Nelson

 

"That was quite the story," Jax said, a little wide eyed.

Jack shrugged.

"It wasn't anything much. But comm- Jax, that thing you used to bring my memories back. It's pure luck that your head isn't off your shoulders right now. If you want to do the same to the others further down the line, it might not go the same way as it went with me."

"Yeah, I'm aware of that, who do you think I am? It won't matter further down the line, thought - it's only because of the context of our meeting and the fact that right now, I'm weak as fuck."

"Agreed," Jack said. "It's a bit sad to be honest."

"Cut me some slack."

"I'm being truthful."

Just then, Jack's eyes suddenly narrowed and he stood up.

"Five people are approaching," he said. "A single peak three star and four central two stars."

"Really?" Jax stood up too and moved towards the entrance. "I don't sense anything."

Jack put a hand on his shoulder.

"Get back for now," he said. "I think it's Ruxlyn."

"Ah."

Jack looked at him expectantly.

"What?"

"Aren’t you gonna give me an order? I figured that you came to me because you needed someone to even the odds in the duel between Gilsend and Ruxlyn right?"

"Can you even change your mind that quickly? Don’t you have twenty years of memories here?"

"Well, I have more with you," Jack replied. "Go on."

Jax sighed. Jack would always be Jack. Fiercely loyal, brash and able to change his mind in a split second.

"Eliminate the enemy."

Jack grinned.

"As you wish."

 

"Mr Keynes," came the rough, slightly wavy voice of a man, who was approaching the bar flanked by four soldiers, two on either side. "The Lord has sent me to ask if you've fulfilled order yet."
"Recognize them?" Jax asked.

Jack was leaning against the broken doorway, his arms folded. Jax was hiding behind the wall, behind Jack.

"Yeah," Jack whispered out of the corner of his mouth. "He's a Ruxlyn captain. Easy targets for me."
"Alright."
Jack uncrossed his arms and dropped his arms to his sides as the captain approached him, stopping a few feet away.

"Well?" he demanded, seeing the chaos behind Jack but choosing to ignore it.

"Does it look like I have?" Jack asked.

"Excuse me?"

"I said does it look like I've fulfilled my orders?" Jack advanced on the captain, who swallowed but stood his ground.

Jax silently commended the Captain, because his face underneath his helmet made it seem like he was going to piss himself at any given moment.

"Why?" the Captain demanded.

"Cuz you're still standing here, dumbass."

"Wha-"
He was cut off as a giant plate of solid, shimmering, blue Ena appeared out of thin air and crushed he and his soldiers into the ground. The stone road cracked and splintered under the pressure, their armour crumpling and bones turning to dust.

"MMMMMMMAAAIIGGGHH-"

Then it the Ena shield crushed them flat and blood exploded all over the  street, and onlookers screamed and ran in all directions, shielding their children. Jack dusted his hands and turned to Jax, blood splattered over half his face.

"Mission accomplished."

"…as expected of you."

Jack smiled at his commander, the one he'd looked up to all his life, and had always hoped to one day protect. Now his wish was going to come true. Deep down, he swore that he would watch over Jax until the end of his new life. A final chance.

"This time," Jack said, dropping to one knee, ignoring Jax's protests. "This time, let me pay you back for three thousand years' worth of blood, wounds, sorrow and battle."

Jax paused from trying to make Jack stand.

"…alright," he said. "Let's go. To whatever lies beyond. And call me Jax, please."

Anyone who looked at them then would probably have seen a boy and his older brother (except there was no one because of the scene Jack caused), and not a single soul would have thought that it was a divine being who had regressed for three millenia and one of his most loyal subordinates who wanted to repay him for three millennia's worth of suffering.

"Ah, also what happened to your summons?"

Quix detached from Jax's shoulder as a purple wisp of energy.

"He cannot hear me, master."
"Yeah, this blob is Quix," Jax said. "I don’t have enough Ena to summon everyone else. Can’t wait to see them though."

Jack smiled to himself as he thought back to how terrifying Jax was with his army of monstrous subordinates.

 

Trillian, Cedric, Alicia, and Hemia all stared.

"Hey," Jack said.

"Wha… what is the meaning of this?" Cedric demanded, glaring at Jack in half anger half confusion. "You-"

"Lord Gilsend," Jax cut in, dropping to one knee. "This man, Jack Keynes, will represent Gilsend against Ruxlyn, and will do so for as long House Gilsend is standing."

Jax glanced behind him and exchanged a mental message for him to show his respect. Reluctantly, Jack fell onto one knee as well.

"I greet the Lord," he said. "You can trust me."

Cedric sat down heavily in an armchair, next to an appalled Trillian.

"I need some time," Cedric grumbled. "I'm getting too old for this."
But Jax could see a glint of malevolent happiness in his eyes, and smiled a little.

So the Lord was that kind of person all along.

"Y-you actually brought him," Trillian said, his jaw hanging open. "W-what the hell… what the hell did you do to bring him…"

Alicia was just looking on, her eyes travelling from Jack who had hastily stood up and was now examining the pictures of her predecessors, to Jax, who was still kneeling and looking a little mischievous. She felt like there was still so much she didn’t know about this boy. It somehow felt like… like he was someone else entirely. She knocked herself on the temple and told herself not be silly. She was probably just really happy that they finally probably stood a chance against Ruxlyn.

 

Time went on the Gilsend Estate, and the days went by relatively peacefully. After the last incident, Ruxlyn had left them alone for the time being, and word had already spread that Jack Keynes, the six-star mercenary who alone was worth a quarter of Ruxlyn's fighting power, had switched sides to Gilsend, which came as a shock to the people of Eldrith. Jack acted as an instructor and teacher to Trillian and Jax, the latter of which quickly rose to a peak one star swordsman. The truth was, Jax did not have much talent at all for the sword - it was simply three millennia's worth pure battle experience. As for Trillian, his own monstrous innate talent led him to finally break through into a raw two-star warrior.

 

"Now that you're a two-star," Jack said, munching on chocolate strawberries that Edith had brought (meant for Jax, but Jack insisted that he was to be on a strict diet during training), "You'll be able to do arguably the most important thing you'll ever do in your path to become the strongest on Chyraea. And that's changing the position of your Ena Core."
Trillian nodded. He knew this already, and he understood exactly how important it was. Jack sat him down, cross legged, on the same platform where Alicia had helped Jax form his Ena Core. Jack instructed Trillian to circulate Ena through his body, place a finger on his solar plexus, where the Ena Core currently was.

"If your Ena Core is impaled and destroyed, then you'll be unable to channel any kind of Ena through your body," Jack explained. "You'll probably be fighting thousands of battles from here on, if you don't drop off early. Make sure you choose wisely."
Trillian had squeezed his eyes shut, sweat running down his bare chest and shoulders, and Ena rising like fine mist off his skin as he felt his Ena Core dissolve and turn into a liquid-like state.

"Guide it through your body," Jack said, before looking up at Jax. "You'll need to do it soon, by the way."
"I know," Jax said

Trillian thought for a while. The most vulnerable positions on the body during a fight were the eyes, knees, throat, and nose, and now, also the Ena Core. He decided. It would be better to keep those positions at four, and not five, since the techniques he knee were great at defending his face anyway. He guided the stream of Ena up his body, through his neck and into his head, compressing it and reforming the core behind his right eye. The second he formed it, as Jack had instructed, he stopped circulating Ena and let the core set.

"It's like frying an egg," Jack said. "When it forms, you turn off the heat and let it set."
"I don't think you… nevermind."

 

And two days later, Jax himself broke through the raw two-star.

"Well, that was about expected," Jack said. "Come on, let's get started."
"Good luck," Trillian said, taking a break from his sword swings and leaning on it, wiping the sweat from his brow with a towel Edith had given him. "Don't copy me."
Ever since he'd moved his Ena core, which was a bright blue in colour, just like the rest of his family's, his left eye had always been a shimmering aquamarine colour, and he'd already jumpscared his younger siblings and even his father in the dark using it. Jax scoffed at him.

"I'm not gonna copy such a shitty place anyway," he said. "I have my own place."
He assumed the same position Trillian had, and felt the satisfying feeling of his Ena Core melting. He already knew exactly where he was going to place his core - where he had his mana pool in the past. Jack smiled knowingly. He already knew too. Jax closed his eyes, and shifted the stream of Ena around his heart, solidifying it around his heart, forming a sort of shell, that was also a core.

"Your heart?" Trillian asked.

Jax opened his eyes, their ever-purple stain seeming even more striking.

"Yes."

Jack exhaled.

"I knew it. Some things never change."

"Of course you would keep it like that, Master."

"What?" Trillian asked.

"Nothing," Jax and Jack said at the same time.

 

The four months until the duel flew down. Soon, there was only a week left, and everyone was feeling it. Jack was excited, looking forwards to his first battle with his old leader and so was Jax, who couldn’t wait. Ruxlyn's lineup had most certainly changed, with no Jack Keynes. Gilsend's warriors was still being decided - it wouldn’t be released until the day of the duel anyway, but at the moment Jack was down to fight Vulnis, the other six-star mercenary, and Alicia had surprisingly volunteered to fight Marco Ruxlyn. Trillian, of course, would be pit against Harold once again.

"We'll decide who's going to fight when we see Ruxlyn," Cedric said. "Jax or Aaron. Alicia, are you sure you want to fight Marco? He's several stars higher than you…"
Alicia swallowed, but kept a strong front.

"Yes."

 

"Predictions?" Jack repeated. "You want my predictions?"

Cedric nodded.

"Over the last few months you've helped us out a lot. Jax and Trillian have both entered the central two-star stage, and you're even going to fight for us… I couldn’t thank you more. Please give me you predictions for this duel."
Jack looked into Cedric Gilsend's tired, weary eyes. He had seen him once ten years ago, at a gathering in Eldrith, except he had looked thirty years younger - eyes full of fire and life, face confident, gait powerful. It pained him that he had played a part in turning Cedric Gilsend to this state.

"…I'll beat Vulnis," he declared. "And Trillian will probably beat Harold Ruxlyn this time round."
"…what about Alicia?"

Jack smiled a little at this. It did indeed seem that Cedric's senses had dulled.

"Oh, don’t worry about your daughter," Jack assured him. "Alicia will win."

 

Jax looked up as Jack poked his head around the door.

"Asleep?" Jack asked.

"…you sound like you’re my father or something," Jax said.

"A growing child needs sleep," Jack joked.

"Alright, shut up!" Jax said, a little annoyed. "I wanted to ask you something anyway. Come in and shut the door behind you."
Jack did as he was told, and collapsed into the armchair in Jax's room.

"Yeah?"

"In your twenty years here," Jax said. "Did you meet anyone else? From y'know…"

"I knew you were gonna ask this," Jack replied, nodding. "But your spell to retrieve my memories seems to have messed up my memories from this world a little. I can’t really remember but… I think…"
Jax waited hopefully as Jack racked his brains. He was just about to disappoint his commander until Edith and Trillian passed outside the closed door, and Jack caught a few words. '…the magic tower… master…' And it all came back to him in a rush.

 

He leaned forwards suddenly, grabbing Jax's shoulders.

"S… Scott," he said. "Scott Nelson."
Jax's eyes widened.

"Scott?"

"Yes," Jack nodded vigorously. "I can’t believe I didn’t remember that. Scott Nelson, a peak six star mage who is known for his devasting large-scale destruction spells, of all four main elements that mages use, and the current leader of the magic tower outside Eldrith."
Jax took a while to take this in, and flopped backwards into the soft sheets of his bed.

"Scott…"
 

Scott Nelson. The strongest spellcaster of the Union, stronger than Lennart Axelsson, one of the eleven others who had survived the final fight, at least before he had become a Catalyst of the Lords. Scott had unfortunately died during the battle, just like Jack - in the finishing moments of the battle, Mazog, in a last ditch effort, had brought down Earth's moon using his Divine Flames and attempted to crash it into the planet. Scott had sacrificed himself to destroy the Moon, destroying with a gigantic hellfire spell, and Jax had always hated the fact that he was unable to do anything at the time after being gravely wounded by Mazog. Now he could finally see the one who had taught him nearly everything he knew about magic again. Jack watched his leader closely. He had one arm over his eyes, and the rest of his features were expressionless. Finally, he spoke.

"Tearing Ruxlyn down to the ground comes first," Jax said, his voice calm. "Then, Scott, I'll come for you."