Overlooking the Forest, Isaac, Kartari, and Davil shared a single flask laughing and drinking together.
"What were you doing with those Knights? Did you need some Zen or something?" asked Davil as he passed the flask of alcohol to Tari.
"No, a friend of mine I met when I got separated from you two asked me to take her place in this operation. It was along the way to the entrance of the Inhilgar Kingdom Ruins and I was intrigued by the appearance of the Anarchy Lord," explained Isaac.
"HAHAHA, seems like you met a good friend as well," Tari said as he passed the flask to Isaac.
Isaac did not expect to reunite with the first person he met and the first person he saw sitting behind a bush. They all had a drink and shared the story of what happened after they got separated.
"Ah shit, Isaac finished my booze." Davil glared at Isaac who promptly apologized, "Welp, it's time for patrolling anyway…."
Davil stopped his words, and Isaac waved his hand, "Right now, I don't care if you kill them. But I'd have to ask… is the Anarchy Lord being played by any of you two?"
"What if I say we are?" Tari answered quickly.
Davil remained silent on the side.
Isaac looked over the horizon where the military camp was located. The two stayed silent and Isaac laughed to himself, "I'll ask if you consent to be dissected in the name of science."
"...dissect who now?" even Tari, someone who could remain positive when tied upside down in the middle of a forest to be eaten by Giant Rats could not help but question what he heard.
"I knew he was going to say something stupid. I'm going to patrol now." Davil didn't have the patience to deal with Isaac and just left. He whistled and the shadow monster appeared to catch him, "Good luck with the explanation, Judari."
"What's judari?" asked Isaac.
"It apparently means bastard or asshole in his original language. Anyway, on to the more pressing matters, yes, the matter of us being the Anarchy Lord… Well, I should've expected nothing less from you, brother. Didn't think you'd say that you were just a part of the enemy camp until earlier." Tari was not expecting Davil's report that he had kidnapped Isaac from the enemy camp.
A laugh was the only response Isaac could give, "My only goal was to see the Anarchy Lord and then move along with my own plans."
"The Fire Giants?"
"The Fire Giants."
The both of them started laughing, but by the end of it, the charade had to end, "Though I am not entirely sure, I do believe I am not stupid enough to see that you're hiding something. I don't really know what happened to you, so I can't judge you, As for the Anarchy Lord, I know you're lying. If you don't want me to meet her, or if she doesn't exist, I wouldn't mind. However, can you answer me just how… What happened to your eyes? I can feel deep, cursed energy from it. Does it have something to do with the sudden spike in your level?"
[Kartari Lv. 647] from the 100s to mid 600s, it was something Isaac did not expect to see all of a sudden, it was too massive of a jump, "...are you and Davil going to die?"
"......no, this is something else. Anyway, I don't want to waste time going back and forth so I'll tell you now. Will you help us? Or will you continue helping those guys in the camp?"
"As I said, I was just doing my job. However, I was brought here now that Davil kidnapped me with that Shadow Monster. They must be presuming I'm dead now or something so I won't need to go back. I am more inclined to help you because of our past. I don't care if you're doing something I agree to or not, I just don't want to be used and end up hating you afterward."
Isaac did not like the idea of losing a friend. If he's going to be used or betrayed because they have nefarious or malicious intents, then, he'd rather just have them tell him up front. He understands it was not something that could truly be realized, but it was just one of his idealistic views on life.
Tap
Tari put his hand on Isaac's back and prompted him to follow him inside the cave behind them. The cave was simple, or so it would seem, but going deeper carvings on its surface became easier to spot. The inner cave was entirely transformed into walls of rune carvings.
"Our levels are fake. My true level is 247 and Davil's 259. I raised our levels on the image alone to fool Knights, Seekers, Mercenaries, and other forces who came here to kill us." With Isaac behind him, Tari explained. Isaac made knowing sounds thus, he continued, "The spell was Forbidden as you would expect, but, reading the Flow was not enough. To make the spell stronger, I had to sacrifice something. I wanted to fool the eyes of all so I sacrificed an eye to change our levels."
The cave was deeper than Isaac initially thought, halfway through, the darkness was already setting in but walking a bit further and the light returned.
'What is….' Isaac arrived at the end of the cave where it was only a dead-end that was carved in runes on all sides glowing a beautiful evergreen glow with a skylight from the hole overhead.
Below this skylight was a crystal and inside was a girl that looked no older than nine or ten years old. The energy gathered by the runes from outside and the moonlight were all being directed to the crystal and into the girl.
"This girl's name is Mia. She's Davil's and mine's benefactor. This girl nursed us back to health when we needed it and as you may guess, she's the one who awakened as the Anarchy Lord" Tari continued his explanation, "She awakened less than a month ago, and after she did, the Town Lord tried to kill her almost immediately."
Isaac touched the crystal and at that moment, when he looked at the girl inside the crystal, his blood boiled, "All this time they've been trying to kill an innocent girl?!?"
Isaac's bloodlust exploded.