Arc 5: The Heart Within
Road to a Hero:
Three chances in another world
Chapter 11. Communication
The day passes and Gordon informs Leo, Lincoln, and Edward of the information they learned. Jong and Leo leave the mountain to inform the Knights and the Red Arrows of the date-coming raid. March fourteenth is the day the people of Walgonia will take back their land.
Gray sits with Jong in a bar, drinking the stress away.
Jong: “Not too many people in here.”
Barkeeper: “Most people here are trying to be warriors so they want to keep their body in tip-top shape, and it hurts my wallet.”
Gray: “Give me another one of these can yah?”
Jong: “Woah, slow down. Don’t wanna become a drunk, you gotta drink till you feel a little floaty like me!”
Gordon walks in and sits beside Gray, ordering himself a drink as well.
Gray: “What are you doing here?”
Gordon: “I wanna talk to you about something serious. Jong, could you give us a moment?”
Jong: “Oh yeah sure, I gotta start heading down to Utah village.”
Jong gathers his things, waves at Gray, and walks out of the bar.
Gray: “What do you wanna talk about?”
Gordon: “Now that we know more about Pandoras' ability…I think I know what caused “The world's greatest swordsmen” to die.”
Gray: “Musashi? I assumed he knew he couldn’t beat the pillars so he just saved us time to leave. Was it something else?”
Gordon: “Don’t tell Edward…but I think…I think Musashi let himself die.”
Gray choked on his drink, taken aback by Gordons' statement.
Gray: “Like…he just didn’t try as hard or he…killed himself?”
Gordon: “Musashi was a great man…and my best friend. I knew he could have fought them…maybe even beat them. He didn’t rely on his mana as much as Kioshi so I assume Pandora's abilities shouldn’t have led to him dying. But the fact that one of her powers is making the stress on a person's mind overload…”
Gray: “That it overloaded to the point where he let himself die.”
Gordon: “He was never the happiest person…he was stressing over every little thing. His brother Gotsu was always trying to keep up with Musashi. But Musashi was always trying to stay ahead…to make sure that he could protect his younger brother. But Musashi had to kill his brother…and having to do something like that…took a toll on his mind. After he finished the demi-human war he spent the rest of his life making sure that Edward wouldn’t have to fight.”
Gray: “But then…Edwards island was destroyed…I guess not wanting him to fight was a pipe dream.”
Gordon: “He sent a lot of letters in the short time that he was training you and your friends…and he had a lot of hope for you. With how fast you can progress, and your natural talent for learning…he thought that you may be the person to take his title…given a few years. So when all that stress came back in full force…any suicidal thought he had…made him mess up.”
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Gray: “His last moments…he used all the strength he could to try and kill Prometheus. It didn’t work of course…but I always thought he just assumed he’d die…and his last attack was in vain. I never knew he was struggling with so much, and that he had so much faith in me.”
Gordon: “Don’t spend too much time thinking about it…but I wanted to put that out there.”
Gray: “Well…it’s kinda late so I don’t wanna drink the night away. I'm going home and hitting the hay.”
Gray stumbles out of the warm bar, a little drunk, and gets it with the cold snowy air. He wanders around for a bit, not knowing what to do. And all he knows to do is think, think about loss, what he has lost, who he has lost.
Gray {I spent all my time at the mansion…doing things. Waking up at six in the morning, ate a snack that Ophelia made for me, and spent the rest of the day training with Musashi. Dodging, swinging, moving through the pain, learning the basics. I thought it was just a job, something I had to do with my “Isekai” hiding my eternal feelings from everyone. I wanted to jump and run away. I’m too lazy to maintain a routine…too lazy to do anything I don’t want to…and somehow I did it. I did it by lying…and I broke. I only cared about myself and now I’m being forced to fix my mistakes. But I never thought it would affect this many people…this world has issues…but a lot of them have been caused by my world. I have to make sure that Musashi, Ophelia…hell, and even Ceaser get their vengeance.}
Gray spends the rest of the night practicing his new spells, making sure that he’ll be ready to face Arthur. Though Gray isn’t the only one to stay up all night, Peter too spends the night trying to make the communicator, which is still unsuccessful.
*Bash* *Clank*
Peter screws in the last bolt on his fiftieth attempt. He holds it into the air and tries to connect it to another sound crystal by putting mana into both of them at the same time.
Peter: “Okay! OKAY!”
It transfers a small echo before the crystal inside the device cracks.
Peter: “DAMMIT!”
Ryo stands behind Peter, yanks the device out of his hand, and looks closely at it.
Ryo: “Why did you put it in a metal case? It looks like the Walgonian “W”, good detail”
Peter: “The Sects device had this system into which the mana would flow. Oh yeah, and theirs was in the shape of the Sects symbol, that “M” looking thing.”
Ryo: “So you’re trying to connect them by connecting the crystals to your mana?”
Peter: “Yeah, but the metal casing needs to be lined with a sort of “mana” system where it will save and flow when it’s turned on.”
Ryo: “Why not just connect them with the spirits?”
Peter: “Huh?”
Ryo: “Here, let me show you.”
Ryo flows mana around both crystals and talks into one of them.
Ryo: “Hello.”
The device repeats the noise. And Peter shouts with excitement.
Peter: “YES IT WORKS! But now we have to make sure it can keep the connection!”
Peter runs around the shed, rummaging through all of the various crystals he has. He finds a white crystal and holds it in the air.
Peter: “FOUND IT!”
Gray wanders into the shed and scares Peter.
Gray: “Found what?”
Peter: “AH! DON’T SNEAK UP ON ME!”
Peter grabs the communicator out of Ryos hand and sets it on the table. He opens it up and cracks the white crystal into small individual pieces.
Gray: “What crystal is that?”
Peter: “It’s called a blank crystal, it holds mana and can save it for later. The mana-dampening crystal without the charm causes it to constantly absorb mana.”
Gray: “How many “crystals” are there anyway?”
Ryo: “Flame crystals heat up. Water crystals produce water. Sound crystals are blank crystals charmed to hold and transfer sound. Blank crystals hold mana and shoot it back out. Energy crystals that produce, well produce energy. And lastly, mana-dampening crystals, which are altered blank crystals. They are made to absorb and block all mana flow.”
Gray: “I can use my mana to make those crystals super powerful. If I could control my mana to the level where I could use the things they produce effectively it would be amazing.”
Ryo: “I don’t think I could do that, so it would be an accomplishment for sure.”
Peter: “Most crystals get destroyed when they get overwhelmed, so it sucks that you couldn’t consistently produce a giant flame with one.”
Gray: “I did that with a mana-dampening crystal once. I forced Mana out of my OD and broke it. Though I was trying to kill myself when I did it, and I was asleep when it happened…and then I had to do all that stuff in the castle…I’m ramping.”
Ryo: “Breaking free of a dampening crystal is a great feat.”
Peter: “I GOT IT!”
Peter holds out the device and starts to speak through it.
Peter: “Hello!”
The other crystal on the desk repeats the “hello” and Peter starts to break down crying.
Gray: “WOAH, YOU OKAY!?”
Peter: “I DID IT! I DID IT DAMMIT!... Ryo did most of it…BUT I MAINLY DID IT!”
Peter suddenly falls asleep on the ground.
Ryo: “Oh, he has finally fallen asleep. Should we take him to his room?”
Gray: “Nah, leave him here. He’ll wake up, wonder why he’s here, and remember and be super happy.”
Ryo: “Well, with this done. All we have to do is just wait until we go to Walgonia now.”
Gray: “Welp this is it then. These last few days until we finish all we’ve been building up to for these past two months.”
Ryo: “Sleep well now, I’ll be off.”
Gray: “Yeah, have a good night!”
Gray {This is it, the final battle is coming.}
End of Chapter Eleven