It had been roughly 2 weeks by the time they arrived in the city, but Idunn, and company arrived in Orario… Leon instantly noticed the obvious destruction all around him. He leapt up to the top of a nearby building… Well, what remained standing of the said building.
"Lady Idunn, this is horrible. The city was demolished, almost entirely leveled." He said dropping back to the ground, his mind constantly running thoughts in his mind… would it have been this bad if Alfia, myself, and Zald were here? I don't dare put myself into the same category as them, but… Even if it was just me, I could have saved more people, right? "The city looks so bad, it might as well be leveled and rebuilt from scratch."
Idunn could clearly see the streets were significantly less cramped than the last handful of times she'd been here. However, she was more worried about Leon's mental condition now. "Leon, you should know, even Shurry struggled during this time… Don't let this event weigh you down anymore. You should let your feelings come, and let them go… You can't bring back those who've died. So don't fret about it."
"How many people would I have been able to save had I been here?"
"I don't know. I'm unsure of how many people actually died."
"..."
"Professor Leon, we were a two-week journey by foot. How long would it take for you to run that entire distance, nonstop?"
"A half a day. Maybe half of that more if I didn't have stamina items."
"Wow, that's pretty fast."
"It wouldn't have been enough. Remember Alfia and Zald still out perform you in every way. If they didn't make the effort to come, then there's no need for you to worry about it."
Leon, after several more moments of thought, took a deep breath and sighed…
"Alright, I'll work on letting it not bother me. I can't make any promises though…"
"Good, now let's go see my son."
"Yeah- Huh? What was that?"
Leon had just seen a pale gold light flash to the sky, then vanish. Idunn recognized it at a glance as Erebus' arcanum.
"That's Erebus' arcanum… Perhaps…"
She got a sinking feeling in her heart, and then picked up the pace, almost a full on sprint. Causing the motley crew they brought with them to speed up too. Leon carried the two falna-less ones, Eine, and Misha.
…
Hathor familia training grounds, Shurry stood in the center of a gathering, the people here were seeing just how far they could actually go against him in his suppressed state, it doubled as excellent training for himself as well. He took a deep breath…
"Alright! I'm getting used to it, but man it still hurts like crazy."
"When are you going to finish this little bit of yours and get back to your full strength?"
Zald teased, as he glanced towards Alfia… Who promptly hit Zald with a spell slamming into the ground. It didn't hurt him, so he just laughed.
"Alfia, why are you so embarrassed? You openly admit your feelings on an hourly basis."
Bokhoir laughed, and promptly received a similar treatment to Zald, though the difference here was that it actually hurt him a bit.
"Yeah, you would have mopped the floor with those dragons…" Nernatti sighed, sitting down gracefully in a chair prepared by one of the familia maids. "It took everything we had to finish that fight, dragons should be considered cheaters with raw power like that."
"There's no need to put yourselves down like that, you did quite well given the situation. I do wish that Ardee's baby had survived the battle. That was simply too cruel, I can't blame Shurry for killing Erebus. Avenging the loss of his unborn child… That's as good a reason as any… A man worthy of taking the risks of childbirth for." Alfia said, taking a seat that had similarly been prepared for her.
"There you go again Alfia! Silent as ever about anything else, but when it comes Shurry you almost can't stop."
"Gospel."
"Oof! Worth it!" Zald laughed.
Of this group, all of the level 5s and above, from all of the familias allied with Hathor, as well as a Tsubaki who joined in to see what her new power could really do. And get a good idea about what to make for everyone. Plus she got to see the uncle figure she'd missed for a while.
"Hey Shurry, you said you're suppressed right now, just how strong are you really?"
"Well, I am doing quite a number against Erebus' arcanum. So I'd say pretty strong. I got a huge boost when I realized the potential of my soul, I haven't even really scratched the surface of what I am capable of yet. So I decided to use this arcanum to temper myself. I wish I could just convert this arcanum directly into mana for Luna, but it doesn't seem to work."
Tsubaki's expression went from interested, to intrigued, to now a twitchy smile as if she couldn't comprehend just how strong Shurry was to say such things. And then… two things happened.
First, Idunn and her group arrived at the Hathor familia home, and were escorted to the training grounds by a familia guard.
Second Ardee, and Neze, both of them having been the only two to be left out of the training this time around, came running out of the mansion with glowing expressions.
"Shurry! We did it! We started again, we're gonna have a baby!!"
"I'm carrying to!!! We're gonna have puppies!!"
Shurry's expression changed, with a slight blush, satisfied, happy, and relieved to hear the news… He opened his arms, and hugged both women carrying his babies.
"This time, I won't let anything happen to them."
His pupils flashed, blinking with a gleam of power behind them, one that Al just happened to be in the right spot to see.
Leon's lips formed a proud, and approving smile.
"Now that's a scene, Lady Idunn, your son's all grown up, having babies of his own now."
Idunn ran over, and joined in the hug.
"This is wonderful news! I'm going to be a grandma!!!!"
"I knew you'd be arriving sometime soon. Welcome to Orario, mother."
"Of course I'd come to see if you were alright! Speaking of, why haven't you got rid of that energy yet?"
"It's high level training I won't get again for quite some time-"
"Don't lie to me."
Hera came over with all the excitement, and smiled.
"That's because he doesn't want to end up with a third woman to handle."
"Oh? Who?"
"Alfia. She's been rather insistent upon it recently."
Shurry simply let out a sigh, while Idunn looked over at Alfia who was actively staring at Shurry with an obvious look in her eyes.
"I see, I had a feeling she'd fall for him once he grew up a bit. And grow he sure did."
…