(One Month Later)
I was currently sitting in my room, absorbing mana, not only using my ring, but doing it regularly. I was slowly making progress, it's all I could do for now. The only thing they want me to do in the castle is train or help out in the council room when needed.
Arthur's return is in eight months, I still have plenty of time to get to white core. We've been trying to figure out the corrupted core, but nothing has come to light. That's why I was summoned to the council room, they said they had an idea.
I needed to get dressed before going though, I woke up and immediately started to absorb mana. I rolled out of my bed and grabbed my clothes. I put on my shirt, and then my white armor that only goes over my shoulders, allowing me to have more mobility, then I slipped my black tights on, and slid my black shorts on over top. I placed on my leg armor, that was also white, around my quads and hips, and then swung on the last piece, my cloak that covered everything.
I ran a hand through my ashy brown hair, and then made my way out of my room. It's a decently short walk to the council room, which was nice. I think Lance Varay was here, Aya left the other day, and Bairon was in Etistin doing something.
The guards that I passed gave me weary looks, but never said anything to me. I mean, by now, everyone has heard of the Devil of Dicathen who wiped an entire company by himself. I needed a haircut; this shit gets further and further past my ears each day.
In a matter of moments, the council doors appeared before me, the guards knew who I was, so they opened the doors for me. I walked inside and noticed that the entire council was here, except for all the Lances. I was right, only Lance Varay was here.
I bowed to them and approached. "You summoned me." I faced Elder Virion.
"We did, Virion, Aldir and I have decided to send you to Etistin, where someone can help you with your will." I nodded my head, not knowing who he was talking about. "There's something you should know first, something we've been hiding from you."
"Alright, what is it?" I asked, confused about what they're hiding.
"Not so long ago, Tessia went to Etistin with Varay, and a team came across a ship, a ship that looked identical to the one we sent over." My face didn't change, because this didn't surprise me, I knew of it. I couldn't stop it, because it meant telling Arthur I was from another world. "Alacrya now can make ships, we don't know if they plan on using them or not, but I felt like it was time you knew."
"Jeez." I said, pretending to be shocked. "That's not good." I had no way of dealing with them, the only plan I had was to have Arthur and me fly on Sylvie in her dragon form, and just wreak havoc on the ships in the middle of the ocean.
"If they do send ships over, that's when the real battles will begin." King Glayder spoke, and I nodded my head, understanding this. The thing is, Uto was on the first ship, is there going to be another Retainer taking his place? I only know three other Retainers; I forget the names of the others.
"I understand." I told them. "At least we'll see them coming." I paused and then continued. "Who is it in Etistin that is going to try and help me?"
"Gideon." Elder Virion responded. "He's our lead scientist, we are hoping that he can figure something out for you." Gideon, I've only met him a couple of times, but never really spoke to him a lot, I never had a reason to. "He's had some ties to Arthur, so he knows a little about you."
"Okay." I suppose Emily will be there as well, I hung out with her a couple of times when I was at Xyrus.
"Virion, you can either go by yourself, or we can send someone we got to go along with you." Elder Virion told me.
"I think I can handle going by myself, gramps." I turned to the entrance, and standing there was Callias.
"What? You don't want some company along the way?" Callias smiled and started walking up to me. "I'll go with him still, it's fine." He bowed to the council and patted my back.
"Thank you, Callias." Elder Virion said. "Don't do anything reckless in Etistin, Virion, you know how you should act."
"Don't worry, I won't do anything." I started to walk out the door, Callias followed behind me. "You don't have to come, I can do this by myself, it's really not a big deal."
"We haven't seen each other in two months, and this is the treatment I get, wow." I turned the corner, down to the hallway which had the teleportation gates. "I'm coming with you anyways, let it happen."
"Go ahead, it's not going to be fun." I stood in front of two guards. "Open the doors, we are going to Etistin."
The guards exchanged looks, and then opened the doors for us. "You can be a little nicer." Callias said as we entered the room, and watched as the portal was set for Etistin. "Veer, aren't you going to ask me about the dungeon raids I've been on?"
"No." I shook my head.
"Rude." He responded. "Well, I'll tell you anyways, my new team sucks." The portal was set, and I began to walk up to it. "And you know it's sad when I am the strongest in it."
"Why is that sad?" I asked heading into the portal, in an instant, we appeared in Etistin. Callias quickly appeared behind me, and we were in the portal room in Etistin City. "You're pretty strong, nothing like me, but you're a strong mage."
"Thanks, it means a lot coming from the Devil of Dicathen." Callias and I exited the portal room, the guards gave me weary looks, like they knew who I was. "Where are we going?"
I froze. "Shit, I don't know." I've never actually been here, but I could feel the ocean breeze. It was pretty amazing, reminded me of my old life.
"Virion?" A guard to my left said, and Callias and I turned to him. "Are you Virion Leywin?"
"Yeah." I spoke cautiously, not knowing who this guy was exactly. "And who might you be?"
"I am here to escort you to Gideon." The guard bowed to me. "Please, follow me."
"Lead the way." Callias motioned and the guard started to walk into the city. It wasn't exactly like Xyrus, but it was still amazing. I really have only been to Xyrus, so seeing this place for the first time was incredible. I wanted to go swim in the ocean, but with the war and everything, it didn't seem appropriate. "Look at this, fancy."
"It's literally one guard leading us to where we need to go, it's not fancy." I told him, and he glared at me.
"Can't you lighten up a little?" He nudged me. "Come on, have you gotten bored of being outside of the dungeon this much?"
"You know why we are here right?" I asked him, he knew I was losing my mind, but not why.
"No, I was told to stay with you." Callias said as we walked the streets of Etistin, people stared at us, but didn't say anything. "Is it something serious?"
"Sort of." I said as we turned the corner and made our way down another street. "My Beast Will is infected, that's what's causing me to go insane."
"Oh." Callias uttered.
"It's about another ten minutes from here." The guard interrupted our conversation. "His workplace is on the edge of the city."
"Okay, thanks." I told him with a smile as he faced on ahead.
"So, we are here to see if this man Gideon can help you then?" Callias asked me, putting everything together.
"Yes." I swung my hood up over my head, the people walking along the streets were more like soldiers than civilians. I didn't want anyone to recognize the Devil of Dicathen, and try anything on me. "I doubt he'll be able to though, asking someone to build or create something that they can't see inside of me, is near impossible."
"Have some faith, jeez." Callias shook his head at me. "Alway such a downer."
"I am not always a downer; I just like to stay in reality." I disagreed with him.
"You're a downer, no need to get upset about it." He kept on egging me on.
"Shut up." I shook my head at him.
"I'm messing with you, you're not a downer, there were times in the dungeon when we had fun, the four of us." As the word four slipped out of his mouth, he instantly regretted it. "I miss Samantha, that day really separated our team."
"It did." Thinking about Samantha still hurts me, it happened two months ago, but it still hurts. She died because I didn't sense Uto's first spike, I even defeated Uto, which sucks even more. "I should have saved her."
"You tried, Veer, you did, no need to blame yourself, and there is no need to blame your craziness." It wasn't my corrupted Beast Will's fault that she died, I knew that. "What are your plans when you figure this Beast Will thing out?"
"Even if I don't figure it out, I plan on fighting in the war still, I'm taking some time off for now. I know I could be saving lives in the dungeon if I was in there with people, but I can't save everyone, something we both know." I told him as we passed a group of adventurers that eyed us up as they ran by.
"When you get back into the fight, you better let me tag along." Callias didn't know I was a Lance, I had to keep it from him for now. "We were a good duo."
"Were we? I feel like I did most of the work." I said sarcastically, and Callias went silent. "I'm just playing, we were a decent duo." I did do all the work though.
"Tch." Callias smiled. "When are they announcing that a Retainer was defeated?" He whispered so the guard in front of us couldn't hear.
I shrugged. "I don't know, not for a while probably." I tried to get a conversation with Uto, but Elder Virion wouldn't let me. He told me that he didn't trust me not to kill him, which is bizarre. I could have killed him in the dungeon, and I didn't.
"Here we are." The guard stopped in front of some old looking building. "Gideon is inside waiting for you, or it's his assistant."
"Alright, thank you." I nodded as the guard started to walk back to the portal. "Let's see what this man can do then shall we." The building had stairs leading up to its front door, it reminded me of the Helstea Mansion sort of, just not as big. This had to of been some personal location for him, I remember his lab being gigantic.
"I don't even know who this Gideon is." Callias said as I knocked on the door and we waited for someone to let us in. "Are they here?"
"I have absolutely no idea." There weren't many windows on the building, so it was hard to look inside. "Maybe not."
The door swung open, and the person standing in the doorway was the green haired Emily, it looked like she was busy doing something. "Virion, you're here, it's nice to see you again."
"It's good to see you too, Emily." I sent her a smile. "This is Callias, I guess my bodyguard for the trip here."
"Nice to meet you." Callias bowed his head to her.
"Oh, nice to meet you too, but why do you need a bodyguard?" She brought up a great point.
"Because he's a kid." I heard the old man Gideon shout from behind her. "Let them in already." Emily shook her head at us with a smile on her face, then motioned for us to come inside. "So, I have two children to look after now."
"Two?" Callias thought he was talking about himself, but to my surprise, sitting in the corner of the room was Princess Kathyln.
"Not you." Gideon turned to the Princess. "She needs help with her wand and gear, and he needs curing, everyone turns to me to fix everything." He threw his arms up into the air, then spun around. "Make yourself at home, I don't feel like starting with you today." Gideon made his way to a pair of doors, opened them, and went down the stairs I saw.
"Don't mind him, he's just a little cranky." Emily told us. "Princess Kathyln got her earlier today."
Kathyln got up and approached us, Callias immediately bowed to her. "Princess Kathyln, it's an honor to meet you, Veer has told me a lot about you, and how good you are with ice magic." Callias shot me a smile, I knew what he was doing, it wasn't appreciated.
"No need to bow." She told him, then turned to me. "You seem surprised to see me, didn't my parents tell you I was here?" Kathyln spoke so calmly, but somewhat dull.
"No, they did not." I told her honestly.
"And what did you tell your friend about me?" She asked me with a curious but still dull look.
I smiled at Callias, shook my head, and then turned back to her. "I told him that you were one of the most talented ice mages I know." I sent her a smile, playing Callias's little game of messing with me.
"No were close to you though, I suppose." She turned her back on us, and started to walk back to the table she was sitting at. "Come join me, there's tea." Callias and I exchanged looks, not really fans of tea, but I began to walk over.
"I'm going to go check up on him, I'll catch up with you guys later." Emily went after Gideon, and left Callias, Kathyln, and I up here alone.
I sat down at the table Kathyln was sitting at, the room was a normal looking living room, there was nothing fancy about it, there were even cobwebs in the corner. I bet Gideon and Emily spend zero time up here. "Do you know where the bedrooms are?" Callias asked the Princess.
She pointed at a door. "If you go through there it leads you to the hallway where all the bedrooms are. I think yours is on the right side."
"Thanks, Princess, I'm going to go take a look, you can stay here Veer, with the Princess." He smiled and left the room.
I leaned forward, buying into this whole thing, and grabbed the tea, and poured myself a cup. I never got into drinking tea, I knew it was something people did in the Floating Castle, but I never sat down long enough to drink any, I usually kept to water. I took the first sip; it wasn't that bad.
"How's the castle been?" Kathyln asked me a question, to be honest, I thought we were going to be sitting in silence until someone got back. I was going to be completely fine with that, I love silence.
"Normal, training every day, spend time with the family." I said as I placed the cup back onto the table. "How's the dungeons been?"
"I broke my armor and wand down there, and needed to get a replacement on everything, but my parents only want things created by Gideon." Did she get injured down there? How does a wand even break? Overuse?
"What happened?" I asked, curious about the dilemma.
"Nothing serious, mana beast ambushed us, knocked me to the ground, but the whole squad was with us, so they helped me back to my feet and we finished the fight." I nodded my head, I was just making sure it wasn't Alacryans, they've been quiet ever since I defeated Uto, like they were waiting now.
"Well, it's good to hear that you are okay." I told her with a smile. "I would be in the dungeons, but I needed a break."
"I know, I've heard from my mother, she said something about you Beast Will acting up." I would accuse the Queen of revealing secrets, but they have been running a lot of tests on me, a lot of people already knew inside of the castle.
Now that I think about it, Aldir was like zero help, he was there, and told me he has been looking for something to help me, but I don't know if I believe that. It didn't matter, no need to worry about it. We already knew the Asuras were an enemy, at least I did.
"Yeah, it is." I shrugged as I picked the teacup back up. "It's fine though, for now." My thirst to kill came up sometimes, but I was able to manage it.
"I hope they figure something out." She took a sip from her tea.
"How long do you plan on staying here?" I asked, wondering how long it took to fix armor and make a new wand for her.
"Not that long." Kathyln said simply. "My parents did insist on me staying here for a while." Ha, that's funny. "I think they want me to stay out of the dungeons since I got hurt last time."
"Maybe." I didn't want to be here for long, I rather be inside of the Floating Castle where everything was made for you, not that I was lazy or immature enough to make my own food, I'm only saying it's nice. "Well, I look forward to spending some time with you."
"Likewise." Kathyln spoke with a very formal tone, like this was some royal get together. I could never take things seriously all the time like she does, sometimes you have to let loose. I'm surprised she didn't ask anything about Arthur, the only one that really did was Tess, because she knew I talked with Aldir a lot.
"Are there places to spar here?" I asked, thinking about how I was going to be training.
"Yes, in the back there is a yard big enough to do what you want." She titled her head and looked to the back door, which I could see. We were on the outskirts of the city, so it made sense that there was room to train. "Over there."
"Oh, thanks." I said as I took another sip. "Maybe we could spar out there, if you are up for it." Callias and her were the only ones here, and even if they join together, they won't be able to touch me in a fight, so I would have to limit myself.
"I would like that." She nodded her head at me, and I smiled because of how serious she spoke, it was funny.