'This place is honestly a breath of fresh air.'
It was better than the least places they'd visited, at the very least. Previously, they had to fight stampedes of monsters while climbing mountains. It was a literal uphill battle, and it did not seem like it'd get any easier for them. However, as fate would have it, a stroke of luck would befall the group.
With the chance to relax their minds, the defenders no longer had to concern themselves with sudden ambushes from the sky or their sides. There were no cavities or depressions in the ground to be detected, so there was no worry about an abomination reaching up and catching anyone by the ankle.
Still, Worthy did not let his guard down. He'd lived on-edge his entire life, and was not willing to calm his mind when it told him to be on-guard.
Quite a few people were still looking around for abominations, in fact. Nothing could get close to them without being noticed minutes in advance, yet that wasn't enough to calm the worries of those that'd experienced hard lives. The previous climb made it clear that not even the skies were safe, so anything might come from the ground below at any moment, bringing with it a new concern for the Climbers to speculate over.
"Take your hand off of my shoulder, you drunken gambler. I'm not your support tool." Not everyone was worried, despite having their awareness at an all-time high. Cross was currently walking, trying to pry Esme's head from his shoulder. His headband was sleek with blood, as well as his face. In fact, it looked like he'd sloppily wiped some of the vital fluid from his face recently.
Meanwhile, the woman, who was almost the same height as him, continued leaning on him. If his legs were not stronger, Worthy suspected Cross would've been knocked over by Esme's weight. She was not by any means overweight, but did look like she was… healthy for her size.
'What does that even mean? I think I've been listening to that Old Hag a little too much.'
He'd not looked in her direction or regarded her thus far, but Worthy was quite aware of Old Lady Haul's presence among the Army of Hope. That is because she was arguably the loudest of them during times of chaos, shouting or laughing obscenities while her lackeys tore through hordes of abominations. In the Devil's Den, her sense of humor, which he'd come to be loosely familiar with, was not fit for children — to say the very least.
'Hm… What would my mother say? I think it'd probably be something along the lines of… 'Worthy! Don't talk about a woman's weight!' or something like that.'
"Quit complaining so much," The olive-skinned woman shouted at the sellsword, who swayed his head away from her voice — or tried. "I had to carry the kid through the creek without any breaks! The least you can do is make sure a lady's comfortable, or you'll be single for the rest of your miserable, mysterious life."
Worthy felt thorns prick him, despite the words not being meant for him. What a cold-blooded woman, going straight for the jugular when inconvenienced.
Esme and Cross often conversed the most out of their entire group. Although their dynamic was often hostile, they shared a cordial relationship that made engagements between the two rather lighthearted and lifted grim moods. Even though Cross was demanding the woman stop leaning on him, he did not exert enough force to move her, though he could.
"...I'm not going to engage in such childish banter with you." Instead of retorting her words, or claiming that he was in a relationship, or defending that he spoke with women just fine, Cross instead opted to hold his tongue.
'W—Woah… What a man!' Worthy certainly would've tried to rebuttal in such a circumstance. However, he was a 12-year-old boy, and Cross was a grown adult with many life experiences. It was expected he did not have the same response that a child from the backstreets would have.
Esme continued with a few more words of provocation, but when she didn't earn a response from the sellsword, she rolled her eyes and continued walking with her weight on the man.
Somewhere behind them, Worthy saw the group of noblemen walking, a few men short. As it turned out, some of the casualties faced on the second mountain were from their group.
Robert was among them, so he hadn't met his untimely end. Rather, the man looked utterly spotless, as if he hadn't run whatsoever. For a moment, Worthy tried thinking if he ever saw the man sprint or move at the same pace as the group. He was certain that he did — so he could only think of one reason why the man was in pristine condition.
'That weird ball floating around him…'
No, overtime, Worthy felt that identifying the orb as a mere ball was not incorrect. Rather, he felt that it'd be more accurate to call the thing a bubble. Although you could contain things within an orb or anything spherical, the child theorized that the sphere behaved like a protective bubble, of some kind.
If he was correct, then the ball probably absorbed the filth from his body in intervals to make sure his body was always in a presentable condition.
It was far-fetched, but the core of this assumption was the fact that Robert was obviously as slow and sluggish as the rest of the group, if not more than that. The noblemen were not in the best condition, since they spent their lives comfortably behind gated estates, rarely struggling or meeting situations requiring them to push themselves. Robert too was like them, keeping the same slow pace, showing signs of exhaustion that were not mended by the collective efforts of the group's supportive players.
In short, the bubble was not carrying him along, or else he would not be fatigued. The only way Worthy could imagine the man was so clean compared to his companions is that it cleansed his skin and clothing of impurities.
'Well, my assumption is probably right.' Quickly becoming disinterested, the boy focused his attention on the open maw they were approaching.
The idea behind entering a tunnel made of flesh in this place was not very appealing, then again nothing in this place was. His instincts were roaring at him to turn around, though, so he doubted that he was going in the wrong direction. Only… there was certainly something sinister waiting for them within the tunnel.
Unlike the mountain, there was nowhere for them to teleport to in order to shorten their walk. The expanse of the terrain ahead of them was like a neverending wall, making any attempt to go around it or ahead of it practically useless if the objective was to save time.
Perhaps if the group did not have a hundred people, they'd have taken the time to go around. But, making sure that these men and women didn't collapse from exhaustion before they reached Middle Town was important.
So, the only choice was to take the tunnel through to the other side.
Though, it did bring a question to the child's head. He hurried to the front of the marching group where War Reaver was located, guaranteeing that nothing disrupted their momentum.
"Mr. Reaver!" The boy yelled, earning the Holy Knight's attention. His helmet looked over his shoulder and regarded the boy with a gentle look that went unseen.
"Ah, Young Worthy. Please, I hope you have not come to join the vanguard. Your determination would do well in the middle guard, wouldn't you?"
Shaking his head, the boy gave him a slick, confident smile. "Nah. I'm not enough of a lunatic to come to the front of this group. With the luck we have, I'd expect a mountain-sized snake to attack us next, and I can think of at least two things more fun than getting swallowed whole."
At least two, that is.
"Your charisma remains unshaken, young man. Then, please. Endear me as to what you need? A man as young as yourself needn't waste your energy running back and forth, certainly not when we are approaching the mid-way point of our journey."
Nodding, the boy asked, "I wanted to know about this tunnel we're about to go into. How does anyone know that it can take you through the massive wall? You adventured this place for a long time, so I imagine you've searched as many nooks and crannies as you could find, but still… I have a feeling not even you would have delved into a place like that thoughtlessly."
His helmet moved in the way of a nod and War turned to look at the massive opening that was growing closer with each step. He regarded it for a moment, then turned to the boy and reached a hand out. Worthy was caught by the shoulder and the Holy Knight pulled the boy closer, close enough to hear his voice that dipped to the tone of a whisper.
"...It is not that I delved through this place myself. However, I am aware of the being that did, once… so long ago."
A thump ran through the child's chest. War's sudden change in demeanor did not go unnoticed by the boy, even if there were no outward alterations in his appearance. Just a moment ago, the man seemed undeterred and especially jovial. Something about that had changed when the child asked about the tunnel's discovery.
More importantly, his words did not go unnoticed:
"The… being? You're saying something tore a hole through the massive wall?"
Worthy had never seen anything large enough to create such a massive cavity in the wall. Not even the large print of blood from his arrival could compare in size to whatever required the size to rip a tunnel into the wall that spanned many miles into the distance, obscuring the sky and anything behind it.
"It was the largest beast I'd ever hunted. Mindless, massive, and indomitable. I severed it into a few dozen pieces — creating a string of mountains that remain even now.
Yet, the abomination was fueled by something… I do not know what, but it was empowered by something. A worm, the size of a chain of mountains, brimming with flesh and blood that devoured everything in its path.
Eventually, our battle led us here, to this wall, where it attempted an ambush by burrowing into it. Fortunately, I succeeded in landing a killing blow on the titan as it was tunneling… What is ahead of us is none other than the hole I blew through its carcass, forging the tunnel we shall chart."
It was worse than Worthy thought. Rather than going into the maws of some titanic beast, they were going into its stomach.