Instead of two days as the gang agreed on, they needed to wait two more weeks. Apparently the demons had significately damaged the ships that would carry the party towards Hamel, home of Chung Seiker.
Vanessa asked the El search party to deliver a message to the vice captain of the red knights for assistance, with fear that the dark forces would invade Velder once more with even more strength.
Even though Elsword and a few other members were disappointed on getting to their destination as soon as possible, it gave them the opportunity to give them more time to rest and be prepared for any challenge that may cross their path.
"Raven, can you be my sparing partner again? The dummies don't really give me enough practice as they should." Elsword asked him while cleaning his great sword, some dirt stained it while he was training before.
"I can't, I need to do a few things today. Ask Ciel, he's good with his weapons." He replied as he put his weights down.
"I wanted to, but he said he was following Lu. Something about her going to a bakers shop." He said while looking at the Reckless Fist packing something in his bag.
"Ask the others, I'm sure they'll agree to train with you." He retorted back as he left the room with his bag over his human shoulder.
"Easier said than done." He said as he let a sigh escape. Everyone was busy doing their things.
"Hey Elsword! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be training?" Asked her sister as she massaged her stiff shoulders through the door.
"I can't deal with dummies anymore, Sis. I need a sparing partner to hone my skills and everyone is busy doing their things." He complained as he leaned his weapon on the coach.
"Lucky you. I just finished all the paperwork and I'm itching to release some steam." She said as her spirit desires action.
"Is it about Add, the paperwork?" He asked as she nodded her head. "I really don't know what you guys see on him. He's just a crazy guy that wants to destroy everything."
His words were making Elesis shake her head as a sign of disapproval.
"If you opened more of your eyes, you would see that he's not that bad. He even saved me and Lu a couple of times, not to mention he shoved you away from an attack that would of hit you."
"You forgot about the part he said 'Get out of the way, muscle brain'." He replied as he hated him.
"He said that to warn you, if that spear hit your abdomen you could've bled to death!" She yelled at him.
"No I wouldn't. Rena and Aisha could've healed me up and continue on the road." He said towards her with some valid points.
"They were a couple of feet away from us, remember?"
"We were fine, him out of the group would be good too."
She walked towards him and slapped him hard, leaving a mark of her hand on his cheek.
"Ouch! What was that for!?"
"That was for being inconsiderate! 'Him out of the group would be good', that's just wrong thinking!" She scowled him. "Did you ever thought why he talks that way? Have you even tried to understand how he feels? Imagine you in his shoes, what would you do!?"
"..." He couldn't find the words to his sisters angry comeback. Everyone never actually tried to come near him or even to have a normal conversation with. The only ones were the three of them.
Just as she was about to say more, the sound of cracked glass was heard on the corner of the room. A small gap near the bookshelf of the room grew in size to the height of a human being.
From the interdimensional rift, Add walked out of it with a frown.
"Add! Where were you? You've been missing for two weeks!" She asked him concernedly. After the event in Clockwork Tower Square, he disappeared without leaving a trace or warning them where he went.
"You don't need to know." He replied back coldly to her as he was walking past her.
"Hey!" Elsword called him as he stood. "At least talk to her normally, jackass!"
"Elsword!" Elesis barked at him.
"Ho... Looks like someone is finally growing a pair, kekeke!" He laughed at Elsword's poor excuse of an insult. He then processed towards his room.
"I swear, one of these days I'm going to kick him." He said while trying to recover his composer.
Elesis didn't even heard his brother. She was concerned about the frown Add was making, sure he would frown a lot, but that one was different than the others. His expression was pained.
Velder's Peace - Lu
"Would that be all, miss Lu?" Asked Ariel as the other employee didn't came today.
"Yes, thank you!" She said as she handed over the right amount of ED. She bought a cake for herself when she got back home.
"I don't mean to bother you, but have you seen Add lately?" Ariel asked a little concerned, he would come to the shop almost everyday and not seeing him for so long makes her wonder what happened.
"I... Don't know." She replied while showing some concern. "We won't be coming here anymore, since we're going to Hamel. The soldiers told me that the repairs were done tomorrow."
"I see. Then this your the final transaction here at Velder's Peace. We hope we can see you at Hamel, the owners sister has a shop called Waters Relief. Tell Add about it, I bet he'll be happy to know that."
"(There's another shop like this one at Hamel!? This is great!)" She thought to herself as she began running back to the Inn. "Thanks for the info!" She yelled back to her, as she was waving Lu goodbye. Ciel was following her a few feet away to not get caught by her.
Velder's Inn - Add's room
He finally entered his room, he didn't even locked it out of his anxiety. He was walking around impassively around his room, he worked for two weeks removing any kind of miscalculations, glitches and malware that his time formula might had.
"(This should work... This has work... But what if it doesn't? Should I really get my hopes up like last time? This could really be the one, but what if its just another dud?)" His thought were scattered on his mind. He didn't want another failure, he wanted to see his dear mother and save her. He wanted to... To just end it already.
He sat on his bed, facing towards the wall. Trying to keep his composure, even though the more he waited the more his hope was increasing as well as his anxiety.
Looking at his hands, he could see the many hours he spent with his fingers. Typing away at the code, fixing it, healing it, restoring it, moving it. But now? He started to see more, something that his mind tended to trick him or maybe it was his subconscious.
Late at nights, he could see it. Blood on his hands. Whenever it was his, the people that he killed or his mothers blood he didn't know, but it was there no matter how many times he washed them. No matter how many times he tried to noticed it, always saying that it wasn't there it was always on his mind.
Minutes passed, and his legs started to shake out of patience. He wanted to just do it and get it over, but at the same time he wanted his expected results.
Fear. He was feeling so much fear of failing, that his calculations weren't right and that he had to do it all over again. Making nights after nights become pointless, his work never successful, him never rewarded for a job well done.
Because in all reality, he was just someone that was broken. And he knew it fully well. Mind broken, will wavered, body used, heart gone... The only thing he had left was...
"L-Lets get this over with!" He said while standing up, his voice wavered. His confidence was diminishing at each second. He extended his arm, making his devices starting to execute the time formula.
Various calculations and foreign symbols started to align and a small crack appeared on the wall. Through it, there was the time river. A sub space that let the flow of time pass and the many timelines that it held were scattered with cracked like mirrors reflecting on the other side the many differences between his time and theirs.
"(Just a couple of minutes to find the one I calculated...)" He said while a sweat drop rolled down his left cheek.
"Add, are you okay? You didn't look good when you came back." Asked Elesis as she entered his room.
"I-Idiot! Don't enter peoples rooms without knocking!" He scowled her without moving his arm, if he stopped now then his work would be deleted on the spot.
She looked at the portal that he opened and was enthralled on how beautiful the purple river glowed through the cracks.
"What is that...?" She asked as she took one step forwards towards him.
"Stay back!" He yelled at her, making her snap out of her trance. "If I make a single mistake, it'll be on your head! Now get out of here!" He snapped his neck back at the portal at hand.
Keeping a portal open and searching something while staying in your own timeline strains the user severely and one mistake could grant him consequences.
"(Come on! Just find it already!)" He thought as his arm was beginning to tremble uncontrollably, using this much power can do that.
"What are you even doing?" She asked as the flow began going faster and faster, until only blurs were shown as the mirrors passed through.
"I said to get out of here!" He yelled once more as his focus started to fade from his current task.
As the cracks were being regularized, the portal started to glow a bright white light. This went on for a minute, before it started to calm down revealing a mirror that was black.
"T-This is it..." He said while huffing out of breath. Elesis' eyes were quickly adjusting themselves to the mirror.
He slowly walked in front at it and waved his hand making the blackness disappear and revealing his mother. For the first time in a long time, Add was smiling. His hopes were high.
"(D-Did I really found it? Please tell me I did...)" He thought to himself as he got closer to the portal, Elesis did the same being beside him.
"Who is she?" She asked as she was surprised at his smile. The woman had white hair and a cheerful smile while steering a pot.
"..." He didn't responded as he continued to examine the timeline, so far everything was the same as he remembered.
"Mother! Mother! Can I look at what you and Father are doing today? Can I?" A boy with platinum hair, similar to Add's, asked the woman with excitement.
"I'm making your favorite, Chocolate Pie!" Add and the woman said at the same time, making Elesis see some kind of connection.
"I'm going to do a very important experiment, and I could use a smart assistant to help me." A man, around mid twenties, said towards him with a caring smile.
"(This is it... Everything seems exactly the same Right? Right!?)" His excitement seemed to build up as well as his hopes.
"Of course! You'll help too, right Eve?" The boy asked towards a girl that was sitting beside him. She looked exactly like the Eve they know, except this one didn't had a Nasod core on her forehead.
"...What?" Adds smile never left his face, but his expression seemed to be in shock.
"Of course! You can't be trusted with those tools, Add!" The girl scowled him, but a little bit after the two of them laughed it off with a cheeky smile on their faces.
"Th-This... This is wrong..." He whispered as he fell on his knees. "She was never there... This is another fucking timeline!" He yelled as he smashed the ground with his hand.
"Add..." Elesis said trying to get close to him.
"Another fucking failure!" He yelled again smashing his fist on the floor again and again and again. Until blood started to drip down his wounded fist.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!" He continued to curse as tears started to flow down from his eyes. He got his hopes up, only to be demolished once more. "Nothing I do can make me go back to them! NOTHING!"
Hurried steps rushed through the hallway as Lu and Elsword stopped and looked at the scene.
Add was on his knees, crying in agony. Elesis was hugging him from his back, whispering in his ear things to comfort them.
"Damn it..." He said weakly trying to hold them from falling, only to let more flow.
For the first time, Elsword saw the cold and bitter Add crying; For the first time, he saw his weak side and finally; For the first time, he felt as if something was weighting on his conscious.
On a hole on the wall, a glowing amber eye was watching the commotion taking place
Velder's Inn - Living room
A couple of hours later, the two redheads were in the living room. Lu was with Add, trying to calm him down. Neither of the two siblings spoke a word at what they just saw.
The silence was agonizing as the grandfather clocks gears kept turning. Finally, Elsword decided to speak.
"That... That was different." He commented as he looked at the carpet. How the red soothed him so.
"You see what I was talking about before? If you were in his shoes, what would you do?" She asked again, her brother didn't even raised his head to meet hers.
"I don't know..." That was the only thing that he replied to her.
Velder Inn - Add's room
"Why are you still here..." He asked weakly to Lu, his eyes were red as the marks of dried tears were stained on his face.
"I can't leave you like that, Add." She said while pointing at him.
He looked at her before laying his eyes on a small box next to her. He wanted to know what was in it.
"Are you here to mock me? On how the cold and merciless Add is looking like a disgrace? Is that what you're doing here?" He said with some venom on his words to her, she on the other hand shrugged it aside.
"No, I came to eat this delicious cake with you." She said while lifting the box and showing to him a perfect rounded cake, with a message on top.
'We'll miss you, take care you two'.
"W-Why?" He asked her, she fidget a little bit before looking to the side.
"B-Because... Cake helps, right?" She said while looking at him. His expression showed surprised to hear that.
After a few moments, he started to chuckle, it later turned laugh. It wasn't a maniacal laugh, it was a genuinely his real laughter.
"W-what are you laughing at!?" She asked embarrassed with a very faint blush on her cheeks.
"S-sorry! It's just! It's just funny!" He said while rubbing his eyes. "Thank you, Lu."
Those words were ones that she never heard him say, much less her name at the end. During that evening the both of them simply at the cake while only making very little talking, just savoring the cake and the moment.
Might change that last one, might. Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. As always leave your thoughts on the story so far, your support is greatly appreciated.