[Royal Capital Alavia, Most Divine Kingdom of Alterya]
(23rd, Black Sea Moon (VII), 644 ASY)
Ashe stares in shock at the person that has appeared out of thin air. Standing some distance away from her, is the man that she so hated yet loved. Smiling in his usual small yet overly noticeable way, Daniel stands there, meer meters away. The source of her troubles. She continues to stare at him in shock.
"The world certainly hasn't been kind…" Daniel sighs, replying to Tyson's earlier question.
"How so?" Tyson asks, as Ashe is still in a state of shock, opening and closing her mouth without a sound, not unlike a carp.
"Well, Xacont killed me. Blasted a hole right through my left collarbone. Hurt pretty badly, had to transfer into a new body," Daniel sighs.
"That sounds painful…"
"How did you get into a new body!"
Tyson nods as Ashe screams over him.
"Tell me now! A shot there would have blown off more than just your collarbone. It would have not only destroyed your thoracic outlet, but it would have taken a chunk out of your heart! There is no way you could have survived that. So tell me, how did you get into a new body? Or did you lie about getting a hole blown through your collarbone?" Ashe screams as she feels something snap within her. All of this emotion, some of which she can't even begin to describe, come gushing out. Anger, sadness, worry, grief, frustration, relief, a labrenith of emotions fills her as she starts screaming out her feelings, whatever they may be.
"Calm down, Ashe. I'll tell you…" Daniel sighs. Ashe snorts in response.
"He is telling me to calm down?" She thinks to herself as Daniel keeps talking.
"I separated my soul from my body. If one body dies, then I can simply transfer my soul to another body. It's that simple," Daniel smiles, proud of himself, as he puts his hands on his hips.
"When did you find the time to do that?" Tyson asks, raising an eyebrow.
"How many times did I skip out on events? How many all-nighters do you think I pulled in those 4 years?" Daniel sighs. "There was a reason I was anti-social. I knew I would make many enemies, so I wanted to make a safeguard against assasinations and the like. I never knew I had to use it to survive a betrayal, but I guess that's what I get for dealing with a demon."
"Huh. I thought you were just masturbating or something," Tyson shrugs.
"Really Tyson? Daniel has the Libido of wet sand… I thought you knew that…" Ashe sighs, finally regaining her composure. "Even still, do you just have labs with just a massive number of substitute bodies?"
"Yup. Many of Legico Logistvium's storages and depots were originally my laboratories. I had to keep all of my research secret, seeing as Alterya really doesn't like people messing with the secrets of life and death. I even started writing my notes in Chinese instead of English after you two manage to loose your translation notebooks and they fell into the hands of the Alteryian King," Daniel complains.
"So, are any of your work still there? Is it dangerous?" Tyson asks.
"I'm standing here. Do you think that it's not working?" Daniel answers back. "Just don't try it with unwilling souls. You will summon a demon that way. Or do that, it's a sure way to summon a powerful one. With live sacrifices, it much more up to chance whether or not a high demon shows up. Breaking nature's laws summons them much easier."
"I don't know what more disturbing, the what you just said, the way you calmly said that, or the fact that you probably used multiple tests to figue this out," Ashe puts a hand on her forehead.
"Don't worry, I only used the souls of the people who deserved it. Where'd you think the Orb of the Damned went?"
"Right… What about those live sacrifices?"
"I used apes. It seems that demons can't tell the difference between ape and human flesh,"
"So you didn't slaughter anyone when you summoned Xacont?"
"No, for him I did. You really think I let Islacored's group go?"
"Eh, if it's them, then I really don't mind," Tyson wakes his hands in the air.
"It's not the fact that it's Islacored's group, but rather he killed people to summon Xacont,"
"What's the problem? We kill people all the time,"
"Then why'd you get so upset about Daniel summoning a demon?"
"I though he used an innocent virgin or something like that. That's usually how they summoned demons in fantasy books and the like,"
"So we got ourselves stuck in this mess because of a misunderstanding?"
"Nah, I just wanted to see Daniel lose for once,"
"Go fuck yourself, Tyson. I'm still pissed, you know," Daniel cuts in.
"Come over here and fuck me, yourself, you coward," Tyson retorts.
"Gladly," Daniel sternly replies as his eyes glow red. Still with {Detect Arcane} active, Ashe sees an Alchemical pattern emerge beneath Tyson's chair. Suddenly, a large rod shoots out of the ground underneath Tyson, and…well…Daniel wasn't kidding. Tyson screams in pain and leaps out of his chair, now with a small round hole in it. He runs around the room, howling with pain and holding his butt in his hands.
"What was that for!" Tyson yells.
"You said you wanted me to fuck you?" Daniel calmly replies, waving his hand and willing the rod back into the ground and the chair to repair itself.
"It was a joke, come on!" Tyson howls, now in a crying pile on the floor.
"You know how I take these kinds of jokes…" Daniel sighs. "Can you heal him Ashe? My ears are already starting to ring."
"Sure. I don't I can heal his dignity though…" She replies.
"I don't think you'll ever save his dignity. He lost his virginity to a large metal shaft…" Daniel sighs as he sits down in the other chair. Meanwhile, Ashe casts {High Heal} on Tyson. His cries of pain stop and turn into soft whimpering noises.
"So why did you hide yourself from us until Lucya left?" Ashe asks as Tyson drags himself back to the chair, muttering curses.
"Because I believe that reducing contact with her will be in my best interest. I don't know how she will respond to what I've been doing recently, so I won't show myself to her. I expect you all to keep this meeting a secret between us?" Daniel responds, his pitch-black eyes cutting into Ashe's soul.
"Of course. Lucya's been devastated ever you left though… Isn't it better to tell her that you're back?"
"She's more useful to me when she's like this. I expect that's she's currently looking through my work at the old labs. I know she can translate the earlier notes, but I don't think anyone here knew Chinese, much less wrote down a dictionary. I'm still pissed that you let Alterya get a hold of the translation books that I wrote for you. I told you to keep track of it, Tyson,"
"I know, I know… I still don't know how I lost it…"
"Take better care of your tools, you never know when you might need them…" Daniel sighs.
"I will, I will. Please get off my back. Why do you want Lucya going through your old notes?"
"I want to see how someone from this world will react to our old technologies. That will set a basis of what I can show to this world,"
"I see. Lucya's a lab rat, then? A white mouse to test what is acceptable in this world?" Ashe sighs.
"Indeed. I also wanted to know if they understood the concepts that produced these post-industrial machines. All of this will be benifical to us," Daniel nods.
"Huh. This reuion has gone a lot better than I expected it to go. I thought that you and Tyson would fight it out," Ashe lets out a small smile.
"Don't worry, I don't think that fight would last very long, considering what I just did to him," Daniel chuckles.
"That wasn't the point…" Ashe sighs. "How do you two make up so fast? Tyson caused you to die!"
"Yeah, but that gave me a chance to test out my soul-implanting system. Plus, holding grudges is never good. Tyson is still a great fighter and a close friend, so I won't activily harm my relationship with him. Also, his arguement is valid. The unholy is dangerous and activily trys to kill people. However, Demons are unbelieveably predicable. As such, you can control them," Daniel explains.
"Ah…" Ashe sighs. Had she been too harsh on him? He had seen both sides of the argument when Ashe hadn't until Daniel had left. She simply thought that Daniel had too much power and sought to stop that. She hadn't considered that Daniel was trying to do good until far too late.
"So, what's the point of today? I was quite surprised that my watch lit up. It hasn't done so for almost six years now," Daniel asks as Tyson finally sits back onto the chair.
"The mess that you left us with, as well as the mess that your absence has left," Tyson sighs.
"What mess? The LL should have been completely functional after my resignment,"
"You see, there was a lot of people who decided to leave the organization after you did. This caused a large shortage of experienced personnel. Also, the LL, as you call it, has been incredibly uncooperative as of late…" Tyson sighs again. "So go and fix that first."
"Actually… We were about to go into the Dalycon Union to spy on them. How about you lead us there? You went west, didn't you?" Ashe asks him.
"I did, and I am still in the west. My watch still works, you know? How about this: go to the port city of Acnoc near the border with the Greyvan Kingdom. That way, you can go by ship, and I can go by cart. We should meet up at a similar time," Daniel scratches his chin.
"Wait, are we seriously going personally? Wouldn't it be dangerous?" Tyson suddenly interjects.
"We have to. We can't get much information otherwise…" Ashe sighs. "That demon you summoned is really something, eh?"
"Devil. Xacont is technically a devil and not a demon. If he was a demon, he would have already started burning everything around him," Daniel corrects Ashe. "But yes, he is quite intelligent. I didn't expect him to move so quickly against me. My only consolation is that he didn't know about my ability to transfer my soul into another vessel. Man, alchemy is useful. It let me create a soulless body that looks the same as my old one, and then it let me transfer my soul into after my old body died."
"Then is it settled? We're going to go to Acnoc by ship to meet up with Daniel, who will guilde us through the Dalycon Union," Ashe asks.
"Yup. I just hope that Daniel doesn't get us lost in the Dalycon Union,"
"Have I gotten you lost?" Daniel asks.
"That is true… Well then, it's settled. To deal with the problem that is the Dalycon Union, and to be better informed about it, we are going to sail by ship to Acnoc to meet up with Daniel, who will take us around the country to learn more about it!" Ashe declares.