Four days later, Leo and Aiden were ready to climb the rocky terrain.
The two had made all their preparations for climbing this time as no one wanted to take any risk of falling off. Leo had used the woods and vines to make some better than nothing gears.
Aiden was surprised to see how Leo's brain worked in such unique ways. He really knew how to craft things. On the other hand, Leo was surprised at Aiden's idea and knowledge about things which could really help them out in the situation.
"Were you training to be a soldier or a Mech Pilot?" Leo couldn't help but ask.
"Solider? Ah.. Its called a Knight in Gloria.." Aiden now knew a lot of things about earth and so did Leo about Gloria.
"Yeah, the knight.." Leo confirmed.
"Yeah, but I didn't have much potential. I only have this Yellow Rank skill, Charge.." Aiden said as he raised his palm and sparks of electric current began to shoot out of his hand. "I am only a Lv 8 Awake and am close to hitting my potential limit…there is no hope for me becoming a Mech Knight.."
"You are strong in my eyes though.." Leo couldn't help but look at him amazement.
Aiden smiled as he shook his head, "From where I come, I won't even count as the lowest rung. I would have still been happy if it was a low rank physical skill as it could have supplemented my Spear Techniques…but this sparks are way too weak for me to do any damage…"
"Anyway, we are done with the preparations. Lets go and deal with that thing.." Aiden didn't seem too keen on discussing this thing any longer but Leo could see the frustration in his eyes.
….
A few hours later…
The two had finally managed to climb up onto the rock walls after going back and forth to carry all their stuff above.
"This is dangerous…" Leo muttered looking at floor which had huge cracks all over and they specially deepen towards the place were the huge rock was sitting by the cliff.
"We might fall down if the this rocky surface breaks.." Aiden said with a frown. "What to do?"
"Let's use the vines. We have to take the risk…" Leo said with a determined look, "We can't play this game of cat and mice for long."
"You are right…" Aiden nodded. They had to take the risk and wasn't he out to do the same.
The two tied the vines around themselves before using another boulder at the stable side of the rocky terrain to tie the vine's other end around it.
"Let's do this and get out of here alive…" Aiden raised his fist towards Leo.
"Its good that you have the will to live, but no thanks…" Leo politely declined.
"Why?"
"Haven't you heard about flags? What you are doing now is called raising a death flag…Keep it for when we succeed in our mission.." Leo said looking at his fist. "I may not believe in god and ghost but I do believe in flags.."
"I get it…You just don't want to be overconfident, right?" Aiden asked as if understanding.
"Flags are not that simple…but that's the base of it, so you are not wrong…" Leo didn't want to go in detail for now and do what they had come for.
The two finally began to work and arranged the piece of wood that they had carried along with them with them. The wood were trimmed down to twice the thickness of an average bamboo tree.
They had cut down two trees which was thick enough for Leo's hand to go around it. Even though trees weren't as hard as steel here. It had still taken them four days to do it as they only had wooden and stone equipment aside from that sharp dagger.
These pieces of logs were each a bit thinner than other and hollowed half the way.
The two quickly began to insert the thinner log into the thicker ones as if filling in the refills of the pen. At the end, the two managed to create two giant and sturdy wooden poles and inserted in beneath the huge rock.
The Plan was simple…
They would cranked a wooden pole underneath a boulder and levered it from the edge of the cliff.
And now the first phase was complete.
The two looked at each other and nodded. They once again confirmed the Reaper's position and saw that it was still lazily coiled around waiting to be crushed to death. The two then adjusted the poles according to its position before pressing down on it.
But even after a few tries, the huge rock barely moved.
"It isn't working, I will get onto it.." Leo said and climbed onto the wooden pole trying to use his weight to force the rock off the cliff.
"On the count of three." He further said, "1..2…3!!"
The two immediately released all their might and the huge rock finally moved and a smile blossomed on their faces.
But the smile on their faces lasted a second before ceasing because as soon as the rock moved, the ground beneath further cracked.
"Shoot!''
With a thunderous noise, the floor below broke apart.
Aiden was an awake and far above Leo in terms of in physique. He reacted pretty quickly and immediately moved.
Leo on the other hand, couldn't react in time. He felt his body becoming light and the next instant, he was falling down the cliff.
"Boom!"
The huge rock along with the cliff smashed the Reaper below burying it underneath.
On the other side, Leo suddenly felt a tug on his stomach from the vine tied to him and the force made him puke out blood. It definitely had caused internal injury.
Still, it managed to hold onto him.
But Leo seemed to be celebrating to early. His luck really sucked. Of all the place where the vine could go, it managed to find the sharpest edge of the cliff. A cut appeared on the vine and it could no longer carry on Leo's weight.
Leo looked as the vine thinned with each passing second and he immediately tried to climb above but it only made it worse.
Half the way above, the vine snapped and Leo cursed his luck as he silently closed his eyes counting all his regrets in life and things that he hadn't experienced yet.
As for him family, he only had his father and knowing Kyle's character he would definitely blame himself and would help his father out. He was filthy rich after all…He wondered whether the old man would be sad at his death or not…
"Hmmn?"
As Leo was going through his internal monologue and flashes of his life, he suddenly felt another tug from the vine jolting his body once more. The next instant, he stopped descending and was left hanging in mid air.
He immediately open his eyes and was shocked to see the suicidal guy holding onto the snapped vine with both his hands while his feet were pressed against the cliff.
Leo didn't know just how much guts he had to jump down the cliff like this.
He really was crazy….
"Hurry up!! The vine might not be able to support two people.." Aiden screamed at the top of his lungs and Leo immediately sprung into action. He didn't want to die after all. He kicked all the pain aside and with the adrenaline rushing through his body, he began to climb back up as if he wasn't a Human but a member of Troll race.
….
"Its finally over.." Aiden said with a smile as he looked below the cliff, his body completely drenched in sweat. He was sure that thing was buried below.
"Yeah.." Leo said while panting his finger were bleeding as the skin near it was torn due to his aggressive climbing method.
"I guess now we can do this…" Aiden smiled as he raised his fist and Leo laughed before bumping his own into it.
The two were dead tired, especially Leo who had even injured his hand. Hence, they decided to rest for the day and stayed above the wall before finally coming down the cliff the next day.
The next two days where further spend on recovering and also checking on the buried Reaper worm. There was no problem in being cautious. But even after three days, there wasn't a single sign of movement. It was definitely dead.
"We should move out and return to the place where our evacuation shuttle had crashed." Leo finally suggested it on the fourth day. They had left a message there. If someone had come looking after them then they must have left some kind of reply or might even be searching for them outside.
….
The next day, the two left the place. They were still a bit nervous while crossing through the buried rubble afraid that thing would suddenly come back to life.
"Are you sure its this way?'' Aiden asked as they had been traveling for quite a while and had yet to reach their destination.
"Yeah, I am sure. We are almost there.." Leo replied as they were finally arrive at the place.
But there was no sign of any on there message left on the ground.
"Did that thing removed it?'' Aiden couldn't help but ask with a frown.
As Leo was looking at the place with a frown, he suddenly seemed to have remembered something and his expression turned dark.
"Run!"
"Again? Whats going on?" Aiden was definitely confused.
"There is someone beside us and that dead Reaper here. Did you notice we didn't saw our evacuation shuttle on our way here. It's missing. The Reaper definitely hadn't left us the entire time. It means there must be some other creature at least as powerful as that Reaper here." Leo explained as they continued to run without a stop back towards the safe place enclosed by huge rocky walls.
Aiden's face changed when he finally realized it as well, "There shouldn't be another Reaper here, right? If there are more than one of them, the resonance from them should be strong enough to be detected by your Solar System federation.."
"I don't know much about the technicalities but yeah, I have never heard of two Reapers being discovered together after the end of the war." Leo replied with a grim voice.
When they finally arrived back at the place, Aiden suddenly pulled Leo behind and hid among the bushes.
"Ssh!" He immediately gestured Leo to keep quiet and look ahead.
"Huh?"
Leo's eyes turned wide as he saw 4 Reaper Worms digging out the remains of the reaper they had buried.
"There are more of them…" Aiden suddenly muttered in shock and as he pointed out and saw a dozen other Reapers who seemed to be out on a search. And some were even different than the rest.
"What is this place? How can there be so many Reapers here?" Leo had began to sweat as tensions began to rise once again.
As the two were observing the situation, a shadow was slowly descending down on them from the tree.
"Hmmn?" Leo suddenly felt something cold on his shoulder and touched the sticky substance on it before suddenly looking above. His eyes met with eight red dots of lights glaring at them.
It was Reaper Spider and was in no way smaller than the Reaper worm. Its mouth suddenly opened and Leo saw it aiming towards them. He immediately pushed Aiden and used the force to propel himself in other direction barely avoiding the white sticky thread that it had shot out.
This alerted every creature in the vicinity and they were immediately surrounded.
"I guess its as far as we go…" Aiden said with a grave smile. They were surrounded and even if they weren't there was no way for them to escape from this many of them.
"So, want to stay here and get squashed to death or try and make a last run.." Leo asked with a crazy smile as his legs quivered and sweat dripped down his chin.
Yes he was afraid…who wouldn't be..
"Of course, we run. We need to die in a way befitting to justify our one month of struggle here," Aiden laughed. If even Leo dare to show this much courage, how could he fall behind.
"You are right. We have struggle to survive all this time. It doesn't make sense to throw in the towel now." Leo nodded, "Let's make a bet to see who is the last one to die.."
With those words, he immediately dashed towards the forest trying to pass below the creatures legs. Aiden immediately followed behind as well.
It seemed Aiden's suicidal tendencies had rubbed off of Leo as well. The creature just needed to sit down and it would be the end of the two, but for some reason, it didn't.
The Reaper Spider shot out its stick thread but it barely missed as the the two were too small for the Reaper to target. But it didn't meant that they would always miss…
The Reapers rushed after them but none for reason shot any projectiles.
But with adrenaline coursing through their body, the two had no time to think. The only thing on their mind was to run as fast as they could.
"Aaahhhh!!!!"
Leo roared and Aiden looked at him before screaming as well and the two ran like idiots who had gone crazy in face of death as the Reapers continued to chase.
The only reason that the Reapers hadn't caught up to them was because the forest was a greater obstacle for them. The huge steel like trees were blocking their path and slowing them down. Yet, they still were constantly closing the distance between them.
As the two dashed through the forest, Aiden tugged his arms in and pushed himself through a bush but the moment he got out of it his eyes widened and he immediately pulled his breaks barely managing to stop himself from falling off the cliff.
But the next instant, a screaming guy came closing from behind and collided into him.
Leo tried to stop himself but it was too late. He had already crashed into Aiden and the next instant, he felt himself sinking into the ground, he immediately looked below and realized that there was no ground to sink in. He had jumped off a cliff. It was so deep that Leo couldn't even see what was beneath, but he could definitely tell that he would be turning into a meat pattie soon enough.
"Sigh! It's still better than dying in those Reaper's mouth." Aiden said as he slowly felt at ease.
"I think your suicidal aura rubbed off onto me…I wasn't suppose to die here.." Leo said with a reluctant sigh as the two continued to fall off the cliff.
Suddenly, the two felt a red flash of light on their faces. They noticed that the Reapers were standing at the edged of the cliff staring down at them falling to their death.
A smirk appeared on Aiden's face as if he had won a battle. He slowly raised his fist in front of him and then showed a middle finger to the creature and screamed, "ROT IN HELL!!!!!!!!"
Yeah, Leo was the one to have taught him the human way of cursing.
"Stop provoking it!" Leo frowned. Even in death, he didn't want to look at them.
"Hmmnn?" Aiden suddenly spoke, "What are they doing?"
Leo followed Aiden's gaze and his eyes widened. The Reaper's had made their way and opened up a path in between them allowing a menacing Reaper Hound with three heads to walk in front.
Cerberus…
Both Leo and Aiden's eyes widened. That thing, how could one not recognize it...
They finally realized where they were…
There was never a chance for them to escape…
The Three Headed Reaper Hound suddenly jumped off of the cliff.
The two looked at each other and saw the despair in the other's eye as everything around them turned dark and they were finally swallowed by the Reaper.