Viv walked forward into the city that was slowly being reconstructed slowly by the efforts of it's citizens and others that came to help. Behind him was a group of six that just recently escaped once again from death by an extremely powerful foe.

They continued to move, ignoring the stares of the people looking at them...no at Viv and his outfit.

He was wearing a simple set of equipment that really didn't stand out that much; but his hat and staff inevitably drew lots of attention and those with him. Viv could be heard humming a small tune as he walked to the guild building which was perfectly unharmed from whatever chaos that destroyed most of the city.

Opening the door of the guild building, Viv looked around and find that there was no one there at all....except for a person sleeping peacefully.

“Eden?”

Viv walked over and found that Eden would not wake up no matter what he did. It also looked like he was having some sort of strange nightmare as well muttering, 'No more...' 'Alexandra stop...' 'I can't go on...' and 'You'll break me'.

It was quite erotic in fact that the six behind Viv could not help blushing to the actions that Eden was having even though he was fast asleep right now.

“Eden wake up.”

Viv whacked his staff at Eden causing a bump to appear on his forehead.

“zzzzz.”

But Eden continued to sleep despite this.

“How long has he been asleep?” asked Viv.

The one called Sain answered, “Around a week I think....”

Viv sighed and then looked at the six and said, “Go out of the building and don't come in when you hear a scream.”

“?”

The six were confused now. Why did they have to leave the building? And why would they come in after they hear a scream? Those questions were on their mind as Viv forced them to leave.

Seeing that they have all left....Viv chanted a few words and used...

“Nightmare awakening...”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Immediately the spell took effect where Eden literally leap up with eyes very much wide open for all to see. He struggled to breath properly and only when he saw Viv he immediately calmed down with a scowl on his face.

“What the hell was that for?!” demanded Eden.

“You were asleep for a week” answered Viv immediately back.

“Oh...”

Eden looked around and then asked, “Where's Alexandra?”

“Don't know where Al is. Also...you may want to call in the other guild members as well....”

“Why.....?” asked Eden with a seriously bad feeling now.

He looked outside and saw that the city was in ruins....during the time he was asleep...for a week.

“Right....I believe you guys are hiding back there...come out. Also you brats outside the building as well...get in here right now” said Eden in an extremely cold voice that was colder than anything anyone knew before.

“....”

As such, 12 people walked from outside the guild building or from the hiding place inside the guild building and lined up in front of Eden without a word trying to avoid looking at him directly. The atmosphere around Eden was so bad that the group of six, being the youngest and as such, the weakest people here were all shivering with no stop.

Gen was about to open his mouth to explain things but then Eden cut in.

“How....exactly this happened?” he asked with a cold glare at everyone.

“It's all Gen, Mel, Jenny and Ron's fault!” said Park rapidly, “Anna and I had nothing to do with it at all.”

“Park you bastard!”

“Damn, are you saving your own hide here?!”

“Die traitor!”

Hearing that the blame was pushed to them; Gen, Mel and Jenny were quite to curse him. However Ron shamefully had his head down the entire time. Eden saw this and then asked, “Ron, seeing this amount of destruction only you could cause this and you were suppose to be the most laid back one as well.....What do you have to say to yourself?”

Ron bowed and said, “I am deeply sorry about this! Please punish me in any way!”

“Any way...eh?” muttered Eden with a grin on his face which inadvertently caused everyone else to feel even more fear.

“Actually please hold back on me...this body can't take too much of your punishment....” corrected Ron.

“Anyway, tell me what happened. I'll decide what to do after that” ordered Eden.

A couple of minutes later...

“I see....I guess all round punishment is at order then” said Eden.

““““What?!””””

Four people seemed to have rejected such a thing. Namely it was Gen, Mel, Jenny and Park who all wanted out on this. The only ones who didn't complain are Ron and Anna; both who already stopped resisting at this point and was simply waiting for the end.

Before those four could start 'explaining' themselves and why the others are at fault here, Eden said:

“Besides Ron who will be punished either way...you three” Eden pointed at Gen, Mel and Jenny. “Are the main culprits. If you didn't act the way you did, Ron would never have gotten angry in the first place. Other than that, Anna is also responsible but she's not complaining here.” Eden patted her head softly though Anna was strangely stiff as well.

“....”

Anna did not even dare move to make Eden's mood worse than it is.

“Plus Park, as the one who is the seemingly oldest and most responsible of the group, why did you fail to stop them?”

“Umm...ah...” Park tried to speak but nothing came out and in the end he just shut his mouth and stood still like Anna.

“Well of course Sain and Miriel over there were also there” added Gen. Mel and Jenny nodded as well as Sain and Miriel paled and glared at their masters.

'Why the hell are you dragging me down with you?' were their thoughts.

“Yes...how could I forget....” Eden took a glance at the two which caused them to become still like the rest. Gen, Mel and Jenny expected for them to be punished as well and as a result, they would be punished less; even if it's only by a bit.

“This only adds onto your sins. You would even drag them into your mess?” Eden sighed and then said, “Honestly if you think you can be let off easy because of this, your wrong...Gen.”

“Huh?”

Gen made a startled face.

“If I recall, this more or less started with you in the end.”

“W-wait a second-”

“Therefore you will be punished first...along with Mel and Jenny.”

“What?!” “What?!”

“As members of this guild, you also hold responsibility to protect the city and yet remain as the main cause of it's destruction. More over you try to push the blame onto others and even to your younger peers as well. I am very disappointed in all of you. Go to the Vortex World and wait for punishment...”

“Moreover....”

Eden paused for a second and gathered his anger in one go.

“THREE DAYS?! IT TOOK THREE DAYS OF SLEEPING TO CAUSE THIS CITY TO FALL?! WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK WERE YOU ALL THINKING?!!!”

“....”

With that, Eden let out a brilliant smile and pointed to the hatch under the stairs with cold emotionless void eyes...

In the end, they were all going to be punished. The young group of six which consisted of; Sain, Miriel, Shadow, Serena, Lyndis and Raven silently waited as their seniors and masters walked dejectedly to what seemed to them to be hell.

“As for you lot....” Eden turned now to address the group.

They were all afraid that they would be also be punished by him. This fear made them want to run away but the fear of even greater punishment prevented them from even moving an inch.

“You guys will be going to another city for now at a branch building of this guild. Sorry but can you escort them there Viv? It's the place where Alice is.”

Viv nodded and agreed.

“Now I have to find that Alexandra...she has a LOT of explaining to do for me....” muttered Eden walking out but stopping suddenly.

“What? Why are you guys frozen there? Pack up and get ready to move cities. Viv is more strict then me you know. Also I'll be looking for you all soon enough either way.”

Leaving those words, the six moved their gaze onto Viv, their new 'caretaker' from now on. Viv bowed slightly to them and introduced himself again.

“Nice to meet you all again. Let us all get along. Don't worry, I'm not worse than Eden or Al in teaching you all” he said with a gentle smile.

At that moment...the group thought that this might not have been that bad...except for Miriel who knew better.

Ignorance is indeed bliss in the end.

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

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Author's Notes:

- Posting Arc Epilogue as well...no posting here unfortunately.