Awaking from a state of sleep yet not sleep, the masked Cyrus opened his eyes slowly as he entered the world at large once again, or at least the half illusion half not of the Labyrinth.
Taking in the sensory information that his eyes gave him, he first noticed that it was no longer night but it was instead a bright and scorching day although he could oddly not feel said heat. The second was the intense smell of guts and gore, specifically of a sandcrawler nature. The third and final was a familiar face sitting across from him, a cool and calm collected visage with dark eyes and long flowing black hair looking upon him with slight worry but upon noticing that he awoke it was quickly hidden, turning into annoyance instead.
"The princess awakes, the question remains however if whether his mind is still there or not. Although it never really has been there now that I think about it, either way nothing will have changed huh" said Minerva in an icy tone.
Taking in all of this Cyrus put two and two together, realizing that he had been under the care of Minerva during the hot day whilst the rest fended off the inevitable attacks of the sandcrawlers.
"My-"started he, stopped as his mind brought back visions of Minerva's various gruesome deaths that he had been shown by the night dwellers. His wrath was stoked for but a moment, before he easily regained control of himself, and left wondering why such a reaction was provoked again for a moment.
"My mind is as clear as ever Minerva" said Cyrus, his tone far softer than it had ever been unbeknownst to him. "Cornelius awoke far sooner than myself it seems, seeing as the second strongest fighter in the group is able to tend to me with little worry."
Minerva eyes widened slightly, off put by the sudden change in tone even reaching out to check if the mask was properly on or not.
"You are correct… he awoke right before day broke while you did several hours later. I do find it odd though, you do not seem to be the self-sacrificial type so I can only wonder why you acted in such a manner" said Minerva carefully, pushing down her confusion to maintain her normal cold exterior.
"I would never be so foolish, I was simply confident in my abilities as well of my judgement of Cornelius. It seems I was correct in both" replied Cyrus plainly as he stood up and stretched his body.
"Besides, no one else in the group had any chance of standing against those creatures. They fight you with not their bodies but their minds, looking for any weaknesses or flaws contained within the individual and using that to break them. Cornelius' group is made up of disappointments, Imran was physically exhausted beyond his limits which would effect his mind, and you…well I think we both know the answer to that my dear friend" finished Cyrus.
"Friend, hah, I do not recall having such a friend like you. Did we just not meet for the first time not too long ago?" huffed Minerva, addressing the latter half of Cyrus' statement while ignoring the earlier implications.
"Did we not shake on it? That is how such things go right…" said Cyrus, seriously pondering on the question.
To that Minerva held her head and sighed, muttering why Cyrus seemed so intelligent in all regards except for one…
"Well whatever, we can consider such things at a later date. We are in the middle of a test no doubt, as well as it is time for me to rest" said Cyrus.
"Rest? Did you not just rest for quite a while…" said Minerva, stopping her speech as she saw Cyrus taking off his mask.
"Ah, finally my time has come!" said the now unmasked Cyrus in a cheery voice before freezing as he realized his tongue had slipped ever so slightly and then recollecting himself fully.
He stretched a bit more, now in full control, before looking back at Minerva and saying,
"Thank you for keeping the heat away, it would have been extremely pathetic if I had fallen to the heat of the day whilst fighting my foes of the night. Now, let us join the others and continue our travel quickly so as to not fall behind"
He then hooked his mask to his belt, checked to make sure his sword was still securely in place, stored all the various tents and camping equipment that was left out and took off in the direction of the sounds of battle. Leaving behind a visibly confused Minerva of course.
Regardless, the now unmasked Cyrus sped forth to the throes of battle that he detected and ran head first into it whilst drawing his blade eager for some action.
"I have taken a backseat to things for far longer than I would have liked, but things fall as they do at times. Now, what is the situation here…" thought Cyrus as he scanned the battlefield.
What he saw was…rather unique. As it appears his companions were running about playing a game with their beastly foes, being chased and then chasing. Comical it appeared, but the method behind the madness was soon made clear as when the two groups of runners crossed, his companions would lash out with their weapons and decisively kill the others foe.
��How ingenious, making use of the lesser intelligence of the crawlers in order to effectively annihilate them with little danger to ones self. While the execution required is of a higher order, there is no need to train the nerves of the lesser halves of the whole in how to stand fast against a line of charging monsters. Not to mention how such an obscure stratagem would only work with the current abundance of Vita mages" thought Cyrus as he joined in on the fun, taking the stance of wrath and bringing down a wave of slaughter on the enemies before him.
As he sliced the heads off his foes, easily felling the distracted foes before they could properly react, Cyrus noticed a slight difference in his body than before.
"Strange…it is like my senses are more clear and my reactions are faster, but I have not undergone anything special as of late even only undertaking the meditation technique given by the academy a single time. The only possible reasons then would be as a side effect of long term usage of the mask or the event that took place with the night dwellers. They were consumed after all, which means that their power strengthened the body somehow or someway…but that space… was it not the inner mind or perhaps the soul, how then could it effect the body. Unless I am missing a key fact, of course" pondered Cyrus as he slayed the last of the sandcrawlers with a fair amount of ease.
Breaking him from his thoughts was Imran, who was covered in sweat and greenish yellow fluids which were no doubt from the sandcrawlers.
"Look who joined the land of the living once more, without your mask as well. The pleasant surprises continue to rain down upon us" said he, with a light smile on his face despite the exhaustion he was emitting.
"Indeed I have returned, more than ready to shake off the long rest I had. Yet…" said Cyrus, looking at the extensive battlefield around that was littered with easily more than a dozen corpses of sandcrawlers, some recent and some not, before continuing.
"Yet it seems that my contribution may not have been needed, seeing the work that had been done beforehand. You have reached an accord of sorts with Cornelius and his group I assume, seeing how well and easy you worked together with them in such a short time."
Imran shrugged nonchalantly while saying, "Perhaps, I am a merchant after all, and connections are first and foremost when it comes to seizing future opportunities. Cornelius aside, while the mages he brought along may not be as efficient as you and Minerva… if they were to come aboard my ship…" paused Imran, a cunning glint shining in his eye, "Then there are plenty of opportunities for them even if they do not make it very far here, magic has far more uses than just combat even if the focus of the Academy is shifting away from that all of a sudden."
Understanding the wisdom behind his words, Cyrus nodded in agreement as he walked with Imran towards their newly appropriated companions…although the method was quite abrasive the results were plain to see even to the current Cyrus. Cornelius was sitting amongst his group, each having on them a face of contentment and pride as they had accomplished feats that they were barely able to, if at all, just a day before. Seeing the figure who had coerced them into service, however, their faces fell and they looked upon their captors personage with glum faces with tinges of fear in them especially as they remembered how combat effective he was. Yet they immediately noticed the difference in today's Cyrus and the one prior. Whereas before his facial expressions were muted, cold, or outright sadistic in nature and the aura he gave off made one think for but a moment that they had wondered into the tundra and not the desert…today his face was animated and vivid, with a cheery look in his eyes and an aura of warmth and acceptance surrounding him.
Seemingly blind to all of this was Cornelius, whose aura was now quite similar to Cyrus', as he walked up with the same seemingly permanent serenity on his face in greeting.
"Good to see you have overcome those sinister existences safely. The battle with them was extremely unique to say the least, even so I would not wish it on anyone. To use ones' experiences and beliefs against them, to twist and mangle with human emotions in order to break them from within…what a ghastly foe that should be exterminated at all costs" remarked Cornelius.
"I could not agree more, humans are humans because of the flaws that we all have as to be perfect would be inhuman above all else" replied Cyrus quite poetically.
Cornelius heard and understood this, clapping his hands in excitement.
"Words of truth are what flow forth like a bubbling spring, it seems I had misunderstood you brother Cyrus. You understand my way of thinking quite well" said Cornelius, clasping his hands and bowing in respect.
"Perhaps, but no matter the me of now or before I will not hesitate to break past you and aim for the top spot in our Academy" replied Cyrus in good nature.
"Although we may be flawed and should not believe ourselves perfect, as it is impossible for mere man to reach such a state, that does not mean we cease to strive for improvement and stagnate as individuals. I do not fault you for your pursuit as I am of the same mind brother Cyrus" ended Cornelius.
Taking note in the change of address Cornelius was using when referring to him Cyrus brought both groups together to discuss the plan of action and answer a question that needed to be answered.
The two groups, now sitting away from the carnage in the distance as the smell was quite bad, sat down for a quick moment to discuss what needed to be discussed during the short moment of respite.
Cyrus, still being the current de-facto leader of the two groups started,
"I am most pleased to see that we have held up even with two of us, me being one of them, tied up. Now I need to be brought up to speed, how much time do you think passed since the night turned to day. As I do recall that the wording used for this event was 'how far you make it', although given the conditions we find ourselves in I am starting to believe it could be also thought of 'how long can you survive'…"
Minerva was the first to answer saying,
"Since I had not been too involved in the fighting I would say that it should be around midday, although I am sure to be off. If anything this event has made me aware of inadequate preparation."
Seeing that no one had any objects to that, Cyrus thought for a moment before declaring
"This would then mean that we have little time before the two-day period is up. If what we were told was meant to be literal then that would mean we should push ourselves to make up for the lost time. As I cannot be sure of which theory is correct, we should move as if we have to cover a large amount of ground"
He waited for a moment for any objections or comments, although how could there be given his previous style of leadership of merely giving command after command, before finishing his piece.
"So, in a land with obvious landmarks let us continue heading towards the direction of the only constant: the sun."
With that said, the course was set and the two groups prepared to move. Cyrus handed out the last of his emergency rations that he always kept on hand, to both groups, and with the moment of rest finished they set forth into the endless desert once more.