An hour and thirty minutes passed in the blink of an eye and Ed was finally able to respawn. A vacuum opened up in the dark space and he soon felt his consciousness falter. Ed then felt the usual thudding sensation of hitting something before finally being able to languidly move his groggy body.
Entering a respawned body always left him with an uncomfortable feeling. He shook away the laziness and looked around.
'I am back in the field area...' There was no enthusiasm in Ed's voice.
'I got to walk all the way back...' He looked towards the direction of what he presumed was the settlement. It was kind of hard to know if he was entirely right but the position of the sun-like light suggested so.
Ed heaved a large sigh before glancing around his surroundings. The seemingly endless plateau, the unending lively green grass. The soft wind.
'Yeah, there is nothing here...' Nothing he could use, he began his long walk back home.
***
Back at the plaza, Vorgarag stood up and counted the remaining orcs with a glance. The number of inhabitants just barely surpassed the 100's. Vorgarag gnashed his teeth in fury before turning around and walking away.
He was heading back to his teacher's cottage, which was also now acting as his home. Well... not that he needed to anymore. He was however stopped by Nag who came running after him.
"Where are you going?" Nag asked with clear worry in his voice. Vorgarag unintentionally cast him a somewhat irritated look before replying.
"I need rest, my mana is exhausted." Said Vorgarag with a sigh.
It looked like it was more than that Nag thought, although unwilling to say it. He instead went ahead and asked him an urgent question, "What about the settlement?"
"You can take care of it" Vorgarag waved his hand dismissively. He would kill for a bed right now.
Nag opened his mouth to say something but in the end, remained silent. Although he was slow-witted he had learned a couple of things over the years. And maybe it was best to leave Vorgarag alone for a couple of hours. Other things could wait.
Vorgarag continued on his way for a good minute or two before reaching the cottage. The grass which was usually pristine had some traces of damage here and there. They were likely from when Ed first tried to learn some spells.
"And he learned them all so quick that bastard..." Vorgarag mumbled angrily before opening the rickety door and entering the desolate workshop. He took in the dark surroundings before walking towards his stool and sitting down on it.
"Maybe I am just cursed..." He muttered as he laid his head on the table. He soon after drifted off to sleep.
By the time Vorgarag woke up, the sun had started to set. He let out a yawn before turning his head towards the door. He had heard a knock, he tried to get up but accidentally allowed some of his equipment to fall.
"Tsk..." He ignored it and instead promptly opened the door. It was Shel, some of her injuries still seemed open and truth be told looked quite ugly but despite all that, she had come to visit him seeming mad.
"Why didn't you tell me that the b*tch Murbol is still alive! This is all her fault!" Shel's words carried both a tinge of grief and anger.
"...I didn't know that" Needless to say, Vorgarag was quite surprised it was the first time he heard of this. Maybe he should have listened to Nag after all. He stopped thinking about that shortly thereafter however and cast Shel an odd look before proceeding to ask her a question.
"And when did we become so close?" It was true. Shel was an outstanding warrior but their relationship had only ever reached that level. So why was she all of a sudden going to him for her troubles?
"Ah don't give me that! Let me in!" Shel said furiously. Although at this point it seemed she simply wanted to vent. Still, Vorgarag moved out of the way and invited her in.
Shel domineeringly took Vorgarag's stool as soon as she came in before starting to rant about how everything was Murbol's fault and that Nag should have let her kill her.
"Ed would still be here if it wasn't for her..." Shel finally managed to calm down her turbulent emotions and her furious expression was replaced by a look of sorrow. Vorgarag simply stood beside her attentively listening. He did share some of her sentiments but truthfully he also doubted that Murbol played a big part in any of this.
"We should kill her" Said an extremely serious voice. Vorgarag's expression froze over but upon hearing those words Shel's expression which lacked cheer finally started to become revitalized.
"That's right! We should kill her!" The reason for her joy was that with Vorgarag's approval, Nag wouldn't stop her from killing the b*tch. She couldn't wait to turn her into mincemeat! An unusually blood-thirsty aura radiated from Shel.
She stood up from the stool ready to leave but... Why was Vorgarag's complexion so pale? Her eyes then nearly popped out of her sockets as she recalled the voice she heard. It didn't really sound like Vorgarag...
"E-Ed?" She couldn't help but ask with a tremble in her voice.
She then frightfully looked towards the open door where a dark silhouette stood. Maybe it was due to the light of the setting sun but Ed's face could not be seen from the inside. His large body was casting an imposing shadow.
Could it be!? a vengeful spirit?!? Vorgarag quickly took action by standing in front of Shel who wore a frightened expression and preparing to chant a spell.
Upon seeing Vorgarag's movements, the imposing dark silhouette then broke down into laughter. Unlike what Vorgarag and Shel were expecting, the laugh actually sounded very genuine and real, it was in no way evil or maniacal.
Vorgarag's expression was a mix of disbelief and confusion as he stood dumbly in front of Shel. The frightened Shel had a blank expression as she eyed the entrance from behind him.
"You guys are too much" Ed's voice could once more be heard. Its origin was clearly in front of them. Then...
Ed walked into the cottage with a smile, he was trying his best to hide it but it just wouldn't go away.
'Damn had I known I would have come up with something more sinister' Ed wanted to surprise Vorgarag so he used his earth manipulation skills to climb over the settlement wall. Still, he hadn't expected to hear them talking about him. He especially didn't expect Shel to display such Vigor when he mentioned killing Murbol.
'Maybe if I waited for the night time and paid them individual visit' He had a sinister smile as he thought of different possible pranks. He then inevitably shook his head. He was likely running out of time. He couldn't afford to waste the day away simply waiting for the night. But he sure would have loved to...
"Is- Is that re-really you?" Asked Vorgarag warily. Even with all of this evidence if there was one thing he thought he knew to a definite degree of certainty was that the dead could not come back to life! What if it was indeed some sort of evil ghost masquerading as Ed or if he truly turned into a vengeful spirit.
Seeing Vorgarag's wariness, Ed couldn't help but awkwardly scratch his cheek.
"You-!" That spirit went all out in imitating Ed, it even knew the awkward scratches!
"What if I tell you I can resuscitate?" Said Ed casually.
As if! Who- who- unless... no! but... Vorgarag's thoughts were messy and unclear. his wary expression soon turned blank as his thoughts drifted.
He was however brought back to the real world by a thudding sound along with a crashing sound. Shel had fainted! Was it too much thinking for the irascible Shel? He hurriedly bent over to check on her but then heard Ed's voice.
"Ummm... is she okay?" asked Ed from behind him.
That tactless bastard! It really was Ed!
"F*ck, if you can revive tell me about it first!" Vorgarag felt extremely embarrassed for even feeling sad over the darn rascal. He wanted his feelings back! Which was also why his reaction to literal resuscitation was so unusually normal.
Who goes up to people and tell them that they can come back from the dead? Ed wanted to retort. He instead remained silent and focused on another matter.
'What gave me away?' He carefully pondered over the matter as Vorgarag tried to lift the heavy Shel off the floor and onto proper bedding.
"Stop thinking and come help" Vorgarag looked back at Ed with an angry expression. For some reason, he couldn't bear to look at him! Wait if he can resuscitate then maybe it was ok to kill him a couple of times...
Unaware of Vorgarag's dangerous thoughts, Ed snapped out of his stupor and went over to help. Vorgarag poked him a few times to make sure he wasn't some sort of apparition before somehow coming to accept the situation. Ed wanted to stop him but it was a fairly reasonable reaction.
After receiving Ed's help Vorgarag found out that he was actually pretty strong. It felt like Ed was doing all of the heavy lifting.
Ed placed the fainted Shel softly on the bed before feeling a shiver down his spine.. He couldn't help but look behind him only to see Vorgarag's vicious smile.