女神归来的夏天

~~~(Location: Campsite near The Road to The Capital, Elven Kingdom)~~~

~~~(Time: 5:20 AM)~~~

Hailey and I are looking into the darkness of the forest, and she rests her head on my shoulder. Moments like this with my sister are rare, and when they happen, it means she's in a headspace she needs help with. Everyone has moments in their life when they need someone to help them... Doing that for Hailey is my duty as her brother. She's my blood.

The campfire has a mild flame, and it's producing a warmth that I welcome. Sally and I are unaffected by cold environments. Her class prevents her from sustaining cold damage. My stats are too high to get affected by anything Gaia's natural weather can produce. "What will you tell mom and dad if we ever see them again..." She's asking the hard questions here...

Mom and dad will react differently than Hailey... How they'll respond has been on my mind for some time now, and it's not like there are a lot of outcomes. "I'm not sure they need to know anymore... I thought about it a lot and told myself I'd tell everyone eventually, but some things are better left hidden..." She's not going to argue after what I've revealed.

I know she regrets asking me about my strange behavior and knowledge that I carry around. "Yeah... That seems smart... I'm not debating with you on this one, brother..." Her voice is getting heavier with exhaustion. We've both been up all night at times. The cause of this sleepless night is stress. Something that we're both experiencing regularly.

It's nice that it's just the two of us right now. No one to get in the way of a needed time of silence and conversation. "I trust you won't tell them... Hearing it second hand, or at all, will be bad..." She keeps silent, and I decide to take her silence as compliance. We've been doing this long before Marcus was born, long before things got bad for us on Earth.

The stars are slowly fading from the sky, mainly from the sun's arrival soon. While it's not light out, it's that weird time of light before the sun rises. "Do you ever think about the people that died... The people that got dusted... I'm terrified that they've ended up somewhere far worse than us..." No, I don't think about that... It's not an idea I would entertain...

The dead are gone, and while it is my fault, and somehow I'll pay for it... I don't think about them... Or maybe I did? I don't remember anymore... "Would you hate me if I said no? My actions led to the death of billions, but Earth was already dying. There wasn't much time left... Maybe this was the best we could get..." She doesn't lash out or react violently.

She sighs and relaxes her body a bit. My eyes are focused in front of me, so I can't see her reaction. "Cera, look at me." I turn my head, and Hailey has her chin on my shoulder and looks at me. "I'll never hate you, and predicting and preventing an event like this can't be done by a normal person... If you did know, I know you would try to stop it..." Hailey is right about that.

If I knew about The Collision, I would've tried to stop it... Maybe not... Seeing the way the world was going and the ultimate fate of humanity, this was final salvation... Something to save us from our doomed existence. "Do you miss any of your friends? I know you had some close ones before all this happened..." While Hailey had friends, only a few were close.

She doesn't answer, and I take that as a hint to drop the topic of conversation. "My friends, they're dead... None of them played games... Thinking themselves too good for them..." People miss out on tuns of fun with that mentality... This time it cost them their lives... "Where are Sally and you heading after we're done here?" That's something I've given a lot of thought to.

There are many options to choose from and quests that are yet to be finished... The first thing I need to handle is my tier-up quest in The Kingdom of Avalon. I'm still only tier 1, and I'll have tier 3 after I complete tier 2 and tier 4 right after 3... I'm far behind on my original priorities. "I'll have to ask Sally, but best guess at the moment is The Kingdom of Avalon." She lifts her head at that.

She might want to come along since she's a player to and it's a Kingdom made by the system for players to meet and talk. Every player heads there to tier up to the 2nd tier level. After that, tiering up gets a bit hard. "You probably didn't account for me in your plans... But I'd love to come with you guys..." Hailey knows that I would let her come with me.

She's only saying this out of courtesy. I wouldn't mind the group just being Sally, Jasmine, Hailey, and me... Once this quest is over, I'm betting the rest of the people taking on this crazy quest with us will split up and go their separate ways. "You don't need to ask, but you already knew that. Don't just assume Jasmine wants to come with us, though." Jasmine might want to do something else.

Her desires for adventure and goals shouldn't be pushed aside to come with us, but I can't speak for her. Not that what I just thought is correct. She has so many choices given her new power. "She was telling me she wanted to make a difference in the slave market. Shut it down forever..." That's a noble goal, and she shouldn't be held back if that's what she wants.

~~~(POV: Saliandra Orvello)~~~

~~~(Location: Campsite near The Road to The Capital, Elven Kingdom)~~~

~~~(Time: 5:42 AM)~~~

My arms fail to find the other half of me, and at the missing of his person, I lean up and look around the tent. Getting my clothes is my plan, but first, I have to get the gunk out of my eyes. After getting everything on and prepared, I leave the tent and look around till I see Cera and Hailey near the campfire. Silently sitting... They talked about something serious.

At my light footsteps, they both look up and give fake smiles. Hailey looks particularly rough from lack of sleep and energy. Whatever they talked about yesterday has kept her up all night. "You two been out here all night?" I didn't even notice that Cera was gone, and that means he made sure he was careful about getting out undetected.

Hailey remains quiet, and I look at Cera for an answer I'm not getting from the sister. "Yeah, we came out here to talk around 5:00 AM... We've been discussing memories, thoughts, plans, and other things. Did you sleep alright? I know I kept you up for a while." He's sweet to be concerned about me, but it's not about me at this moment. It's about them.

As I sit next to Cera, I wrap my arms around him and give him a big hug. The best hug that I can provide. Before long, I do the same for Hailey. Doing this just seems right. Comforting them somehow is all I can think of at the moment. "My brother isn't worthy of you." She hugs me back, and we all can't help but chuckle at her words.

Soon, we'll be back on the move, and I'm getting nervous the closer we get to Greshina... The closer we get to my family... The family that condemned my mother and me to a horrid life... I survived... She didn't...

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A/N: Below this line, I'll be keeping Cera's player information. That way, I won't have to place it into the story above anymore. It takes about 180 words up.

[Slayer (Zern) Lvl.196]

[Exp: 40/100%]

[Title: The Son of Arch-Angel Michael (Hidden)]

[Stats] [Strength - 7095][Endurance - 7045][Dexterity - 7215][Speed - 8240][Focus - 19,660]

[Mana aura control: 6/100%]

[Health: 76,560,000,000/76,560,000,000] [Mana: 216,600,000,000/216,600,000,000]

[Stat Points: 50] [Armor rating: 500]

[Inventory] [Dice of Wayland (Divine)] [Hardened Tree sap Armor (Very Rare)] [The Witness (Legendary Sword)] [Fenrir's Whistle (Divine)] [Sally's Dresses 5x] [Camping gear] [Food Rations 3x] [Dried meat 4x] [Fishing poles 2x] [Fish 8x] [Festival Garbs 2x]

[Passive Perks]

[Inheritor of the Sword] [Son of Heaven] [Slayer of Evil] [Holy Willow Trees Savior] [Finder of Legends] [The Divine who has Legend] [Destined for Greatness] [Dungeon Diver] [An Overachiever]

[Active Skills]

[Heavens light Lvl.59 325/5900] [Protected by Heaven Lvl.59 225/5900] [Slash Lvl..77 4600/130000] [Parry Lvl.53 80/5300] [Double Strike N/A] [Kingslayer N/A] [Raging Machine N/A] [Winged Glory] [Angelic Flight] [Divine Pressure Exertion] [Divinity Pulse] [Controled Fun]