1767 A different way

Immediately after noticing the tears on Sil's face, Quinn placed his celestial energy away. The armour that covered his body began to burst into small little particles, and then covering his body with the shadow, he changed back to his usual armour set.

All this might have been an elaborate trap by Sil, and Quinn might not even really be seeing Sil, but he knew the tears were genuine. How hard it must have been for everyone around him when they felt he might never wake up? He couldn't tell, but for Quinn, it felt like no time had passed, yet all his friends had aged.

This included Sil, who looked more like his father than himself. In the end, Quinn inched forward, giving Sil a big brotherly hug.

"It's okay, Sil... you've worked really hard, haven't you? I can tell you've gotten a lot stronger. Strong enough to kick me about anyway." Quinn smiled, relieved that his friend had finally recognised him.

More tears had come from Sil, and his emotions were currently in a turmoil. He hadn't expressed any type of emotion in a long time, other than anger. After all, it had been a while since he had been back on earth, talked with his friends and kid, and in his head, Quinn was gone, and they might never meet again. But to his surprise, he met the latter, out here, far away from home.

After Sil had calmed down, he regained his composure, wiping away his tears. It was only now that they were no longer fighting Quinn had the chance to look at the former's strange outfit.

It didn't look like anything someone on earth would wear, and it seemed incredibly light. It was white in colour and almost sparkling if one was to stare at it.

"I got it from a beast I killed in another area, different to this one. It's resistant to nearly anything, and it allows me to use my fire powers without ruining my armour. It was beginning to become a problem. I can change into something else if you like." Sil said as he opened up what looked like a portal and pulled out some more standard-looking beast armour.

'So that's where he was getting his weapons during the fight. It must be some kind of other ability.' Quinn thought, shaking his head. "It's okay, just wear whatever is comfortable for you.

Looking around, the two noticed that they were far away from the city and couldn't even see the tower. Their fight had taken them away, and they both didn't think anyone would come for them any time soon.

So instead, the two decided to catch up, jumping up on a tall ice sculpture, the largest one there. They reached it easily and sat on the edge, looking out on the plain. This would also give them an idea if someone was coming toward them or not.

Quinn began retelling the story from the moment he woke up from slumber to what he had learnt up to this moment, including the meeting with the Baldes' Shiro and his family. He even talked about what Logan had said and how he ended up here.

"That Bliss, she had stayed out of everyone's way for so long and then when you come back, she appears on the scene? I don't think it's a coincidence." Sil said, clenching his fist. "Here, I thought that having a 1000 years on you, I would have been able to outgrow you.

"Although, I did go easy on you. Just in case it was really you."

Quinn chuckled at this comment.

"That's funny because it was the same for you. I mean, I didn't exactly want to kill you since I knew it was you."

Hearing this, they both laughed, but in their heads, they both had the same thought.

'If that was him going easy, then I don't want to see what he's like at full strength?'

"How did you get so strong? I can understand your Qi getting better, I could feel it when I hit you, and I know about your soul weapon, but it was almost as if your MC cells increased as well." Quinn asked.

There was a limit to one's MC cells unless something extraordinary happened, and there were a couple of cases for this. One was Quinn's shadow which allowed him to gain more MC cells. Sil worked off other MC cells, but this seemed different.

"You were strong as well. Although you didn't use your shadow much, you have all sorts of new tricks up your sleeve. Is it because you lost a lot of it when fighting Graham?" Sil asked. "You'll understand why I'm asking, and it will answer your question."

It was strange for Quinn to talk to Sil in this way. In the past, the latter hardly said anything and was difficult to communicate with, but now Sil was talking to him just like any other person.

"You're half right. Just now, all my shadow is gone, it's because I used all up fighting against you. I can still use my basic shadow skills but using them as I did before is a complete loss." Quinn was a little saddened because he thought it might be his trump card to fight celestials, and now this has happened.

"Well, to answer your question, there is a way that anyone can increase their MC cells, and while travelling, I found it. So I am sure there will be a way to get your Shadow powers back too, and not just that but maybe have them at the same level as when you went up against Graham, if not even stronger." Sil explained. "It's actually the Nest crystals. They have a lot of different uses as it turns out and are quite versatile in how they give energy."

Upon hearing this, Quinn's eyes widened. The nest crystal was what had helped him evolve, he knew the power they had first-hand, so it didn't sound unreasonable to him that they were able to do such things.

The question was, did he have time to find nest crystals? Sil did. He had 1000 years to travel to the other planets, so no wonder he had gotten this strong. But, while thinking about this, another question came to mind.

"Sil, why are you here? I mean, Why are you out here, this place nowhere near the earth, don't you want to go back?" Quinn asked.

Sil's face had changed for the first time since they sat down, and from his expression, Quinn knew the matter was serious.

"You know the gist of it from Logan, but I guess he probably didn't tell you everything because he didn't want you to worry about me.

"Maybe I shouldn't have done it, but honestly, Quinn, I did it because I wanted to know about you. One of the abilities I obtained allowed me to look into the future. Maybe I shouldn't have done it, but combining my strongest MC cells, I wanted to see if you would come back.

"When looking into the future, I instead saw earth getting attacked again, but it wasn't an army of Dalki or anything. Rather, it was just a few beings, people I had never seen before. When I told Logan about this, he explained that what I saw were most likely gods or celestials coming to attack earth.

"After you had done so much to protect the planet, I couldn't let that happen, but I didn't know when they were coming, and I was afraid to look again into the future. Seeing the future is a strange thing because you don't know what actions will lead to the one you have seen, so I tried to avoid it as much as possible.

"Still, I vividly remembered every one of the celestial's faces, and I decided to go searching for them. The Blades were okay, and everyone seemed to be fine without me. Sure there were problems, but Logan felt like this might become an even bigger problem.

"Which is why I went out to get stronger and search for these gods. Honestly, I have no clue where I am now...and I kinda don't know how to get back." Sil smiled.

It was a lonely tale, and Quinn wondered how Sil could do it on his own without anyone by the latter's side. If it was him, he probably would have gone mad, but Sil always had a strange upbringing in the first place...and now he didn't have to do it alone.

"And here I thought you were my ticket out of here." Quinn sighed.

"About that," Sil said, opening a portal and pulling out a strange small device with a single screen. "I'm a bit worried, Quinn. The whole time I have been out here, not once have any of the others tried to contact me, but the other day I was asked to return and help.

"The problem is I don't know how old that message is. As Logan told me before I left, there would be delays from when the message would reach me depending on how far we are."

Hearing this, Quinn clenched his fists.

"I was right. We need to rush, and we only have one choice on how to get back quickly. We have to head back to Athos."

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