Chapter 61: Why?
They walked into the fortress after a short while and Lucas took the time to scan the place as he finally got a picture of where they were...
Spacious courtyard, fortified walls and people running drills preparing for whatever threat could manage to pass them...
As they walked, Lucas glanced backwards and towards Ryker. His gaze was fixed on him the whole time— staring at him somi intensely that his eyes practically bore holes into the back of his head. His gaze carried a not so subtle wariness of a man who refused to believe what he was seeing...
"You’ve been staring," Lucas said finally, falling behind Mark and Pyra as he turned to fully face him the moment they were led off toward the dining hall by a nervous looking guard. "Something on your mind?"
Ryker’s expression softened as he gave a light laugh. "No, not at all. I’m merely curious about our newest guest. You gave those golems quite a bit of trouble. You must be really powerful..."
"They gave me a bit of trouble too," Lucas said flatly. "Not sure what you’re implying."
"Nothing implied at all." Ryker fell into step fully beside him though the careful distance he kept suggested otherwise. "I’m simply interested in how a single ability managed something like that to produce that kind of result. Eleanor mentioned yours is great greatly limited. Glitched, even."
Lucas shrugged. "It works when it needs to."
"I can see that..." Ryker’s tone stayed light, though he was truly curious, "but fire alone doesn’t kill three Avallion Golems without considerable cost."
Lucas looked at him. "I had help. Didn’t you see?"
Ryker nodded. "I saw... but a part of me keeps asking: What exactly does [Ignition] do, precisely? I find myself genuinely curious."
Lucas felt the conversation slowly drift. Though it was subtle, it was still there, drifting toward territory he couldn’t afford to reach.
He knew where this was going. This conversation tilted toward a direction that would make Ryker realise that [ignition] wasn’t his only ability.
"Burns things," Lucas said, flatly again. "What do you think fire does in the first place?"
"A modest one I see...." Ryker’s smile remained as he spoke again: "Given the title the system saw fit to grant you, I’d have expected something more honestly..."
Lucas narrowed his eyes. "You know about my Modifer."
Ryker shrugged.."Eleanor told me. She sounded like she was proud and worried at the same time so I wanted to know more. Sorry if I tugged at something personal..."
Lucas met his gaze, trying to think of where this conversation was headed. Before he could voice a reply, Ryker spoke again:
I’d have thought a leader would understand that better than most."
"I’ll leave it be then. But if you want to talk about it again, I’ll be more than willing to listen...."
The rest of walk was in a certain uncomfortable silence and Lucas excused himself shortly after, the conversation leaving a bad taste in his mouth.
Ryker watched him go, composure holding perfectly steady right up until Lucas disappeared around the corner of the hall.
Then, alone in the quiet of his room he slammed his fist on the wall as he gritted his teeth.
"The Terror. Killed three golems that my own best fighters couldn’t even wound let alone kill. And Eleanor calls his system broken."
He paced across the room, jaw tight, trying to make sense of what jus happened. "Broken systems don’t produce results like that. Either she doesn’t know the truth, or she’s protecting something."
His mind wandered to the meeting outside the gate. The way Eleanor’s face lit up when she saw Lucas— an expression that he hadn’t seen on her face throughout the days that she stayed here...
He had spent five careful days building something with Eleanor, at least trying to...
Attention, flattery, countless ways he used to convince her to stay a little longer, then a little longer still.
But Lucas’ arrival threatened all of it in a single afternoon...
"She looked at him like he was the only person in that courtyard."
The thought left a sour taste in his mouth anger burned in his chest.
This wasn’t a matter of jealousy. This was rivalry...
"I won’t lose this," he said quietly, "Not to some fire wielding nobody the system decided to overhype."
He stood at the window for a long moment, watching the courtyard below where survivors moved through their days with the same hollow, careful obedience they always carried and something cold settled into his chest.
"If keeping her here means I have to do something I’d rather notthen that’s simply the cost of it."
He narrowed his eyes. "I didn’t want to do this but you leave me no choice..."
***
[Error]
[Error]
[Error]
[Player has failed to fall—]
Lucas— who tired to get some sleep looked at the system prompt in front of him and frowned.
"Fall? Fall where, exactly..."
Even as he asked that, the system didn’t offer any answers. It just floated there, it’s crimson interface glitching as the words sat there in taunting silence.
He clicked his tongue and closed the system.
"Stupid system..."
***
The days that followed passed quietly, but something about it didn’t feel right...
More of their people came in over the following week — survivors who’d scattered during the drop, drawn by the same map that had guided Lucas, Mark, and Pyra to the fortress gates.
Iris arrived on the third day, and Jed turned up exhausted but whole two days after that.
Each arrival should have felt like good news. Instead, Lucas found himself watching the growing crowd as too many of Eleanor’s people settler into Ryker’s fortress like it was where they wanted to spend the rest of lives
By the end of the week, about half their original Faction had gathered within Ryker’s walls, but the sight of it sat wrong in Lucas’s chest as he walked across the field.
[56 people from your faction has made it to the marked faction zone]
"We came here to find each other. Not to move in."
He found Eleanor near the training yard, watching a group of Ryker’s fighters run fighting drills.
She stood there quiet with her arms crossed. Nodding her head where she was satisfied and giving pointers where she wasn’t.
"We should talk," Lucas said, stopping beside her.
"About?"
"Leaving." He kept his voice even. "It’s been over a week, Elle. Half our people are here now. I think it’s time we get moving, back toward our own Faction Zone, or wherever the system wants to take us next. Staying here longer doesn’t make any sense."
Eleanor turned to look at him properly, and her expression carried a kind of confusion that suggested that she hadn’t thought about it.
"Leaving," she repeated slowly,"Why would we leave?"
Lucas blinked. "Because... Elle, this isn’t our Faction. We have our own people and our own fortress. We came here to regroup, not settle in."
She studied him for a long moment before replying:
"Ryker’s people need the help," she said finally. "I’ve barely started fixing what’s broken here. Leaving now would mess up everything I’ve been trying to do."
"Eleanor. You don’t owe Ryker anything just because he let you stay a few nights. This isn’t your Faction to fix."
"It’s not that simple."
"It kind of is."
"Why?" she said finally, quiet, and something in the way she said it like she was genuinely searching, like she couldn’t understand why Lucas wanted to leave sent a chill crawling up Lucas’ spine and filled him with fear that had nothing to do with the beasts he had fought and died so many times to.
"Why does it matter so much that we leave?"