Chapter 50 - Their Reasons

"I guess I'll go next, then," Ilydia said, clearing her throat dramatically. "I came here… for an adventure!"

Michael's brother raised an eyebrow in skepticism. "An adventure? Are you crazy? You came into a place like this—" He gestured towards the collapsed buildings and destroyed roads outside the window, "—for an adventure?"

"Well, I will say, this is very different from what I initially imagined, but then again—" Ilydia shrugged. "—an adventure isn't really an adventure with no danger! How about you? Why did you come here?"

"I…" Michael's brother turned away, clenching his fists tightly. Michael, seeing this, blinked a few times, then figured it was his turn to step in.

"Big Brother Cory came here to secure a good life for him and I."

"Michael…!" Cory shot him a warning glare, but Michael merely shook his head and continued.

"Ever since our parents left us, Big Brother Cory has been raising me all by himself. We're just barely living off his part-time job, and even then, he often starves due to giving all the food to me. We live in the slums, and get looked down on by society. Thugs constantly come and mess with us, taking away the few things we have and beating up Big Brother Cory in the process. That's why he came here. To make a better life for me."

"Shut it!" Cory roared, tears in his eyes. "If you know, then why did you come here too, huh?! Why?! I left with you that daycare teacher for a reason. She even agreed to take care of you while I was away! But you just had to follow me here, didn't you?! Just like this arm… do you remember?! Remember what you did to me?!

He pointed at his right arm, which in the real world was completely gone. In Endzone, it appeared perfectly fine, but…

"Hey, calm down," Ilydia chided, placing a hand on Cory's shoulder. "Don't jump to conclusions. I'm sure Michael had his reasons for following you, didn't he?"

She turned to Michael, who bit his lip and gave a soft nod.

"I came because… I didn't want… Big Brother Cory to be alone…"

"What…?" Cory's eyes widened a bit at this response, and his fists lightened a bit.

"I know I was just a burden in the real world, but… I thought I could at least help a bit… here…"

Before anyone knew it, tears were flooding out of young Michael's eyes, and Cory was left stunned. Ragnar, witnessing this scene unfold before him, closed his eyes. He didn't say any words of comfort, and merely placed a hand on the kid's shoulder. He was silent, but the gesture was enough.

"I… I'm going to sleep," Cory muttered at last, turning away from everyone else and heading over to the corner of the room, then laid down on the floor. Was he really going to sleep? No. He just didn't want anyone to see him crying. If only he knew earlier, his brother's goal… was simply to be of use to him.

"… What about you, sir?" Michael hesitantly asked, wiping away his tears and looking up at Ragnar's rigid face. "Why did you come here…?"

Spencer and Ilydia stared at Ragnar curiously as well, eager to hear what his purpose was. Despite being the leader of the group, Ragnar actually hasn't revealed too much information about himself.

The question, however, struck a chord inside his heart.

What did he come here for? What was his purpose?

The answer was simple—he had a wish. And that wish…

"… I came here to-"

CRASH!

Suddenly, the door was busted open, and a pile of mutants tore their way through the barricade and into the room.

"RAGH!"

The group immediately got to their feet and drew their weapons. Ragnar, holding his deadly metal broadsword, narrowed his eyes at the disgusting sight of the mutants' torn skin and mechanical bodies.

"… Annoying bastards."

Now that they had been spotted, there was no sense playing stealthy anymore. With a loud battle cry, Ragnar charged into battle, swinging his broadsword diagonally in front of him. It struck the first mutant square in the chest, then knocked it back into its companions, crashing into the wall outside together.

"Come on!" Ragnar called out to his party. "No time to waste—we're going to get trapped!"

The group members all nodded, and they charged out of the room together, fighting side by side. Ragnar was at the front, hacking and slashing his way through the mutants with his broadsword, while Cory and Spencer took up the rear with their firearms. Michael and Idylia fought with their Soul Arts, providing support. Unfortunately, Michael was of the Fire affinity, so he was practically useless in here unless he wanted to burn the entire hotel down.

"This way!" Ragnar called out, leading the group through the stairs. They needed to get out of this building, first and foremost. They could easily wound up surrounded in here, and using his large broadsword in this narrow corridor was somewhat taxing. Jumping out of the windows wouldn't work, as the mutants would simply follow them until the Scarlet Hour began, in which case they were royally fucked.

Thankfully, this narrow corridor worked in the party's favor as well. This meant the mutants could only come at them two at a time row by row, making it easy for Ragnar to cut them down with his broadsword. These were all weak Stage One Mutants who looked to be no more than Level 5 at best according to Michael, who had used Inspect on them, so the party really wasn't in any danger so long as they didn't let themselves get pincer attacked.

As they headed down the stairwell, however, a gush of mutants suddenly rushed up towards them, too many for them to take on. There seemed to be an infinite supply to them, and Ragnar right now was not at the same strength he once was on Earth.

"Tch… different plan! Go up!"