The Life I Gained From Dying

Chapter 17 - The Gate of Pride

"Feels like it was only yesterday I was up here." Kaden said as they emerged on the surface. "I guess it was the day before yesterday."

"It's fairly overcast today." Mai pointed out. "It may rain sometime later."

"Hopefully we could get this over with before then." Kaden replied.

"You don't like the rain?"

"When I was a kid I use to get sick easily because of the rain."

After glancing down for a brief moment, Kaden noticed that Kenzo's usually empty sword holder now had a handle extending out of it.

"The swordless swordsman found his blade."  Kaden said while walking ahead.

Kenzo glared at him without responding before following behind him.

"There's water in it right?" Mai asked.

"Yes, it makes forming my blade easier." Kenzo replied. "The water already has its shape so all I have to do is solidify it and draw the sword."

"Hopefully you won't need to use it today." Elder Treya stated.

.....

Kumori was walking around the outskirts of the village because she was feeling frustrated about what she heard the day before.

"Everyone always says bad things about Miss Mai. She never does anything though. But I guess people talk bad about her because she doesn't do anything. That isn't true though, Miss Mai can do a lot of things."

She aimlessly trekked through the forest, picking orange leaves off of trees and mumbling to herself. After a few minutes she came across someone walking ahead of her. She didn't recognize them at first but after tailing them for a bit, she realized it was Elder Aira. Kumori decided to continue following her in secret.

.....

A dense white mist once again engulfed Aaron as he stood clueless in the white room that he's already visited once before.

"I'm back here?" He questioned.

"Yup, welcome back." The mysterious voice said. "Oh damn, I keep forgetting..."

Suddenly the figure of a man appeared directly behind Aaron.

"Yo." He said into Aaron's left ear.

Startled by the voice, Aaron stumbled forward and quickly turned to look behind him. At first glance, he looked directly into the only area of darkness that could be found around him. Where the mysterious man head should be in his hoodie was clouded by unsettling darkness.

"You're... N." Aaron said.

"I'm glad you remembered my name. Or I guess my letter? Doesn't matter."

"Who are you? How did you know Kaden was in Aestus and why were you helping me find him? Also how did you know my name the last time we spoke?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down buddy." N said as he walked closer to Aaron. "We should have more time to talk than last time but our time still is finite. Let me say a few things before I answer your questions. Firstly, both you and Kaden ended up in this world simply by chance but I plan to use the both of you for my benefit. What I'm trying to accomplish will take time so I won't speak much about it right now as that information won't be useful to you. Secondly, you really made things more difficult than it had to be. If you had called out to Kenzo when you first arrived in Aestus things would've went a lot smoother. You're still alive so I won't criticize you much."

"How do you know things would've went smoother?" Aaron questioned.

"Oh, I can see the future."

"..."