"The quest," Damon spoke, his tone even. "I’m going to end it."
The council members looked at one another, as if trying to figure out whether he was serious or not.
It was only once their gazes returned to Damon, and they saw nothing but seriousness on his face, that they slowly realised how serious he truly was.
"H-How are you going to do that?"
"I have my ways," Damon replied flatly.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to share the details of what he was planning to do, it was just that it made no difference whether those around him knew or not.
In truth, his idea was quite simple. It involved nothing that he couldn’t do already, and the more he thought about it, the less significant the quest seemed.
The problem was that the person he needed to fulfil his plan was unexpectedly gone.
"We need to find Ivy first," he suddenly said.
"Ivy?" Victor raised a brow. "Is she a part of your plan?"
Before Damon could even decide whether he should answer the question or not, Ning Xiaoyu spoke.
"Forget that. How are you going to end the quest that can only end in your death?"
A small smile crept its way across Damon’s face before he spoke. "It’s quite simple, really. I’m going to give the system exactly what it wants."
"You’re going to die to end the quest..." Hana murmured, her voice was so quiet it almost seemed as though she was speaking to herself.
A heavy silence settled over the room.
Damon didn’t reply, at least not immediately.
Instead, he rose to his feet, his gaze shifting across every one of them before he finally decided to break the oppressive silence around them.
"I don’t plan on staying dead. But if any of you can say the same thing, then I suggest we start looking for Ivy," he paused for a second before continuing in a slightly more lighthearted tone. "It’s a big city and thirty days pass fast..."
Nyla, who rose to her feet almost in unison with Damon, elbowed him softly in the side, her face turning to a slight pout at his remark. "Not funny," she murmured so quietly that no one other than her heard.
The others rose to their feet shortly after.
They didn’t need to know all the details. In truth, they doubted they had ever known all the details since each of them met Damon, but if there was one thing they were certain of, it was his leadership.
A silent agreement was passed between each of them; they were all ready to begin their search for Ivy. Now, the problem was where to start.
Damon split the group apart, assigning each a direction to follow.
Victor and Hana would go East. Ning Xiaoyu would go North since that’s where her original citadel was. Damon hoped that perhaps even her people would’ve seen something.
Eve was quick to call dibs on West, which left Damon and Nyla for South.
Initially, he tried to get her to go with Eve or Ning Xiaoyu, but she was quick to refuse, and so were they, so he had no choice but to bring her with him.
Of course, unlike the others who had a simple direction to head toward, Damon lingered behind and decided to go to Ivy’s room first.
"Are you sure it’s okay?" Nyla asked, shifting uncomfortably as they approached Ivy’s bedroom door.
"There might be some clues as to where she went."
"I know, but..."
Damon raised a brow.
It wasn’t like Nyla to be so timid.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Well... You know, we girls don’t really like other people to—"
BANG!
Damon’s fist crashed against the wooden door before Nyla could even finish the sentence. He thought maybe there was some real reason as to why they shouldn’t enter, not some privacy nonsense which had no place in a life and death situation.
Damon paused at the threshold of the door for a moment, studying the insides.
The room looked a lot different from what he had in mind.
It was small, though it might be his memory of Yoru’s room that made it seem like it. It matched the design of every other room of the citadel, but to his surprise, Ivy had almost no apparent belongings.
Other than one wardrobe that was filled with clothes, the room looked hollow, as if it had never truly been lived in.
"Did anyone come in here since Ivy left?" Damon asked, strolling carefully around the room.
"No. Nobody would be stupid enough to get on her bad side..." Nyla paused for a beat before adding. "Especially now."
Damon raised a brow, though his gaze remained on the surroundings. "Especially now?"
Nyla hesitated.
"Well... Ivy has been a little distant ever since she returned."
"Distant how?"
"She stopped leading... Like at all. She hovered around but never spoke, never put in input and the look on her eyes..." Nyla physically shivered, as if the memory alone was enough to run cold through her bones.
Damon frowned slightly, thinking through Nyla’s words.
Although both Ivy’s appearance and departure from the world of divine beasts were quite unsettling, Damon wouldn’t expect them to make such an impact on someone as strong-willed as Ivy.
He lingered on those words for a moment longer as he sat in a chair beside a small wooden desk.
There was nothing worth their attention in the room, other than Ivy’s description that Nyla had just given him.
’Could her behaviour have something to do with her disappearance?’
Just as the question entered his mind, his gaze caught a glimpse of a folded piece of paper on the desk.
He picked it up almost immediately.
There, a drawing that made no sense at first glance spread across the entire page.
Damon wanted to put it back the moment he saw it, noting it as unworthy of their attention, but just as he was about to put it back, a notification rang in his head, one that he did not expect to hear.
[Your Comprehension of the *Ritual of Life* has slightly increased!]