*Arc 2-The Dragon's Peak*

*Chapter 3-Arc's Darkness*

That was the first time in my memory that I was truly terrified of Arc. He had gone into his psycho lunatic scientist mode, and nothing was going to let his experiment fail. He very rarely entered this state, but when he did, watch out, he would be more than happy to dissect you. On the plus side, though, the look on Ingus's normally cool and composed face was one now of terror. He looked over the edge, then back at Arc.

"Um," he said, "Arc? Are you really sure this is a good idea? From this height, I conclude we will die."

"I'm well aware," Arc said.

That's when I sort of stopped panicking. If Arc was willing to test this out, it means he must have been damn sure it would work. No way Arc, the most cowardly person I had met, would be willing to jump off an airship, would do this unless something was up that he wasn't telling us. And he had already told me what to do. I ran over his instruction in my mind.

When we get on the outskirts of Kazus, I'm going to ask you to do something rather strange, I remembered him saying. We will jump off the edge of the airship. Before you object, however, know I have a plan. When the crystal blessed us, you felt something strange flow into you, correct? I believe this is another effect of the crystal's blessing. When we are falling, right before we hit the ground, I want you to imagine yourself being engulfed in a shield of sorts. Imagine yourself slowing down, and your feet lightly touching the ground. If you are having trouble doing this, you may want to close your eyes.

After some pleading, Arc finally got me to agree. Now, though, I was starting to regret it. It was a long way down.

"Alright, are we ready?" Arc shouted over the wind blowing in our ears.

"Wait," I shouted back, "you didn't tell Ingus what to do!"

"I'm well aware," Arc shouted back. "It's part of the experiment! Alright, then! One…two…THREE!"

And, against my better judgment, I jumped.

Falling to your death is a very interesting sensation. However, for those of you who haven't experienced it, I would not suggest it. First comes the confusion when your feet don't have anything to touch. Then comes panic when your feet don't have anything to touch. Then comes the stages, in this order: First, you have fear. Then anger at whosever fault this is. Next, there's realization that you're going to die. Then, disappointment at all the things you didn't get to do. Then finally, acceptance that you, in fact going to die. However, when I looked at Arc, he looked perfectly content. Ingus was screaming like a little girl (I would make fun of him for that later), but Arc was falling silently. He only glanced at me and nodded, and I remembered what to do. Closing my eyes so I could concentrate, I imagined the shield encompassing my body. Then, I imagined slowing my descent. It happened slowly at first, but, miraculously, I stopped falling, and began gliding, more like a feather than a rock. I heard Ingus screaming something, I'm pretty sure it's how are you doing that (that's the censored version, at least), but then there was a heavy thud and he was silent.

A few seconds later, Arc and I touched lightly to the ground, not a scratch on us. The same could not be said for Ingus, however. Arc had obviously not told him what to do, as his corpse was now lying a few feet away from him. I looked at Arc with horror.

"Did you mean to kill him?" I asked.

He smiled at me. "I did. Now then, onto Kazus. Help me carry him," he said, nodding towards what was our ally.

I was confused as to why we were going to carry a corpse into town, but I went along with it anyway, for fear I was next.

Luckily, we only landed about half a mile away from Kazus, so it wasn't that much of a walk. However, when you're carrying a rather fit person fully clad in armor and robes, it becomes substantially harder. Along the way, I finally got a chance to talk with Arc.

"What's been going on with you?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Arc asked me back.

"Well, ever since the fight with the Djinn, you seem to be a bit more…sadistic."

"Oh, that. Well, I just thought, with me going on an adventure, I thought I should harden myself a bit."

I was so taken aback, I didn't even make a dirty joke at that comment.

"What do you mean, 'harden yourself'?"

"What it means, is I'm a coward. I have to get stronger so I can help you."

I sighed, shaking my head, before responding, "Do you know why I took you on this quest with me?"

He shrugged. "Because I'm intelligent and you're dumb as a post?"

"That's exactly what I'm talking about! A week ago, you never would have insulted me. Or asked me to jump off an airship. Or have been willing to kill Ingus for your experiments. I took you with to act as our conscience. Someone to make sure we always were willing to do the right thing. We're the Warriors of Light, not the Warriors of Necessary Evil. But now, with you changed, we don't really have anyone to act as our conscience, because I can't do it, corpsie here can't do it, and Refia sure as hell can't do it."

Arc fell silent, looking ashamed, and the rest of the trip was spent in silence. When we reached Kazus, Refia was already waiting. She took one look at Ingus, and her eyes widened.

"What the hell-!?"

Arc raised a finger. "I'll explain everything in a moment. However, there's somewhere I want to go, first. Follow me."

Arc led us to a small building, which housed only a fountain. Refia looked confused.

"This is our wellspring, where we get water."

Only then did it occur to me. Wellspring… I looked at Arc, amazed he remembered. Arc only smiled and nodded before pouring a handful of water down Ingus's throat. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, Ingus got up, and said, "Oh, my head, what happened?"

After that, Arc explained everything to us. How when the crystal blessed us, it had given us special powers. And how when we defeated monsters, our powers grew stronger. Ingus interjected at certain points, after admitting he already knew about it. However, he didn't know about our new shield technique. Arc demonstrated by using the technique and having Ingus slash him, which he was more than happy to do. Amazingly, Arc did not die, though he did take some pretty serious damage. He explained that Our shields could not black off all damage, but it could greatly reduce it. This, mixed with the correct armor, meant we could continue fighting even when others would have died. After apologizing to Ingus for about the hundredth time, Arc suggested we go see Cid, the owner of the airship.

He was at the inn, at the exact same table where we had first met him. At least, I'm assuming it was him, I couldn't really see his features last time. I'm assuming it was the same fat, middle aged man, but there's no way to be truly positive. He was deep in conversation with another man, who looked a bit younger than him, but when he looked at me and Arc, he started grinning ear to ear.

"There they are," he said, standing up. "There're the two boys who saved my behind. And who's this blonde boy in the ridiculous attire? Speaking of that, Arc, why are you in a dress?"

"It's not a dress!" Arc yelled.

Cid shrugged and noticed Refia, and took a step backwards. "Refia, you're with these two nimrods?"

"I resent that," Arc interjected.

Refia looked at the man Cid was talking to, and I could see a chill pass through her. "Hey, dad," Refia said awkwardly.

The man, who was apparently Takka the blacksmith, looked at us four before getting up. Refia closed her eyes, I imagine to prepare to get yelled at, but instead she stumbled back when Takka pulled her into a huge hug.

"Refia," Takka said, tears spilling down his face, "I feared the worst had happened to you."

"Erm…dad? Think you could stop crying? It's kind of embarrassing."

Takka pulled back, nodded, and wiped the tears from his face.

"Come, Refia, there's much to talk about," he said, and started walking away.

Refia looked us and shrugged, helplessly, before following him.

Arc looked confused. "Where are they going?"

I started grinning. "I think she's going to get yelled at. Come on," I said, gesturing to follow.

"Where are we going?" Ingus barked, still upset about his untimely demise.

I looked at them like they were crazy. "To watch, of course."

Arc and Ingus looked at each other, shrugged, and began following me.

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