Some time had passed since Casper and Sionnach started to converse.
The talk was nice for both and could let their minds forget for a while the situation they were stuck in.
Neither Casper nor Nach could imagine that they would get along so well. It's not that they had a lot of things in common with each other, but the way their interaction was mostly pleasant. Sometimes Sionnach would be rude or too straightforward, and sometimes Casper would joke around and provoke her, which generated hilarious situations.
They could understand each other, as both were soldiers (or, better, warriors). Those feelings that a normal person would never comprehend, they shared with one another.
The two of them kept like that for a long while, trying to discover more about each other. Casper did it not just because he was interested in know Nach better, but also because she had a lot of information about that world.
She obviously did the same with Casper, most likely because he was a strange person for people from that world. The fact he had not a mask make him stood out since he put his feet there.
"So, are you saying that you aren't from here, but from somewhere very far away?" Nach asked about where he was from, but Casper omitted many details. Although he felt that she was a good person, Casper could not get softer just to be stabbed in the back afterward.
He needed to be careful no matter who was the person he was talking to.
"Yeah, that's it. I can't say much, since it's a pretty long story and we don't have much time left." He shrugged. "I think it's enough information, for now, right?"
"Hmm, if you are being so sneaky about it you sure have something crazy happening to you now. But that's very strange, if you are really an outsider, how could you pass the walls?" She thought, trying to think how Casper could achieve such a difficult feat.
"Wait, walls?"
"Yeah, the ones surrounding the District… Hey… Wait a minute, if you are from another country how the hell could you get here without at least see the walls?"
"Erm… Aaaah, that big construction based on stones and concrete in circle shape? We call them for another name where I come from, instead of walls." Casper was very good at bluffing, but Sionnach was an intuitive and perceptive person. He could barely manage to make her trust in that lie.
Casper did not know how much of a problem his presence meant in that world. He did not have any idea if he could be seen as a wizard or a monster and be executed for it.
Hopefully, it was not that big of a deal, but he could not be assured until someone said it to him. Unfortunately, he could not ask it directly to Nach.
"Hey, people in your District have this type of hair, commonly?" Nach asked out of curiosity.
"Ah… No, it's not common. My hair is white since my birth, in truth. It's a genetic issue. A 'problem' in my DNA and cells or something. The same goes for my eyes, that's why they are dyed with this very light blue."
Casper could have said that he was a god damn ugly guy, but that was not entirely true. Just his hair and eyes were outstanding enough to draw the attention of a lot of people.
Unfortunately, it was also the motivation for some bullying in the army, and several times he had to dye his hair pitch black.
Casper had long, smooth hair, that was backcombed. His face was covered with a slight beard. He had upturned eyes. There was a flaw in his brown because of a scar on his forehead. His nose was slightly crooked. His face was oval.
Although his face had a beard and all these other features, he never could let out the looks of a teenager in his late teens.
"Ok, now I have a question about this District. Something that's bothering me since I came here."
"Go ahead."
"What's up with these masks?"
Nach wondered for a while, opening her closed eyes slightly and looking at the ceiling.
"It's taboo to talk about the masks."
"C'mon, nobody will ever come to know that you said something. We are in the middle of a civil war, tucked inside a deserted house."
"While I am still wearing it, they will always know…"
After that sentence, both fell into deep silence.
Sionnach realized that she did a mistake, and tried to brush off that subject.
"Well, it was really pleasant to talk with you, I need to admit. But, we need to be going for now." She stood up from the sofa, stretching her arms and back.
"We are going to do this, huh? What do you think about the situation?"
"Hmm, we might die if we let our guards down. The Frelsi and the crazy citizens will not allow us to turn on that tower easily. We can make our way inside the complex, but climb that tower will surely be a very different matter."
Casper allowed himself to sigh and feel a bit lazy.
"Bye, bye, moments of peace…"
Nach kicked him slightly on the shin, giggling a bit.
"Stop complaining, you lazy bunny. Let's go take them down!"
"Ha ha ha, Nice joke with my hair. Bunny…"
He helped Nach to move the writing desk to the side. She opened the door.
Before leaving, she looked at the stiff expression of Casper. As always, he was frowning and his upturned eyes were narrowing slightly. That meant he was deeply immersed in his thoughts.
"Hey, don't worry. I am here." She clenched her hand that could at least form a fist and tapped in a device attached to her wrist, that seemed very similar to a bracelet made of thin metal chains intertwined. "I am pretty strong, so everything will be alright, even if I need to wipe them all by myself."
Casper smiled, rubbing his neck. She sure was a confident, strong woman.
"Y'know, it's not so bad that you don't wear a mask…"
"Why?"
"Because I can see you smiling… That's something I couldn't even see in my own brother's face once…"
That said, the soldier and the Ridire got off the house in their last rush towards the Energy tower.
…
From the house they were in before, to the Energy tower, more or less three kilometers were needed to close that gap completely.
They kept going through the streets at a fast pace, almost jogging.
Nach's strategy was to jog as much as they could, avoiding every battle that seemed that would disrupt. No matter what encounter they had, they would run away.
Getting into a fight now was a waste of time, and they had no time left. Besides, their bodies were in bad conditions, and even if they could manage to win some conflicts, they would be just tiring out themselves more than they already were.
In short, they had no options instead of running and reaching their goal.
Of course, they would need to engage in combat sometime once they arrived, but, as Sionnach said, it was better to use all their remaining energy while trying to finish their job, than to spend it all on small issues while still on the way to there.
Casper could not agree more with those words, so he followed Nach without even add something to it.
The time came when they reached a more chaotic part of the battlefield. There, a lot of citizens and Ridires were having a fierce battle.
Every building, vehicle, or machinery in the city was used to have even a little more advantage in combat.
The citizens were monopolizing the control of the houses, establishments, and buildings.
The Ridires were gathered outside, forming tactical groups to break into one construction at a time, dominating one by one and expanding their action range.
There were streets all mobilized and taken, some by the Ridire, and others by the citizens and Frelsi.
Bodies were fallen here and there. Bullets were decorating the ground. Ashes and wreckage could be seen very often.
With every second that passed, new exchanges of shots started and screams could be heard.
Thankfully, Sionnach and Casper could avoid the fuss, going through the more destroyed fields, passing by ruins and lots of bodies and wreckage.
While passing on those places, they ended up meeting some of the Ridire from the District.
Casper, as always, could not take a hint of their expressions behind the masks. The only thing he could see were the eyes. But, anyway, it was more than enough.
Casper was a soldier as well, a warrior, and because of it, he knew what was the feeling to have lost his comrades in front of his eyes.
No matter how much experience you had, no matter how cold you became with the time, the same feeling would befell you, crushing your brain and tightening your heart.
What Casper saw in their eyes were… Nothing. They were empty, like the eyes of a corpse.
Some of them were stacking the bodies of their deceased friends, while others were just sitting there, looking to space. They were not even wielding their weapons anymore.
A brawl started a bit far away between the two of them, who were arguing about something. A Ridire was being reanimated by a group of others. Someone could be heard crying in pain farther away…
Casper knew well that atmosphere, those scenes, and those feelings in the air. He called it War Scars. The type of War Scars that were not inflicted on the body, but in the environment and in the minds of those who witnessed that chaos.
The Ridire did not care about Casper and Nach, since she was an unmistakable ally.
After a long walk, both of them stood in front of the walls of the complex. The tower never seemed to be so close than at that moment.