Niki turned to Sergio, who has recovered from his wounds. The alchemist fidgeted as he was red at by Niki for the stunt he pulled. His eyes darted from one ce to the other and back toward Alias.


    "You think that hindering me would make us inseparable?" a sigh escaped his mouth as he looked at Sergio exasperatedly. "It might dy our travels, but not forever."


    Sergio turned to look at him silently before leaving the group and going into the forest. Yuxi wanted to follow him, but Niki blocked her path with his arm.


    "He might encounter monsters," Lex muttered as she took a step forward. "Sergio isn''t a fighter like the rest of us. Someone needs to protect him,"


    "I know," Niki stared at his departing friend, knowing what Sergio was going to do, and disappeared into nothingness. "I''ll protect him."


    Niki followed after the alchemist through the forest, walking a few steps behind him. Then, the alchemist stopped in the middle of nowhere and struck the tree with his fist.


    The tree shook, and the leaves descended atop the young man''s trembling shoulders. Niki stood behind him, knowing that only he can see this, as no one else knew the other and darker side of the alchemist.


    "They keep leaving," the alchemist gnashed his teeth against each other before looking behind him. Then, he ran deeper into the forest, far deeper than he should have. Monsters approached, but Niki''s darkness worked to scare them away.


    The alchemist crawled into a groove he found, and Niki saw it all. Then, thinking that no one was watching, the alchemist took a dagger and revealed his arm. Niki sat in front of the groove, not looking away from his friend.


    The inner of Sergio''s forearm was unblemished and pale, only having a few white streaks that ran horizontally, ones that looked like stretch marks. Then, using the dagger, Niki''s dearest friend proceeded to cut himself, and his blood spilled.


    Niki didn''t look away still. Sergio''s face eased as he leaned back and allowed the blood to drain as if it would take away the thoughts with it. The blood ran unceasingly for a good minute before it stopped to leave a wound. Then, he cut his arm again.


    ''A friend would have rushed in to stop him,'' Niki thought to himself. ''Yuxi would have held his hand and cried for him to stop. Lex would have beat some sense into him,'' his eyes didn''t look away from Sergio, who was sitting in the middle of the forest and harming himself. ''But I know better.''


    The good alchemist''s self-harm wasn''t one of his crazy experiments, nor was it a momentarily desire to punish himself. Instead, it was an issue with roots dating as old as his childhood, specifically his mother.


    ''I can''t change him,'' Niki knew because he tried before. ''No one can change him, and no one can change me,'' tears gathered in his eyes. ''He is kind to everyone but himself.''


    ***


    The archer''s gaze was bothersome, but Niki ignored it as he sat on the railing with a foot swinging in the sky. Then, from within the trees came out his friend, and the two stared at each other.


    Niki knew that if the alchemist hid the traces well using a healing potion. The beginning of his alchemy might have been that: a way to conceal his tendencies.


    The alchemist climbed into the ship and didn''t say anything, going straight into the captain''s room. Niki closed his eyes as the aroma of herbs drifted from the windows.


    "Let''s sail," he muttered to Lex, who descended toward the core room. The bodies of the knights have been cleaned, their permits were with them, and there was nothing else to hold them back from going to the flying ind.


    It was the beginning of the end, and Niki didn''t know how things would end. However, he knew that he and Sergio shouldn''t stay together.


    From the knights, he obtained a total of thirty fate points. He raised his hand, and the ck and white coin appeared atop it. The question was obvious. The coin flipped in the air before a blinding light shone from it. When itnded in his hand, Niki got his answer.


    A dagger.


    As much as he wished otherwise, his talent confirmed the truth he needed to hear. He turned to look at the lightsing from within the cabin, and he knew that even if his friend didn''t ept what''s going to happen, it was necessary.


    Their ship sailed silently across the fog, and the archer returned toward the deck. Niki stared at the wall of light in front of them. He was standing on the figurehead as he watched the border approach. After this point, there would be wilderness until they reach the Bestial Kingdom.


    His darkness exploded to cover the ship and hide it. This consumed arge portion of his mana, but it was necessary. The talisman-like permit appeared in his hand, and there was only one of them. So Niki had to act that he only obtained it from the knight Lex killed by sheer luck, not design.


    They passed through the barrier, and the permit gave a bright light as it buzzed. After that, the barrier and the talisman resonated, and the ship passed by without triggering the rm.


    "We left the Rosia Kingdom," Niki turned to look behind him to the ce that made him suffer for years. "Herees the end," as he said that, he met Sergio''s eyes. The alchemist was standing by the door of the cabin, dusted and looking numb.


    In the long run, his choice might be the wrong one, but it was better than making Sergio get attached to him now. Niki hurt him once before, and there''s no telling if he wouldn''t do it again.


    Niki turned to look at the horizon and saw the twilight behind it. As the night sky greeted their arrival to the wilderness, something else did as well. A deep grunt that shook their cores came from above them, and Niki turned to see the night sky shift and twist.


    "Shh," Niki warned the others, who have all gathered on the deck, as he looked up. As they followed his gaze, they realized that the night''s stars were stolen, reced by infinite darkness that shifted.


    Niki realized that the only reason they are still alive is because of his stealth hiding them. Otherwise, this... creature would have obliterated them.


    "A leviathan," Niki raised his hand toward the Gunmaster. "Stop the ship, now," he said in a low voice. Lex backed away before bolting toward the core room.


    Alias came to a stop as the leviathan pped its giant wings across the night sky, and the group managed to catch a glimpse of its ashen skin in the moonlight. As it passed above them, the only thing keeping death away was their stealth.


    Inparison to it, the group found themselves frighteningly small, as if they were in the presence of something on a different scale. The leviathan was an ancient monster that could only be chanced upon in the wilderness. If it were not for its indifferent nature, kingdoms would have been obliterated.


    The giant monster flew away from them, and they regained their breath. Niki still looked at the distance, seeing the direction that the giant monster took.


    Whatever its destination was, there would be nothing but destruction in the end. He tried to remember if there were any sightings of the giant monster at this point in the timeline, but he didn''t know everything.


    Alias resumed its journey, and Niki had to take out the map he had. Taking Alil Vige as a reference point, Niki drew their path from there. He took out apass and asked Lex to sail in that direction.


    "All we have to do is wait," Niki said with a smile as he looked at the empty spot on the map. The ind where the Legendary Skill waited for him has not been discovered yet, and it was only through sheer luck that he managed to find its location.


    "I guess we aren''t far off from our separation, boss," Sergio walked to stand beside him, and Niki turned up to see the alchemist has regained his cheerfulness. "It was a short, long ride, but we had fun,"


    "We did," Niki nodded. "We''ll always be brothers, no matter how far life takes us."


    "I''ll keep sending you potions," Sergio scratched his nose embarrassingly. Niki nodded with a smile, and the alchemist rushed in to hug him.


    His body wanted to throw the alchemist away or dodge, but Niki held himself back. They broke their embrace with a pat on the back, and Sergio apologized.


    "I''m sorry for throwing you off the ship,"


    "You should fucking be, but at least we got our supplies," Niki grumbled, but he saw the weary smile of his friend. Sergio nodded and turned to go back into his cabin.


    "He''s acting differently," Lex stood beside Niki, and thetter nodded in response. Then, he turned toward the mute archer and stared at her without saying anything.


    ''Do you want me to talk to him?'' Yuxi gestured, and to his great reluctance, Niki nodded. The mute nodded and went into the cabin as well.


    "For the first time since we met, it feels like you''re doing the right thing," the Gunmaster said before she took out a scroll from within her robes. "Now, it''s time to learn the Abyssal Art."