Paradise Lost (JSAB)

Mount Clearwater, The Volcano

I'm sorry about the late upload, this was just kinda hard to write and school just fucked me in the ass

1130 Hours, Near Mount Clearwater

"You seem troubled, Barracuda. Was me gouging out the eye of that merman too traumatising for you?" 

"What? Nonono, it's not that, don't worry." Barracuda shook her head, her snake-hair shaking from side to side as she did so as well. "I'm just... kinda tired for some reason..."

"Do you need to rest?"

"No, I don't, thanks, I've been doing nothing but walking for the past hour or so. It's just that I feel sort of sleepy."

"Aaah. In that case, don't worry about it, it's only natural. Though, I do have a query."

"Ask away."

"Did you start feeling tired after the encounter with that merman?"

"Yes. Yes I did. Before that I was wide awake. Now I'm just... Lethargic."

Fresh nodded to himself, soaking in the information like a sponge. You can see it in his eyes, even, as the details glimmered, almost making it seem like his eyeballs reflected light. But unfortunately, no corrupted had eyes that could do so.

"That's normal. Don't fret."

"It is?"

"The thing about Awoken, or "Bosses" as I sometimes call them, is that they have a limit to how much power they have. You know how I mentioned that every living thing has at least a little bit of corruption inside it?"

"Yeah, I think you did." 

"The only reason you're Awoken right now is because as a pure woman, you had more "corruption" inside you than other people. The amount of corruption you had in you as a pure human determines just how much "energy" you have right now as a corrupted. In other words, the shittier you felt while pure, the more powerful you will be as a corrupted."

"'The shittier I felt-' Yeah what a blunt way to put it, Fresh. But that aside... So what you're saying is, the reason I'm tired now is because I used up a portion of my energy during that fight with that... thing?"

"Precisely. Please do spend as much time as you need resting, however. I am not impatient."

Barracuda nodded before falling back silent as she stared at the looming mountain spring up ahead, blinking.

The two of them have been walking for ALMOST FIVE HOURS. Of course, Barracuda didn't feel exhausted, even though she knew that she would probably be dead if she attempted this while pure. It seems that using corruption is the only thing capable of draining her energy. Fresh wanted to talk, anyways. It seemed he wanted to get to know her a bit better, though he did refrain from telling her about himself.

"Anyways, so more about this... Expedition... we're on..." Barracuda asked, looking at the rapidly approaching mountain. "What's our plan?"

"Corrupt the entire goddamn thing."

"Why?"

"Reasons."

"What kind of reasons? Conquest reasons? Obscure reasons? Petty reasons?"

"All three."

"Including petty reasons?"

"Especially petty reasons."

"What kind of petty reasons?"

"Extremely petty reasons."

"Take a shot every time one of us says "petty reasons", holy crap. I'm guessing you're not gonna go into detail?"