Chapter 6: Yuri's Revelations

Ruins in the Middle of the Desert (5:10 PM)

Damn… losing consciousness in a place like this… Yuri thought as his vision turned black.

Yuri was a man that would finish things thoroughly, when Estelle was worried for his well being after the event on Zaude, Yuri just reassured her that he isn't going to die until he take that 'eyesore' (Adephagos) off the sky. Now the said man is wondering if he can do the same if he was in such a pathetic state, alone with no back-up – or so he thought.

Town in the Middle of the Desert (3:45 PM)

The first thing that Yuri noticed when he regained consciousness is that he was no longer in the hard ground of the old desert ruins, he was now at a room in an Inn that he previously visited before going to pursue the man behind the events.

As he tried to hoist himself up to a sitting position, he noticed that Estelle was at the side of his bed asleep resting her head in his bed. He was a little surprised and wondered how they found him, but thinking back to the events before he lost consciousness, he did hear a voice that called to him and merely thought it was his imagination back then.

Yuri tried to stand up from his bed, but quickly fell down as he noticed that he was out of energy making him question how long he's been out.

The sudden sound of Yuri falling was enough to wake Estelle up from her slumber.

"Yuri! You're finally awake!" Estelle said happily as she tried to help Yuri up to his bed.

The sound of Yuri falling also alerted Rita, Raven and Judith who were apparently outside the room that Estelle and Yuri were in.

Once Yuri was in a comfortable position on his bed and after taking a much needed late-lunch, Flynn, who just arrived, began to ask his friend questions regarding his sudden disappearance.

"Where have you been for the last week?" Flynn asked after the plates had been cleaned up. "And why are these monsters after you?"

"Well I've been off from town to town." Yuri said, though clearly he was hiding something. "And as why the monsters were after me, I'm guessing you already have an idea as to why."

"Yeah, according to the monsters that we fought, it had something to do with you wielding the feather blade to destroy the Adephagos." Rita said.

"Well yeah that's pretty much the reason why they're after me." Yuri said as he lay back to his bed.

"There's still something you're hiding from us Yuri." Judith said "All you did was wield the feather blade, if the reason they're after you is for that reason, then they would have gone after Estelle and Duke."

This struck Yuri since it seemed they've gotten him cornered to telling the truth. All the eyes were on him now, as if he was being interrogated, though the difference being is that it wasn't the empire doing it but his very own friends.

Sigh… I guess there's no escaping it. Yuri thought, after all they're his friends and they did say that he shouldn't shoulder all the responsibilities.

"Well, the reason behind it is because I wielded the feather blade using Vesperia No.1 a copy of Dien Nomos." Yuri said emphasizing 'copy'. "As you might have already guessed, since it's merely a copy somethings may have gone wrong."

"The reason none of you noticed it, is because it had a delayed effect on me." Yuri said looking back at the weeks that followed after the Adephagos incident. "Basically, the events that took place there altered how my body works to the point that I can create or infuse a weapon to a form that has power comparable to that of the feather blade, using only aer and my own mana."

This was of course a lie, but it had some truth to it. Yuri was just hoping that they would buy it for now, he didn't want them worrying about his well being.

"What?" Rita asked out loud. "So your basically like a Vesperia No.3?"

"Well if you put it that way, yes." Yuri replied to a shocked looking Rita.

Judith can apparently sense that Yuri was hiding something, but decided to keep quiet about it.

"So this person is trying to eliminate you because of the power that you now hold, will intervene with whatever he's planning." Flynn said after making sense with the current information that Yuri has given. Despite being long friends with Yuri, he could not read people like Judith and his friend so easily took the answer for the truth.

"Then what could this guy be possibly planning?" Raven said after staying quiet this whole time.

"Well from what I could make of it," Yuri said as he looked back to why the man entered the ruins. "He seemed to be looking for parts of a puzzle that can revive an ancient monster. So the reason that he's trying to eliminate me is because I'm the only one with power to oppose him and possibly destroy the monster."

Rita, after finally recovering from the initial shock, decided to ask the question that Yuri probably purposely failed to mention. "You said that you can convert aer around you and your own mana to the energy required to make a similar feather blade to destroy the Adephagos, but wouldn't that mean you would not only take all the aer around you, but also take your whole mana?"

If all the mana in any body is gone, this would mean the physical death of the person.

"ugh… You figured that out huh…" Yuri said, this only earned him more worry from everyone, especially Estelle. "Hey, don't worry, I won't try to do that only if it's a last resort, and besides he still hasn't completed all the fragments."

"How many fragments are there?" Judith asked

"I'm not sure myself but he already has 2 so I'm guessing there are 3 more fragments." Yuri said. "But I'm not sure where the rest could be."

"What do these fragments look like?" Flynn asked, he seemed to be remembering something about a fragment that was a part of a puzzle back when he was doing some of his duties as Commandant in the City of Hope.

"Well based on what the past fragments looked like, they would form a star crystal once complete." Yuri said

"Well if that was the case, then I think I know where his next destination would be." Flynn said.

"Wait, you know already?" Rita asked.

"There was a fragment that was picked up by one of the guild members in Aurnion." Flynn said. "They said they picked it up after an earthquake opened the ground up to reveal a box containing the fragment."

"Well, I guess we should start heading there then." Yuri said trying to stand up, but was stopped by Estelle.

"You need to rest. My healing artes isn't as strong as before so I couldn't heal any of the deeper wounds." Estelle said with concern on her voice.

"I agree." Flynn said as he made his way out the door. "You should rest; you've been handling everything on your own this past weeks."

Seeing that he couldn't hope to persuade his friends otherwise, Yuri just closed his eyes and went of to sleep. This was the first sleep he had ever since he went of to his one week vacation.

Outskirts of the Town in the Middle of the Desert (7:50AM)

Once morning arrived, Yuri woke up and headed to have his breakfast with Karol who was eager to hear what he missed yesterday since he was busy helping with the other guilds rebuild the town with the knights. Everyone talked casually about events before hand so to lighten up the stress that everyone has received in the past week.

After breakfast they then headed out of the town to head to Aurnion.

On the way to Aurnion, Yuri pretty much stayed in one place sitting down as to not strain his wound. He couldn't get much rest as the others still needed more answers from him as to what else he might know.

"Ok Yuri," Rita began. "When did you notice when those monsters were after you and why did you head of to who-knows-where alone?"

"Well I pretty much noticed the monsters were after me roughly a month and a half before I went to vacation." Yuri said. "And I pretty much thought that it's technically my problem, so I shouldn't bother everyone with my problems."

"It's our problem now since we helped you defeat the Adephagos." Judith said, she was still wondering when the perfect opportunity to ask the man about what he was hiding.

"Yeah!" Karol agreed. "And besides, your part of the Guild Brave Vesperia so we'll always be there for you!"

"Heh… thanks guys." Yuri replied smiling.

After a few hours the party has now reached Aurnion… at the nick of time.

There were two monsters that had red aer around them attacking the town. The man that they call there master, was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn… This is bad, he might be heading to the other fragment right now." Yuri said as he prepared himself for battle despite his injuries.

After landing Baul a safe distance away from the town being attacked by the monsters, they then rushed to the city to help.

City of Hope: Aurnion (11:50 AM)

The city was being defended by the combined forces of the guilds and knights, so it was a sight to behold for someone who grew up where guilds and knights were enemies.

Once the party arrived, Flynn and Karol went ahead to command the knights and guilds to leave the fighting to them and should focus there energy to helping the injured and evacuating the city.

"Ok, how exactly did you fend of one of these monsters the first time?" Rita asked Yuri, hoping to make this battle a bit more easier.

"Well I mainly used my power to break through the aer, and while I'm at it, I make the energy sword absorb the aer to dispel the barrier." Yuri replied as he gets Vesperia No.2 charged with aer. Vesperia No.2 was still heavily damaged; he needed to make sure that he wouldn't have to make Vesperia No.2 overused like in the battle with that man. If he was to use any other method of channeling aer and mana, he'd probably take more mana from himself than needed making his friends worry more.

"You think you can do that to both of them right now?" Raven asked, disturbing the dark swordsman from his thoughts.

"I think I can, but you've got to keep them busy if I'm just going to use the aer around me." Yuri replied. "The aer concentration is already too low since those monsters are taking them up already."

"Great…" Karol just arrived after Yuri answered Raven. "We're decoys again."

Author Notes:

Thank you for all of your reviews, it surely give me motivation to continue writing despite that school has begun for me.

I'm not sure if Yuri's new power was properly explained here (well he is hiding something after all), but of course I'll make it clearer in the chapters to come. Vesperia No.2 is basically the weapon required by Yuri to use his second Mystic Arte in the PS3 version Tenshou Kouyokuken. According to Yuri's explanation here, it meant that he can create the feather blade without Vesperia No.1 or No.2 using only aer and mana.

The whole things about the fragments will be talked about in the later chapters.

Yup, another battle is coming and hopefully I'll make it more detailed than my last battle. The monsters description will also be in the next chapter, they're not all the same so I'm going to be putting some distinctions and explanations in the upcoming chapters.

Sorry if the next chapter is going to be late (though I'm not saying it will definitely be late, but there's a high chance it will be), school has started and I need to focus at my 2 analysis due somewhere on the next two weeks (first day already and I have 2 analysis due this month!). Don't worry, I have no intention of abandoning my fan fiction, I just need more time now to finish a chapter since school has begun. If I take a whole month to update, then I'll just make it longer to hopefully make up for it.

Reviews are greatly appreciated as mentioned beforehand, it'll motivate me to keep on writing.