Arc 5: The Heart Within
Road to a Hero:
Three chances in another world
Chapter 8. A powerful meetup
A few days pass after Edward's departure and the group bides their time until he returns. While the others train their abilities, Peter repeatedly tries to recreate the Sects' communication device without success. Lincoln, Leo, and Jong send their soldiers out to live in close-by towns until they’re needed. After the grueling ride, Edward finally makes it back to Greenvale, dealing with Leo and Lincoln's bickering. The only saving grace was either begging the few amounts of times Lincoln knocked Leo out and they got some peace and quiet. Their wagon finally makes it up the great mountain, entering through the main gate. Gordon stops the wagon and Edward begins to walk home.
Edward: {It’s pretty late, I wonder if anybody is awake.}
Edward hears something in the backyard, so he walks to see what it is. He sees candlelight coming out of the shed, as well as the sounds of tools. Edward pears in to see Peter trying to make something. Edward walks in and scares Peter, making him drop what he’s working on.
Edward: “You okay?”
Peter: “OH! Hey Edward, you’re back!”
Edward: “Yeah, I just got back. What are you makin’?”
Peter: “It’s supposed to be a communicator. I need to make something the size of a hand and somehow get the sound crystal to work. It needs to be able to connect to another one, but if it’s this small it won’t be strong enough to work…DAMMIT!”
Edward: “Calm down, look I know you’ll get it. Ask Gray, he’s good at stuff like this.”
Peter: “Gray knows how to make stuff like this?”
Edward: “Well…no he can’t do that to my knowledge, but he’s a good problem solver. And get some sleep, you look really tired.”
Peter: “But I NEED to be able to do this! I messed up in Athens…I’m supposed to be the build guy, the smart guy. This is my contribution to the raid. I can’t sleep until it’s done.”
Edward sits down on the wooden floor and looks up at Peter with a somber look in his eye.
Edward: “Look, I know what it feels like to be stuck on something. It took me a while before I solved it, and a lot of sleepless nights…but eventually, I just sat down, took a deep breath, and asked for help. Our exact situation might differ greatly, but the process is the same.”
Peter: “But…fine whatever.”
Edward: “You’re starting to sound like Soku.”
Edward and Peter go inside, Peter walks upstairs to Sokus' room and Edward walks into his room by the staircase. Edward takes his armor off and lays down in his soft bed. And he sits there quietly for quite a bit, only thinking. He gets up and lays down on the hard floor, finally falling asleep. Edward gets up due to noises being made in the kitchen. He gets dressed, wearing a black tank top and some pants to see what’s up. Edward pears into the kitchen from his room and spots Gray talking to somebody pretty loudly. Edward walks into the kitchen to find Gray and Jong cooking breakfast together.
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Gray: “Edward, you’ve awakened!”
Jong: “DAMN! You got some muscles on you!”
Edward {Oh god…there's two of them!}
Soku walks in behind Edward, rubbing her eyes in disbelief.
Soku: “OH GOD! THERE’S TWO OF THEM!”
Gray: “Oh god you’re right…who knew you couldn’t have enough of a good thing!”
Jong: “I WILL NOT BE DISRESPECTED BY YOOOOOOOU CHILDREN! So you guys want some breakfast?”
Soku: “Yeah whatever. Where’s Rosemary?”
Gray: “She’s with Ryo I think. She’s boosted her abilities and she’s starting to learn how to fight in the fifth stage.”
Edward: “That fast? She can barely maintain the fourth stage.”
Soku: “Yeah, she’s gonna be worn out by the time we get to the raid!”
Gray: “We’re all training pretty hard. Hell, I just learned three new spells, and I just started learning how to use pure spirits! We gotta get all we can.”
Peter walks in, with drooping eye bags. After all the time he's spent working on the communication devise, he seems to have forgotten something as simple as sleeping, which is obvious to everyone.
Peter: “So…what’s goin’ on?”
Jong: “I was making some food before we met up with Gordon, Leo, Ryo, and Lincoln.”
Edward: “All these powerful people in one place…it’s insane. The last time a god of war fought in a war was over twenty years ago, and now both are gonna be in the same place!”
Jong: “Look, the bacon's cookin’. By the way, we’re running late, so let's eat on the way.”
Gray: “WE’RE LATE!?”
Gray grabs a handful of bacon, shoves it in his mouth, and speeds out of the door while coating mana around his body to boost his speed. Soku and Peter watch with stunned faces and proceed to do the same thing.
Edward: “Sorry about this but…WE’RE LATE!”
Edward takes the rest of the bacon and runs out of the door.
Jong: “Damn these guys are weird…and they took all my bacon…WAIT I’M LATE!”
Jong sprints out of the door, shouting for them to wait up. Jong gets to Gordon's house last, panting and wheezing. He walks in to find everyone sitting down on floor mats. Lincoln takes a swing of his booze, rubs his face, and yawns.
Lincoln: “SIT DOWN ALREADY! WE’VE BEEN WAITIN’ FOR LIKE AN HOUR!”
Jong: “SORRY, I WAS HUNGRY!”
Jong hops over to a floor mat and sits down between Gray and Gordon. Jong looks at Gray with a smile on his face only to be met with an angry look, causing Jong to quickly turn his head.
Gordon: “Now that we are all here I would like to go over the plan for the raid.”
Gray: “Are we just gonna do the original plan? Raid the capital in groups.”
Leo: “That’s what we’re planning on. But I’ve been talking to Ryo about how Arthur’s flames work and he has decided that he’s going to kill Arthur.”
Soku: “Figured out what about his flames?”
Ryo: “Leo informed me that when he fought Arthur he felt like the mana in the atmosphere was being taken’. And since we know Arthur is a part of the Sect, his black flames are most likely from a mana mutation. And mana mutations use mana in the body and the air to perform the ability.”
Gray: “Oooh! And Ryo can manipulate those spirits so he can make sure Arthur's power doesn't work! You’re his counter.”
Peter: “SO IT’S A FREE WIN!”
Lincoln: “It’s not gonna be that easy. There may be a chance the Pillars will show up and attack us.”
Gordon: “Which one of us will be the leader of one of the four groups? So if they send out one of the four members we will have people defend it.”
Edward: “But we aren't even sure that they’re four of them. And what if they attack group by group? Then we’ll just lose.”
Lincoln: “I agree with him. If the Tartarus group is with the Sect then that’s at least six strong people. And Edwards' friends here are not strong enough to take on a member of either group.”
Ryos expression turns dark, he disappears from his floor mat and reappears in the middle of the circle, with the Sects device in his hand. And the device seems to be glowing.
Gray: “Damn you’re fast!”
Peter: “Hey that was in my pocket, was something gonna happen!?”
Ryo: “I do not know, but I felt something off.”
A voice begins to speak out of the device. The voice is raspy and deep like the man's throat is damaged or burned.
Unknown voice: “Gray Kyojin must be the one to defeat Arthur.”
End of Chapter Eight