New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1022: An Omen Of Destruction

"I\'ll need you to wet your hair completely for me. Can you do that?" she asked the girl, smiling reassuringly.

"Mmm," Violette hummed as she nodded.

Violette used her magic to conjure water on her head to wet her hair all the way through, trusting Kary entirely.

Kary pulled out a brush from her pack before brushing the girl\'s hair softly, slowly untangling every strand, a dismal amount of mana to heat her palm and act like a makeshift dryer.

With the pulling motion from the brush, the heat from her hand, and some patience, she brought Violette\'s hair back to its usual silky appearance, albeit a little wavy, and she smiled at her handiwork.

"Once the world goes back to normal, I think I could open a hair salon," Kary joked, giving Violette a comforting hug.

"Thank you," the girl mumbled, reciprocating the hug.

"Don\'t worry about it, honey. There shall be no sad little girl in my presence, on that, I swear!" Kary said, pumping her fist up like a revolutionary leader.

The action made Violette giggle, washing away her bad temper and returning her to normal.

"We should eat a little before going further into the dungeon. What do you say we go sit with the others?" Kary offered, standing back up.

"Ok," Violette assented with a smile.

Seeing the pair walk back towards them, Alex gave a discreet thumb up to Kary, who winked at him in response. This didn\'t escape David\'s sharp eyes, and he went back to grumbling alone in his corner as he kicked rubble around him like a pouting child.

Kary ignored him, feeling like this was not too far from his typical temper. It wasn\'t worth her attention.

They walked over to Aapo and Cory, who were sitting by themselves, and started pulling out snacks from their packs while Aapo looked at them in desperation.

He had gone to a corner to be alone, and already, Cory had already joined him, making his social anxiety flare up. At least the teenager had kept quiet, only shooting side glances at him while he ate, so it wasn\'t too bad.

But now, with Kary and Violette there, the three of them started a conversation and tried to include him, making him uncomfortable.

Aapo kept his replies as short as possible, sometimes even humming in response, making Kary frown.

Cory was shooting adoration-filled glances his way, almost like he idolized him in silence, which wasn\'t far from the truth.

\'He\'s sooo coooooool!\' Cory thought to himself.

The silent attitude Aapo was showing was paramount to the cool persona he was trying to run when playing his characters in video games. He had no idea that Aapo was only nervous, and he didn\'t care.

To him, all that mattered was that the silent man was an inspiration.

Who knows how he would have reacted if he\'d known that Aapo was mentally struggling right now?

Kary mentally shook her head, knowing that the teenager was misinterpreting Aapo\'s silence for coolness, but was too lazy to correct his misunderstanding.

And she didn\'t want to put Aapo on the spot either, for his lack of responsiveness, so she kept accepting his half-assed replies and his grunts and mumbles.

Everyone\'s tension slowly eased up as they ate and conversed, and when Kary judged that they had calmed down enough, she decided they had rested enough.

"Okay!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands to get their attention.

"Break\'s over. Let\'s push past this last hurdle so we can all go home!" she said, grinning at them.

A sense of nervousness washed over the group, but Kary could tell it was closer to anticipation than to fear, so she brushed it aside.

"About time," David grumbled, grabbing his pack.

"Oh, can it, grumpy pants," Kary admonished, glaring at him.

David was about to reply to her when Alex suddenly appeared at his side and elbowed him lightly, shaking his head discreetly, his eyes begging him to drop it.

David could almost hear the, \'It\'s not worth it. Let it go,\' in Alex\'s gaze. Gritting his teeth, David kept his mouth shut, groaning to himself.

Seeing as everyone was getting ready to go, Kary nodded in satisfaction.

Once they had all picked up their stuff, she headed to the start of the path to the end of the cavern and turned to them.

"Let\'s go greet that dragon egg and show him what humanity is all about!" she exclaimed, clenching her fists.

"Yeah!"

"Omelette for breakfast!"

"Let\'s beat him to a pulp!"

The group\'s exclamation eased over the nervousness from before, and Kary took the lead, heading down the stone path.

Following the zigzagging path down, which brought them close to the giant crack in the stone, Kary stayed at the front, trying to instill confidence in them. She figured if she showed no fear, they shouldn\'t either.

But once they entered the dark entrance back into the volcano\'s guts, she reorganized the party into a battle formation, just in case, and no one raised a complaint.

They didn\'t have to walk for long before they reached an opening that led into a massive open

space.

Contrary to the rest of the caverns from before that were evidently naturally formed, this one had a polished feel. The walls were slick and perfectly circular, creating a dome-like room above them, bringing their gazes upward before gasps escaped them.

A mural depicting a gigantic red dragon was displayed on the ceiling, showing it burning

entire cities with its fiery breath while people burned.

And what had made them gasp wasn\'t that the dragon was massive. No.

It was the sight of the cities that were burning down. They looked modern.

"This is Seoul..." Jin-Sil said, her words choking in her throat.

The burning towers of Seoul and the highways filled with burning debris and charred cars

were traumatic, to say the least.

"This mural is an omen," David said, catching their attention.

"If the dragon ever hatches, we won\'t be able to stop him, and that will happen. This is the world warning us," he added, his gaze hardening.

"We\'re not alone," Alex said, pointing straight ahead, where two sets of red eyes glared at them from the darkness.

"So you\'ve come," a low, rumbling voice echoed in the room.

As it spoke, torches lit around the gigantic room, making them realize how big it was.

Kary\'s flames had been lighting about half of it already, but it was now wholly lit, and they witnessed the challenge ahead of them.

"Well, this is going to be fun," David groaned, pulling out his metal bident imitation.

"Welcome, humans. To the great one\'s antechamber."