The Beginning After The End 08

by Turtle Me

  My lips curved into a smirk as the dark shadow of Regis’s mouth fell open. “You tell me.”

  268

  The Platform

  The time spent tempering my body in the molten stream proved well worth it. I could easily focus on pushing aether to specific points in my body, strengthening my arms and legs with nearly as much precision as I could manage back when I had a mana core. My newly heightened control over aether made the climb back up to the cliff top a breeze.

  Despite the excruciating pain, I was tempted to stay longer in that fiery river, but I had gotten lucky in finding such a large aether crystal nearby. Without a huge reserve of aether, I would have had to rely on my own ability to absorb aether from the atmosphere, and wouldn’t have been able to make such drastic improvements in that short amount of time.

  There were a couple things I wanted to do before crossing through the teleportation gate, however. First, I looked for a source of fresh water. I had accidentally managed to excavate a thin vein of water down within the cave while looking for an aether crystal, so I was sure there was water nearby. Even though I didn’t need to drink nearly as much water with my asuran body, I didn’t like the idea of moving forward without a full waterskin, just in case.

  “Found it!” Regis shouted, just a few dozen yards ahead.

  The glistening pool was almost entirely hidden by the tall grass, which leaned over the banks and even touched the surface in places. The water was crystal clear.

  Wasting no time, I gulped down several mouthfuls of water and refilled my pouch, then stripped off my clothes and jumped in.

  My body shivered at the cold touch of water on my skin, but the sensation was blissful. After thoroughly washing myself, I couldn’t help but study my appearance in the reflective surface of the pond.

  The pair of eyes that gazed back at me in the water shone like two spheres of golden amber tinged with radials of blue—evidence of my former eye color, maybe. Locks of pale wheat hair draped over my face, emphasizing the solemn expression I bore as I stared at myself. I still looked like Arthur, but I couldn’t help but search for small differences that might prove otherwise. In the end, I think I was just discontent that the most obvious traits that I had inherited from my mother and father were now gone.

  Stop thinking like that. You should be grateful to Sylvie you’re alive, I reprimanded myself.

  “Are you done checking yourself out?” Regis teased.

  Turning back, I shot him a withering glare. His bright eyes lit up in surprise and he floated back several feet.

  “Easy. It was a joke,” my companion muttered.

  I let out a sigh and ran my hand through my wet hair. “I know.”

  After getting out of the water, I got dressed, but left off the leather armor and teal cloak. I wanted to get adjusted to the changes in my fire-tempered body, and to do that, I needed to see exactly what I was capable of and what my limits were.

  Without a proper punching bag, I struck at the air and occasionally the ground, my fists moving with such speed and force that the tall blue grass waved and danced as if a sudden wind was blowing through the plains. After a few minutes of this, I thought about how I had cracked the wall back in the sanctuary zone with a single punch, and wondered how my power level now compared.

  As I thought this, I realized I did have a punching bag I could test out, of a sort. Grabbing up my gear, I started back toward the chasm, where the two pillars protruded from the tall grass.

  Imbuing my hand with aether—just enough to land a solid blow—I jabbed out at the pillar. The stone cracked and a plate-sized chunk fell away, but it was still stable.

  “Not bad,” I said to myself.

  Pushing more aether into my fist, I jabbed again. My fist went through the stone like a battering ram, causing an explosion of rubble and dust to fly out into the canyon. The pillar teetered, then tipped and fell sideways, crashing to the ground like a fallen tree.

  Though the results were impressive, what I really wanted to test was if I could achieve the same results Regis and I could with Gauntlet Form.

  Lining myself up with the second pillar, I pushed all the aether I could into my right fist, which represented the maximum force I could achieve at my current level of power. Hurling a haymaker punch at the pillar, I braced for the impact.

  The stone exploded again as my fist blasted through it, and the pillar toppled away from me, tumbling out of sight into the ravine. Despite all the extra aether I had used, the damage done by the punch was only slightly better than before.

  Even though Regis used my own aether as fuel to unleash Gauntlet Form, I wasn’t able to duplicate that effect even on my own. I was stronger—tougher—and the regenerative properties were heightened with so much aether coalesced in one place, but a highly imbued punch wasn’t as destructive as I had hoped it would be.

  Still, because I was able to more freely control my aether, Regis and I were able to utilize Gauntlet Form much more instantaneously and effectively.

  One crucial limitation, I realized, was the speed at which aether travelled inside me.

  Whether it was because my aether passages weren’t completely formed, or because I was still trying to treat aether as if it were mana, it took a few seconds of concentration in order to siphon aether into the desired location within my body.

  I still have a long way to go until I’m able to use advanced techniques like Burst Step. Still, I couldn’t help but get a little excited. This body would be able to bear the burden of Burst Step and much more if I could only master aether.

  Before we headed back to where the teleportation gate stood, I took out the translucent stone that held Sylvie inside.

  “Let’s hope my aether is pure enough for you now, Sylv,” I muttered as I pushed aether into the stone. A shroud of purple enveloped the stone as I felt nearly all of my aether being drained from my core.

  This time, much more of my aether reached Sylvie, but the result was the same. While I had gotten stronger, at this point, I was dropping buckets in a pond, rather than cups. I really did have a long way to go.

  After my core had replenished, we made our way back to the towering teleportation gate and stood in front of the undulating portal.

  I turned to Regis. “Ready?”

  He let out a scoff. “Let’s see what fresh slice of hell awaits us next.”

  The two of us stepped through, both excited and anxious about what we’d have to face on the other side.

  Despite our preparation, and even anticipation, for something unpredictable and bizarre, we were still stunned silent as the bright white light finally gave away to a serene spectrum of colors. Despite having the accumulation of two lifetimes of experience across two different worlds, I had no frame of reference to understand exactly what I was seeing.

  “Well this is new,” Regis muttered.

  Glowing platforms the size of small houses were suspended in the air, each one a different color, rising like steps as they stretched on into the endless distance, one after another. Each platform was connected to the next by a single set of glowing stairs that seemed to be made of the same unknown material as the platforms themselves.

  The sky, if I could even call it that, seemed frozen in a perpetual state of twilight, shimmering with a glossy purple hue.

  Like in the jungle, the teleportation gate faded away behind us, leaving nothing behind but the field of floating platforms and the expanse of the shimmering purple sky. No sun or moon, no obvious source of light or even a horizon… There was just nothing.

  “At least there’s only one way to go, right?” I said, kneeling down to inspect the platform we were standing on. It glowed soft white and was smooth to the touch.

  Regis rolled his eyes. “Woohoo.”

  I walked carefully toward the set of glowing stairs leading to the next platform, wary of any traps. Thankfully, I managed to reach the stairs without anyone or anything trying to kill me.

>   Climbing the stairs, I stopped just in front of the next platform, which glowed in various shades of red. After Regis and I exchanged a wary glance, I stepped on the platform.

  Immediately, the staircase behind me faded away, forcing me to fully commit to the platform. Once both feet were planted on the glowing red floor, the entire platform began to elongate, stretching to about quadruple its original length. Something pulled at my insides, forcing me to stumble and almost fall.

  My breathing faltered as wisps of purple energy leaked from my skin, drifting away like mist. Even after I closed off my aether core, I could feel the aether escape, slowly draining both my body and my core.

  Regis was in worse shape. He drifted to the floor, his entire form flickering and growing noticeably smaller by the second.

  Mechanically, I reached out and grabbed him, allowing him to sink into my hand.

  ‘Thanks,’ Regis said without a shred of his usual blend of sarcasm and condescension.

  Meanwhile, I was starting to panic as more and more aether was being siphoned out of my core and leaking from the surface of my body.

  I began hurriedly crossing to the other side of the platform, where the stairs to the next level awaited. The rate that my aether was being sucked out of me increased the closer I got. By the time I was halfway across the platform, my steps were faltering and my breath was coming in shallow bursts.

  Thinking on my feet, I began concentrating aether to my right arm. With all of my remaining aether coalesced in one place, it felt like it wasn’t being drawn out of me as quickly.

  Better than nothing, I thought.

  I was nearly at the stairs… just a few more steps and I’d be free of the suffocating red platform… but I stopped in my tracks.

  ‘Uhh, the exit is right there,’ my companion thought, his concerned voice echoing in my head.

  “I… know,” I said through gritted teeth, still frozen in place. The way the aether moved through my body while under the effect of the platform felt different. Like the river of lava, the aether-draining platform provided an opportunity as well as a challenge.

  Rather than panicking at the sensation of aether escaping from my grasp, I focused every ounce of concentration into moving the aether from my entire arm to my hand, then to the center of my palm, until I could feel the aether about to burst.

  That’s when I felt like something had changed inside me, as if my aether passages had dispersed and risen to the surface of my skin. A layer of purple clung tightly to my right palm, and rune-like marks extended out to my fingers like an aetheric glove.

  Suddenly, my hand began to burn.

  ‘Arthur! You’re going to destroy your hand!’ Regis cried, panicking. ‘Hold on! I’ll absorb some of your aether!’

  “No, don’t!” I groaned. I let whatever anomaly was happening within this platform help me drain the aether coalescing in the center of my palm. Better yet, I let it help guide my channels.

  Letting out a roar against the pain gnawing at my hand, I pushed out.

  A deep thrum rippled through the air, followed by a devastating torrent of violet flames erupting from the center of my palm.

  I gripped my right arm with my left hand to help stabilize it, and to keep my arm from ripping out of its socket.

  The sound of my own voice was washed away by the deafening blast as I struggled to stay conscious.

  My ears rang, and most of the red platform, which had seemed ethereal and indestructible, had been obliterated.

  I fell to my knees and cradled my right arm; all of my fingers had been broken and bent out of place from the impact, and the bones of my right arm were fractured from my wrist to my shoulder.

  Without a shred of aether left in my body, I could already feel it starting to fail.

  “—thur! Arthur!”

  I saw a blurry Regis buzzing around my face and shouting my name. When I didn’t respond, he shot into my chest. Almost immediately, I could feel Regis injecting his own aether into my core, supplying me with most of what he had accumulated since manifesting in the sanctuary room.

  Strength flowing through me once more, I staggered off the red platform and climbed the stairs using my hand and feet.

  “Regis, are you okay?” I asked, my voice thick with exhaustion and worry.

  Regis remained inside me. I could feel he was still alive, but he remained quiet. Even his emotions seemed tampered, cut off from me.

  Finally, my companion stirred and let out a groan.

  ‘You really are a fucking masochist,’ he grumbled weakly.

  We stared at the glowing orange platform in front of us.

  Regis was no larger than the size of my palm, and his horns had shrunk to imperceptible nubs hidden in the dark flames.

  We had stopped to rest on the floating stairs, but it turned out that we weren’t able to stay on them indefinitely. After a while, the stair we were on began to tremble before fizzling out of existence, forcing us to move to the next one, which did the same thing. Eventually, we were forced to the last stair before the platform, my arm still mostly broken.

  “Remember, I can’t use Gauntlet Form right now,” Regis warned, hovering just over my shoulder.

  “I know.”

  “And don’t even think about using whatever it was you used on that last platform! I mean, what the hell were you even thinking?”

  “I told you. I need to risk my life if I want to stand a chance against asuras,” I stated. Despite my injury and close call, the risk had been worth it. I could feel the change in my body, could see the possibilities of what I would be able to do once my body was strong enough to handle it.

  “If it wasn’t for me, you would’ve died doing that dragon’s fart technique!” Regis yelled, scowling. Then he sighed and let out a deep breath. “Fine. It was pretty cool. Just don’t do it again until we’re someplace safe, yeah?”

  “It was a calculated risk… but I agree,” I answered before stepping onto the orange platform. As soon as my foot touched the floor, the entire platform began glowing brighter and started pulsating softly while the stairs leading to the next platform retracted.

  “That didn’t happen on the last platform.” Regis looked grimly toward the stairs.

  However, even as Regis was talking, I sensed something and moved my body accordingly. I spun on my front foot, pivoting to the right and grabbing the space in front of me with my left hand.

  A slight prickle on my cheek told me that I wasn’t able to dodge completely, but the fact that I was able to react at all to the humanoid beast that had attacked me had likely saved my life.

  Aside from the fact that it was deadly fast, it seemed to be completely invisible. Even though I was able to see aether, the beast simply looked like a faint blur of purple with two bladed arms and four legs.

  “Regis.” I tightened my grip around the bladed beast’s arm as it struggled to pry itself free. “Be careful.”

  My companion’s eyes widened at what he saw and he hid behind me.

  With my right hand out of commission, I tried throwing the beast off of the platform, but it hit an invisible wall.

  Imbuing aether into my left arm, I unsheathed my dagger and lunged at the humanoid beast, striking just underneath its chin and severing its head from its neck.

  The entire platform shook from the impact, and the headless beast slumped to the ground. Not even a trace of blood leaked from the gaping wound.

  As soon as the beast died, details formed underneath its camouflaging shroud of aether.

  “How’d you even see this thing?” Regis asked as he hovered over what could only be described as some sort of reptilian centaur. It had a humanoid torso growing out of a flat, low body, like a giant salamander. Both arms were chimera-like fusions of flesh and blade.

  I touched my cheek, wiping a bead of blood from the wound that had already healed. “I didn’t really see it, but I could sense the aether. I didn’t know what it was, e
xactly, just reacted to it.”

  Regis just bobbed in a shrug, but my mind started to spin, trying to think of what could’ve changed. I’d been able to see aether since the chimera hallway, but I’d known something was there before I could even see the aether. Maybe by forging my aether passages, the aether was further acclimating to my body internally, strengthening my nerves to enhance my perception and reflexes.

  The sight of the reptilian centaur fading into nothingness snapped me back to reality. Soon after, the platform dimmed to its usual color, and the stairs extended again, connecting this platform to the one after.

  Regis tilted his head. “I guess… that’s it?”

  We crossed the platform carefully, making sure there weren’t any more invisible threats, but we didn’t leave immediately. After I deemed it safe, we took some more time to heal.

  After a few hours of concentrated absorption of aether, I was back to full health and was even able to give Regis some aether. It wasn’t enough to return him to his previous strength, but he was at least able to use Gauntlet Form once.

  “Let’s go,” I stated, curling and uncurling my healed right hand.

  Reaching the end of the platform, we climbed the flight of stairs, much more confident than last time.

  The next platform was bathed in deep blue light, and when I carefully touched the floor with my foot, rather than pulsating like the previous platform, tiles shimmered into view, segmenting the entire area into smaller squares, each the span of my arms.

  “Ooh, not ominous at all,” Regis said sarcastically, looking at the squares. “Too bad you can’t just float over them like me.”

  “You make it sound like your life isn’t tied to mine,” I shot back with a smirk.

  Regis’s expression fell as he muttered weakly, “We don’t know that for sure…”

  “Let’s not find out,” I chuckled before focusing on the task at hand.

  I got low and tapped lightly on the square just ahead, watchful for any more invisible beasts sneaking up on me.