Kura shook his head. It was nearly sunset as he was standing up in a gazibo looking out over the village and on farther north to the ruins of an older city. He could barely make out a tall white stone tower on the horizon.

Rindou seemed to be taking everything too far and too fast. Kura hated having to hide the secret from Rindou, but more than anything he hated someone else.

"Kura?" Rindou called, coming up the worn stone steps. "Ba'Von made us a huge feast! Let's go!"

"You were worried about me and came up to see if I was okay," Kura corrected, seeing through Rindou's excuse. Rindou chuckled as he came up and stood next to the other. "Don't worry. I'll be okay, no matter what happens."

Rindou shook his head, "Don't worry. I'll make sure everyone can be saved before something bad happens."

"A few days ago you hardly knew what was going on and now you want to rush into it blindly?"

Rindou blinked. "Uh... Huh? If you're calling me dumb for caring so much about someone I just met then YEAH!!"

Kura looked to Rindou. "You're crazy!"

Rindou laughed, "Nah. It was love at first sight!"

Kura raised an eyebrow. "Let's refresh your memory. I'm a guy. I'm a guy fated to die. My ancestor was a traitor to the gods. My soul will be stuck in a solace abyss for the rest of eternity. And you still want to save me?"

Rindou nodded. "Yup, because once this is all over we get married and I get to eat you up!" He leaned his face to Kura's.

"Perv!" Kura blushed, looking away. "That's all you want?"

"No," Rindou whined. "I want you. All of you."

"That's a very clichéd perverted statement, you know?" Kura asked without looking back.

Rindou shrugged and looked back. "Yeah I know, but it's honest."

Kura looked back to Rindou and then out to the tower again. "It might end tomorrow..."

Rindou looked to Kura, "Nah. It won't. I'll make sure of that!" Kura smiled a bit. "See? You're happy I'm gonna save you!"

"I'm amused that you're going to attempt to overthrow the gods," Kura chuckled.

Rindou smiled and kissed Kura's cheek before he started back down the stairs. "We leave at dawn tomorrow. So get to bed, kay?"

Kura waved at Rindou, "I'll be in bed soon~"

The next morning the two set out walking through the northern gates of the village with Ba'Von through the ruins. They were quiet the whole way, but for one point when Rindou went to look into a house and ran ahead of the other two screaming about a skeleton attacking him.

Kura giggled as they approached a stone pathway on the iced ocean. "You sure were energetic running earlier!"

"Shut up!" Rindou pouted, "The thing attacked me!"

"You opened the door and it fell on you." Ba'Von stated with a laugh as she started across. "Be careful to not fall onto the ice. It might break and you'll fall into such cold water you'll die in three minutes."

"Ouch," Kura and Rindou shivered at the same time as they followed her one at a time.

The three progressed slowly. Ba'Von was in the front. Ten feet behind her was Kura, and ten feet behind him was Rindou. A good twenty minutes and they were walking up stone steps.

"Here's the door to the tower," Ba'Von explained. "It was created three thousand years ago to serve as connection with the heavens. Legend says that should anyone not with Treasure and it's holder will be set on fire and even his bones would burn to ashes."

Rindou shivered, "So we can only go in when Kura's with us?"

"Yup," Kura nodded and pushed open the heavy door. "Let's get going."

Rindou and Ba'Von stopped behind Kura, looking at the base of a winding staircase going up. "Oh no way in hell am I going up that!"

"Over one thousand stairs," Ba'Von answered.

"Babies," Kura giggled and started up. "The sooner we start the sooner we can finish!"

Rindou followed with a whine. Ba'Von followed last.

"Careful, there's cobwebs everywhere and it's dark."

"Oh sure let's just fall five stories to our doom," Rindou rolled his eyes.

"Shut up, I hear something." Ba'Von whispered. The other two paused and went quiet. A spookey whistle passed them.

"Northern winds are strong," Kura answered and continued up.

Fifteen minutes and they were finally at the top of the stairs, a small balcony with some benches to look out before a door at the top that led to the top floor dais.

The three rested on the balcony eating some apples and sucked on their frozen apple juice before they continued up to the dais.