Kairos looked at the marble and figured that it was bright enough before tossing it towards the opposite end of the dungeon.
After roughly ten seconds, it brightened up enough to appear like a star. Yet, nothing happened other than its continued bright light. His eyebrow twitched when he saw this.
“…Is it actually a flashbang?”
He lamented over the fact that it may actually not work. The only reason he thought they would explode was that Ling said that it would. He didn’t think that Ling would lie to him, but perhaps the process was actually a little more complicated than he thought, and it just happened to work out for Ling, thus causing that misunderstanding.
He let out a sigh as a headache gradually came on.
Kaede pointed towards the nature core, which even as she spoke was brightening up significantly.
“What… is that?”
In response, Kairos simply shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s complicated, but it should’ve been something that exploded… I may have been mistaken.”
Nicole eventually recovered from her pained state before standing back up, though she shielded her eyes with both hands right after.
“Ah, it looks like it’s going to!”
And it indeed looked like it was going to, but even for the next few minutes, it just continued brightening, until it was brighter than the floating crystal near the ceiling. Kaede’s eyebrow twitched.
“D-Did it malfunction?”
The corner of Kairos’ lip twitched. With how it was brightening up, it made it seem as though it was just about to explode at any moment, yet wasn’t. It was like a song that just never had a bass drop.
“I…”
Kairos was about to give up. Yet, once five minutes had passed, he suddenly tensed up.
And one second later, a massive explosion ensued.
Their ears weren’t even able to process the sound. The entire floor shook rather violently, shaking them, knocking them all off their feet, and causing them to hit the ground at various angles.
A few moments later, Kairos leaped back up to his feet.
The aftermath of the explosion was rather deadly. A rather massive crater had formed into the side of the wall, while large cracks formed all across the dungeon, originating from that crater.
Kairos could just barely see a peek of the outside world. He immediately began channeling the pulse spell when he realized it wasn’t fully open just yet.
He rushed over towards the crack, and as he did a message popped up in front of him.
[Please refrain from destroying dungeons.]
Kairos smirked and continued rushing forth. He yelled out loudly.
“Hey! Get up, we need to get out quickly!”
His ears were still ringing from the explosion, making it hard to even hear himself. The other two were probably in a similar condition, but they both got up and followed him, it seemed that they heard or at least understood his intention.
Though, as he was charging the pulse spell, he realized that the walls of the dungeon quite literally parted ways. He was rather shocked, as just moments ago they had been automatically mending themselves.
In the end, he stopped channeling the pulse spell and just leaped out of the opening. Both Kaede and Nicole followed suit, though both of them soon looked down, realizing that this might have not been the best decision.
Because they were above even the clouds.
The opening that they had just left directly mended itself, clearly not wanting to take the people it ejected back.
The three of them began free falling, gradually picking up in speed as they fell. Just as their hearing was restored, they were once again greeted with the roaring sounds of wind in their ears.
Kaede yelled out.
“What the hell is this? Why are we so high up?”
Kairos didn’t respond. He honestly didn’t remember that the third level of the dungeon was far higher than he thought, and this time Ling wasn’t here to just carry everyone around.
He wasn’t too worried about himself as he knew that the recoil of his spells could help him slow his fall, but he wasn’t sure if the other two had anything like that. With that in mind, he called out.
“Hold onto me if you need to slow down your fall!”
He didn’t know how to skydive. He tried a little but wasn’t going in the direction he wanted to, thus decided to just wait for the others. There were a few hiccups here and there, but Nicole was able to latch onto him rather easily. As for Kaede, she was still above him by a decent amount and didn’t seem to know how to fall any faster. Not to mention, she was still quite far away.
At this point, they passed through the clouds.
Kaede’s expression became a little grave as she tried to get closer.
“I… I can’t…”
Kairos let out a small sigh before channeling the water spell. While holding onto Nicole with one arm, he pointed his finger at an angle, shooting out some water. It brought him up to Kaede, who also desperately latched on.
Nicole pouted when she saw this.
“You’re too close to him!”
Kaede looked exasperated.
“I’m just holding on for now!”
Nicole frowned, still not satisfied.
“No! At most, you can hold onto his hand!”
Kaede was about to argue, but it would turn out that Nicole wasn’t negotiating. She reached out to Kaede’s arm, trying to peel it off and letting out a grunt as she did so. Though it was a rather crazy thing to do, at the very least she didn’t cast the decay spell.
Nonetheless, Kaede struggled to stay on.
“Hey, come on! I’ll let go right after we get to the ground!”
While they were arguing Kairos simply sighed as he pointed his finger toward the floor. A huge jet of water shot out continuously. It didn’t seem to be doing much at first, as their initial momentum was simply too strong. However, after a few seconds, it became fairly clear that they were slowing down. Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly.
He was using quite a substantial amount of mana, yet the effects weren’t that clear. He found it a little ridiculous, as the volume of water shooting was rather massive, far greater than the three of them.
There seemed to be something that reduced the recoil in the spell, though that ironically worked against him in this situation.
Nonetheless, he was confident they would land safely, which they did.
They hit the ground a little hard, sinking a few feet under the wet dirt. Kaede promptly let go of Kairos as she said she would, not wanting to trigger Nicole any further. As for Nicole, while she clearly appeared displeased, she didn’t make any comment about that.
Kairos let out a soft sigh then turned to Kaede.
“So, now that we’re out of the dungeon, what do you plan on doing?”
Kaede looked back rather strangely.
“Huh? I don’t know. Try to survive I guess.”
Kairos chuckled.
“I probably should’ve clarified. Are you gonna come with us?”
Kaede smiled bitterly.
“Would I even be welcome?”
Kairos shot a glance at Nicole who pressed her lips together.
“…Honestly, you were probably the first other person I’ve seen her say more than a few sentences to. I guess it doesn’t look like it, but you get along with Nicole surprisingly well.”
Kaede’s eyes widened in genuine surprise. She slowly turned to look at Nicole, who looked back strangely sheepishly. It took a little while, but Nicole eventually returned the gaze. The two of them looked at each other for a few moments. Kaede shook her head a few moments later.
“I… Is that really true?”
Nicole tilted her head to the side slightly.
“Maybe a little bit?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“The place where we normally stay is a city. If you want, I’m sure I can get it arranged for you to stay there. But at the end of the day, it’s your choice.”
Kaede raised an eyebrow.
“A city? You mean like a settlement with some people in it?”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“More or less, but those are the fine details that don’t really matter.”
Kaede lowered her head in thought. It was fairly clear that she didn’t expect this. Chances are, none of them expected this would happen given their first interactions. She spent a full minute thinking, and despite that, she was still as unsure as she was just moments ago. For her, it was not a decision that was easy to make.
In the end, she looked up to Nicole once more, almost like she was reaching out. With a bitter smile, she spoke to her.
“Hey… do you want me to come with you?”
Nicole didn’t respond for a good while. She stared back, but she was clearly thinking about it. In the end, the time that they spent together wasn’t all that long. Not to mention, they really weren’t that similar in personality. That made Nicole think that they probably wouldn’t be good friends.
Yet, at the same time, Kairos was right. It was the first time she spoke so much to someone else willingly. Although there may have been other reasons as to why she did so, nothing would change that fact.
After a serious moment of contemplation, her lips parted.
“I don’t know.”
Kairos took a deep breath.
“I’m assuming you also don’t know, Kaede?”
Kaede laughed and nodded.
“I suppose so.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Then how about this? You can come along with us, and if either side wishes to break it off at any point, we will just separate.”
Kaede blinked a few times.
“I guess we could do that.”
Kairos waved at them before setting off.
“Then let’s get back to the city. I could really use something to eat.”
Like that, the three of them began walking back to the city. The first hour or so was rather awkward, with neither of them talking at all. Both sides weren’t all that comfortable with interacting anymore. For Nicole, it was because she didn’t like anyone getting closer to Kairos. As for Kaede, she was still afraid of Nicole, especially since she wasn’t even confident in running away from her.
However, by the second hour, they would occasionally speak up, though the conversation would fall through rather quickly, not lasting past the third sentence.
By the third hour, they spoke more than three sentences, though were only having small talk.
And by the fourth hour, Kairos was beginning to regret bringing Kaede along.
“One of the things you can also try is calling him a dog, along with other insults!”
“Ehh? But isn’t that rude?”
“Trust me, sometimes the humiliation actually makes it more arousing!”
Because they were getting along a little too well.