At the exact moment, when Denton was passing Axl's portal, he suddenly felt a nausea attack hitting him, causing the kobold to lose the entire strength in his body, briefly hanging limp from the arm of Thilarie. But the automaton was only minimally concerned; she probably saw that happening already countless times. Tendrils lashed out of her body catching the kobold and preventing his fall binding Denton gently against her hip until he recovered:
"Normally, we wouldn't take a direct gate to the top, but we had today due to us being late. And a sudden atmosphere change of over a thousand meters between entry and exit can cause your current condition. But I think ... yeah, it will pass now."
Bianca stepped through the portal as well, immediately laying her hand on Denton's head. She was sending a sizzling healing pulse through his body without asking for his consent, still pricked regarding him rejecting her aid. As fast as the nausea attack arrived as quickly it went away, and strength returned to Denton's body:
"I know I should have respected your decision from before, but bro ... we are now in front of our future. We need you in your best form, so I repaired your strained legs as well. Thank me later."
The scenery earned an amused snickering from Lanstein's side, who was admiring the feistiness of her master, giving her a hidden thumbs-up. Denton felt well again, much to his dismay. Bianca's power grew exponentially, he noticed with a flicker of admiration growing in his belly. A few months ago, this would have needed a few minutes to even begin with the healing process, and now she just ... overloads his whole body granting him a brief healing factor. But he knew that she shouldn't have done that. Looking at the olive kobold, he saw her panting noticeably; she was spending abundant amounts of her energy trying to live up to Lanstein's expectations. Denton stood up and disconnected himself from his freezer friend walking over to Bianca and giving her cheek a quick boop with his snout:
"I thank you now, Bianca. And please, take it easy. I feel that you are overstraining yourself with these healing overcharges. So please, think of yourself as well. You can heal me, but I can't heal you, sister. Remember that, please. I don't want to see you putting yourself in harm, just to ease my pain."
Bianca felt ashamed getting called out like that by her brother but was thankful that he decided to whisper it to her discreetly. She nodded, blushing in embarrassment, scraping tensely over the marble floor with her pearl-white clawed feet. She gave her brother a friendly nudge and tried to regain an uptight and self-assured posture shaking off her bad mood regarding the carbunclo. She, who didn't follow them through the gate, was now standing on the other side of the portal with Axl at her side and greeted them one last time with a deep bow. Then the kobold closed the portal opening by generating two tiny ones with his fingers swirling in circles. The very last thing the group heard of that unlikely duo was how Ganya asked the red kobold if he even did the homework she gave him to complete regarding his weak speech pattern. A question Axl answered with a powerless grunt and a hopeful:
"We do now, ma'am?"
The carbunclo ruffled his scaly head playfully and gifted him an oddly heartily grin. Bianca felt, that there was more happening between these two, but her thoughts got cut short as soon as the portal closed. Different people appeared now behind the freshly gone portal, walking behind the gate towards them. Their impressive presence immediately drew her full attention.
