Preparation |A TBATE What-If?|

Chapter 3 - Land of the Gods

? Pov

His training has progressed nicely. I do not foresee any of the enemy generals being able to stop the boy. However, if by some miscalculation they are able to, certain contingencies have been set in place. He is not only useful for his power. In fact, I would argue that his other strengths could prove even more beneficial.

Perhaps I place too much trust in a simple lesser. Though he has lived two lives, he is still a mere child. Yes. I should be careful moving forward.

~~~

Arthur Leywin Pov

Waking up sprawled out on a comfortable couch was just about the only pleasant thing I could say I'd experienced in the last few years' time.

When Windsom had switched our bodies upon realizing that I was locked in mortal combat with a Lance, he had humbled a certain lightning-wielding maniac. I'd even heard that he made Bairon kneel to him, which was ironic because...

'I don't even like thinking about it...'

Regardless, after Windsom saved me, it seemed as if my luck had stopped there. I'd learned almost immediately after I'd woken up that I would no longer be attending Xyrus Academy, instead taking my talents elsewhere.

Epheotus was beautiful, true. Heavenly even. But my days spent there could only really be described as hell on Earth...if the continent even existed in the same world as Dicathen.

But, if my time with Silvia was any measure of what Asuras were truly like, then it was like comparing apples to hand grenades. Not really an apt comparison seeing as though the Asuras could level the world if they so chose but the connection was easy enough to make. They were monsters.

Before I'd left, Windsom was adamant that I tie up as many loose ends as possible. He'd estimated that 13 years was the amount of time I'd spend away from my family—in the physical realm at least.

Telling my parents the truth was a difficult choice to make and if I was honest, I couldn't be sure that it was the right one at the time. A part of me wanted to keep everything the same but I knew it was just wishful thinking on my part. Telling them was the most realistic solution...

I'd have given anything to keep living that beautiful lie, but it just wasn't fair to the people I loved most. If a parent was going to lose their 'child' for 15 years, wouldn't it be better to save them the suffering and tell them that I was never truly their child, to begin with?

It was a difficult question and I knew it was one I couldn't answer definitely one way or the other. However, if that was my hardest goodbye, farewell number 2 was no picnic either.

I'd asked Virion to deliver a letter to Tessia—who was still in hiding so to speak, and due to our not-so-amicable circumstances at the time, she hadn't wanted to see me in person. Something I was sure she would come to deeply regret.

In hindsight, I should have tweaked the letter, first letting Virion read it before his granddaughter, but Tessia shunning me was an outcome I hadn't seen and thus, Tess's and my last meeting was on the day this all started. When I beat the shit out of Lucas Wykes...

Perhaps, though, a farewell that could have ended up being worse was one with Sylvie who'd been forbidden from seeing me in the first year. However, after a period of withdrawal, we were able to see one another fairly regularly throughout the 13 years of my stay in Epheotus.

Stay, obviously being a euphemism for a borderline prison sentence. But, I couldn't deny one thing: the asuras were freakishly effective in producing the most powerful human mage the continent of Dicathen had ever, and would ever see. Bar none.