Medea was looking at the terror core in the hands of Mal. He had explained everything he could in the last 30 minutes to her. He was now sitting opposite to her, looking at her with his calm, tired eyes. His hand was reaching forward, giving her the terror core. She was scared but also knew it had to be done. She was decided, and so she gazed into the core.
Mal was worried about her. Worried she wouldn't overcome the existential terror and would succumb to it. But he did all he could. So now he was just watching her. She gazed into the core, screamed, and fell into his arms. He was startled, but he felt her chest rising and falling. She was alive and well. He let her use him as support, and she slowly rose to sit on her own after a while.
"Well?" Mal asked, tension in the air.
"It was horrible, horrible, but I have it. I formed a core and established a ring around it. Now I can fight!"
"Not so fast, lady, there is still a ton you have to do," Mal answered with a laugh.
With that, he gave her one more terror core and left one for himself. He closed his eyes, and after a while, the terror core crumbled in his hands. Medea knew what he was doing and she followed his example. She quickly found herself near her Wisdom core. It was beautiful. She flew around it for a while, doing flips and twists in the air. Then she finally stopped, broke the terror core, and watched as a new knot was made around her core.
Later that... day?... they were walking on the street. Mal should technically be in safety, but here around the walls there weren't even any wolves, so he was calm. They set out to find something they could use as training swords. Medea was walking happily by his side and suddenly asked:
"Mal, why do you have that moss around your umbrella? Is that, like, a stylistic choice?"
"What?" Mal couldn't help but laugh. "You don't know? Gosh, I am glad you didn't try to touch it then. It will send you into horrible agony. Truly, I never felt worse pain than when I tried to climb a wall and touched it with my foot. There's a ruler in the throne room—I call him the Moss King, but some picture in the past house I was in called him The King of Men—but nonetheless, he is the source of that moss. He must be at least rank 4."
Medea slowly smiled, knowing she absolutely hadn't wanted to touch it: "Well then, all we have to do is achieve rank 4 and then kill it."
"That's the plan."
They slowly walked into a bigger house where Mal thought they would find something. After a bit of searching and finding Medea lying in a bed—"Oh my god, get up, do you know how many bacteria will be there by now?"—they found two brooms. He cut them into the correct length and they were set.
Medea was happy the whole way back, and Mal was happy she was happy. That girl genuinely raised his happiness levels here in this world of death. He felt as if he knew her for a very long time by now, even when that wasn't the case.
When they got back, the others were already sitting around the fire, cooking meat and sipping tea. The old man was speaking of Alexander the Great again. He was talking about his military campaigns in Persia, about how he killed Darius the 3rd, and how he prevailed in battles where enemies outnumbered him twofold. It was clear he was linking his obsession with an appraisal of their hopeless fight at the small square dedicated to Saint Alter of Ir Za'avin.
When he stopped, they were silent for a bit, simply enjoying their dinner. Despite how vile and full of corruption and terror this place was, it was a calm and pleasant meal. The meat was actually tasty, and the tea was to die for. Well, they almost did—at least he and Leo.
The next surprise came from Thade. The young man, who was visibly shaken when they first met, now looked more committed. There were still horrors reflected in his eyes, but against all of that, he spoke to them, perhaps convinced by the heroic stories about Alexander the Great combined with their battle.
"I can also help. You are all doing your part, but I haven't done anything so far. I can... I can see rings when I look at monsters. That's what my glasses can do."
This was shocking but extremely welcoming piece of information. Mal and Leo had been strategizing for a long time on how exactly they would recognize a monster of the second rank when the time to kill one came. Now they didn't have to anymore. The situation resolved itself. Mal made a mental note to ask Leo to teach Thade how to fight while he taught his older sister.
'If he plans to come with us, he should be able to fend for himself. And also probably awaken a Wisdom core and learn some incantations while we're at it.'
"Is that why you were so scared, Thade?" asked Leo with a parental tone in his voice. "It's because you saw that the wolf was first rank?"
"No... no, that's not it. It was because I saw how vile that wolf was and how it nearly killed you. When that was just first rank... how am I meant to stay calm when we are constantly encircled by the red moss?"
"What do you mean by that, Thade?" asked Mal, leaning toward him. "Are you saying you can see the rank of the Moss King from here thanks to the moss itself?"
"Yes," Thade answered, visibly shaken. "It's 7th rank."
Those words lay in the air as heavy as a mountain.