This chapter has been reworked from the original. It has to be this way, as I can't skip the key plot points. There may also be some inaccuracies, since English is not my native language.
Essentially, TBATE is first translated from English into my native language — and in that process, some details are already altered to make it more understandable for us. Now I'm taking that adapted (and somewhat distorted) version, revising it, rewriting it, and then translating it back into English.
I hope you'll point out any mistakes in the text that I might have missed.
POV Arthur Leywin.
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By the time I opened my eyes and felt the cool stickiness of saliva pooling under my cheek, I realized I had been unconscious for quite some time.
Pulling my face away from the wet floor, I rolled onto my back.
For a moment, I felt elated that I could move, but that feeling was interrupted by an overwhelming thirst.
Swallowing the last of my saliva to moisten my parched throat, I propped myself up on my elbows. The movement felt unfamiliar, my body stiff and foreign, but I was still happy with my newfound mobility.
Sitting on the floor, I was distracted again when I saw my own hands.
"What the..."
My hands were pale, almost white, and there was not a single blemish on them. The calluses on my palms, which had appeared over years of wielding a sword, had disappeared. The scars on my knuckles were gone. Even the scars on my wrists, inflicted by the poisonous witch, the first Retainer I had fought, had disappeared, replaced by smooth, unblemished skin.
It seemed that Sylvie had done much more than just heal my wounds from the abuse Realmhear Physique.
My arms still retained the muscle I had built up over years of training, but they were thinner. My hands also seemed smaller, and my fingers more slender.
When my gaze slid lower, to my forearms, or more precisely, to my left forearm, a sharp pain pierced my chest.
The mark was gone.
Panic seized me again as I frantically waved my arm around to see if it was somehow on the other side, but it wasn't there. The mark I had received after connecting with Sylvie had completely disappeared, along with all the scars and calluses.
"Before you start crying again, look to your right," a clear, soothingly calm voice said nearby.
Turning to my right, I saw a translucent, rainbow-colored stone the size of my palm. My eyes widened, and I rushed toward the colorful stone and grabbed it.
"Is this...?"
"Yep. It's your bond," the other voice replied curtly, its tone cynical.
A black wandering light the size of my fist floated into my field of vision. Inside the sphere of dark light, two bright sparks glowed like eyes, and the black line beneath them resembled a mouth twisted into a crooked smile.
I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could continue, the wandering light darted closer to me. It bowed, as if in greeting.
"Behold, master. I am Regis, the mighty weapon given to you by the asuras so long ago—I have finally arrived in all my glory!" proclaimed the dark orb before... sighing. "Honestly, it's a shame you were unconscious. It was damn impressive."
Confusion turned to surprise, then anger.
"Why...?" I hissed through clenched teeth.
"Why what?" The light of the wandering flame dimmed, and it tilted slightly in the air, like a dog bowing its head in confusion.
That simplicity, that meaningful expression, made me furious.
"Why?!" I roared, putting all my disappointment, anger, and fear into a dry cry, feeling it tear through my parched throat, but at that moment, I didn't care. I lunged forward, slowly and painfully swinging at the black ball of fire.
My hand passed right through the wandering flame, and I didn't have the strength to stop my momentum. I fell forward, hitting my face hard on the smooth, cold floor.
"Hey, keep your hands to yourself, buddy!" barked the wandering flame. "This is a serious violation of my bodily autonomy!"
Struggling to a sitting position, I let my rage boil and bubble inside as I stared at the spot on my left palm where Regis had appeared.
"Why? Why the hell did you show up now? After years of draining my mana and doing what you want, why do you appear now?" I shifted my gaze to the black flame. "If you had appeared earlier, I could've won. I could've saved everyone!"
My voice trembled at the thought of my loved ones left behind in Dicathen, my vision blurring with tears.
"You're such a ray of sunshine! The Asuras would have killed each other fighting over a rational weapon like me, and here you are, sitting around, crying..."
"I needed you," I hissed through my lips, almost in a whisper. Tears dripped onto the rust-red floor as I scratched the smooth stone.
The wandering flame swayed from side to side, as if shaking its head, but remained silent.
Somewhere deep in my stomach, a small feeling of guilt arose, but it wasn't mine. It was clearly Regis's guilt for not being there and the pain of my reproach. I sighed. I was angry at Regis, but I also understood that I was just using him as an excuse for my own failures.
When my tears dried up, I felt a sharp burning sensation in my parched throat. I needed to find something to drink.
"There is a source of clean water here," said a soft voice that I had completely forgotten about. "Drink something before you turn into a mummy from crying so much."
I turned my head and saw an inviting marble fountain, and next to it sat the owner of the voice.
"You... you..." I began, my voice slightly trembling, "Asura?"
"Hah," the woman smiled softly, her long hair mostly black as night but with a few strands of white curls swaying slightly, revealing her strikingly beautiful face even more. "In a way, yes, but so are you."
Listening to the voice and looking more closely, I realized that it was a guy about twenty years old, so handsome that I initially mistook him for a woman. But what he said only gave me more questions.
But his following words froze my blood.
"Nice to meet you, King Grey, or Arthur Leywin. I'd like to talk to you, and I'm sure you would too, but" — the man pointed his thin, snow-white fingers at the marble fountain — "first, you'd better drink some water and calm down a bit. I'll answer all your questions to the best of my knowledge."
Sighing slowly, I couldn't even find the strength to raise my voice or show surprise for more than a moment.
A wandering light flashed before my eyes. "Boss, I talked to him while you were sleeping, and although he wasn't very talkative, he didn't seem like a bad guy. You'd better drink some water."
I hesitated, trusting neither the wandering light, nor the water, nor the man sitting by the fountain, but also angry at myself, at that dark part of my soul that whispered to curl up in a corner and wait for the end.
What's the point? I failed and lost everything. Again.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the glint of a small rainbow-colored stone.
"Ah, yes, she's still alive. She's in a coma and just sleeping peacefully," the man's voice sounded more like a child being persuaded to take a step forward, which was annoying, but the joy of his information warmed my chest like the sun.
Pushing aside all the emotions that weighed heavily on my body, I crawled in the direction where I had seen the fountain. My milky-pale hands felt foreign as I crawled across the room. I still felt like I was encased in armor, even though I was almost naked.
"Come on, pretty boy, you're almost there," Regis teased, circling above me like a fly I couldn't swat.
"Shut up..." I croaked, my lungs aching from the effort.
I focused my attention on the inviting marble fountain. The water flowed from the top so cleanly and quietly that it seemed like glass.
It took Herculean effort to climb onto the rounded base that held the water, but, still thinking of Sylvie, I pulled myself up until, trembling and sweating, I could look into the clear water.
I immediately plunged my head into it. It felt like I had crashed my face into an icy wall. I opened my mouth and began to swallow greedily. The water was invigorating and cool as it rushed down my throat. I continued to swallow mouthfuls of water until I could no longer hold my breath.
"Gah!" I gasped, pulling my head out and gasping for air. A curtain of beige hair blocked my view.
I brushed the hair from my eyes, then grabbed a strand and stared at it suspiciously.
Regis chuckled behind me. "You're acting like a puppy seeing its own tail for the first time."
Ignoring him, I looked down, seeing my reflection for the first time since waking up. My eyes widened.
The face staring back at me from the icy depths was very similar to mine, only slightly older, with more angular features and skin the same milky white color as my hands. The red scar around my throat, which I had also received from the Retainer I encountered in the battle at Slore, was gone, revealing a smooth, long neck and Adam's apple.
But what shocked me most were the changes in my hair and eyes. My eyes were piercing gold, and the color seemed to have been completely washed out of my once chestnut hair. My deep reddish-brown hair was now a pale wheat color, even lighter than Sylvie's hair in her human form.
My chest tightened at the sight of my reflection. My own hair and eyes were now a constant reminder of the sacrifice of my bond. It was accompanied by a sharp pain of loss, as if I had taken another step away from my loved ones. The features I had inherited from my parents were gone.
"I don't understand. What..." A burning pain flared inside me, as if my mana core had suddenly ignited, and a cry escaped my throat.
My vision blurred and darkened, then I heard a voice. A voice I hadn't heard in a long time, but one I could never forget.
"Hello, Art, it's Sylvia."
My heart pounded against my ribs as excitement rose, pushing out the burning pain in my core.
"S-Sylvia?"
"I'm recording this at the same time as my first message to you, but I suspect it's been quite a while since you've heard my voice. I suppose I should say it's been quite a while."
I laughed, feeling new tears running down my cheeks, ignoring Regis and the man next to him.
"I have mixed feelings about you hearing this message. On the one hand, I am proud that you have been able to achieve what you have. But the fact that you had to bring yourself to this state means that your life has not been easy, perhaps even more difficult than your previous one."
Her tone became somber, her words heavy.
"Reaching this stage means that you had to fight for your life against enemies much stronger than you, and those could only have been Agrona and his servants, the Vritras."
I tensed at the mention of Agrona. Sylvia's voice sounded sad, as if her heart had been broken.
"War between Agrona and the Asuras is inevitable, and Dicathen will most likely find itself caught between two fires. There is much I need to tell you, but the amount of information I can retain without being able to track it is limited, so I will be brief. With my daughter as your bond and the fact that you are reborn, my father has most likely taken extraordinary measures to get you, offering training and guidance in exchange for using your talents in the war. And in your interactions with my people, you have undoubtedly been given a very one-sided picture."
Once again, Sylvia's voice was tinged with sadness.
"The tension between Vritra and the other Asura clans is not as simple as you have been told. Unlike fairy tales and bedtime stories, in life there is not always a good side and a bad side, only 'my side' and 'their side'. Agron cannot be forgiven for all the atrocities he has committed over the centuries, but neither can the other asuras, including me."
Confusion overwhelmed my thoughts, my mind racing, trying to comprehend Sylvia's words, but I forced myself back to the present moment when she spoke again, afraid to miss a single word.
"Agrona, who had always been fascinated by the life of the Lesser, discovered the ruins of a civilization of mages—mages who had learned to use the aether. It was Agrona who figured out why these ancient mage had fallen, despite their technological and magical achievements. Centuries ago, the Indrath clan committed genocide against these ancient mages."
That doesn't make any sense! Why would the Indrath clan destroy... My question was interrupted by the continuation of Sylvia's message.
"The Indrath clan stood out as the leader among the other Asuras clans and was revered as the beings closest to the true gods, not only for our strength, but also because our control over the aether could not be replicated by anyone else. Therefore, when one of the emissaries of the Indrath clan discovered a secluded civilization of Lesserers capable of using these aetheric powers, the dragons were indignant."
"Fearing that their power and authority might be challenged, the elders ordered... the destruction... of the Lesser. From what I have been told, unlike our clan, which developed and trained its aetheric arts for battle, these ancient mages sought only to improve life through technological advances."
Sylvia paused, allowing the silence to linger in my mind as I imagined the inevitable results of the battle between the Indrath clan and the peaceful Lesser civilization.
"This act of genocide was kept as the Indrath clan's darkest secret, hidden from other Asura and even many of our own clanmates. The mages' technologies were hidden and studied, but because of how complex their underground cities were and the great lengths they went to in order to hide their knowledge from the asura, we were never sure that we had truly uncovered everything they had hidden. Agron found one of these hidden ruins and threatened to expose the Indrat clan for their misdeeds, claiming that they had violated the noblesse oblige that we, the asura, owed to the lessers. You can imagine how the elders of my clan reacted.
"Knowing that Agrona loved to disguise himself and sneak into Dicathen and Alacrya for his research, they accused him of having intimate relations with the Lesser Ones and then banished him to Alacrya."
I shook my head. It was hard to imagine Kordri, Myre, or Aldir involved in such petty political turmoil, but when I thought of Lord Indrath's cold, oppressive presence, I realized I wasn't really surprised at all.
"My greatest regret will always be that I allowed my family to completely destroy the life of my fiancé... and the father of my unborn child."
Does that mean...
"The signs of my pregnancy appeared only a few months after Agrona's exile. The birth of a new member of the Indrath clan was a rare occurrence and should have been a celebration, but I knew that neither my clan nor any of the Great Eight clans would approve of this child's birth, so when I learned one night that my father was planning to kill Agrona in Alacrya, I tried to get to Agrona first."
"I admit I was young and foolish, Arthur. Rebelling against my parents for taking away the man I thought I loved, I found Agrona in Alacrya before the squad my father had sent for him. However, the man I found was not the cunning and charming seeker of knowledge I had fallen in love with, but a man driven mad by the betrayal of his fellow tribesmen... and his love—me."
"He and his loyal followers from the Vritra clan combed through the buried texts of ancient mages and attempted to develop their work in a different direction, using Lessers as test subjects. I don't know his ultimate plans, except for the conquest of Efeot, but he researched an element - an edict higher than that which encompasses the ether, higher than time, space, and life."
"Fate."
The word "Fate" immediately brought one person to mind: Elder Rinia. She was not only a prophetess, but also someone who could control the aether. She categorically claimed that she had no connection to the ancient mages, but...
My brain ached from trying to make sense of all the information Sylvia had left me.
"Fate is connected not only to the life we live now, but also to lives in other places and times,"
I gasped.
"I'm sure you're familiar with this. Fate, after all, is a key component of reincarnation. Agrona believed that the vessel was a key component in the forced application of reincarnation, which is why I couldn't risk you falling into Agrona's hands. My true knowledge of this is limited, however, and I am losing my way. I'm sorry, Arthur, I don't have much time left."
"Upon learning that I was carrying a child of both basilisk and dragon blood, Agrona kept me imprisoned until I gave birth. Of course, I couldn't allow my child to become the subject of his cruel experiments, so I locked her away in a pocket dimension I created inside a stone."
"Although I did not learn the extent of Agrona's plans until my escape, I discovered that there are four ruins built by ancient mages that neither he nor the other asuras can penetrate. I have recorded the locations of these four ruins in this message. Agrona bred lessers and sent them to the ruins to learn more about what was down there. He must not be the one to uncover these secrets, whatever they may be."
"What I am leaving you is not some grand quest. That was never my intention. But if you find yourself lost or feeling weak and outnumbered, perhaps the answer Agrona seeks is also your answer.
Take care of my daughter and yourself. Farewell, child."
And with that, Sylvia's voice faded, leaving me stunned.
Too many revelations to comprehend all at once. Indrat and the others... They lied to me. They used me. They hid the fact that Silv was Agrona's daughter... all to keep their secret.
Lord Indrath was a genocidal maniac... but was he worse than Agrona? If I had to choose, could I side with Agrona, despite everything he had done?
No. But I don't have to forgive Indrat either. It was his fault that Sylvia died alone in the cave. It was his fault that Agrona was allowed to take over Alacrya, experiment on the people there, and start a war with Dicathen.
Damn it!
Damn it all!
Only when Regis emerged from my chest did I snap out of my thoughts.
"Hmm, there's a lot to think about here," said the black wandering flame.
I stared at him. "Did you hear all that?"
"Why else would I want to be literally inside you?" Regis' bright eyes rolled inside his disembodied body.
"Ahem, ahem," a cough interrupted my dialogue with Regis, "as much as I'd like to look at you longer, we need to talk, Arthur Gray."
My gaze darted toward the man, and only now could I get a better look at him. He was over two meters tall, his skin was as white as snow, and he was thin, as if he hadn't eaten properly for weeks.
His hair was so long that it touched the floor when he sat down. It was mostly black as night, but with a few strands of shiny white curls. Each strand of his hair was strong and thick, like thin steel wire. His hair was now combed back, allowing me to see his face better, and honestly, he was beautiful, even by my standards.
His face was as if carved from stone, retaining the best of men and the best of women where necessary, creating an incredible picture in combination with his large, cat-like heterochromatic eyes, one eye bright lavender and the other bright molten gold. His face wore a heavy expression of fear and determination.
The man moved toward the wall next to a pile of stones.
Only now did I realize that he was completely naked, not even wearing underwear.
"Wow, you've got a nice package," Regis's voice rang out in the empty room, full of mockery.
But the man didn't even bat an eye and simply climbed in, covering himself with stones so that only his head was visible. His hair covered his face, leaving only his nose and eyes exposed, making him look effeminate again.
"You'd better sit closer to where you woke up too," his voice lost the softness I had heard, becoming more focused.
Not knowing what else to do, I limped back to the rainbow stone, picked it up, and trudged to the wall where I had first awakened. Inside was Sylvia's daughter, my bond, whom she had asked me to take care of. Sitting down, I looked up at him.
"How do you know who I am?" My voice was cold, but the man just raised an eyebrow, completely ignoring me.
" Let me introduce myself first. Ahem, my name is Lucius Lucius Zogratis. A couple of hours ago, I was an ordinary sixteen-year-old schoolboy from Earth," my eyes narrowed to slits, but I couldn't find the strength to interrupt him, "on my way to a part-time job, something stole me and pushed me into this world."
Lucius' gaze slid over me, his eyes full of sadness and suppressed fear. "How do I know who you are?" you asked. "Well... your world was a book in mine."
"Ha! What nonse," I began, but before I could finish, his voice interrupted me.
"As sad as it may be for you, I will continue. We must not waste time, not now," Lucius shook his head, completely ignoring my scorching gaze. "The book was called The Beginning After the End and told the story of King Grey, who was reborn as Arthur Leywin, and how this boy shed his shell and tried to simply live in peace with his family, but whether it was his first or second life, failure haunted him endlessly. But that's not important, Arthur. To prove the truth of my words, wait literally ten minutes."
Nodding slowly, I began to digest the information I had received, casting aside my doubts about my identity and the possibility that I might just be a character in someone's book.
"Let's start with the good news to cheer you up," Lucius said, nodding to himself. "From what I've read, we are actually in one of the hidden ruins of the ancient mages that Lady Silvia mentioned."
"Did you hear that too?" I said, my voice echoing through the room.
But he just shook his head again and nodded toward the metal door. I examined the metal door, its frame covered with runes, then looked at him again.
"Read it, I read it," he began, "please don't interrupt me, we don't have much time, don't try to do anything even if you think I'm going to say something bad, right now I'm telling you good news."
His gaze weighed heavily on my body. I nodded my head, clenching my teeth.
"So, let's begin. Your connection, Lady Silvie used high-level Vivum art to transfer part of her Asura body to you and save you, plus the help of fate, of course. This leads to several pieces of news. You heard Lady Silvia's message not because you overcame the white core stage. In fact, your core is damaged beyond recognition."
"Damaged? No, it's not..." My voice trailed off as I sensed the internal state of my body.
Lucius was right. When I tried to spread mana throughout my body—an action as natural to a Lance as breathing—I felt only a slight tingling sensation.
Changing tactics, I tried to gather the surrounding mana. This time, I felt nothing at all — no warm blanket like before, when mana rushed into me and gathered in my core.
"No," I muttered, struggling to lift my heavy body to my feet.
"Sit down," Lucius' loud voice interrupted my attempts. "I told you it was good news, just listen! In a few hours, you will create what even the ancient asuras could not do. You will forge an aether core from the remains of the mana core and, after a while, revive Lady Silvie. "
His words froze Regis and me in place, but I felt that for different reasons
Slowly sitting down, I calmed my nerves and breathing by gently pressing Silvie's stone. His words about her possible resurrection were what really calmed me down.
"Because of your antics, we have less time, but never mind. Let me start with what I think will happen in ten minutes," he shrugged, his voice not entirely confident. "As I said, we are in the relict tombs where Agrona sends the people of Alacrya to bring out knowledge and relics, since the Asuras themselves cannot do it. "
My breathing faltered once again.
"Yes, as you probably already understand, if we get out of the tombs, we'll find ourselves right in Alacrya, or more precisely, in a small town called Maerin. Very soon, three rising Lady Caera and her two bodyguards will enter this hall. According to the plot, Regis will be the first to notice them and tell you to press yourself against the wall. Realizing that your mana core is broken, they will ignore you, except for one man with a mace and muscles instead of brains. He will want to kill you, but in the end, everything will be resolved. They will turn their backs, and bam, you will see the runes on their backs and release your thirst for blood from -which will make the man with the mace, Tegen, want to kill you again, but Lady Caera will say, "Don't kill her."
"Pfahahaha" - Regis, who had been silent until then, began to laugh wildly - "How funny that sounds coming from a guy who looks as feminine as Arthur, hehehah."
"Hehe, I also found it funny when I sat down and read it in the evening," Lucius smiled weakly, but the smile quickly faded from his face. "Ah, one more thing, you may not have noticed yet, but your body has evolved greatly. Four bloodlines now flow within you, perfectly mixed together thanks to Fate."
"Right now, you feel weaker than ever because your body has become very similar to that of an asuras." His eyes closed as he squinted slightly. "The bodies of asur are connected to their core; without it, they die, and you and I are now in a similar situation. "
"And you?" I asked carefully, remembering how he had said at the beginning that he was like an asur.
"And I received a system when I arrived in this world. It's a communication system. I can connect myself to someone and get two opportunities." His eyes opened and stared eagerly, first at me and then at Regis. "First, I can double the potential of the person I'm connected to. For example, if we were in a game, your potential as the main character would be, say, 83,000. I can manually change that number to 166,000. I haven't fully figured it out yet, but the system isn't complicated. And I thought, why not bind myself to the main character and his companion?"
My palms sweated and my heart beat faster at his words. If everything he said was true, then I would be able to control the aether several times better, which would increase the chance of Sylvie and Dad's resurrection.
"That still doesn't explain your body," Regis said suspiciously.
And indeed, it didn't.
"I don't have time to finish every time." Lucius shook his head disapprovingly. "The second ability is the ability to get x0.5 x1 x2 from the one I'm connected to, and I got x1 when your new body was formed and got the ability to instill my spirit into it, and now I'm slowly dying with you right after my transfer to this world. Funny, isn't it?"
The question hadn't left my lips when Regis suddenly shifted.
"Get down!" Regis hissed, suddenly flying into my body.
"Press yourself against the wall and play dead. Looks like this guy was right!"
I pressed myself against the wall just in time to see a pillar of blue light appear in the center of the room.
Allowing my bangs to fall over my face, I kept my eyes open.
When the pillar of blue light faded, I could make out the silhouettes of three figures. The light went out completely, leaving only three figures standing in the center of the room—two men and one woman.
Just as Lucius had said.