Twenty vol.2

"So how are we splinting things?" Elsa asked as the three walked.

"Hmm. . ." Rose couldn't give a definite answer. At once, she wanted to say 'evenly', which would seem like the correct answer, but there was more to things than that. She raised her right hand and glanced at the sigil at its back.

"I think Rose should continue to store all the mana orbs and use any amount she wishes to at any moment when we enter and are still within the dungeon," Crimson eyes forward, Lilias spoke without missing a beat. It seemed money, though needed, wasn't what she valued the most when she entered the dungeon. "After we exit, then we can divide it evenly, and each person may choose what they wish to do with their share."

Rose turned a glance at the visage of the dragonian whose tail floated above the ground. She remembered that the girl wanted her help in killing the so-called Crimson Dragon that resided somewhere within Alos's Great Dungeon. She couldn't decide, however, whether her generosity was of pure kindness or due solely to the wish for aide.

A whistle caught her ears.

"Wow, you're kinda nice?" Elsa questioned, glancing at Lilias. "But that makes sense. Even when she wins, Rose always comes out of fights battered."

"I can't tell if you're praising me or not. . ." Rose rolled her eyes as her hand lowered. "Besides, it's not always, the previous battle was won quite easily."

Elsa laughed. "That's just an odd one."

On that note, Rose agreed with her friend. Indeed, there would surely be times within the dungeon when she would need to use mana channelling, or heal, and that would quickly drain her supply of mana orbs.

"Thank you," She said towards Lilias.

"It's not a problem," The dragonian replied, expressionless.

'Did her tail just quiver?' Rose raised a brow. She ran through the instance in her mind and, indeed, she was certain the girl's tail shook for a moment.

The three continued walking, fast approaching the source of the sparking lightning and crackling thunder ahead. And as the flashes of hot white littered the sky, and the trio took their steps in strides, Rose's world blurred.

'Oh oh,' She thought.

One moment, she was walking through a ravine. The next, she was trekking within a forest, the sun beating down from the large leaves overhead, and her body weaving between trees that could put the small width of the shacks belonging to the Lanxin Desert to shame. It was a surreal thing to experience for the second she was still in control of her body, then she heard the voice besides her.

"Rite of age. Rite of passage. Rite of ritual. And rite of knowledge," Bianca spoke curtly, enunciating each rite with a detached but uncaring tone. "So many traditions boggling things down. I wish they'd simply give me the test already."

She turned her head upwards.

"It's a bit annoying when I'm practically already ready to become a guardian. How long is it going to take at this rate? Are they waiting for the trees to wither first?"

Rose Igris Blake turned to her sister and smiled. As always, Bianca was someone with unmatched ambitions, and the potential and intellect to make it a reality. Becoming a guardian of the Forgotten Forest was a bar as high as reaching Rose's strength and status. It required the power and will to lead, protect, and guide the two elven races. Though there could only exist three guardians—each for the three rings of fate—aside for time, most were sure she was next in line.

She reached out a hand and patted her sister's head.

"Well," She grinned, "When the time comes, and I retire, I'll cheer you on. Perhaps you will be my counter, an Ice Goddess of the Battlefield, freezing a path for our race."

Of course, Rose knew she was lying. It was always a lie. The time to watch her sister grow to take her mantle would never come. She was, after all, destined to die. Bianca's confident smile brightened, however, and that meant the world to Rose, more than anything else. More than her need, Fate's need, to cherish truth.

"Mhmm," Her sister nodded, hiding her exhilaration behind the cold calmness she was known for. "I'll follow after you."

Rose's smile was a forlorn one as she guided a lock of blonde hair from Bianca's face. She gingerly grasped her sister's head and placed hers forward until their foreheads touched.

"Don't follow me," She whispered, voice soft so that it may reach Bianca's heart, "Allow the weavings of the intangible web of Fate to guide you. In Merim, all life has its own destiny. And when my path ends. . .I hope you abide by my will."

Bianca rolled her eyes.

"Please, I'm not childish. I won't do something so silly as to tempt reality and go against the natural laws," She said as their azure eyes locked, "I've heard it a million times over, my Gear's final is to be used at most to speak, and provide closure, with the dead, before they are allowed to pass on."

Certainly, her Gear, at its most powerful, gave her the ability to freeze someone from death, keeping their soul within the physical realm as mana that could be interacted with, but she didn't think she would ever need it to save Rose—if there even was a way to revive a being. Bianca didn't believe there existed someone or something capable of killing her sister. Rose Igris Blake wasn't called a goddess of the battlefield for nothing. Enraged, her sheer might was a calamity.

She, deep within, respected her sister above anyone. Degrading her name, tarnishing her image, and spitting upon her will, were not things that would ever cross her mind.

"No." Rose was certain, however. "You'll try. And you may succeed."

The world blurred back into focus and the ravine revealed itself once more.

'So I was aware that I would die and Bianca would try and revive me. . .' Rose thought. Then stopped, feet braking in their tracks. I was aware, she had thought, me, she had thought, and that shook her core. She, for that moment, had seen herself as her past.

"Hmm? Rose? Are you alright?" Elsa turned her head and reached out a hand.

Rose nodded. "I'm fine."

Though she only experienced one event in her memory, she actually took in a plethora of information. From the emotions. Thoughts. And desires of her past self. She was indeed 'regaining' herself.

"I'm fine," She said once more.

Still, Elsa took her hand and pulled her forward, both easily returning to pace with a stopped Lilias.

"We're already here," The dragonian said, pointing a finger forward."

The two glanced below and noticed that the ravine sloped down, entering into a large hole between two tightly-knit cliffs.

"So that's it huh. . ." Elsa spoke, "I'll give it a plus on flashiness."

"It's a fully mature Lightning Wolf," Lilias added. "Rare."

The only thing residing there was a silver wolf. Even from a distance, they could tell that it was large enough to tower over the three of them. The creature was asleep, but its body glowed with light as lightning crackled around it. Some struck the ground, borrowing holes, and others shot into the air, echoing with thunder.

Then, its nose sniffed, and its crimson eyes opened.

Rose locked gazes with the beast and a part of her scoffed at it.

'I've fought better.' Somewhere deep, somewhere where her pride still stood a part of her, she thought that. 'And I'll continue to slay better.'

She took a step forward, <Igris> burning to end its path, and, in that moment, she realized, the sword that had named itself carried the will of her past. It was clear, then, that Bianca had separated her memories, what made her her, and her direct soul and was only now piecing the two back together.

'She didn't simply shut me down and wait, so she needed me alive and about for the process. . .she said I should return less pathetic, so she wanted me stronger,' Rose thought, already theorizing from the fact that her weapon named itself 'Igris' and the realization that her past self was Rose Igris Blake. 'Does the two parts of myself perfectly fusing back together somehow require my continued use of <Igris> and a stronger self?'

It was ironic, she thought. She needed to use and wield <Igris> to survive in this world and find a way out of erasure. But, though a conjecture, perhaps, it might also be the key to erasing her so long as she continued forward.

She stared forward as the three's feet touched the sloped surface of the hole. Behind the wolf, there was an imaginary door, glowing white.

The creature stood, coming back from slumber, and every bit of lightning receded, disappearing as if mere illusions.

It growled.

Then.

A crackle rang and a wolf in the form of a lightning bolt crossed meters in a single step. Thunder echoed and its teeth were already clamping down upon them.