that," I doubled down.

Nato clicked his tongue in disapproval.

"Don't worry," Saizo jumped in, "I wasn't going to leave her to die as well."

Nato shook his head, "that's the problem with you Saizo, you're getting softer as you get older."

Saizo grabbed some bandages and medicine that he had stored in his Inventory, "well, as you said, it's just what it is. I'm sorry that you don't approve of my maturing."

He motioned for me to come closer, "I need your help, come on."

***

Later that night, as I watched the night stars because I couldn't go to sleep, the girl woke up in a quiet panic. I raised my hands and motioned for her to calm down and stay quiet, and after a little bit, when she realised that she was warm and safe, she calmed down.

"Don't worry, you're safe now," I said in the best calming voice I could do.

She realised that her wounds had been bandaged and that she was wrapped in an Alk-fur blanket and then nodded meekly.

I pulled out a canteen from my Inventory and offered it to her. She shook her head, but when I told her it was water, she hesitantly accepted it and gulped it down. I had guessed that she was dehydrated. Probably from the torture, and the escape.

She had platinum-coloured hair and I noticed that she had a circular brand with what looked like a single pillar in the middle branded on her chest just under her neck.

She emptied the canteen then her eyes widened as she looked apologetically at me.

"Don't worry, I have a spare one," I assured her. She nodded slowly in response before handing the canteen back to me.

I smiled at her and placed the empty canteen back into my Inventory, "are you hungry?"

She looked at some of the leftover Alk meat and looked down sheepishly before I noticed she had made the slightest nod I have ever seen. I sliced some meat off the bone and handed it to her and waited for her to finish devouring the food.

She looked back at the Alk meat, then at me. I chuckled softly, "I would give you more, but I don't think Nato would be too happy about that."

I grabbed some jerky from my Inventory and handed them to her, "it's not going to be as nice, but at least it's something."

She eagerly accepted the jerky and started chewing on the dried meat. I stoked the fire a little bit as I waited.

When I saw her looking back at me, I pointed at myself and said, "my name is Ryuu. What's yours?"

She cowered a little bit and I tried to alleviate her worries again.

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to," I said.

She watched me closely before she slowly nodded and went back to chewing on the jerky.

"I'm glad you woke up and are feeling a bit better," I started, "I'm going to try to sleep. You're safe, so try to sleep and rest up when you finish eating, okay?"

She nodded slowly.

I smiled at her before I started to settle down. Just as I found a comfortable position, I heard a soft voice.

"Thank you."