Arc 4: What families entail
Road to a hero:
Three chances in another world
Chapter 12. Know yourself
Gray sits atop the mountain practicing his control over the spirits as he's been doing day after day and hour after hour. Staring out at the clouds, looking at Greenvale below him. A small village, filled with people training to be protectors.
Gray: “I see what you mean by this six-sense thing. I just kinda felt that you were near me.”
Ryo walks up behind Gray, handing him his jacket. The same jacket he was brought to this world in.
Roy: “It’s because I have such a strong connection to the spirits. They see us as one of them, so if you can sense them you can sense me. Get better at it and you can track, and sense people who aren’t connected.”
Gray: “Why are you handing me my jacket?”
Ryo: “I see you staring at it a lot. Yet you never wear it. Why is that?”
Gray: “I’ve had this thing for a while…I haven’t worn it since I made it out of the castle. It means a lot to me but I just don’t wanna touch it.”
Ryo: “Tell me about yourself. We need to connect if I’m going to teach you right?”
Gray: “Only if you tell me about yourself.”
Ryo: “Deal.”
Gray: “What do you want me to tell you? My childhood? My issues? What do you want?”
Ryo: “Tell me…a mix of both.”
Gray: “Alright…I didn’t have a bad childhood or anything. I lived in a nice house…I didn’t have that many friends but the few did have were nice."
Ryo: “That’s nice, were you in any kind of schooling?”
Gray: “Yeah…where I’m from it’s required…but I didn’t do very well. I had trouble focusing and I had issues learning how to spell. But I can read pretty well…and writing is one of the few hobbies I have.”
Ryo: “Did you write any stories?”
Gray: “A couple…I preferred to think about them and rarely did I write them. I think they were okay…I’m not some profit or anything. Hehe…I’m just a normal average guy. I was pretty tall though but I’m not super attractive which sucks to realize when you’re like six.”
Ryo: “If all you do is downplay yourself you might turn into that person with enough time.”
Gray: “Where were you when I needed you huh? Might have liked to hear those words back home.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Ryo: “You talk about Rosemary a lot. Is she your partner?”
Gray: “That was a big question shift. Um… yeah she’s my partner or girlfriend whichever you wanna say. We got together kinda fast, like really, REALLY fast. But I think it's going as well as it can.”
Ryo: “Do you love her?”
Gray: “Of course.”
Ryo: “Does she know you?”
Gray: “I think…a while ago I went on a big rant to her about who I thought was the real me…or who I was. But I’m trying to change…I let Soku and the others suffer in silence…Ophelia's passing…as well as Kioshis and Musashi's hit them all hard. I was never an emotional guy or at least a crying kinda guy. The whole be a man thing y’know…but recently I have been crying a lot but their deaths just didn’t hit me that hard.”
Ryo: “Well you didn’t know them for that long so it makes since your connection to them isn't that strong. But I understand the struggle of forming emotional connections, and I'm sorry you have had trouble with it.”
Gray: “Okay now you…what was it like for you? How old are you? All that stuff.”
Ryo: “I'm forty-one I was born in Ravoria to a common family, but Ravoria took me in when I was pretty young. Then when I joined the fight against the demi-humans I figured out what I was really fighting and I turned against my people, as sad as that sounds.”
Gray: “That’s not sad, you just went against what you thought was wrong. That’s just a part of being a person.”
Ryo: “Well put…when I found my love and strong connection to the spirits I found my love for the world. So I want to help the people of this world, and sometimes you have to put down the people trying to destroy it. When I was sixteen, in the battle of God's Fall, I was still deciding if I was going to leave my army or not I met Musashi. I found him wounded on the battlefield, with his brother Gotsu carrying him through the woods. I was going to strike them down when Musashi told his brother to kill me, but Gotsu denied it. Instead of attacking, I helped them back to their camp and joined the Leviathan army. Then the rest is history.”
Gray: “To think he died so quickly…and without much of a fight.”
Ryo: “I heard about some knights attacking their own people. Their bodies had their souls removed and they fought without a mind.”
Gray: “Like necromancy?”
Ryo: “That is just in the story books…but this was temporary…and the stronger the soul the longer it lives. If Musashi got his soul removed…then-”
Gray: “Then he might be alive!?”
Ryo: “They might be holding him…keeping him until they need him.”
Gray: “So you’re saying…that if we have a war with the Sect…then we might have to fight him…”
Ryo: “And if we do, I'll be there to try and help him. But be prepared…in a mission like this one you need to know yourself, your teammates, and your battlefield.”
Gray: “Yeah…I hope they’re safe in Athens.”
Ryo: “I agree, now let’s get back to work.”
Gray: “Now that’s a good idea.”
Gray puts his jacket on and follows Ryo back down the mountain.
Gray: “Can I use the astral stuff offensively?”
Ryo: “Yes you can but probably not in the way you think.”
Gray: “Well I know that I need to make it into a passive affect. I use the spirits to control my mana better, but can I get any attacks with it?”
Ryo stops walking. He turns to Gray, and his eyes turn instantly clouded with darkness, literally. His eyes have become black, except for his pupils, which are a blinding white.
Gray: "THE HELL IS UP WITH YOUR EYES!?"
Ryo: “You need to calm down, don’t instantly scream. And yes this is me, now focus on your astral body. Remember the feeling you felt in your astral form and try to replicate it.”
Gray: “Okay…okay…”
Gray starts to breathe slowly, trying to concentrate. He feels himself get lighter, his senses grow and he starts to hear the same noises he felt in the astral world.
Ryo: "Now, instead of flowing outwardly with your mind in tact, pull it in. Focus and slowly absorb the spirit mana into your own body. This is why I've been focusing on you feeling and controlling the spirits around you. Pull to much in and you'll break, don't pull enough in and it's not worth the unneeded stress. This is the starting line to call yourself a spirit knight."
Ryos words meant a lot to Gray, even if they didn't know each other for that long. But just as Musashi tought Gray basic mana control and the way of the blade, Ryo has furthered that while pushing Gray to fight in a way almost nobody else can. So Gray uses the weight of this new burden to force out the knight he wants to be. And that he does, with long deep breaths. His eyes turn black, his pupils turning a strong white, looking like snake-like slits.
Ryo: “Good job, now keep that going like an aura. If you can do this while fighting it will help your mana be more controllable, as well as heighten your battle senses.”
Gray: “Tell me if I’m wrong but I think I get the gist of my whole mana situation.”
Ryo: “Alright, tell me what you think.”
Gray: “So if I can control, let’s say ten percent of my mana without feeling much pain. And if I use any more than that then it really hurts. However, if I try to use it even more my OD shuts down and I can't use it anymore."
Ryo: “Correct.”
Gray: “Thanks, just wanted to clarify.”
Ryo: "Okay, now lets try moving while keeping it going!"
END OF: Chapter Twelve.