Hopian's P.O.V.

"...Huh. I see what you mean now. Even without hearing the audio, Abduli was pretty clearly trying to taunt you there it seems. A bit worrying for sure..." Taylis says after I showed her the recording that a security camera caught of my and the alien's encounter from two years ago.

"Indeed. And as for the things he was or wasn't lying about, I can't even say for certain. I've tried to use some image-analysis algorithms to study his facial expressions in the recording to test for lying but- I doubt that the results are trustworthy."

"Why not?" Taylis asks.

"Because they all returned 100% in regards to him not lying. Which makes me believe that Abduli somehow altered them- or his facial expressions- in advance to rig the results." I respond while rubbing my eyes.

"...Creepy. So I guess we have to go off of his actions instead of his words then. The 'fortunes' he's given us on the scroll seem to have all been accurate so far, right? And he also protected us from the Cannibal realizing that we're working with him too, which might be a good sign."

...

"True. But we need to keep our guard up regardless." I note, obviously keeping the reason why a secret.

"Mhm. Aside from that though... I guess we just keep doing what we've been doing? With getting ready for our takeover of this continent, while following the instructions Abduli gave us for "guiding" Seric?"

"Yes. Speaking of which, how are the trio faring right now in Dalkan? You've been keeping track of them with the micro-drone we sent with them through the portal, correct?" I ask- since the beginning of the group's journey in Dalkan was a massive failure.

Amandeath tried to kill herself twice before Karia stopped her, and Seric was a sobbing mess due to Metallic's death- which made Karia have to scream at and physically force him to keep moving. And tying that in with the fact that the Dalkan environment itself is near-constant blizzards made things even worse, since that required Seric to constantly summon and move his boat around to keep the others warm.

"Still tracking them, yep. And um- still not great. They've got Seric's boat parked really far from where the portal was now, so they've just been taking a break for a while since the boat should blend in with the snow and keep them hidden. And as for specifics? Karia's the same as before and just keeping watch. Amandeath's unconscious after Karia knocked her out after she tried to shoot herself for the third time. And Seric's just- crying in his room on the boat still. He and Karia had a big fight a while ago about leaving Metallic behind, so they haven't talked in a little while."

"What a circus, as always." I say with a scoff.

"Seric should pull through after seeing the recording Metallic left in his room though. He's probably both sad about losing Metallic AND feeling guilty about letting him die- which I think Metallic's 'last words' should help with. And the recording should also help him realize that Karia made the right call by dragging him to Dalkan."

"I certainly hope so. Since I'm not sure what we can do otherwise, since we're not supposed to directly intervene with their "journey" as per Abduli's orders..."

"I believe in them. Except for Amandeath... i hope she pulls through too but, yikes. Oh- forgot to mention, Karia was able to attach one of the artificial limbs to Amandeath's left knee earlier. It'll probably fall off sooner or later due to Karia not really knowing what she was doing, but it's a start."

"Interesting. Thank you for the update. Now then, I suppose we can see what the next "fortunes" for the group are." I say in an unenthusiastic tone as I pick up the scroll that I dropped earlier, with Taylis seemingly being a bit excited.

I then begin to unscroll it, and read off the few new fortunes that had now "magically" appeared on it,

Seric, Karia, and any other survivors from their group are forced into Dalkan's army of criminals to hunt the monsters of the land.

Aora successfully arrives at Dalkan to hunt down the trio, and slays Dalkan's biggest monster 'Laiga' after it attacks her vehicle.

Aora becomes a legend of the Dalkan people due to killing Laiga.

The trio, plus Aora, inadvertently cause a revolution- which leads to Aora executing the leader of Dalkan, Oidas.

Aora successfully kidnaps Seric and brings him back to the Hopian Army.

"I-I don't have any words for this. These guys really are like a walking disaster wherever they go, aren't they?" Taylis says while laughing in disbelief.

"That's a light way to put it. My main question now is- what the hell is the point of Seric going to Dalkan if he'll just be brought back here by Aora anyways?"

"No clue. Maybe Aora's more important than she seems? She was in a lot of the fortunes there, so who knows."

"...Ugh. What a nightmare of complexity this world is becoming."