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.
× × × × ×
Third-person view
Lucius' lips slowly stretched into a smile when the whole group found themselves in pitch darkness. The air was dry and stifling, with a fresh breeze blowing from somewhere below. Even with their enhanced vision, neither Lucius nor Arthur could tell whether their eyes were open or closed.
"Nobody move," Kalon said, his voice piercing the darkness in a muffled whisper.
The soft glow of someone's rune lit up before a flash of sparks lit up the group, illuminating the space. Huge, eerie faces stared at them from the darkness.
Riah, who was only a few steps ahead of me, raised her fan-shaped dagger and jumped back, nearly falling off the edge of the narrow path we were standing on. Haedrig's hand shot forward and grabbed her elbow, holding her tight until she regained her balance.
Riah turned to look down over the edge, then the flash of sparks faded, hiding the grotesque faces and their expressions of anguish.
"Give me a second to complete the spell." Kalon spoke quietly, and the rune on his bare back glowed again.
This time, the ascendant produced an orange flash, brighter and more controlled than the sparks. It flooded the space with warm light, revealing a huge room or perhaps a corridor. No one could see the ceiling or anything in front of or behind the group. The narrow path on which they appeared was about 130 centimeters wide and seemed to float in a sea of darkness.
Along both walls were something like carved faces, vaguely resembling human ones, only ugly and shapeless. However, this was not due to a lack of obvious skill: the expressions on the faces were so detailed that it seemed as if they had once been alive and frozen in their last moments of pain and rage.
"Arthur," Lucius' voice rang out in the mental space, tense as he looked down.
"Huh? What is it?" Arthur replied, also looking around.
"This zone... wasn't in the original, but..." Lucius's gaze darted to the walls, trying to see what he wanted to see.
"I think I sense something," Lucius said so that everyone could hear, shifting his gaze to the bottomless depths.
Kalon stopped dead in his tracks, leaning over the edge of the stone path and stretching out his burning hand. A minute later, he did the same on the other side, then looked back at Lucius.
"Are you sure? There's nothing down there, and I didn't feel any mana fluctuations," he said, giving Lucius a searching look before turning to Ada. "Send a homing flame down one side."
Ada spread her arms, and when the rune on her back lit up, a spinning ball of fire the size of her head appeared. She sent it into the abyss, while the others watched warily as it descended.
Everyone watched as the large ball of dense fire descended. It did not fall like a stone or fly like an arrow, but floated through the air as if alive, turning and twisting wherever Ada directed it. As it traveled, the fireball illuminated the smooth wall of the bridge we stood on, as well as the hideous statues on the far wall of the wide corridor.
Then, as suddenly as if someone had pulled back a curtain, dozens of human-like faces appeared far below, their large glassy eyes reflecting the orange light.
A frightened scream rang out next to Arthur, and the fireball dissipated, plunging all the creatures down below back into darkness.
"Run!" roared Kalon, pushing Ezra and Riah forward. He grabbed his sister with one hand and raised his other hand, still glowing with light, high in the air to illuminate the entire space as much as possible, and ran down the path after them.
Lucius's head spun from side to side as his eyes stopped with frightening precision on every visible face, scanning every inch of visible space in an attempt to find his or Arthur's face carved into the wall.
However, despite the group's frantic pace, there was no end in sight. On top of that, they could now hear eerie sounds coming from the creatures below, like moans or screeches, which were getting louder and louder.
"I still can't see the end of this path!" Ezra shouted from the front, his low voice trembling.
"Damn it! What the hell is going on?" Kalon cursed.
Arthur glanced over his shoulder at Lucius, who was stoically covering their rear.
"Duck!" Lucius shouted, quickly lowering his tall body.
Haedrig lowered his head without hesitation, barely managing to dodge a black spot that floated past, right where his head had been.
"W-what was that?" Ada squealed. Her older brother was still carrying her, and she could see it most clearly.
"Don't stop!" Kalon urged.
The distorted howls of the beasts, along with their squeaky chirps, grew into a deafening roar before new shadows began to rise from the sea of darkness.
It was under Kalon's illuminating spell that the group finally saw the creatures they had encountered, and they were something straight out of a nightmare. They had snake-like bodies the size and girth of a human, with two long arms ending in shiny claws. Each monster's long neck bore a disfigured, human-like face, just like the statues. They were filled with hatred and rage.
Kalon was about to release Ada and draw his weapon for the first time, but Lucius' calm voice made him move on.
"Guys, don't stop. I think the clue is in the statues, and if my guess is correct," Lucius stopped and decapitated the ghoul with a lightning-fast movement, "this area manipulates space."
"What kind of nonsense are you talking about right now!" Ezra yelled, fending off the ghoul with his red spear.
As if to confirm his theory, Lucius struck the ground with his aether-enhanced fist, creating a small chasm in the path.
"What are you doing!" Ezra began, but Lucius interrupted him.
"Let's keep running," he said simply.
A couple of minutes later
"Ada, give us some light!" Kalon said furiously, fighting off the ghoul.
Haedrig and Kalon became a flurry of blows and swings as they focused entirely on protecting Arthur and Ada, but with the growing number of snake-like ghouls, Arthur had to resort to dodging and weaving past some of those who had managed to climb the walls and get ahead of them.
They ran for several more minutes before Ezra slammed on the brakes.
"It can't be," he gasped. "It's impossible."
The others caught up with him, and fireballs lit up ahead, revealing a large chasm in the trail blocking their path.
The very chasm that Lucius had made.
"Just as I thought, the clue is in the statues," Lucius replied calmly, despite the situation.
"We... we've been running in circles this whole time?" Ada asked, her voice trembling.
"That's impossible!" Ezra breathed heavily, knocking down another ghoul with his spear. "We were running in a straight line. I... I'm sure of it!" There was a note of tension in his voice: he was starting to tire.
"Ezra is right. There were no turns on the bridge." Kalon swung his weapon and decapitated two ghouls that were trying to reach Arthur.
Arthur looked down and saw that Riah, who had lost her left leg below the knee, had lost consciousness in his arms. Perhaps it was for the best. Ada covered her wounds with a thick ointment that stopped the bleeding, but judging by the tense expression on her face, it did nothing to ease the pain.
"What do we..." Haedrig unleashed a flurry of blows on the three ghouls who had managed to climb onto the bridge, "do now?"
"We move out," Lucius said calmly. "Ezra, can you take Riah? I think I saw what we need, and it would be easier if Grey protected me for a couple of seconds."
The young spearman frowned irritably. "What? I have to help defend..."
"Ezra!" Kalon barked, cutting his brother off. "Carry Riah."
Without hesitation, Ezra obeyed Kalon's order, put away his spear, and picked up his unconscious comrade.
At the head of the group, Lucius cleared the way of ghouls, while Kalon remained in the rear as our rearguard.
After a few moments, Lucius stopped. "Grey, look," he said, pointing his finger at two faces.
"What is it?" asked Arthur, allowing his combat instincts to control his body as he chopped down ghouls, while he himself focused on examining the distant faces around us.
At that distance, Arthur's eyes took a moment to focus in the darkness and dancing shadows, but when he realized what it was, he froze, forgetting for a moment that they were fighting for their lives.
Razor-sharp claws raked across Lucius's shoulder and back, tearing flesh and scratching bone as he blocked the attack on Arthur with his body. Flipping the short blade in his hand, he lunged backward and upward, piercing the attacker's chest. He turned and kicked the ghoul, pouring aether into his leg. The blow sent the ghoul flying into three others, and they all fell off the bridge.
Haedrig gasped, his eyes widening as he stared at the gaping wound on Lucius's back. "Lucius!"
But Lucius's gaze was calm, as if nothing had happened, and he turned to Arthur and said in a slightly reproachful tone, "Grey, you were supposed to protect me, not the other way around... Never mind, you guard the group for now, and I'll try to do it."
"Are you okay?" Arthur asked, gritting his teeth and listening intently to what Lucius said.
Lucius's head tilted slightly to the right as he said in a completely calm tone, "Yes, I'm fine. Protect the group, understand?"
Gritting his teeth harder because of his mistake, Arthur simply nodded his head.
Lucius allowed his eyes to defocus and see the aether surrounding him. In the world of spatium, he found his way by reaching for the GodRune in his soul. He activated it, the aether responded, the frequency intensified, and he felt the path drawing him in.
With a crack of lightning, he found himself on a stone tongue inside a giant sculpture of his own face. The inside of the mouth had been recreated in agonizing detail, except that where the back of the throat should have been, there was a stone door.
Then a grinding sound swept through the area, like the roar of an avalanche, and it seemed as if the entire room—every piece of stone, every molecule of air—was about to burst apart. Then the stone beneath his feet began to move.
Turning around, he saw that the bridge where his companions had just fought for their lives was slowly approaching. Arthur, Kalon, and Haedrig still had their weapons at the ready, their heads turning from side to side as if scanning the bridge for enemies. Ada knelt down next to Riah and Ezra.
The walls slowed down, then stopped, leaving no gap between the statue's gaping mouth and the path. Lucius stepped over the statue's teeth and returned to the bridge—now a narrow passage between two tall walls of faces. The statues carved into the wall did not look grotesque and ugly up close; they were kind, regal faces.
"Is everything okay?"
"Ezra is a little beaten up," said Kalon, looking warily at Lucius, "and Riah needs medical attention. But she'll survive. It's over now, after all. "
Ada looked at Lucius, kneeling next to Riah. "What happened?"
But Lucius's expression suggested he didn't want to answer. So Haedrig took matters into his own hands.
"All explanations after we get out of this hellhole," he nodded toward Riah. "Let's get her off the cold stone." Haedrig caught Lucius's gaze as he turned to look into the statue's mouth again. From this angle, it was impossible to recognize Lucius's own face towering above them. "Is there a portal there?"
Lucius nodded.
"Then lead the way."
The stone door opened easily at his touch, revealing an opaque portal. Everyone except Arthur looked expectantly at Lucius, and with a nod, he stepped forward through the portal leading to the next zone.
The moment Arthur's foot crossed the threshold, his body tensed sharply, causing Regis to laugh.
"Scared of your own shadow, princess?" Regis smirked mentally. "Take a look."
"Who... who are they?" Arthur asked, looking at the people.
People on all sides were watching them through rectangular mirrors. Their faces, contorted with rage or silent screams, showed suffering, streams of tears flowing from their eyes. Some sat motionless, though most were in the throes of manic fits, gesticulating wildly, hitting and scratching themselves or the floor like patients in a mental hospital.
Before Arthur could continue his examination, Kalon and Ezra, with Riah in his arms, crashed into him.
"What the hell?" Ezra said, recoiling from Arthur and the people at the windows.
In the center of the room was a square fountain two meters by two meters, surrounded by benches.
"Here," Lucius said, standing next to the fountain and pointing to a bench. "Put her there."
The brothers carried their family friend across the room; a steady stream of blood spread across the marble floor from the stump of her foot.
Ada was next to enter, her steps slowing and her eyes glazing over.
"Is this... is this a sanctuary?" She looked at one of the people nearby, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. She leaned toward him and squinted, trying to focus, as if she couldn't quite believe her eyes.
This very obese man, dressed only in linen pants, a pair of steel-toed boots, and spiked gloves, stood on all fours without looking back, repeatedly hammering his massive glove into the ground.
Haedrig, who had entered last, gently placed his hand on her shoulder and led her past Arthur to the fountain in the center of the room. "No, this is not a sanctuary," he said in a low, ominous voice.
Kalon was bandaging what was left of Riah's ankle with bandages from his spatial ring, while Ezra twirled his spear helplessly in his hands. He turned suddenly when Haedrig spoke.
"What do you mean, it's not a sanctuary? This is..." He looked around and shuddered again, as if seeing the room for the first time. "It must be..."
Haedrig led Ada to the benches and offered her a seat before turning back to Ezra. "It's obvious that this isn't a sanctuary. How foolish would one have to be to think that we would end up in a place like a sanctuary after passing through the first zone?"
Ezra shot Haedrig an annoyed look, but the veteran with marsh-colored hair didn't react. They stared at each other for a relatively long time before Ezra snorted and turned away, this time looking at his sister.
Arthur returned to examining the room. It was only about four and a half meters wide and two and a half meters high, which made it very low and claustrophobic after the monstrous size of the previous zone.
Although the area near the fountain was brightly lit by spheres hanging over the running water, the far end of the room was lost in shadow, making it difficult to tell how long it was. The light reflecting off the multitude of mirrors showing them tormented people created the impression that the room stretched on endlessly.
Approaching the nearest mirror, Lucius saw the reflection of the room in it, although the man in the mirror did not exist outside of that reflection. He was an elderly man with a thick gray beard. He sat cross-legged, staring at him without blinking, moving his lips incessantly.
Calling Arthur over, Lucius leaned his head forward so that his ear was almost pressed against the mirror, and a faint whisper sounded as if someone were speaking through water.
"Well," said Kalon, turning the duo's attention back to the others, "Riah is asleep. She lost a lot of blood, but the compress you applied saved her life, Ada. If we get out of here quickly, she'll be fine."
Kalon approached the mirror near the fountain. The man inside it wore a helmet crowned with sharp, onyx-black horns resembling scimitars, which made him resemble Vritra. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest, a haughty smirk spreading across his face. Judging by his armor—black leather and blackened steel plates decorated with flowing runes across the entire surface—he was an ascendant, and a wealthy one at that.
"They're all ascendants," said Haedrig, as if voicing a common thought.
"Look at the design and material of their clothes and armor," Kalon pointed out. "Especially the horns. Haven't horned helmets been out of fashion for decades? They've been trapped here for quite a while, haven't they?"
"Why, in the name of Vritra, are we here?" Ezra said, approaching Kalon. "This is a preliminary ascent. It should all be over by now!" The broad-shouldered young man turned to Lucius and Grey. "You! I don't know how, but this is your fault, isn't it?!"
"Enough," Kalon said quietly. "Whatever brought us here, it's just another test. This is a puzzle zone. We need to find clues that will help us solve this room's puzzle and move on."
Ada's discouraged expression vanished as she stood up, forcing herself to smile for our sake. "Exactly! We can do this! For..." Ada glanced at the sleeping Riah, her bandages already soaked with blood. "For Riah!"
The courage of the novice ascendant seemed to cool Ezra's ardor, and he hugged his sister from the side, grimacing as he did so.
Kalon approached Lucius. "The spell you used to teleport there was impressive."
"Thank you," Lucius said simply, looking at the mirrors and stopping in front of his reflection.
"I admit, I wasn't the best student at the academy," Kalon continued, "and I was especially bad at ancient runes — I just never got into it, you know? I always knew I would become an ascendant, and ascendants don't fight each other."
Lucius completely ignored Kalon and looked with interest at his reflection, which waved at him cheerfully.
"There's no point in asking him anything," said Arthur, approaching them. "He's too focused right now to pay attention to what's going on here."
Kalon turned his head toward Arthur. "Ah, Grey, I just wanted to make conversation, and he..."
"Listen," Arthur said, "when we get out of here, we'll have plenty of time for stories about our runes and everything else you want to know. For now, let's just solve the mystery of this room."
Kalon shook his head and patted Arthur on the shoulder. "Sooner or later, I'll find out who you and your friend are." He turned to follow his brother and sister down the hallway, but suddenly stopped. "Oh, and sorry about Ezra. Don't mind him, he's just protecting the girls."
"And an imbecile," Regis said in Arthur's mind.
Arthur smiled and turned back to the mirrors, focusing on the task at hand.
"Any guesses?" Regis asked after Arthur stopped and also began to look at Lucius's exact reflection.
"My reflection is too friendly," Lucius said, looking at himself. "It's as if he's inviting us to jump into the pit. And he can see us, too."
"Okay, so don't touch the mirrors, got it. But how do we get out of here?" Regis asked.
Lucius and Arthur moved on in different directions. Arthur stopped when one of the people he was passing waved both arms wildly, clearly trying to get his attention. It was a bearded man in a horned helmet with wavy brown hair below his chin. His eyes were deep-set and surrounded by shadows, but he perked up when Arthur stopped.
Trapped, the ascendant pressed his hand against the back of the mirror, gesturing for Arthur to do the same. When he didn't respond immediately, the man smiled and nodded, then began gesturing again, only more insistently.
"You realize this is a trap. What if you get sucked in after touching that mirror? What if he breaks free and tries to kill the others?" Regis said, a little nervously.
"Can you hear me?" Arthur asked aloud, pointing at the mirror. The man shook his head and pointed again at his hand pressed against the inside of the glass. Arthur shook his head.
The man's face dropped, and when he looked at Arthur again, there was such pure malice and hatred in his eyes that Arthur took a step back from the mirror. The man began to scream, even removing his helmet and using it as a pickaxe to try to break his way out.
"God... someone woke up on the wrong side of the mirror," Regis said, laughing at his own joke.
Ignoring Regis, Arthur moved away from the enraged ascendant.
"It's... it's me!" said Ada, her voice echoing throughout the hallway, which turned out to be much longer than it had first appeared. Ada stood in front of the mirror about six meters away from Arthur.
The mirror Ada waved her hand warmly with a smile, repeating the gesture of the real Ada. Then, moving identically, as if one were a reflection of the other, they both raised their hands and pretended to press them against the glass.
"Ada," Arthur shouted, "Stop! Don't touch..." Ada's right hand pressed against the mirror, as did her reflection, and purple energy rose like steam from Ada's skin, then flowed like mist in the wind along her body until it was completely absorbed by the mirror.
Using God Step, Arthur instantly appeared beside her, but even so, it was too late. Her body fell into his arms, and he watched in horror as black-purple energy from the mirror spread across her and was absorbed into her skin.
Exhaustion enveloped Arthur like a warm blanket. Using God Step was still too exhausting; Arthur would have to become much stronger before he could use the aether in this way constantly.
Heavy footsteps behind Arthur announced the approach of Kalon and Ezra. He shifted his gaze from the unconscious Ada to the mirror, and his insides twisted with horror. Ada—the real Ada—was pounding her fist on the back of the mirror, in blind panic, tears streaming down her face and dripping from her chin, and although no one could hear her, she was screaming, "Please" and "Help."
"What happened?" Ezra barked, leaning over his sister's body and placing his hand on her. "Ada? Ada!"
When Arthur opened his mouth to explain, Ada's eyes flew open, causing everyone gathered to recoil in surprise: they were deep, dark, glowing purple.
Kalon shifted his gaze from the violet-eyed Ada to the mirror, where a crying, distraught Ada was still screaming, "Please, please!" His older brother's eyes filled with blood as he tried to gather what remained of his composure, his hand reaching closer to the mirror.
"Stop," Lucius approached and released an impulse of aether intent, causing everyone except Arthur to freeze in place. "Touching the mirror—that's what caused this. I think..." He paused, considering how best to explain. "No, I understand that something came out of the mirror the moment Ada touched it, and that something entered her body."
Ezra, seizing on this idea, grabbed Ada's hand and dragged her to the mirror. "Then we'll just make them switch back!"
Arthur grabbed Ezra's arm, but Kalon stopped him. "Let him try."
Before Arthur could object, Ezra—despite the frightened protests of the purple-eyed Ada—pressed her hand against the glass. On the other side, our Ada repeated the gesture.
Nothing happened.
"Please," Ada said, "Let me go, Ezra. You're hurting me." A single large tear rolled down her otherworldly cheek. "Please."
Ezra let go of her and stepped back, grimacing. He looked from Ada to Kalon and back again, his face contorted with pain. In the mirror, he saw Ada fall to her knees and cover her face with her hands, her body shaking with convulsive sobs.
"How do we know," Kalon said, trying to speak calmly as tears welled up in his eyes, "that the Ada in the mirror is the real Ada? What if it's some kind of trick or trap?"
"Touch the mirror," Lucius replied calmly. "I've already done it twice and everything is fine. The main thing is to break the mirrors with our reflections, because they are the ones that can pull us inside."
"Why didn't you say so right away?!" Ezra yelled and tried to get closer, but the familiar pressure knocked the air and courage out of Ezra's body.
"I didn't know," Lucius replied calmly, as always. "I guessed something was wrong when my own reflection kindly invited me to touch it. But only now has it been confirmed."
Ezra stared at Lucius for a long time, breathing heavily. Then he suddenly turned and pressed his hand against the glass of Ada's mirror prison. His whole body tensed, and when he turned to look at Kalon, his face was pale and his eyes were shining with tears.
"Ezra!" Kalon gasped.
"I can hear her," Ezra said, his voice tight with emotion. "When I touch the mirror, I can hear Ada. She sounds so scared..."
A few moments later, Lucius watched coldly out of the corner of his eye as Ada hung on Riah. He could have fixed all this, given Arthur the information he needed to unlock the first keystone. He could have given him information about this zone so that none of this would have happened, but... he didn't do any of that.
Even worse, he slowly lowered Arthur's talent to its original level so that he couldn't understand the keystone faster than necessary.
He knew it would be foolish to be afraid to change the plot, since the plot had already changed when he appeared in this world, but he wanted to retain at least some control. His knowledge was a huge advantage, and it would be foolish to try to distort the plot just for the sake of it.
So, while he still had the opportunity, he would try to keep the plot as he knew it, even if everything might change very soon and all his preparations and knowledge would prove useless. So be it, he would simply change his plan when necessary.
While still hunting mana beasts in Maerin, he thought about this situation and what he should do in it. But during all this time, instead of great hesitation, his determination grew stronger and stronger. If the lives of these guys would help to temporarily preserve the original plot, if these lives would help increase Arthur's power and, consequently, his own, then why hesitate?
He wanted to return home more than anything else in the world.
And he asked himself, was he ready to kill a hundred, a thousand, or even more people for that? He was surprised and at the same time not surprised at all by his answer.
The answer came without a second's hesitation, in the same second.
"Yes."