CH533

When Ben arrived to see his students for the day he decided to start off strong, if only to make them all more agreeable for when he planned on forcing them to befriend Insia. All it was going to take was beating them down a little first.

“Guys, I’m honestly so proud of all of you,” He told them, really putting his heart into it. “Nati and Xilly, we may have gotten off on the wrong foot but through constant effort you’ve both taken in more than I’d expected to teach, even getting all the way to the sixth level of connect! To raise the skill so high in such a short amount of time, it brings a tear to my eye. And then there’s Zallith, who’s adapted well to what he was always meant to be, becoming one of the best footstools the world has ever seen.”

“I’m not-”

His words were cut off with a sharp kick while his two students just looked tired. Even if it had only been days, it had felt like Ben had been pushing them beyond their limits for months by that point while he made them suffer under his unnatural thought speed, but they could see a light at the end of the tunnel finally approaching. They’d finish up that day and the next before finally being free, or so they thought until Ben continued.

“Now, obviously I’m going to do my best to get you guys up to the seventh level by the time I leave tomorrow, it would be a shame not to but it would be an even greater shame to stop there, don’t you think?”

“Um, what do you mean?” Nati asked, her blood running cold at what he was implying.

“Exactly what I said. You guys have made so much progress, why leave it at that? I really believe that with enough time I’d be able to help you awaken connect and I’m basically just a gate away, so considering how much closer we’ve all grown and how good it would be for the world as a whole, I’ve decided. I’m talking to Nare later, I’m going to come back three or four times a week to keep training you all. Now, I’m not sure how long it will take to get you guys there but don’t worry, one way or another I’ll make sure to push you both over that edge by the beginning of the next wave, no matter what it takes.”

Xilly fell to her knees and Zallith let out a low whimper, with Nati wearing a look of despair. None of them really doubted that Nare would agree if Ben put out that offer, it was just a question of if any of them would still be sane by the end of all that. What he’d already put them through had been beyond mentally taxing, the only thing they’d been holding onto was the fact that they were so close to their freedom. Losing that would all but break their minds.

While Ben was a little offended to see the reactions, they were essentially what he’d been hoping for, even if they fell on the extreme end of things, and from there he offered them the potential out they all so desperately wanted.

“Of course, if you guys had some sort of good reason you couldn’t do it, I suppose I’d just have to be satisfied with wherever you end at tomorrow and hope you all manage to keep practicing by yourselves.”

“If we keep going then I’m going to have a full-on mental breakdown,” Xilly offered, hoping for mercy but getting none.

“Not a good reason, your mind can probably be reconstructed if need be. Next.”

“I have priestly duties and I don’t even have connect to learn from you so I should probably be excused,” Zallith tried, getting betrayed looks from the other two as he did his best to abandon them.

“Then who am I going to practice things with for my own training? And more importantly, where would I kick up my feet? Denied, next.”

It was Nati who seemed to pick up where this was going, cutting to the heart of things.

“What can we do to get out of this then?”

“An excellent question Nati! How does it feel being the clever one in your group? Don’t answer that, it doesn’t matter. Maybe you guys could get out of more lessons if you could show that you’re actually capable of being good friends to others.”

“Please stop beating around the bush and just tell us what you want us to do,” Xilly muttered, still imagining the worst.

“Fine. Tomorrow you three will be meeting a young fairy. You will do your best to form a real, genuine friendship with the girl while also being good influences. That means doing the sort of things that are expected of good people, like showing basic courtesy and helping others when they’re in need. You will continue to be friends with her after I’m gone, I will be checking on this, and if I find you lacking in any way you will all live to regret it. I’m talking spending a straight week of real time in my head as just a start. Oh, I guess that’s only if you live though. This is Thera’s friend so if you hurt her, well… Let’s just say she already wouldn’t be too bothered about anything that happens to you all, understand?”

He got swift nods and he checked their minds to be sure they weren’t thinking anything nefarious or considering ways to get out of it once he was gone, finding none of them were and leaving him satisfied.

Another job well done. Now that that’s sorted, the rest of the day should go pretty well. He happily thought to himself, right as a servant ran into the room.

“Miss Nati, you have to evacuate!” They screamed, shocking everyone as Nati held up a hand, urging her to calm down.

“What’s happening?”

“The volcano, it’s erupting!”

Motherfucker.

As soon as he heard it, Ben was running through the tarp that was covering the missing wall, seeing the volcano in the distance with a jet of fire bursting up into the sky. Even worse than seeing it was what he felt though. The effects of bind, telling him Thera was over there.

“Myriad! I need you to find out how much danger Thera is in right now!”

<None. Despite how it looks, that isn’t an eruption and it should be calming down any second.>

“What? Then what the hell’s happening there?”

<You can get the details from her later since there’s currently an entire city to try to keep from panicking but the long and short of it is she tried to murder the great fire spirit. It looks like they managed to resolve things semi-peacefully though.>

“…Okay, whatever. If you say it’s fine I’m trusting you, but if I end up drowning in lava later I’m going die mad.”

He didn’t get an answer, presumably his god was off to help Nare try and calm things down so Ben tore his eyes away from the distant peak, the fire that was erupting from it now gone which was enough to get him to focus on his panicked students that were about to rush to the gate.

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“Good news everyone, everything is actually fine, nothing is erupting so we can continue on with our regularly planned lessons!”

“Uh, I think we should still leave, just to be safe,” Nati tried, believing him but still wanting an out from however long they’d have to learn that day.

“Nope, now take your seats or I really will come back to make up for lost time.”

That threat was enough and the three sadly made their way back to him, all of them holding a small hope in their hearts that the mountain really would explode.