295: A Gift

A Gift

"Wait, you! Your soul?!" the gatekeeper stared at Ed in disbelief. "Your strength, your constitution…Everything is at a much higher level, but how? It hadn't been a day…"0

Ed looked at the bewildered old man and smiled as he replied, "I worked very hard. And, I also got back what I had been missing for a while now."

"Anyway, about the protection on this tower," Ed turned towards the red gate as he continued, "Can you remove it?"

"Is that the correct choice? Should we not strive for you guys to get stronger?" the old man asked. "Should you head into the den of the beast? Would it not invalidate all the sacrifices up to this point?"

"I would simply be another sacrifice if I were to stay here," Ed answered. "I have no way of getting stronger in this world, I hit the cap. And let's be honest, the tower won't last longer than a week at this rate, and by then we'd lose any advantage we have."

The two men stared at each other for a while, before the old man sighed and turned around. Ed looked at Emilia, Ellie, and Oliver who were munching on some snacks given to them by Ed.

"You won't ask?"

"We don't need to." All three of them gave the same answer.

"Then I won't bore you with the details," He smiled as he said, "We go to another world, we kill some other-worlders, we return. Simple, right?"

The three of them nodded and continued to eat their snack. Meanwhile, the walls of the Tower of Origin shone at the same time, and in less than a minute, everything went back to normal. That is until the whole world shook.

From the red gate emerged two skeletal hands; big enough to dwarf a tree. In one fell swoop, it pulled its upper body and stood face to face with Ed and the other three.

"They wasted no time at all," Ed squinted as the skeletal giant roared in front of him. Its bones were still covered in decaying flesh, making the smell unbearable, especially for Ellie, whose nose was more sensitive than most.

"Oooooh! You bastard, where did you crawl from!" Unable to bear it any longer, Ellie took the first shot at the skeleton as she smashed its face with her claws. Bits and pieces of bones and rotted flesh scattered all over the area, making it even harder for Ellie to evade the stench.

"Emilia, Oliver," Ed turned to his friends and said, "I need five minutes to drop some stuff over to the people staying here. Ellie should be fine against the skeleton, but help her anyway; I'd rather no one gets hurt before we cross over."

As the three of them glanced over at Ellie beating death out of the skeleton, Ed added, "Never mind, just make sure she doesn't go inside the red gate."

Emilia and Oliver nodded while holding their weapons tightly, anticipating any additional enemies.

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.

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Eric, training under the moonlight, was surprised when the ground shook hard enough to knock him off balance. Screams filled the surroundings, but they subsided as soon as the ground turned stable. As he was about to leave his spot to check on any injured people, He felt a disturbance in the space behind him. Without wasting any time, he swung his sword as he turned around, only to stop midway.

"I know we had our differences in the past but is that a good enough reason to attack your older brother?" Ed asked as he lightly pushed Eric's sword away. "Too many people are going after my throat today, and I'm not even fighting any enemies."

Eric sheathed his sword and said, "That's on you, with the whole world shaking, you expect not to react to space magic?"

"Fair point, take these," Ed admitted as he poured a dozen or so boxes from his inventory. "Spread to the people who will be fighting, and try not to get the married couple too involved, I'd rather their happiness not end on such short notice."

"What about my happiness?" Eric asked while opening one of the boxes.

"You'll live. And you will also have to fight the hardest," Ed solemnly looked at his brother. "Only you and Hayato can handle any high-tier beasts. Call Griffin, Becky, and the other elders and spread them over the continent. Same with the sword sect. Don't pull any punches, and if the enemy looks dead, they aren't."

"Understood," Eric answered as he gathered the boxes. "Is this related to Edmund's death?"

"Very much so."

And with that, the two brothers turned in different directions and disappeared. Ed was already back at the tower where Ellie had finished fighting the skeletal monster, and the old gatekeeper was looking more ragged than ever.

"Thank you for your hard work," Ed said as he bowed slightly to the old man. "We'll take it from here."

Ed's mana ropes managed to catch his three companions before they could react, and plunged all four of them into the red gate; the gatekeeper was kept flabbergasted and couldn't help but chuckle.

After going through the red gate, feeling as though they were inside a whirlpool, the four of them emerged at the top of a mountain. Dark purple clouds covered the skies as far as the eye could. The air felt warm and damp; filled with the odor of rot and decay.

As they calmed down their breath, Ed approached the cliff of the mountain and peered down. There, legions of skeletons, zombies, and undead were slowly climbing towards them; towards the red gate.

As Ed looked around, he could see several other mountains in the region; all with a red gate at the top.

"Should we avoid them?" Emilia asked as she also realized what was happening in the surroundings.

"No," said Ed as he floated above. "I never liked the dark, and the more we kill from here, the lesser the burden will be on the other."

With a hand above his head, Ed started to gather magic. One of his favorite elements, and the one he is most proficient at after Space magic; Fire. The ball of fire grew larger and larger, turning from yellow to orange, to red, and finally settling down as a small star of bluish-white hue.

"We've received many gifts from your side," Ed said as he swung his hands down. Emilia and the others, still on top of the mountain, had no choice but to move as fast as they could, or else they would also get caught.

"This is my gift for you!" He declared as the flame touched the tip of the mountain. An explosion, big enough to encompass most of the mountains in the region, shook the world. The dark clouds split apart and disintegrated under the explosion's intense pressure, and suddenly the whole area was cleansed.

And yet, at the epicenter of the explosion, Not a single hair was burned on Ed and the others' bodies; all thanks to an ice shield conjured by Emilia.

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