Michael walked towards Azreal and the other two, his expression was dark but when he got closer, he smiled brightly.
- "May I join the chatter?"
Jeremie replied with a bored expression-
"Hey now old man, weren't you glued to Jophi a minute ago?"
The old man shrugged the accusation, instead he looked at Azreal and spoke -
"Wonder what you're thinking about, edgelord 2.0"
Azreal flinched and looked at him with a disturbed expression-
"The fuck!!"
Michael didn't mind the intense gaze, he simply shrugged-
"How is the... eh, people here? Are you getting along?"
Jeremie waltzed in- "I bet he's getting along with everyone except you, ha!" He grinned.
Surprisingly, Michael's expression didn't even change, he simply replied- "Oh now? Look who's talking; should I remind you of Moroni's first meeting?"
Jeremie frowned with a little exaggeration, then he said-
"Azreal, how is the company?"
Azreal was forced to chat again with three people, he can't fight back, he spoke -
"As good as it can be."
After that the chatter just kept going on and on... and Azreal was in a new kind of agony 'God save me! A giant snake would be better than this shitshow.' He thought.
After a while, Michael said something interesting-
"Yeah, I'm from the previous group. They all died except me."
Jeremie spoke -
"You wish you believed them and went into the pillar, don't you? I bet you are still crying in regret."
Uriel replied instead-
"It's a good thing he stayed out of it; If he'd gone with them we would've got no direction."
Michael had a dark expression, but then he faked a grin.
"... I guess you're a lucky bunch, then."
Azreal zoned out again; there was nothing else for him to think about, nor listen to.
After a few minutes he asked-
"When will we start the fight?"
Everyone's expression dimmed slightly, the first to speak was Michael-
"Well, we haven't made a plan yet, have we?
We are simply resting for now; we need it before the fight. We'll make a plan right after."
Azreal didn't have any objections; even he needed to prepare mentally for whatever that'll happen next... they'll kill a monster ! What an unbelievable thought...
He zoned again for a while, then he looked at the gunman sitting far away... full of curiosity, Azreal made his first steps towards the grim figure of Moroni.
His booted feet made its way across the solid surface of the empty grounds that seemed like a parking lot for the colossal pillar... a chilling thought, it was.
He reached the lonesome figure, and then he stood still a few steps away.
Moroni grimaced, and gave Azreal a piercing gaze, then he spoke with annoyance-
"What brought you here, new guy?
I'm not interested in chit chat, so unless you got something important to say, otherwise keep your self existence far away."
He stared at Azreal with an expecting gaze, Azreal sighed and turned on his boots and walked back.'That bastard... he seems like he wants to kill someone.'
After walking for a while, Azreal sighed, he looked around at the groups around him, three groups of threes.
He didn't feel like talking to anyone; he'd already talked a lot, eventually he just sat on the ground with his back against a white column.
He was sitting far from the others at the moment, his eyes drifted towards the colossal black pillar in front of him, full of emotions.
As his eyes reached the tip of the pillar, his eyes fell on the black sun... it was uncanny, and felt very much wrong.
He felt a shiver shake his muscles, and chose to look away, his mind started to recall his life before... this.
Azreal didn't kill his neighbor for no reason, but unfortunately it wasn't an accident, thus he didn't have the luxury of being innocent.
His relationship with his family crumbled right before his eyes in days... which felt like seconds.
And worst of all, he kept making things worse with his own two hands.
He had a fight with almost everyone in his family, even blood fell on the floor...
He was going to go to prison but hired a very good– expensive– lawyer, and somehow was set innocent.
His job though, they couldn't keep him; the slander was just too loud to ignore... and it was true.
'I was just defending myself... but that doesn't excuse murder, does it?'
Indeed, but nobody knew that the neighbor wasn't innocent either... but the retaliation Azreal did, was just too much, to say the least.
Everything crumbled around him, but he couldn't do anything, actually he kept making things worse.
Eventually, he felt burdened by everything– guilt, pain, longing, loneliness, hunger, depression, self loathe, and even boredom; after all, he stayed in his dirty apartment.
He felt powerless, and so he threw away the last shred of hope and pointed the gun to his own head.
'The last thing that happened before I died... was weird.'
Azreal sighed, then he stood up and walked towards the circle of people; they were preparing the plan to kill the monster.
After a few steps he sat down next to Raphae, and on his right is the guy he didn't ask about his name. 'Awkward, don't even look at him, act as if he doesn't exist.'
After that a heated discussion started, and their voices grew louder by the minute; their opponent is a giant monster, so they needed a very reliable plan.
Slowly but surely, rose a coherent line of thought between the noise they were making.
Azreal kept silent throughout the whole discussion; not because he didn't have anything to say, but because they're so new to him that he feels reluctant to join in.
Raphae noticed his behavior, but she simply ignored it, for whatever reason.
Moroni gave him a stare only to give up and avert his gaze after a minute.
In the end the plan was more simple than the first version of it, and even more direct and easy to follow, and more changeable.
The plan is to lure the creature to present most of its body to the shooters, and with just a few seconds the creature would be dead.
By making the monster follow the lure sideways, the monster would be perpendicular to the shooters, which is the best angle.
The best target is the iron wolf, the worst target is the flying reaper, the giant bird, so... how lucky will they be?
Surprisingly, Michael volunteered to be the target, but his expression... wasn't something Azreal felt comfortable to see.
Michael's expression wasn't of someone being heroic, but it wasn't of someone doing it because it's the only choice.
If it was one of these, Azreal would've felt a little less paranoid.
Worst of all, Azreal had no weapon, the only one without a weapon, which means that he thought that he'd be the bait.
But now, he had no role in the fight.