Predicament I

"All right, enough nonsense. Confirm the location of the Interaction Zone we just detected. We'll make another trip after dark. We don't have much food left." Laf's smile faded.

Moon God said nothing more, merely waiting quietly.

Outside, the frigid wind howled. As time passed, the daylight slowly began to dim.

Dark clouds thickened once more, blocking out the originally bright light.

This light was extremely strange.

From time to time, pillar-like beams would descend from the sky and strike the ground.

Those were the truly deadly lights.

Yet if one only watched carefully from the side, they would not be affected too severely.

The dark clouds blocked the daylight.

Amid the town's ruins, the lava flowing through cracks in the ground glowed red once again.

This thin red glow had become the only illumination across this land at night.

"Close enough. Let's go."

Laf was the first to straighten his long silver-black robe and step out of the loft.

His leather boots crunched sharply against the ground strewn with fine debris. The sound was conspicuous and piercing.

"Off we go, off we go~~~ There's tasty food again~~" Jade Pavilion happily skipped after him with a grin.

Heart Fusion pulled out a cigarette and clenched it between his teeth. With a rub of his fingers, a burst of flame flared up and lit it.

Though it was merely the crudest hand-rolled cigarette, he smoked it as if savoring the finest delicacy in the world.

Taking a blissful drag, he looked toward Moon God, who was last.

"Old Moon, let's go."

Moon God silently rose to his feet and walked out past him.

At first, he might not have understood what the other meant. But after spending so many days together, he had long realized that Heart Fusion had been assigned