Chapter 56: Equal Footing
They kept going anyway, taking more turns until the shouts started to thin. Juli pulled Eli to a stop in the shadow of a low alcove and listened through the stone wall.
Eli listened with her.
After what felt like a long time, both of them let out a slow breath.
"...I think we lost them," Juli whispered.
Eli turned to her in a panic.
"Juli! Don’t say things like that. Do you know what a jinx is?"
She blinked.
"...Jinx?"
"It’s when you say something good out loud, and then the universe goes ’oh you think so?’ and immediately makes it not good."
Juli covered her mouth and held in her laugh.
"Elise... that’s just not a real thing! I never expected you to be the superstitious kind."
Eli grabbed her shoulder.
"It is VERY real, Juli, and you have just done it, so now you have to apologize to the universe. Do it now."
Juli stared at him in disbelief, biting her lip to keep from laughing.
"Apologize!" Eli urged on.
"Okay okay! Ahem. This humble knight deeply apologizes the universe for my transgression. I will repent—"
"The universe isn’t god!" Eli interrupted, hugging his face. "You just need to apologize."
"Ah, I see. Then I will reflect upon my actions and not jinx anymore!"
Eli sighed and let his head thunk against the stone behind him.
"Good. Thank you."
He wasn’t exaggerating. He had fallen victim to this jinx more times than he could count on his fingers, and most of them came from this very game!
Whenever he said something that invited a jinx, the worst things happened. Once, Eli said the danger was over, and the next minute, a heroine died.
’Sorry, Nouvette.’
Juli leaned her head back next to his, the smile fading off her face as her eyes drifted to nowhere.
"...Hey."
"Yeah."
"The bodies."
"Right. The bodies."
He stared down the corridor, gathering his words. For this young generation, the worst they encountered was villages being plundered or slaves being sold illegally.
The Red Moon was a thousand times worse, the ugliest of all. Of course Juli would be shaken by that gruesome altar. Only the ugliest of humanity could do something like that.
Eli was somewhat resistant because he had seen these imagery in-game, but it didn’t make things any better.
"It’s an offering," he said. "Just think of them as demons. They see themselves as lambs for the greater good."
"The greater good? What does that mean?"
His gaze drifted everywhere and nowhere at once.
"They think they’re saving the world. They think the world is rotten and the only way to fix it is to burin it all down, and they want to be the kindling. The higher you climb in the cult, the more honored you are when your turn comes. The ones on that altar were definitely proud to be there. Well, they were brainwashed to think so."
Juli’s jaw tightened.
"They wanted to die like that."
"Some of them, sure. Most of them probably grew up believing they were chosen. Their parents told them, their teachers told them, the people they loved told them. It’s generations of brainwashing. By the time the knife came out, they were thanking the person holding it."
"...And the bodies do something?" Juli asked, her voice quivering slightly. "Or is it just slaughter?"
"Hah. I don’t want to explain the work they do. It’s just unexplainable and unjustifiable. It’s horrid."
Juli let out a long sigh.
"The Red Moon... Why didn’t the academy teach more about this organization?"
"I don’t know."
Eli knew, but he didn’t want Juli to think poorly of Navia.
To understand the magnitude of the Purification War, one needed to grasp how shameful it was for the Crown to have been nearly toppled. It was a Chapter of history the Crown did not want mentioned, so they banned knowledge of the Red Moon.
It sounded counterintuitive, right? But that was just human nature. We hide our shame to show our brightest selves.
After opening the academies to commoners, Navia had to compromise on many things to keep them running, and among the requirements, Red Moon was a priority topic.
She had bowed her head and accepted it, and in return, the children of bakers and stable boys got to sit in lecture halls beside the children of barons and viscounts.
It was the trade she had made, and Eli understood it, even if he didn’t like the decision. Education on the world’s nemesis was a must, which was why Navia wanted to build these academies in the first place.
She had not been a coward. She had been a woman counting the cost of a longer war, and she had decided the academies were priceless if they could produce stars like Julianna Owens, because the future needed them.
Eli straightened up against the wall.
"Anyway, we need to find an exit."
He pushed off the stone and held a hand out to her.
Juli looked up at him, seeming about to ask something, then swallowed it. She took his hand and stood.
They walked for a few minutes in silence before Juli broke it.
"What’s the plan?"
Juli’s question hung between them.
He looked at the ground with nothing to suggest. Unless there was another crack in the surface that led out of the Labyrinth, their chance of escape was slim to none.
Eli ran through the dungeon map in his head, searching for anything that might hint at an exit. He replayed side stories that mentioned the labyrinth exploration, especially the deeper floors.
But he came out empty-handed.
This labyrinth had multiple floors, for goodness’ sake. He didn’t even know which one they were on because there were no indicators.
"Just run and hope for the best."
Juli did not argue and just nodded.
They took the next branch on instinct, then another, then a third that doubled back deeper into the depths. By now, Eli had stopped trying to map it. His only goal was to keep as much distance as possible between them and the Moons behind them.
Sometimes they would go in the same direction four times, and other times they would diversify their movements and take four different paths. They did whatever they could to shake the Moons off.
At the fourth turn, however, something unexpected happened. They stumbled into a wide room where something was waiting for them.
It sat in the middle of the floor, hunched over four limbs that ended in sharpened claws long enough to gouge the stone. Its hide was the gray of the Stone Geckos, but pulled tight over a body twice the size, and the long crest down its spine was set with a row of glowing red runes.
"Shit..." Juli cursed lowly under her breath.
Its head snapped up at the sound. Big yellow eyes locked onto them, and Eli felt an insurmountable pressure settle on him.
’What the fuck...’
He wanted to collapse immediately and faint, but he willed himself to stand against the invisible pressure.
Juli must have felt it too: this monster was different from the ones they had been facing. Way too different. It was the first time he had seen Juli so serious, stepping forward with her sword already drawn.
"Elise, you absolutely have to stay back. Don’t even try to be stubborn."
Eli swallowed and stepped back without arguing. He pulled the diary out from inside his coat and wrapped both arms around it, pressing it against his chest so he couldn’t do anything reckless.
’If Juli goes down... I have to run.’
It wasn’t a thought he wanted to entertain. He had known Juli for less than a week, yet it already felt like they were best friends.
He didn’t want anything to happen to her.
Juli rolled her shoulders once. The air around her hummed and went gold.
’This is a chance for me to see the real her in battle.’
The monster pushed up off its haunches.
’Wait... how!?’
That thing was far too fluid for a body that size. Was it some kind of A-Rank monster? It couldn’t be. Maybe the runes on its spine were empowering it? He didn’t know either.
Its claws scraped four shallow lines across the stone as it shifted its weight. Then it moved its hulking body.
Eli did not see the start of the lunge. He only saw the end: Juli’s blade raised before her chest, the impact, and Juli skidding back across the floor, two long marks gouged into the stone. She caught herself before the wall. Her aura luckily held on beautifully.
"This thing is at least higher C-Rank," Juli said.
C-Rank monsters were formidable, able to take on Three-Song individuals on equal footing if the advantages were met. Juli was a Two-Song.
But her starlight aura countered whatever the Red Moon had done to this monster, so she might have an advantage here.
It charged at her again, and this time, Juli met it with much more confidence.
