Hints and Clues

Fate often plays a cruel hand on people.

People who once loved each other and cherished their time might end up loathing those memories.

Once the most cheerful and heart of the company turned into a cold-hearted, emotionless puppet grieving in the past.

But, life continues.

Time does not wait, and the clock ticks away, as do our lives. Sometimes we need to let go of the past but remember our mistakes so that we never do them again.

The Legendary Party of adventurers, the most famous group of people on the continent of Dicathen. After one of their companions died, it was as if a crucial part of the clock was missing, and they fell apart...

Someone would say, the clock mechanism could be fixed by replacing the part, but would it be the same clock as it was before?

It won't, for as long as they live they need to hold the grief of loss, it never gets easier.

The Legendary Party of adventurers which Arthur is trying to reform is never going to be the same, it will never feel the same as it did twelve years ago, the shards can be put together, but the cracks remain, no matter what.

And even though it might sound cruel, even a broken clock shows the time. In our case…

The lives of millions depend upon this same fractured clock…

But can the clock take such a burden once again? Or will it cave under it...…

"*Sigh*..." Arthur Leywin heavily sighed upon entering his dorm, his new home for the next few years of education.

"That was a rather heavy sigh for your first day in the academy." An unfamiliar cold and mysterious voice made Arthur flinch.

"Who's there?" Arthur called out calmly, keeping his wits

"Who I am shouldn't concern you. I'm just here to give you this." A cloaked figure appeared next to Arthur placing something in his hand, only to instantly disappear in a swirl.

"Oh, Arthur, you are already here." Elijah Knight entered the room just right after the mysterious person vanished.

"Yeah, I'm here… what just happened." Arthur muttered the last part to himself

When he looked down his hand, he saw a parchment. Deciding that it wasn't a good time to read, especially when Elijah was present in the room he put the parchment in his pocket.

On the same night, after Arthurs meeting with director Goodsky, and after Elijah fell asleep, Arthur took out the parchment and with the aid of moonlight, he started reading it. What he read on the parchment only confused him, later he realized what it actually meant.

"Continent of Alacrya, Clan Vritra…" He mumbled before hiding away the parchment, pondering about these new revelations.

Needless to say, he didn't have much sleep that night. Just the thought of someone entering his dorm so easily while being unnoticed, made Arthur doubt if he was really safe within the walls of Xyrus Academy.

Days passed as Arthur continued with relatively normal school life, yet the contents of the letter often plagued his thoughts.

There were moments where he spaced out thinking about it.

'Papa! You are getting late!' Sylvie's voice brought him out of his trance-like state.

"Huh?" He blurted out loud before realizing his next class had already begun.

And so he ran towards the field his next class would be taken in.

Team Fighting Mechanics was exactly what it said, with one group of students fighting another.

This time, it was the disciplinary committee vs the student council.

One side had Arthur Leywin, Curtis Glayder, and Claire Bladeheart, while the other had Tessia Eralith, Clive Graves, and Lucas Wykes.

And while the fight seemed rather mild and harmless at first, it soon escalated to fatal.

A mix of Lucas Wykes lashing out at Arthur, and Tessia Eralith losing consciousness as a repercussion of her beast will, made the fight become much more serious than it was intended to.

The professor riding a flare hawk dived down in hopes of reaching the elven princess before it's too late, but she would never make it.

However, someone else did. Arthur seemingly teleported to the princess, shielding her with his body as the devastating spell named 'World Howl' impacted on his back.

High up in the sky, a red and gold bird cried out in surprise.

________________________

Arthur had been severely injured by the spell, his skin and flesh had burned off to such a degree that shards of bone stook out.

It would have taken him months to heal up sufficiently to walk around.

Or it was supposed to, had someone not interfered.

That night, when the academy was asleep, the red and gold feathered bird entered the infirmary through a window.

And in a flash of flame, the bird took the shape of a man, his long hair tied in a ponytail.

"Idiot, you faced an attack with your back turned. If your spine were to be damaged, you would stay crippled for the rest of your life." He spoke, placing his arm over Arthur's torso.

His arm started glowing green, similar to how emitter deviants' do, but soon that green glow took on a purple sheen and dripped to Arthurs body, covering his entire body in a cloak of green and purple.

But that wasn't the most peculiar thing about the covering, no. It was the chaotic nature of it, the coating never stayed in a single shape, ever-changing like the embers of a flame.

And what would have taken months, even with a team of deviants, was healed in seconds.

That caused Arthur to stir, as he began opening his eyes.

"You were an idiot for doing that." Jaron spoke once Arthur was awake.

"Huh? Jaron? What are you doing here?" Arthur mumbled as he got up to a sitting position, astonished by the lack of pain.

"I was flying overhead when you decided to risk your life. If I wasn't here you would have been bedridden for months."

"Uh, thanks I suppose." Arthur smiled sheepishly.

Jaron shook his head, "You're as reckless as him."

"Him? Wait, that reminds me." Arthur took out a piece of paper from his dimension ring, handing it to Jaron, "Someone entered my room and handed me that."

"What did he look like?" Asked Jaron as he skimmed through its contents.

"I don't know, he hid himself with a cloak. And when he left it was as if the space bent around him in a swirl."

Jaron stilled, his eyes narrowing, "Did his eyes glow red?"

"I wasn't able to see his face very properly so, maybe?"

But Jaron wasn't listening, " So he visited you huh?" He mumbled to himself.

"Who?" Arthur asked, raising an eyebrow at the black-haired adventurer

"Arthur, the man you came across is the very same one Ash is looking for." Jaron said, staring Arthur dead in the eyes.

Arthur's eyes widened like saucers, "Vonde." He whispered.

Jaron nodded, "Precisely. I'll have to talk with Ash about this…"

"What about the letter?" Arthur pointed out.

Jaron glanced down at the piece of paper in his hand, "This is concerning news. We will discuss this once all 4 of us are together."

"That might take too long."

"Not as long as you think. I am close to finding Fayden, and now we have a clue to find Vonde. It won't take us long." Jaron tried to reassure him, his monotone voice not helping.

"I hope so…"

Jaron began walking away, "Get some rest, I have only healed your body, not your mind."

"Thank you for that." Arthur muttered, but Jaron still heard it and nodded, leaping out of the window.

________________________

"Are you sure?" Ash asked once Jaron informed him about Vonde's appearance. For Ash, it was shocking news, as he finally got to learn something new about his brother.

Jaron nodded, "Yes, he might still be in the nearby area, you might be able to find him."

"Alright, thanks. This might just be enough to locate him." Ash nodded in gratitude.

Jaron nodded back, "We might be able to reform the party earlier than anticipated."

"That might not be a good thing…" Ash muttered, referring to Vonde's hostility towards them. The older brother wasn't afraid to face up to his younger, albeit he is anxious about Vonde vanishing again.

"We will need to face it when it happens."

"I suppose…" He trailed off, "I will be going then, start looking for Vonde."

Jaron nodded, "And I shall continue my search for Fayden."

________________________

'I am close.' was the only thought on Jarons mind as he scoured the edge of the beast glades, looking for any more hints.

It had been months since the incident with Arthur, and in that while Jaron had searched most of the Beast Glades.

'Where has that idiot holed himself up?' He thought, wading through the mud under his feet.

He hadn't been able to sense his teammate ever since he returned from his last visit to Arthur.

So it took him by surprise when he felt a dark mana signature wash over the place.

He pinpointed the source in seconds and headed towards it, a coating of fire mana protecting him from the thorns and vines of the forest.

'There you are!'

He felt the mana flare from Fayden, signifying him using a spell.

Thinking he might be planning on leaving once again, Jaron hastened his pace, transforming into his bird form in the process.

As he flew overhead the canopy of the forest, he could see a house made of logs at the edge of his vision, and a man exiting it.

A 'BOOM' was heard as he crossed the sound barrier to reach the house, reaching out with his claw.

But, even with all that speed, he wasn't fast enough as his teammate and brother disappeared in a flash of black.