Lars teary eyes suddenly began to crinkle at the corners as he grit his teeth and forced himself to get up off the ground.By pure force of will, he overrode the emotions running rampant in his soul and allowed rationality to take control once more.
"...No... NO!!! I can"t just believe it so easily! In the first place, I don"t even know whether I"m the only one with a necklace in that place! Wait, why am I being swayed by someone I"ve barely known...? Is it that I"ve just been too desperate to know my origins...? Whether it"s in this world or the past one..."
"...I guess I"ve always wanted to have a place to belong... Someone, somewhere to belong to..." Lars closed his eyes and stood still for a precious few seconds; time that he could barely avoid to sacrifice as the building was about to give way.
Both Velzash and Kizorik gazed at him softly as they pondered his words. Despite the demon races reputation for ruthlessness and being world-destroyers, they, too, understood his feelings.
After all, they who were born of the universe, of unknown origins... They were the ones who most of all came into this world without anywhere to belong - except for the cut-throat despicable organisation known as the Abyss! Which should not be perceived as a place to belong but rather as a slave-master who reigned in abject dominance over the demon race who were corrupted by the darkness of the Abyss...
They both sighed silently, feeling moody and helpless before their closest buddy and friend.
Then Kizorik realised something. Wasn"t Lars someone they could trust...? At least, based on what they had been through so far?
And didn"t they have each other...? Even if the whole world was against them and it were just the two of them taking on the entire universe of demons, devils, humans or monsters - they would still be in it together, wouldn"t they!
Kizorik felt emotions welling up within him - relief, joy... And hunger, of course. He was always hungry. But he shook that off and hopped up beside Lars" mental form in the inner world and patted him on the shoulder.
"Kiddo..... No matter what... No matter how lonely you feel, no matter how far away you feel you are from the home that you once have... And no matter even if you feel that you no longer have a home! Kiddo.... Don"t you know....?"
"You have a home here with me...! And this home...? It"ll never go away, never ever ever! Heh... We couldn"t part ways, not even if we wanted to split! Not that I want to split, "kay...?"
As the little penguin looked away in embarra.s.sment while saying these words, Lars" frowning eyes that were pressed tightly shut began to ease open, the furrows on his brows and the creases at either end of his forehead being smoothed away. His eyes continued to tear, though. This time from being touched by his last remaining best friend"s words.
"Buddy... You... Yeah, that"s true! What am I moping about?!? Why do I need to believe whatever this guy wrote in the first place! And even if it"s true, I don"t even know the guy! So what if he turns out to be my, my father...! Buddy, you"re right! We"re in this together, just you and me...!"
"Ahem!!! Excuse me...?!? How about me...? I"m here too and stuck in this together with you hooligans too right!?! Whether I like it or not...!" A genteel but pouting voice interjected sharply, wincing at the slight of being left out of the heart-warming bro-mance that was going on right now.
"Ahem, yeah, right--I mean, yup! Absolutely! The three of us, together... We"ll take on the world!" Both Kizorik and Lars cast a sheepish glance at Velzash and chuckled to hide their awkwardness.
The terribly tsundere fairy-demon gave them a loud, "Hmmph!" and then muttered, ""t"s not like I like you guys, anyway! It"s just that I"m seriously stuck here together, whether I like it or not...!"
But despite his reticence to be true to how he felt, Velzash still met gazes warmly with Lars and Kizorik, then relented and drew near to them to place his hands together in their pact of brotherhood.
They looked warmly at each other and said in unison, "Brothers forever!" "Buddies forever!" "Demons together!"
Instantly realising that their supposedly united slogan was not in any way synchronised, the three then began to argue and bicker heatedly over whose slogan was the best and should become their tagline.
And despite partic.i.p.ating in the debate that bordered on violent, Lars felt a warmth in his heart today and at this moment, a warmth like never before.
* * * * *
Lars concurrently continued his escape from the Underworld hideout while the argument carried on. Despite being a pretty nice guy, he was also insanely compet.i.tive and unwilling to back down - especially when he truly felt that his tagline was clearly the best among them all!
However, he did not slack in either putting forth his argument - "If you guys don"t f***ing shut up and accept my idea, no more fish for you!! - or making haste to dodge the crumbling blocks, city-block sized stones or avalanches of dirt.
And within the minute, he was out of the underground labyrinth and back onto the streets - just in time for the entire compound to rumble greatly, letting forth a sound as if though the earth itself were groaning in birth-pangs as there was an intense shaking - and the underground city was finally buried once and for all!
The commotion was not discreet whatsoever and had long drawn the attention of the leaders.h.i.+p of the city. Duke Leanne dispatched several groups of the city guards to quickly investigate the source of the disturbance while hundreds if not more than a thousand of the nearby slum-dwellers and denizens of the warehouse district were peering out of their windows, wary of possible trouble.
The aftershocks of the collapse were no small matter; quckly reverberating outwards and causing shockwaves through the city that made dilapidated buildings that were in disrepair collapse completely. Other compounds that were already in a poor state were left in ruins, in some cases with only one or two walls remaining of the original structure.
Even the n.o.bles were not spared, with large fissures and sinkholes spreading outwards from the epicenter of the disturbance. Some streets were sunk entirely while others became less of a road and more of a pavement on either side of a deep ditch formed from the mini-earthquake!
The chaos. .h.i.t the palace too, albeit on a much smaller scale due to the strong and st.u.r.dy foundations upon which the royal complex was built. The worse that occured were hairline cracks across the outer walls due to the high-amplitude tremors that shook the entire city.
With such a huge disturbance, Lars was quick to make himself and scarce and scurry away from the scene of his crime. He was not worried that he would be caught, unless one of the Legendary powerhouses came themselves, no-one would even be able to detech him, much less stop him. However, he did not wish to leave even a hint of his having been there, lest he draw the suspicion of the higher-ups and be put to question as to why he was there and how he had escaped unscathed!
He needed to get back quickly ensure his companions safety, a.s.sign his team to quietly take over the criminal organisation of the Underworld and the Four Gates thereof, find if there were more materials like the animal skin he had obtained at the auction, exchange for more power-ups through the Abyssal Vault...
There was so much work left to be done and no time for him to be down!
But even as he ran through the streets and alleys and made a bee-line for the palace to track down Charley, Seline, Sharon and the fourth person, the strange he had gotten the Laughing Man to release, Lars tried to sort through his feelings about Mr White and the last testament he had left behind.
Was it true...? Was it really the truth? And was he, Lars, the one spoken of in the letter...?
It was easy to determine the truth of the matter. All he needed to do was to go to the site of the hidden treasure trove and find out if it was really he himself who was mentioned in the note... To find out if Mr White were really his father.
And he swore to himself to also investigate, regardless of how he was related to Mr White, he owed it to Charley to find possibly his last remaining kin of the Charlemagne family.
And as Lars leapt from building to building under the cover of darkness and the shadows, he was filled with new determination to discover the secrets of what had really happened in this dark, dark city of Gorun.
...And to find the woman who could possibly be his mother.