The last thing Sero remembered before blacking out was the painful rage of Casey's death, so when he came back to his senses, he was not expecting Amaya to be kissing him.
Her lips were soft and warm against his, and for a moment, it felt like everything was alright. He froze, unsure of what to do, but then he felt her hands on his shoulders, gently pulling him closer. He let himself relax into the kiss, feeling a spark of something new and foreign ignite within him.
Around them, Sero's ghostly reptilian army faded away, the face card army dispersed into green dust, and Sting, Moss, and Lime were dismissed. The overwhelming power that had coursed through his body slipped from his body, leaving him weak and drained. But with Amaya's kiss still lingering on his lips, Sero didn't mind.
The Spellblade broke away, shyly glancing at him with a faint blush. "Are you... back to normal, now?"
Sero nodded, still feeling a little dazed, but relieved that the weight of his power had been lifted. He looked around, taking in their surroundings. Corpses littered the ground, filling the air with the stench of death. Nearby, Elizabeth cautiously stepped up to the pair with a nervous yet slightly jealous look.
"Everything... alright...?" she asked hesitantly. Sero glanced at her, then back at Amaya. He didn't know what to say. He felt like he had just been reborn, but the world around them was still a mess.
Amaya smiled gently at Elizabeth. "I think we'll be okay now," she said softly. Elizabeth seemed to relax a little at that, but there was still an unmistakable air of jealousy around her. She glanced at Sero and Amaya, unable to hide her curiosity.
"So, are you guys...?"
Sero glanced at her, not quite sure what she was asking. Amaya, however, seemed to understand. She placed a hand on his arm, giving it a gentle squeeze. "We're just friends," she said softly.
Although Elizabeth's expression didn't change much, Sero could sense a flicker of relief in her eyes. She nodded slowly, as if trying to convince herself that it was true. "Well, good," she said finally, her voice a little less uncertain. "I'm glad you two have each other."
However, Sero was left reeling and confused, his Perfect Analysis unable to help him process what had happened. Amaya kissed him... then said they were just friends? He couldn't make sense of it.
"Aside from that, we need to find a way out of this chamber," Amaya switched focus. "Sero, I know you can simply teleport us out, but..."
"Yeah," Sero pushed away his thoughts for now. "We should let the alliance know about this place. And..." He walked over to where Casey's corpse was, kneeling down to stare at the boy's lifeless form. "I... we need to take him out of here."
Amaya moved to stand beside him, her voice soft. "I know," she said, her hand resting gently on his shoulder. "We'll find a way."
As they walked around the chamber, searching for a way out, he glanced at Amaya occasionally, trying to discern her feelings through her expression. However, it seemed like she was back to her usual self, calm and collected.
A while later, Elizabeth gasped as her voice comm crackled to life.
"Empress? Do you copy?" Jack's voice emitted from the glowing disk on the chest plate of Elizabeth's armor.
Elizabeth frowned, her fingers hovering over the comm button. "Jack? Where are you?" she asked, her voice tense.
"Me and Yelena are at the location your suit is emitting," Jack's voice was saturated with static. "Our radars are saying we're right on top of you. We've got a couple members of the alliance here with us too."
"Is my little bookworm with you, Elizabeth?" Kit's voice butted in. "Is he safe?"
"Hey, Kit, I'm safe," Sero called out as he and Amaya jogged over to Elizabeth. "If what Jack's saying is true, then we might be stuck underground somewhere. Maybe you guys could find an entrance or something down here. Where are you guys?"
For a moment, there was silence on the other end. Amaya, Elizabeth, and Sero shared a worried look before Jack's voice came back hesitantly.
"Uh, that's the weird part. We're at the abandoned house. Seems like there was some kind of mechanism or magic that separated the surface and the underground."
Sero winced as he listened to Jack's explanation. "Okay, that's not good. We'll keep looking for a way out. But Jack, do you have any idea how to get to us?"
"Negative, dude. Kaizo's here scanning the area again. That guy seems really upset, like he's mad at himself for not being able to catch this. Will update y'all soon."
Sero glanced at Amaya, concern etched on his face. "So, that means... we're on our own for now?"
"Well, apart from all the bodies here, we're not in any danger," Amaya reassured him with a gentle squeeze of his arm. "We'll find a way out of here. Plus, I think you should rest."
"She's right," Elizabeth agreed, nodding at Amaya. "I can't imagine the toll it took on you to do... all of that."
Sero opened his mouth to protest, but then closed it. Although he didn't completely remember his rampage, the memories of what he did were slowly coming back to him. The sickening feeling in stomach was quelled by his Rationality as he silently complied, sitting down on the ground. Due to the Cat Paradox, he was physically fine aside from his exhaustion and mana depletion.
"Okay."
Sero leaned against the cold stone wall of the chamber, watching Amaya and Elizabeth as they searched for a way out. The room was eerily silent, save for the distant sounds of the others speaking through their comms. He closed his eyes, trying to rest, but his mind kept racing with thoughts of Casey and what he had done.
He could still feel the weight of the Soul Blade in his hands as he recalled how easily it cleaved through the Culling members and reanimated corpses alike. It was almost as if they were made of paper, shredding beneath the razor-sharp blade. The power he had felt was intoxicating, but it was tempered by the guilt that came with it. The most worrying part was the fact that his Rationality didn't stop his rage. In fact, it was almost as if it encouraged it, but that didn't make sense. The passive was supposed to keep him calm and collected, not drive him into a killing frenzy.
Sero hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep until he was gently nudged awake by Amaya.
"Hey, Sero, wake up! The alliance found us."
Sero opened his eyes, blinking several times to adjust to the light streaming in from above. He looked around, disoriented for a moment before recognizing Amaya and Elizabeth beside him. Ascendants were rushing around, carefully extracting the corpses of Culling members and the kidnapped children. Kaizo and Meredith were taking charge, instructing them on what to do.
"Casey!" Sero dazedly leapt to his feet, running over to where Casey's body was.
"Wait, Sero!" Amaya called after him as she followed close behind, Elizabeth struggling to catch up. "It's ok, they'll take care of his body!"
Sero didn't answer, his eyes still fixed on Casey's lifeless form as he reached it. He felt a strange mixture of emotions welling up inside of him; anger, guilt, despair. He dropped to his knees next to the boy's body, gently touching his face.
"I'm sorry, Casey," Sero whispered, his voice cracking. "I didn't mean to... I shouldn't have..." He choked back a sob, his hands trembling as they touched the boy's bloodied shirt. "I should have protected you... I should have found a way..."
Elizabeth gently placed a hand on Sero's shoulder, offering what comfort she could. "We all did what we could, Sero. There was no way we could have known what they were planning."
Sero looked up at her, tears streaming down his face. He wanted to believe her, but a small voice in the back of his head kept repeating the same words over and over: You should have found a way. You should have protected him. He wiped his face with the back of his hand, trying to compose himself.
"I know," Sero smiled weakly, his Rationality steadying his nerves. "It's just... hard." He took a deep breath, forcing himself to stand. "We should go. The others will want to know what happened."
As it turns out, Kaizo had found a runic symbol underneath the abandoned house, which served as a gateway to the underground chamber that they were in. However, the conditions needed to activate the portal required an injection of the dark energy from a banished god. Due to this, it made sense that Sero and the others couldn't detect it, since energies and magic hailing from the banished were almost completely hidden from the attention of Ascendants.
Upon learning this, Kaizo simply called over Kit, who immediately bypassed the conditions and forcibly opened the gateway to the underground.
The moment Sero and the others walked out into the evening, he was caught in the arms of Kit, who squeezed him tightly.
"Oh my god, I'm so glad you're safe!" the Paradox cried, her mismatched eyes etched with concern. "Why do you keep getting into situations like this?"
"It's not my fault!" Sero protested, laughing weakly. "It just sort of happens." He slumped his shoulders, still thinking about Casey. "I couldn't do more."
Kit fell silent, squeezing Sero a bit tighter. "I know," she murmured in his ear. "It's not your fault, my little bookworm. Things like this always happen, whether we expect it or not."
"Thanks, Kit," Sero managed a small smile as they broke apart. "So...what's next?"
"Well, judging by what Amaya and Elizabeth said, we can assume that the Culling is planning on bringing a Catastrophe over," Kaizo approached the group with a grim expression, "which means we need to find a way to stop them. But first, we should regroup at the association. We can discuss our next move once we're there."
The Archivist paused and glanced at Sero for a moment. "Are you feeling well?"
"I'm fine," Sero replied, understanding the undertones of the question. "Just...tired."
"You don't have to participate in the meeting if you need to rest," Kaizo offered quietly.
"No, it's fine," Sero said, forcing a smile. "I'll be okay." He took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves. "Let's go."
As everyone left to head to the Ascendants Association, Sero couldn't help but feel squeamish as he followed them. There were a lot of things on his mind, such as the way his Rationality seemed to encourage his frenzy, or how it immediately reasoned the horrors he had seen and done. But the biggest and most unnerving thought in his mind was the fact that despite not being able to copy skills that those who were serving that banished gods could use, there was one skill that he was able to copy in his rage.
For some reason, Sero had copied the 'Resurrect' skill from Dr. Malek, right before he got away.
The rest of the Pentagram leaders and the Janitors were already waiting in the conference room when Sero and the others walked in.
Sero took a seat directly across the table from Dante, who narrowed his eyes at him. To Dante's left were Meredith and Ione; on the right sat J'takk and Kaizo. Gregor, Enzo, Cassandra, Max, and Gwyndolyn filled the other seats as Amaya and Kit sat on either side of Sero. Elizabeth stood behind the group, flanked by Jack and Yelena.
"All right, everyone," Dante began. "I'm assuming everyone's up to speed, but I want to hear things from Sero." His eyes glowed neon green, casting Unbreakable Oath that was immediately nullified by Sero's Rationality. "If you would, Sero."
Sero took a deep breath before recounting everything that had happened when he and the two women got to the abandoned house. He choked up when he reached the part of Casey's death and Amaya had to step in to fill in the details. She downplayed Sero's resulting rampage, much to his gratitude, and Elizabeth finished with her report of the aftermath.
The room was silent for a long moment when they finished. Dante's expression was unreadable, but there was something in the set of his jaw that made Sero feel like he was in trouble. Finally, the Sin Reaper spoke. "I see. Well, it seems we have a new development. Sero, I want you to know that what you did there was reckless and foolish. You could have endangered all of us. Do you understand? This is why we agreed to keep you out of things."
Sero gritted his teeth. "Yeah... I get it."
"Wait, but if it wasn't for Sero, we wouldn't have known all of this," Enzo scowled, glaring at Dante.
"At the cost of many lives, yeah? Think that's still a good thing, mate?" J'takk countered, kicking up her boots on the table. "One of the kids was his friend, right?"
Enzo bared his teeth but didn't argue. Sero appreciated the Demonic Judge's defense, but they were right. If Sero hadn't pushed the investigation, maybe Casey would've been able to hold out for a little longer. Hell, if Sero had been prepared at all, maybe they could've saved Casey.
"Regardless, I believe that there is still good to come out of this," Gregor interjected in an attempt to ease the tension. "It is heartbreaking to have lost so many innocent lives, but we now have an idea of what Culling is planning next. Hopefully they will not require another mass slaughter, but we cannot be too complacent."
"Agreed," Dante said with a sigh. "It seems our hands are tied for now. The investigation is ongoing, and we must be cautious not to tip off Culling. However, we can't just sit idly by either." He paused, glancing at Sero before continuing. "Whether or not your stumbling upon that sacrificial chamber was good or bad, the fact still remains that lives were lost today, and an important figure within Culling has escaped. The other was slain from what I assume was blind rage," the Sin Reaper glared pointedly.
"So what do we do now?" Kit asked quietly, looking around the table. "How do we move forward from this?"
"Everything we've been doing," Kaizo replied with a heavy tone. "At this point, all we can really do is just prepare ourselves for the aftermath when Culling summons the Catastrophe."
