Chapter 69

Hall of the End - 99th Run

“I really wish I could meet this Gabrielle and Tommy,” Sara said wistfully as she stared at me over the table. We still sat hand in hand, though I could tell she was starting to feel restless with this setup. “They always sound like such great people.

“I wish I could bring other people, too, but your golden portal only allows one to pass through,” I replied, squeezing her hands. “Remember when I tried to bring a few people in with me early on?”

“The portal nearly ripped your arm clean off.” Sara grimaced and shook her head. “No, this place is only for the one who makes it here first. You keep standing in the place it appears, so you’re always the first one here.”

“Well, can’t say I haven’t tried to bring you some of your favorite people,” I said with a shrug.

“And I appreciate it. This is just the way my existence is.”

I watched as Sara’s smile grew sad and her halo dimmed, and I released one of her hands to snap open my inventory. This got her attention and she watched me with interest. Finding what I was looking for, I pulled out a small, gray stereo.

“Sexy saxophone music?” she asked, tilting her head.

“No, you already vetoed that,” I said with a chuckle. After placing it on the table, I stood up and offered her my hand. She accepted it and stood up with me. “This is a different type of music. Some might say that it has the same purpose, but I haven’t thought that for a long while.”

“Do you just have a bunch of stereos with different music already loaded into them?”

“Yeah, because why not?” I asked. “I have hundreds on hundreds of pounds worth of inventory space, so there’s no need to be stingy about bringing the necessities of life. Music is important for mental health, you know?”

“Your people do put a lot of stock in music,” she admitted. “Playing it, listening to it, dancing to it…” Her voice trailed off as she saw my stance. I had not let go of her hand, and I bowed my body slightly. Reaching towards the stereo, I hit play.

A beautiful orchestra began playing, filling the golden halls with the glorious music made for dancing. “May I have this dance, Sara?” I asked, leaning down further to kiss the back of her hand.

“Oh, I don’t… I don’t know how to dance. I'm a fighter, not a lover,” she claimed. Although she looked nervous by the prospect of doing something that she had no practice in, her halo had returned to its wonderful shine. Regardless of the look on her face, she squeezed my hand. “But, perhaps you could show me?”

I smiled softly at her and pulled her in. “Let’s keep this simple, because it’s going to be a learning experience for both of us.”

Sara allowed me to move her into position with her hand on my shoulder and mine on her waist. “Not a great dancer?” she asked.

“No, no, I’m phenomenal,” I said with just a hint of ego. “I’ve never danced with someone with wings before, let alone three pairs. Or a halo, for that matter. It’s going to be interesting. How big is your wingspan, anyway?”

“Ant, you can’t just ask an angel for their wingspan,” Sara scoffed, tapping me on the shoulder with her hand. When I started looking at them to try to gauge for myself, she pulled them in so they were resting. “And no guesstimating, either.”

I smiled back at her and began leading her through the steps of a simple slow dance. “Wings are almost as important as your soulfire hair to angels, aren’t they?”

Sara hesitated, but nodded. “Almost. You can tell where each angel stands by three things. The sheen of their halo, the size and count of their wings, and the brilliance of their hair.”

“That makes sense. I think the only angel I’ve seen that comes close to you is Malphazarin, the-“ I cut off my sentence when Sara began squeezing my shoulder. Looking down into her eyes, I saw her looking up at me with an arched eyebrow, and a memory from centuries before hit me. “Right, you’re not supposed to talk about other angels, are you?”

Sara shook her head. “It’s a rule I'm bound by, and once again I ask that you don’t pry into the rule or its necessity.”

I found myself pursing my lips before smiling, trying to disguise my disappointment. I raised our hands high and guided her into a twirl. Sara’s wings were pressed as tightly to her back as she could make them, and I didn’t have to take any extra effort to avoid them unlike the halo. When she was at arm’s length, she extended her wings away from me and spun them around herself when I twirled her back for the dip.

As I pulled her up, I leaned my forehead against hers. “I liked that part with your wings. You don’t have to pack them so tightly if it feels restrictive; I’ll work around them.”

“They’re okay for now,” she said, nuzzling her nose against mine. “But stretching them out felt right.”

I nodded. “Dance is an expression of who you are, so by all means do whatever feels right.”

“Whatever feels right?” she asked, looking up at me. When I nodded again, she leaned upwards and kissed me gently. She stopped moving, and so did I, as the kiss lingered. It wasn’t with the same primal urge that I had been surprised to find out angels were capable of like before, but it still conveyed exactly what she wanted it to. When we parted, she placed her head against my chest and we begun to sway. Her wings suddenly enveloped us, covering me in a sphere of softness big enough that I could still take steps in.

Impressive wingspan, indeed. We began dancing again. Just a simple back and forth this time. No more spins or twirls, just holding each other and enjoying the other’s presence. I couldn’t help but notice that her halo kept growing in brightness and dimming, and I kissed the top of her head.

“Are you alright?” I asked, resting my head on her own.

“I am,” she said. “I like dancing, but I think I’d like to practice more before dancing with you.”

Even though we had only just started, I nodded. “Whatever you want to do, Sara,” I told her.

“You should dance with Maria or Klaske during your next run,” she said softly. “Or even Marco; he’s in Mexico and that’s close enough, right? I might pick up an interest in it and practice.”

“I’m not sure if that’s really feasible,” I said with a light chuckle. Klaske almost always made it to the end game, but Maria Sarris was a Greek woman who would end up dying in Barcelona without intervention. Marco Perez, at least, might dance with me but that would be a hard sell as well. However, I shrugged. “I’ll do my best to get you interested in dancing without blowing my cover. Then, when I make it back here, we’ll…”

My voice trailed off. I would be able to dance with Sara, then. And then… I didn’t know.

There had been two constants in my time looping through the system. At the beginning of every iteration was Etson. It wasn’t the perfect place by any stretch of the imagination, but it was home. Throughout the centuries I had tried so many different things that I swore I could have met each individual survivor and recruited them for one purpose or another. Remembering names and faces would be impossible, but they were my people. Once I left them, I would always be able to come back so long as I set things in motion correctly. After the system, I could return.

But that wasn’t something I could be assured of for Sara. I didn’t know what would happen to her after I finally made that wish. A hollow feeling of loss suddenly filled me at the thought of it. It felt strange, like wearing someone else’s coat; I thought I had become immune to this feeling over the years. I pushed it back down deep, trying to fixate on the angel I held in my arms now as the only thing that mattered.

“You’ll be okay, Ant,” Sara said soothingly, as if she knew what I was thinking. She rubbed my back with her hands and pulled me even closer.

“I know, it’s just hard,” I admitted.

“Let’s get back to the planning, shall we?” she asked lightly, lifting her head to look at me. “That’ll give you something to distract yourself with and, let’s be honest, I’m pretty invested in the story of Etson now.”

Giving Sara a small smile, I nodded and began to let her go. She pulled me into a nearly crushing hug, showing off a strength that did not fit her frame, before letting me go. When her wings retracted I saw that she had changed the Hall of the End again, bringing back the couch though the table with my stereo was still there. She led me to the furniture and pushed me onto it, sitting on my lap afterwards.

“You sure you want to get that cozy?” I asked her, raising an eyebrow.

“Let’s get back to worse case scenarios, shall we?” she asked, dodging the question. I chuckled, and she set her head on my shoulder. In return, I wrapped my arms around her waist.

As if just realizing her hair was still up from dinner, Sara's bun fell away to let it cascade against her back. It was as long as I’ve ever seen it, and I smiled at her. The changes didn’t stop there as her dress also shifted into a white tank top and shorts that stopped just above her knees. I stared down at her, blinking. I wasn’t sure if she’d ever shown me this much skin before.

“You alright, Ant?” she asked, and I could swear I saw her smirk for a moment.

“Just surprised,” I said lamely. “You’re really letting your hair down, so to speak.”

It didn’t seem she caught my gaze, or if she did she didn’t care because she simply shrugged. “This outfit looked comfortable on Earth, and I wanted to try it out. Is it working to sufficiently distract you from your gloomy feelings?”

“It sure is,” I said quickly and honestly.

"Good," Sara responded as she flashed me a brilliant smile. “So what would be the head count on Vespae at this point?”

I turned my head away from the distraction and let out a breath as I thought about it. “Okay, so, if we’re going by the same scenario as before, then the three Royal Guardwasps would be taken out. That’d be Krinkee-“

“The bombardier alchemist one,” Sara said.

“Right. I’d take her out with the Juggernaut. One of the Tumblers would take out Fertro.”

“The shaman one.”

I took both of her hands in one of mine, my other hand gently scratching her back. “And in this scenario a mysterious third person would take out Zeros.”

“And he’s the sniper one,” she said. “You took his class before, didn’t you?”

I nodded. “It’s a heavy ordinance class called Shadow Sniper,” I replied. “The Stinger Rifle he drops on death is a growth type weapon that offers a few worthwhile skills if allowed to grow. Its base form is okay, but it can turn into a monster with enough boss kills.”

Sara nodded along, though I knew it was out of politeness. While I didn’t know the specifics, I knew she could mentally ask the system things and get answers. If she was actually interested in the Stinger Rifle or Shadow Sniper class, then she could have figured it out. Having something to explain was helping return my mood, though, so I continued.

“Let’s see, those are the first three special Vespae that we come across, and when I go to save the Kobolds then I’m dealing with Talspra.”

“She’s the tricky trapper one.”

“Yup. Doesn’t drop a class, though, which is fine,” I continued. “The three from the main scenario gave out classes and the queen will, but her and Jickree-“

“The tormentor.”

“-don’t have classes for beating them,” I said, smiling at her interruptions.

“Should someone get Krinkee’s class?” Sara asked, pursing her lips in thought. “You’re going to have the Warmind class, so it’s not like you’ll need it.”

I brought my arms up to make an X. “Denied,” I said swiftly before putting my arms back. “Alchemy and bombs are tough to work with, and a single mistake will wipe you out. There are very, very few people that I would trust with an alchemy based class that isn’t a pure healer because of how destructive and potent they are. Extra killing power sounds nice until you have a Manhattan Project blowing up an entire city.”

“What’s a Manhattan Project?”

Grimacing, I squeezed her hands. “That’s where we Americans created the nuclear bomb, which is a whole other can of worms that I’m not looking forward to.”

“That… wasn’t a very fair scenario,” she said softly.

“While I’m one to say that the system isn’t very fair at all, that one was particularly unfair, yes.”

Sara reached up and kissed my cheek. “Okay, so we’ve got a head count of five special soldiers of the Vespae army, what’s next?”

“So, the best tactic that I’ve found works is to start burning the forest down,” I said. “Serranras would be out of the way, as would the Kobolds. I can lean Francis into taking a fire based class when I help him and his sister against the Coalem Colossus. He’d be ecstatic to help.”

“Fire is always good,” the biased angel claimed, her flaming hair glowing brighter as she said it.

[[Notice]]

Wondrous Beginner’s Survival Kit has been created and added to your inventory.

I shifted Sara so that she was sitting more on my leg and swiped away the notification. “It’s almost time,” I said quietly. Impulsively, I poked her in her now exposed stomach, causing her to cover it with both hands. The simple reaction caused me to chuckle. “You going to tell me what the boon does now? We’re getting close.”

Sara vehemently shook her head and pouted. Her tank top grew longer until it turned into an actual shirt, and I immediately regretted my action. “No, I’m not going to tell you yet. You haven’t finished telling me about the fight with the Vespae hive.”

“Okay, fair,” I conceded with a laugh at her tone. “So I take Francis and Elder Tet, maybe a few more for bodyguards, and set up away from the camp I’ll lead the Kobolds to. We start burning down the forest, and they’ll send wasps to investigate. With Jickree dead, they’ll probably send someone else though guessing who isn’t really feasible. Betin the Fairyfly gets sent a lot if it’s the morning, but it could also be Crausdel, the Emerald Wasp. I’m kind of hoping it is Crausdel, at least, since she looks so much like the queen that the human forces might go out of their way to make her a priority. But that’s neither here nor there, at the ambush I can use my Straw Hat of the Seer to target the Vespae who come through the smoke and take them out.”

“Do they send a big contingent?” Sara asked.

“Not so big, but it consists of their scouts. With this distraction and their debilitating sense of superiority, the rest of the army from Etson will be able to make it through mostly unopposed and arrive at the hive’s doorstep before they have a chance to defend themselves for a siege.”

“And that’s where the queen is.”

“That’s right. The Vespae queen is the most dangerous, but we have to take out her biggest guardwasp before we take her down otherwise she becomes the most dangerous.”

Sara nodded. “She flies into a berserker state if the queen dies first, correct?”

I grimaced. “You got it. Depending on my methods of transportation going into the war, I’ll have to warn Tommy and Gabrielle to watch out for Ylstin, the Tarantula Hawk Vespae. After all, there’s a reason why she’s the queen’s body guard.”