How did it possible end up like this, he mumbling to himself.
Why, him, the greats genius in the entire El Search Party, no, in the entire world, had been relegated in that despicable role!
Add give a hatred look in the Rena and Raven direction. It's not been so long that he was with the rest of the others, and he don't like very much the company of that group of folks.
The El Boy it's just an idiot, he think. He just yelling in some random direction when he was fight and he is not smart at all. Even in the head that Elsword is filled with muscle. Really Nothing to do with a true Genius like Him.
Otherwie…Elsword's sisters was kind of different from her brother, she was strong, and he would like to fight her some day, but, even her share some gene with her brother, if you take a close look you can see it…
Same he can say about that little Magician, Aisha, just a noise brat. Ara is just a clumsy girl, so he don't really matter.
The only ray of hope there was Eve. She was the essence of the perfect existence. How she move, how she talk, how she think. Yes. That is perfection!
The only reason for him to stay with that people was her, the Nasod Queen, from his point of view Eve was just amazing. She had been able to build by herself three Nasod servants, Oberon, Ophelia and Ferdinand, annoying sure, but amazing. Of course, not that Add would not be able to do the same, but he look at her with the same curiosity of a scientist who studies a unknown phenomenon, with a touch of genuine madness.
Eve was everything he need to accomplish his mission. To make the events change…
One day…her core to belong to him.
And..wait? Did he forgot about someone? No. Sure not…
Add snorted once again. He was sit on his own dynamos, not that a person like him can sit on the grass like a common folks.
He glanced at the two that now talking, he don't really care what they say so he just pretend to not be here.
He was just stuck.
Add rise his head on the sky, just praying to see some Nasod fly above him, or maybe just hope to see some clouds who remembered that look.
No. There is no clouds, just like no Nasod.
Add close his eyes for a moment, drifting away from that place, that stupid forest or whatever had been obligatorily parked by the others and then…
"Just…listen to me."
Some soft words pronounced by a clear voice, before a few seconds an arrow was shoot right next his head, stick in the trunk behind the head of the poor Add. He open his eyes and his mouth, staring at the El arrow just before this vanish away…
After a few seconds he turn his attention to who strike the arrow, that female Elf, Rena.
"THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
He yelling with a mad voice at her. Rena smile back, just nothing append.
"I Just say. Listen to me."
The young man next to her just sigh, moving away. Raven sure was not happy too about that situation.
After the war in Velder was stop, the Red Hair Knight, Elesis, have to return there, before the El party stop the Ran ambition in Hamel, She need to report the situation to Penensio, the Chief of the Red Knights, along with her brother, Elsword, Eve and Aisha.
After the Ran escape, Chung was not able to talk to Ara anymore. Ran trick his own father and Ara do all to defend him, even if he know she was her sister, Chung do not have nothing to tell of her just now. But….that's another story…
Now they just need to step away from Hamel, next destination Sander, the land of Sand and Sun, where another priests and dangers awaits for theme.
But for now, the three of them…are just stuck.
After the battle against Ran the Nasod arm of Raven become a little strange, and his temper too, right now he was really unstable, so Elesis say it is a good things if the awaits for them just outside the town, not more than one day. So Rena it is proposed to stay with Raven until they back, along with Add, without ask his permission, of course Add complaing about that, all he want to do is stay near Eve, but after she ask the same Add accepted.
After all the people of Hamel did not like to see Add around the town, and Add don't like people. To speak the truth Add don't like forest too, so gross, and cold, and...
"If I do not listen you is because it not worth."
Add say to Rena without hesitation. Poor thing, another arrow was shoot in his direction, but this time he use his Dynamos to defend himself.
"JUST STOP, DAMN ELF!"
Raven sighed once again. Start talking to boot of them.
"If you two have problem just go back in town! I don't need company, I can take care of myself."
Raven sit on the grass, looking at his Nasod arm. This thing that he had not asked for. Sometimes in the middle of the battlefield he can clearly hear that Arm talk to him, just like that arm can have his own will.
No matter how hard Raven try, that's not an easy task. When the thrill of the battle raise, his rage show up, channeling into raw power, his sanity was gone , just like his black hair. Is a long time now that some of its locks had taken the color white, the same color hair Eve, the Nasod.
Tremble with rage for a moment he look away, his mind…Raven can feel it flow off, every day, more and more. But he know that he need to continue this journey to save the world, so he can atone.
Add and Rena looked toward Raven. The elf girl give to Raven a pitying look, she can only imagine what he can feel. Otherwise Add don't get it. To his eyes Raven have a beautiful Nasod arm on his body, he would be very happy to own one. And more than once he think to take Raven apart and study him.
Perhaps his eyes betrayed because a minute later Rena talk to him.
"Come on Add. It's your turn now. Get something to eat."
She say with a smile. For a moment Add seemed not to understand. A very long moment.
"Why I, Genius unattainable, should a common thing like cooking ?!"
He was indignant! His head, his hands can do something much more important, than the vulgar cook!
Rena smile again, and answer him with her lovely voice.
"Because I say so. I beg you to find something to eat and cook."
She looks nice and pretty, but more time Add spend with that Elf, the more he can understand her true nature. Rena was capricious and mischievous, she love tease others, especially him. Even If her white and green dress, with that feather on Her blond, long, hair and her Angelic beauty was just a trap, Rena was like that.
Add snorted again. He know he cant win against that female elf, resigned, he try to find his way to…cook…something…somewhere…somehow.
When he reach the luggage and start order to his Dynamos to find something in there, he was a strange idea across his mind.
Raven was distracted and Rena would remain to guard the camp, so he can do whatever he want.
A wicked smile.
"Kukuku…"
He would go to cook the most delicious dinner they ever tasted…
Many hours passed was back for her work and sit near a fire lit up by Raven, the sunset is gone, and the rest of the group was already missing.
"I Guess the will back tomorrow."
Rena say looking up. Raven don't answer, Rena can easily imagine Elsword eat as a little pig in some Hamel inn, with her sister, Aisha yelling at him and Eve stare there.
She was a little worried about Chung and Ara. She can easily say that now on, the relationship within the two of them would become complicated. Ara had interfered with vengeance of Chung, and Ran, as it might he have been good, now was a demon.
Rena thoughts were interrupted by Add, with his "Gentle" manners he placed a cup of a "wannabesoup" in front of her.
"Thanks for the meal."
Rena say with a gentle smile even after she look down of her dish.
A brown soup with some unidentified piece of vegetable inside, looking close you can even see some piece of chocolate there, sometimes the soup make some strange noise like a "Blop", but Raven didn't care about and just eat without saying a thing.
Add look the booth of them.
"Kukuku….i know, this dish is Perfection, and just thanks me."
Perfection…?
*BLOP*
Yesh…
Anyway…
Add sit down on his own Dynamos and start pretending to eat the "Perfection-dish" he made.
For a moment he check if Rena and Raven were eating, a moment later he start too.
He brought the spoon to his mouth pretending to take a sip of soup, but his not. He continued to pretend to eat for a few minutes. Waiting.
He held His smiles, his eyes focused only on his spoon, waiting to hear a sound in particular, something like a ...
"Yaaaawm."
Several moments later Raven fall asleep. The same as Rena. Raven's dish fell to the ground, spilling the remaining soup on the grass, while Rena was resting against a tree behind her, holding the plate on the legs, only the spoon had fallen to the ground.
Add stopped, He stood up and began to laugh.
It was made!
He had sent his dynamo to seek some soporific grass who had tried through one of its database, put everything into the soup and mixed with chocolate and some other ingredients found inside the bag.
Boredom was over, now could easily devote to the decomposition of the Raven's Arm, calmly, had a long night ahead of it!
Add walked toward Raven, with its trust dynamo in tow and a sinister glow in the eye.
"Shall we begin the experiment?"
Just before he can lift a finger on Raven, something grabbed his right wrist.
"Y-you!"
Add turned instantly just to be in front an amused Rena.
"Uhuh, you really think an Elf can be foolish by some trick like that?"
That's the why he put some chocolate inside the soup!
Add hoped to cover the taste of grass soporific, just to not be discovered by elf lady! (Maybe)
"What are you doing with Raven?"
She ask even in this situation with a gentle tone, without loosening the grip from the wrist of the boy.
"What are you talking about?"
He try to play dumb, but it's not work.
"Come on, I know what you put in that dish. So speak the truth."
Despite her graceful appearance, Rena, had some strength in her arms and despite being a girl managed to drag away Add to Raven, forcing him to sit. Without Dynamos chair!
"What did you do?"
She ask.
"I just wanted to take a look at that arm."
Add replied quietly without the slightest sign of repentance, Rather worried of his clothes, his pants Whitese now was dirty, thanks to that horrible grass, he did not like at all.
Rena watched for a few moments the movements of the white hair boy, his angry expression, as if she trying to understand something.
"Add can I ask you something?"
Add snorted.
"As if you do not. "
Add tear off his wrist, trying to break free from the grip of Rena.
"Let go!"
Protest the boy, but she did not let him go.
"Why do you want to come with us?"
She asked with genuine curiosity in her voice. Her big green-brown eyes met the violet, of the young scientist.
"To examinate Eve."
Replied without hesitation, just like the answer was write everywhere. He sure was obsessed by Eve, by Nasod, and she was the only Nasod left, it is natural for him to try to draw from her as much information as possible.
Once studied that Nasod Queen, he would surely have had a much more profound knowledge than that already gained in the Ancient Library.
Add came from a different timeline, he was different from the rest of the group, they where living in such a time, in they own time, they was born there with friends and family, they own, and Him? What he have? What he was?
Dynamos? Knowledge? In that timeline, what he is? Just a random kid in a strange world without any trace of what was the world that he had seen up to that time.
Why he was so obsessed by Nasod?
Maybe because they are the the only thing in common with his world. His true world.
Left alone all that years, reading, searching, studying…
Add looked away from Rena, with an angry expression. Restless. He did not like to be touched, not because it is Rena to touch him, just because annoyed him.
As if that simple human touch could make vulnerable to other people, as if in that way they could steal away what he is.
Rena felt something.
"You got a problem? All I want is to put my hands on Nasod, on that Nasod, is a perfect creature, nothing to do with the rest of you."
He said with an angry voice, more aggressive than before.
"Add…"
She said softly. Rena relaxed her grip on Add's wrist.
What did she know about that guy, anyway?
Add was fallen between them suddenly, like a breath freezing, unexpected, approaching Eve as an enemy, she remember well happened that day. A Strange guy in a white suit awaits for Eve, and then…
She was an elf, had lived much longer than all the people who were there, Raven, Elsword, Aisha ...
Probably only Eve could boast more longevity of her, even if she was asleep for the most of last century. After all she was one of the most young elf of her tribe.
Until before the mission with El search party, she had almost always lived in the village of elves, with people like her, Yet she had known some humans, but age pass and with age the youth, and before she can realize they were gone.
A sad thought, in the near future, the other would be gone too?
Rena could say to saw some kind of sadness, observing that strange guy in white.
Take a close look on him she can easily say that is not like Elesis, Ara or Chung, his clothes, his weapons, it's just he was not from there.
Add remember much Eve, not just the weapons, the way of they moving.
Raven was asleep, and it was as if they were alone, so Rena take the chance to speak frankly.
"This is the only reason why you follow us? You do not care of this world too?"
Because that's the why they go on, to save the world, to preserve the El Force, and rescue the priest of El.
"Where are you from?"
She asked. Add looking lost for a moment, but answer.
"None of your business."
Said rough. No one there knew exactly where Add came from. Rena sighed, let go his wriest.
"Do you have a real reason to go on? If you don't want to…"
"SHUT UP! What's is YOUR reason to go no?! You are an elf right?! You should not even exist! You are just like a fairy! Or a sprite! Or a…"
"A Ghost?"
She laugh.
Add trembled for a moment, Rena had noticed that the boy had a certain fear of the kind of creatures, in the Underground Chapel.
"Y-Yeah! A Ghost!"
He looked away, crossing his arms, now free. With an usual annoyed look on his face. Rena find cute that kind of attitude, just like he struggles because he cannot say thanks.
Rena stands up, walk near Add.
He give to her a detached gaze, why she was so interested in what he want and why?
"So? What about your reason?"
He ask without a real purpose. Rena smile once again, looking in his violet eyes, she can't say for sure if he was really interested in her answer, Add was so individualist, and so concentrated on himself which is hard to believe that he can intrigue other, except Eve and the Nasod race, of course.
"Because this is my mission. To protect this world and my race. To protect anyone live in this world."
She said, after the El Search Party had recovered the Eldrit the elf are safe. So now she just pretend to save all the other people live in the same world. Or…she said so.
Add listen the answer but he was not convinced, that words sound strange to his ears, he really don't get such kind of answer.
"That's all?"
"Yes. That's all."
She reply with a sweet smile, even if Rena itself seen to have some other thing to say, in any case Add don't notice it.
Rena raise her head, looking in the sky, a night sky full of bright stars, so different from the view that she was used to seeing from Ruben.
"So here we have a guy who just wants to dismantle a comrade…"
She said looking up.
"..and an elf who just wants to protect strangers. Right?"
She continued with a strange smile.
"Strange duo. Don't you think?"
"We are not a duo. Or comrade."
Add replied, puffing.
"I don't like this kind of talk, so give me a break."
His head start pulse, his fingers moving fast, like a tick, just like he was getting nervous, but Rena don't stop talking to him.
"Is that so…in any case…"
The Grand Archer puts her hand on Add shoulder, speaking softly.
"…If you do not have a real reason to go on, do not have even one to become stronger."
The young Tracer reacted in a totally uncontrolled in those words, yanked Rena, raising his voice against her.
"I said stop! What's wrong with you Rena?!"
Rena did not understand what was happening right now but before he could do something Add yelling mad again.
"Just shut up!"
Add to those words went mad, how could She say such a thing? He had it his goal! How could a stupid elf judge him?!
What he had done so far was not perhaps the demonstration of its resolution?
"It's not like that! I'm not like that!"
He continue to talk mumbling by himself, holding his head like someone else was talking to him, like a voice continue to disturb him. Not Rena voice, someone else.
The look of Rena became worried, it was as if something was possessing the boy.
"Just shut the hell up! You have no right to talk! Just shut up!"
After shouting out his frustration Add calls if his dynamo, they flew in the direction of Add, passing dangerously close to Rena, almost like to hit her.
With the dynamo with him, he reaches the sky looking down on Rena, in anger.
"I'm leaving!"
So he fly away, fast as the wind. Leaving the elf lady all by herself…with an asleep Raven near the tree.
"…You can say the same as me. Add."
Without no one there to listen this final words, Rena sighed, just looking up to the sky were the young boy was gone.
Add will come back in few hours…for sure.
Several hours passed but there is no hint of Add around. It was as if he had vanished into the air. Shortly before dawn Elsword, ELesis, Eve and Aisha did appear among the trees, while a stunned Raven greeted them with a greeting.
"Where is Add?"
Elsword Ask.
"Dunno. That brat put something strange into the soup, my stomach hurts and my head too."
Raven curse Add for what he is doing, meanwhile he said that…Elsword put into his mouth a generous mouthful of soup! Yeah…THAT soup!
"ELSWORD!"
"THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH THAT BRAT?!"
The El Boy goes down in an instant….Aisha panicked ad Eve just watch recording all the scene. Just Elesis went to ask for explanations to Rena.
Rena don't speak much, just telling her that she was sure that the Trace, as he had done before.
