Chapter 214 Preparation
After a short conversation, Alex and Alice headed off to their errands, in fact, they were already late since they hadn't expected to be late.
Alice should have been thinking about how to solve the problems of their town that appeared because of Zayne and Elein's fight on the bridge, but her mind was busy with something else. Alex was thinking about the same thing.
'How do I get the same power?'
Alice was genuinely impressed with Elein's wind-up samurai, she liked that precision and majesty. Alex on the other hand preferred the wilder version that Zayne had. They wanted to unleash their secret power like these two, but they didn't know how to do it.
It was unusual for them, as they had always had no trouble finding the information they needed before.
Zayne in turn was left alone in the room. He wanted to return to Fallen Fate Online and was going to do so right now, however, he had a problem.
"Wait... What am I supposed to do if I don't have a capsule...?" Zayne muttered, looking around.
Due to the events, he, Alex, and Alice had missed such a detail. Their attention was too focused on the portal and what had happened to Zayne.
Zayne scratched the back of his head. He started thinking about what he needed to do, and the first thing that came to mind was to simply find another capsule. In his situation, that was the most obvious solution.
However, as soon as he made the decision, his blue eyes flashed, and a message appeared in front of him, just like in Fallen Fate Online when he was getting a new skill.
[Portal (Active)
Use a small portion of your energy to open a portal connecting two worlds. You can do this anywhere and anytime, but you must not be in combat. Also, any outside energy can easily destroy the portal and prevent you from creating it].
"I see... I don't need a capsule now... do I?" Zayne nodded with a dazed expression, then he focused and extended his arm forward.
Zayne wasn't sure exactly how to do it, so he decided to trust his intuition and channel mana through his hand.
To Zayne's surprise, a white spark appeared in the center of the room, then it quickly turned into a wide portal that even a very tall person could easily walk through.
"Oh, that was easier than I thought. Well, I guess it should be." Zayne shrugged before stepping into the portal.
This time there wasn't some transitional moment like every time he used the capsule. He just found himself in another world, in Fallen Fate, specifically in his room at the academy.
"Damn... After what happened in my world, being here is kind of weird..." Zayne sighed, then he walked over to the window, looking out at the sunset, "Though, it's just as beautiful here as Galahan's house, maybe even better."
Zayne didn't notice it, but when he appeared in the room, the crystal lying on the table next to the bed was filled with light. It trembled slightly, like a bell.
Crackle.
After a moment, the doors to his room opened and inside ran Rea with a worried expression.
"Zayne!" Rea exclaimed, looking at the tall silhouette that had his back turned to her.
Zayne turned around as he smiled weakly, "Hey... Guess I should have warned you that I was going to leave, huh?"
Rea gulped, then her face grew serious. She was stingy with her emotions, so she didn't want to show more than was necessary.
"Yeah. Do you want to explain what happened? My father and I were worried about you. After all, you are the most outstanding Traveller of all in Zexiton. If something were to happen to you, it would negatively affect our reputation!" Rea said sternly with her arms crossed over her chest.
Zayne nodded as the corners of his mouth lifted slightly. He knew that Rea didn't really care about the reputation of the academy she had already left once to be a mage with the Lareso Family. It was obvious to him that it was just a reason she had covered herself.
"So... What happened to you?" Rea narrowed her eyes.
"I'd like to hear it too." Solomon's voice suddenly rang out as he appeared behind Rea, "Don't tell me you decided to just rest. Something made you come back to your world for a while, didn't it?"
Zayne shrugged, "Yeah, you can't hide anything from you. It's even a little scary."
Solomon nodded, then he waved his hand, "Follow me. I'll hear you out first, then I have something important to tell you. It has to do with the tournament coming up soon."
Zayne nodded deeply, his gaze becoming more serious. He sensed that this was going to be a difficult conversation since although Solomon was usually calm, he was acting more softly than he was now.
...
"Interesting... You passed the test between the two worlds... Now you've gained the ability to move effortlessly between your world and ours, right?" Solomon clarified, with a thoughtful look. He slowly scratched his chin.
"Hmm? Father... I don't understand something." Rea glanced at Solomon, "Wasn't the world of the Travellers destroyed? And... How did Zayne get into our world before that?"
Solomon didn't bother to answer that question, instead, he looked at Zayne, he was the one who had to give the answers.
Zayne sighed. He could tell them what was really going on in his world and how things worked there, but there was no point. The official version that all the inhabitants of this world had originally had was fine with him.
"Our world is destroyed, but as you know we don't die permanently, we return to our world for a while to rebuild. At least that's how it used to be." Zayne said calmly, but in the last sentence, he made his gaze intentionally darker and more serious.
Solomon raised an eyebrow, "Hmm? What does that mean?"
"Yeah, I was wondering the same thing! Has Fate stopped supporting you? No. That can't be!" Rea exclaimed vigorously.
Solomon glanced at her with a deep gaze. Unlike her who mentally was still a child, Solomon knew that Fate was not pure good. However, he would never tell her about it, since she would have to go through it herself. Just like Zayne had done.
Solomon didn't know exactly what had happened to Zayne and he didn't really need to find out. His experience was enough to know from the look in Zayne's eyes that he had already been through it.
Zayne took a deep breath as if it was hard for him to talk about it, "Now if we die in any of the worlds, it's forever. I won't be able to recover again and it's not about Fate. Chaos. Chaos followed Fate and disrupted the process. However, it also expanded our options. I should clarify that it didn't affect those who have never encountered Chaos Energy before."
Rea gave him a curious look. She didn't quite understand what Zayne was talking about, but she was very curious, as only from Traveller could she learn details about another world.
"Before, to get to our world we had to use a special artifact. However, now I can just open a portal. There are some restrictions, but it only became possible after Chaos came." Zayne calmly explained.
"Pffffft! It definitely wasn't worth it! You were practically immortal before, but now you're just like the others!" Rea snorted, "I know it's not your fault, it's a coincidence, but if I could choose, there's no way I'd trade immortality for the ability to open portals!"
"Yeah... I too..." Zayne nodded with a bitter smile, then he got a complicated look. He pondered Rea's words.
She didn't realize that besides being able to open the portal, Zayne had also gotten a lot more. Without the chaos coin, he wouldn't be able to use skills, and he wouldn't be able to use Fallen Fate items in the real world.
However, he wasn't sure it was worth it.
'If I knew the consequences, would I use Chaos Coin? Even though Players received penalties after death, Rea is right, it's practically immortality in this world. Well, there's no point in thinking about that anymore. I can't change the past, however, I can use it to affect the future, right?' Zayne inwardly muttered with a deep look.
"Khm." Solomon coughed, drawing attention to himself, 'I think we've heard enough. I don't really have much to say about your situation. But, perhaps this will help you in some way. Now that you only have one life, things get really serious."
"Yeah. You're definitely right." Zayne agreed with Solomon.
Rea smiled, "Hey, doesn't that mean that now Zayne is pretty much the same as us? He's more like us now than the other Travellers!"
Solomon nodded softly, then his gaze became more serious, "Now let's discuss something more important - the tournament! It's also related to Fate."
"Sure." Zayne folded his hands together, concentrating.