"Hey! Are you okay!?" Heimfher asked.
He pulled Duskiell by his hand to help him stand.
"Do you have eyes you idiot.. If you still have energy, take me to the bureau.." Duskiell replied, he coughed a couple times and looked exhausted.
"What about the vines?!" Heimfher replied, he was worried that the vines would spread out onto the street, however Duskiell then gave him a relief when he said.
"Anything created by magic wouldn't last forever, these vines should die after a while.. Since it had lost connection with its host, which is that guy who summoned those slugs.."
Seeing his colleague like that, Heimfher had no choice but to force his body and he carried Duskiell out of the sewer through the tunnel that he previously went a while ago.
"Got it.. Hang in there."
.
.
Each step took a lot of his energy, Heimfher's breath became heavier as he walked through the tunnel, because both of his hands was occupied, he can't summon any fire and lit up the tunnel, he had to rely on his sense of direction and instinct.
Time passes, one minute, then ten, the tunnel stretches far, and Heimfher has yet to see any light from the other side, his head was aching, and his muscle felt like they're almost torn.
Everywhere he focused, Heimfher always felt an agonizing pain in that specific body parts he's focusing on, and it made him nearly insane.
"Haahhh.. Haaah... Fuck.." Heimfher said, his heart was racing and he couldn't tell if he would be able to gather enough energy to get out or not.
'I still have some mana.. But my fatigue.. It's different—
'Damnit.. damnit..'
Just as when Heimfher thought he would faint aswell, his eyes was blinded by a light, as it turns out, he had already walked through the entire tunnel, however because of his fatigue, his vision became blurry, and that caused him to miss the light that should be the indication of the outside world.
"Haahh.. Haahh.." Heimfher was definitely no longer had any energy in him, and he knew that.
Gradually, under the gibbous moonlight, Heimfher kneeled and let Duskiell gave the rest to Duskiell.
"Hey, Heimfher..." Duskiell lightly pushed Heimfher to see if he was still concious, and got startled when Heimfher spoke to him in a low voice.
"No, no more.. Im tired." He said.
"One more step and i'll drop dead.. Im serious."
Hearing Heimfher's words, Duskiell sighed and rubbed his own forehead, he was also in a similar situation as Heimfher, and he couldn't force a boy who's still 17 years old to carry him all the way to the bureau.
After he thought about it for a while, Duskiell ended up just letting everything pass, since the two of them had already left the tunnel, anyone that checked on the sinkhole would saw them, and eventually they'd be rescued.
"—Good grief.. You're already sleeping huh." Duskiell jokingly said, he looked at Heimfher and noticed that his eyes had been closed.
"Ah.. You're actually sleeping— Haahh, well, we'll wake up in the bureau anyway.."
And thus, he closed his eyes following Heimfher and fell asleep, he couldn't care less about his torn coat, his injuries, or the coldness that he felt in his skin from sleeping with rubbles and rocks beneath him.
.
.
Tomorrow at the Bureau, 12:00PM—
"Mmrrfgghh.."
Heimfher opened his eyes with a rough yawn, a wooden ceiling and a hanging lantern became the first thing that he sees as be raised his upper body to look around.
"Huh..?" He wondered, seeing the room he was in, Heimfher was confused as to where he could be, since it didn't look like he was inside of an inn or his house.
He looked around for some time, until a footsteps was heard heading to his room.
Creakk!
The wooden door was opened, and Heimfher, who still being half asleep, was relieved to see Duskiell being the one that greeted him.
"Yo, kiddo.." He said playfully.
"Ohh, Duskiell.. Good- HUH?!" Suddenly, Heimfher's memories from last night crashed into him, and he was shocked to find Duskiell being all healthy and energetic, considering that he looked like a dead man before.
"You- You.. How did you—"
Seeing the funny face that Heimfher made, Duskiell smirked and leaned on to the door.
"What? you think im going to be crippled?" He said before continuing to say the next word with a serious tone.
"Lena healed us."
"Lena?" Heimfher temporarily forgot the name for a few seconds, then he recalled the girl that had always behind him.
"Aahhh, right.. I forgot, she's a healer."
After Heimfher was back to his original self and fully awake, Duskiell quickly told Heimfher to get up and follow him to the main hall.
"You're awake now? Good, get up and follow me. We have something important to discuss with the others." He said, to which Heimfher replied with.
"Ah, alright."
Before he tidy up his hair and wore his white shirt, the coat that was given by the Laughing Fairy Tavern owner had already been torn apart from last night, so Heimfher couldn't see it being in his room.
.
.
Step!
Step
Step!
Heimfher exited the room and what he met immediately was the five religious symbol of each church, he also saw a few of marble statues that looks to be depicting the king of Nephemis Kingdom, Leonidas.
When he saw the familiar architecture and also decoration, Heimfher realized that he was inside of the Protection Bureau building, it seems like he was moved to an emergency resting room within the building and had allowed to sleep throughout the morning.
"What happened to Murph and the others?" Heimfher asked Duskiell as the two of them were walking.
Duskiell then looked at Heimfher and replied in a calm manner.
"He's fine, the investigation with the Dead Deity Order is over, and they've caught one of their member."
Hearing the success of the investigation, the corner of Heimfher's lips widened as he formed a faint smile.
"Is that so." He replied with a deep sigh.
His conversation with Duskiell was soon postponed after the two of them arrived at the main hall, there were many other officers around them, some were sitting on a bench, while others were walking to a destination.
Then, among the countless officers and some normal civilians who were there to either report a problem or waiting for their case result, Heimfher saw Murph and his other colleagues from Division 0 standing infront of each other, they seem to be talking and were waiting for his arrival.
"Ah, Heimfher, welcome back." Murph greeted Heimfher with a waving hand.
Heimfher gave his own wave to him as a greetings and he then saw the rest, Carlessa, Harith, Bentley, and Lena, they all said their own hi to him.
"Good job on surviving." Harith said, followed by Carlessa who with a smug face, spoke in a confident voice.
"I heard from Duskiell that you killed two of the kidnappers, heh.. Who knows you're already this strong before eating any awakened hearts."
"Good job.. Sorry, that i couldn't help last night.." Bentley added, his smile turned into a slight frown after he remembered his lack of contribution that night.
"Welcome back.." Lena also spoke, and as usual, she doesn't speak much, she also hid behind Carlessa this time, unlike before where she was standing on her own.
Before Murph could start the discussion, Heimfher had to thank Lena first for healing him, he saw her hiding from him, so he assumed that she was just shy.
'Aren't i supposed to be younger than you?.. What are you?! An introvert?! Perhaps an anti-social?!' He thought.
"Thank you for healing me, Lena." Heimfher said while he looked at Lena's face through the crevice between Carlessa and Harith's shoulders.
He didn't expect an answer from Lena, and his intuition was right, she only nodded at him and kept her voice quiet, in the end, Murph spoke first before Heimfher could hear Lena's respond.
"Okay, pay attention.. Especially Heimfher." Murph said, he clapped once to gain everyone's focus.
"As you know, we caught one of the Dead Deity Order member, and right now, he's detained within our basement at the Laughing Fairy Tavern—
"Heimfher, you must be curious with the story right?"
Heimfher was asked and startled by the sudden question.
"Huh..? Ohh sure, yeah." He replied, with Murph soon continuing his speech.
"Well, it all thanks to you and Duskiell, Duskiell told me about what happened last night, and it seems like the cloaked men you were fighting in the tunnel was the Dead Deity Order members that have escaped from our grasp—
"You and Duskiell killed one of them, and the two other members of the cult had no way to go except the other way, however we were walking towards their direction at that time, so in a way, they were trapped on both side—
"Long story short, we fought them and won, but when we tried to capture them for interrogation, one of them who was called Hugo chose to kill himself, as it turns out they had a pill inside their mouth that act as an emergency suicide—
"He couldn't be saved, however the other one, thankfully we acted quick and apprehended him while locking his mouth with our hands, so he couldn't kill himself with the poison pill, that's how we got him detained."
Murph ended his story with another clap, and everyone nodded in understanding while turning their head towards Heimfher.
"Huh? What?" Heimfher asked, he felt confused with the unexpected stares.
"Did you listen? We caught those cult members." Carlessa said, she was also confused at Heimfher's expression. And that confusion made Heimfher even more bewildered.
"Yeah, why?!" He said as he raised one of his eyebrows.
"Why?!.." Carlessa was stunned to see Heimfher's lack of awareness.
"There's a dead awakened corpse and you don't want it? Did you forget that you have to eat their heart to get stronger?"
Carlessa's words struck Heimfher like an electricity and his eyes widened in shock.
"Hm!?! OH.. I completely forgot about that.." He said.
Heimfher felt embarrassed to have forgotten about the basic of being an awakened, and he scratched the back of his head as a way to get rid of his embarrassment.
'R- right! I guess— Im about to a cannibal..' He thought.