Fantasy System

Chapter 268: Still Have a Chance

In the middle of a war-torn landscape, a circular veil of glass swayed and waned in the air, slowly increasing the tremors that resulted from its trembling. The great veil couldn't hold on anymore and shattered into a billion pieces. Right next to the destroyed veil, a black dragon snored impatiently, and his breath blew the pieces away. The dragon opened his crimson red, and released a roar like a sentence, "you're finally back!"

Under the billion pieces stood a man and a slime. The two paid no heed to the dragon and instead focused on the skeleton like figure approaching them.

"The others are still not back?" Ed asked even though his eyes and his Map could answer him easily.

"You said we had one hour, but you returned in less time, my lord," said Sieg.

"Yeah I ended up taking far less than I thought, things are much easier when no one is trying to stab you," Ed explained. "Anyways, I'll go over to the others and help them out. We'll depart as soon as we're back."

Just as he finished talking, all traces of Ed disappeared. He was later inside the Poison sect's headquarters. Suddenly, thousands upon thousands of Telekinesis threads emerged out of his body and scanned the entire structure. A couple of them quickly found his companions and let them know it was time to return. The rest continued to find any treasures, especially spiritual treasures which he could feel with his ability. What should have taken hours was done in ten minutes, and Ed was back where the dragon lay.

"We're heading back to Avalon," said Ed.

Ed seemed to be especially short on words, and everyone seemed to notice it. It was as if his mind was focused on something else entirely. The dragon tried to voice his displeasure, as he wanted to head over to blood sect's headquarters immediately, but found that the scenery in front of him had changed. Ed teleported him as well.

"Human brat! I believe our agreement was pretty clear, no?!" The dragon's voice thundered as he hung in the air. Ed made sure to teleport him, and him alone, a couple of meters in the air, since he would have crashed into the castle otherwise. However, due to the dragon's ear breaking shout, and his colossal appearance hovering above the castle, Avalon's citizens broke into a panic rather quickly.

"Merry, we don't have much time to lose, so I need you to talk to one of the guards and tell him to calm the people down," Ed said. "You can head over to the Blood sect headquarters if you want, but how long will that take I wonder?"

He turned around and ignored the dragon. His pace was quite quick, and nobody tried to ask him anything as they went ahead.

Quickly, they found themselves face to face with Asem's party, as well as the injured, but calm, Hayato and the others.

"Ed, you're finally here," Hayato said with a smile, but his eyes never tried to find Ed's. "I heard you were injured badly, are you alright now?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. How about you guys? You look terrible."

"That's how we're feeling at the very least," Hayato said with a snicker. "It's quite shameful, it really is. We defeated the woman, and just as we were about to take it all in, they appeared. Five of them, each one stronger than the next. Two females and three males. It was quite funny, you see there were five of us as well, and you'd think we put up somewhat of a fight. But, it wasn't even close. In fact, only one of them fought us."

Hayato sat down, bent his back and looked at his hands with clutched one another. "He didn't even bother to use his blade, and he simply beat us black and blue. Eric noticed the gravity of the situation and decided on the best course action. He had us prepare teleportation items as he fought the man. He exhausted all of his Qi in order to throw the man hundreds of meters away from, but in the process, he got hit by a Qi attack without any inner protection."

"Do you mind describing them for me?" Ed asked in the calmest voice possible.

"They all looked the same age as us. Not too old not too young. The women had black and crimson red hair. The men, well those that didn't fight looked well built and quite strong. One of them was bald and lacked any emotional features. The other was the shortest of the group and wore a mask. The one who fought us, well he's easier to remember. He looked strikingly similar to you. Golden blond hair, though much shorter than yours, and a well-built body and broad shoulders. There are only two distinct differences between the two of you. He had freckles all over his nose and cheeks, and, his eyes were deep water blue contrary to your black eyes."

As Hayato finished talking, Ed had his eyes closed. A figure appeared immediately in his head, and it was one he encountered in the Tower of Origin. 'Johan...' he thought to himself.

"If this is true, then we need to change our strategy. I'll depart ten minutes from now, and I'll only be taking one person with me. No one is to say a word and no one will ask me anything. All I ask is for you to trust me, as you've always had," Ed said the last sentence with a smile on his face.

However, no one shared his smile. Emilia was busy consoling Ellie, Stephanie, and Alicia, while Hayato's heart tormented him with guilt.

"Cheer up Hayato; we still have a chance, especially after I let Sarin escape. I'll never let Blood sect win, no matter the cost," as spoke the last sentence he secretly contacted the system in his mind.

'How many tickets do I have now?'

[110.]

'I'd hoped for better. Can you lend me some?' Ed asked jokingly.

[Certainly, but I need something as collateral. Your liver, perhaps?]

'Wait, you can really lend me?!'

[No. The tickets are obtained through the ways you know of, nothing else.]

'Well then, I guess I'll have to make do with the things I have at hand. Use up all 110 tickets on Function Gacha. Exchange any cards I have in inventory, as well as any Transformation card I get. Keep only one of them.'

[Understood. Drawing Gacha!]

*Ding*