The tragedy

By now, about half of the students were affected. None of them were from E class, however. 'I guess he targeted the mediocre ones'. Ed also noticed that none of the exceptional ones were affected. 'He probably plans to kill us himself'. Ed was looking at the man and king who were now disappearing and appearing faster than the eye could follow. Each time they exchanged a blow, the wind pressure that was resulted would force everyone to protect themselves.

The king looked like he was fighting while drawing him away from the students. Every time the man tried to get back, the general would stop him. By now they were hundreds of meters away from their original position.

The students who were being controlled started attacking the normal ones. Harry and his friends were trying to subdue them, but every time they were stopped, they would struggle with all their powers. Harry had no other choice but to release them in such a state. "We have to knock them out" Ed remembered the way he used on Eric. Knocking him out made him less resistant.

However, it was much easier said than done. All the students were berserk right now. Approaching them meant fighting, and by now, all of them were rather tired due to the tournament. 'He sure knew when to start his plan' Ed was thinking of various ways to end this. The king and general would take care of the man. All that remained was to save the students. Ed gathered all the sane students. He withdrew some pills and potions to heal them.

The ones he wasn't familiar with got only pills, while his close friends got the potions. He made a special exception with Alicia since she was gravely injured. "We'll try to knock the students out, but be careful not to get killed by them" What he said was intended for the weak students. They weren't targeted for a reason.

As Ed was fighting the students, he was finding some things to be illogical. In the previous case, Eric was targeted because he was next in line to the throne. However, this time it seemed that they were being controlled and made to fight each other. 'If he wanted to kill everyone, doing it himself would be much faster and efficient. He would have done it while the king wasn't present'. The king's presence was bound to cause trouble for the man, even put an end to his plan, so him taking this chance was not normal.

Ed was making out theories as he fought, his performance dropped because of this. 'Does he want to start trouble between kingdoms?' This was one of the reasons. A student killing another one was bound to cause a war between the two kingdoms they belonged to. A parent wouldn't care if the one who killed his child was being controlled or not, he would try to get revenge on both the killer and the controller.

'But even in that case, why do it when the king is present? It doesn't make sense' The more Ed thought, the more mysteries he unlocked. 'Unless he wanted the king to be present?! In that case, all of this is only a diversion!' The realization Ed came to sent shivers down his spine. If what he figured out was true, then the capital and its people were in grave danger. And in the capital, there was someone that shouldn't die. 'The children!' Ed stopped fighting and immediately approached the king.

The fight was making it harder for him to approach them, but he didn't give up. He activated Ren and condensed it near his body, making him resistant to the wind around him. He reached a point where he couldn't advance any longer. But, his voice could still reach them.

"The capital is in danger!" Ed enhanced his voice with Nen and screamed as much as he could. He didn't know if the man had other allies so he chose to deliver these words to the king himself. This way it would be guaranteed that he would act.

"Oh, you found out! And so fast!" The man seemed surprised that Ed was able to figure out his plan so quickly. "I should have killed you after all, but maybe next time". The man pulled out a ball-like item and crushed, suddenly he started disappearing. "A teleportation item. Ed, tell me mo-" Before the king and general could get more info from Ed, he was already away.

"Raikou, Gobuta, Goburou protect my friends!" Ed summoned his companions. The three of them could easily fight the ones who were currently here, and Harry and the other teachers would take care of the strong ones that appeared. "Ed this is?!" Emilia seemed to remember Raikou and wanted to ask about him, but Ed was already far away. He was running at maximum speed to reach the teleportation circle.

When he reached it, he found that it wasn't broken. He was thinking that the man would make it malfunction somehow to buy time. 'I guess it would have been too obvious' Before Ed could teleport, the king had already reached him. He gave up on asking Ed question as he knew it was too late, so he simply teleported as well.

When the both of them reached the other side, all they could see was flames, all they could hear were screams, and all they could smell was blood. Ed didn't wait for the king to act and simply started running. He checked his Map and found out that small green dots were near the slums. 'Why are they so small?!' Ed activated all his speed skills. This time he used a condensed Ken to protect himself from crashed and started running. The capital was overrun by monsters. Ed was hoping for the best, but his heart was beating faster than ever. Even when he died, it wasn't beating this hard.

In this state, any monsters that got close to Ed was blown away, any wall he encountered was destroyed. All he could think about was reaching Eri and the others. It didn't take him even a minute to get there, but what he saw made him drop to his knees.

Eri, along with the children and two elderly women were lying on the ground. A pool of their own blood was surrounding them.

"NOOOOOO!!" The noisy capital suddenly turned quiet. The previous screams seemed to disappear in front of Ed's own scream. His scream filled with sadness, anguish and also, anger.