Chapter 41: The Hardest Fight?

After hours of aimless searching the party still don’t find the house that is being used as their base but instead find what looks to be the commercial district of Empire city.

“I guess while we’re here we might as well stock up and grab any final upgrades to our gear or add to the spellbooks. As there’s no guarantee we’ll find this specific place again once we move on.”
“Sure, what food did we need to stock up on?”
“Everything, get as much food as you can carry in your packs while leaving room for all the other essential things you’ll need. Make sure it’s all long lasting as we have no clue how long this final journey will take.”
“Any advice for what gear we should be getting?”
“Whatever you think you might need after that fight with Alyssa. That’s the power we’re going up against now so best be ready for it.”

The party split up and head off to find the shops they want to enter to stock up their supplies for the coming journey as well as find any final additions to their now very old and worn gear that protects them. As the sun sets they gather back up one by one each person finding another until eventually they all find each other once again in the maze of streets that make up Empire city, with the city curfew approaching the party realise once again that they have no idea where they are or how to get to their house or what the address of the house even is so that someone could guide them back to where they have set up their temporary base. With the fall of night a soldier finds the party and begins to head their way.

“This is why we should have gone after Isla not that stupid decoy mission, Ilev” Lexa quietly hisses into Ilev’s ear, no longer trying to hide her discontent with the situation they find themselves in. “We’re probably going to be imprisoned again and have no hope of escaping with our current gear and we’ll be put back to square one but this time with no hope of getting another weapon to kill the Dark King forged for us. This is why we shouldn’t have abandoned our one guide to this city when they were taken to be corrupted into their original role in this world. We didn’t need a guide in Ehccihster because we were always escorted by guards, nor in Seolford as that place was pretty small and compact so it wasn’t much of a problem. But now in the biggest and most complex city we’ve seen we abandon the only person that knows their way around because you were unable to see beyond a simple decoy.”

Lexa then hovers ever higher off the ground and away from the remainder of the party, Ilev tries to call out to her but nothing is able to be said. He knows that she is right, that going back to Seolford for such an inconsequential thing was the wrong thing to do. But they didn’t know what was happening and only found out once they arrived, and they couldn’t just let something unknown happen to the people that took them in without so much as a single question into their past.

“Ilev if something truly bad had happened do you really think we would have been much help if whatever had happened had taken out all of the adventurers within the city?”
“I don’t know Arano, but I would do the same thing again if I had a do over. I couldn’t just stand by and see potentially hundreds die for the sake of going after one person.”
“ILEV! You oblivious dumbass, Isla is the most powerful individual in the Dark Kings quartet of Lieutenants, letting her go might have doomed this entire world. And for what? So you could feed the hero or god complex you have by saving those who at that time could have waited or have been saved by going after the root of the problem. When Lexa cools off and comes back, if she ever does, you better apologise many, many times over. Else she will leave for good, both here and back home.”
“For what? Doing what I thought was right?”
“Yes, damn it! She is the most powerful among us, so I suggest you figure out that maybe she was right and apologise to her when she comes back or so help me I will walk.”
“Ilev we trust you, we really do. But if you can’t see that you fell hook, line and sinker for that trap so that Alyssa could get away with Isla who to be honest I was counting on as a solid asset to help us defeat the Dark King and acknowledge that fact that you were just wrong then I’ll go as well. I think we all would.”

The rest of the party nod their heads at Suieol’s words, seeing that Ilev’s face darkens.

“So you all would have let those people fall to the curse or if it was worse would have left them to die?”
“You know what. Yes. Yes we would have, as letting Isla be captured by the enemy while knowing what we know, could potentially end up with a far worse outcome in the long run. Sometimes for the good of many a few must be sacrificed, take a look through our own history and you’ll find it everywhere.”
“Unbelievable. We’re meant to be hero’s, the ones who save everyone. And now you all agree that we should have let people die for the greater good, or something that might not come to pass?”
“Yep. And if you can’t see that then I’ll assume control of the Shin’ya guild for the time being.”
“Suieol, who’s your second in command?”
“Arano. Ilev right now, I cannot trust you to make the correct decision for us getting home or for the long term success of the quest. Because right now you seem like you’ll make decisions based on ego and to spite all of us because we are in disagreement now. So we’re going to that soldier and asking for directions to the house Isla got for us and you’re going to work on an apology for Lexa.”

Suieol leads the party towards the soldier and asks them if they knew where the house owned by the Mercenary handler Maria might be. The soldier agrees to guide them to the location where they think it might be as they don’t know for sure, as they would rather not have to arrest them for being out beyond curfew. And a bit of an aimless walk and some time they find the house that Isla had bought for the party to utilize while they were in Empire city, each member going straight to their rooms to sleep off the eventful past few days.