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As the next few days rolled around, me, Aria, Kael, and Nyla, headed out to Kaz, to help me move out of my apartment, and to clear up some loose ends. As we headed back to where I resided in Kaz, we noticed many missing posters of Jaden, Amara, and me. “Wow Malik, you must have made such an influence in this town, if they’re all super worried about you like this” “No it's not that, we’ve been walking around town for 20 minutes now, I would’ve been noticed already if that was the case, however, it's much worse, one man is worried about us more than anyone, Jaden’s father. I realized it was Jaden’s father when I first saw the missing posters because his phone number was plastered all over them, It's not calling or finding him that's the issue, it's how I will tell him what happened that will be the issue, it won’t hurt him, it will break him, when Jaden met us, his dad couldn’t be happier, we grew close to him, as if we were his own kids. He helped us at our lowest and always kept lifting us up no matter what.” Aria pulled out her phone to let me use it to call him since my phone broke ever since the night at the catacombs. I called Jaden’s father and told him to meet up with us at my apartment.

“He's almost here so, be ready for anything, I don’t know how he’ll react so be careful” A gentle knock on the door goes off a few seconds later and as I open the door I see him distressed but slightly relieved, he looks like he was on the streets hanging up more posters when I called and he dashed across town. “Malik! Thank the gods you are safe, I was so worried! You all disappeared one night and were gone for over a week, nobody knew about where you went and soon talk about your act of heroism dissipated so I got worried. Are you guys okay? Where's Jaden and Amara?” Aria, Kael, and Nyla’s faces soon get noticed through the door. “Who are these three? You didn’t get new roommates, what's going on Malik! Please tell me.” Jaden’s dad, on the verge of tears drops all his papers and grabs onto my shirt begging. I proceed to tell him everything, from the bounty hunting recruitment with Eira to the catacombs, to waking up at the Desert Guardians Headquarters. He falls to his knees, his glasses shatter as they hit the ground, he looks down, tears hitting the ground as he sobs, I crouch down and pat his shoulder. “I’m sorry, I really tried to save them, but I assure you, I know who's at fault for their deaths and I will avenge them.” Aria, Kael, and Nyla look at me with a sense of confidence, as Jaden’s dad goes silent for a good minute before looking back up at him. “Who’s at fault? Who’s at fault!” His eyes bloodshot with rage, he begins laughing maniacally. “You really have no clue! From what you told me, the person at fault is you! Malik! You brought your two best friends on a suicide mission just for your petty little excuse of a dream! Their deaths could have been prevented if you chose to suck it up and accept the fact you will live a forever bland and dull life! I considered you family! And this is what you do! You killed Amara and Jaden, you three were my hopes and joys, even if I only knew you two from Jaden, you three had an energy that made me so proud!” He begins throwing things around the room, shattering windows and breaking things. “You killed them! Don't blame their deaths on some devil, you’re the only devil I see! They trusted you with their lives and you forced them to go with you, you devil! Devil! Devil! Devil!” He stands on his feet and walks to the door. “You say you want to avenge Jaden and Amara by killing the ones who did it, in that case, why don't you die right here and now and get it over with, avenge their deaths by bringing forth your own, and while you're doing that. Get your shit! Out of my house!” He shoots a beam of steel at me and I fall to the ground. “I better not see you or your stuff here tomorrow, or I’m calling the cops.” He walks out, each step echoing louder and louder.

I lay there on the ground shell-shocked by what just happened, I told him everything and he went with what he thought, granted the topic was heavy on its own, and he's the type of guy to hear what he wants to hear. But in some sense, he's right, I am responsible for their deaths, and there is no denying that, now I turned the one father figure against me and hates my guts now, I'm the worst. Kael helped me up and I began packing my stuff. I didn’t say a single word except to tell them they can head back while I finish this up.

Three hours went by and I finished packing my stuff and sent it on its way to the Desert Guardians Headquarters, which will now be my new home. As I went to the rooftop of the apartment building, my mind fills with these thoughts and flashbacks, Jaden and Arama thanking me as they die, me being the only survivor, me wanting to go so badly to be a bounty hunter, even though they both said they were fine with going, something is telling me they were hesitant, but I didn’t care, I was so selfish, and for what, some half-hearted fame from strangers that don't know me. Why? Why am I even here? Do I even deserve to live after all this? Why do this, why even try? I walk close to the edge of the building and I begin to look down on the street, my mind still preoccupied on everything I’ve done wrong, I can't help but wonder, are there souls really at ease, would they be at ease if I died, If I fell off and dead right now. The wind feels so nice, just a bit mor-

“Malik!” I regain consciousness as I look down and see I walked off the building and I look up to see Nyla there, barely holding on. “Come on Malik! Help me out here, I may be strong magic wise, but physically I'm still relatively weak” Nyla lifts me back up to the top of the roof, as I begin to start sobbing right by her, I explain to her what was going through my mind and that I subconsciously walked right off the edge of the building. “Oh Malik, it's okay, don't let that lunatic of a father get you down like that, you need to realize that even though you feel this guilt for what happened, killing yourself isn’t the answer. I don’t know you too well and I may not be the smartest tool in the shed, but from what I learned about you from Aria and just hanging out with you over the past few days, you see like a genuine guy, a genuine guy with crazed taste for adventure, but genuine nonetheless, and I know it will be tough, but you gotta realize we have your backs, Jaden and Amara are gone but that doesn’t mean they hate you, you said it yourself, in the catacombs, they expressed how grateful they were to you, for changing their life for the better and make the past 3 years and unforgettable experience. Sure, you might not be able to make amends with Jaden’s father, but that's all right, only time will tell how that relationship evolves. But for now, focus on the future, just like Captain Raza told you, no matter how many punches you take, you keep going, or something like that.” Nyla gives me a hug as she reassures me. “Thank you Nyla, you really know how to help make people feel better, you're just like Captain Raza.” I laugh and she goes straight-faced. “You do realize I'm his daughter right? It's kinda obvious I would be just like him.” She laughs and cackles and she heads downstairs. “And don't worry Malik, we’ll keep this as our secret, I don't want Aria getting too worried about you now, she might pop a gasket, she's known for overthinking a lot so we try not to stress her out too much with information.”

As we go back outside to the entrance of the apartment building, I’m reminded by the fact that I still need to find Eira and confront her. I ask Nyla to follow me for backup just in case something goes wrong. I try to back track to how I got there last time, and when we arrive, we see the door wide open and the room empty, nothing in here at all, not a breadcrumb to lead us at all. Nyla soon walks ahead of me and utilizes her wind magic, unleashing a spell called, Aeromancer’s Echo, a spell that can track breaths of people and where they’ve gone from up to 24 hours ago. “There were 4 people here earlier, like around 7-8 hours ago, they seemed to have left in a hurry because 3 people here were breathing heavily and left with everyone they could find and left the room in a mess.” We begin to make pace, with me following Nyla and she follows the trail she's tracked. “Malik, try to keep up, we might have to go a bit fast to catch up so hurry!” As Nyla and I swoop into the air, me using my Sand Grapple and Nyla using her wind to make her fly, we zoom into the sky following the trail.

Hours go by as we follow the trail, we are reaching the border to Clober, the country to the west of Kaz, until we stop on top of a nearby building for a quick break to regain stamina until we are stopped in our tracks by Eira herself. “Seems you caught me, surprised you're still alive Malik, I could’ve sworn Salazor told me you were dead too but guess he was wrong. I'm assuming your wondering how you didn’t track me here but it kept leading you that, that's simple, I stopped breathing and retraced my steps, if you went on the red herring I left for you, you would see it end in 5 minutes of traveling, but I digress, your probably also wondering why I sent you to those catacombs, well that's also simple, I sent you there as a sacrifice, to summon Salazor. You see, Salazor is a part of a devil bloodline that allows him to be able to possess what us humans have been holding on to for centuries, the 4 cores of the gods, each of the gods have a core in their body that once taken, kills the host instantly, and once these special devil breeds get all four cores, they fuse their body with it, to attain immeasurable power beyond any of our comprehension.” My rage soon rises to insurmountable levels as I begin to ready myself for a fight against Eira. “Woah, Woah, Woah! Slow down there Malik, I don't want to fight you, were in Staro Clan regulated territory, any outburst of magical attacks and flocks of soldiers will come our way, and plus, I doubt you could even land a hit on me.” Right there, a line snaps in my mind, to avoid alerting the Staro Clan, I lunge at Eira using only my fists to try and land a clean punch, however, Eira stops me mid air by grabbing me, kicks me in the gut and throws me to the floor. “See, I told you, now imagine what would happen if I was trying to kill you, maybe you wouldn't have been separated from Jaden and Amara for too long.” She laughs and runs away at staggering speeds. Nyla helps me up and we catch a ride to the Sand Sea to tell Captain Raza and the others about the information we uncovered. As we are on a train back to Sand Sea, Nyla looks at me, curious and concerned. “Are you sure you’re okay Malik, I’m worried.” I see her eyes start tearing up just because of me, it feels weird, I haven't even known Nyla or the Desert Guardians for more than a week and yet, they care so much for me. “Nyla, I’m fine.”

“No you’re not! For crying out loud Malik, you just tried walking off an apartment building to your death, you have the world on your shoulders right now, Jaden and Amara’s deaths, Salazor, and now Eira and whatever she is scheming with Salazor! The fact you're not having a panic attack is baffling! I’m freaking out from this and I have only just got involved! Malik, you need to realize, this isn’t fine, none of it is, yeah sure you can say it is and we can get home and plan for our next mission and act like nothings happened, but I will know, and so will you, in the back of your mind, behind that facade, your hanging off a cliff and more and more weights are dangling off your feet! Wake up from this dream, please!” Nyla began breaking down into tears on the floor of the train before storming off into a different train car.

I sat there, trying to digest what I heard. She's right, I can’t keep pushing off these negative emotions forever, or else it will get to the best of me, to where I might try to die again and no one will be there to catch me.