Darian fell asleep in the middle of the base, not on a proper bed, just there on the sand. Suddenly he heard some voices, like if someone was calling him. "Darian…" said a voice; it looked like Liro's one. "Wake up Darian… we have to go," said another voice. Now it was coming from Kael.
Both these voices seemed really calm, like they were talking to a child who had to wake up to go to school. 'Mhmm, other five minutes, I'm still tired…' thought Darian. He wanted to say it too, but once he was about to speak he felt a tongue on his face.
Darian, scared, immediately opened his eyes and noticed Snowy on top of him. Around him there were all his friends, waiting for him to wake up. "Oh, guys…" said him as he slowly got up, still a bit dizzy from the fact that he just slept without a bed in the desert, right in the middle of the base.
"What happened, Darian?" asked Tauren as he gave him a hand to get up. Snowy, realizing that Darian was getting on his feet, chose to jump down near his feet so as not to fall. Before answering, Darian looked around, and behind all of his friends noticed Eros.
With his look, it seemed like he was saying, 'Don't forget about yesterday night, Darian.' Darian, understanding, came up with something else. "Oh, you know, I couldn't fall asleep because of all the things that happened recently…" started speaking Darian while creating an excuse.
It seemed everyone was believing it, though. "I went out to go for a walk… but I guess I completely fell asleep while I looked up at the sky," added him. Everyone now understood what happened.
"Hey, Eros, it's weird that you're having breakfast at this hour. Didn't you wake up early this morning?" asked Jaune as he grabbed a fruit and washed it before eating it. "Oh, well, you see…" said Eros, looking down at the chest with so many fruits that Rusty had grown all over the years. "I actually woke up later than usual today, ahah," said him with probably the fakest smile ever, but luckily Jaune did not notice that.
After 30 Minutes
"Well, I guess we will go; we have to return to Skar-Zhul," said Darian as he placed the backpack on his shoulder. Then he helped Snowy getting on top of it, too. "Yeah…" said Eros as he watched over Rusty. Suddenly he bowed down towards him.
"Thank you for having us Shakurns here," said him as he opened his hand and gave it to Rusty, who simply shook it. "There is no need to worry; you're always a guest here, also if you don't have Darian with you," answered Rusty. Darian seemed a bit annoyed.
"Hey, remember that this base is still mine…" said him, watching over the sky, clearly bothered. "Master…" said Rusty as he went towards Darian, "You didn't even spend more than a year here, while I spent around 500 years here by myself. I guess I can take these types of decisions by myself…" added Rusty with his metallic voice.
Darian understood that he was right, also if he did not want to say that he's right. Rusty, understanding that his owner did not want to admit it, simply returned to his previous position to wave at everyone. "Well, then I hope you have a safe return, everyone," said Rusty as he waved towards everyone with his two hands. Everyone did the same.
Darian was walking behind everyone. "Thank you, Rusty, for creating such a thing," said Darian, referring to the big room Rusty created right under the house.
"Don't worry, master," said Rusty as he already turned around. Both of them looked towards different directions, and Darian reached his group. Many days passed. Everyone took it slower. They were able to win, also if they just had one single loss.
It took around 9 days for them to return. From Skar-Zhul to Darian's base, it took around 7 days of walk to get there, but this time they wanted to enjoy each other's company, not knowing when they will meet again, or when the two cities might work again together. At the morning of the ninth day, everyone spotted a huge white tower.
Knowing that it was one of the towers of Skar-Zhul, they all walked faster. "We're finally here, guys!" said Nysira as she got really happy to get back to her city. She had been away for so long; she couldn't control her excitement.
"THEY ARE HERE!!" shouted a voice from one of the white towers. Suddenly a fire was turned on, and the others followed, too. There was this custom in Skar-Zhul: once the Shakurns were all away on a mission, there was someone on each of the white towers. Once they would see the Alterids back, they would turn on the fire on the towers, to symbolize that they had returned.
Everyone gathered around the main entrance. Knowing that there were also the Alterids from Therya, they wanted to see and acclaim all of the soldiers who returned victorious. Eros was the first one to enter into the huge doors. "Welcome back, Shakurns!" shouted the two guards at the guard of the city.
The first one to enter were the Alterids from Skar-Zhul, then followed by the Therya's ones. As Eros took his first step, everyone clapped really hard. All the city was extremely happy to see their heroes back. As everyone entered into the city, the claps grew even stronger, but suddenly the mass noticed that someone was missing in the Alterids from their own city.
In fact, right after them entered the ones from Therya, but all of them noticed that someone was missing: Allen. As the doors behind them closed, understanding that no one would arrive anymore, many people could not hold their tears and they were moved by knowing that Allen died. "Why didn't we ever have anything like this in Therya…" said Darian, a bit annoyed by the fact that all of the Shakurns were called here as they returned to their city, differently from the Veilguards in Therya.
"Well, you know… our city is extremely small compared to theirs," answered Kael. Darian could only agree with his point. At the end of the huge crowd, there were the four Mayors, waiting for them. Around them there was a huge stage, so that they would be able to tell around the city what happened in their expedition.
"Welcome back, our heroes," greeted them the voice of People. All the Alterids got up on the stage. "Hello, everyone!" said Eros, the leader of the Skar-Zhul. Everyone went silent and returned to listen to him.
"As you might have noticed before, we were able to save Nysira, who got kidnapped in the latest war fought here, underground." Eros began his speech. He waved at Nysira to get more in front.
Everyone noticed that she had this bandage on her eye, understanding that she might have lost it during the war. But the people all remained surprised to see that the bandage on her eye was so much cool. 'Eh, Rusty, you made a really great job creating that… everyone loves it,' thought Darian as he remained extremely surprised to see a huge crowd this much happy.
The last time he saw it was when he had to go to XERBAB-7… Darian's mind was full of memories of when the earth was still normal, but now it was not the time to think about it.
Nysira, hearing the claps towards her, could not help but feel a bit moved by it. Some tears started to flow down her only eye. "THANK YOU, EVERYONE!" shouted her. Everyone clapped even harder. As they returned silent, Eros took again the word.
"But as you have probably noticed, someone is missing," said him as he looked down. Everyone understood who they lost, so the crowd immediately turned sad.
"I would ask you to make a minute of silence for our friend… Allen, who died in this war," said him as he closed his eyes. Someone did the same. Other people were looking up in the sky, trying not to be sad; others were looking down at the ground, really sad. As the minute passed, counted by Eros, he started to clap his own hands. Everyone did the same, too.
The crowd, understanding that it might be over, started to go away, but they were surprised to hear what Eros just told them. "Everyone, please stop. I have another important announcement to make," said Eros. Everyone, surprised, turned towards him. The crowd formed once again. Even the Alterids behind him were shocked to hear that. "What do you think he wants to say?" whispered Nysira in Jaune's ear. "I don't know… but I'm curious," answered Jaune, whispering, too. They returned their attention towards Eros, who waited to speak, at least not until he got the attention of everyone.
"As you might have noticed, I'm getting old. I'm around 60 years old and my body can barely keep up with all this moving…" said Eros. Everyone understood what he wanted to say. The Alterids from Skar-Zhul had tears in their eyes. No one knew what he was about to say, except for Darian, who was able to hold his tears back for all the speech, also if he wanted to cry, but he resisted.
"With this, I want to say that I will soon retreat as an Alterid. My body has grown tired and can barely keep up with all of this, but before this!" said him. Everyone kept listening. "I want to say thank you to you all, that you believed in me, that you trusted me at the command of this beautiful group," said Eros as he turned around towards the Shakurns, who all had tears in their eyes, even someone like Bianca.
"But this is not the end. In fact, I have already chosen the successor for this group," said Eros and he focused his eyes only on Tauren, who could not hold back his tears from the emotion. "Tauren, please come here," said Eros gently.
He could barely hold back his tears. Tauren walked slowly as he dried the tears flowing down his eyes. He stood in front of this huge crowd. He did not know what to say. "I'm really sorry, everyone… but I think I have done enough in my life for now. We should leave everything to the next generation of people; they will be enough to make this city become perfect!" yelled Eros before finishing his speech.
Everyone started to clap really hard. "B-but boss…" said Tauren in a low voice. Eros stopped him before he could finish the sentence. "You are the boss now," said Eros as he smiled warmly towards him and walked away. "EVERYONE, I PROMISE I WILL BE ENOUGH FOR THIS CITY!" shouted Tauren. Everyone clapped harder their hands.
After a few hours, everyone returned to the Shakurns' building. It was now really late and most of the people were in their own rooms… Eros was in the main room. He finished packing all the things he had there. Soon he would go to living in a new house around here. He was getting all the things that he had.
"Boss… no, Eros, are you really sure about this?" Eros heard a voice. As he got his head up, he noticed Tauren. "Yeah, I'm really sorry, everyone, but my time is finished," said Eros as he closed the package.
"Something else happened, right?" asked Tauren. Eros looked confused at that question. "What do you mean? I'm actually turning really old; I can't keep up with this anymore," said him, playing dumb, worried that Tauren might have understood.
"It might be right… but with your power you don't need to move a lot… are you sure there isn't something else?" asked Tauren, worried. Eros kept negating.
"I told you, Tauren… why would there be something else?" asked Eros. Tauren did not know anymore what to say. "Sorry, Eros… no, boss, let me call you like that the last time for tonight," said him, smiling a lot. His face was sad.
Knowing that they would lose another member made him only sad. "Thank you, Tauren… I'm sure you will be able to make this group and city bloom once again," said Eros, looking directly into his eyes. Tauren remained still, nodding.
While this happened, something else was currently happening, in front of Allocen's room…
"Do you need help, Bianca?" asked Allocen as he saw Bianca in front of his room. Allocen had his usual expression; he wasn't surprised at all.
"How were you able to see me the first time we met?" asked Bianca, referring to when they first met. Allocen completely spotted her also if she was camouflaged. No one would have ever be able to see her.
"I simply heard you," answered Allocen as he tried to skip her to enter in his room. "Now, if you can excuse me, I'm really tired… I want to go back to my room," added him.
Bianca let him pass, walking away with a clearly annoyed expression. 'It doesn't make sense… I didn't even make a small sound; how the hell was he able to hear me??' This thought stayed in Bianca's mind for all the night.