Chapter 86 - Goodbyes

The moment Vivi exited the lair, stepping down to the hidden dungeon, Aang grabbed her hand and pulled her to the shadowed corner of the cavern. She stayed silent and listened.

Two pairs of calm but steady footsteps approached from the upper tunnel. A deep man's voice spoke. “The Stewards been complaining about the lack of skill drops for years now.” He sounded amused. “This whole time, the bosses have brewed weak because someone’s been killing them?”

The other man sighed. “If so, the Stewards are in trouble. Ingfried won’t be happy to know nimrods have been stealing his skills.”

“As if the Stewards will say a thing,” the first man said. “The nimrods will be caught, finally, and the Stewards will reap the rewards.”

“Except, catching those nimrods will be our job,” the second man said.

The two descended into the next cavern, continuing their banter.

Aang didn't stay hidden to wait. He spoke quietly. “The whole dungeon is filled with guards. They’re everywhere. But they haven’t started looking in crawl spaces yet. Emmy, lead us to the meeting spot.”

Eem saluted, then jumped into the nearest crawl space. Aang followed. Vivi crawled last.

Aang wasn’t nearly as comfortable or swift in the tight space as Alisa was. He kept bumping his horns against the top of the crawl space. His clothes and muscles scraped against the rough surfaces of the crawl space. He pushed through without grumbles regardless, chasing after Eem as fast as he could.

Every now and then, conversations and footsteps echoed into the crawl spaces when passing larger tunnels. Aang and Eem paused, letting the guards pass.

“It’s been a fun six years,” Aang said. “I never expected the Hollows to last this long. We all knew things would end eventually. But there’s no going back to our old lives after this.”

“Do you want to go back to the old life?” Vivi asked.

Aang took a while to respond. “Escape might just make our lives harder. I’m influential and strong amongst nimrods. But outside…” He snorted. “I barely even know what the outside world looks like.”

“What were you before Zand?” Vivi asked.

“Nothing,” Aang said. “I was born here.”

Vivi raised her eyebrows. “You mean… Really?”

“Nobody told you?” Aang asked. He grinned over his shoulder and hit his horns on the wall again. “A lot of nimrods these days say I’m a liar. But it’s true. I was born here. Very few nimrods have been in Zand longer than me. I’m not even a criminal. Just here because my parents decided to have a lovely night in a facility. I only know the outside world from stories, and from the few outside raids I’ve performed.”

Vivi’s mouth hung open. And she believed she’d lived a tough life… “Who are your parents?”

“Gone,” Aang said. “My father was a gang leader thirty or so years ago. He died when I was two. The remains of his gang broke when I was five. My mother… I still remember her. She was one of the best rogue thieves Zand has seen. She protected me until I was seven years old. Then she just… disappeared.”

“She escaped?” Vivi asked.

“I think she got killed,” Aang said. “She was always away, gathering food and ether to pay for our apartment. One day, an enemy gang member came home instead, claiming she had betrayed me. She never came back.”

“You survived alone as a seven year old?”

Aang let out a laugh. “No. I joined the enemy gang, performing slave labor, being abused by their members on the premise that I had my mother’s debts to take care of. I lived there for four years. When I was eleven, I poisoned their food, killing off most of my abusers. Then I lived as a lone nimrod for a while.”

Vivi stared after his boots in terrified awe.

“I regretted killing them for years,” Aang said. “My mother raised me peacefully. She told me that as long as I played by the rules and helped others, I would be helped back up when I fell down. She never wanted me to be someone who killed to survive. I don't really believe in that anymore. But the guilt did drive me to start the I started the Union. I was obsessed with helping those who didn’t wish to make their living by fighting. The Union’s goal was to assist weaker nimrods who couldn’t keep up with Zand’s rules.”

“I heard that you used to personally fight those who threatened Union members,” Vivi said.

“Yes,” Aang said. “I was called the defender of nimrods. That was ten years ago. Feels like an eternity.” He hesitated, then said, “There was one month where nobody died during the collection days. Not one nimrod was whipped because they couldn’t pay their share. I made sure of that, paying off every beggar’s hundred ether. But as it turns out… I couldn’t keep up. The Union quickly lost its fortune. Zand doesn’t have enough monsters to keep everyone alive. Nimrods die by design.”

“Except if you add in the hidden dungeon,” Vivi said.

Aang snorted. “That was exactly my thought nine years ago. I started looking for ways to enter just so I could earn more ether to support more nimrods. That slowly led to me discovering the squadron bosses and the Stewards’ true purpose, and eventually, the Hollows’ foundation.” He looked ahead and clicked his tongue. “Slow down, Emmy!”

How old was Aang? Just over thirty, Vivi guessed. She couldn’t believe he’d been here all his life.

The crawl continued. Vivi vaguely kept track of their path. She’d memorized the map and the crawl spaces within. When inside and moving as fast as they did, however, following the mental map in her head was a lot more difficult. She knew they were headed toward the fangling lair, but she lost track of their exact whereabouts halfway there.

Fifteen minutes of crawling later, Eem hopped down from the crawl space. “Waaa!” she said, spreading her arms wide.

Vivi recognized the area right away. They were in the fangling lair, right outside the Fang Tanker’s boss room.

Everyone was present. Rohan and Alisa leaned against the wall. Lydi and Feni sat on a rock, both carrying a potion bag with strength potions. Ven was lighting up a pipe, coughing as he took a hit. He passed the pipe to Grenall. The guardsman was also there, wearing his uniform.

Below their feet was a dead body.

Vivi paused, seeing it. The body belonged to another uniformed guardsman. His outside-carved runesword lay beside him, a slight misty aura escaping from the veins. His throat had been cut recently.

“Welcome, Vivi,” Alisa said. “And Emmy! Don’t look that way.”

“You dealt with the guard problem, I see,” Aang said.

“Wheryn ordered every squadron boss to be watched,” Grenall said. “I volunteered to watch over the Fang Tanker. They sent this guy with me.” He glanced at the dead body. “His name was Breg. A nasty piece of shit, he was. One of the most corrupt staff members in Zand. I’ll spread word that Uundref killed him when passing, on his way to the boss room. I was luckily taking a piss in the next room over when it happened, and Uundref missed killing me. I managed to catch a glimpse of him entering the boss room.”

Right… Vivi thought. It’s just a guardsman. Doesn’t matter if one of those die…

“You need to get accustomed to blood, Vivi,” Lucius said. “When people die, they don’t disintegrate to ether. They spray bloody bits.”

It’s not the blood, Vivi thought. I just don’t like killing people. Even if that guard was corrupt, there has to be someone who missed him.

Lucius sighed in her head. “The guards here have done plenty to deserve their deaths.”

Vivi couldn’t disagree. But seeing a body beside her felt off. The others didn’t bat an eye at the body. Aang was speaking to Grenall. “We’ll have to hope no more patrols come this way before then.”

“If the plan fails, I’m screwed,” Grenall said. “But so are all of you.”

“Not our first time,” Alisa said.

“That’s for certain,” Ven said. “Aang, I know you want to go over the plan one more time, but I think we should skip that. The best time to launch the plan was an hour ago. We’ll have to go quick.”

“Very well,” Aang said. “Let’s get this started. Vivi, the swords, if you please.”

“Ah, yes,” Vivi said. Lucius called all of her swords from spatial storage, laying them on the ground. She’d done a lot of work to get this far. A lot more guardsmen would die by the work of her swords.

Zand would fall. And all the abused nimrods would get avenged.

“So these are the legendary runeswords, huh?” Grenall asked. The demons observed the sword in awe for a moment. Quickly, however, the plan came back to their heads.

Ven picked up the nix and shockwave sword. “I’ll wield this one, seeing as I’m fighting Uundref.”

Rohan picked up Practice, and Aang grabbed Skeleton Cutter. Alisa’s daggers were already with her.

“Ven should also carry Solace,” Aang said. “Do you know how to fight with two katanas?”

“I haven’t practiced it,” Ven said. “But we’ll need Solace to cut the hole in the wall. I’ll take it. That should be all we need.”

Aang nodded. “Vivi will bring the rest of the swords to the boss hunt. We’ll make use of them how we see fit.”

Lucius retrieved the rest of the swords to spatial storage. Vivi had her old crystal mithril sword, the dark mithril greatsword, as well as Abyss Destroyer.

“That’s all, then?” Ven asked. He leaned back and rested his head on his hands. “Our skills are all distributed. Even the trash ones.”

“Yes,” Aang said.

Nobody spoke. The Hollows shared a silent moment, watching each other.

“This is our last job as the Hollows, huh?” Alisa asked. “After this is done, we’ll be something else entirely.”

“Or we’ll be dead,” Grenall said.

“I, for one, am excited to get out of here,” Ven said. He glanced to his left, at Rohan.

“I am excited to continue serving Aang, and teaching Vivi,” Rohan said.

Ven nodded. He put on a serious face. “This might be the last time we see each other. I just wanted to say, the Union has been amazing. I have never had friends as close as you. No matter what happens, know that I’m eternally grateful for this opportunity.”

“I hate you guys, to be completely honest here,” Grenall said. “But I’ll do this thing.”

Alisa laughed. She sniffled. “Stop it, everyone. We’re reuniting in less than ten hours.”

Lydi and Feni were both smiling, though Lydi tried to hide it. Eem sat in the middle of everyone, glancing around herself curiously.

Vivi wanted to say something as well. She didn’t know what. Why was she so nervous again? Her head wanted to point to the ground.

Lucius popped out of Vivi’s core. Grenall twitched, seeing him.

“My wielder likes you guys,” Lucius said. “She’s just too much of an idiot to say it. We’ll clear the boss. There’s no need to worry about us.”

Alisa laughed, poking Lucius in the cheek. “You better.”

To her left, Grenall gave a side-eye. He looked like he wanted to ask about Lucius.

Before he could, Aang stepped forward with the same confident posture he always gave before starting a speech. “Everyone…” he said. “Don’t die.”

The Hollows grinned. “We won’t.”

Aang watched them for a moment longer. Then he turned around and headed for the Fang Tanker’s boss room, toward the stairway at the back of the boss room. Lydi stood up and followed him.

Vivi gave her two teachers a bow one last time. She patted Eem in the head and smiled.

Then she turned around and descended down the glowing brick stairway.