The Beginning After The End 08

by Turtle Me

  “I’m a man of my word,” I said with my hand pressed against the cool glass. The ascender’s eyes widened in shock as the motes of aether swirled around my hand and began to mend the many cracks that marred the surface of the mirror. “Rest well,” I whispered as he faded away.

  ‘Thank you.’

  As the ascender completely vanished, I let out a deep breath. Stepping away from the mirror, I looked down at my palm. The few traces of the aetheric motes that continued to slowly orbit around my hand slowly dissipated, leaving me with a hollow feeling.

  Unlike God Step or Destruction, this rune didn’t expend much of my aether reserves. Even with the limited amount of aether in my core, I was confident I could free all the remaining ascenders.

  Still, despite this new ability that I had unlocked, I was left with a bitter aftertaste.

  The keystone could’ve unlocked a deeper and more powerful insight into aevum, but because of my lack of comprehension, I was left with only a piece of the whole.

  The least part of the whole…

  Now that I fully understood the rune, I knew this ability could only affect inorganic objects like the mirrors.

  ‘On the bright side, with this ability you’ll be able to revert dead relics into actual, usable relics,’ Regis chimed.

  I curled my fingers into a tight fist. You’re right.

  Despite its limitations, the ability to revert time was something even Kezess Indrath couldn’t do, and while I wouldn’t be able to use it in battle—or to bring back those who I had lost—that didn’t mean I couldn’t make full use of its utility. I just wished that I still had Dawn’s Ballad here with me now, so that I could revert the asura-forged sword to its pristine state.

  I pulled out the once dead relic from my pocket to examine it again. The edges of the clear crystal were now glowing dully. Now that I had more of my strength back, I pushed more aether into the stone, but still nothing happened. It seemed like, rather than being activated by aether, the relic had some sort of recharge period before it could be used again. At least that’s what I hoped.

  Making my way through the remaining mirrors, I continued exerting my newly acquired godrune to free the souls of the ascenders trapped within until the last one faded away, a disbelieving grin on her tired face.

  The cold, white hall dimmed slightly and shifted to a warmer tone. In the distance, a translucent portal manifested within one of the empty mirrors, just like the image I had seen in one face of the dodecahedron.

  It was only then that I realized that both Haedrig and Ada had been watching me.

  “How—how are you feeling?” I asked hesitantly, looking at Ada.

  The poor girl was barely able to muster a nod before she looked away, her swollen red eyes full of resentment.

  I swallowed heavily before walking over to the two of them. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the simulet that Kalon had given me. “Here, you should take this.”

  Ada whipped her head back to face me, eyes alight with panic. “Y-you’re leaving us here?”

  I shook my head. “You all ended up in this mess because I was with you. If you two go through the portal on your own, it should lead you to a sanctuary.”

  “You have no way to know that,” Ada said, her tear-lined face crumpling into a scowl.

  “I don’t, but I do know that if you go with me to the next zone, it’ll be even more challenging than this one.”

  After a moment of hesitation, she reached for the simulet in my hand, but Haedrig intervened.

  “I have no intention of going back up to the surface,” the green-haired ascender said gravely.

  “You can’t be serious.” I let out a scoff. “You almost died and you want to delve even deeper?”

  “I almost died by you,” Haedrig corrected. “As I’ve already said, the Relictombs react differently to unique individuals. I expected something like this to happen.”

  “You expected this to happen?” Ada asked incredulously. “And you still brought us along? My brothers and best friend died!”

  For once, Haedrig’s cool demeanor was nowhere to be seen, replaced by an expression of guilt. “I thought your eldest brother would be strong enough to—”

  “Oh, so it’s Kalon’s fault that they all died?” Ada yelled, her hands clenched into quivering fists.

  Haedrig winced. “That’s not what I—”

  Ada withdrew her simulet from a hidden pocket and threw it at the green-haired ascender before stomping off toward the portal.

  Haedrig followed, trying to go after her, but I caught him by the wrist and held him back.

  Just before Ada stepped through the portal, she looked back at us over her shoulder, fresh tears lining her cheeks and her vivid green eyes sharper than daggers. “If the Relictombs don’t eat you two alive, Blood Granbehl will.”

  As the last of Ada’s blonde hair disappeared through the portal, I let go of Haedrig’s wrist.

  “Was that wise, just letting her go like that?” Haedrig asked, clearly concerned. “Her blood is quite imposing, especially to an unnamed blood.”

  “Should I have killed her?” I inquired, raising a brow.

  “Not kill… but at least we could have tried to talk it out.”

  “Her best friend and both her brothers were all butchered in front of her. I don’t think anything we could’ve said would have convinced her. Besides, it’s suspicious either way since our names are recorded.”

  “True,” Haedrig said after a pause. “Are you not worried?”

  “I’m more worried about what the next zone will be, and you should be too,” I said as I tossed him my simulet. “Go back.”

  Haedrig shook his head, pushing the simulet back to me. “I want to go with you.”

  I shook my head, unable to believe his obstinacy. “Are you that eager to die, or are you expecting some sort of treasure vault at the end of this?”

  “It shouldn’t matter to you what I want. Even you have to admit that I can be useful,” he said.

  “And if there’s nothing you can eat or drink in the next zone?” I pushed.

  Haedrig revealed a playful smile. “Are you worrying about me?”

  I let out a deep breath before stuffing the simulet back in my pocket. “Do as you wish. Just don’t expect me to protect you.”

  “I never dreamed of it,” he said, leading the way to the portal.

  With my aether reserves about a quarter replenished and the warm lights flickering as if to warn us to leave quickly, I followed after the mysterious green-haired ascender.

  With the decision made, there was no reason to linger in the mirror room. We stepped through the translucent portal, together, Haedrig holding onto to the back of my teal cloak just a step behind me.

  To keep me from trying to ditch him at the last second, I suppose, I thought. He really doesn’t want to be left behind, but why?

  The thought was blown out of my mind as, immediately upon stepping through the portal, I was blasted by a gust of icy wind so sharp that I could barely keep my eyes open.

  Unfazed by the drastic change in scenery, and with nothing in sight except a panorama of white, I pulled out the crystalline relic again. While I didn’t know its full capabilities, I was sure it had some sort of navigational function.

  Except this time, when I took out the crystalline relic, its glassy edges were once again fully opaque. Feeling instinctively that there was something off about this place, I turned back to Haedrig…

  …only, instead of the shaggy, green-haired ascender, a familiar navy-haired girl with two piercing red eyes looked back at me.

  I stumbled away from her, completely caught off guard, and she stared at me uncertainly.

  “Caera?”

  308

  Unmasked

  “What the hell?”

  Caera lifted one delicate hand to her face, feeling her cheek, then pulled a lock of her long hair out in front of her face so she could
see it properly. She paled visibly as her hand reached up and touched one of the onyx horns that grew from the sides of her head. Each horn had two separate points: the main horns swept forward and up, while the smaller fang-shaped pair jutted back behind, framing her head like a dark crown. Thin golden rings adorned each of the smaller spurs.

  “Grey, I can expla—”

  My hand shot out in a blur, gripping Caera by her thin neck and lifting her off the snowy ground. A small gasp escaped her lips as she tried to pry herself free, but my eyes were focused on those black horns.

  She’s a Vritra! I thought, feeling foolish for letting someone I knew so little about get so close to me. No, she wouldn’t be able to enter the Relictombs if that was the case. I wasn’t sure what to make of this sudden revelation. Is she just Vritra blooded?

  ‘I know you’re shocked—so am I—but I don’t think we’ll get any answers from her if she’s dead,’ Regis chimed in, sobering me.

  I loosened my grip, letting the Alacryan woman fall to the ground, where she coughed fitfully and rubbed at her throat.

  “Please… Grey. I don’t mean… any harm,” Caera pleaded, her red eyes locked on me.

  “Stop,” I warned, drawing the white dagger from my dimension rune as I studied the highblooded Alacryan woman.

  What was Caera’s purpose—to kill me? That didn’t make sense. She could’ve killed me anytime while I was in the keystone realm. Did she need proof to take back to her blood, a Scythe, or maybe even Agrona himself, so that they could find and execute me?

  In the end, regardless of her reasons, it boiled down to two choices.

  The thought of simply killing her right there and mitigating any potential risk surfaced in my mind, but holding the dagger brought up memories of Caera giving up her late brother’s blade so that I could have a weapon. Not only that, Caera and I had parted on good terms after our temporary allegiance in the convergence zone.

  Even then, she and her two guards had several chances to kill me while I was unconscious after our fight against the titan, though it was also true that she could have guessed my identity after returning to Alacrya.

  She’s still calling me Grey, though, which means she might not know who I am after all…

  My grip around the bone-white dagger tightened as I struggled to come up with the right decision. I had trusted Haedrig, but the green-haired man that had fought beside me never actually existed. Instead, it was a woman wrapped deeply in the veil of Alacryan nobility—with Vritra blood coursing through her.

  Regis let out a chortle. ‘Why are you thinking so deeply about this? Maybe she just likes you.’

  “What?” I blurted, startling Caera, who was still on her knees in the snow.

  “Nothing,” I said, clearing my throat and silently cursing my companion for his flippant attitude.

  I could feel Regis roll his eyes. ‘Kill her or not, it’s up to you, but chop chop. I don’t fancy finding out what happens to me if you freeze to death standing here.’

  My face and hands felt stiff from the cold, but my asuran body made this deadly weather a nuisance at most. Caera, despite her obvious Vritra ancestry, didn’t share my fortitude, and she had already started to shake.

  Letting out a sigh, I reluctantly made up my mind. I withdrew the wool bedroll from my rune—yet another piece of equipment that Alaric had thought to pack for me—and tossed it to her. “Wrap yourself up in this. We need to find shelter—then we’ll talk.”

  She took the soft bedroll and draped it around herself like a blanket. “Thank you.”

  My eyes quickly scanned our surroundings. Like before, the portal we’d come through had vanished, leaving us stranded in a pure white expanse. An icy wind kicked up a lot of snow, making it difficult to see very far.

  “Let’s get moving,” I replied curtly, turning away.

  ‘I would’ve gone for the nice gentleman play, but aloof bad boy works too,’ Regis teased.

  Do you want me to cut you off from my supply of aether?

  ‘No, sir. Sorry, sir.’

  Rolling my eyes, I continued walking, paying close attention to the soft crunch of Caera’s footsteps just a few paces behind me.

  “You’re wary of me, yet you’re exposing your back to me. Are you that confident?” Caera asked, her silvery voice cutting through the howling of the wind.

  “Do you want to find out?” I asked, not bothering to look back.

  “Perhaps next time,” she said softly after a beat of silence.

  ‘Ooh, so she wants there to be a next time,’ Regis snickered.

  I ignored my companion’s comment but mentally gave him his second strike.

  “Keep an eye out for any kind of shelter,” I called out, my own eyes scanning every shadow and wrinkle in the frozen wasteland for something that could be a cave or ravine, or even just an overhang that would get us out of the biting wind.

  “I can barely see past you. Even with mana, I don’t think I could find anything unless it was standing right in front of me,” Caera said, frustration laced in her voice.

  ‘Maybe you guys will have to dig yourself a shelter and cuddle for—’

  Strike three.

  Coalescing aether around Regis’s incorporeal form inside me, I directed it to the palm of my hand and pushed outward.

  To my surprise, Regis’s fiery cub form actually burst out of my hand, limbs flapping in surprise.

  ‘Hey! What the—’

  Caera gasped and burst into action. Flinging off the bedroll and drawing her thin, curved sword, she cut swiftly downwards, cleaving Regis in two.

  I watched with a raised brow as Regis’s bisected form faded away, dissolving into the windblown snow.

  Caera’s sharp eyes darted around the terrain, but when she didn’t see any more threats, she smoothly stored the blade once again. Then she noticed the look on my face, and her own confident expression slipped away.

  I pointed nonchalantly at the area where Regis had disappeared and said, “That thing is going to reform in a few seconds. As amusing as it was, please don’t attack him again.”

  Her eyes went wide. “That was something you did?”

  “That was my wolf, yes.”

  “Grey, I’m—”

  She was cut off as a pocket of dark ash began to spin within the light snow, condensing down until it was a perfectly round ball, then bursting into flames. Finally, Regis’s bright eyes popped open, and the dark shadow of his mouth twisted down into a comical frown.

  The will-o-wisp floated down to the ground where it shifted again, bulging outward as it transformed back into the small, wolf-like puppy. “You know, I’m not sure I like either one of you very much right now.”

  Caera’s brows furrowed in confusion as her gaze shifted from Regis to me and then back again.

  I shrugged. “This is Regis. You two have met before in the last two zones.”

  Her eyes shone in realization, then she tilted her head. “But he was a little bigger then.”

  “Yeah, well you were a dude,” Regis snapped angrily.

  “You’re right.” Caera’s lips quivered as if she were trying very hard not to smile. “I’m sorry, little friend.”

  The Alacryan leaned down and scratched Regis behind one pointy little ear. His bright eyes glared at her, but he couldn’t stop his shadowy tail from wagging in pleasure.

  This time, I let out a chortle, causing my companion to stiffen.

  Letting out a growl, Regis snapped at Caera’s finger, startling her so that she jerked her hand away.

  The tiny shadow wolf pounced ahead of us, bounding through the snow with some difficulty. Without looking back, Regis said, “Stop staring and start walking, before you both turn into meat popsicles.”

  I met Caera’s strange red eyes, narrowed in a pleasant smile, and forced myself to turn away. Scooping up my bedroll, the Alacryan shook the snow off and wrapped it around her shoulders, then we followed after our fu
zzy little guide.

  “It’s a bowl,” I muttered, stopping so that Caera, who was walking in the track I left in the deepening snow, bumped into me.

  “What?” she asked, taking a step back and peering around us.

  I took her by the shoulder and turned her so that she was looking down into a wide dip in the land. Visibility was poor enough that I hadn’t immediately noticed it, but we were walking along the ridge of a massive, shallow crater.

  The wind let up at that moment, and a beam of silvery light cut through the gray blanket above us, spilling across the snow and highlighting the entire basin. Far below us, perhaps a mile or more, there was the clear outline of a large, round bulge under the snow—much too round and perfect to be a natural formation.

  Then the wind picked back up, and the clouds closed in, and the shape was lost behind a white curtain.

  “Did you see that?” Caera asked excitedly, pointing down toward the hidden mound.

  She turned toward me, and suddenly she seemed very close. Her gaze then landed on my arm, which I suddenly realized was still around her shoulder. Immediately, I pulled myself away, taking a step back as Caera also shifted uncomfortably.

  “See what?” Regis asked, trotting back toward us after having gone several yards ahead. “What’d I miss?”

  ‘And what were you doing with your arm around the spy, eh?”

  “There’s something down there.” I gestured down the slope, ignoring my companion. “It looks like the snow gets deeper, though, so maybe you should get back inside me.” I looked at Regis pointedly, making it clear this was less a question and more of a demand.

  “You know, it’s been nice to stretch my legs. I think I’ll stay out here. I don’t mind a little snow.”

  I glared at the pup, and Regis wiggled his eyebrows in return, a gesture that reminded me of the cartoon animals in the shows I had seen as a kid.

  ‘I think I’ll keep an eye on things from out here,’ he thought to me, making it obvious that he was still upset about being cut in half.