As Novis looked at the strange man he just wondered who on earth the man could be. But what interested Novis more than anything, was the fact that he had a spirit right next to him.

Novis already knew that this was a possibility but still had yet to see one in person. From what Daiki had told him, his old teacher used to have George as a spirit in the past.

Later they also found out that for some reason, only chosen ones were able to see and hear spirits, as long as the spirits were trying to be seen. This was found out when George had tested it out on his brother Bill.

"Do you mind if we talk in private?" Hastam asked, "If you're afraid we can go to the public coffee shop just across the road, I promise, I'm not here to hurt you."

Novis hesitated for a while. In truth, he had been waiting to talk to someone about these spirits, someone he could relate to. Over the last few days, he enjoyed talking to Daiki because he didn't feel like he was a person going mad anymore.

"Novis, go ahead, you will be surprised at who it is." Arthur said, "I fought with this man once before and I will protect you."

Arthur's words didn't make sense, they had fought him once before. Assuming that Arthur was talking about the game it must have been someone he had faced, but it was impossible to see the real person behind the screen.

Novis then went and took a closer look at the spirit that was standing by Hastam's side and noticed that it looked just lie another character in the game. However, Novis still couldn't figure it out.

But Novis trusted Arthur and agreed to go with the man. The two of them quickly snuck out of the venue and headed for a little coffee shop across the road. Everyone's attention was too focused on the Westgate team that had just arrived.

"Hey, Novis where do you think Lucas is?" Scarlett asked but as she turned around, Novis had already left.

As she looked on her phone, Novis had sent her a text, saying that he was just popping across the road and would be back in time before the match would start.

As the two of them entered the coffee shop, Hastam ordered two drinks and politely asked if Novis wanted anything but Novis was still feeling nervous and felt weird, so just asked for some tap water.

As the two sat down Hastam took a sip of his coffee before continuing.

"Ah, that's nice, sorry to be so sudden about this."

Hastam then removed his shades and took off part of his black wig to reveal his blonde hair underneath.

As soon as he had done this, everything started to make sense to Novis, it was Hastam. Even though Novis didn't know many pros in the VSW world, Hastam was one of the very few who he knew their face and name.

This was because after playing a few games with him, Novis had decided to look him up a couple of times.

Hastam then quickly put the wig back on and the shades. Although they were no longer at the stadium, there was likely some people who would be in the coffee shop waiting for the game to start before entering.

"I don't want to really call you the virtual sword god, so why don't we start off by learning each other's names."

"Wait you know I'm the virtual sword god, but how?"

Hastam then pointed to the floating spirit by his side which was Arthur.

"The virtual sword god uses the same warrior, a warrior that was practically unused in the game before someone made it popular. As you know I have my own spirit so I could make an educated guess. To be honest, I had an idea before, after you told me you were a school kid, everything slowly started to fit in."

Hastam explained all the clues he had found along the way, and Novis had also explained how he had come across Arthur in the first place. The two of them continued to talk about their first experience with the spirit until Novis had revealed something shocking to Hastam.

"You have two spirits!" Hastam said.

Just then, George too had come out from the dream world and floated by his side. When the spirits met they respectively talked to each other.

"I feel like I was quite lucky to come across George, it turns out that the two of my spirits know each other."

"About that." Hastam said, "So it seems like our spirits here are not from the same world, that is a shame. It seems like our search for Xin's comrades continues just like yours for Arthurs."

While Hastam was deep in thought, he seemed to mumble something.

"Then that makes three worlds?"

"What did you say?" Novis asked.

"It's not much but I was just thinking, Arthur and George, are not from this world." Hastam then pulled out his phone and went onto the VSW website. "You said these other three are from his world correct, well why are they all in the game."

Hastam then continued to scroll through the list of warriors in the game before stopping at Xin.

"You see Xin and his comrades seem to also be in the game, apparently these six here are people that he recognises but we still haven���t found anyone with their spirit yet, who knows they might not be in this world yet or still stuck inside a weapon."

Hastam then continued to scroll once again until he had finally landed on another warrior. It was female with a scythe held in her hand, Mortem. "Arthur, George do you recognise her at all."

Arthur and George looked at the female in the picture but had no recollection of her.

"I thought as much," Hastam said as he put his phone away. "Other than you guys I have seen other spirits, that fact that Xin, or your spirits don't recognise them means that they might be from another world. So far that makes three different worlds these spirits have come from.

Then something seemed to click in Novis's mind.

"When you found Xin in that spear, did you see the mark of a dragon?"

Hastam shook his head.

"No, it was the mark of a flame."

"Maybe the markings have something to do with what world they have come from, you see George here had the exact same marking as Arthur."

"What you say's makes sense, but we can't test your theory until we find another flame marking or someone form Xin's world."

As the group sat there in deep thought, there was a big question on all of their minds why? Why were all these spirits somehow connected to the game? Gold ware corp had to know more about this but it was strange that they hadn't come out and done anything.

Hastam was a big public figure, surely someone from the game would have come out and reached out to him.

"If there are a hundred warriors in the game, does that mean there are a hundred spirits?" Hastam rambled.

"I don't think so, Tom one of the developers of the game based the latest warrior in the game off me. Unless I'm a spirit and don't realise it, then it wouldn't fit the pattern. Besides, you said there were three so far right?" Novis said, "Arthur's group makes five, Xin's group makes six, that makes eleven in total. Are all the rest from this third world then?"

Hastam then took out his phone once again and started to look through the list of warriors and he spotted something.

"You're right, if I look carefully when the game first launched around ten years ago, it was released with only a total of thirty warriors, and on this list, if we include the ones Arthur and Xin know that makes sixteen."

"So you've seen other spirits, have you talked to any of them?" Novis asked.

As Novis asked the question, Hastam palms started to sweat a little as he thought back to the situation.

"Actually, that was the main reason I wanted to call you over, look I know your spirit is strong but I think it's best if you drop out of this tournament. And before you say anything hear me out. If you truly love this game and want to become a pro, I can help you out with my connections. Heck, you wouldn't even need them if you just told everyone who you were but the team you are up against one of them is possessed by an evil spirit."

As Novis heard these words his heart started to thump louder and louder. The image of Lucas fighting in the last match appeared in his head. How his whole style had changed and how he suddenly was able to produce sword energy.

"It's Lucas bell. He's been taken over."

*****

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