"Ah, thank you, Lady Syldir. I think I needed that laugh more than you know. With all this talk of dragons and our friends being at risk of utter annihilation, I didn't know I had it in me. Thank you," Trina said, wiping away a tear from the corner of her eye, though Syldir looked just as confused as the rest of us, except for Thorsen.
"Y-You're welcome?" Syldir half-asked with no small amount of confusion on her face, then quickly shook her head before turning to face the others. "I-In any case, I think it would be best if everyone set off at first light tomorrow. That should give you plenty of time to prepare, correct?" she asked the others, who nodded or muttered their agreement.
"Good. Then I will continue to treat young Meliss here for the time being. Rest your minds and your bodies, since it's likely the last you'll get for quite some time. Anwill, if you'd be so kind as to lead me to your medical bay," she said, prompting him to quickly rise and help lead Meliss out of the room.
Before she left, she came back over to the box with Ed's core and shut it again, resealing it with the same rainbow-colored mana as before. "Don't worry, it will work. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here," she said quietly with a comforting smile. "Thank you," I whispered back, dipping my head a little.
As soon as they rounded the corner of the hall that led to the infirmary, everyone's eyes rested on me and the box that contained Ed's core, and I could tell that there were so many things that weren't going to be the same from that point forward.
"Thoma," Ardrin began in a low voice. "I know. I-I…" I felt my words choking for a moment, forcing myself to release a gust of air through my nostrils and shake my head. "I'll bring him back. I promised," I said, lifting my head to look at him again.
"I don't doubt that, but can you really condemn your best friend to living a life he might have been alright with leaving to begin with?" he asked gravely.
I knew what he meant. On the one hand, it really wasn't my place to try to bring Ed back and use his alternate to do it. On the other, I felt I owed him a second chance, since he'd only died because I was on the Isles.
Ed's final moments flashed through my mind as vividly as if I were seeing them for the first time. He looked almost at peace with what he knew was coming, and I could have sworn I'd felt his gratitude for me being the one to do it.
I could feel the others' reactions through our connection, but Leona's was particularly strong, since she'd only heard about it from Kalia and not felt it directly. Tears streamed down her face in understanding of how I was feeling, and I'd be lying if I said my own eyes didn't run the risk of turning into a waterfall.
Ysevel squeezed my hand again and gave me a firm nod, one that Kalia, Mom, and Bernar mimicked as well, followed closely behind by Aurae and Ren. I curled my fist tightly and steeled my resolve to give Ardrin, and all the others who were coming with me, a final answer.
"I can, and I will. If he really wants to stay dead, then I'll have no choice but to oblige," I said, feeling the words resonate coldly through the air.
Not a single mutter, complaint, or sigh came from anyone except Ardrin.
"As you wish, then. Here, take this," he said, reaching into his cloak to pull a small vial of a violet and golden tincture and tossing it to me from across the long table. "I thought what you gave us in Vareluth was the last of it," I felt my eyes widen as the glass clinked in my grasp. "It'll help with the backlash he's going to feel when he wakes up," he waved dismissively, not bothering to explain how he'd made more.
I clutched it tightly and thanked him for the vial with a bow.
There were a few more questions among the others to determine who was going where and how many were going with them. At the end of the discussion, everyone seemed satisfied with the teams they'd formed to help defend the major cities of the realm.
I couldn't help but feel a tinge of worry for the rest of them, knowing that whatever Mideia was plotting next would be anything but easy to handle.
They'll be fine. Besides, it seems Ryfon has helped more than a few of them reach the fifth stage, Mom noted, to get me out of my own head. As I looked around the room, I realized Leona was actually one of those who'd received Ryfon's help. I smiled and shook my head, realizing that I'd been so engrossed by Syldir's powerful mana that I hadn't even noticed the others.
Yeah, I think they will be, I allowed myself a smile.
About an hour later, I found myself outside with Vyra, Eirenne, Haldir, and Derion, who had been patiently waiting for me to demonstrate what I'd promised I would.
"Come oooooon, I want to see your spear technique! I need to make sure it's up to standard, at least!" Vyra pleaded with a puppy-like expression as she tugged at my wrist. "Nooo, use your bow first!" Eirenne and Haldir bickered in unison, tugging at my other in the opposite direction.
Derion said nothing, of course, but then again, he never did say much to begin with.
"Alright, alright! Just… stand back, a little, will you?" I said with a light chuckle, since their faces were invading my personal space. At a moment's notice, they all stepped away and into the rest of the group that included Thorn, Ren, Nenvalur, and nearly everyone else present at the meeting.
I closed my eyes as I focused on what I needed to do, feeling the scarlet mana flooding my entire body and core. For whatever reason, I recalled the small sparring session I'd had with Kanarin and tried my best to emulate that feeling.
The kataki blade began to form from the band on my wrist, extending out into a masterfully crafted blade. I immediately infused Wraith mana to emulate the fight to the best of my abilities.
I almost feel bad for this training dummy. Sorry, Anwill, but this one is going to be destroyed shortly, I gave it a thin-lipped smile before pushing off with my back foot, leaning into the space between me and the dummy.
I dashed forward, swinging the blade with a thundering crack as it cut through the air, immediately side-stepping to land another, then using the movement technique to get to the opposite side and land a downward slash. Before the dummy had even registered the hit, I switched to the spear technique I'd used and pommeled it with a barrage of strikes aimed at all the vital points marked on the glowing, blue target.
Ysevel, thankfully, helped me to recreate the tendrils Mideia had used using her phantoms. They weren't as dangerous as his, but I could tell they'd pack a shitload of power if I'd gotten hit by one. Using that knowledge to my advantage, I dashed away and began firing the kataki arrows, and lacing them with Wraith mana to control them.
Switching back to the spear for a moment, I performed the same leaping technique as I dug the base of my spear into the ground and launched myself forward.
Reforming the spear into a pair of daggers, I hacked away at the tendrils and launched the dummy into the air with an uppercut. Using the odoruki technique, I met it in mid-air, slicing away at it as I had back then, doing my best to keep the memories of Ed's face from reaching the forefront of my mind.
Like with him, the training dummy was quickly surrounded by an array of slices waiting to be finished. "Sunder," I said, bringing my blade down just like I had before, carving out a perfectly spherical mass of the training dummy. The rest of it had been turned into little more than a blue-tinged mist.
"Heh, sorry if that wasn't to your expectations. It's only been little over half a day since I left the infirmary, and I've already had one fight today that took everything I had to keep up," I said, turning to face the others the moment I landed.
I held the small blue sphere in my hands as the rest of the world seemingly lurched back into motion, but when I turned around to present it to them, everyone's eyes, including Taegin's and Bernar's, were widened as much as they could be. Those who were members of Nightfall's Blade, however, merely looked on proudly, snub-nosing the others.
"Hoooooly shit!" Leona shouted, then immediately covered her mouth in shock at her own words. I could tell her reaction was genuine through our connection, but I was surprised to hear her say it out loud. Vyra, however, sprinted toward me with an almost fearful look on her face.
"W-What the fuck was that? I thought you said you used our techniques, b-but that was nothing like what we taught you," Vyra stammered, visibly in shock as she gripped my shoulders tightly. "As I said, it's still what you taught me, but I just had to adapt it to the techniques I'd learned from Kalia," I said, gesturing to her.
They all looked at her, then to Mom, then back at her, and finally back to me in pure bewilderment. "Haaaa, I should have known better than to ask you to show us. You're just like her in that regard," Vyra sighed heavily, getting nods of agreement from the others.
That's when an idea sparked in my head.
"Hey, Ren. You don't happen to have any more of the Wraith tincture, do you?" I said with a grin. He took a moment to consider it, but ultimately nodded. "It'll take me some time to get back to Soule and get it, but I should have some left, at least," he replied with a similar grin, having read my intentions.
"Good. We're going to need it where we're going," I said, getting an approving nod from Ysevel and a chuckle from my mother.