“I don’t even know how I’m doing it,” Searle said softly, his eyes downcast. “I just… am.”

Joan would have almost considered it a strange fluke, except now he seemed to be able to do it at will. With only a moment of focus he’d begin to radiate with a brilliant light that, frankly, even with her back to it was a little too much at times. Bauteut and Lich had both retreated a fair bit away while he demonstrated. Not that she could blame them, she kind of wanted to as well. This was all far too important for her to do that, though. That and she still wanted to figure out what this was.

“And you’re sure you’ve never seen anything like this?” Korgron asked Joan.

“No,” Joan said. “I guess it might just be a Searle thing, but that seems off.”

“I may have a suggestion as to why,” Myrin said. “If nobody minds?”

“Not like any of us have any other answers,” Hardwin said.

“Well, Joan, how strong are we in comparison to the end of our lives? Our peaks?” Myrin asked.

“Errr…” Joan said, glancing away. “I mean, you’re all way, way better than you were at this point when I was the Hero.”

“Ouch,” Thalgren said before giving a light laugh. “It would have stung less if you had just been blunt.”

“Sorry,” Joan said softly. “You’re getting there.”

“How do we compare with where we were when we faced the Inferno God?” Myrin asked. “And how were we in comparison to our peaks?”

“Hmmmm…” Joan said, lightly tapping her chin. “I’d say a lot closer. Even though a lot of… us… well… after… I kill--”

“You didn’t kill us,” Korgron said, cutting her off.

“I mean, if I hadn’t--”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Korgron said, cutting her off again.

“Fine,” Joan said softly. “After we lost quite a few of you, things were… different. The Chosen got stronger, of course. But it wasn’t the same. But you still had more to do before you hit your peaks. Searle especially, no offense,” she added quickly. “But there was nothing like that.”

“Even after the world was separated from the gods?” Myrin asked. “We still got stronger?”

“Yes,” Joan said. “Kind of. It was, well, different though. There’s a reason most of you turned to… oh. Oh my gosh. Ohhhhhh. I can’t believe I missed that!” Her eyes lit up and she started to sit up a little straighter. “Of course! The gods are still there, you can still connect with them! If that’s it, then that might mean that--”

“Searle is connected with his gods,” Myrin said. “And if he is, the rest of us may be able to as well. If we can find out how he did it.”

“I-I don’t know how I did it,” Searle said sheepishly. “It’s--”

“You’re the Chosen,” Joan said. “It doesn’t really matter if you know or don’t know how to do it. The fact you know you CAN do it means you’ll all figure it out within a few hours or so.”

“Don’t you think you might be over estimating us just a little bit?” Hardwin asked, his voice filled with annoyance.

“Speak for yourself,” Korgron said.

“I’m with Hardwin on this,” Thalgren said. “If it was that easy we likely would have done it before.”

“You’ll be fine,” Joan said. “I know it might sound odd, but frankly? That’s who you all are. I was the Hero, remember? I had the same thing. I could see a spell and figure out how to do it myself in a few hours. You’ve also all learned just about every spell I taught you in a few hours or days, even ones I could barely explain. You’re all amazing demigods, don’t be surprised when you put us mere mortals to shame.”

“Ummm, may I make an objection?” Chase asked.

“Yes?” Joan asked.

“I haven’t learned any of that from you,” Chase said.

“Well, err, I mean, you would. Korgron has taught you a bunch, I’m sure?” Joan said sheepishly before glancing back towards her. “You have, haven’t you?”

“Of course,” Korgron said. “It’ll be fine. We’ll figure this out just like we have everything else.”

“Right! So, Searle, what were you doing, thinking, when it happened?” Joan asked.

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“I mean, I was just…” Searle said before sighing and looking around at all of them. She couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit bad, he never did like being the center of attention. “I had to protect everyone, but I couldn’t. But I knew if I didn’t then, well… I couldn’t protect Joan, either. If we can’t do this, then she’ll try to force herself to. So… I had to figure out how to do it. I tried to predict where she’d attack, but I still wasn’t fast enough. I just kept trying until, well, it was like something inside me just broke. Or snapped? I’m not sure. But suddenly there was just this rush of power and I could move in ways I’d never imagined. It was like I knew where every attack would go, where the danger was. Where I needed to be. And then I could just… be there. I didn’t even see them. I just knew.”

“I guess we should go back to the Dream Realm and try and figure it out for ourselves, huh?” Korgron asked.

“Yep,” Joan said. “And, on that note, I’m going to go get some rest. You might want to as well.”

“What?” All of the Chosen asked before turning to her, suspicion obvious on their face.

“You’re going to take care of yourself?” Myrin asked.

“I’m going to make sure I’m outside of whatever explosion zone you all might have when you figure this out,” Joan said in a flat tone. “Searle is almost a second sun and I don’t want to be here if Myrin erupts into a tornado or Hardwin erupts like a volcano. Besides, I’m not a Chosen. If I don’t sleep, I won’t function even at my limited capabilities. Now that we have a set goal in mind, know what you can all do to get ready? I think some rest might do all of us some good.”

The Chosen were silent then. For a few moments Joan wondered what was wrong, then felt a few seconds of annoyance when she realized they were talking amongst themselves again. Did they really think she couldn’t tell when they did that? That she wouldn’t notice they were all having an entire conversation without her? She wasn’t an idiot.

“We’re going to get a little bit more training in,” Korgron said.

“Of course,” Joan said before getting to her feet. “You know, you all make it hard to do the responsible, smart thing when you still treat me like you expect me to go off and get myself killed all the time. Can you at least pretend you trust me?”

“Joan, we’re not--” Korgron said, but she ignored her. It wasn’t long before she found Bauteut and Lich.

“How are you two holding up?” Joan asked, sitting by Bauteut.

“Hmmm? Tired, mostly,” Bauteut said before giving a light yawn. “Don’t think I could sleep now, that was… well…”

“A bit much?” Joan asked. “Yeah. Just wait until there’s fire and ice and who knows what else.”

“Yeah,” Bauteut said.

“This is all very strange,” Lich said.

“Better than being trapped in an empty void, right?” Joan asked.

“Yes,” Lich said quickly.

“Good,” Joan said. “Bauteut, can I ask a favor?”

“What?” Bauteut asked suspiciously. Her cheeks turned a little red when Joan leaned against her.

“Can you put me to sleep?” Joan asked.

“I don’t think that’s wise,” Bauteut said. “Getting used to putting yourself to sleep with magic will just make it harder to sleep in the long run.”

“Probably,” Joan said. “But we’re almost done, there’s not much I can do right now and I need every bit of sleep I can get. Things are only going to get more dangerous from here and the more tired I am, the better my chances of dying horribly.”

Bauteut gave a small sigh. “Fine. When do you want to be woken up?”

“I don’t know,” Joan said. “When the Chosen have had a change to rest themselves, or figure out… everything. So I guess only a few hours.”

“Very well,” Bauteut said before reaching a hand up to the back of her neck. “Sleep well.”

Joan nodded before, slowly, the world began to get darker. She didn’t resist the spell this time, though she did hear a few words.

“She really is just like you say,” Lich said.

“And so much--”

------

The world was exploding. Joan’s eyes shot open and she realized she was being held incredibly tightly by Bauteut. The ground was shaking, the wind was roaring, fire was raining down around them and it was, despite the intense heat, breezes of ice cold air washed over them as well. Joan grabbed Bauteut and held on as tightly as she could, looking around frantically. “W-what’s going on?” Joan asked.

“That,” Bauteut yelled, motioning behind them.

Joan turned and her mouth fell open. Well, her guess was right, being near the Chosen when they awoke whatever power that was would have been dangerous to say the least. A pillar of ice, fire, wind, light, dark, stone and purple magic towered up into the heavens, causing the world to shake around them. Even from here she could feel the intensity of their power, the raw might of the gods brought down to the mortal world.

A power even the Hero had never seen. A power that, despite her hopes and desires to avoid thinking about, might have never existed because of her. Had this been what they had needed to truly defeat the Inferno God? If they’d had this all along, would it have been enough?

Had the Hero merely stood in their way, stopping them from attaining their full potential? Did this mean that she, as Joan, was doing better? Or that she, as the Hero, had just been worse?

Well, she supposed it was another question to ask the gods. Because now, more than ever, it was time. She tried to get up, but Bauteut wouldn’t let her go.

“Ummm, Bauteut?” Joan asked.

“You are NOT going near that until it calms down,” Bauteut said.

Joan glanced back at the pillars of power. “You know what? That sounds entirely fair. I’ll wait.”

She wondered if the Demon Lord could see them, or feel them, where ever he was. If he did, she hoped he was as scared as she was nervous.

It was almost time.