The Beginning After The End (TBATE) - Chapter 482.1 voll 11 epilogue

Chapter epl1: Vol 11 Epilogue
CECILIA SEVER

The smell of smoke alerted me and I dropped the wool bundle that I was tingling before rushing to the kitchen. My hip hit the side of the side table and I turned around too late to catch the lamp, which tilted to the side and broke against the uneven planks on the ground.

Suffering a sigh, I decided to do what I could for the lamp after saving the ruins of dinner, and I continued into the little open-air kitchen, where a pot boiled violently and released black smoke. I had already learned what it was to grasp the burning iron handle with my bare hands – I lifted the heavy pot of the solar heating element and put it on the table. The iron feet left small black marks on the surface of the wood.

Mying my lip so as not to sigh again, I took a wooden ladle and I stirred the soup, hoping that it had not burned too much, but knowing that we would eat it in one way or another.

I stirred the soup for a minute or two to prevent the still hot iron from burning it further, then I took off my hand and picked up the cracked lamp. Looking at her with regret, I walked towards the door, but stopped in the frame to turn around and look at the little house.

“House,” I said, the word being strange on my lips. Nowhere else had this word agreed to me before, but the little hut, well outside the city, with its capricious electricity and its endless maintenance problems, seemed to me quite simply to be a house.

I smiled as I walked down the three brick steps and bypassing the outer wall of the hut by a worn gravel road that held more from the earth than from the rock.

The hut overhanged a meander of one of the many simulated rivers that surrounded the city, whose constant flow of fresh water was the fruit of pumps and valves rather than gravity. A thin row of evergreen trees bordered the bank of the river. A disused dock advanced from the edge of our property in the moving water, but we had never managed to obtain the permit to use a boat to enjoy it.

Between me and the river, on four legs on the rocky ground which we had got rid of grass and weeds, was Nico. For a moment I saw him not as he was, but as he had been at the same time the boy I remembered and the dark face he had worn in this other life.

This thought made me shake my head, as if I had got up too quickly and saw stars. It was hard to remember all of this. It was easier not to try to remember. But sometimes thoughts came back to me, and I couldn’t help but think about it. I had a life on Earth, as the Inheritance. This version of me had lived a short and tortured existence before being annihilated by my own actions.

My eyes closed and I had to be careful not to breathe too fast. At the risk of sinking under the waves of the following memories, I bite the side of the cheek and forced my eyes to open again, and then began to strolling on the gentle slope towards Nico. The sight of this Nico had faded. He had become himself again. Although her hair was still black, her face was soft and kind, his eyes tender. Just watching him eased my anxiety.

He looked up. There was a stain of black earth, or perhaps fertilizer, on the edge of his nose and on his cheek. I could not help smiling at this sight.

“That’s exactly what I feared,” he said, smiling at my smile. But when he glanced at the ground, the expression disappeared to give way to a frown of thoughtful eyebrows. “This ground is horrible. The river has not been there long enough to irrigate the surrounding land, and it’s really rocky.” He passed his fingers into the earth, biting his lip. “Despite everything, we should be able to do it.”

“The dinner is ready,” I said stiffly. I knew he wouldn’t say anything about the fact that he was burned, but I kept thinking about it. “Unless we can go to town? Buying something good? The soup will last for a few days.”

Nico got up and brushed his hands on his dirty pants. “You burned it, didn’t you?”

I uttered a dismayed moan. “I don’t know what happened. The saucepan was lit and I got lost…”

“I know,” he said to console me. Suddenly, he found himself right in front of me and his powerful arms drew effortlessly to him.

I pressed my face on the curve of his shoulder and started shaking.

“I know,” he repeated, with his hand running through the back of my long brown ash hair. The detail remained in my mind. Ash brown, not silvery grey. “It happens to me too,” Nico whispered, shaking me against him. “I’m thinking about something, and the next moment, an hour has passed and I haven’t moved. I think he swallowed loudly and his hands go down my arms until his fingers mingle with mine. “I think that’s what Grey did.”

What Grey did.

Forgeing a radiant smile, I clasped his hands and moved him away from the struggling garden. “Come on, let’s go to the city.”

He looked at me suspiciously. “This is your only weekend off a month, Cecilia. You know that if we go to town…”

“I promise you I won’t train you, okay?” I looked at him beggingly.

Laughing, he pulled me until his arm was draped on my shoulders, our fingers always intertwined. “I should be washed and put on my city costume.”

I leaned against him, smiling on his lips.

Once we were both ready, it took us 20 minutes to walk to the station, where we could take a train to the activities district. We talked about where to eat and whether we could buy tickets for an old retro movie, or maybe even check the license office for a car or boat license, but it was just words in the air. We both knew that we could not afford anything other than travel by train and an economical dinner for two.

Once we got into the maglev and took our seats, we’re silent. I guessed that Nico was sinking into a disturbing memory of the way his smile faded and how his unfocused eyes filled with sadness. I wanted to know what he was thinking, but I didn’t want to interrupt him. No, it wasn’t quite that. The truth is, I didn’t want to share this dark memory. I had my own share of these moments and memories, and sometimes the smells of blood and burnt flesh swallowed everything else. I felt cowardly, but I didn’t have the strength to shoulder part of Nico’s burden.

Nevertheless, I shook his hand and put my head on his shoulder, so that he would be there when he came back.

“How long have we been here?” he suddenly asked, his cheek leaning against the top of my head.

“What do you mean?”

“Here.” He made a vague gesture around us. “This life. This world.”

“Nico, we were…” I walked away and put a leg on the seat so I could turn and face him. “We are both born in this world. We have known each other since we were children at the orphanage. We have a lifetime of memories together…”

He nodded his head with a distracted air, the attention always elsewhere. “I know. I remember everything, but I don’t feel like it happened to me. I hardly remember other things, like my childhood in Alacrya, I broke through the evocation of the other world, but they still seem to me to be real. Here, I remember everything that happened before we bought the property and we were finally immersing ourselves together, the marriage, everything … everything is so clear, but I have the impression …”

“Like a life that someone else lived,” I ended up for him, passing my fingers through his black hair.

He glanced at my expression, then lowered his eyes to his hands stirring on his knees. “I’d like to understand what happened. I remember the cave, Agana, ma…” He swallowed heavily and closed his eyes. His breath escaped in a tense shudder. “I’m dead, Cecil.”

“No,” I said firmly, seizing his hands and drawing them on my lap, forcing him to turn to me and look me in the eye. “And even if that were the case, it doesn’t matter. I’m dead too, remember? All that matters is that we are here, together. There is no Heritage, no fight to become king, no crushing weight of fate on our shoulders. We can just live. Together. Whatever Grey did, whatever he did it, he got rid of that fate and brought us here.”

A little sad smile blossomess on Nico’s serious face. “I don’t think it’s Grey. Well, maybe his power, but I don’t think he chose this life for us.” In front of my empty gaze, he rolled his eyes. “It’s you. This life, this picture in which we have been placed with all these perfect memories, is exactly what you always wanted it to be. It can’t be a coincidence. It had to be you.”

“I don’t know…”

Part of me knew that I had not lived through all the memories I had of this life. It was a new reincarnation, but instead of being placed in a ship – a brand new body that would force us to take the place of someone else. Grey had somehow placed us in our own lives, our own bodies. I had checked the previous events and confirmed that my duel with Grey had indeed taken place and that this version of me had died at that time. This had not been written. His reign, the wars he had waged, his sudden and unexpected disappearance in this world, everything was as before.

I did not understand him, but the power he had given us in existence as if we had always been there. We ended up where I had imagined: in a little hut on the banks of the river, normal people who were doing the best they could. No inheritance, no mana, no ki. We were just… ordinary.

Perfect and ordinary.

There was a ding, and the maglev began to slow down appreciably. I jumped, realizing that we had been sitting in silence for a long time. “I’m sorry, I…”

“I know,” said Nico, claving my leg as a sign of understanding.

We went down the activity district and walked along several streets of the city, where we sat quietly in one of our favorite restaurants and enjoyed a simple but delicious meal – and not burned. As we finished, my communicator rang, informing me that someone was trying to reach me. I had done a madness by equipping myself with a mobile communication device, but my work required me to do so.

Looking at Nico with guilt, I pressed the button of the bracelet to answer the call.

“Director, I’m really sorry to bother you,” said my assistant immediately, Evie. She looked exhausted. “There was apparently a problem with one of the bills, and two officials from the city office are here.”

“Dinner time, on a Saturday?” I asked in disbelief, without waiting for an answer. “Luckily, I’m already in town. I can be there in twenty minutes.”

Nico watched me carefully, the expression was carefully empty. He would not be upset by my inability to keep my promise, but I knew that he would mercilessly teasing me about it.

“Oh, thank you, Director,” said Evie, sighing relief. I heard her pass the information on to those responsible.

“At right.” I cut the call and I made Nico my most beautiful pout. “I’m sorry, it’s an official thing, I have to…”

He raised a hand to warn the rest of my unnecessary apologies. “You know what I think of what you’re doing. These children–all the children of the orphanage–you’re-a-great-great-great-great-great-girl–you’s–you’s-a-great-get-get-get-get You’re the best manager they can hope for.”

“Expecs Director Wilbeck,” we said at the same time. We laugh lightly again asking for the addition.

Chapter v11ex1: Vol 11 Extra 1: Early Truth
A/N: In this extra chapter, Arthur purposefully explores an alternative possible timeline in which he meets Cecilia only shortly after she is reincarnated. The intent of this sequence was to show Arthur being more purposeful in his use and navigation of the keystone before gaining the ability to freely manipulate it, as well as to help establish the experiences that led to Arthur’s eventual decisions with Fate. While the events didn’t end up fitting into the narrative of Volume 11, I think Patreon readers will still enjoy the look into both Arthur’s and Cecilia’s motivations, as they connect directly with the plotline’s eventual conclusion.

ARTHUR LEYWIN

From the cover of the trees, I watched Tessia pace back and forth through the sun-dappled glade. Except she was no longer Tessia. Not really. Not now. Tess was there, buried beneath a freshly reincarnated and still confused Cecilia, but it was Cecilia who piloted Tessia’s body as she meandered, head down, her lips moving constantly as if rehearsing something.

The sequestered corner of the village of Eidelholm seemed empty except for Cecilia, but she hadn’t just been left alone in this precarious moment. When I arrived, I had found several emblem-bearing Alacryan mages on guard within the treeline. One of their bodies was growing cold not ten feet from my vantage point, and the others had all been dispatched similarly. More problematic was the vitriolic mana signature I could sense not far away. Despite my rushed passage through the Relictombs to reach this point before Aldir’s incoming attack, I was confident I could defeat Nico if necessary, but it would eat up valuable time and potentially cost me my chance to speak with Cecilia.

It had taken several attempts to pass through the Relictombs in a way that allowed me to escape back into Dicathen with enough time to breach both the mystical fog of the Elshire forest and the spreading Alacryan influence. Due to the vortex effect that caught the momentum of my passage through the keystone’s timeline, each life had to be lived at least somewhat inside each moment; I did not relish the idea of being forced to attempt it all again if this conversation went poorly.

If only there was a better way to navigate this challenge, I thought for only a moment before redirecting my focus back to Cecilia. With how much I’d already changed to reach this point, I couldn’t afford to lose concentration, or I might forget my overall purpose again and slip away into this new life without accomplishing my greater goal.

Drawing in a steadying breath, I slipped out from beneath the shadows of the forest and walked into the open. Cecilia had her back to me as she paced toward the rear of a sprawling elven estate. Reaching the end of her circuitous route, she turned on her heel, took two steps, then came to a sudden halt as she saw me, her far-away gaze refocusing on me.

This was not Cecilia as she had been when we fought within the empty ruins of Exeges’s palace. In the present of this keystone-manifested timeline, she was freshly reincarnated, confused, and barely able to manage the new power she’d been given. And yet, in a few hours, she will go toe-to-toe with an asura at Nico’s side. It wasn’t hatred or even acceptance I saw reflected back at me in her gaze this time. Instead, I saw confusion and fear. And, perhaps, even a small spark of hope.

“Cecilia.” I said her name calmingly as one might speak to a frightened animal. “My name is Arthur. I’d like to talk.”

Her eyes narrowed very slightly, and her hands raised to the level of her waist. Mana stirred around them. “Arthur Leywin. I…know who you are. But…” She closed her eyes and turned her head away, a pained expression flickering across her features.

I took a few tentative steps closer. “You’re experiencing the memories of the woman whose body you’re inhabiting. Tessia Eralith.”

Cecilia bared her teeth in a sour grimace, her eyes still closed. “You were…promised to each other. Stop. Stop it!” These last words were sharp, almost pained, and seemed to be directed inward.

“She’s fighting you.”

“She thought…you were dead…” Cecilia’s eyes flashed open, and she glared at me. “You’re our enemy! You fought Nico.”

“There’s more to it than that,” I replied, still keeping my voice soft and nonthreatening. “You were reincarnated from another world, a place called Earth. Nico was, too. And so was I.”

She froze, going blank. “What?”

Relief washed over me at her obvious surprise. I knew that Agrona had used—or rather, was currently using—the freshly reincarnated Cecilia to deliver a message to the elves as Tessia, and I had guessed that they would not have had time to start manipulating her memories or poisoning her with Nico’s hatred of me.

“I don’t know how clear your memories of that previous life are, but I’m hoping you will remember me.” I held my hands out to my sides, my palms facing her to show clearly that they were empty. “In this world, I’m Arthur Leywin. But during the last, I was called Grey.”

Cecilia gasped, her own hands falling as the magic concentrated around them slipped away. “G-Grey? But…how?”

“Agrona,” I said simply. “Nico and I were the anchors for your own reincarnation. Our relationship with Tessia forged her into your vessel.”

Cecilia’s mouth opened and her brows turned down sharply, but she didn’t find whatever words she was searching for. After a moment her mouth closed again. She half turned and cast a look over her shoulder in the direction of Nico’s mana signature.

“I don’t bear you any ill will for what happened on Earth,” I said firmly, trying to draw her focus back to me. “You took the only road you could see. I regret everything that happened, but we were both used by forces greater than us. And Cecilia, that’s why I’m here now. Because it’s happening again.”

Her gaze was slowly reeled back to me, suspicion seeping over her features. “Tessia. Her mind is cloudy and distant, her thoughts incoherent. She had been silent until your arrival. She’s…confused. In pain. You lied to her.”

I inwardly flinched, although I tried to keep the tic from showing on my face. My purpose here didn’t involve attempting to hash things out with Tessa. That would have to wait until I’d solved the keystone and found a way to remove Cecilia from Tessia’s body without killing Tess. But I hadn’t anticipated Tessia interrupting this conversation or dragging it off course.

“I’m sorry, Tessia, both for the lie and that you found out this way,” I said, speaking through Cecilia to the half-wakeful mind beneath. “But if you ever have held any love for me, then I need you to let me speak to Cecilia without interfering.”

Cecilia’s gaze turned downward, almost as if she were looking into herself. “She’s gone quiet. She…trusts you.” Her focus returned to me. “What do you want, Grey? What do you mean, it’s happening again?”

Letting out a deep breath, I took a seat on a large rock at the edge of the glade. “How much do you know about Agrona and why you’ve been reincarnated?”

She hesitated. “Nico has told me only that Agrona is our benefactor. He is giving us another chance at life in exchange for our help. Nico’s lived for nearly two decades in this world already.”

“Why does he want you, specifically?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

Cecilia’s features twitched in distress. “Because I’m the Legacy.”

I nodded, letting out a shallow sigh. “Agrona is a master of mental manipulation. He can even remove and replace your memories. He’s already done it to Nico, and he’s going to do it to you, too. What you went through on Earth will seem kind by comparison.”

Cecilia took a half step back, looking at me as if I’d attacked her. “Nico wouldn’t do that to me. He knows what I went through, better than anyone.”

I shook my head sadly. “He’s not the same person he was before. In part, that’s because of Agrona’s manipulation. But he lived on after you killed yourself with my blade, Cecilia. And all that time, he thought I’d murdered you just to be king. That hatred festered inside him for the rest of his life. Then, after he was reincarnated, Agrona fed that rage, turning Nico into a weapon.”

“No that’s…” Cecilia trailed off, again looking toward Nico’s distant mana signature. “Why are you here, Grey? Why are you telling me any of this?”

I knew I was pushing it. But if I was going to get anything useful from Cecilia in this conversation, I needed her to be ready to tell me anything. “If he hasn’t already, Agrona is going to promise to send you and Nico back to Earth. Not into your old lives, but to any life you desire.” When I finally escaped the keystone, I would eventually have to face Cecilia. The truth was, though, that I didn’t know how to defeat her without destroying Tessia. “This promise is a lie. Agrona is using you, and he has no intention to reward either of you.”

Her brows knit and her gaze sharpened. “How could you possibly know any of this, Grey? You seem very well informed for one of Agrona’s enemies.”

“I know quite a lot,” I admitted, meeting her eye. “But I need to know more. That’s why I’m here. I need your help. If you can tell me what I need to know, I will help you, too.”

“How?”

“What do you want, Cecilia?” I stood, taking a couple of tentative steps toward her. “You’ve been given a second chance at life. I was a king on Earth, but here, I was given what I really always wanted: a family. It may seem like a strange trade, but it’s one I’d gladly make no matter how many times I relive this life. But what about you?”

Cecilia ran a hand over her face, sagging slightly. She walked clumsily back a few steps and slumped onto a bench that rested against the back wall of the elvish estate. “I don’t know.”

Taking a chance, I cautiously closed the distance between us and went to a knee a few feet in front of her. “I know you’re already dealing with so much, and I’m throwing a lot more at you. But I need to know this, Cecilia. If you could do anything with this new life, what would it be?”

She considered for a long time, then finally said, “Normal, Grey. I want to be…normal.”

I remained silent, giving her room to continue speaking.

“I am not the Legacy. It may be a trait that I have, but it isn’t me. I just wish…well, I wish that someone, somewhere, saw me as anything else.” Her frown shifted into a wry half-smile. “I guess that’s Nico.” The brief smile vanished, and she looked up through Tessia’s gunmetal hair, which had fallen across her face, to pierce me with a viscous glare. “I will protect him, Grey. If you intend on fighting him, you’ll have to fight me, too.”

Eager to make myself as non-threatening as possible, I eased down onto both knees, then sat back on my heels and folded my hands in my lap. “I understand that. And so does Agrona. You may not believe this now, but I want to help you, Cecilia. You and Nico, and Tessia. But I don’t understand enough about what he’s done to you. Do you know anything that would help me release you from this prison?”

Cecilia seemed to shrink into herself as she pressed her face into her hands. “I’m so confused, Grey. I don’t…what’s happening? I was dead. I remember it, the quiet darkness, the relief at the end of so much pain. But I’d barely shut my eyes and then…white light and a broken heart. God she’s in so much pain.”

My jaw clenched until my teeth creaked as I imagined Tessia trapped inside her own body, bound and gagged by the runic tattoos running up Cecilia’s arms to her neck. Limb by limb, I flexed my muscles until they hurt, then released the tension. Finally, my grinding teeth separated, and I let out a calm breath. “How do I release you from each other?”

Cecilia shook her head, her hair waving around her face. “I don’t know. Nico—” She choked on his name and had to swallow before continuing. “Nico said that she’s…not really there. She’s dead, and I’m experiencing an echo of her memories. Agrona can calm them, even take them away if necessary.”

“That’s not true,” I said, careful to keep my voice soft. “Nico may not know it, but he’s only passing along Agrona’s lies.”

“Am I?”

Cecilia jumped to her feet, looking around for the source of the voice, but I stood more slowly. Nico had suppressed his mana signature as he approached, and with Realmheart still limited in this life-line, I wasn’t sensitive enough to have noticed his approach. He was standing in the shadows of the trees, a black silhouette within the gray.

“Nico, Cecilia.” I put an edge of warning into their names. “Today, your speech will be interrupted by an attack from Epheotus. Two asuras. They will destroy all of Elenoir and everything you have built here. You will fight them, lose, and flee. I will find you again after. One month from today in Victorious City.”

“What bullshit,” Nico snapped, stepping out into the light of the glade. “You’re a murderer, Grey. I wouldn’t believe you if you told me the sky was blue and water wet. You were a fool to come up, and an even bigger fool if you think I’m going to let you—”

“Nico, he didn’t murder me,” Cecilia interrupted, walking hurriedly past me to meet him.

His glare turned to her, but something trembled at his edges. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You’re confused, Cecilia. I was there. I watched him—”

“I do remember,” she insisted, again cutting him off. “I goaded him into it, pushing him harder and harder, then let down my defenses at the last moment. It may have been his sword that struck the blow, but it was my doing.”

Nico took a step back as if he’d been struck, his already pale face going ghostly white. “That can’t be true, it…” He wrenched his gaze away from her to land on me. “No, you killed her. I saw it with my own eyes!”

“Victorious City,” I said again. “One month.”

And then I turned and fled into the forest. I felt Nico start to come after me, but Cecilia intercepted him. When I felt like I was at a safe distance, I used the short-range tempus warp I had absconded with to teleport back to the nearest Relictombs gate, buried and broken in the heart of the Grand Mountains but now repaired by Aroa’s Requiem. I had already considered Ellie, but I knew she escaped alive, and besides, this wasn’t real anyway.

With a last glance up at the rocky roof toward Elenoir, which would cease to exist within the hour, I stepped back into the Relictombs to begin the next phase of my plan.

***

Victorious City surged below me like an enormous ant hill that had just been kicked. Not only did it operate as a military center for the west coast of Alacrya, with a constant stream of soldiers entering and exiting the city, its people were also preparing for the Victoriad. That was exactly why I chose this location: I didn’t think it would be difficult for Nico and Cecilia to invent an excuse to be here on this day in particular.

Technically, I couldn’t know for sure they would arrive, but after my warning about the asuras was proved to be true, it was difficult to imagine them not.

Giving off no mana signature of my own, it had been easy to move around Alacrya unnoticed. From the vantage of a central belltower—an ancient alarm system that had long ago been replaced by more efficient magical artifacts—I would be able to sense their powerful mana signatures the moment they arrived.

The early morning passed uneventfully, and I enjoyed a breakfast of fresh fruits. As I was spitting out the seed of the last one, Regis drifted through the tower floor in his wisp form. “Alaric’s people confirm that there hasn’t been any hubbub among the local soldiers. They seem to have kept quiet about this meeting, whether they intend to be here or not.”

I only nodded and tossed him a strip of dried wogart jerky, which he snapped out of the air. Silently, we resumed our watch.

No more than twenty minutes passed before the air changed as two new, powerful signatures appeared in the city. They left the tempus warp platforms and moved purposefully away. I waited. They changed direction, then again, and I relaxed. “Go get them.”

Regis melted away again, descending through the tower and rushing off on an intercept course for the two potent signatures.

I did not have to wait long for them to return.

Instead of navigating the streets and stairs, Nico and Cecilia flew over the rooftops. I stood at the edge of the belfry, waiting. They stopped fifteen or so feet out, hovering in the open air. Their expressions were difficult to read, but they immediately felt standoffish and wary.

Regis returned just behind them, solidifying at my side. His hackles were up.

“I’m glad you survived Aldir and Windsom’s attack,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and giving them a stoic look.

It was Nico who answered. “What you said ended up being true. Both about the asura and about…Earth. So the real question now is, what do you want, Grey?”

I had been thinking about this moment over and over for a month. I saw no benefit in drawing the conversation out or dancing around the subject. “How can I convince you to leave Agrona?”

They exchanged a subtle glance. “Is that really why you’ve gone to such great lengths to meet with us, not once but twice?”

“It’s not my only question, no.” The hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end, but I wasn’t sure why. “How did Cecilia’s reincarnation work? Does Agrona know how it might be undone without killing either spirit housed inside the body? What is Agrona’s true purpose for the Legacy?”

I still didn’t really know what kind of power Fate would provide me when I escaped the keystone, but I needed to figure out how I was going to deal with Cecilia and Nico—without killing Tessia in the process.

When they didn’t reply, I directed my focus to Cecilia. She hadn’t been in this world as long as Nico, and there had been less time for Agrona to corrupt her. “I can’t promise that I am able to fulfill all your wishes, but I can promise you both that Agrona will never follow through with his end of any bargain. As long as you’re valuable to him, he’ll keep you, and once you’re no longer valuable, he’ll cast you aside.”

I grew frustrated as the pair continued to look at me without answering. It was almost impossible to see them as Elijah and Tessia now. Even though they wore the same faces, they were firmly Cecilia and Nico.

That’s when it clicked.

I closed my eyes and let my head hang. “A trap.”

Suddenly the tower was plunging down into the ground, like a sword into soft flesh. My feet left the floor, and I slammed into the ceiling. Beside me, Regis yelped and became incorporeal before flying into my chest. I reached for God Step, but a wall of horrible noise pressed down on me, slamming me into the still-moving floor hard enough to shatter it. The wretched, screeching squeal stole all sense from my skull.

Distantly, I was aware of falling through the center of the belltower, then of a sudden stop and many tons of stone and soil collapsing around me, crushing me. The squeal remained, like glass shards rubbing against each other inside my brain. My body struggled to heal, but much of it was crushed and many steel bars pierced me. I should have suffocated, but I couldn’t escape the agony of breathing nothing but dirt.

Fortunately, I remained largely insensate, and the worst of the pain was smothered by the spell that was simultaneously drowning my ability to think clearly. It took time, but my conscious mind began to pull itself through the noise. I knew this because the pain grew stronger as I grew more aware.

The weight on top of me shifted, and I came back to myself just in time to watch half of the belfry roof be lifted away, floating up into the air.

Agrona floated in the gap that was left behind, made visible by a glowing star that orbited Cecilia. He looked strangely out of place in his finery amidst the tower wreckage deep beneath Victorious City.

He was shaking his head. “Bold, Arthur. Too bold. A sad ending to our game.” He glanced at Nico and Cecilia. “They’re mine. Did you really expect to win them over so easily?” He waved a hand, and the wreckage of my body floated up from the crater. Pain wracked every sinew, every joint, every limb and organ. “Well, your story isn’t written yet. There is still much we can learn from your body.”

I closed my eyes and let out a genuinely amused laugh. The sound was cut off as I began coughing up blood. “Indeed. I am…interested to see what else we can learn. Together.”

Chapter v11ex2: Vol 11 Extra 2: A Brief Repit
Extra 2 – A Brief Repit

ARTHUR LEYWIN

Repressed memories of another uncertain and drifting life have invaded me, homogenizing with many previous lives in a confused cloud of half-experience.

As I floated in the aftermath of this life, my mind haunting my own child’s body as the ghost of an old and restless spirit, I recognized him for the first time: I was tired.

The keystone punished me in a way that I could not have anticipated. Like a candle that falters in the face of a strong opposite wind, I was in danger of turning off. I knew it, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I had no opportunity to back down, or give up. But with every life, the possibility of failure was becoming more and more real.

The life of the infant rushed as I languished in this post-mortem cloud. I allowed the memories of my decisions to float, without taking the time to dissect my last attempt to resolve the key as I had done for the previous time. There was a new collection of puzzle pieces that had to fit in one way or another together, but my very human consciousness was tired, and my little infant brain wanted to do nothing but eat, sleep and be clean.

Suddenly, I was a young child again. How many times now? I asked myself, briefly, without succeeding, to align all the lives of the keystone in order, each version of me resembling a little toy man placed on a shelf.

The young voracious version of me was already devouring the library books in my parents’ office and was beginning to accumulate mana towards my sternum. It was enough for me to blink for the house to be destroyed when I woke up and so that everything started again.

By sinking completely into my body, I took possession of myself and stopped. I couldn’t deal with all this again, not yet. I needed to rest. There was time… it took time.

Standing on my chubby and slightly arcuate legs, I gave up meditation to… play with cubes in my room. They weren’t painted in color like the ones we had for the youngest children in the orphanage, but they were expertly carved to form small brick patterns, and I quickly arranged them to form a coarse wall. I indulged in the grey matter of my physical form as a child, and the instinct of a toddler took over. I started playing, effortlessly and without worry.

The day when I should have formed my nucleus and awakened, and Arthur Leywin’s worries, Lance and Regent of all Dicathen, were overwhelmed by the desires of a toddler who quickly became a boy. Sometimes I had annoying echoes of memories, like my fourth birthday, when I suddenly thought we should have moved to Xyrus, but they fainted as fast as they had come. After a while, I no longer knew whether they were real or whether they were just half-forgotten little dreams.

I was approaching my thirteenth birthday when I first spoke about these strange memories of my father.

He stopped to ramble the rushes and looked at me with a pensive air. “Few people believe it today, but some ancients still speak of ancient customs. People thought their minds were reborn in a new body when they died. Reincarnation, I think they called it that way. One of the things they were based on was that kind of memories. You know, memories that don’t seem to be yours.” With a shrug of his shoulders, he returned to raking, pulling the old rods towards the door.

I pushed my own little pile of dirty rushes on the floor without really cleaning anything, my mind being absolutely not occupied with this task. “But sometimes, I remember… the magic.”

Dad froze. I stared at him from the corner of my eye, and his face passed by several expressions one after the other. The surprise was quickly overshadowed by the pain, which melted into disappointment before finally being covered with a painful smile. “I don’t think that’s so strange, Art. All children dream of doing magic.”

He sighed and pressed his rake against the wall. I did the same and dropped myself against him. He hugged me and clamp me against him.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered into the rough cloth of his shirt.

“What?” he asked, caught off guard. “Why?”

“I know you’re disappointed that I didn’t wake up.” I tried to keep a stable voice talking, copying the tone he used when he and Mom were arguing, but he didn’t want to feel like it was.

He clenched and the embrace became troublesome. Slowly, he released me, then placed one hand on each side of my head and forced me to look it in the eye. “Listen to me, Art. You don’t disappoint me. No,” he added quickly when I tried to look away, unable to believe it. “Listen. I’m sorry if I gave you that impression. He interrupted and let go of me, struggling to keep his calm.

His jaw contracted as he picked up his rake and began cleaning the ground again. After a few seconds of hesitation, I followed his example.

“You have done nothing wrong, Art,” he continued, the grater of his voice fading. “If I seemed disappointed, it’s not because of you. I… I wanted so much that you were a wise, and maybe I’m disappointed with the situation, but never by you. I know you may not see the nuance now, but it’s important that you try. I don’t want you to grow up thinking you’ve disappointed me. On the contrary…” He interrupted himself to raking a large pile of rushes and went aside so that I could do the same.

“I’m afraid it was I who disappointed you,” he ended by looking at me with watery eyes.

I wanted to tell him that he had not disappointed me, that I loved him, nor was it his fault. But I couldn’t find the words.

He scraped his throat. “Hey, what do we do to melt? Your mother and sister will only come back from the market in a few hours. Why not put down these rakes and fetch the training swords?” His face became lighter, unknowingly, if it was a real excitement or a mere false aspy. “We can finish the chores later.”

I didn’t really want to, but I still gotten acquiesced, knowing that he was just trying to help. Dad put an arm around my shoulders to hug me, and then gave me an elbow so that I could get past the front door. By the time I came back with the two training blades in my hand, I was already relaxing, leaving behind the dark thoughts of strange memories and magic to focus on the feeling of the leather-wrapped handle in my hands. When I put his sword back on dad and settled in the center of the courtyard to make us more flexible, I had almost forgotten the whole exchange.

I wasn’t afraid to admit that I was good at a lot of things. Almost everything I was trying, actually. I might not have been able to form a nucleus, but I was doing pretty much everything very naturally. Sword fighting was no exception.

Dad had started training very early, and it was so natural for me that I was constantly surprised with my technique. It’s at least what he liked to tell me. I didn’t remember everything that had happened when I was four or five years old, but I knew I had always felt very comfortable when we were training, especially with swords. It was as if everything else was going in the background and I could focus on what I was doing.

As I leaned over, I caught my father, looking at me pensively, with eyebrows frowning by concentration. He looked away as soon as I looked at him, and I understood that he was still thinking about the conversation. “I shouldn’t have talked about it,” I thought, reprimanding. I knew that dad tended to think too much and become emotional. I had to support him. I was no longer a little child running after his parents whenever things seemed difficult. I was almost a man.

I stood upright and made the sword spin in light wood. “Are you ready, old man?”

Dad laughed, surprised, and turned his foot, bringing back the tip of his sword so that it was directed towards my face. “I’m always ready to give you a beat, little one.”

As I smiled, I pretended a forward slit that turned into a push under his care. He moved his hands slightly, placing his blade in a better defensive position. Leaving my right foot, I moved abruptly to the left and took a quick shot to his thigh instead. He changed his attitude, retreated his right foot to avoid the blow, and shot his gun on my shoulder.

I fell into a front roll, quickly inverting my grip on the training sword in order to tighten it tightly against my body. Despite the speed of this maneuver, dad had already turned and was rushing when I was back on my feet. I was younger and faster than he was, but he had much more training and the benefit of mana improving his speed and strength.

“Experience always prevails over young people,” he said with a smile before launching a series of quick moves.

I blocked them all to the last. Feeling the end of his burst, I dived under the last blow and pushed my blade into the ground between his feet. Deceiving in the direction of the attack, he tried to retreat and stumbled over the blade. His eyes widened and he struggled hilariously as he lost his balance and began to fall back.

I rushed forward to carry the “dead” blow, but the ground moved, sneaking under my feet. I collapsed, my blade escaping from my hands as I tried to catch up on the ground. “Tricher,” I shouted as I fell.

The sweet grass cushioned my painless fall, but the blow that followed against my shoulder blades hurt me as a dog. “Gah.” I drove away from dad trembling with laughter on the floor, his training blade held softly in his hand. “No mana manipulation in training,” I complained, trying to get my hand behind me to rub my shoulders. I knew the blow was going to leave a painful mark.

‘I had to answer your invitation,’ he said nonchalantly, putting himself on the side and supporting his head with one hand. “That was clever. I was completely destabilised.”

“You think I’m good enough to be an adventurer even without mana?” I asked casually. “Where could I ever become one day? I have heard from other boys that the younger members of the adventurer’s guild are my age or less.”

Dad got up and held out my hand. I took it and he trained me after him. “This is not unusual. Non-Mai mas adventurers, I mean. But it’s pretty rare, and they never rise higher than the first rank or the first two. The thing is, mana beasts are much more dangerous than you think. l?ghtnоvelcаve~c`о/m. Entering a dungeon without mana improving your senses or creating a barrier around you is practically a death sentence.”

In front of my mine, Dad hastened to add, “But the magi represent only a small percent of the Fir population. There is simply not enough wizards to fill all guard posts or form an entire army. There are even tournaments for non-mage fighters. You’re good, Art.” He brushed the dirt of his trousers. “Too good, maybe,” he added with a smile. “But you’re so smart. Many of the best scientists and inventors that exist are non-mages. I have no doubt that whatever you do, you will be the best in your field.”

I rubbed my neck and tried to hide my smile. “Thank you, Dad, I.”

“If you keep working,” he said, winking. “Now, let’s go. Enough warm-up. Let’s see what you really know how to do, Art.”

With the same smiles, we put ourselves back in position before exploding again in a series of strikes, parades, skies, and quick counter-attacks. One hour or more has elapsed in intense blurring. The fight ended only when my father suddenly lowered his guard and stiffened in the middle of the exchange, which caused him a violent blow to his forearm.

He grinned, dropped his training sword, and rubbed the spot, while addressing a painful smile to mom ascending the alley, frowning. “Uh, darling. Your visit to the market was quick today.”

She passed him in his eyes to the front door, where one could clearly see a pile of dirty rushes and two rakes. “You say that every time, Reynolds.”

Next to Mom, Eleonore pretends to roll her eyes. “Yes, Dad. Every time.”

I hid a smile behind my hand as Dad rushed towards Mom, kiss her quickly and took the big basket full of basic necessities she wore. He tried to walk on the back of Ellie’s shoe, pulling him halfway through his foot, and then cast an innocent glance at my wide-eyed eyes that made me cheer with embarrassment in the face of his stupidity.

“Beautiful shot, Arthur,” said Mom, continuing to pass in front of the house. “Your father will beg me to treat the blue later, I promise.”

Ellie laughed loudly, turning around and pointing her finger pointing.

“I won’t do it.” Dad defended himself, the air was upset. “I am an adventurer and a mage, not a baby who needs to be kissed him bobos.”

Ellie is shundering. “I don’t know, Dad. Are you sure? Say ‘goo-goo gah-gah’ just to be sure.”

Mom smiled and winked at me, then she straddled the heap of dry, fibrous grass into the house. Ellie straddled her, grabbed a rake, and started removing the scrub from the doorway to let dad pass.

Facing the door, Mom turned around and looked at me, a little fold between her eyebrows. “Are you coming back, Art?”

I realized that I had looked at mom, Dad and Ellie, all three gathered around the door of our house. A distant memory resurfaced, and I saw my father’s body lying on the ground, torn like a beast and covered with blood. Then it was Ellie, a red spear piercing her body. And finally, mom… my mother, looking at me with a shocked air that turned into furious unbelief.

“My brother?”

I shook my head and the vision became clearer. I saw my parents and sister, who were all looking at me with family anxiety. This vision left me a ball in my throat, and I suddenly wondered if I had not been hit harder than I thought when I had been in a clash with dad.

“I’m here. It’s just that…” I had to take a break to clear my throat. “I’m coming.”