Taking a seat in the back of KeiKei's restaurant, Herika and Angel followed shortly after across from me. We were going to discuss what had happened last night. No of us could get in contact with Ezree, all we got from her was a short message saying she was with her brother.
"You're full of surprises, Heo." Angel said.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You knew both last year's winner and the Hero of Teleportation."
"On top of that she's acquainted with Paukena."
"I also met Āpala."
"Let me guess you know Yeal, the president of Mila?"
"No, no." I leaned back and waved my hands.
"It makes sense she knows Rex. Her father is a priest after all."
Herika laughed and looked towards me. A weight pressed against my chest. A uselessness settling in.
"Oh, now that is quite curious. I didn't take you as religious."
Angel looked at me too now. My hands started to feel tight and clammy. I shook my head as best as I could.
"Anyways let's get to why we came."
"Yes we should." Angel straightened.
"Well, is Stella alright."
I shook my head and explained her condition now. Though I was able to wake her temporarily she quickly retreated back into herself.
Angel hands were restless as I spoke. Herika took a deep breath and leaned her head down, covering her eyes.
"At the end, it seems we were all knocked out. Before Baydí could undo the damage she caused herself, Rex showed up. I'm assuming he teleported the sea to another planet."
"Thankfully we delayed her as much as we did." Herika said.
"You were a real monster the way you attacked up there." Angel pointed at me. "Really reckless the way you attack, but I guess it helped in the end."
"I woke up shortly after Baydí's death." They both raised their eyebrows at me. "Lynix wasn't dead."
"What?!" They both asked.
"A short fight between Lynix and Rex started. She had apparently been behind manipulating Baydí getting hero syndrome."
"She was caught by Rex though?"
"Uh… no. Up on that mountain. I'd have to see it again to be sure but…" I thought a few more seconds before saying something as outrageous as I was about to. "Lynix's magic wasn't magic at all."
"You mean she controlled physical things?"
"Yes. I didn't sense magic but she created walls of stone from the earth itself. I'd assume it required no input because it wasn't magic."
"That's unheard of." Herika said. "Except for me."
"Lynix referred to other people too, like a fourth ranked. She was trying to climb ranks apparently with this. I think it may be fair to say there are other people like her."
"Like a big evil group?" Herika asked.
"Sounds like it." Angel crossed his arms. "We must have gotten ourselves wrapped around in that now."
"I may have a target on my back now of a god named Ryiam, according to Lynix. Which makes me curious, Angel you said you got an off feeling about her I overheard. Even called her evil"
"Oh- well, an ability of mine lets me see karma hers was just so strange. It felt less like a negative one but a couple of people's negative ones. Honestly yours is quite weird also.
"It's zero, makes sense you would find it strange." I waved that conversation away. "Do you think there are really three different people in that body? She talked to herself a lot."
"Possibly."
"What are you gonna do?" Herika asked.
"I'm planning to go home first." I shivered at the thought. "Stella shouldn't be in another country while she's like that. I should go home."
"You sound weird on this home part." Angel replied.
"Personal reasons." I said, though I wasn't sure anymore.
"One more question?" Angel asked.
"Y- yes?"
"The heroic artifact? Where'd it go?"
"The sword?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I have it."
"What!" He slammed the table making the other people in the restaurant turn. "I mean…" his voice lowered.
"Yeah. Why?"
"Thats a magic anomaly. It rarely happens for heroes, even Rex doesn't have one." I slung my backpack to the side and pulled the giant sword out a little. "Holy chaos on a summer's day! Can I see it?"
"I mean sure, but it's mine, I needed a weapon for a whole month."
"Heo, when did you get a backpack like that?" Herika pointed at it.
"One of the priests put a spell in my backpack and stuffed it in there."
"I did see a white hair lady carrying us to the hospital. They just… let you have it?"
"Did you see what her face looked like!"
"No, I was being crushed by the other four people she carried." She shook her head lightly.
How could Primé even make something like this? It must have been like where Angel stores his weapons. Though his just manifests, maybe it's a spell.
"Heo, you know how a heroic artifact happens, right, why is this one so rare?"
"No. But I feel like I should have known that. I know a lot about presence after all."
"It's when a heroic form is broken. The magic from the heroic form instead of dissipating gets reused and can form an artifact. The requirement for a heroic form to break is already really impossible, along with that it's not guaranteed. A hero can't just dismiss the form and use that magic, it has to be destroyed into fragments."
He examined the hilt of the sword. It was mostly intangible. When he moved his hand up from the guard, the hilt became visible. He stretched his entire arm up, before standing up, yet the hilt never ended, always appearing whenever he moved up from the guard.
"Amazing. That's one strange ability. Not only that, its powers come from two different heroes. This is one strong sword."
A waiter came by and saw Angel. She hurried and left food on a table near us before retreating quickly out the room. Angel sat back down, then turned crossing his legs.
"My family is really heavy into weapons and crafting. They'd pay you a lot of money for this."
"No way. You know how long I've been looking for a weapon? Long. The one I have I can fix now, but shatters a lot. I've even crumbled my hand because of how brittle it was fighting last night."
"Fine. The offer is there though." He raised both his hands up.
"Any more things we need to talk about?" I asked.
"If anyone finds out more about Lynix and this supposedly evil group we should share the information among each other." Angel said.
"I will if somehow I do in Mila. Hopefully for me, I'm never involved any further than this."
"True, you are a dragon. It would be bad to get you to help us." Angel said.
"Hero syndrome is one of the most unfair things in existence. If last night meant anything, hopefully another case doesn't happen like that for a long time." Herika sighed.
I shook my head in response. It's unfair. Magic is just like that.
"Personally, I'm not staying in this city any longer."
"Why Herika?" Angel turned over.
"First I had only come for the competition and the crude king nightmare. In the end I helped kill two people, they weren't pretty either. I think I truly need to sit on these emotions now." Her arms crossed and her cape folded around her.
"Well, I'm planning on leaving the capital also. I'll most likely end up in Tober for the dungeon. If not another one of the large dungeons." He stood up. "That fight has brought us all quite close and if you ever want to join me, you all are more than welcomed."
Herika stood up and slipped past me.
"I'm thinking I'll join you for that."
"Cool." He turned to me. "Whenever Stella is up, let me know, I'd like to see her again."
"You got it." I smiled.
We wrapped up. Angel and Herika went the same way together, I was left alone.
"Well…"
I opened the status skill. Universal being sat there like normal. Now there wasn't a lock next to it. I swallowed and clicked on the skill. No fear, no panic, it just opened like anything else.
There was a description along with multiple other abilities within the ability itself. For a skill to even be in the statues means Yeal must know about it, but there is nothing I could ever find about it.
The description read 'a skill bank or box of abilities for one person.' The description was sadly truest short. I clicked on the other abilities. It seems like Universal Being just holds multiple abilities.
The others abilities were 'Universal Helper, Split Personality, Story Change, and Universal Destruction.'
I immediately clicked Universal Destruction. The description of the spell read 'A diamond shape with half diamond shapes on the left and right side. The half diamond shapes have three sharp points, one protruding from the end of the top out from the center, another the same way on the bottom and lastly one in the center piercing out sharply. Each of the three points are rounded to each other.' Though it sounded strong all it did was convert the range of a spell into increased damage.
So the shape in my eyes is this Universal Destruction rune, alright. That must also mean that what I did last night was that spell. It was actually a perfect spell to counter magic I couldn't beat.
I moved onto the next one that peeped my interest. Universal Helper seems to open up more places to allocate magic points. Strange?
'Story change, the bane of time magic. Those who have it exist outside of fate, therefore all actions from them influence the entire world. It gives free will to all but eliminates reliable glimpses into the future.' This didn't sound like it was specific to Universal Being, but I haven't heard of it ever. On top of that Delusion was trying to do time magic right? And it didn't work on me.
The last one was Split Personality. 'Infinite future and past versions of the Universal Being.' That's all? I leaned back in my chair. Does that mean after I died as Leo I came back because of this ability? Wouldn't that mean I had it before magic existed? Or just as it existed?
I was wrapping my head around it as KeiKei came over and sat down next to me. I opened my eyes to look at him, trying not to give away that I could see through my eyes.
"You looked strange, is everything alright?" His voice was low and warm.
"Yep. Last night was just really rough with the hero syndrome case. I was just going over all my status before I headed home."
"Where's your cousin?"
"With the queen. Things happened and she's being taken care of while I wrapped things up with our friends."
"Good to hear she's in good hands right now." He smiled. "The Queen told me a little…" He turned and produced a box of sweet treats. "These help with recovery for full dragons. Give them to her when she's up. They'll stay nice till then."
"Oh! Thank you." My sharp teeth stretched my mouth wide.
He returned with a wide smile, showing sharp teeth just like mine. Him, Paukena and Āpala all had the same sharp teeth and other features, but they weren't dragons. If I'm being honest Paukena and KeiKei don't look like Limerence at all, but they don't look like Āpala either.
"Well, I'll leave you to go through your magic. I wanted to give a gift to the winner of the competition also, so take some of the food yourself." He waved goodbye and barely got back to the counter before falling asleep.