With the new skill in hand, Nimbus was able to pull a few carts with little to no issue. Instead of having to attach rings to him, he could just create the chains and wrap them around the vehicles, which also allowed him to move more naturally. Neria and Marina were both on the cart with those who had the worst wounds, making sure to keep an eye on them. The last carriage carried the bodies of Flint, Iris, Echo, and Selene. On top of it were Ivy and Roan, carefully ensuring the bodies wouldn’t be jostled too much.
Hera was a bit farther away, protecting the right side of the group. Considering the abilities of those here, they were walking very slowly, but the prisoners were still not in good shape. It would take time for them to recover enough to do any sort of consistent march.
It didn’t take long for someone to suggest creating a few more carts to carry those people while other members of the team pulled them. In the end, Livy, Lurize, Insomniac, and Wild Born each took charge of pulling one of the carriages. That way, the former prisoners could rotate who was being carried to avoid pushing themselves too hard and to ensure they wouldn’t delay their journey too much.
Along with Hera was Skyler, the two of them walking side by side, keeping an eye out for any danger. "How are you doing?" the elf asked.
"Better than I expected, but I’m still very worried. How about you? Any chance to recover the eye?"
Skyler shook her head. "No. Not here, at least. According to Neria, my best shot is a transplant or maybe finding someone with a very powerful regeneration skill. My dad might know someone, but I can’t be sure until I talk to him." The elf glanced at the carts being pulled by Nimbus. "Honestly, my problem seems so small in comparison."
"Are you talking about Ivy? Losing a twin has to be hard," Hera said.
"I’m talking about Flint. I don’t know what we’re going to tell his family. He didn’t really die saving anyone. It was just a fight, and he got the short end of the stick. He ended up between two Soldiers of Strength, and before anyone could react, he was just… gone. It’s not fair."
"I’m sorry. Maybe I should have been there," Hera said.
"I’m not going to lie and say you wouldn’t have made a difference. But you had your job to do, and we had ours. No one is going to blame you for not being there," Skyler explained.
"I know. But at the same time, I… never mind," Hera shook her head, realizing some things were better left unsaid.
"Hera, I’m a curious person. If you’re just going to pretend you didn’t say anything, don’t even start. What?"
The Empress sighed. "It’s going to sound super bad and very self-centered."
"So? Everybody has the right to be self-centered sometimes. I mean, you literally abandoned a bunch of people trapped in cells to save your friend." Skyler paused. "Sorry, that came out more judgmental than I expected. I don’t blame you for what you’ve done, and I do think it was the right call. After all, no one got left behind. Well, except the centaur. But apparently, they killed them."
"Yeah, Insomniac did," Hera looked to the side. Something was moving in the distance, between some yellow trees with red leaves. With a quick indication to Crimson, the half-naga slowly moved in that direction to see what was going on. "And what I was going to say is that I didn’t really register that Flint had died. There was just so much going on that I focused on something else. And for some reason, I don’t feel bad about it. I don’t feel anything about it."
"You are not sad Flint is dead?" Skyler frowned.
"No. I mean yes. I don’t know how to explain. It’s not that I’m not sad, it’s just… I’m not feeling anything about it. It feels as if I just can’t process it. Or maybe I’m too overwhelmed with everything that’s going on to register what happened. And that’s making me feel bad because he’s a friend. He was a friend. Fuck it, he is a friend. I don’t care if he’s dead. I don’t like when people keep using past tense for people who are not around anymore. Just because they die doesn’t mean that our friendship ended, it just means that I can’t talk to him anymore," Hera started to mumble.
During her rambling, she didn’t notice the notification that appeared at her side. All of a sudden, a monkey with red fur and burning fists jumped out from the tree line. Its mouth was open, and there was a roar gathering in its chest. But before it could do anything, a red dagger flew up, followed by a set of three chains attached to its handle.
Each of those chains wasn’t just blue in color; they emanated a strange light, with a white string of energy moving around them like electricity through a circuit.
The red dagger flew past the monster, and the chains unraveled. One of them blocked a punch, another grabbed the monkey’s neck, and the third slashed at the creature, bisecting it as the chain revolved around itself.
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With a frown, Hera just stared at that, and so did Skyler. "Is that something new?" the elf asked.
"I don’t really know," Hera replied.
"Mum, that was another skill that got added to the Court of Blades. Remember how there were five skills in the Azure Chain legacy? Four of them joined into something else. Those were the empowered chains, a buff I forgot to mention before, the barrier, the control, and the attack one," Daskka perked up from Hera’s shoulder.
"A new skill? Let me see it," Hera said, opening her attributes.
Adaptive Chains - Legacy Skill
The chains created by the Blade Accord can be empowered by those who summoned them. Doing so will result in a stronger version of the chains that possess enhanced abilities to attack, defend, and trap targets. In addition, the chains are more responsive to the will of their creator. Creating the empowered chains will require double the mana cost of the chains created by Blade Accord.
"I really don’t like how this doesn’t say how much mana it costs," Hera sighed. During her tests, she realized that the amount of mana would vary depending on the size, the width, and even the shape of the chains. But she had yet to be able to assign a proper value to any of those factors.
"There’s too much variation, Mum. The system can’t put a value on something that depends on so many things. Otherwise, it would just say 'from one point of mana to infinity points.'"
"So that is a new skill?" Skyler asked.
"Yeah. It’s from one of the legacies that Morgan had."
"One of them?" the elf asked.
"Shit. I didn’t even tell you that," the Empress glanced around and lowered her voice. "Okay. So apparently, Morgan had the tattoo legacy, and we know that. But apparently, he had absorbed two more legacies. Those were—"
Before she could continue, Skyler interrupted, "Let me just say one thing before you tell me that. Otherwise, I’m going to forget. I am not going to blame you for not being sad about Flint. I think, just like you said, you still haven’t processed it. A lot of things happened in this operation. From you finding your friend in that state, to all the fighting we had. I know a lot of people who would push the bad feelings they associate with the kind of suffering you experience in the MAZE into a box, and they only open that box once they are in a safe place. Maybe that’s what’s happening to you.
"If it’s not, then we might have some problems. And I don’t mean just personally, but there might be something stopping you from feeling. So if even once we reach a safe place and we have the chance to stop, you still can’t feel anything about Flint, you should look into that."
Hera nodded. "I will. And thank you. Sorry for being so self-centered. This is not a situation where you should have to be dealing with my bullshit."
Skyler shrugged. "At least it’s something to do. The monsters in this room are too weak, which is a good thing, but at the same time, it lets the mind wander. Now, back to the two legacies that prick had. You have four now?"
Hera nodded. "Technically, yes, but it’s still just one legacy. The others just get integrated with whatever skill fits. Aside from his tattoo legacy, he had two more. Azure Chain’s and Blue’s. But because they were half-digested in a way, some of the skills came along with me. We’re assuming that he got those two legacies in the last couple of days."
"I don’t know. Maybe he paid someone off, or maybe he just threatened to do something awful to them, or to the people they cared about," Hera paused but still decided to say this. "He also had a skill that let him gain power from eating magic, or any biological matter. So there’s even the possibility that…" She turned to the cart where Blue was located. After thinking about this throughout the night, she had come to the realization that they didn’t know enough about Wendigos. Maybe just eating a part of someone who had a legacy would be enough to get that legacy.
Of course, that went against some of the rules she knew about how legacies worked, but she still couldn’t be sure it wasn’t the case.
Skyler stopped moving. "Are you telling me Morgan ate Blue’s arm and got her legacy like that?"
"Shhhh," Hera put a finger over her mouth. The elf had spoken way too loudly. "I don’t know. It might be a possibility. But it’s not the kind of thing we should just keep saying out loud."
"Why not? Are you defending him?"
"No. Of course not!" Hera protested. "But it’s the kind of wild accusation that’s going to start a conspiracy theory. Besides, I have no proof of that. No one is going to believe me when I say that the herald of my legacy, who is a talking snake, told me that this could be happening."
Skyler frowned and opened her mouth, but stopped. "Fuck. You’re right. But is that really possible?"
"I don’t know. The skill talked about absorbing skills through eating. For the record, I don’t have it. I told Daskka to get rid of it. I understand why Blade refused the legacy once she realized what that meant. The skill also had a few extra nasty drawbacks, like making me insane over time. But either way, it’s not here anymore."
"What else did you get?" Skyler asked as she started walking again.
"Azure Chain’s legacy, and… Blue’s legacy. Aside from the tattoo," Hera replied. She didn’t want to talk about the title now. Even if she wanted to tell Skyler about it, she was a bit scared of the ramifications of knowing that someone could identify if you had a legacy.
They continued traveling throughout the day, while Hera talked with the remaining members of the Harmony Guardians about what she got. The group stopped at a few spots to let the people who escaped rest. On the second day of travel, they started to grow more confident that no one was following them. After all, the more rooms they passed through from where the lab had been located, the harder it would be to track them.
If everything went well, on the next day they would be able to reach one of the entrances to the Underground Babel, allowing them to finally reconnect with the rest of the Alliance.