Meeting again

"Haven't seen you in a long time, How have you been?" Alex asked looking her up and down, she didn't change much, except the hair and a scratch on her cheek.

"you-y-you, you have been training all this time haven't you?" she stammered, before asking pointing at him.

"well that's the idea of me staying here" he answered, raising an eyebrow and making a "are you serious?" face.

with a huff, she turned away, making him chuckle, both of them ignored the sword god who was clearing his throat.

"so, how's my brother? no how are you two?" Alex asked in a teasing tone, but he knew full well how that ended up.

at the question, Eris looked at the floor.

but as she was about to answer Gel had enough.

"Don't ignore me. damn it!" all three of them looked over to the sword god who was glaring at them, more precisely, at Alex.

"what?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, he was catching up with a person he hadn't seen for almost three years what was wrong with that?

___

"so what happened," Alex asked the woman next to him, they were outside the sanctum looking over the horizon.

(this would be nice if it wasn't so cringe)

"your brother came back with Lady Eris and we left the next day" Ghislaine responded, stealing a glance at him.

"did Rudeus tell you anything about my family?" Alex asked wanting to make sure everything went as it did in the novel, if it didn't he wasn't sure if he could find them.

"he said he met Paul and norm in the holy capital, Lilia and Aisha should also be there by now" Alex nodded to this, and as he was about to ask something else a blurry figure shot out of the dojo.

"ah, reminds me of the good old days" Alex released a chuckle and went to check on Eris.

looking over her, he just used an advanced healing spell, and she was fine... still unconscious though, at least she was breathing.

"so, what are you going to do now?"

asked his mentor walking up to him, and checking on Eris.

"I think it's time for them to know that I'm still alive," he said as he turned towards the Dojo again.

___

Paul was playing with his two daughters, he was happier than he had been for the last two years, both of his daughters were there with him, Lilia was also with them, Rudeus was alive and well.

(only if I knew how Zenith and Alex ware)

with a sigh, he walks into the adventurers guild, to ask for information.

walking inside, he heads right towards the reception desk.

he spends about an hour asking around, getting a few leads.

suddenly a few gasps were heard, and Paul looked at the people looking in the same direction.

(what's got them so amazed?)

he looked to the stone that represented the seven worldly powers and was surprised to see the fifth name changing.

(someone defeated the Sword god?)

and then he choked. there on the Tablet that was present in every major city a name appeared, next to a sword symbol.

Then name he was familiar with.

A name he gave to one of his sons.

"The Holy Sword King - Alex grayrat"

___

the field was filled with craters, burnt trees, a glacier of Ice was pointing its spikes up in the sky, and in the middle of it all, were two figures, one laying on the ground, various cuts all over his body, and the other standing right in front of him, pointing his sword to the downed opponent's neck.

"I yield"

ware the words that came from the downed man.

Alex removed his sword from Gal's neck and had a victorious smirk plastered on his face, offering his opponent a hand.

"That was a good fight" commented Gal as he accepted the help, and stood up.

sudden pain in the side caused him to groan and massage the ribs that were most likely broken.

"that was for annoying me for two years" Alex pointed out, sheathing his sword, and sitting down on a fallen tree, courtesy of himself using the Shortsword of light.

"and the punch that followed? the one that connected to my face?" asked Gal, sitting down as well.

"Remember when you used a Longsword of light two years ago when I arrived?" he got a nod, in response, so he continued "my hand broke that time".

hearing the sound of footsteps on snow they both looked over to see Ghislaine, Eris, and the whole dojo running their way.

"well, I guess I will depart soon, need to look for my little siblings, they should at least know how awesome their brother is, I also need to find my twin," he said while finishing the healing spell on Gal.

"let me guess, he can cast countless spells and make intermediate spells as powerful as King ranks," he said in a sarcastic tone, Alex only deadpanned at him.

"... How did you know?"

___

it has been a week since he got nominated as a worldly power, and he was packing up, it was time to leave.

(if it was a year earlier I wouldn't have lasted long enough to win, now that the fusion of holy power with my mana is complete, His Toki got stronger, his reflexes were better, he was overall stronger.

his elementary spell had the power of an advanced rank, but depending on how he uses it, it can cause a lot of collateral damage.

"so you're leaving?" asked a voice at the entrance of the room, it was Eris looking around.

"Yeah, don't worry though, I'll come to visit, might teach you a few neat tricks I came up with," Alex said with a smirk which Eris returned.

"I don't need tricks, I'll be strong enough to defeat you, and then Orsted"

(I only managed to reach this far because of the holy power, and the 'talent' perk, I even had to use my switch ability when fighting Gal, soo... Good luck)

a sudden idea popped into his head, this would be the first time he tried to embarrass someone in two years.

"so, did you and my brother finally do it?" the sudden question caught her off guard, but the reaction wasn't what he expected... she looked honestly confused.

"Why would we ...?" She asked while tilting her head, with a raised eyebrow.

Alex lost his smirk and looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

"you didn't like him?" he questioned getting a shake of the head in denial.

"I like him, not not in that way"

(...what the fuck? then why cut the hair?)

"nevermind, why did you cut your hair though, it suited you" was his next question, and she nodded her head in agreement to the statement.

"yeah it did suit me, but when we were teleported to the demon continent, it got in the way once, we were fighting a bear demon, and it managed to cut some of my hair, so I kept it short at least until im good enough for it to not get in the way" she explained while fiddling with a strand.

(the fact that she didn't lash out at me is amazing, something must have happened differently from the original...

that might mean Zenith isn't in the crystal anymore, or something other than hydra is guarding her... what a change of events, and I missed most of it if not all)