Adventure

"Let's try it this way now," Ed said as he unsheathed his sword. A black layer of Haki coated his blade, oozing as though it would drip from the tip of the sword. Right in front of him, the monster that seemed unstoppable a few hours ago found itself suspended in the air. Thin, nigh invisible red threads pierced all over its body. It no longer had any control over itself. Even the magic it was so proud of was useless; it was as though it was trapped in a prison of flesh; its flesh.

It looked helplessly as Ed swung its sword. For the first time in its life; nay it had been resurrected many times. For the first time in its hundreds of lives, it could feel a semblance of fear. It could finally feel the powerlessness of its victims. As it was about to form the first emotion of its life, all trains of thought were interrupted by a loud thud. It looked down to see its hand lopped to the side as though it was an insignificant piece of meat.

"I see, so Haki could be used this way," Ed said as he examined his sword. Incensed, the monster let out a giant roar, enough to push everyone away and gain its freedom back. It couldn't attach its arm for some reason, but it pushed forward, attacking everything in sight. Or so it thought.

"This thing is daydreaming!" Goburou, the owner of the red threads manipulating the monsters exclaimed. Its threads burrowed so deep into the monster that it could feel its thoughts. The monster, in its helplessness, escaped into a dream world where it was the winner.

"How ironic," Ed said, "A butcher, made without emotions, can dream? I guess fear trumps all." With a single swing, the monster's dream ended along with its life. Goburou's blood threads dissipated as well, while Ed burned the corpse into cinders. He had wasted many healing cards to revive the monster constantly, and as he continued to kill it, he would get fewer and fewer Gacha cards. But, the rewards were still worth it. He had managed to heal his broken soul as well as get stronger.

[Break your soul again, and I'll be the one to break you next!]

Ed broke into a smile as he heard a nostalgic voice. "It has been a while, thank you for your hard work," he said while talking to his system who had been working tirelessly to fix his soul.

[Fixing your damn soul was harder than untangling a ball of wool. The things I found there made me shudder, you damn degenerate!]

"No one asked you to look so deep!" Ed felt the blood rush into his ears as he realized his deepest secrets were now read by the system. The banter continued for a bit while the system, and the host, caught up.

"Now it's time to head to the other world," Ed said as his monsters turned into cards. Only Raikou remained in his shadow as usual. With a slight snap of his fingers, he was in front of the Tower of Trials. His Space magic only grew stronger with him, and now he could teleport all over the world at almost no cost to his Ki.

"Now, you can look at everyone's status," Ed asked the system, "Who should I bring?"

[The Ice lady, the Tiger girl, and the arrow boy.] The system's answer was so fast that it left Ed a bit dumbfounded.

"Only these three? Shouldn't I bring Hayato or Eric?" Ed asked, "From what I gathered, we're outnumbered and most of the enemies are stronger than us."

[And from what I've gathered, the gate protecting this world is gone. Who will protect the world when you're gone?]

"Makes sense," Ed nodded in agreement all the while he extended his hand towards the east. Mana began to seep out of his fingers, and unlike Goburou's blood threads, Ed made sure his own were thick enough to be called ropes.

The ropes, glimmering under the moonlight, burst forth towards the east. Ed waited in place for a bit over a minute and suddenly pulled with all of his strength. The extended mana ropes retracted faster than the eye could follow, and at their edge, three bodies traveled through the air at a speed faster than sound. Sonic booms ruptured the night sky and muffled the screams that accompanied the travelers.

The three of them, Emilia, Ellie, and Oliver were on their knees breathing heavily. In front of them was Ed, cackling away as he asked, "Good evening! Wanna go on a world-saving, or ending adventure?"

Unable to even understand what he said, Emilia and Ellie attacked Ed at the same time. In a second, he had a rapier and five claws pointed at his throat. As cold sweat dripped down his face, he glanced to the side and muttered the word "I'm sorry…"

"If you do that again, I will kill you before you can even blink!" Ellie exclaimed as her breath was still ragged. "I felt my heart scream in my throat!"

"Idiot," Emilia softly said. Her face regained a bit of color, making her flushed look enamor Ed.

Seeing the silly smile on his face, both girls punched him in the face, sending him next to Oliver. He took no damage, but he had to act hurt; his gut feeling told him he would get punched again otherwise.

"How are you holding up, Oliver?" Ed asked.

"Other than nausea, I'm fine," Oliver answered. "But, what is going on?"

"I said it didn't I?" Ed smiled at all three of them. "We're going to save, or end, the world!"

As he muttered the last word, Ed snapped his finger again, and this time, all four of them were teleported. They were now in front of the old man gatekeeper.

"You guys might want to change from your sleepwear," Ed said, "We have a long day in front of us"

They all peered into the gate, whose color had turned bright red.