The first thing Damon noticed upon reaching back to where it all began was that all sounds of battle had ceased. Then in the distance, he sighted three people. Delilah, Dion, and the last was a buff guy with a war axe.
"Bro, over here!" Dion exclaimed, waving Damon over.
’They look pretty roughed up.’ As Damon began walking towards the three, he realized how exhausted they truly looked. Well he wasn’t one to talk himself, he was also pretty exhausted.
The two reflections he had deployed earlier, had also gotten dispelled when they ran out of aether.
’Rose still isn’t back huh?’ he thought. Though knowing her, she must have headed to the castle to take the flag herself. Damon didn’t even entertain the fact that Levi could defeat Rose.
He had that much trust in her when it came to that department, be it as the brother that grew up under her shadow, or as the editor that read about her in a novel.
"Hey weirdo, what are you zoning out for?" Delilah called out, snapping Damon out of his thoughts.
"Uh, nothing." he said. "I think we should find the castle, it shouldn’t be too far away from here."
"Where’s your sister though, don’t tell me she got eliminated?" Dion’s eyes widened.
Damon shook his head with a bitter smile.
"I don’t think so, maybe she decided to find the castle herself, either that, or she’s already there."
Delilah then turned around.
"Alright then, let’s go." She said, but even she, had no idea which direction they should probably go in.
Lucky for her, Damon seemed to know.
"You’re looking in the wrong direction." he offered. "That was where we came from, so the castle would most probably be in that direction." he added, gesturing to said direction.
Delilah grumbled something unintelligible under her breath as she turned back.
The four then began walking in the direction Damon pointed. Though, Damon still made two reflection, and sent them to the flanks, just in case he was wrong.
"You know Damon," Dion slung his arm around Damon’s shoulder. "I don’t think I’ve told you about the time one girl came to ask me out."
"You haven’t told me, because it never happened." Damon commented dryly.
"Why of course it did." Dion scoffed. "I’m telling you, she was like, "I want to be your girlfriend", but I declined, saying, "I already have a girlfriend", but then she was like, "A man handsome man like yourself surely doesn’t belong to one woman". I mean can you believe this girl?" he chuckled.
’Sigh, this is going to be one long walk.’ Damon thought as he tuned Dion out.
Meanwhile, walking behind the two, Delilah was twitching, trying to desperately stop herself from shooting an arrow into Dion’s head. The buff guy on the other hand, seemed to be fully attentive to the story Dion was narrating, as if to take notes.
Walking straight for about five minutes, they soon came upon the field where Levi and Rose had faced off. The place looked as if it was where some ancient calamity had fallen.
But even though, compared to the destruction in Spira city, this wasn’t nearly unsettling, after all, that one had lives being snuffed out, but this battlefield had only forests. Now some extremists could argue trees also had lives, but each to their own.
"I mean, you believe a handsome man like me doesn’t belong to one woman, but you’re declining a threesome?" Dion spread his arms. "If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she..."
"If you don’t shut that trap of yours up, I swear I’ll put an arrow through your head!" Delilah finally got fed up with Dion’s ridiculous story, and snapped.
"Ahem." he coughed. "I see the castle." he pointed straight ahead in a bid to divert the topic.
"Yeah, I see it too." The buff guy seconded in a gruff voice. Damon also saw it, and so did Delilah.
There, beyond the shrubbery trees that remained in this wastelands, was a dull castle much like their own.
The group earnestly began moving towards the castle, and soon passed through the shrubs. But it didn’t take long before they noticed a figure at the top of the castle fixing a gaze upon them.
They all looked up, and caught sight of Rose staring down at them. Before any of them could even open their mouth, Rose jumped off the castle, flag in hand, and landed before them with a soundless thud.
"Let’s go." was the only thing she said as she walked past them.
"I swear I hate it when you act like this, Rose." Delilah scowled, but still followed, and so did the others. Now they still had to run back almost seven kilometers even though they were weary.
Damon though, had other plans. In fact he didn’t even move from his spot.
"Aren’t you coming?" Delilah turned to him, prompting the others to do so as well.
"Nah, don’t worry." Damon smiled. "I’ll see you all back at the castle." he said, and without giving anyone the chance to protest, shattered into motes of light.
"What?!" Delilah stared in disbelief for a moment, before her chilling gaze turned to Dion.
"You! did you know he was a clone all along?" She grasped Dion collar.
"Ummm, he calls it a reflection." Dion said, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.
"I don’t care what he calls them! What I’m asking is that did you know he was not the original all along?" she asked once again.
"How am I supposed to know?" Dion flayed helplessly. How was he supposed to differentiate the real Damon from the fake when they all acted the same?
’No, could they even be differentiated with real or fake?’ Dion remembered quite well, Damon telling him his reflections were all him, and were all real.
"How would you not know? Isn’t he your friend or something?" Delilah pushed further.
Dion could only look to Rose, hoping she would intervene and tell this mad woman to leave him alone.
Rose meanwhile sighed while all this was happening, muttering something about this being the second time today.
-----------------
With Damon meanwhile, the view in his vision changed to that of his reflection and vice versa.
The place was quite close to the castle, not even fifty meters away. But as Damon got closer, he saw an almost eerie human shaped mold in the trunk of a tree.
’This definitely wasn’t here before.’ he thought. And not to talk of the trees that had outright fallen down, as if knocked over by a truck.
"So someone did come to try and steal our flag after all." he muttered to himself. "No matter." he shrugged. Encountering this scene here, the individual most likely hadn’t succeeded.
But as he walked into the clearing before the castle, he witnessed something odd. An unconscious boy was hanging down the side of the castle, suspended by a rope.
"..." Damon was speechless for a few moments.
"What in the hell?" he finally blurted. "What is this witch up with this time?"
He looked for her, though he didn’t have to for long. There she was, sitting at the edge of the castle top, her legs dangling down.
When he met her eyes, she actually smirked and had the nerve to give him the middle finger.
Damon’s lips twitched, but didn’t give in. Instead he asked her a question.
"What’s up with him?" he pointed at the hanging boy.
"Oh him?" she jumped down. "He tried to steal our flag, so I thought, why not use him as an example, and as a deterrent?"
"Makes sense." Damon nodded, before throwing his sword straight at the boy. The boy vanished as the sword tip reached an inch from his body, freeing him in process and also making Damon’s sword to embed itself at the side of the castle.
"Why are you back empty handed though, don’t tell me you were unable to get the flag?" She raised a brow.
How could a team comprised of Rose, Delilah and Damon, weak as he was compared to her, not be able to take the flag?
Damon turned back to her.
"Both teams have gotten both flags." he said. Damon knew because he had a reflection following Alistair’s group, and thus knew they had secured the other flag. Infact, it was almost at the same time that Rose jumped off the castle with 1–Beta’s flag.
"Great then." The redhead clapped. "How long do you think they’ll take to get here?"
Damon was silent for a moment, before replying.
"If they move with speed, they should be here within five minutes at most. But the way they were walking when my reflections left, I’d say one to two hours."
"Ahhh." she pouted, which was a sight to behold. "Why do they have to move so slow?"
Damon’s brow twitched.
"Of course they will. They just finished fighting a battle while you were here, lazing away."
"I did stop two guys from stealing the flag though." she retorted.
************
A/N: I know I did say this was going to be the last Chapter of the mock exam mini arc, but it seems fate has other plans.
Ahem. But the next Chapter is surely the last.
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