The feast that King Sobek had his spirit servants put together for Tyson and the others was one of beauty. Everything from roasted meats, exotic fruits, down to special glass of beast blood for the vampire Fae was spread across a long table. It felt as though they were royalty being served as they all gathered to sit for their meal. Not many chances came by King Sobek to dine with another so he had felt the need to take a chance to go all out for the group that carried his hope for freedom from his entrapment in Numen's Garden.
"Have you decided on when you will be setting out next?" King Sobek asked Tyson as the young man stood next to him while the others all took their seats at the table to eat.
"Soon. We can't waste time sitting around here under your care." Tyson glanced over at King Sobek and could see a glint in his eyes. He was sure the king would have no problem taking care of them as long as they wanted to stay at his castle but Tyson had to ascend the dimension further if he wished to go against Numen.
"I see.." King Sobek rubbed his chin with his hand as he thought about something to himself.
"We're going for the elven city of Pluto next, right?" Chi asked without thinking. He had spent a lot of his time reading from Tyson's textbook that he'd kept hidden and recognized the name of a city that was written down in it. Though his remark pulled Tyson's attention clearly on him as the man wondered where he'd gotten the name from so Chi quickly thought of a way to cover the fact he had the book. "I heard some others mention it."
"Yes, once everyone is well rested we set out to locate the city of Pluto." Tyson affirmed the decision. He had indeed been planning to pass through the elven city of Pluto when they left King Sobek's castle but he had never expected Chi to know about it. Wanting to affect Chi as little as possible he'd refrained from telling him much about the dimension as long as he could avoid it. The thought that Chi was learning about the place without his knowledge was something that made him uncomfortable.
Who does Chi even talk to? Tyson thought to himself as his eyes slid into Zeal's direction. If anyone would try to corrupt Chi by feeding him knowledge about Numen's Garden he would sooner expect it to be Zeal who had done it.
"Whoa! It wasn't me!" Zeal threw up his hands in protest against being accused for doing it.
"Though it wouldn't be a surprise." Tai muttered under his breath from beside Zeal while feeding a piece of meat to his crow.
"Forget it.." Tyson knit his brows together before continuing. "The elven city.. I have to find a man there in order to get information on a temple that holds a portal to ascend further."
"Temple.." Chi whispered to himself as he tried to recall if he read about it in the book yet. The only thing he could recall about a temple that Tyson had written about was a temple protected by a guardian angel that had been pulled by Numen into the garden and lost his life. Numen had taken a liking to him and kept him after death as a protector of the temple. He had not seen anything mentioning a portal at the temple.
The entire dimension was created like a mountain, the higher you ascended the mountain the further you came to Numen's Mansion at the top where he resided and watched over all that went on within his garden, but that did not mean he designed it to an exact copy of a mountain. As a bored god he loved toying with new things and lives to amuse himself as well as entrap those who tried to get too close to his personal home.
"I'll take my leave now. I still have things to take care of." Tyson stated as he turned to leave the room. He could hear Zeal and the others calling out to him from behind as he left the room but he also knew that there were things he had to do that he did not want others to know about. There was also a strange sense of unease settling its way inside him as he felt he could sense someone near by the castle grounds. Unable to settle himself down enough to eat with the others he would simply survey the area a bit more while the others took their time to eat and rest.
"Always the unsocial type." Zeal scoffed once Tyson had left.
"You have no room to talk considering your always muting me with your music." Tai refused to entertain the idea that Zeal was any better then Tyson when it came to being social.
At the end of the table King Sobek could only laugh to himself as he watched the survivors chattering away. Glancing a look in Chi's direction.
"Perhaps.. He felt a need to keep watch knowing that nobody else was taking up the duty." King Sobek said to the young men that sat in front of him. As a king he knew that no high ranking among his own men would have ever considered simply leaving the task of safety to an outsider. Knowing that everyone Tyson held in high accord was dining at his table it did not take him long to understand that Tyson had simply felt unease at none of them standing guard. Refusing to eat in order to take watch was something that he naturally understood without a need to ask.
"There's so many of us traveling together now.. anyone who tries to act alone is either stupid or-" Zeal started to talk but was interrupted.
"Zeref." Tai said the name so openly that the entire room went silent. Though Fae and Chi were not sure who Zeref was they knew by the weight of the word that Tai had said that his name was not one to be taken lightly.
"Who's Zeref?" Fae asked.
Chi did not need to ask because he had seen that name scribbled down in Tyson's textbook with many unkind descriptions of the man.
"The scariest among the top ten in my opinion.." Zeal did not like talking about the man.
"Zeref just like Tyson is one of Numen's favorites among the top ten.. Though Zeref.. You could consider him a lot worse. He's actually loyal to Numen to the point that he's even pulled into Numen's mansion countless times personally to speak to him. You could almost call him a loyal dog of the god." Tai tried to think of a simple way to explain the man but there was nothing simple about him in the least.
"The reason the others follow him is because he's practically a living bomb! If he sees even a spark of weakness in someone he considers them trash that should die. I've seen him kill other rank ten survivors over the years simply because he felt they didn't deserve their ranks to replace them with his own loyal followers as long as they weren't too weak to him." Zeal ranted on. Every word he spoke sounded cold. A chill running down his spine that made him feel uncomfortable.