Chapter 221 - No Rules

"Why are we the only ones here? Shouldn't we wait for the others so they could also help?" Lei suddenly said to Petunia who was preoccupied with organizing the stuff that they need to make the flight potion inside the third laboratory under the castle.

"I thought you wanted to make the flight potion as soon as possible? Do you want me to stop organizing this and just put the ingredients back in the storage right now?"

"No! I was just curious since something happened to Gem last night and I haven't seen Fily anywhere since this morning."

"Well, Fily is still sleeping right now, I believe she deserves to rest and go back to her hibernating schedule after staying awake for more than a week because of that Edelweiss trip, and Gem's still resting because of what happened last night, so I don't really mind if they're not here to help."

"How about Von? Should I call him?" Lei asked and was about to call Von when Petunia stopped her.

"Actually, no. I don't think Von would be much of a help either. He'd probably just sit around in a corner and sleep just like what he did last time. So no thanks."

"Okay… you're really okay with just me helping you?" Lei said, getting awkward now because of his series of useless questions which obviously has no effect on Petunia, but he could not stop now. He started it, so he should at least end it on a good note.

"To be honest with you? I don't need your help. I only let you join because you begged me to. I can make the flight potion on my own, especially since I have a human body now so it's up to you if you still want to stay or not. Either way, I don't care. I can do just fine on my own... but having a helping hand also won't hurt," Petunia said with a very icy tone that she then toned down on the last sentence after seeing Lei's enthusiastic face gone.

"Okay," Lei said, sulking a little bit because of the useless topic that he brought up and Petunia responded bluntly, making the atmosphere a lot more awkward between them, just when they were about to have a good bond.

"Bring me water from the trees. Oh, and also the Energy slimes! I forgot about that! I should have asked Gem to give me a bottle of those too when she restocked my healing slimes!"

"Should I go there and fetch them for you?" Lei said without looking at Petunia which made Petunia guiltier about what she said.

"No thanks, I'll just zap my way there through the window and hopefully find the right window back here," Petunia said and flew to the ventilation system like a cat, but because of her human body, she was unable to get in fully and even cursed herself for doing something so stupid in front of Lei who was also as speechless at her for that other awkward thing that happened between the two of them.

"There's a window here… you know?" Lei said, remembering Petunia's words that originally said 'windows' which made him question Petunia's sanity the moment she climbed inside the vent on the ceiling like a cat, which she isn't anymore.

"Oh, right! I was going there, I just got a little bit confused," Petunia said and laughed awkwardly while still avoiding eye contact with Lei.

"Careful, you might hit your head again," Lei said and jumped to the table near the window so he could guide Petunia's human body outside, which he was sure that Petunia was still uncomfortable with since it was still her second day with that form, after all.

"Thanks," Petunia said with a very shy volume which Lei almost couldn't hear if he was not reading Petunia's lips when she said it.

"No problem, just get back here quickly," Lei said and waved goodbye to Petunia who was now flying outside of the island.

"I didn't notice this room was just beside the rock walls of the island, I wonder why they decided to put the secret rooms beside the sky. Wouldn't that serve as a welcoming sign for the intruders to enter this sacred place that easily? Especially if they have a map of this secret basement," Lei wondered to himself before returning to his position in front of the white marble table earlier where Petunia organized the stuff they collected from the storage rooms.

"Thunder cloud," he muttered while picking up the jar of clouds that Petunia thought her how to use earlier and shook it until the clouds boomed with little flashes of lightning in between.

"Amazing," he remarked before deciding to also play with the rest of them so he would not be bored while waiting for Petunia to come back.

***

"So you're saying, we need to kill as many monsters as we can from the outside to collect nova stars?"

"Yes, and these monsters have different nova stars' value on them. For example, killing a poisonous python would give our team an additional 25 points each but killing a mayon dragon like that one would give us at least a hundred thousand nova stars each or even more depending on the circumstances," Von explained while pointing at the dragon inside a volcano that made Yumeki betray her allies at the last two stages of the game.

"How about killing your opponents, does that have any rewards?" Gem asked innocently, the image of how Yumeki killed her allies still fresh inside her brain.

"They don't. But that's less competition for you."

"But isn't that illegal?" Gem asked while getting agitated about the way Yumeki was still praised for killing the teams who were with her the whole time and even helped her get to the top just to be betrayed by her in the end.

"Have you forgotten what kind of place the wastelands are?" Von genuinely asked which made Gem feel a pain in her heart for forgetting how ruthless that place was for a second.

"You're right. There are no rules there. Only chaos and the desperation to survive," Gem said with an empty expression as she recalled the horrible memories she had when she was still living in the wastelands like an animal.

"I'm sorry you had to go back there. You shouldn't have accepted mom's offer when you first heard it. You came here to have a better life, not to train so you could go back there and fight for your life again," Von said with much honesty that Gem did not even understand where it was coming from.

"No, it's okay. I came here to have a life, but I'm going back there to serve a better purpose. Change will never happen if I don't do something now. Choosing to stay here and having a better life by myself is equivalent to me saying it's okay for those people to suffer just like me. And I don't want that. What Venedette did to me was enough to convince me to do this, whether it may cost my life or not. I'm ready for it."

"You mean, we're still getting ready for it," Von said and smiled, admiring Gem's mature thinking that he had only ignored before.

"Right," Gem said and also smiled at him, "But what about you? What's your reason for suddenly stopping your immature ways and voluntarily joining this team instead of looking like you're being forced by Venedette?" Gem said and put the tablet beside her while focusing on Von's shy response.

"Is it too obvious?" he said and smiled giddily while trying to hide his face from Gem's stare.

"Not really," Gem shrugged and urged Von to answer her real question now.

"Well… for one, I just really want to be a big brother for Demi. I may have done nothing when she was still alive but I'm not letting go of this chance right now especially when it's being shoved into my face," Von said jokingly which made Gem laugh.

"But seriously, my reason is almost as similar as yours. I don't want to be ignorant and just let other kids experience what Demi had gone through just because I chose to do nothing. I also want to be a change. And defeating Yumeki is the first step to that change," Von stated with so much seriousness that he almost choked himself to death after hearing Petunia's slow claps from the window.

"So this is where you've been hiding all along," she said while approaching Gem slowly with her awkwardly tall human body.

"Petunia!" Gem greeted her and even went for a hug, which was another new thing to Petunia, considering how she had always seen Gem bigger than her cat body compared to her size now.

"Yes, it's me, you're welcome," Petunia said awkwardly even though she was really enjoying Gem's hug deep inside.

"Ouch!"

"Oops, sorry. It's my necklace, it has been malfunctioning since I got stuck in Solitude," Gem said and laughed as if she were just okay all this time.

"So, what do we have here?" Petunia said and looked at Von while letting Gem cure the frostbite on her upper chest that her Salamandite did due to its very cold temperature.

"Nothing. I was just telling Gem some trivia about the tournament," Von said and hid behind his blanket, embarrassed about how he did not even notice Petunia sneaking up behind them from the window because of his overwhelming thoughts.

"Oh?" Petunia said, sounding unconvinced but just shrugged it off for the sole reason that it was not the main purpose of her visit after all.