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"I really don't think it's anything to argue about, so I'll go with what she says."

Elric shrugged his shoulders. If that's the way they wanted to do things/ "Fair enough, Benny. Just stay on your side of the tent." He didn't want Benjamin holding onto him in the morning just because he was cold or heard a sound.

"Stop calling me Benny, ugh!"

"Couldn't find it huh? Don't worry about the tents, Nina. You found two, that will get us through this one night. Between the four of us I'm sure we can board an inn next time." Elric then yawned, now he was really tired. "Well, I'm going to bed, so night everyone. Don't forget to give those two their goodnight kisses." He teased on his way out.

"You don't need to treat us that little you know..." Pouted Benjamin.

Next Day... (3rd)

Benjamin was the one that was up first, so he woke up the others. It was an opportunity well missed, but he'd rather play a prank on Elric where he'd know he wasn't in danger. They were all up and about, back into civilization, but on the opposite side of Uni. No matter, nothing a simple train ride couldn't fix. Once back in Duon, Elric mentioned they should just go to Eca and Irvin directly...

"Well, that's the ring alright. Thunder World Ring of Quintu to be exact. Good job tracking one down so fast." Said Eca as she held the glowing white and yellow ring. "But what's this talk about a girl looking for the rings as well?"

"Another one? How is this possible?" Said Ecalena, she couldn't believe there was yet a 3rd, but if what Nina said was true...

"Irving, call up Arteria. We need to speak to her." She said to her son, who quickly got on it. "I don't want to say she could be right, but there is that possibility Nina. She has something you lack, she knows herself. You don't, you were raised with as normal of a childhood your parents could provide for you." She explained.

Eca sighed and looked down. "Well, you told me she was fast enough to grab your sword, on the opposite side no doubt..."

"Connor could do the whole exit in a blur thing, and he's a failure." Added Elric, he hated to think it, but Nina was going to need to step up her game. "We need to know what can you do. Get superpowers too!"

Ecalena agreed with the cousin. "Which is why I've asked for Arteria. If anyone knows, she would know."

Elric punched his cousin in the shoulder. "Yeah, but it's going to be hard, juggling this adventure and training at the same time. We better just go to Quintu next and put their stone back, save who we can you know?"

Then there was a knock on the door. They let Arteria in and walked her inside with the others. She was told the situation on the way.

"Nina..." She walked over to her "creation" and cupped her face. She had not seen her since she was three, only because of her own decision to stay out of her life. "It's...been so long." Said Arteria as tears welled up in her eyes. "I don't know if you still remember me."

"Yes, Aunty Art." She smiled, she always refused such a title, but Mina would not let her think otherwise. "I believe your mother put it so eloquently that I was the one that put you in her." Embarrassment took over, that was never easy to say.

"I could be here all day admiring you, answering your casual questions, but have something serious coming, correct? Crystal Children, my work on you wasn't entirely secretive. As a scientist, natural I want to share and boast about my findings, this was before your mother's pregnancy of course."

Arteria held her chin as she reflected on that. "Yes, he would be incomplete if he has a defect like that. He's missing something in his formula. I believe Irvin said it was his foundation crystal lacking the proper amount of elements. Think of it as what's going on with his arm as a virus. It's going to spread until he's nothing but a crystal stone himself. I know this because well, you could say that you had older brothers and sisters that didn't make it." She explained, once the scientist realized what she had with Nina, she had no reason to make more like her.

"We got that from the Eca and Irvin, but how do we fix him?" Asked Elric, this had her greatly confused, but she should had expected that.

"Fix him? Well I suppose you could share your foundation crystal with him, but not too much of it. You were meant to be a potion Nina, something to boost the strength and abilities of warriors. I learned you were also a perpetual energy source, among much more." She answered, Arteria was able to once power the entire facility using Nina with the proper energy flow tuning.

"You will restore your own foundation crystal in time so long as it's not completely dry, I just can't say it's a good idea though. You should put him down, end his suffering as quickly as you can."