Zara spent the next few days having fun and exploring Hell, but most of her thoughts were still focused on the fact that Ed would be back to work soon and their lives would finally go back to normal.

Superbia put a surprising amount of effort into making sure her days were filled to the brim with fun and exciting memories. Seeing her so excited, he felt slightly guilty and embarrassed about how he treated Ed and wanted to make things up to her.

Her time in Hell had almost come to an end. There were only a few minutes left until she would be called back to work. Currently, she was enjoying a meal in the dining room with everyone else. The last few minutes ticked by as they chatted casually.

“Well, it’s about time for you to head back. Do you want me to send you there?” Superbia asked.

Zara quickly swallowed down the food she had in her mouth while waving her hands and shaking her head. “There’s no need for that sir. I’ll just go back the way I came.”

“Oh yeah, I need to let that guy back in.” He mumbled to himself before snapping his fingers with dramatic flair. The universe allowed Buddie back in, and he immediately jumped back in to work to sort out the past few days of chaos.

Superbia smiled and turned his attention back to Zara. “I hope you and Ed can visit us again sometime.”

And with that, Zara was encompassed by a beam of light and disappeared before she could say goodbye.

~

In the library, Ed spent the past few days returning to normal. Several hours were spent on the threads growing and his physical body returning. Then several more hours were spent in excruciating agony dealing with the lingering pain from Superbia.

Then after all that, he had to spend a few more hours for his brain to rewire itself to a point where he could function properly. He hadn’t yet fully recovered to how he was before. The pain and the heat was still lingering in his body, making every movement of his painful, but it was all manageable.

Ignoring the pain, he had at least mentally returned to how he was before. If the past few days could be considered as him just being an empty shell, now he could finally say that he was Ed again.

Urdhuri had been sitting at his desk observing Ed throughout the entire process. He decided to stay in his more tangible and physical form to make Ed feel easier. But there would still be times when he would spread out everywhere to check on things.

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His life was fairly relaxing for the most part, as he was just watching everybody else do things. He was like someone who sat at home all day watching TV. But because of his recent actions, he was a little more focused and busy than usual.

He was constantly on the lookout to see how fate would react to him taking action. Not only was he carefully watching all of the strings of fate even tangentially related to Ed, he also had to be on the lookout to see if fate would pull something somewhere else.

He didn’t touch or mess with anything again, as that would just make things worse, but he needed to stay aware of what was happening.

Ed was sitting cross-legged on the ground, having a conversation with Urdhuri. He enjoyed being around Urdhuri. The atmosphere was nice and comforting. He felt safe and protected here. The library itself was also fascinating. It was filled with so much knowledge.

“Buddie might try and make things a little difficult for you when you get back, so prepare yourself for that.” Urdhuri was constantly circling around strings, calling some over to him while parts of his body went over to others. He was constantly observing countless futures at the same time, while also informing Ed of anything of note.

“Couldn’t you just do what you just did and change his thinking a little?” Ed asked.

“I would like to young one. Trust me I would. But the problem is that I know too much. And fate gets feisty when I try to meddle in its affairs. If I so much as squish a mosquito right now, fate would erupt and probably try and kill you,” Urdhuri explained.

Ed sighed, but nodded his head. “That makes sense. Thank you for helping me out then.”

“It’s the least I could do.” Superbia noticed something and brought a string down to Ed. “Look at this one.”

“Isn’t you showing me this going to upset fate even more?” Ed asked.

“Not at all. You are already here and you are my kin, so fate was already expecting me to show you this.”

With Urdhuri’s confirmation, Ed relaxed a little. He was being very careful right now, as he didn’t want to upset fate. But since Urdhuri said it would be fine, he trusted him. Ed touched the string and was pulled into what had happened.

This string was showing Zara’s last few moments in Hell, as well as her appearing back in her apartment in the company. Ed watched it with a smile, knowing that she was well and had been taken care of.

“Superbia has let Buddie back in, so it’s about time for you to head back as well.”

Ed had spent some time looking at his own fate to find out what he had missed, so he knew all about how Superbia had been blocking Buddie out. When he first found out about it he was quite happy to hear that Buddie had been messed with. And that he wasn’t as all powerful as Ed had once thought.

Even though he knew he was going to be punished, and that he dreaded the work he would be doing, Ed was still excited to head back. It’s been far too long.

End of volume two