Beth and Sera had finished burning away the corpses and rot by the time Delonne was clean and joined them on the bridge, his danger senses twitching for just a second when all three glanced at him. There was a lot of power just in that one little room, far more power than he was used to being around, especially in the last couple years. He frowned a little as he took a seat to the right, sighing as he settled into one of the comfortable chairs.

"Feeling better now?" Beth asked.

"I could use some sleep, but yes, thank you," he replied.

"Why haven't you been coordinating with your people? Surely you could be more effective if you worked with them?" Beth asked.

"It goes back a long time," he said, chewing at his bottom lip as he relaxe back into the chair. "Not something that's easy to tell."

"Just figured I'd ask," Beth said with a shrug, turning back to the front.

"There's somewhere I'd like to stop, if you're willing to take me," he said then.

"Sure, we don't have anything else right now," Beth said, giving Blood a nod.

"Here's the coordinates," Delonne said, flicking them to Blood.

"Got it," the wolf grunted, starting to steer the ship on a new course.

"So, how did you wind up on your own?" Beth asked.

"Well, it wasn't any one thing, really," he said with another sigh. "I fought more, and harder, than anybody else. This was years and years ago, over a hundred years, back when I was still young. I grew fast, some would say too fast, and that caused friction with the command structure."

"You were a soldier?" Sera asked.

"Indeed," he replied. "I fought for the Republic for close to forty years. My growth was too fast early on, and I didn't agree with senior command's decisions, so I was relegated to the lower ranks of command for decades. Eventually, I got frustrated with the war, with our actions in the war. The thing that severed all our ties was a mission…a mission I protested, one that we shouldn't have done. I lost my team on that mission, and after I had limped back to our gathering point, barely alive, I had a sudden realization. It was basically an epiphany, but I had just thought, 'What am I doing all this for?' I had lost so much, even more than what the mission had caused, and so…I left. I know that was a little vague, but I, uh, don't really want to go into all the bloody details."

"That's understandable," Sera said quietly. "But, still, how did you end up fighting that one man war?"

"I took a couple years to get my head right," he said quietly. "When I felt good enough again, I was determined to make a change. I was set on making a difference, on influencing the broken dynamics of our world. The sky had already been taken from us at that point, and I spent years fighting, getting stronger, researching solutions, trying to convince the people I knew of a different way. Nobody wanted to listen; nobody even cared that the sky was broken at that point, or so it seemed to me."

"Typical story," Sera said. "Small world, backwater, no galactic polity or even CRA support, low mana, internal problems. You hear about it sometimes, not always, but far more often than you should. Sorry that it's happened to you and your people. I don't know of a good way to dig out of the hole you're in without help from someone like the CRA or a major clan."

"We're distrustful of outsiders here. It wouldn't just be the leaders rejecting it, it would be the regular people who didn't want anyone interfering," he said, shaking his head.

"It has to be frustrating, not having anyone who will listen to you and not having any way to get any outside help," Beth said.

"It is, it is," he sighed. "I can't tell you how close to giving up I've been on more than one occasion. It really has seemed like nobody else cares the way I do; they're far too concerned with their petty politics. It's one of those situations where I removed myself from the small squabbles and now, I can see the bigger picture. It's so frustrating to watch the people of my world tear themselves apart, all for the equivalent of a handful of gold coins, in essence. Less than I make in a month."

"I understand you're dedicated to this place, but have you thought about leaving?" Beth asked. "There's, you know, a whole universe out there to explore and fight through. You don't have to limit yourself to a broken world that doesn't want you and won't change."

"I've thought about it. I've thought about it more than once, certainly, but something always holds me back," he replied, a vacant look in his eyes as he stared off into the distance, looking at the forward screen but not really seeing it. "I want to see a sunset again, but more than that, I want to see a sunset again on the world I love, at a place I've dreamed of for a hundred years."

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"It's a nice sentiment," Sera said, paging through some things on the screens at the tactical station. "Maybe we can play a part in helping you with that. I don't know that it's as hopeless as you think it might be. After all, we're here, and that counts for something."

"That's true. They did have to call for help, eventually," he said with a nod. "Maybe I can exert some of the very little influence I have left to turn things around."

"We'll help as we can," Beth promised.

They lapsed into silence after that, Blood happily piloting the ship while the others were lost in their own thoughts or research. Beth was looking up some information about skills and skill combinations, mainly because she had an eye on improving and changing Monstrous Blow, hoping to get something stronger and better than the skill. It was a skill she had basically learned through experimentation herself without any training at the time. If she learned enough about it, she should be able to bias it towards space or annihilation magic, which was looking like what her bread and butter was going to be going forward.

Sera, inspired by Beth, was spending more time on Mana Physique study. Baelvyr had told them to just do what felt right, and she knew that part of what Beth did was based on intuition and feeling her way through the process, but another part was having a solid understanding and foundation in the runes and theory. She had been taught several things by her clan that were helpful, but a big part of becoming powerful was studying and research. She had plenty to learn on her own, and she wanted a far more established foundational knowledge of Mana Physiques and runes by the time she hit her tenth rebirth and needed to craft hers.

The trip passed in silence, Blood flying, Beth and Sera studying, and Delonne lost in his thoughts. Blood slowed the ship and sent a signal as they approached the coordinates, not just blindly flying up without knowing what it was. She needn't have worried, however, as the location was a hill with a small house on the top. Blood brought the ship down at the foot of the hill and all four of them disembarked before Beth packed the ship up and stored it in her necklace. No reason to make their presence there obvious, whatever this place was.

Delonne led the way up the hill, following an old pathway worn into the dirt by years of walking, a path that had become a trench of mud due to the constant rain and damp. Beth was glad her boots were still okay, as she didn't have more than one extra pair and tromping through this mud barefoot would be miserable. It would also not be something she was willing to do in her nice shoes, even her tennis shoes not enough to stand up to the muck. She watched as Delonne engaged a simple formation as they reached the house, disengaging the runes to let them pass through and approach the front door. He led them inside the simple stone structure, gesturing for them to enter and close the door behind them.

Beth observed the room once she was inside, taking note of the simple, but nice, furnishings that filled the front room. Further back she could see a small dining area and a kitchen beyond that, while to the right was a stairway that led to the second floor. The place was what she would describe as cozy and had a well lived-in feeling to it, even though it was a bit messy. There was also a bit of dust in the corners, though it was clear that somebody at least did a small bit of cleaning here and there, so things weren't too bad.

"A bachelor's pad if I ever saw one," Sera commented with a chuckle.

"For a few decades now, yes," Delonne said with a sigh, sinking into an armchair in the front room.

"There was someone else, once?" Sera asked softly.

"A long time ago, now," he replied quietly, his voice a bit morose. "She was someone…special. But that's a long time ago. Long enough that I remember standing with her under a brilliant blue sky, before the world was ruined."

"Sorry for your loss," Beth said, bowing her head at the man. He gave her a short, tired nod in response.

"It was a long time ago, as I said. A different time, though it still aches to remember," he said quietly. "But, enough about all that. You said you didn't have anything to do right now? How about helping me with something?"

"Depends what that something is," Beth said, leaning against the wall while Blood and Sera had taken up seats in the room.

"There's something I want to check into, but it's in the most dangerous area of the entire world," Delonne said seriously. "That's from before the monsters arrived. Now, I don't know what we'd find there. Maybe even the monsters themselves…"

"You have my attention now," Beth said, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at the man intently.

"I can take you there, but it's difficult to get to," he warned. "Even with your airship, we're going to have to take quite a hike just to get close. I can provide the coordinates that are closest where we could land, but we can't just fly directly there."

"Why's that?" Blood asked.

"It's underground," he explained, getting three frowns in response. Holding up his hands, he said, "I know, I know. Stupid dangerous place to go, but that's where we need to head. There's something I really want to check there, something I haven't been able to investigate for more than fifty years. With you three along, I think the journey will be manageable."

"I'm not so concerned about the dangers, or what would normally be the dangers, but I am concerned about being out of communication. I have some comm relays, but I don't know how deep we're going. On top of that, it really does sound like a great place for the monsters to ambush us," Beth said, tapping her chin.

"What about those Seniors you mentioned?" Delonne asked.

"What about them?" Beth replied, still thinking.

"Get one of them to come with us," he said.

"I could ask, but they're in charge, not us," Beth said. "Besides, they're busy tracking the monsters. Maybe if they're stealthy, they can follow along and use it as a chance at the monsters, but I don't really like playing bait."

"Well, you don't have to follow up on this," he said. "But it would be something really good to look into."

"What is it, exactly?" Beth asked with another frown.

"The reason the sky broke," he replied shortly.

"Ah, I see," Beth grunted.

"It's strange to think about, but the way they broke the damn world had to go through mana veins underground," Delonne explained. "They used a mana nexus to build their weapon, hoping to tear apart the sky above the Republic and destroy our cities and towns. Well, they tore apart the fucking sky alright, tore it apart so badly that no one's been able to fix it for over a hundred years. I've never been able to go down there, not before they broke the sky or after, and I want to see it. I want to see what destroyed our world, what they did that broke everything and caused this living hell we've been trapped in.

"It's deep, deep underground, and with a hundred years of rain, I don't know that it'll be a dry walk. By that, I mean that we'll likely have to swim part of the way; I don't know if any of you have any skills for water breathing or water combat, but we'll need supplies to deal with that kind of environment. We'll also need something to deal with magma, depending on what path we take and how we move through the tunnels. I have a lot of what we'll need, but we might need to make a stop and make some purchases or some…uh…requisitions."

"I think we can get what you need," Beth said with a nod. "Though, thinking about it, I'm not even sure I need to breathe anymore."

"You do," said Sera. "You just need less oxygen because of the changes the Path has brought about. If you were underwater or in space or something long enough, you would be in trouble."

"Well, good to know I'm still a little human," Beth said with a mostly humorless chuckle.

"I've got some of it here," Delonne said, standing up and moving the low table in the center of the room. "Stand back."

He lifted the rug off the floor, tossing it to the side. Beth didn't know what he was doing at first, but he pushed on a certain spot in the floor, revealing that there was a trapdoor made of the same kind of planks as the floor. It blended seamlessly with the floor as it was in the main room, and the little hidden switch he pressed unlocked it. He tossed it open before reaching into the cubby space, pulling out nearly a dozen packages and bundles. He slammed the door shut with a firm thump afterwards, throwing the rug back over the center of the room and putting the table back in place.

"You can deploy the ship again and we'll carry this stuff down," he said, standing and looking at them.

"No need," Sera said, standing from her chair and moving over to the bundles. She waved her hand over them and they all disappeared.

"Storage item?" he asked with a raised brow.

"Storage power," Sera explained with a shrug.

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