Tales of Vesperia: New Game++?
I had this silly little idea while playing through the Definitive Edition for my third time. How would the story change if one of our heroes already experienced everything once? I can´t get this idea out of my head so now I start typing it down. A few short warnings before someone begins to read.
I am not a native English speaker so please excuse some grammatical errors or punctuation mistakes.
My reason for typing this in English is easy, as it is one of the most spoken languages on our blue little planet and I probably need some help with ideas to finish this story. This is in no way completely thought out and planned I simply grabbed myself a beer and sat down at my PC.
Also, this is the first story I write since finishing school 8 years ago.
For those interested I am from Austria as you will find no info's on my profile at this point haha.
Oh yeah this will eventually become Yuri/Estellise
"Speech"
'Thought'
Well let's get this started. I don't own anything related to the Tales of series no matter how much I wished it.
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"Come on we just need a little more power!" Yuri exclaimed as they gathered all the spirits that got converted from the blastias in Terca Lumireis
The rest of his guild, Brave Vesperia, grit their teeth and channeled all their energy into their fearless leader." we are giving you everything we have!" shouted Rita over the collective grunts.
A bit away Duke was watching them" humans, spirits and Entelexeia…. Is this the answer they found to finally coexist? By giving up the blastia they open themselves to the monsters. But maybe this is the way forward we have been looking for Elucifer."
Duke stands up and raises Dein Nomos above his head "maybe it's time to let the new generation take over." A bright, shining light engulfs him as he converts his life into raw energy to help the young boy who swayed his opinion.
Yuri notices a sudden surge in power and looks to his right, seeing Duke as he vanishes with a small smile "this is your world now. Don´t waste this." With newfound power Yuri focuses all of his and the gathered energy by his companions. "All right let´s do this! Final Mystic Arte! Azure Wolf Gods Edge!" An unbelievable amount of energy crashed into the Adephagos, illuminating the sky in colors of blue and white.
Yuri had his eyes still on the sky, did they, do it? Was it finally over? No sign of the Adephagos and no one dared to breath. "We did it!" Estelle was jumping in joy with all eyes on her. "Undine just told me that the Adephagos is completely destroyed! What an amazing attack Yuri!" Estelle jumped in Yuri's arms hugging him. "UFF!" Taking him along to the floor. Like an earthquake it shook the rest of the gang. "Alright!" Carol was wiping his eyes dry emotionally exhausted after everything they accomplished. Raven was watching Yuri and Estelle with a proud smile until he got elbowed by Judith. Said Krityan had a teasing smile on her face and already planning for some heavy teasing of the little princess. Repede gave an exasperated huff that awfully sounded like "finally". Patty smiled happy and a little jealous, her comments to Yuri were not all jokes but the small pirate captain knew when a battle was lost. Flynn patted her back with a kind smile that everyone knew him for.
Rita just looked exhausted, making all the calculations on the fly and channeling all the energy into Yuri and the Vesperia mk.2.
Estelle was still crying tears of joy when Yuri got up with her and said, "So I guess this job was a huge success," grinning all the while "let´s get out of here and face the music!"
With all the aer that is now safely being converted into mana they knew they had a lot of work to do before they could even begin to celebrate this victory.
Yuri took charge and stepped forward only to suddenly exclaim in shock and collapse. "Yuri!" All his friends were immediately at his side. Estelle started to heal him with her Artes "what's wrong with him?! He was fine a minute ago!?" Rita, while chewing her thumbnail, had a million thoughts running through her head "I don´t know just yet I am not a doctor! Just give me a minute to get my thoughts straight!" Raven laid his hand on her shoulder," calm down Rita no one expects you to always know everything" and gave her a kind smile.
She nodded gracefully and went back to thinking "it could be an aftereffect of his attack against the Adephagos. All the energy could be too much for his body and this could be a backlash. It´s my best guess at the moment."
Estelle was frantic in her attempts to heal him, but nothing seemed to work. Suddenly Undine appeared at her side. "You cannot save this young man. The energy his amazing work took was too much for his mortal body, you can only sooth his pain at this point. Looking at his face he must have already known something like this would happen."
Flynn snapped his head to his best friend "is this true?! Yuri why would you do this?!"
Yuri gritted his teeth and gave a small smile "you know exactly why Flynn. I am expandable. I did some horrible things, maybe for the right reason but I still killed two men in cold blood. So, I think giving my life to save the world is a nice try at redemption."
"NOOOO!" Estelle started to sob, and Flynn was looking in horror at Yuri. So, he really knew this would happen. "You´re not expandable! I need you! I… I love y- "Yuri silenced her with a finger on her lips. "I know. And I you too just please don´t say it and let me die in peace, ok?" his eyes were full of unspoken feelings as he looked to Flynn. "Hey buddy please take care of them, ok? Especially Estelle and Carol. Repede I'm counting on you too old pal." Repede gave an affirmative whimper and touched his forehead to Yuri's hand. "Carol I am sorry that my time with our guild was cut short, but you have my full confidence to make something great out of it." Carol was unable to speak and nodded with tears flowing down his face. "Old man take care of yourself and the young ones for me." Raven watched him with a pained face but knew what was expected of him, "cut this old man some slack will you Yuri? I will protect them with my life in your stead." The smile he got as answer was all he needed. "Hey Rita, I know that face. You couldn't have known this would happen. I only knew as the energy was flowing through me that it took something with it so don't go blaming yourself you hear?" "Judy, Patty, I am really glad I got to meet you and spend time with you. Keep your uplifting selves even without me, ok?" They were silent but looked him straight in the eyes and nodded with their unshed tears.
Setting his eyes on the night sky he looked straight up," that's good. I was able to tell you everything I wanted to. I'm glad I had the time for that at least. I hope you all live long happy lives and I don't have to see you again for some long years." He smiled at them with his eyes on Estelle as he started glowing bright white. "No please Yuri, please don't leave me! I can't do it without you!" Estelle held on as tight as she could. "Don't worry princess. We will meet again…. In the next…life." Yuri's hand fell from Estelle's cheek as he took his last breath.
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"Huh so this is death. Not as bad as I imagined at least the pain is gone, and maybe I didn't go to hell. It's just endless black here." Yuri was calmly walking on invisible ground and all he could see was an endless black void. He was checking left and right, searching for anything to help himself get a feeling for his travel.
That is until his eyes found a simple table with two chairs. Startled he stopped. "That is definitely not something I expected here. Well, nothing to lose let's check if there is ANYTHING other than this void there."
It took him a few minutes to reach his destination, and as soon as he reached the table a flash of light appeared. It was a beautiful woman wearing a white loose dress with long free flowing golden hair, she had a kind smile on her face as she looked at him. "Welcome Yuri Lowell. I have been expecting you."
Assessing his situation Yuri decided that, as he was already dead there was no harm in listening to this strange woman. "You have me at a disadvantage. You seem to know me while I don't even really know where we are least who you are."
Her smile grew bigger "your wit hasn't changed with death I see. To be honest I'm really glad. You see I am the goddess of terca lumireis. My name isn't really something that translates in your language so just call me Rei. You are currently in a sublevel of the afterlife, not alive yet also not quite dead. Here you must choose."
"Choose? Whether I choose heaven or hell? Aren't you fit to tell me where I belong? Why did you let me wander through this void?" Yuri was looking at the goddess with suspicion.
"No Yuri the choice you have to make is not something so trivial. I would send you to heaven if it were simply my choice, but you saved the planet, yet not really. Your idea was solid, but the world is simply not quite ready. Wars will break out and the cities will become overrun by monsters, the knights simply don't have enough men."
"So, everything we did, everything we went through was in vain? We only prolonged the destruction of the world…?" Yuri felt crushed. He thought he left his friends in a new world of challenges but full of piece, that they would pull through and live a happy life even without him.
"Sadly yes, so why don't you try again?" Rei smiled at him her eyes betraying her mirth.
"Wait what? Try again? Sorry miss goddess but you and I may have a different understand of death, but I don't think it is as simple as trying again. What could I do? I was just not strong enough to do anything different." Yuri was perplexed. Even if he could try it again it wouldn't change much, sure he had a few regrets where he could have acted differently but it was his strength that increased on this journey that made him who he was.
"Yes, I saw everything that happened, but as you said we gods have a slightly different understanding. Let me make this very clear what your choices are: One you accept everything that happened and will happen and move on into the afterlife. Sure, the world will be destroyed, and your friends will die but it doesn't concern you anymore.
Or two I send you back in time to where you would be able change the outcome of this whole tragedy for the world to live on, simply better. You would keep all your strength and knowledge, and I will impart on you a formula that changes the shield-blastia, so they work on mana immediately.
Now what do you choose Yuri Lowell?"
He was starring in shock at the goddess. Just like that? He could see his friends again. Flynn, Carol, Rita, Raven, Judy, Repede and Estelle? But if he was sent back in time what about the bonds, he forged with them? Would they disappear? No. they were stronger than that, he would just reaffirm them. His eyes filled with determination as he looked at the goddess. "I will do it. I will do everything in my power to let them live a long and happy life." 'And just maybe and I will have a long and happy life too' he thought to himself.
"Very well Yuri Lowell, I knew I could count on you. I will inscribe the conversion formula for the blastia on your very soul you just need to be close to the shield for an hour to convert them." She raised her hand towards Yuri causing him to glow green.
"A little friendly advice, your last encounter with the Adephagos caused you to channel vast amounts of energy. Before you engage in a serious battle, I would advise you to test your power least you accidently kill someone you don't mean to." Her eyes were sparkling as she looked at him and her lips drew into a grin.
'Note to self absolutely check my power before I do something stupid' Yuri didn't like that look at all, he preferred to know about himself.
"To when and where will you send me anyway? There are a few months to this journey where nothing really happened, just travelling from A to B. It only really started to speed up after Ba'ul evolved."
If it were possible her eyes started to sparkle some more "now Yuri Lowell that would be telling. What is life without some surprises." She raised her hand once again and Yuri was shot through the void.
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"Ow my head… that wasn't the nicest thing to do." Yuri sat up in his half-lit room. 'Where am I?'
"Well kid what did you expect? I heard you broke into the home of a noble so the knights would be kind of pissed hahaha!" Yuri froze. That was Raven's voice. This was his cell in the castle. 'Of all the places she could send me to she choose this?!' Yuri took stock. He felt way more powerful than he could remember ever feeling. 'so, this is what she meant… I kind of get the feeling she didn't really tell me everything.' "Hey old man. What are you in for?"
"Who are you calling an old man?! You don't even know me!" Yuri smiled. Definitely Raven.
"Well, your voice sounds like an old man and you called me kid so go figure." He could see Raven blustering before his mental eye. Even though it didn't feel that long maybe he was longer in that strange void than he thought.
"Point to you kid… Hey wanna hear a strange story about this old castle?"
Yuri's smile turned into a grin unseen by Raven. If he already knew what would happen why not mess with his friends a bit? "If you are talking about the hidden tunnel under the statue of the goddess that's old news old man. Better think of something new!"
"What?! Oh man and here I thought you young ones don't read anymore and are ignorant to the history…" Raven was baffled. Alexeis told him of the tunnel how could this kid know?
The sound of a heavy door was heard, with approaching footsteps. Alexeis entered with two guards. "Time for you to get out! Let this be a warning to you." He led Raven past Yuri's door and their eyes met. 'I won't let you torment Estelle this time you slimy bastard.' Despite his thought Yuri kept his face neutral. Raven dropped to the floor and passed the prison key to Yuri.
Yuri hid the key fast and waited for them to leave.
As soon as he heard the snores of his guard Yuri unlocked his cell door and went to grab his equipment. 'Wow I haven't seen this sword in a long time. Hope it can keep up with my current power without breaking. I can feel it in every move I make that something drastically changed.'
He was out the door in less than a second, easily dodging every guard in his way. 'I don't remember it being so easy…'
"Please return to your room ma'am" "No I need to speak to Flynn!" Yup he knew that voice. Time to save his damsel in distress.
Estelle was surrounded by three guards when Yuri rushed in and delivered a gut punch to the first knight. To his surprise the guard didn't drop instead went flying across the room. 'Stupid! I was warned that I am way stronger and could tell it myself! I need to reign my strength in.' He quickly dispatched the other two guard with light hits to the back of their necks.
Just like last time Estelle was sneaking up on him with a vase in her hand. 'Time for a little test.' "Kyah!" Estelle hit him on the back of his head with the vase. A loud breaking noise was heard as it broke on his head. "Now little lady that wasn't a very nice thing to do to someone who just saved you." 'Wow I didn't even feel that! If I didn't hear the breaking on my head, I would have thought she missed.'
"Who are you? You don't work here in the castle." Estelle was a bit frightened; this man took out three knights without the use of his sword and didn't even blink when she hit him.
"My name is Yuri I'm just here to pay Flynn a little visit." Yuri lied easily. No reason to throw future knowledge around like gels. "And who are you little miss?"
"Yuri?! I heard Flynn talk about you a lot. Yuri Lowell, right?" "Yep, that's me. I hope he only told you good things about me haha!"
Estelle seemed a bit uncomfortable "well he told me you were a good guy but kind of a deviant. Ahaha…" 'That blond jackass!' He strained a smile "I can assure you; he was exaggerating…"
Estelle smiled at Yuri liking his humor and he also felt as if she knew him longer, maybe she did with all the stories Flynn told of him. "Well Yuri it's nice to meet you, my name is Estellise, we could visit Flynn together if you'd like."
'Oh god that's where Zagi is that creep' "Yes let's visit him together I do wonder what your history together is like" he answered with a teasing smile. Goddess he missed this.
Estelle blushed bright red but led him along the corridor.
Yuri went straight to Flynn's door and busted it open "Yo Mr. Lieutenant guess who is here to visit!" knowing Flynn wasn't there. "Yuri! That's rude what if he was busy!" Estelle huffed. That man was definitely a deviant.
"Oh, relax little lady. He isn't even here. Was he deployed recently I don't remember…?"
"We seem to be too late that means he already left on his pilgrimage…"
"Right, he mentioned something like that! That thing where a knight travels the world to do good deeds. So, he already left without saying goodbye well that just won't do." It already was clear to Yuri what he had to do and the time he spent in the castle should have been enough to convert the shield-blastia. "And I still have to catch that blastia-thief. Wanna come along little miss?"
Estelle pouted at him "Why do you insist to call me little miss? I already told you my name is Estellise!"
Yuri simply laughed "Well then Estellise, wanna come along?"
"Well, I need to warn him so yes I will! But could we stop at my room so I may change?"
"Of course we-""FLYNN SCIFO time to die!" The door burst open and Zagi was already in Yuri's face. Like an annoyance Yuri grabbed Zagi's face and smashed him into the floor creating cracks along the place of impact. 'Dammit not again! I knew it would happen but that was a simple reaction… well maybe he will leave me alone because he didn't really see me or knows my name.' "Well Estelle no time to move than now let's go!" Yuri moved and grabbed her hand to pull her along.
"Wait we can't leave the door like this!" Yuri looked back "We have to so that the knights can apprehend that red haired weirdo else they wouldn't dare to check Flynn's room" Though she didn't look happy she nodded "Wait you called me Estelle… why that?"
"Well, Estellise seems a bit long and after all this action I would argue us as some friends" he grinned at her.
Estelle blushed and averted her eyes to the floor 'Is it so easy to become friends…? I feel like I can trust this man with my life but why?'
"Are we close to your room Estelle?" she looked up "What? Oh yes the room on the left right there!"
"All right you go pack your things and change I will stand guard." Yuri leaned against the wall left of her door. "I will hurry but…. No peeping!" Estelle was still red in the face though if it was of embarrassment or the running Yuri couldn't tell. "Sure, sure just hurry I wouldn't want to face all these knights because you take ages to change!" "I don't!" and she slammed the door. Yuri just grinned and heard her rummaging around in her bedroom.
She exited 5 minutes later in her white balloon dress he knew her in. "A bit noticeable but it will do let's go." Yuri went off and Estelle locked a bit shocked. "Don't worry you look good!" he called over his shoulder "Now move before I leave without you!"
"Right!" Estelle exclaimed with a smile on her face.
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"So, this is the Statue of the goddess" Yuri said with a grin." Yuri, the exit is in another direction…"
"That one is guarded to hell and back, no just watch." With that he pushed the statue out of the way to reveal a ladder under it. "Oh my! I didn't know that!" she lived her whole live in the castle but never knew about this hidden exit.
"Let's go." He simply said and jumped down.
Down below they came face to face with a group of small monsters.
'Time for another test' Yuri drew his sword and gripped it tightly, trying to control and contain the amount of power used "Azure Edge!" quickly firing his sword wave at them he dispatched them. 'Hmm I took it really easy with the amount of power, but I don't think my sword can keep up' He already saw some thin cracks along his blade, 'maybe I should stick to barehanded fighting until I can get a better sword'.
"Wow Yuri that was amazing! Aren't you like really strong? You seem to be even stronger than Flynn!" Yuri smiled at her 'if only you knew, I still don't know my full power, but I don't think Duke in his final form would stand the slightest chance, but what happened to give me such a power boost?'
"Well, we always where rivals in a way seems like I finally surpassed him. I used to get my ass handed to me haha! Now come along I think I can already see light from the top up ahead."
They exited the sewers just outside the mansion he and Repede found the blastia thief at. "It's good to feel the sun on my skin again! It feels like ages." Another difference he just noticed was that he simply felt more. He could tell how many people were close by and their movements. One especially stood out. "Repede!" "Wuff!" Repede was watching him and Estelle, especially him and had a questioning look on his face. Yuri simply winked at him and mouthed 'later' "Wuff!" Repede moved his head to tell them to get a move on.
They were on their way to the lower quarters when they heard a shout "YURI LOWELLLLLL!"
"Really? Leblanc and his two sidekicks again? They just don't know when to quit…" Yuri picked some small pebbles up and pitched it to their helmets knocking them down. "We should get a move on while they are down, they won't stay there long."
"Yo Hanks! Stuff got a bit complicated! I will get the aque-blastia back I just need some more time! Try to keep things quiet while I'm gone, ok?!"
Hanks looked up from where he was fixing a part of the street "Yuri what trouble did you cause this time?! It's always the same with you! Go see the world and don't worry about us here we are as resilient as cockroaches Bahahaha!"
Yuri just waved in the air and kept his speed up. He knew they would pull through and like this they wouldn't slip him their last savings.
Outside the city they took stock and set off towards Deidon Hold.
They travelled until they found the wandering Inn the "King of Adventure" where they met Karon and Rich to rest.
Yuri and Repede set off to hold a conversation.
"I know you already noticed that I am different to before my ill-suited stay in the castle prison. As hard as it is to believe I am still me just close to a year older." "Wuff?" Repede watched him with confused fascination. "Yes, this journey is more than we think. We saved the world from an ancient threat, the Adephagos but our only choice was to convert all the blastia of the world into spirits and thus we doomed the planet to wars and monsters. I was sent back by the big goddess to help humanity survive by converting all the blastia to work with mana a more refined product of aer and not harmful at all." "Wuff, Wuff!" "I know how crazy this sounds believe me old friend. But how can you explain how I got so strong otherwise? I know you can feel it. We used to be around the same level and now I have more power in my pinky than you in your whole body! This doesn't just happen!"
Repede looked sad, he always took pride in his strength being equal to his Master/Friend. "Wuff…"
Yuri ruffled his fur "Don't worry partner we will just have to get you up to snuff" Repede looked at Yuri and saw his confident grin. He wasn't about to leave him behind but to reach new heights.
"Wuff! Wuff!" "Of course, we will be like a blazing hurricane of swords and daggers!" Yuri held up a Hand for Repede to high-five him. "And just to be clear you can't tell anyone about this, ok?"
Repede just gave him a deadpan stare "Wuff." If Yuri got this one right it would be "Who would believe a dog that his partner came from the future, it sounds dumb enough as it is."
Yuri fell on his back laughing "You got me there buddy! Can you watch over Estelle this evening? I need to test out a few things." "Grr.." "I know you don't quite like her just yet but believe me you will. Her heart is the size of our planet so just give it some time, ok?" "Wau" "Thanks buddy."
Repede tracked back to the driving Inn and Yuri got out to test his power some more.
'Now let's see what else changed… speed test first I think.' Yuri drew his sword and went through a basic knight kata at full power and full speed. His slashed parted the air causing rumbling noises like thunder as the parted air slammed back together. He tried a dash attack with the intent of rushing five meters but could barely brake at the 25-meter mark 'Damn! How did this happen?! I will need to train some things from the ground up! Wait… didn't Undine say something about too much power passing through me? Could this be it? My body adapted to the power and now I am like this? Awesome!'
'Ok speed is more than good now let's strength' sheathing his sword he turned toward a bolder taking the basic unarmed stance he learned with the knights. "Hah!" all it took was a single punch to decimate the boulder. 'Man, that thing must have been at least 2 tons and I didn't fell a thing! I really have to be careful least I kill someone accidently.'
'Well last test my Artes' he drew his Compact Sword again 'It's nothing like I'm used to and I can get a better sword at the Deidon Hold, besides there aren't really any monsters in this area to give us any trouble' He focused again "Azure Edge!" The sword blast he released was unlike anything he ever did, as the wave travelled it ripped apart the earth and exploded against a small forest taking a portion with it. 'Holy shit! That was slightly stronger than my old Mystic Arte! I probably shouldn't use more than 5% of my power against humans least I completely obliterate them.' He looked at his sword, or at least at the hilt that was left, and shook his head. 'I would probably need Dein Nomos to keep up with my power because it can regulate the aer and most likely mana also. Maybe Duke would part with it haha.'
With that Yuri went back to the camp to catch up on some much-needed sleep.
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Well, I think this is enough for chapter one.
Surprisingly, I enjoyed writing this far more than anything I ever wrote before so I don't think I will take too long for another chapter.
Maybe let me know what you think or not I really don't care that much. This idea just didn't leave me alone, so I thought why not share it. I know by the amount of Naruto and Harry Potter stories that I am not the only one to enjoy an overpowered protagonist. I will try to work as much character building into this as I can without dragging the story too long because this is also something I enjoyed most in the stories I read. The evolution from who they were to whom they become is maybe more important to me than the story itself. Granted Yuri already had a lot of growing into but maybe now he will have some different opinions to what he had the first time.
That is also something I would like to address. It will follow the Vesperia journey rather closely, but some things will differ. Yuri can't just run around like 'Hey Estelle I am from the future, and I need you to convert all the Entelexeia to spirits to save the world.'
He will have to let some things play out so that his companions can have the growth they need. Speaking of: The Don. I am as of this point in time not sure what to do with him. Open to suggestions.
I said my piece so peace out!