After the talk with Alduin, Merial and Virion going very similar to the original timeline, Tess and I were walking to the garden waiting for gramps to come and test me. As we reached the door leading to the outside area I felt a small amount of killing intent from behind us. Spinning around to position myself I pushed Tess behind me and caught the toy that was thrown at us.

"What the hell! Why are you attacking your own granddaughter!?"

"Oh please, you can stop pretending brat, you knew it was coming. This isn't the first time we're doing this. I thought I was going insane after waking up in my room and not in Darv. Now follow me so we can talk." He finished with a serious expression.

What is he talking about and how did he know I was expecting him? The only way he could have known was for him to... of course he did. I looked over to Tess and she looked at me. It seems we reached the same conclusion and so followed Virion to his office.

As we were taking our seats a maid came in and served tea for us. The next few minutes we simply stared at each other until gramps finally spoke.

"So, what date are you thinking about for the wedding?" He said with a smirk and Tess did a spit take drenching him in tee.

"GRANDPA! We thought you had something serious to discuss!"

"I do, I just couldn't help myself there little one. I'm happy to see you two again after everything that happened. Now tell me Arthur, how did you reverse time?" He said while pulling out a handkerchief to dry himself.

"Well I didn't, technically it was a Djinn relic and as far as I know, only I was supposed to regress so imagine my surprise when Tess told me she did as well."

"I see. Any ideas as to why more people came back?"

"Not a clue. Tess, you said that the Archivist baited Agron into sending Cecilia to the Relictombs, did he say anything about bringing other people?" I looked over to her as I asked.

"He actually did. He said the spell would use my soul to look for other people that could help you and send their memories back, but it wasn't guaranteed to happen." I deadpanned at her.

"And you didn't tell me until now because?"

"Teehee."

"You just forgot, got it. Anyways, now that we know there could be others, how should we search for them?" I turned to Virion as I asked. "Any ideas, gramps?"

"Just leave that to me, and since they are people that could help you, a list of who you think might have regressed as well would help."

"Hmm, I can only think of a few outside you two. I'll give you the list later, right now there is something I want to show you." I pulled out Agrona's journal from my storage rune and slid it across the table. "Guess who this belongs to."

Gramps picked up and skimmed through the journal.

"How the hell did you get your hands on this!?" Shock was all over his face.

"Regis found it after we killed Agrona." I replied nonchalantly.

"I'll have to thank him later for it, now we have a realistic chance of winning this war without depending on those damn Asura." He paused for a moment before continuing. "Now that we know where to begin, what's your plan for the war? I'm sure you already figured something out."

"Sort of. There's not much we can do on a big scale before the attack on Xyrus other than to prepare supplies, safehouses and map out the dungeons on the beast glades which we can ask Alea and Aya for help. For now I was thinking of working on my aether arts, specifically on one that would help purify a mana core. On my way here I studied how the aether purified mine on its own and I'm pretty close on figuring out how to replicate the effect for someone else. Once that is done I'll start unlocking the third keystone I got from the Djinn while helping with Tessia's training. That's all I can do for now."

"Good, I'll call them tomorrow. I have a good idea where to start looking for the Alacryan camps." He paused for a bit before continuing. "That's enough planning for today, we have plenty of time to discuss these things later, you two must be tired from the trip so go rest for tomorrow."

With that Tess and I went to our rooms to finally sleep on a bed.

____________________________________________________

It's been a week since I arrived in Zestier, after the talk with Virion we went to see Rinia to make sure my parents were okay and tell them I'm alive. She gave us some words of advice and warned me to keep changes to a minimum before I start attending Xyrus Academy.

Regis has stayed quiet since we arrived working on something. Tess and I have spent some time together as well going on little dates after my assimilation and training with gramps are finished for the day. One thing I noticed is that she has become more possessive of me since we came back. It was surprising at first but I'm starting to enjoy it since it's cute. She even tried to sneak into my room in the middle of the night yesterday only to have Merial catch her.

Right now I was in my room holding the memory cube as Regis called it, debating whether I should use it to help explain to Virion why Tessia was captured and who Cecilia was. He asked Tess about it but she said it was better to wait for me to talk about it when I felt ready. As I was thinking about that Regis came into the room through the window.

"Good news everyone, your local badass and genius wolf has figured out how to reverse Destruction!" He announced while trying to strike some kind of pose. He stood on his hind legs while pointing to the ceiling with one paw and looking up.

"That's amazing. Is that why you were so quiet the past two weeks?" I tried hiding my surprise to not inflate his ego even more than it already is.

"No, I was working on pick up lines to use on Aya. The reversing Destruction was something I came up with last night while looking for some fun in the city."

"Of course that's what you were doing." I said, shaking my head. "Just explain how to reverse the rune."

"Well you see, while looking for some entertainment I saw this street performer who was pulling shit out of a flame and thought 'if this random guy can pull stuff out of a fire why can't I?' So I spent the last of the night trying and it kinda worked."

"What do you mean kinda worked?" I asked in shock that he almost succeeded in just one night.

"I found some place where I didn't have to worry Destruction spreading too much before I could stop it by trying first to control what it consumed. After a while it got easy enough to try making something out of it, but the only thing that came out was a sword that dissolved before I could finish pulling it out." I felt some disappointment come through our bond as he finished speaking.

"I don't even know what to say, the fact that you not only thought of it but almost made it is incredible." I paused for a bit. "I guess we know what you will be doing for a while. I wanted to send you to the beast glades to help the Lances and get some cores for Sylvie but reversing Destruction comes first, it will make our lives much easier later on."

"But dad I want to hang out with Aya, how can I use the pick up lines I worked so hard on if I don't?" He said in a whiny tone like a child who was just told they can't play games without finishing their homework first.

I simply stared at him with a blank expression before responding. "You'll have plenty of time for that later, just focus on the rune for now. Who knows what you can make with it, maybe you'll finally get some genitals so all the flirting you do doesn't go to waste." This should make him put in some extra work. There were a few seconds of silence as he considered my words.

"YOU'RE A GENIUS, HOW DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT!" Yeah that will do it, I just hope he actually finds a way to make more than a penis.

"Alright calm down a bit, I need you to do something for me today, after that you're free to do whatever."

"Just give the order boss." He said saluting.

"I need two things. First is a nice restaurant, second a jewelry store, doesn't need to be anything too fancy and budget isn't a problem since I still have some money from my Lance salary and I made sure to visit Agrona's vault before we used the staff."

"So we're adding heist to our list of crimes, neat." He paused for a second. "Well, consider it done. I'll give you the list of places after lunch." And with that he jumped out of the window.

With Regis gone I got ready for my training with Virion. It started like normal with assimilation first and then some sparring so I could get adjusted to my body again. It wasn't as bad as last time but my movements were still a bit off.

After I finished the training with gramps, I went back to my room to change out of the dirty clothes. With some time left until lunch I decided to meditate on the Vivum art to merge Sylvie's eggs. I could do it now, but something was bothering me saying it wasn't the right time so I focused on improving the art to make sure she was as close as possible to her original power. And good thing I did, as I meditated my insight into Vivum increased, it was very little but it was progress.

After about an hour or so a maid came to call me. Lunch was normal with some small talk and Merial asking a bit about my family, she seems a lot more interested in me this time. After we were done Regis talked through our bond.

"Got the list you asked for. I made sure to put only the real nice ones, should be enough to make your princess happy."

"Perfect, and how did you know it was for Tess?"

"Because why else would you ask?"

"Touche. You're free to do whatever now and don't bother us later."

"Don't have to ask me twice." With that Regis blocked our connection.

With the list Regis made I planned out for tonight and waited for Tess's next break from her classes to ask her out.