{Prologue}: Sorana and Richard!

From a flash of azure-coloured light, Micah, Angel and Hoteye fell to the ground. As he hoped he had brought them back to his village, and the jump must have been massive because he felt his strength leave his body and he started hurting all over. Angel who was still conscious with her golden key in hand looked around rightfully confused about what Micah had done.

"We're in the same village?" She whispered quietly to herself. Micah's eyes were silently resting on her, he recognized the signs of familiarity on her face.

"You've been here before?" His tone was low and dangerous. For Brain it would be very easy to engage a bandit raid on a village.

"This is where we found you, just outside of this village. We passed by here on our way back from a mission." She looked guilty, a new look he had never seen her wear before. Maybe she truly was changing and this wasn't a long-cone kind of scheme.

"Do you know who caused this?" He asked slowly.

"No! Brain, and me at the time didn't care about what happened here. We just passed through and saw a large bright flash that turned out be to you. After that, we took you back and the rest you know." Angel's eyes landed on Hoteye and she checked his pulse, luckily he seemed to be fine.

"Do you mind telling me how long I was in that cell?"

Angel looked even more guilty as she answered. "seven weeks."

"That long. I bet Levy is worried about me now," Micah looked towards his shop. They had appeared in the town square where his shop was also located. "I maybe should have travelled with them."

"L...Levy?" Hoteye said weakly as his eyes opened up. He couldn't sit up on his own so he chose to stay put.

"Levy, Droy and Jett. I met them here a few days before you found me. They were nice, I think. They belong to the guild I wanted to join, I said I would meet her there in only a few days. She must think I'm dead now." The fact that he was outing the trio to complete strangers and former dark mages didn't occur to him at all.

"Do not feel guilty, Micah. She surely has forgotten about you by now, and if so, she would not worry. You must not blame yourself for our actions, there was no way you could have stopped your capture." Hoteye got help from Angel and he looked at Micah. "When you see her again, you can take your time to explain."

"You should work on your comforting skills, I feel even worse now. But, you are right, when we see her again, I can explain, and I can introduce you guys, she's really nice." Micah smiled in an attempt to make the awful feeling in his stomach go away.

"We? M-Micah, I'm not sure that is a good idea." Angel sighed. "If you plan to join Fairy Tail, we shouldn't join you. You're not a good liar and once they find out about what we did to you, they will throw us out. I think Hoteye and I should go our own way." She still felt guilty, but not so much about the village anymore.

"No! We are friends now, there is no way I'm letting you go out there alone. What if Brain comes after you to punish you? I'm getting stronger by the day, I can surely protect you. And, if the guild won't have you, we can leave and start our own guild."

"Micah-"

"No! I'm not taking no for an answer! Forgive me for being so stubborn. I know I have a lot of flaws. I trust people way too easily, I can't lie about anything, and I'm weak, but I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't know you two were safe. No matter your reasons for helping me, you are my friends now. I considered us friends even before you freed me." Micah didn't drop eye contact. He wasn't gonna let them go so easily. He cared for them both, and as he said, he was painfully aware of how naive and careless he can be. But, he was growing quickly and he believed they would be safe if they stuck together.

"I don't know, Micah. Angel won't admit this ever, but I will in her stead. It hurts us to look at you. It reminds us of the things we've done to not only you but everyone we encountered. These memories are ours to bear, and I can only speak for myself about this. I'm thankful for what you did, even if you don't know what that is. You redeemed me in a way, gave me another chance, and I will not waste this opportunity. I will better the world, in hope to make up for what I did."

"I forgive you!" Micah said bluntly and loudly. "So, now that that is over with, we should hurry to Fairy Tail." Micah crawled forward and placed a hand on their laps and said with the most sincere tone he could muster. "I know it hurts, I can see and feel that you are hurting, but I know I can help. What if I say I can give you a purpose. A way to wrong the injustice in the world?" He looked specifically at Hoteye.

"What do you mean? That sounds eerily similar to what Brain said to us when he took us in."

"I didn't do nothing with all my time in that cell. I made an outline of a plan to right the wrongs in the world. And, if that fails, I at least want to die knowing the world is better when I leave it than when I entered it." Micah made a dramatic pause and then continued. "I will spend time in Fairy Tail to study magic, and mostly so I can apologize to Levy, Droy and Jett. Well, those two might not care that I died, they didn't seem to like me much. Anyway, I plan to start my own group. I wasn't gonna tell you yet since the plan isn't finished. But, I wanted to create a group of mages to uphold justice, on our own terms. A force fighting for the little people. Villages like this who can't depend on anyone. I want to be that in which they can depend on." He had a speech planned beforehand, but that went out the window when the nervousness sat in.

"That was quite the speech. Not very good, but I suppose we can work on that." Hoteye tried to smile again.

"What do you say, Angel?" Micah hoped to get them both, but he wasn't sure about her. She was changed, that much was certain, but how much, he didn't know. Maybe she didn't trust him enough to follow him in his insane plan to change the world.

"Sorano. My name is Sorana." She placed her other hand over his. "As Hoteye said-"

"Richard. Call me Richard." He said proudly. He felt immense freedom suddenly being able to say his own name once again.

"Y-Yes," Sorana became flustered for being interrupted and continued, albeit little embarrassed. "As... Richard said. We feel guilt, which I didn't think I could do ever again. Brain was gonna do to you what he did to us. Remove our feelings to create a perfect killing machine. Something he could control." Micah wanted to interrupt badly and hug them both, he could physically feel their pain and sorrow bubbling up.

"I hadn't really planned what to do ones I got out, so if you will let me, I will join you. Maybe this can be my chance to experience a side of life I have missed." She felt her face heating up, mostly because she felt very embarrassed letting out her feelings. She was used to not feeling anything at all, and now her stomach turned inside out just by those stares from the boys.

"Well Said, Sorana! Time is money, and if Cobra was sent after us it will not take him long to get a trace of us. We should make our way to Magnolia."

"Richard, you can't even walk, and neither can I. There is no way I can walk after that jump I just performed. And, how do you know where Fairy Tail is located?" Micah looked at him in surprise.

"It was my job to know everything. I know the location of every major threat to Oracion Seis. That's our guild. Our former guild now. Brain wanted to know everything about any guild that could stand in his way. Fairy Tail is at the top of that list. They have some fearsome monsters in that place." Richard said.

"Micah is right, though. You two can't walk very far. And if we encounter an enemy, I would have to fight alone. Micah, you should also not use magic anymore today or you will risk depleting your entire supply and that is dangerous to any mage, even you. Your powers still use magic, I assume?"

"Yes, my powers are dependent on my supply of energy, but it's not magic I'm using." He said. He thought maybe it was time to let them in on his secret. Not everything was necessary for them to know, but he didn't want them thinking he was crazy and talking with voices in his head, which he did but at least his were real.

"Care to explain? Did you tell Brain what your powers were?" Richard looked worried for a second. He worked closely with Brain and knew how incredibly smart that man was. He didn't care about a lot of things, but he mastered some extremely difficult magics throughout the years.

"He doesn't know, I think. How should I start, eh, in essence, I control light. Not light magic, actual light. The first light in existence, that which powers all other light, I control that." Immediately he regretted phrasing it like that. He saw the most hilarious confusion spreading on their faces. "Blue, the name I said in my cell. She is an entity. This is hard to explain..." He rubbed his eyebrows and continued slowly. "Think of a concept in the world. Anything?" He looked to Richard in hopes that this smart man would recover relatively fast.

"A concept, you say? Like time?"

"YES! like that." With an embarrassing fake cough from overreacting, he continued. "Every concept has an entity tied to it. Wait, no. Every concept is an entity. They are alive, even time. And, try and keep up here. I got chosen not long ago to become the host of The Concept Of Faith. And she, Blue, controls the light. And in turn, so do I now."

"Concepts are alive? Time is alive? Like a goddess or something?" Sorana tilted her head as she was trying really hard not to put the label "Insane" on Micah.

'I like her," Blue said in his head.

After a tired cry from Micah, he continued. "Kinda. From how I understand it. Most concepts are alive and in service of a higher concept. For example, and I only learned this yesterday. Apparently, {Time} serves {Faith}." This had come up the day before during their usual multiverse history lesson. The Concept Of Time was a minor concept, believe it or not, and had no host, like all minor concepts. But, all minor concepts serve another higher one. It's not actual servitude, just that they are powered by a higher Concept. {Time} is in service of {Faith}, so Blue had tried her best to explain that certain hosts of {Faith} extremely talented ones could tap into {Time} through {Faith}. And could, to a degree, dependent on how much they practised, control the flow of time. Blue had talked about one host, and only one who had been able to stop time entirely in the whole multiverse for two minutes. This had, unfortunately, killed him, not stopping time, but exhausting himself and getting attacked by another host.

"Only four of them are truly free, almost sentient. {Faith} is one, {Authority}, {Power} and {Growth} are the others. That's about all I know and all I can tell you about it." He didn't wanna get into the other stuff. Most of this he himself didn't understand so explaining even the simplest things to others proved to be quite the challenge.

"So, you control Faith?" Richard looked so impressed it might accidentally turn into fanatic worship. Micha hoped that it wouldn't since he wanted friends, not followers.

"No, I don't control it, I am it. The more faith I have, the more powerful I become. It's really hard to explain so don't ask too much about it." Micah took on a pained expression to emphasis how much he hated this.

"Does it work in other ways too? Like do you get more powerful with more people that pray to you, or believe in you?" Sorana asked.

"I don't know. I haven't thought of that." Micah said. 'Blue, does that work?'

'Yes, Master. If you create a church in your name or a cult, for me those are the same but mortals tend to think otherwise. You will grow in power. But, with other believers, you will start to feel their pain, their desires and such. Most {Faith} hosts tend to be loners because of that. This will only start to become a real problem when you amass billions of followers. A few friends won't twist your mind.'

'What to do you mean twist my mind? Will I become evil with followers?'

'Not necessarily. But, when people believe in you and follow you, their own desires and their hidden intentions will start to affect you. And, with enough of that going on, your mind will start to adapt to it and you will gradually change. Again, this is only a problem with billions of devout followers and thousands of years of worship. When you transcend mortality, your mind will be way too strong for only a couple thousand worshippers to change your morals and such.'

'It sounds like you are expecting me to be worshipped.'

'Master, you are the perfect vessel to serve as God to these people. If you wanted to appear as you are a God, you will amass a following really quickly because you have the perfect moral compass to be a benevolent and kind God. One which most crave for.'

'Nope, never, I don't want such power over people, or that kind of responsibility. Even if that would make me stronger, I don't ever wanna risk becoming someone I don't want to become. Forget it! No God in this body.'

"Micah, are you okay? You're showing a lot of expressions but you're not saying anything? Have you lost your mind, or are you talking to Blue again?" Richard asked curiously.

"Blue, I was asking about Sorana's question."

"And?" She asked excitedly for some reason.

"Well, yes. I will become stronger with followers. But, with enough of them and with enough time, they will corrupt my mind and I might change into something else, something much meaner, I think."

"Oh, well, then we shall help ward off any potential followers. I certainly will not have you change. Not after you freed me." Richard said confidently. Why would he want to go back to his broody and evil self when he felt so good travelling down the road of unity.

"Thank you. I would appreciate that."

"So, what now? I-I don't want to ruin your chances of getting into Fairy Tail. And I won't ask you to lie for me, though I certainly would appreciate it." Sorana said.

Richard nodded his head as they would have no problem with lying to Fairy Tail to be with Micah there. After a few seconds of silence, he said. "How about we find lodging for the night? Tomorrow we might have a clearer view of things."

"I agree with that. Come on, I know of a place with lots of room near here." He wanted to take them to his shop first, but he realized that it would be too hard. So, instead of that, he led them to the village Inn.

The place was barely standing, but it would do for just one night. "I hope you find it to your liking." He said sarcastically as he opened the double wooden doors leading inside. Richard felt that the saying was familial in nature and couldn't help but ask. "You talk like this is home? Do you have relations with this village?"

"I had, seven weeks ago."

"Oh, Micah, I'm sorry. I definitely should have realised that. The way you look around at the buildings here, now it's obvious what that is. Sorrow." Richard put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder and sighed loudly at his own ignorance.

Sorana opened her mouth to speak, but after Richard's very appropriate response, she didn't know what else to add so she chose to say nothing. Her saying something might just make it worse, she has never comforted someone before.

"Think nothing of it, Richard. I am trying not to let this place get me down. I'm trying to move forward and focus on making sure no villages have to go through this again. But, I'm finding I am still being haunted by the faces of this place." Sorana's respect for Micah grew a little. He had been in that cell for that long, fresh memories of this slaughter and still, he smiled like nothing was wrong. He was either completely insane or the strongest person she had ever met. She didn't know which, it still remained to be seen.

"Well, we're here, so take your pick, your rooms I mean."

"Thank you, I'll see you two tomorrow." Sorana instantly walked hastily up the stairs and disappeared.

"That was quick. She must be tired." Micah said as he couldn't imagine what these two had gone through. 'The guilt these two feels must be severe. Hopefully being part of something bigger can help mend those wounds. Hopefully.'

"Micah, my friend. Time is money, so I will go and sleep. Tomorrow can't come quick enough." Richard offered a handshake and Micah responded with a firm one. "Goodnight, Richard."

'I have no idea what is to come, but I do hope from now on things will be a little easier.' Micah followed the two and also went up the stairs towards his own room.

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End