Chapter 78: Reporting Back
Chapter 78: Reporting Back
Celestial Peak’s observatory was warm and welcoming. Helena met them at the entrance. Her Thunderbird was perched on its usual lamppost, blue feathers crackling with static. She took one look at the party and smiled.
"Valerie’s waiting," she said. "She’s been pacing since your clear notification hit the guild registry. Boris is tired of listening to her mutter."
"Did she mutter anything interesting?" Dillon asked.
"She said, and I quote, ’Those crazy kids actually did it.’ Then she threatened to double your training regimen if you ever scare her like that again."
"That sounds about right."
Valerie’s office was as cluttered as ever. Tower maps covered the walls. Artifacts crowded the shelves. Boris the Yeti snored in the corner, tracking the party through half-closed lids. The TUFF GRANNY mug steamed on the desk.
Valerie herself was standing at the window, her back to the door. She didn’t turn when they entered.
"You know," she said, "in my years of climbing, I’ve seen a lot of parties clear a lot of Towers. High Class, Elite Class, even a few Master Class back in my prime. But I’ve never—" She turned, her sharp eyes sweeping over them. "I’ve never seen a party fail a High Class Tower as badly as you did and then come back and S-Rank it six weeks later."
She walked to her desk and sat down heavily. "That’s not just growth. That’s character. That’s the kind of thing that separates Climbers who burn out from Climbers who reach the Top 100."
She reached into her desk and produced a small wooden box. Inside, on dark velvet, were four pins. Each one was forged in silver and blue—Celestial Peak’s mountain-and-star emblem.
"These are advancement pins," Valerie said. "They signify that you’ve moved from probationary members to full Climbers of Celestial Peak. You’ve earned them. Not just for the clear—for everything. The training. The recovery. The way you handled the Nemesis Court. The way you came back from failure and refused to let it define you."
Nathan stepped forward and took his pin. The silver was cool against his fingers. He pinned it to his collar, over his heart.
Garrett pinned his with steady hands. Dillon fumbled with the clasp for a moment before getting it right. Elise attached hers with precise movements, but her fingers lingered on the emblem for just a moment longer than necessary.
"Full Climbers," Valerie said, raising her mug. "Now the real work begins."
---
The guild common room was quiet that evening. The couches were soft, the lighting warm, the coffee table scattered with empty mugs and a half-eaten plate of snacks. The mountain-and-star pins gleamed on their collars.
Garrett held his pin up to the light, turning it over in his fingers. "You know, six weeks ago, I was sitting in this same room thinking I didn’t belong here. That I was dead weight. That the Tower of Ash was proof I wasn’t good enough to climb with this party." He pinned the emblem back to his collar. "I was wrong. About all of it."
"You were never dead weight," Elise said quietly. "You were just the last one to realize your own value."
Garrett looked at her, surprised. "Did you just—was that a compliment?"
"It was an observation."
"That’s Elise for ’you’re my friend and I care about you,’" Dillon translated. "She’s fluent in about six languages, but emotion isn’t one of them."
The temperature in the room dropped slightly. Dillon raised both hands. "Joking. I’m joking. Please don’t freeze my coffee."
Elise took a deliberate sip of her tea. "I wasn’t going to freeze your coffee. I was going to freeze your tongue."
"See? Emotion. She’s learning."
Nathan leaned back into the couch, letting the familiar rhythm of their banter wash over him. Mirko was in bunny form on the armrest beside him, her pink eyes half-closed. Kuro was a black shape on the windowsill, watching the stars.
"Six weeks ago, we failed," Nathan said. "We lost summons. We extracted. We walked back to Ashwick in silence because we didn’t have anything to say to each other. And now—" He looked around the room. "Now we’re here. Full Climbers. S-Rank clear. Ash Reclaimers."
"And we’re not done," Elise said. She set down her teacup. "The Nemesis Court is still out there. They’ve marked us. And the Elite Class Tower—the Dragon’s Heart Core—that’s still waiting for us. This was a victory. A big one. But it’s not the end of the road."
"No," Nathan agreed. "It’s not. But we’re ready for what comes next. Whatever it is."
He looked at each of them in turn. Garrett, steady and reliable. Dillon, irreverent but loyal. Elise, calm and fierce. Mirko and Kuro, his partners, his family.
They’d failed. They’d bled. They’d climbed back up.
And they weren’t done climbing.
---
The apartment was dark when Nathan got home. Lucy was already asleep on the bed, her star-shaped nightlight casting soft shadows across the rumpled blankets. One hand was resting on the pillow where Mirko usually curled up. The other was tucked under her chin.
Nathan moved quietly. He set Moonlight against the wall near the bed. Mirko hopped onto the pillow in her small green form, curling into the space beside Lucy’s hand. Kuro settled near the foot of the bed.
He stood at the window for a long moment, looking out at the city. The Towers gleamed against the night sky—silver and obsidian and pale gold. Somewhere out there, the Nemesis Court was watching. Somewhere out there, the Elite Class Tower was waiting. Somewhere out there, the Dragon’s Heart Core was still unclaimed.
But tonight, the Tower of Ash was cleared. Tonight, his party was whole. Tonight, his sister was safe.
His status panel glowed in the corner of his vision:
[Nathan Cross]
[Level 39]
[Class: Archer]
[Title: Ash Reclaimer]
[Summons: Mirko (D-Rank Knight), Kuro (E-Rank Shadow Assassin)]
[Party: Garrett Voss, Dillon Briggs, Elise Winterhart]
[Guild: Celestial Peak]
He closed the interface. The road ahead was long—Level 60, the Elite Class Tower, the Dragon’s Heart Core, the third summon. The Nemesis Court. The Shepherd. The mysteries of the Bunny Girl System and the Lord whose name was still censored.
But that was tomorrow’s climb.
Tonight, he had a cramped studio apartment, a sister who made terrible toast, two summons who had just helped him conquer a High Class Tower, and a party that had become something more than allies.
He lay down on the bed beside his strange, small family. Mirko shifted in her sleep, her warmth pressing against his shoulder. Kuro’s breathing was slow and steady. Lucy’s star-shaped nightlight cast its familiar, comforting shadows.
Outside, the city hummed. The Towers gleamed. And Nathan Cross closed his eyes and let the victory settle over him.
Tomorrow, the climb continued.