True Apostle

"Ken! You were so cool back there!" Ruby shouted out. The two were locked in an easy conversation, while Ipa, Soul, and I were thinking about the repercussions of what we had just done.

We had the invitation to move on to the next city, but with Zeus now classified as our enemy, would he let us leave? Should we leave tonight? I barely understand anything about the air element and I destroyed my only opportunity to learn.

I would have to learn it through watching others use skills and using my imagination or incorporating other skills into the air element. Either way, our time here is finished.

"We should leave the city and prepare to head to the Cliffsides with Dex and Hex. That's our safest chance." I explained it to everybody.

"That sounds easier than it will be. We'd have to tie up our loose ends and give away our tickets, sell the property we're borrowing... where will we even stay? We should just lie low here." Soul said.

"Those things are all very easy to do when you compare them to how close we are to all being dead. We can't worry about how hard things are when our lives are on the line. We should leave, that's the best decision." I told everybody.

I was beginning to remember what happened with Daria and Shima. My patience was starting to loosen and I was becoming anxious.

"Anima, what's wrong?" Ruby asked me. Of course, it was her...

"I'm not a stranger to danger. I lost my two friends to a dangerous opponent and I can't let that happen again. I was lucky enough to fuse with one of my friends, but I lost the other one forever. Maybe I shouldn't care that much... maybe... but if somebody else takes away my friends, I won't stop at just Zeus. I can't handle losing people. Sorry, I don't like talks like these, but we're leaving, and that's final." I told everybody.

"Anima, we get it. You don't have to be our mother, we can take care of ourselves, but it says a lot about you that you'd rather us be safe than put our lives on the line. Let's come to a compromise. We'll head out once you investigate, or we can play it safe and... we'll figure something out." Soul told me.

"We're not going to die over Zeus. If he wanted us dead, he would've killed us already, right? I mean, that guy can vanish and everything he wants to do easily." Ruby said.

"You're right... why didn't we die? In fact, why haven't I learned any attacking skills?" I asked everybody, but I was more focused on learning it myself.

I could somewhat float with air, and I should be able to vanish eventually once I learn more of it... but I haven't seen a single attack with the air affinity attack. Why? Why in the world did he not attack us? Was it to play mind games with us?

No, Zeus isn't good at hiding ulterior motives, we learned that through his cult and his attempt to wipe my memory. Now that I think of it, he never advertised an attacking skill... was air skills all utility?

I can imagine that the ice blast Joro once used was a combination of air and water, to make the cold temperatures, so I know it's capable of attacks, but the air affinity hasn't been used in an attack itself alone yet.

I turned off to the side and faced the outside of the city, right past the walls.

That's right if Zeus could attack and kill people with his attacks, he wouldn't need walls, or an army. Something was missing from this puzzle.

"I might be bold in saying this, but I don't think Zeus can attack with his air element. It's remarkable we haven't been killed yet, especially knowing he doesn't have good plans for this city. I think air affinity is only for combining skills to make others." I told everybody.

I held up [Titan's Wand] toward the forest on the outskirts of the city and tried my thought out.

[Dismanip] and [Slash] were used at the same time. When I used the skills, an interesting thing happened. A white beam emerged from the back of [Slash] and at will, I could change the direction of the skill completely. I changed the direction and turned back to look at everybody.

"He has to have some sort of skill that he can combo with air... I don't see it doing damage..." I said to myself.

I turned back to look at the trees and witnessed my [Slash] skill change directions again and go straight through a tree, causing a loud burst of sound to emanate from the fallen tree and splitting logs. I almost covered my ears.

"Holy shit! Anima, you just cut that tree in half!" Ipa yelled out to me.

"Cut it... the air element did that?" I asked him. He nodded.

"It changed trajectories and cut the tree in half. That's the air affinity, right?" Ipa asked me.

I see...

It was starting to make sense now.

"Zeus has his Apostles or whatever they're called so they can use skills and he can enhance them with his air affinity. I understand now. Zeus can't attack himself, he needs other people, I can because I have other skills, but Zeus can't." I explained.

"That makes sense, actually. That explains the walls and soldiers, and the fact nobody has ever seen him get into a fight with anybody else." Soul added.

"So, we'll be safe here as long as it's just Zeus. Otherwise, we can't be here. Then, we'll stick around, I guess. Is everybody okay with that?" I asked. Everybody nodded.

"See, we did end up figuring it out... and also, you're stronger now!" Ruby said.

I guess she was right... this is what I wanted. I wanted to get stronger, and now that I had it, I wanted to run again.

Don't be ridiculous, Anima, I can't just run now... we have to solve this. Zeus needs to be taken out of power... or killed, whatever he preferred at this point.

We had a new goal, but how do we get there exactly?