"Sir Rocky, are we really going to deliver a dragon egg just for it to be sacrificed?" Asked Erin, as he did not seem to feel that good about the whole quest knowing that the package that they were delivering was a living breathing egg, on the cusp of being born.
"Judging by the cracks on the egg, the process of it hatching has already begun, in the next 20-35 hours the egg should hatch fully. Which coincides with the deadline for our quest to complete.
There is no doubt in my mind that whoever wants this egg, wants it before it is hatched as should the Newborn live to see a day, the sacrificial ritual won't work as effectively–" Kronos said, as all eyes turned to Rocky at this moment.
Of-course nobody wanted to deliver a newborn baby to a killer, however, in this instance Rocky had no choice.
Although Erin did have 4 return tokens to floor zero on him, which would have allowed the team to escape with the egg instantly, doing so would mean giving up on the quest, which would in turn cause Rocky to get no medicine for Riva for the week.
"No.... We can't quit the quest... no matter how much I hate doing this, we must complete it, because failing the quest means that my sister gets no medicine–" Rocky said, as he made his intentions to see this quest to the end abundantly clear.
"Maybe we can try and save the egg after delivering it to the enemy and completing the quest, but that's after.
First we complete it anyhow" Rocky said, as he looked at his friends with a desperate expression in his eyes, which showed just how helpless he felt in this situation.
His sister had just started to get better and Rocky feared that without the medicine she could relapse at any given moment.
If it wasn't for her, Rocky would have ended this quest here right this moment, however, since it was not his life on the line but Riva's, Rocky decided to go through with the cruel act of delivering the egg, to whoever wanted it.
"It's settled then boys, the team leader has spoken–" Kronos said, as he started to jog ahead of Rocky, with Buhara following closely behind with a big sigh.
For a moment Erin looked at the egg box in Rocky's hand and grit his teeth, but in the end even he understood Rocky's plight and started to run.
Of-course, there was always a chance that things did not go the way he planned them to, however, in the end he could only manipulate the odds and could not manipulate certainties.
"It is a cruel world we live in brother and we are already too late.
I don't derive pleasure from Rocky's suffering, however, the only hope that we have to equal Zeus is if Rocky rises through the tower like a rocket and I have created just the perfect environment for it to happen.
If I could not peer into the future like you, I would probably have the same set of ideals as you, but guess what?
I can look into the future and I can see exactly what's best for us and what isn't.
A cruel, desperate Rocky outperforms a calm, confident Rocky 9/10 times brother and it's moments like these that precisely why we need to push him.
If not for the life of his sister being on the line, Rocky would have quit this quest here without hesitation.
However, it is because we have a hanging gun over his head that he must push like there's no tomorrow.
I've seen every future there is to see brother, so just trust me when I say, this is for our best" Shakuni said, as this argument of his concluded the discussion between himself and Ravan.
Zeus was already on floor 98 and only a couple steps away from reaching floor 101, whereas they were stuck on floor 92 and had a long way to catch-up to him.
With Zeus's champion now being on floor 89 and on the cusp of becoming a True God soon, the time that Ravan and Shakuni had to catch up was reducing with every passing day.
This was one of the main reasons behind why Shakuni was acting with such urgency, as he desperately wished to stop Zeus from reaching floor 100 at any cost possible.