"I will," Claude assured him. He had no intention of sitting on the sword any longer than he had to. With Sync on the prowl, there was no way for them to know when he'd strike next, which meant they had to be prepared for an attack at all times.

When Dias invited him to go to the basement tonight, though, Claude was genuinely surprised. He regarded his rival with raised eyebrows. "Join you? You mean..." Looked like getting his own sword had made him more of a valuable ally to the other man after all. At least he still wasn't trying to go at it alone. Claude suddenly grinned. "Yeah. Yeah, sure. I've been meaning to give the basement another shot anyway."

Even though it was sort of tempting to see what they could do with just the two of them, Claude also knew it'd be dangerous to head to the basement without anyone else. "Mind if I find someone to come along?" he asked. "I heard it's pretty tough down there, so it'd probably be good to have one more person if we can manage it."