90 Voices

When Edge heard Setsuna's request he couldn't help but clench his fist. He knew that he wasn't strong enough yet to make a difference in a battle of this scale. He then spoke to Tsukiyomi and Tanith.

"Tell me the truth, if the two of you go and face them can you win?"

"If you would offer me all of your mana, and I'm willing to sacrifice half of my own life force. I would probably be able to decimate around half of them. But in my usual form, I'll only be able to beat twenty at most." Tsukiyomi who usually exuded an air of haughtiness and pride answered with a frown. She didn't even do her usual arrogant laugh.

"If I fought in my true form and attack as aggressively as possible, I would at most be able to... I can't even make an estimate, the way humans fight has too many tricks in it... So, I could probably kill a lot of them but not all of them."

When Edge heard the answers of the two he clenched his fist until it bled a bit. Even there most powerful fighters had no chance of victory.

"Edge it's alright. I know what's to come and our clan really deserves it. I just hope you can save my brother." Setsuna grasped Edge's shoulder and smiled at him. When Edge heard what Setsuna said to him, a memory of his past life flashed before his eyes.

...

Back then he was in a village that was devastated by a bandit attack. As he was walking by he saw a wounded mother. The mother spotted him and without any hesitation raised her baby and asked.

"Please save him." She didn't even think of asking him to save her, all those eyes saw was a person that could save her child. The same eyes his own mother had when she hid him from the demons to save him.

Now Setsuna was showing the exact same eyes. Edge didn't like it, he didn't like it at all. He still has no idea what has happened to his parents. Now he was about to flee while his friend stays behind and dies for him.

Seeing him looking like distraught Sarah tried tugging on his hand but there was no response. It was at that very moment time stopped in Edge's eyes. It was as if he was in a space that was for him alone.

In that space, Edge could hear various voices.

"Why are you going to flee while such an exciting battle is right in front of you?"

"It's time to let loose and have some fun!"

"Yeah, what's there to fear, if you lose you simply die. That's not really a problem."

Each voice sounded different but all of them felt like they were being spoken by the same person. He didn't know who the voices were, but Edge still responded.

"But if I die, then what about my sister, what about my friends, what will happen to them?" Edge asked and one of the voices gave a simple answer.

"They will continue living. That's the way life goes, people die and you can't do anything about it."

"But I can do something as long as I'm alive. If I die then that would be the end." This time another voice answered.

"Are you doing something now? You aren't doing jack sh*t, you're just about ready to run. Actually worse than that you wanted to make the two ladies fight for you. Why would you even think about giving them the chance to fight such a glorious battle."

"All you guys keep on talking about is about fighting. Don't you understand that I'm not strong enough to fight that kind of battle?!"

"Tsk, why do you keep on lying to yourself."

"Lying to myself?..."

"Yeah, you're lying to yourself. We understand it, deep inside you have this urge that you want to set loose, this itch that you just want to scratch. Knowing there is such a grand scale battle about to take place, all you want to do is to join in the fun and fight!"

"..." Edge couldn't respond.

"Deep inside you really want to let loose and enjoy the thrill of battle. But you keep on weighing yourself down because you think you need to protect your companions. Did your companions ask you to protect them? No, they have never said so, and I pretty sure they don't want you to do so."

"..." Edge continued to remain silent as the voice in his head kept on talking.

"Also you keep on saying that you're weak, but you and I know that's also a lie. I'm sure by now you have noticed that you are different, that there was no point in your training. Training is for people to get stronger."

"Yet, you were already strong from the start. Your body doesn't need to train, just by being, just by breathing you grow in strength. You just couldn't understand it at first and simply thought that the increase in strength came from your ring or that it was the result of your training."

"That's laughable, that ring you have the Satt Sjorn it's nothing more than a trinket. The stats you saw all of them were in your head. Absorbing the body of your friend that was also you. You just wanted a convenient reason to explain how fast your strength was growing. You just wanted to have a reason as to why you couldn't save your friend."

"Even in your past life, you should've noticed a tiny bit of it. The truth is you have always been holding back. You unconsciously set a limit on yourself, since your power was something you couldn't understand."

"Who are you?" Edge finally spoke.

"I am you and you are me."

"I see..."

"Don't bother thinking about things too deeply. Just let your instincts guide you. Fear, doubt, hesitations, responsibilities, none of those things matter!"

When Edge heard those lines he couldn't help but laugh a very loud and hearty laugh. In his eyes, the world that stopped started moving again, the people around him were looking at him worried.

Edge suddenly started laughing in such a situation, all of them got worried that Edge cracked because of the pressure.

Only Tsukiyomi and Tanith saw things differently. They could feel that something within Edge has changed, it was as if the cloud in his soul cleared. The soul was directly linked to one's mana. So it came to no surprise that Edge's mana was increasing, but what surprised the two was that it was not stopping as it continued to increase. This was an abnormal increase in mana. What happened in that few seconds Edge was silent?

"Onii-chan." Sarah held onto Edge's hand while looking at her older brother worriedly. Edge patted her head in response.

"It's alright."

"Edge?" Setsuna was still confused as to what was happening. What happened to all the tension that was built up, why did Edge suddenly laugh? As he was about to tell Edge to stop dawdling and escape, the people outside the barrier spoke.

"Since you have failed to comply and continue to shelter the criminals, we shall proceed to eliminate the Lener clan alongside the criminals!"

"Edge there's no time, Leave now!" Setsuna shouted as he took out his sword getting ready for battle. Edge, on the other hand, showed a very vicious smile as he eyed the enemies outside the barrier as if he was looking at prey.

"Why would I flee, when such an exciting battle is right before me!"