Light Never Dies (II)

Chapter 14 - Suppressed Emotions

Noire and Uni begged the hell out of me as to where the weapons had come from. Uni being more impatient than Noire. Finally I ended up becoming fed up with their incessant whining and I told them that I'd tell them when the need arose and when the time was right.

They were certainly surprised by my sudden outburst. Most likely because they had never been scolded or treated like that before. Also when I burst out with anger towards them I probably had a pretty nasty look on my face as well. So much so in fact that I think I detected a hint of sympathy and worry in Noire's eyes. Even though she didn't know exactly what I'd gone through, she still understood that I didn't like to talk about it either. But who could blame me? I had everyone I'd ever cared about taken away from me right before my eyes. Even the ones I'd deeply loved. Witnessing and dealing with things like that left mental scars on my brain. Almost as if I was psychologically traumatized. Even though everyone was clearly alive and well in front of me, a part of me was still reluctant to escape the fact that this could possibly just be a dream or an illusion. Like they always say "better safe than sorry and it's too good to be true." These two quotes were practically my life lessons now.

This encounter though with the creature called the "Dahaka" begged the question that had been circling in my mind for a while now though. It was "Should I stay or should I leave everyone?" After all, it appears that my presence could potentially bring more harm to them than good. Plus, I didn't know what else to do. All I knew was that I couldn't safely be around Noire or Uni or any of the other CPUs. I decided to lock away my feelings for them and I wrote a note for Noire and Uni and left it on the table of their Basilicom stating my decision and the reasoning behind it. With a heavy heart, I left the Basilicom while everyone was asleep. And shambled my way back to my shack. Outside the borders of the nation.

It was still late in the night once I entered my old ramshackle home. I dropped my equipment, stood my rifle and swords up next to my bed, and collapsed without a second thought onto my bed and fell into a deep sleep. Maybe this was all just a dream and I'd wake up and it'd be gone.

Morning came as swiftly as a flash of light that protruded from my window onto the end of my bed. I awoke feeling groggy due to my nightly activities of coming back here. If I was going to stay hidden from the CPUs, I needed to have the proper attire to do so. Luckily I had the perfect thing. Dark attire. I pulled on some black jeans with a dark leather jacket with a black t-shirt on underneath. There was also a black hood attached to the jacket so I could hide my face if need be as well. I gathered my gear and holstered my rifle and side arms in my jacket with the rifle strapped to my back. Just in case I needed to disappear though, I had to gather one specific thing. In my closet was a legendary piece of equipment that I had randomly found among one of my previous travels in here. Every once in a while when I went on a bounty hunt, I'd find a rare piece of equipment. This particular piece that I had found was a dark leather ankle pad that if the user was stationary, it would turn them invisible. But if I moved for more than two seconds, it would wear off. However it also deactivated itself within a second as well.

I strapped it on but decided to keep it disabled for now. I didn't want to attract attention yet so I would enable it when the time was right. I left my shack and wondered if the others had read my note yet. Next, I decided to go to the guild to resume my old job. Collecting and taking bounties. I wandered back into town and was approaching the guild when I noticed that there was a crowd gathered outside the building. Something was going on inside. Something serious.