Chase sighed in defeat, walking far behind the rest of the group.
Andrew was currently leading the group known as Unity towards what was supposedly a new hideout where they could also watch the firework festival from afar without being spotted by the guards of Seh Jenah.
Chase sighed again, looking onward as his allies conversed as they walked through the forest that separated Seh Jenah from what appeared to be a large clearing beyond the treeline.
And beyond that clearing, Chase's jaw suddenly dropped in amazement.
The sight of a colossal mountain... Torn through its center as if sliced by the largest sword in existence...
But more than that...
Chase had not been able to see this mountain only a minute or two ago...
'So how?' He thought, tilting his head before a bandaged arm was thrown around his shoulders.
"You good?" Equan asked with a grin, now walking alongside Chase.
"Where did that come from?" Chase asked with a shrug.
"Dunno, you just seemed out of it, is all." The archer shrugged back.
Suddenly, Equan looked into Chase's eyes and decided to look in that direction as well.
"What the hell?!" Equan stopped in his tracks once he realized the impossibility before them.
"Right?" Chase chuckled, quickening his pace to catch up to the rest of the group.
Eventually the large convoy made their way through the clearing, before stopping just shy of the mountain's base.
Andrew outstretched his arms, before the entire group of Unity along with Jack and Rayan who had accompanied them as well.
"I'd like to welcome you all... To my true home." Andrew let out a satisfied sigh as everyone noticed the tucked away campsite halfway up the right side of the split mountain.
"We have to climb that?" Justin asked, already looking more exhausted than he had ever looked in a battle.
Chase blinked, remembering a strange visual of Justin that was most certainly not one of his memories.
He blinked again, and the image faded just as fast as it had first come.
"Yo!" Jack called out, shoulder checking Chase just hard enough to knock his balance but not make him fall.
Luckily, Gideon had been standing in front of Chase, so when his body weight suddenly got caught by gravity, Gideon had turned around at the sound of a yelp and caught Chase by the back of his collar.
"Ow." Chase frowned, being pulled back to his feet like some sort of cat.
"How did you manage to trip on flat land?" Gideon asked with a look of confusion, only to turn his head slightly and spot the innocent whistling of Jack of House Ember.
Chase's frown deepened as the group began to ascend up the mountain, but now Chase was walking in a group of four with Jack, Equan, and Gideon.
"Ya know? That duel in the coliseum was pretty epic..." Gideon told the two of them, his eyes almost revealing some sort of inspiration.
Chase frowned.
Equan; however, grinned ear to ear.
"Do you think Lizzy will count that as a win for me?" He asked, stroking his chin with true thought being put into that question.
"So you can live out your weird fantasies? Hell no." Jack groaned, rolling his eyes with dismissal.
Gideon; however, was looking at Chase with a strange amount of focus in his narrowed eyes.
"How did you lose?" He eventually asked after an awkward five or so minutes of climbing and walking up steep slope after steep slope.
Chase bit his tongue, frustrated at the fact that Gideon had decided to bring this up now of all times.
"Because..." He said, unable to finish his wording.
Gideon frowned.
"Sorry, I didn't mean any offense." He shook his head, quickening his pace and putting a hand on Hans' shoulder, seemingly whispering something into his ear.
Chase paid it no mind, and instead slowed his own pace, allowing Jack to naturally begin walking on his left, and Equan still in his own internal world at Chase's right.
"So..."
"So..."
The two waited, lowering their tones as their eyes began to shine with a hidden fire.
"Tonight... Before the last the couple fireworks go off... We will sneak down the mountain and back into Seh Jenah. And in doing so, we will go through those same tunnels that brought us to the first safehouse: And we will descend into the depths beneath the coliseum, and there you can free the Beast kin being held in the dungeons." Jack said, his face as still and picturesque as the bloody water within Chase's own internal realm.
"What about you?" Chase asked, feeling a gnawing suspicion begin to creep into his mind.
Jack smiled, looking up at the split twin mountain peaks above them.
"I have a task of my own that needs completion..." And with that, Jack didn't say another word throughout the rest of the night.