Zero and Kai continued on their way to Haven Falls. They knew that it shouldn't take them more than a day to get there based on information given to them by the guard, but there was also a lot of open area between the two locations. So they decided to walk it straight through without setting up camp.
Thankfully it was still light out for quite a bit.
Zero was beginning to feel the difference the power was making inside of him. Even when he wasn't in battle, he could feel the energy from his system flowing through every part of him - even up to his fingertips. Once he got a weapon crafted for him, he would finally be able to go on the offense himself.
He had never felt this strong before.
But there was something else that was dancing around in the back of his mind - Askook's face as he smashed his eggs in front of him. Zero didn't think he would ever forget that look. What would Kai think if I told him what happened? He thought.
"Any siblings?" Kai asked, breaking Zero's line of thought.
"No." Zero said. "Actually, I think I did have one. But they died when I was very young and my parents didn't want to be reminded of it - so they never talked about them."
"Ah, I'm sorry to hear that." Kai replied.
"Can't miss what you barely remember, right? What about you?" Zero was intent on getting more information from Kai about himself - he was good at only providing small bits of information sometimes.
"I actually have several. Two brothers and two sisters. All younger than me." Kai's face turned serious. "That's why I have to win this. So I can ensure they don't have to go through the same suffering we did."
Zero knew full well that that was where Kai's strength truly came from. But as silence fell between them, it furthered highlighted a fact that they couldn't run away from forever.
One day they may have to try to end each other.
"You know...", Kai continued, "you actually remind me of one of my younger brothers. Silent, overthinking, resourceful. Yep. Kuzu will be hitting the age of wisdom next year."
"Wait, how old are you?" Zero asked. He hadn't pegged Kai to be much older than him if at all.
"16. You?"
Zero's eyes widened. "16?? It's hard to make it past even 14! I would've been 15 the day after I died."
"Yeah, I tried to hold on as long as I could to make sure my siblings were taken care of. My parents can be....a bit distant with them unless it's involving some type of achievement."
He cares a lot about his family...Zero thought. It would've been nice to have someone to look out for me when my parents basically gave up on anything dealing with me.
The two continued their walk along the trail as the hours waned. Kai would periodically activate his Energy Vision to see if anyone of interest was nearby, but it seemed like it was mostly just forest critters and the dormant energy wafting off of the trees/plants.
Suddenly, Zero stopped mid-step
"Huh? Do you smell that?" He asked as a pungent odor invaded his nostrils.
Kai's nostrils flared as he tried to sniff it out. "I don't think- WHOA." The smell was definitely strong as Kai's eyes flew wide open. "What the hell is that?"
"Check your energy vision!" Zero said as he questioned if this was the work of another player.
Kai did just that and looked around the area. He saw several energy trails converging on a single point off of the trail, but then...they disappeared.
"That's strange...the ability ended itself." Kai said with a undertone of concern.
"What do you mean it ended itself? Did you try reactivating it?"
"Yeah. It's not working!"
This was an obvious cause for concern, but for some reason...Zero couldn't find the need to worry. If anything, he was starting to feel in quite a good mood!
Kai pointed off the trail towards a clearing they could barely see between a few trees. "The energy trail I saw was coming from over there. Wanna check it out?" Kai sounded more excited than worried as he said that.
"Let's go!" Zero headed straight off the trail without a second thought. Kai followed right behind him.
Wait, shouldn't I slip into the shadows in case there's an enemy? Zero suddenly thought. Nahh, I'm sure it's fine, he quickly waved off the thought.
They broke into the clearing and saw not a single enemy around - just a beautiful field of yellow flowers with really puffy petals. There was faint yellow specks of energy floating off of them and the closer they got, the stronger the smell was.
"See, no cause for concern." Kai said as he bent down and took in a deep sniff of one of the flowers. "Just some really nice smelling flowers. Take a sniff bud."
Zero plucked one of the flowers from the ground, closed his eyes, and took a huge sniff as he felt his body loosen up and relax almost instantly.
"Mmmm, this is probably the single greatest thing we've come across since we've entered this game." He said with a rare big smile.
"Agreed!"
Zero opened his eyes and felt his stomach drop - where there were once flowers was now a blood saturated ground and dismembered body parts scattered about. Everything instantly felt wrong as a dark figure stood in the center of the gory display.
He blinked and then everything was back to normal. Field of flowers and all.
"That...was strange.." Zero turned his head toward Kai. "Hey Kai, did you see-"
However, Kai was nowhere to be seen.
"Kai?" The good feeling that had taken him over just moments ago was slowly being replaced with a creeping anxiety.
Something is wrong, he thought.
No, I'm sure everything is fine, he thought almost simultaneously.
"Is everything really fine, player?"
Zero quickly looked up where the voice came from and couldn't believe what his eyes were showing him. Just as big and angry as he remembered, Askook descended out of the sky and landed across from him.