“Nothing would stop him. He fought with beasts. He travelled below the sea. Under the ground. He searched for ancient knowledge. Talked with Rasts that were even older. He discovered prehistoric ruins. He explored fallen civilisations. He brought forth untold secrets. He touched the world itself.”

==========================================================================

Edward felt the blood in his veins freeze solid.

“What? You thought I wouldn’t realize? It was really quite obvious after only the first night, you couldn’t make a shelter to save your life, and instead opted to ‘survey the area’ every time so I could set up camp, normally it would mean that you were just really lazy, but I noticed you studying the makeshift tents I made, as if you were trying to learn how to do it.”

Edward tried to stammer out a response, his brain working overtime, trying, and failing, to suddenly come up with a suitable explanation, one he hadn’t been able to think of the entire time he’d been here.

David was trying to force the answer out of him, and he was succeeding. He’d caught Edward completely off-guard despite him believing he had it up.

“You obviously try to not mention where you’re from, and you haven’t named a single area, landmark or even mountain since we started travelling, you’re completely ignorant of the landscape of the entire northern side, I’m certain the only reason you asked me to travel with you is because you don’t know where you’re going…And yet,” he paused, his eyes inspecting Edward's body, “you look and sound like Edward, fight like him too, the Edward that was famed in the army for his immense strength and deadly speed.”

“And that too, you keep calling it an army. We’re not an army! We’re a militia! There hasn’t been an army since the empire almost 300 years ago!”

He paused, “You have his strength and speed, easily cutting Rasts into pieces, but most importantly, I don’t care about that. You could be someone from a thousand years ago. I don’t care.”

He stepped closer, getting face to face with Edward, who felt immensely intimidated despite David being a lot shorter than him.

“What I want to know, why are you doing this? What is your reasoning for leaving the militia and infiltrating the warlords’ god-damn-fortress? Sure, it turned out to be quite easy, but we didn’t know that beforehand. We could’ve just as easily been spotted and shot down before even getting to the wall!”

“What reason does someone who has no clue about where he is and what he’s facing. Leave relative safety just before nightfall to travel a thousand-kilometres to the middle of what he’s told is quite obviously enemy territory?” He concluded, and smoothly stepped back, allowing Edward to release the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

Edward could only give one unsatisfactory explanation, one that he had thought of beforehand, but found really wanting.

“I…” He started, David impatiently waiting for his answer, and raising an eyebrow, “I…Didn’t lie to you, and try not to lie about anything else.” He swallowed before continuing, “I am Edward,” he lied, “and I am really searching for my brother.” He said truthfully, “But I also don’t have any common knowledge, and no memories. I don’t have amnesia. I’m pretty sure my memories are lost forever. The Edward that was in the militia is gone.” He said, unsure.

David narrowed his eyes, and waited for Edward to finish, “I can only promise you one thing, the only thing I want right now is to find my brother, although I don’t have any clue of where I am without you, I will try my damn hardest to find him. I know, I know, that he’s a slave somewhere, and I will free him, and if possible, save your sister too, with or without you.” He said, resolute.

David said nothing.

Precious moments went by without either backing down, feeling like an eternity to Edward, he'd resolutely locked eyes with David, who stared back with narrowed eyes.

Then, David said, unwavering, “That’s all I need to know.” And stepped back, turning to face the road cutting through the trees.

Edward didn’t know when his limbs had gotten so cold, but they were freezing when he finally released a tense sigh.

“Let’s go, and I’ll teach you all the skills, since you might need them if we get separated.” David said, having already started walking ahead.

Edward followed, hectically trying to get some blood back to his limbs, so they’d function properly.

They travelled quickly, as usual, their strong bodies, though not as muscular as when they started, they were still as dangerous, and traversed the treacherous terrain with ease.

Edward thought that their relationship might chill significantly now that his secret was out, but his worries were mostly unfounded.

Their equal status had been maintained, since Edward’s frankly inhumane strength still helped them when they were facing dangerous Rasts, whose territories they frequently passed through, and David’s skill in tracking and living in the wild, had probably saved his life more than once.

A skill he freely taught Edward whilst they were travelling, what berries to eat, what trees were ideal for building shelters, and where he should build said shelters in order to avoid the worst of what the weather had to offer. He knew so much, in fact, that he had a sneaky suspicion that David had a more thorough education about surviving in the wilderness than what most of the other militiamen had, but he assured him that wasn’t the case.

Most importantly, he taught Edward what Rasts to avoid rather than face, and rightfully chastised Edward when he got too lost in the battle, frequently having to snap him out of it, a quirk, it seemed, came with his supernatural body.

It was quite addicting, Edward recognized, he wanted to fight almost every Rasts and beast he laid eyes upon and got twitchy when he hadn’t fought anything for long periods.

The journey wasn’t as long as the journey to the fortress, and it wasn’t more than a week before a large clearing came into view, settled in a massive valley between two equally colossal mountains.

The clearing had 2 other roads leading to it, one going straight north and the other going southwest. They had no clue where the northern road was heading, but the southwestern road was likely where they caught slaves, as David confirmed the centre of the continent was the most populated.

The massive clearing was quite empty save for 2 buildings, 1 large and 1 small, a very large pile of rocks, and a giant pit.

David immediately frowned when he laid eyes upon it. “That doesn’t seem right. The ground should be mostly mud. That pile of rocks shouldn’t be there.

“That means it they’ve specifically moved those rocks here for a purpose. The only obvious interaction would be to eventually fill the pit with the rocks, but that seems pointless unless they’re trying to bury something specific with them.” Edward theorized, still not quite sure how magic worked in this world, although David had confirmed its existence.

“Look, a truck from the fortress is arriving!” David said, fixing his gaze on it as it speedily arrived at the clearing.

They tensed, waiting to see if the truck would continue on to either road, or if it would stop.

It stopped.

People came out from the larger building lifting the cages of the truck, they were too far away to see if they did anything to the animals specifically, but they placed the cages around the pit in the ground, and promptly stepped away, bunching together against the building.

“No, that’s not right, there’s one guy left, standing right on the edge of the put, look!” David pointed to the cages, and Edward could barely see a figure if he squinted his eyes.

Then, even at this distance in the sunlight they could see a bright green light emerge from him, then the world suddenly darkened around them, as if the sun was put out, and the moon was destroyed, a pitch-black darkness befell the world.

The green light brightly emanating from the man still remained, stronger than ever, as if it fed of off the light from the sun, absorbing it.

Suddenly, the light took shape, several strings suddenly materialized from the light, before Edward could really comprehend what he was looking at, they instantly pierced the Rasts in the cages, 1 string for each cage, probably spearing the animal inside, as the light was shining so brightly, they couldn’t be sure what was happening inside the cages.

Whatever happened, the light got stronger and stronger, as if it was the sun unto itself, feeling like they’d be blinded if they kept staring, yet refusing to look away.

Eventually, it shined so brightly that all they could see was a bright green before it abruptly dimmed.

The strings slowly retreated from the cages, and formed a dome with several layers of strings, eventually looking like they completely solidified, as they stopped wiggling.

The green light again began to shine brightly, though not as blindingly bright as before.

A strange sound was heard, it sounded as if wind was violently colliding with a window in a house, something he frequently heard in the harsh winters, where they lived, or where he used to live.

It was completely quiet save for that one sound, so he heard it quite clearly when David muttered, “It’s crying…” He’d have to question him about that later.

The sound of the wind, as well as the brightness of the light, intensified.

The wind was deafening. It was so loud that it felt like they were in the middle of a tornado, and their house was being torn apart around them.

Then, Edward felt heavy, like he’d just put on a very weighted vest, on his entire body, like the world was compressing every square inch of him, and it wasn’t being nice about it.

He tensed his muscles, barely staving it off the pressure he was facing. He heard David grunt, as he was no doubt experiencing the same thing.

He’d been kneeling on one knee whilst he was watching the events unfold, and he felt himself be pushed into the ground.

‘Gravity, gravity has increased, that’s what’s happening.’

He refused to let his head fall, staring intensely at whatever was happening before him.

Then, as quickly as it appeared, it vanished.

The weight he’d been experiencing was gone, and gravity returned to normal. The sunlight, too, shone down on the valley below, as if it had never left, the previous darkness almost feeling like an illusion.

He jumped a bit up into the air because he’d been under such high pressure but was able to stop himself before he’d completely extended his legs, so he didn’t entirely lose his balance.

Edward warily glared at the pit and felt his bones chill when he saw the empty cages.

Completely empty, as if the Rasts had never been there in the first place.

The people bunched up at the large building scurried over to move the cages back onto the truck. Edward and David glancing at it as went southwest, meaning it was probably going to the populated areas.

Only glancing at it though, not daring to take their eyes off the figure still standing on the edge of the pit.

They were at least a dozen kilometres away from the clearing, and yet they still felt the effect of his magic. If it was that strong so far away, what must it be like up close? They shivered at the thought.

The figure turned, much easier to see now that their view wasn’t obstructed by the cages and faced their direction.

Then they felt it.

His gaze.

A predator's gaze.

He was definitely looking at them.

The surrounding temperature dropped to the freezing point, the blood in their veins froze solid.

Edward felt himself become pale, all the blood draining from his limbs collecting in his torso, trying to save his life.

Then, the figure smiled.

And they fled.

Like prey.

Like their very lives depended on not stopping.

Every single instinct in Edward's body told him that he’d be devoured if he turned around. He’d vanish from existence.

Every fibre, every blood cell, screamed at him:

“Do not turn around, run, because your very life depends on it.”