Elysium's Heroes
Chapter 5. Searching For Answers
"What…? where am I?" Rex woke up in green flowery plains. He remembered the place; this was the memory of Elysium where he first met Pyra. Rex looked around him to search for answers. how did he get here? Wasn't he just in Corinne's house? "I must be dreaming." "Rex!?" Rex heard a familiar voice from the distance. it was Pneuma! and she ran into him to give him a hug.
"Pneuma! I am so glad to see you, but why are we here?" "I don't know. It seems like we are in this memory together. but I have no idea why…" "Pneuma look! There is someone by the tree! It's the same tree were we first met." "Wait is that…? no way… Addam!?"
Rex and Pneuma walked up to the shadowy figure to see if it was truly the person, they thought it was.
Pneuma: "Addam?"
Addam: "Ahh Mythra, I am so glad I can finally see you in your true form. I am so sorry that I couldn't fully understand you when the time was dire."
Pneuma: "Don't worry about it. Thanks to you, Rex was able to unlock this form within me"
Rex: "I don't understand Addam… why are we here? Did you call us here?"
Addam: "Yes, thanks to you I am now finally able to enjoy the wonders of Elysium. When you die, you too will be able to enjoy Elysium to the fullest."
Rex: "Yes but… Pyra and Mythra won't be here with us… It's very sad to think about."
Pneuma: "I'm sorry Rex…"
Addam: "That is actually why I both called you here… I have been looking into this unfortunate fate for years now. Not only because I want talk about your adventures after your lives have ended, but also because I feel like it is my destiny to do so."
Pneuma (Pyra's side speaking): "Addam…?"
Rex: "Your destiny? Why?"
Addam: "Because it was my doing that you two ended up together."
Pneuma & Rex: "What!?"
Rex: "Wait how is that possible!? how could you have known that I would be there that day, on that job, on that time, to awaken Pyra, without even knowing I would exist?"
Addam: "Mythra, no wait… I guess I should call you by your proper name. Pneuma, do you remember when we fought Malos, you had an overload of the conduit energy when we were fighting one of his Artifices?"
Pneuma (Mythra's side speaking): "Oh I remember that moment all too well… I summoned way too much power of the Conduit because you were wounded intensely and I wanted to help you win that fight, And I called upon way too much."
Rex: "Wow Mythra, it is not like you to lose control like that."
Pneuma (Mythra's side speaking): "That is actually why I try to keep my cool from now on."
Addam: "Anyway when you called upon all that power, I was actually in the middle of using your foresight, which gave me an overload of that as well, allowing me to see 500 Years in the future."
Pneuma (Mythra's side speaking): "Wow… I didn't even know I could do that… I always used Foresight for mere predictions of incoming attacks."
Addam: "I saw a young optimistic boy about to go on a big job to retrieve a treasure sunken deep below the cloud sea. What I saw were just mere flashes of different time periods of that day. I say Pyra in a glass pod sleeping. Even though at the time I didn't know that woman and just thought she looked like Mythra. Then I saw it! Her core crystal, it was the same, meaning that this woman must be a different version of Mythra."
Pneuma: "How could you have seen all that while your body was still in battle?"
Addam: "Like I said, it was just mere flashes. Not only did I see that. But I also saw Jin and Malos behind the boy about to stab him."
Rex: "I still can't believe Jin was so eager to end it all…"
Addam: "When I saw those visions, I knew that I had to seal this fate, and I had to make sure this timeline would happen in order to save the world."
Pneuma: "So That is why you wanted me to sleep? To seal the fate in the vision you saw?"
Addam: "Yes. I was not entirely convinced though. I never met this boy, nor did I know anything about him. But I somehow felt like I was connected to him like he was meant to be there or something."
Rex: "This is all a lot to take in…"
Addam: "I am not done yet. Because I didn't know Rex at the time, I wanted to make sure that Mythra would have been with the best suitable driver possible. So, I made sure that anyone who touched the Core Crystal of the Aegis's weapon would first have to go through a trial. A trial in which Pyra would have to decide for herself whether her new driver was worthy of her power. Normally if somebody with potential touches a core crystal of a blade, that blade becomes bound to their driver without even knowing a single thing in advance about them. I made sure these roles would be reversed for the Aegis so that she herself had to choose her driver for a more compatible match."
Rex: "You mean that if somebody else would have touched Pyra's sword they would also end up in Elysium and would have had that conversation with Pyra?"
Addam: "Yes However it would have ended there. Because Pyra would only be able to choose her driver if they were a 100% potential match from the very start. Meaning that whether you had to learn to become a driver, or whether you had fighting skills, there couldn't have been any other person in the entire world more suitable to become her driver than you. Because you are a 100% potential match from the start."
Rex: "So in other words, I was born for this very title?"
Addam: "Yes."
Rex: "Wow and to think that Jin killed me because I touched the crystal while in reality no one else would have been able to awaken her in the first place. It makes my death even more pointless if you think about it."
Addam: "Hahaha Don't worry Rex, I am glad I was able to be of help, after all you would have been dead that day If I didn't program the sword that way."
Pneuma: "Somehow, I knew that it was fate that I met Rex and now it is confirmed. Thanks, Addam. it's actually thanks to your help that we were able to save the world."
Addam: "As the former driver of the Aegis I felt like it was my destiny to save the future of Alrest."
Rex: "You truly are the hero of legend! I am so glad you chose to tell us this."
Addam: "But to get back at the matter at hand, you won't be able to enjoy your afterlives if we don't do something about this."
Rex: "Yes but what can we do… Pneuma is immortal. and somehow it also doesn't feel like a good idea to change that. What if Alrest will be in the same danger in the future? If Pneuma isn't there to stop it who would have enough power to save it?"
Addam: "You are very honourable and wise for your age Rex, but you are forgetting one very important thing."
Rex: "Which is?"
Addam: "Pneuma's connection to the conduit is limited. this means that no matter if Pneuma is immortal or not she will lose the power she has now when she lives on after your death."
Pneuma: "…"
Rex: "Then what can we do? There has to be a way to save the future of Alrest right?"
Addam: "The answer lies within you Rex. You and Pneuma. Only now you have the power to save Alrest."
Pneuma: "But what can we do?"
Addam: "The World Tree might be destroyed but you still have a little connection with the Conduit. I can still feel the energy within you. But you must act with haste, I'm afraid you won't be able to maintain that connection for very long. Afterwards you will only have your regular power as Pyra and Mythra and you will be able to go into the form of Pneuma, but your powers will only be combined and not boosted by the Conduit. Meaning that only now you have the power to rewrite the laws of nature."
Rex: "Rewrite the laws of nature… That is the same as what the architect told us."
Addam: "Even though the Architect may be gone; this information was passed onto me to bring to you. So, you can still save the future of Alrest."
Rex: "So how exactly do we need to change it?"
Addam: "I'm afraid that decision lies within you two. I am not able to provide you with an answer for that question."
Pneuma: "Rex are you really sure you want to go this far…? for us?"
Rex: "Pneuma, you have saved Alrest 2 times from Malos's destruction, you have bettered the lives of humans and blades alike, you even sacrificed yourselves in order to save the world! If there is anyone more deserving of a happy life and afterlife, it is you."
Pneuma: "Rex… I… I don't know what to say."
Addam: "This is why you are more deserving to be her driver than me. The ability to take on the fears and insecurities of the Aegis is the ultimate skill to be her Driver."
Rex: "Thank you Addam, but how will this work? What do we need to do?"
Addam: "Like I said, I cannot provide you with answers for this question. However, I'd say that your time of thinking is limited. We do not know when Pneuma's connection to the Conduit will be broken. But I trust that whatever future you will think of to replace this one, will be a better world than the one we live in now."
Rex: "I will try… Pneuma...?"
Pneuma: "I don't know… the power to alter the laws of nature… we have used it once before but that was in the name of Fathers will. This time we will have to do it alone and without someone telling us if it will be a good decision or not…"
Rex: "Addam I think we need time to think about this…"
Addam: "I understand, though please hurry. We do not know when the connection with the conduit will be broken."
Pneuma (Mythra's side talking): "Don't worry Addam we will think of something. And thank you for this. If we find an answer… I will look forward to seeing you here in the afterlife."
Rex: "yeah, thanks for everything Addam!"
Addam: "Goodbye my friends."
And with that, Rex found himself awake in his room.
