Return

At the sound of that word, something tightened in Atsuo’s chest, and he fell to the ground.

He couldn’t breathe as he felt himself sinking deep into the darkness, until Lord Kaiser brought him back to his senses.

“Sleeper!” he said, “Sleeper! You alright?”

Atsuo shook off the weird feeling and nodded silently.

Deimos and Lord Kaiser exchanged weird glances.

“There might be a connection…” Deimos began grimly, but stopped, “…never mind. Hopefully not…”

They looked at Atsuo, who was sitting on the ground, squeezing the temples of his head.

“Sorry,” he said getting up, and collapsing again immediately after.

“Sleeper!” Lord Kaiser exclaimed, catching him.

“I’m fine…” Atsuo mumbled wearily.

“Stay seated for now…” Deimos said, after they put him on the ground, against the tree.

They watched over him for a few seconds, before continuing their conversation.

“You believe Veto is in there?” Lord Kaiser asked.

“That’s our only hope,” Deimos replied, “the land’s existence would make the phenomena around the forest make sense.”

Seeing the need to explain, given Lord Kaiser’s clueless expression, Deimos continued.

“I wield ancient magic and am familiar with most phenomena out there…” he said, “anomalies surrounding a certain type of land is not exclusive to the Boundless Forest alone.”

“The ancient tombs around the Aether Islands, Volcanoes on the Klomare continent, and Typhon’s Realm at the Solus Ocean, are all but a few examples of similar cases. All of them are deemed nature’s biggest wonders, because of the extreme phenomena people bore witness to a long time ago. Though they are not nearly as old as the land man once knew to be purgatory.”

Lord Kaiser was deep in thought as he pondered on his words.

The whole thing was fascinating, though it still invoked very unsettling feelings in the group.

“Anyways, the place is tied with great misfortune, so that might be the key to entering it…” Deimos said, “Veto was acting weirdly right before I lost him, so there is a chance, even if small, that he would be in there.”

They looked down at the ground gloomily, before moving on.

“Well, whatever the case, we’re leaving this evening,” Deimos said, emptying his pipe, “…sorry it’s on such short notice, but we have to get there as soon as possible.”

“We understand…” Lord Kaiser said on his and Atsuo’s behalf.

“Alright,” Deimos said, “let’s get something to eat while we can.”

They agreed and went to one of the restaurants near the edge of the city.

Though not as good as in Drezore, the quality of the food proportional to the price left all three of them stunned. It was a good dinner.

After they ate, they walked to Uverd station, awaiting their train.

By rough estimates, going back to Weingrove would take almost exactly one and a half days, meaning their total absence would amount to nearly a week.

Deimos glanced at his pocket watch, before jumping down from the platform and lowering his head towards the railway tracks.

Atsuo and Lord Kaiser watched uneasily, glancing to the left, fearing the train coming out of the corner at any moment.

“Soon…” Deimos said, climbing back up.

He yawned and sat back in one of the rusty looking chairs, crossing his legs and waiting for their transportation to arrive.

Lord Kaiser and Atsuo let him be and turned back to staring at the corner.

After a couple of minutes, a light pierced the darkness of the night, and they quickly shook Deimos who was already falling asleep.

This time, Deimos had all of their tickets with him, and there should not have been any problems. However, one did arise.

The moment the conductor stepped out, Lord Kaiser and Atsuo saw a newspaper under his arm. The same newspaper that the vendor was flailing around earlier that afternoon.

The two of them exchanged troubled looks, but before they could do anything, the conductor noticed them.

“YOU…” he began, when Lord Kaiser met his gaze.

“Shut up... don’t tell anyone… or you will not be coming back…” Lord Kaiser said menacingly, warning him.

The conductor instantly complied.

Deimos glanced to and fro, surprised and confused about the sudden confrontation out of nowhere, and Lord Kaiser’s bold choice of words.

Lord Kaiser then turned to Deimos, having a few favours to ask.

“Can you get us a separate compartment? And keep an eye on him…” he asked, motioning towards the conductor.

“Why– What are you planning?” Deimos asked surprised.

“The passengers likely know as well…” Lord Kaiser said seriously, “it is unfortunate, but we’ll have to downgrade for the time being…”

Deimos followed his gaze, almost bursting out into laughter. The two of them planned on spending the night in a cattle car.

He regained his composure and put his hand on Lord Kaiser’s shoulder.

“Hang in there…” he said tremblingly, before quickly turning around and hurrying into one of the train cars.

Confused, Lord Kaiser and Atsuo went to one of the cattle cars.

They quickly changed their minds.

“You want to just get on the observation platform again?” Atsuo said, feeling sick.

Lord Kaiser nodded quickly and they went to the back of the train.

At the moment, they had only two things on their mind. One, when Atsuo’s ability would finally come into effect, and two, the weather.

Despite it being much warmer than in Taigoren at the moment, they were still anxious about the night to come.

As it stood, the night was going to reach freezing temperatures about an hour into their trip.

Luckily, the two of them soon found out that their new suits’ looks were not the only positive feature about them. Though light and thin, they were somehow thermally insulated, keeping them perfectly warm.

Being in possession of such great clothes made them not want to ever take them off. Lord Kaiser even wondered how Yuna would react after seeing him at his ‘best’.

They leaned on the railing and stared at the disappearing city of Uverd.

***

More than an hour passed and four stops later, the conductor was on the phone receiving some sort of orders as he stood outside the station, while being watched by Deimos.

He went back in the train and came back out with a stack of Lord Kaiser and Atsuo’s wanted posters, throwing them into the trash.

Lord Kaiser and Atsuo exchanged glances.

That was their que.

Once they were gone and the train was still motionless, the two of them hastily ran out onto the platform, past the freight cars, and on the coupler connecting to the first passenger car.

They quickly climbed on, right as the train was starting to move, and went inside.

All that was left now was to make their way to Deimos and the compartment he got for them.

As they moved down the train cars in complete darkness, Atsuo could not help but remember the incident from before.

Seeing him visibly shaken, Lord Kaiser slapped him on the back and decided to give him some words of encouragement.

“You’re not alone this time, sleeper…” he said, to which Atsuo laughed sarcastically.

“You’re right…” Atsuo said, slapping him back.

Lord Kaiser glared at him but let it slide, given the situation.

They hopped from car to car, eventually finding Deimos, sitting with his legs crossed and drinking something, which the two thought likely to be alcohol.

Before they decided to go to their compartment, he caught a glimpse of them and told them to go inside.

His face a little red, they wondered whether this was his mechanism to cope with stress before the big event.

“I see you finally made it back,” he said tipsily.

“So? What the hell happened?” he asked putting the newspaper in front of them.

“Of all people you should now exactly what happened…” Lord Kaiser said bluntly.

“Huh?” he uttered in confusion, “You’re saying this is my fault?”

“Well, the outcome would’ve been the same regardless…” Lord Kaiser said honestly, “ultimately, this is all just a misunderstanding…”

“They’re probably mad we didn’t sign the IAP…” Atsuo muttered.

Lord Kaiser nodded as Deimos looked from him to Atsuo.

“Yeah, given our potential they just couldn’t afford to let us go, without binding us first…” Lord Kaiser said.

“Right… both of you got limitless potential…” Deimos remembered, “I’ve certainly got a good eye…”

“…Whatever the case, congrats!” he said, seeing Lord Kaiser’s unimpressed expression.

“Thanks…” Atsuo and Lord Kaiser said simultaneously.

“Can I have that newspaper?” Lord Kaiser asked Deimos, who was surprised by the random request.

“Sure…” Deimos said, passing it to him, “what do you need it for, anyway?”

“I’ll take it as a souvenir and a memento of everything that’s happened…” Lord Kaiser replied, putting it inside his suit.

“I wonder how she’ll react to us being wanted, right, sleeper?” Lord Kaiser nudged Atsuo.

“I’m sorry, but we won’t be coming back to Brimor…” Deimos said seriously, all of a sudden, “we’re going straight to the forest…”