God Eater 3 – Starling's Start
Chapter 3 – Tutorials pt. 2
Name: Aurick Bird
Codename: Starling
Hairstyle: Type 2
Hair Colour: Dark purple
Face: Type 4
Eyes: Type 4
Eye Colour: Fox Brown
Accessories: Frizz 2 (Dark Purple)
Voice: 8
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE GOD EATER FRANCHISE.
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As soon as we get back to the port, we see a man blocking the entrance with his large figure. His face is contorted severely with his eyebrows heavily furrowed. As soon as we get to the door, the man grabs Hugo and the new guy with both his bulging arms.
"You two are coming with me." He bellows and leaves no room for retorts as he drags the two of them away. He spares a glance over his shoulder, his angrily twisted face suddenly showing large veins in his forehead more than likely carrying adrenaline through his body. "What are you waiting for kid?!" He shouts at me. "Get back to your cell!" I pick up my pace and quickly walk in the opposite direction from where Hugo and the other guy are going.
"Good luck." I whisper to the two, hoping I'm within hearing distance while briskly walking back to our cells. I can't say I enjoy the cells, but it's a better sight than what Hugo will be seeing. I don't hear anything from Hugo, who was probably expecting to be punished for going against orders. To be fair to him though, he made the right choice. If it only means getting hit several times, then I'd happily sacrifice some pain to save a person's life.
When I arrive back at the cells, I'm quickly rushed inside and the cell is locked behind me. I'm not surprised to see the kids are still in the cells, although Zeke seems to be missing. Knowing that we're safe and no one has suffered any injuries, I decide to sit on my bed and wait for the time to pass. Being a prisoner is the worst way to live life. If we're not completing missions, we're killing time until the next one. Maybe during my next mission I should try not to kill the Aragami straight away. That way I'll have more time to breathe outside. Wow, this is getting desperate. For me to be looking forward to breathing on the battlefield rather than spending time locked up in cells with my friends… How much longer will we have to suffer like this?
"Next time, don't disobey." I hear the guard outside of the cells speak suddenly and turn my head in his direction. I'm surprised to see him open the cell and let Hugo inside before he gets locked in with us.
"Good to see you're still in one piece." I attempt to joke with him as I get off of my bed and stand next to him. He must be in agony after receiving a beating.
"Why? What happened?" One of the kids, Lil, speaks up with concern in her voice. It's clear that the kids don't know what was going on and why I was the only one to return to the cells. I wonder if they were secretly thinking that Hugo had died on the battlefield. No… I'm sure they would have had questions for me if that was the case. Although it isn't unheard of for an Adaptive God Eater to have been speaking friendly to you before their mission and then they never return.
"It was nothing, don't worry about it." Hugo quickly dismisses Lil's concern and brings a hand to her head, slightly ruffling her hair while making sure his bound armlets do not hit her. His hand leaves her hand and he turns towards me. "Everyone made it back okay. A good result for us." He smiles as he speaks. I give a nod of my head in response. It's only because of Hugo that things went the way they did, otherwise we would have let another God Eater die and done nothing about it. I'm glad that despite these horrible conditions that we live in, we're still able to keep our humanity. "We might do as the Port folks want… work ourselves to the bone, get dragged to hell and back. But that doesn't mean we're willing to give up our lives without a fight." Hugo's words really resonate with me. It makes me glad to have him as a friend. Without him here, I probably would have gotten severely depressed and decided to just give up on life. He has been an inspiration for me ever since we were little. "A place where AGEs can live out their lives without being controlled or pushed by anyone…" He talks about our common dream, reminding me that we still need to have hope because it will be possible one day, hopefully. "That's what we need… right?" He looks back towards me and expects me to give a positive response to confirm our dream.
"Yes." I give a sharp nod of my head, a smile plastering my face as I think about how good life will be as soon as we accomplish our dream. "That's what we need." I use his own words to cement my feelings on the matter. No matter what lies ahead of us, as long as we are pushed by our dream then we can make it come true.
"Took the words right outta my mouth!" He smiles back as he comments this. I did use his exact words for my answer. I'm glad to see that despite the beating he probably just received, he can still joke around with me like this. Suddenly though, he sharply stumbles towards me as if he lost his balance. He grunts in pain. It's only when I realise that Zeke is standing behind him with his arm extended that I realise what has happened.
"Haha! The guards went to town on you this time, didn't they? Bet that hurts!" Zeke comments with a teasing smile on his face, his arms behind his head as he speaks. He points at Zeke, "You never do as you're told, huh?" Hugo picks himself off of the ground as Zeke speaks, I'd have offered a hand, but they are bound together by my armlets. The same goes for Hugo and Zeke. "Bet it's hell getting teamed up with this guy." He directs his comment towards me.
"Ungh…" Hugo audibly grunts. "Heh, heh, I didn't know you were back from patrol Zeke." Hugo's words seem a bit forced, as if he's speaking through gritted teeth. It seems that blow from Zeke must have hurt him more than I had thought. I'm sorry for not giving you a hand up, Hugo.
"Yep, that's right!" Zeke answers in excitement. "All done with my work for today!" He finished speaking to Hugo and turns towards me. "Listen man, next time you should come out with me."
"Uh, what? I don't really feel like patrolling is my sort of thing." My words make Zeke face's contort with annoyance.
"Come on… I thought you were smarter than that. Having the chance to work with THE Zeke Pennywort should be enough to make you weep for joy." He gets all up in my face as though that will convince me to go on a mission with him.
"Heh, maybe you should mention how good you are." Hugo takes the opportunity to wind Zeke up a bit.
"Hmph…" Zeke slides over to my right side. "Hugo's always so by-the-book, it must be boring being out there with him!" If anything, his comment was more directed to Hugo than me. Seeing as how Zeke was looking at Hugo the whole time he was speaking, I'm assuming that I was merely an afterthought. He quickly leaves my side to stand in front of me again. "C'mon, I'll show you a real cool trick next time!"
"This isn't a sport, Zeke." Hugo tries to reprimand the guy who thinks that learning new tricks will help to defeat Aragami.
"Look, I know that. You think I don't know that?" Zeke does seem mildly annoyed at Hugo's words. Due to the extent Zeke seems to be going through, I suppose going on a mission with him sometime isn't a bad idea. "Anyway, did you hear the recent news? One of the other teams was saying that a Port nearby got swallowed by the ash." He changes the subject to one that may be slightly more pressing than deciding he wants me to team up with him on a mission. After all, if a nearby Port was swallowed by the ash, doesn't that mean that we could be next?
"That's the first I've heard of it," Hugo voices his dismissal of the topic, "it's not exactly news for Ports to get engulfed by the Ashlands."
"Sure, it's no surprise when it's some base, somewhere, but how will you feel when the ash is creeping closer and closer." His voice gradually grows more sinister as he speaks.
"Are you talking about an Ash Storm?" Hugo asks in concern. If the Port Zeke was speaking up was swallowed by an Ash Storm then there is no hope for it.
"Yeah, well, if one of those Ash Storms does come through, it's not like there's a whole lot we can do other than strap in and pray, right?" Zeke comments offhandedly. I highly doubt the higher ups have a way to handle the Ash Storm. What I see being more likely to happen is that they will suddenly leave and not tell any of us AGEs and what is happening. Then we'll be forced to endure the Ash Storm while locked in our cages and probably die here.
"Yeah, that's about the size of it…" Hugo quickly turns away, knowing that if an Ash Storm were to hit us then our dream would probably cease to exist, assuming we all lived to tell the tale anyway. "Even then, riding one out isn't all that realistic." On a solemn note, the conversation ends but the silence is greeted by the coughing and wheezing of our ill friend.
*cough* *cough* *wheeze* *cough* *cough* *cough*
"I think Sho is sick." Lil speaks up from beside me, her voice barely above a whisper as she speaks with concern about our friend. "Just the other day, he tried to stay out too long in the Ashlands… He sure is a handful sometimes."
"Make sure to keep a close eye on him, okay?" I tell Lil and she simply nods in response. I understand her concern though, of all the people that have come and gone here, none have been as sickly as Sho. But he's strong. He's still here with us today. I'm sure he'll be able to beat whatever it is he has soon. You can do it, Sho! Lil leaves my side and goes back towards her bed, lying down and facing Sho, probably to keep an eye on him. I look around the cell and see Hugo and Zeke in the midst of a discussion a little farther away from me. I decide to sit back on my bed and watch the wall opposite me until it's time to sleep.
It's the following day when I'm roughly awakened by a hand on shoulder as it constantly moves me forwards and backwards. Already used to early wake up calls, I move my shoulder to take the hand off of me before sitting up and rubbing my eyes.
"You awake yet?" I'm surprised to see it's Zeke that wakes me up, but I try not to show it.
"I am." I speak up, swinging my legs off of my bed and lifting myself into a standing position.
"I guess the higher ups thought it was time for you to go on a mission with THE great Zeke Pennywort too." Zeke speaks highly of himself, as I've become accustom to him doing so over my time in this Port I simply brush it off.
"The two of us got a mission?" I ask him. As I look towards Zeke, I can see a beaming smile on his face.
"I guess they must have heard us talking about it yesterday!" He utters in excitement, although he doesn't seem to realise that if that was the case then what little privacy we though we had has quickly disappeared. "I thought you would have been more excited." He must have sensed my discomfort as his smile disappears from his face. "Go and check the mission terminal if you don't believe we have a mission."
"I believe you, but what is the mission for?" I speak up, forcing a smile on my face as I walk towards the mission terminal just to confirm that we do have a mission together. My forced smile works wonders as Zeke's returns to his face.
"It's just to make sure our shields are in working order. Mine seemed to fail at some point yesterday so when I got back I was pretty much benched for that day. It must be working now though." At his words, I read through the mission briefing which pretty much confirms what Zeke had told me.
Shield Tests
Old City: Chapel
Objective: Acclimatise to dense ash
Note: Certifications D2 through D6 have been removed and revised.
Certification purpose: Training in various shield deployment actions.
Assigned to:
PW-01408
PW-01429
As I read through the mission brief, I notice that the time limit is 40 minutes. This may be my chance to breathe outside. For a moment, I feel relieved. Until I realise that we need to get used to dense ash so not only will the air quality be very low, I won't be able to enjoy it either.
"See?" This doesn't seem to stop Zeke from being excited. "Get everything ready and we'll be off!"
"Mission acceptance confirmed. Any unforeseen accidents during the mission are your own responsibility." The machine speaks up as I confirm our acceptance of the mission. "Be extra careful to ensure…" I drown out the rest of the message and don't pay any attention to it. It always says the same thing and I've pretty much memorised it already. I head to my bed and make sure that I'm properly equipped for the mission: making sure I have a few health restoring pills and O-Ampules. I walk towards the entrance to the cage where Zeke is waiting for me.
"Tch…" The guard scoffs as he unlocks the cage. "I've had it with people banging up the God Arcs. These things ain't cheap, ya know. If they'd just go MIA, it'd at least save us on the repair costs." The guard seems to be as grouchy and as much of a piece of shit as yesterday. Still, I try to ignore him as he groans and unlocks our armlets, giving us the space to stretch our arms out. "Get to it then!" He shouts as we pick up our God Arcs and head out into the battlefield.
As we arrive at the battlefield, Zeke decides to speak up,
"It's time to get crackin'. Let's see if the God Arc repairs worked." He speaks up as he converts his God Arc into it's Melee Form to Gun Form and back several times as well as deploying his shield. I decide to do it a couple of times as well, just to confirm there are no problems with my God Arc. "We can start off with your shield. A good offense is the best defence, but blocking attacks is a nice way to stay alive." Zeke pretty much sounds like an instructor now. I suppose he has to though, since our comms are constantly being monitored, especially after the stunt that Hugo pulled yesterday. I deploy my shield and practice shuffling around the spot, as if I was protecting against attacks from every angle. "Yeah, that's the way. You can't just assume you'll always be facing attacks head on. You might need to quickly adjust your shield to protect against attacks from all angles." Just then, a lot of dust shoots out of the ground as a Blast Spider scrambles to the surface. I keep my shield deployed to deal with the dust that was shot my way before going on the attack.
"Take this!" I shout as I use my crescent-shaped Arc to swipe at the creatures legs. It doesn't do enough damage to make the spider stumble, however, and I'm quickly forced to back off as it launches itself forwards and towards Zeke. I quickly catch up to it as it recovers before slamming my Arc down on its back and then swinging at its legs once again. Deploying my shield, I narrowly avoid being hit by a barrage of dust it shoots out of its mouth, before once again slashing at it. Zeke seems to get the final hit in as we force ourselves to backoff before it can explode. Just to be safe, I deploy my shield again.
"Don't forget to use items. They won't do you any good if you're dead." Zeke informs me. Despite not feeling fatigued at all, I swallow a stamina boosting pill before using my Arc to devour the remains of the Blast Spider we defeat. "Still, there are a lot of items to choose from. Gotta use what's right for the moment, I guess." I have a quick look at our surroundings to see if any more Aragami have made their way to the battlefield. Surprisingly, it's just Zeke and I here. "Okay, no problems so far. We've still got some time so let's do some scavenging." I decide to follow Zeke and pick up some items from the ground. "There's stuff lying around here and there, right? Pick it up, we need materials these days. Any spoils we pick up outside of the job don't go to the prison. They're ours to keep."
"Really?" Zeke's words surprise me. "I suppose that's why Sho has a lot of odd items under his bed."
"Ah ha, you've seen them then." He rubs the back of his head nervously, "Sometimes I give him some stuff." He gives another nervous chuckle before changing the subject. "If you want to upgrade your God Arc, you need materials. The Port manages God Arcs, though, so you can't just do whatever you want with them." As he speaks, we move into another area and pick up the items that we think would be useful. Things like blocks of magnesium and such. I'm not quite sure what this item is, or how it will improve my God Arc, but it's best to keep it anyway.
We continue moving from area to area to scavenge some more items until finally,
"Whoa! Aragami barging in, eh? Well, that suits me fine. Let's clean up this mess and go home!" Zeke shouts in excitement. Honestly, I feel a bit excited too. I don't think scavenging is my sort of thing, even if I did pick up some sort of strange statue that confuses me for many reasons. I prefer to get my thrills through fitting monsters. Although, when I look at the Aragami that appeared, I can't help but feel slightly disappointed that it is just another Blast Spider. With our combined strength, the Aragami is defeated in less than a minute. It truly was an unwhelming Aragami. If there were more of them at the same time though, that might have been a bit of a challenge.
"Mission complete." I hear another voice through my headset. "Now get back to the Port and don't pick up any stragglers this time!"
"Well, you heard him." Zeke sighs as we start the trek back to the Port. "That wasn't even a challenge, but hey, thanks for helping me fix up my God Arc!" Zeke comments. It was less of me helping him and more of me just being there. "I really appreciate it."
"You're welcome, we should go on a mission together again sometime. There were no problems this time. Maybe on another mission we can show off our true strength."
"Yeah, you're right. This thing works like a dream now. You saw me, right? I was so awesome! I bet I'll be even better against stronger Aragami." He gives a happy sigh, "Now I can fight for me and the kids again!"
"We gotta do our best."
"You're damn right! If we can't fight, it's bad news for everyone. And if that's the case, the kids'll be up next. And they're not really fighters now, are they?" Instead of answering, I decide to let him continue. "The powers that be want to cut down on the number of kids that can't fight. It's because it costs money to keep them, it really pisses me off."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. We can't really do anything about it now, but hopefully one day we won't need to worry about all of it."
As we arrive back at the cells and are put back in the stocks, I see that everyone is awake. However, there seems to be an addition that we never really accounted for when we left. I walk up to the person. As soon as they hear footsteps behind them, he turns towards me. The man wears a light blue hoodie along with trousers that cut off just below the knee. His hair seems to be the same shade as Zeke's but instead of one long black marking across his nose, this person sports two short black markings: one under each eye.
"Ah, there you are! It's good to see you again! I finally made it back here…" The man speaks up, and for a second I am genuinely confused as to why he's acting like we know each other. "It's just too hard spending all my time shut in a monitored room fiddling with the system. I don't even know how much time has passed. Huh…? Y-You haven't forgotten me, right?" His face seems to fall as he realised that I'm staring at him blankly.
"It took me a minute or two but I remember now. You're Zeke's brother, right?" I watch as his face lights up. "Kit." His face falls suddenly.
"It's Keith!" I can't help the smile that spreads on my face.
"I know. I know. It was just a joke." I smile as I speak, waving my hands to suggest I didn't mean anything by it.
"Please don't do that again." Keith sighs heavily, "Well, never mind. I heard from Zeke that your authorised ash density level's gone up."
"I suppose it has. I'm still able to operate as normal when I'm on my missions."
"You should be able to upgrade your God Arc now, so check the terminal for more info." Keith informs me. "I ran some checks to make sure there were no system errors, so it should be good to go."
"Nice work, Keith. I'll check it out soon." I speak up and end the topic of conversation before I turn my attention to the kids. Or more specifically, the kid named Sho. I walk over to him and wait for his couching fit to subside before trying to speak up. However, he beats me to it.
"I-I'm sorry… it seems my medicine isn't working so well… I guess I'll just have to hold out until I can get tomorrow's dose." Sho speaks with a raspy voice. It's clear that he hasn't gotten any better since yesterday. I kneel down so that I am at his eye level before pulling something out of my pocket.
"You can have this, Sho. I found it while I was on my mission." I wait for him to take it. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what it is. It seems to be a statue of something, but what that something is I have no idea about.
"Are you sure?" Sho asks, a little bit of hope in his raspy voice. I nod my head in response. "Thanks, Aurick. I'll treasure it." I hope that by giving him this little statue, I can take his mind off of his illness, or maybe even help him to overcome it.
"It's no problem, Sho. I'm glad I could give you something." Taking my attention away from the sick Sho, I turn towards the two other kids who seem to be having a conversation in the corner of the room. Maybe they don't know it, but because they are so close to the guard he is probably listening to their conversation as well. I decide to walk over to them just to make sure they're not talking about something they shouldn't be when they are right next to the guard.
"Sometimes when I'm picking up trash or junk around the Port…" Lil begins as she sees me approaching, her head raising to look me in the eye as she looks between Marr and I as she speaks. "I get lucky and find something valuable." Straight away I put a finger to my lip to suggest she speak quieter while nodding in the direction of the guard. If the guard hears that Lil has found something valuable, he will probably inform the higher ups. Who knows what that would mean for Lil. She might be punished for hiding something that could be sold, or it would just be taken from her. Lil, noticing my expression and my constant head movements towards the guard seems to understand that I'm telling her to speak quieter as continues in a whisper, "But I suppose that means someone else must've lost it." I find myself feeling guilty that I misinterpreted her words. She wasn't bragging about what she finds sometimes, she was feeling guilty that she found something that she probably won't be able to return. Hoping to put those feelings behind me, I turn to Marr as he begins to speak.
"You think it would be okay if I didn't go to work?" His question confuses me. "One of the guards told me I was next… Zeke said it was okay not to go, but maybe it's time I got a God Arc of my own?" His thoughts are surprisingly grown up. Although, in an environment like this it is to be expected. After all, even I didn't have much of a childhood, having to go out and scavenge items for the Port was all my childhood was about. Oh, there was a lot of feeling sorry for myself in my childhood too. Now, these kids are having to suffer through what I had to do. If I had my own way, they wouldn't work. They would enjoy their childhood while they can. Making friends, playing games, all the stuff I couldn't do as a child.
"I think you're a bit too young to get a God Arc." I comment my own thoughts on his question.
"You don't get to decide that." The guard makes it clear that he has been listening in on our conversation. Honestly, I feel like punching him for violating our privacy, but that isn't even possible. Not only will these stocks not fit through the gaps in the metal poles, I'm sure that I would be heavily punished for physical abuse towards a guard as well. Seeing that the conversation is done, the two kids move away. As much as it irritates me, I say nothing in retaliation to the guard. Instead, I opt to walk towards the mission terminal. Maybe, just maybe another mission has come in and I can take my anger out on an Aragami.
"Did you hear, another AGE has gone missing?" Hugo speaks up as I walk towards the mission terminal. "Sent out on mission while still wounded. Not a lot of hope…" I give a depressed sigh.
"They really should expect things like that to happen. Sending injured AGEs into the battlefield, that's just telling them to march to their death." It really annoys me that AGEs are treated like we're not even people.
"We're nothing but tools in their eyes." Hugo's voice is laced with sadness. I'm not surprised at all though. One of our own has died because crappy Port management. I bet they could have sent an uninjured AGE to do the job but instead decided to send the injured one because they annoyed the management in some way.
"It's unforgiveable."
"Yeah. But we don't have the strength to do anything about it now… Still… Anyway, I won't just lie down and die." Sensing the end of the conversation, I decide to check out the mission terminal I am standing in front of.
"A field test covering the God Arc's special features has been assigned." The terminal informs us.
"Another one?" Hugo speaks from beside me. I load up the mission brief and check it out.
D7 Certification
Old City: Downtown Ruins
Objective: Acclimatise to dense ash
D7 God Arc Limit Release Certification
This test's purpose is to measure an Adaptive God Eater's abilities to use their God Arc's devour form in combat. Results will be considered when determining personnel assignments and duties.
Assigned to:
PW-01407
PW-01408
"Mission acceptance confirmed." The machine informs us of the usual before the mission.
"Looks like I'd better gear up." I hear Hugo speak from my side. "Wait for me in the usual place." I do exactly as he says and wait for him near the bars of the cell. As I wait, I hear the guard speak up.
"I don't want to hear anything about you slacking off out there today!" Instead of answering back, I disinterestedly let him continue his spiel. "We regularly send battle result feedback to Gleipnir. Based on those results, we stand to benefit greatly, so don't screw it up, okay?" As he finishes speaking, Hugo has made his way over to me.
"Let's get going." He puts a hand on my shoulder which signals that he's ready. The guard opens the cell and releases us from our binds. We grab our God Arcs and head towards the battlefield.
Arriving at the battlefield and scouting for Aragami, Hugo decides to speak up,
"We've got our work cut out for us today. Devour form is the God Arc's most distinctive feature. We're off to do a field test of it." Hugo informs me. I have already used the devour feature so I know how it works, but I suppose we need to do things like this once in a while to make sure we don't forget the basics. "God Eaters can devour Aragami to temporarily enhance our abilities. We call the effect burst." As Hugo lectures me, I make sure to pick up any useful materials. "If you use it wisely, you can flip a dire situation on its head. Just as I'm about to speak, an Aragami suddenly springs from the ground, unleashing a load of rocks and dust into the air at the same time. It isn't a very difficult Aragami, just an Axe Raider. "Hey, there's some luck. C'mon. Let's go and take a bite out of that Aragami!" He shouts as we avoid the charging Aragami with ease. With just as much ease, I manage to land a devour attack on it straight away. Instantly I feel a boost to my abilities, I feel as though my attacks are slightly stronger and that I can move faster as well. I feel as though I could probably jump twice in the air as well. I easily side step another attack as the monster tries to pierce us with its tusks. Then, I relentlessly continue my onslaught, deciding only to stop when I feel that burst is going to run out. I let loose another devour attack, jumping into the air and deploying it downwards, and feel the strength within me course through my veins even more.
"Yeah!" I shout as after a few more hits the Axe Raider falls to the ground.
"Oh, and don't forget, you can pick up materials by devouring dead Aragami." Hugo speaks as we both prepare a devour attack. "You need materials to upgrade God Arc parts, and you have to supply them yourself." We finish the devouring easily and patrol the area to see if there are any other Aragami. "Okay, onto Burst Arts. Here's where today's real work begins. Burst Arts are techniques that can only be used while you're in Burst status." I nod my head, showing that I am following along with his explanation. "Only AGEs have the number of Oracle Cell bonds to perform them. Devour an Aragami, enter Burst status, and then unleash a Burst Art." As he speaks, I feel my burst status returning to normal as we haven't encountered any more Aragami to keep it. "Keep that cycle in mind as we fight, okay?"
"Yeah." I give him confirmation, just as we see another Axe Raider rise from the ground. Following Hugo's instructions, I use my Arc to devour the Aragami first and feel the adrenaline course through my veins as Burst triggers. Following that, and avoiding the Aragami's attempt at attacking, I slash at the Aragami and see waves of yellow along my cresent-shaped blade. The Aragami doesn't even last ten seconds when we're in both in burst and it falls to the ground. We use our Arcs to devour it for more materials.
"Yeah! Nicely done. Just what I expected. Use Burst Arts enough and they'll grow in power… But some people say that makes you more Aragami than human." Hugo gives his congratulations for me being able to use Burst Arts on my first attempt, even if it apparently comes at the cost of our humanity. "Honestly, though, in most normal people's eyes, we're already monsters."
"It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, Hugo. It only matters what we think." I try to lift his spirits.
"Anyway, we should probably head back before we get punished. You should practice your Burst Arts when you have the time." We chat more as we make our way back to the Port, the coldness finally settling in as the sky grows darker.
Burst Art: Carnage Moon 1 – 14%
By the time we get back to the Port, the only natural light source is the moon, which doesn't give off enough light to illuminate our way by itself. Rather, we have to rely on the Port for that. Once we're back in our cell, we can see that all the kids, Zeke and Keith have gone to sleep. Hugo sits down on his bed, and I sit facing him on my bed.
"Looks like everyone's gone to bed." Hugo's voice is barely above a whisper. "I hope they can at least have some pleasant dreams to enjoy while they're sleeping… It gets so quiet at night." I let him talk, because honestly, he is right. There is very little noise at night unless there's an emergency. In that case nobody can sleep due to all the loud noises. "So, how's the new density level?" Hugo quickly changes the subject.
"Despite having the highest resonance rating here, I don't really remember." I inform him, I should be able to adapt to ash density greater than the other Adaptive God Eaters here due to my high level of resonance, but even so it's difficult to tell the difference between the ash levels.
"That's a weird time to flex." Hugo comments with a smile on his face. "Same here, to be honest. It's too much to absorb all at once, huh? But if there are still survivors out there… well, then it was worth fighting. It's a small thing, but I don't want to sell my soul and lose my freedom to act according to my own will. I guess it seems kind of funny. We might die tomorrow and leave nothing behind. But I'll keep waiting. Someday, a path towards something new will open for us… An Ash Storm, huh?" His voice trails off.
"We just need to keep the dream alive and not lose sight of it, Hugo. If one of us believes, we all should believe." I try to lift his spirits again.
"You're right." He positions himself so that he is lying down on his bed. "I'm sure it will happen. Until we get that opportunity though, we still need to work for Port Pennywort. And they're not going to like it if we're too sleep deprived to work." Finding the hidden meaning in Hugo's words, I realise that it is time to sleep. So, I lie down, close my eyes and try to empty my mind.