Extra And MC-Chapter 95 - 91 - Quest Completed

"Go back!"

***

-Gasp!

Flynn instantly opened his eyes!

Where was he?

Who was he?

What had he been doing?

At first, the youth couldn’t even seem to remember the last thing he had been doing, much less anything about himself.

He seemed to have forgotten everything about himself.

Even his name was something he couldn’t even recall.

However, as his soul gradually began to re-acclimatize to his body again, he remembered everything again in an instant.

-Drip! Tap!

A drop of water pulling from the stalactites on the cavern’s ceiling, dropped on his face, sliding down the slope of his cheeks.

’What was that white space?’ the youth asked himself.

-Click Clack!

’Who was it that was speaking to them?’ he mused.

-Click Clack!

’And… what was that ominous reddish dark tear?’ he inwardly questioned.

-Click Clack!

Of the three questions Flynn had asked himself, he already knew the last, had a theory about the second and had no idea about the first.

-Click Clack!

Staring at the weathered pillars of the hall of the ruined cathedral, Flynn glanced from the side of his eyes to watch his brother pacing back and forth.

-Click Clack!

"Aiden…" he called out to him.

"Yeah…" Aiden answered, still pacing back and forth, a few fingers on his chin and a very worried expression on his face.

-Click Clack!

"How long have we been out for?" he asked.

"Around eight hours I think…" he replied in a distressful tone, his back and forth pacing continuing with him having no intent of stopping anytime soon.

-Click Clack!

"So… 9:00pm probably?" Flynn questioned rhetorically, all whilst still lying on the ground.

"I haven’t checked" Aiden answered fretfully, his footsteps creating a rhythmic back and forth movement.

-Click Clack!

"Aiden!" Flynn called out to him forcefully this time.

"What?!" he snapped back with a slight wave of annoyance, but mostly a genuinely worried tone in his voice, his back-and-forth pace finally stopping.

"What just happened Aiden… it’s beyond our scope of reasoning…" Flynn calmly spoke to his brother while rising from the ground, his aquamarine green eyes locked onto the latter’s emerald green eyes.

"I know you’re worried… No, I know you’re beyond worried…" Flynn continued.

"… but so am I…" he gently added, after which he then spoke again, this time with even more force.

"So calm the freaking hell down! You won’t get anywhere by worrying about something that’s beyond our control!"

Both brothers kept staring at themselves for a good minute or two, a few drops of water landing on cathedral’s flooring, adding a bit more tension to the silence prevailing between both of them.

-Drip!

-Drip!

After a palpable wave of weighty silence continuously hung in the air for another minute, Aiden finally took a deep breath of air, exhaled it out calmly, and then spoke.

"You’re right Flynn" he gently uttered.

"I’m sorry you had to see me like that. Thank you for calming me down" Aiden gratefully said to his younger brother, a much calmer expression now gracing his features.

"Anytime Aiden. Anytime" Flynn answered with a small smile.

Following this, Aiden moved close to Flynn and extended an arm to pull him up, a small smile also present on his face.

Thanking his brother for the gesture, Flynn got up from the floor of the ruined cathedral as his brother pulled him up.

"Curfew’s by 10:30pm Aiden. Let’s discuss as we move" Flynn gestured to his brother with one of his arms.

"Alright" Aiden replied as he and his brother began to leave the ruined cathedral while heading for the portal on the fifth floor.

"So, you woke up earlier than me…" Flynn spoke.

"Just by a few minutes…" Aiden casually answered.

"Alright. What about Aerion?" Flynn questioned.

"Found no trace of it. It’s like it disappeared and completely vanished into thin air, along with the steps and floating platform" Aiden replied with a thoughtful expression.

"Okay. We might need to ask Novier about it though" Flynn stated calmly.

"Yeah…" Aiden responded.

A brief silence prevailed as they walked down the ruined staircase and onto the destroyed grounds of the grotto.

"Three things Aiden!" Flynn suddenly declared, three of his fingers also raised up.

"One, we now definitely know that Amael has something to do with our reincarnation" Flynn started.

"Two, that dark tear signifies the arrival of the demons and demon king as evidenced in the novel but…"

"But?" Aiden asked.

"…I doubt they’d be arriving anytime soon" Flynn answered.

"And why do you think so?" Aiden questioned, genuinely interested in his brothers reasoning.

Out of all the things that had happened today, that was the one thing that had greatly been worrying him, soliciting the panicked state he had previously been in.

He was nowhere near strong enough to take on even a single demon general, talk less of the demon king himself.

So if the big bads were to be arriving anytime soon, then he would not be able to fulfill his promise no matter how much he wanted to.

"Whoever it was that was in that white space, sounded like a being of far greater existence…" Flynn began to explain.

"And that being of greater existence is probably the only person who could’ve closed the tear." Flynn continued.

"Judging by the way he spoke to us, I doubt he has anything against humans. He did return us back to our bodies after all so I’d like to believe that he’ll probably keep on doing the same. Protecting this world for as long as he can" Flynn concluded.

"Alright. I can understand that" Aiden said to his brother, after which he then asked.

"And the third?"

"We’ve been getting too complacent" Flynn answered.

"That’s the honest truth. Time is something we don’t have at all so it’s important that we push even harder" he continued responding to Aiden’s question, a very serious expression on his face.

Aiden in response, nodded his head to his Flynn’s words, a stronger wave of determination and resolve settling down in his heart.

"There’s one thing you haven’t noticed though Flynn…" Aiden suddenly said to his brother, to which Flynn just arched his eyebrows in question at.

"You’ve probably also advanced by a tier in your core rank…" he calmly stated.

"Huh?" Flynn voiced in confusion but upon checking his core rank, had his eyes widen in surprise.

’Mid-tier B-rank!’ he inwardly exclaimed to himself and sharply turned his gaze over to Aiden, his eyes seemingly asking him a question.

"Me? Mid-tier A-rank but I probably will be at high-tier A-rank in the next two or three months" Aiden replied casually, after which he then explained.

"The only explanation for the sudden jump has to be either Aerion that stabbed our hearts and seemingly disappeared or that white plane…"

"I see… I was also thinking along those lines…" Flynn responded with a thoughtful expression

By now, they had walked back to the passageway that led down into the sixth floor they were presently at and without waiting a single moment, Aiden and Flynn began to walk up the staircases.

The sixth floor of the crystal caverns had made it painfully aware to them that they were still very weak.

Even with their now increased core tier and an even more fiercer resolve, they left the floor behind without looking back at it, physically.

But in their minds, the memories that this floor had given them would forever be a stark reminder of how weak they still were and how much stronger they needed to get.

Quickly making their way out of the passageway, up to the fifth floor, and into the portal, they arrived at the small building present just before the cavern’s entrance.

The receptionists who were still there were a very much taken aback after seeing all the dried blood on their face and their tattered outfits but without even minding them, both brothers quickly made their way out of the building and went straight to Novier’s store in the bazaar district.

Just like the receptionists, Novier was just as taken aback by their appearances.

"Lads! If yer couldn’t defeat the giant Kraugr, yer should’ve ran away with yer wits!" he exclaimed, his small hands patting them all over.

"We’re fine Mr. Chroxa" Aiden and Flynn spoke to the old man respectfully, gentle smiles adorning their faces.

"Did yer fight him all day?" he asked in disbelief as he stared at them.

"We sure did…" Aiden answered with a lie, after which he then added.

"And we got the Eclipsian Prism!"

Novier’s eyes widened in disbelief when he heard Aiden’s words but his expression became completely and utterly shocked when Flynn actually procured the crystal ore from his bracelet.

"Shiver me timbers!!!" Novier exclaimed in utter shock when he finally spoke.

"Yer actually did it! Ye’ve done me a mighty favor lads! I be in yer debt!" he gratuitously said.

"Then how about 50,000C?" Aiden bluntly asked, not a single speck of humor in his words.

"50,000C? Yer sure that’s all yer want lad?" Novier asked, almost as if finding the pricing for it unbelievable.

"Yes Mr. Chroxa. That will be all" Flynn chipped in.

"Nay! I’ll do yer one better! 100,000C!" Novier suddenly doubled the price, his hands moving into the front pocket in his overalls.

"What?! No! That’s…" Aiden and Flynn were almost about to reject the offer but Novier beat them to it.

The short old man quickly placed something akin to a metallic card on their smartwatches in double-quick time, catching both youths completely off-guard.

Immediately, they each received their credits of 50,000C each as Novier flashed them a chivalrous grin.

Unable to even reject it at this point anymore, Aiden and Flynn gave a polite bow to which Novier asked for them not to do so while also telling them that they deserved it.

After that, Flynn quickly asked Novier if he knew anything about a sword in the sixth floor.

Novier however explained to them that he had never seen anything of such.

He even went as far as to explain that the Eclipsian Prism was something his grandfather and also his great grandfather had also been after for years.

So him actually getting to see it in person again after his narrow escape from the giant Kraugr was truly a dream come true for him.

Aiden and Flynn upon realizing that Novier truly had no idea about Aerion, swiftly gave him their thanks and quickly left the store after explaining to the old man that they were tight on time.

Upon getting out of the store and making their way to the portal that led to Sector 2, both brothers suddenly heard a familiar voice call out to them.

"Yoooo! Aiden! Flynn!" Ivar shouted from afar.

Upon turning to respond to him, Ivar immediately exclaimed.

"What happened to you guys?! You look like shit!" he voiced in worry.

"The Crystal Caverns happened. That’s what" Aiden replied with tired sigh.

"I heard the rumors about that place but if even you guys found it this hard…" Ivar shivered at the thought of him trying to venture into it and gulped.

"As long as you stick to the first, second and third floors, you’ll be fine Ivar" Flynn advised him.

"Got it! Wait?! Don’t tell me you guys reached the last floor?!" Ivar asked, evidently baffled by the thought.

"We sure did…" Flynn replied with a frown, his thoughts running back to the terror they encountered on the supposed sixth floor.

"That’s amazing you guys!" Ivar said to them, genuinely impressed by their feat.

"Thanks Ivar" Aiden and Flynn replied with a warm smile.

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Maybe because they’d been beaten, bruised and utterly demolished today but, hearing both Novier’s words of gratitude and Ivar’s genuine praise for them, really uplifted Flynn and Aiden’s spirit, so much that the crazy events that had transpired to them today seemed a bit more manageable.

"That being said though Ivar, why are you here at this time of the night? It’s almost curfew, isn’t it?" Flynn curiously asked.

"Ah that. I got so engrossed with a quest at the magical engineering department!" he responded with a beaming smile.

"I’ve gotten some crazy ideas too!" Ivar declared with a slightly crazy grin while rubbing his palms together like a mastermind planning a heist, a small twinkle almost visible in his eyes. Almost.

Flynn and Aiden just watched Ivar for a few seconds and then, burst into a hearty laughter.

After the laughs gradually subsided, Aiden and Flynn moved over to Ivar and simultaneously cuffed their arms around his neck.

"Uh... What are yo- Wait! Get away from me! I love you guys but you’re going to- Ah!"

Although Ivar was now protesting about how their blood stains and scents would also linger on his clothes if they kept on cuffing their arms around him, Aiden and Flynn did not really care as of this moment.

They were just glad that they had a close friend that even if they couldn’t tell him all the oddities that they were currently dealing with, him just being there and existing as a friend to them, was a gift they were truly glad to have been blessed with.

***

A few seconds after Flynn and Aiden left Novier’s store, time froze.

Yes, time froze.

Every object within the antique store stayed in a suspended stillness for a few seconds, Novier himself included, only for a singular man with snow-white hair with a very light shade of blue to appear instantaneously amidst the small store, time resuming its flow after he did.

He appeared to be in his late twenties and he was currently wearing a three-piece blue suit.

"Xavier, even as yer [Time Variant], the way yer pop in an’ out gives me the shivers" Novier calmly spoke to the owner of Arcana Academy with a tired expression.

The short old man then asked the seemingly young man who now currently had a small mysterious smile on his lips another question.

"Did yer really have to push those lads that far?"

"Yes Novier. I did" he answered in a vague manner devoid of any ill will.

-Sigh…

"Take good care of them Xavier. You know those two just might be our last hope" Novier advised after letting out a small sigh.

"I’ll take your words into consideration older me" Xavier Chrono replied with a respectful smile.