Journey Of A Legend

After the happenings that occurred at the Arena, Cloud and the other experts decided to suspend the tournament.

For every team and duo that fought hard to get into the top 16 Cloud made sure to give all of them a crystal card that they can use to exchange for a 4th ranked Soul Creature to their taste.

As for who will get the card inside the team that is totally up to them. Even this solution was the best that he could do because even like this, the Soul Association wasn't very happy with the fact that they needed to give out more than 25 Crystal Cards to total strangers just because of a small incident.

If something like this will happen a few more times in the future they could go bankrupt very easily and that's why they gave a warning to Cloud. It stated that if something like this would somehow happen ever again, they won't help him out no matter how hard he tried to beg.

Cloud knew that the Association was right this time, so he just politely thanked them for their help and took away the Crystal Cards.

As this happened and Cloud was a bit busy dealing with the angry people to give them the cards he promised, Joe, Mila, and Emma were inside a spacious hotel room.

They couldn't go back to Nexus city, but it wasn't a problem at all because they didn't want to go, to begin with. Both of them stayed because of one purpose and that is to look for a way to find Greg.

"I don't have a single idea which could lead where Greg disappeared to.", said Joe with a frown on his face as he thought for a way that he could track Greg.

"Me neither. He could be anywhere, but really... Anywhere.", said Mila with a nod, while she looked at Emma's thinking gaze a bit worriedly.

As the three were deep on thought to find a way that could lead them to a solution, suddenly a sound came from the door.

*Knock~Knock!*

Turning his gaze at the door, Joe said calmly, "Come in."

In an instant, as he said that, with a pleasant sound the door opened wide revealing the one who knocked a moment ago.

"Roy?", asked the three in unison as they watched the half bandaged boy slowly walk into the room.

"Yes that is me indeed.", answered Roy with a wry smile as he looked at three before him.

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be resting in bed because of your injuries?", asked Joe as he stood up straight while looking at Roy with a frown.

Hearing this Roy turned his gaze from the two girls at Joe and said, "Well the doctors said I should, but I also heard what happened, so I decided to come to find you."

"Find me? Why?", asked Joe with a surprised expression.

Roy before answering raised his hand and pointed at Joe's bandaged arm.

"I came here because of your arm. My power is still inside you so you won't be able to heal your arm. Also, without me healing you, you won't be able to go and help your friend no?"

Hearing this Joe stayed quiet in an instant because he totally forgot about his injured arm that had Roy's power in it, so he just looked at Roy calmly.

Only after a small while did he opened his mouth and said, "I would really appreciate your help."

With a smile, Roy slowly walked over to Joe's side and after putting his hand onto his shoulder he said, "Not a problem at all. I wanted to fight with you again in a fair way anyway, so sooner or later I would have come to heal you."

Hearing this Joe was a bit surprised but still, he too smiled, and with a nod, he said, "Sure. After we find Greg I would gladly accept another spar with you."

"Perfect, then we have discussed this matter.", said Roy with a smile, and in an instant, a gentle metallic light started to appear around his palm.

Like magnet attracting metal, thin pieces of silvery substances started to flow out of Joe's arm one by one, making his face distorted instantly.

The feeling was like someone put a thin needle deep inside your muscle and with a slow and steady motion, it started to get pulled out somewhere else. 

"Just bear with it for a bit more, it's almost done. Unfortunately, my power got spread inside you so it will be a bit complicated to get all of them out.", said Roy with a serious expression and made the light around his arm shine even more.

"Argh...."

While Roy was healing Joe's arm, suddenly the door opened wide and a man with a black dragon tattoo on his shoulder walked in slowly.

Mila and Emma seeing as Kuragari walked into the room they got dumbstruck, but the moment they saw his scary eyes with the suffocating presence leaking out from his body, all of them froze up in an instant.

Kuragari saw as Roy was doing something with Joe's arm on the side so he waited patiently without saying a single word.

Time ticked by second after second and in the end after another piece of metallic substance came out from Joe's arm Roy leaned back into his chair and said, "It's done!"

Joe hearing this raised his arm and with slow motion, he started to move it here and there.

Feeling that there was only a small pain left in his arm just because of the injury, Joe looked at Roy, and with a nod, he said, "Thanks."

"No problem at all.", said Roy with a smile, and after he stood up he continued, "Just don't forget about our deal."

"I won't."

"Nice, then if you excuse me..." 

Turning around, Roy bowed politely toward Kuragari, and with the proud look that he always wore on his face, he walked out of the room.

When the door closed finally, Emma, Mila, and Joe turned their gazes at Kuragari and waited for him to start talking.

Seeing as all the three were waiting for him, Kuragari took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit the end of it on fire. After he did this he put the cigarette before his mouth and sucking in a mouthful from the other end of it, he blew out a huge amount of smoke right into the air and said calmly, "I need your help, so tell me everything about that brat. Every tiny information about him that you know is essential."

***

Somewhere in a dark place, a white crack suddenly appeared out of thin air. After it reached a diameter of two meters, it just stayed there and floated gently in the air.

While time went by slowly, suddenly the crack started to vibrate and a while later three figures, two men and a teenager emerged from it one by one.

Naturally, it was Russ, the man with the gas mask, and Greg.

Greg looked around, but no matter where he looked at, the only thing he could see was pitch black darkness. No color, no sound, and no object that he could identify to find out where they were.

When all three of them finally stepped out of the crack, Russ turned around and with a smile, he looked at Greg and said, "Welcome to our headquarters."

The moment he said this, the whole scenery around Greg changed in an instant.

The pitch-black darkness changed into a colorful place. A vast green field filled with colorful trees, flowers, and bushes, while in the distance a massive mountain which peak was piercing through the clouds above in the sky.

Before the huge mountain, a huge lake could be seen, which had a small island in its middle with a house made out of some kind of strange stone.

The only way to that house over the lake was a single bridge made out of ash black wood, giving a scary presence to anyone who looked at it.

"What... is this place?", asked Greg with wide-open mouth as he looked around with awe.

Russ hearing the question looked at Greg's surprised look and said, "As I said, we are in the center of the Forbidden Lands. Here no one will find us or at least not those under the God rank. This place is the safest and best spot in the whole world against those who want to find you."

While listening to what Russ was talking about, the three started to walk toward the house in the distance.

As they were walking forward, Greg suddenly noticed that beautiful birds started to fly all around the place while deers, little foxes, rabbits, and all kinds of different animals started to appear around them one after another.

The closer they got to the house the more popped out of nowhere making Greg to feel that they weren't as simple as they looked. Somehow the way they looked at them made him knew they were extremely intelligence, but for some reason they didn't try to attack them.

At the time when they arrived before the wooden bridge, he saw as more than hundreds of different beasts looked at their way, not knowing what their real aim was.

"This place is absolutely nothing that I imagined. I thought the Forbidden Lands will be a bit more... Dangerous, I guess?"

As he thought about this, Russ suddenly stopped an inch before the bridge and after turning around he, "Before we proceed on, cross this bridge and you will get a little gift from us. That is only if you can finish it in one piece."

"..."