ARTHUR LEYWIN
The air here feels refreshing. I feel a lot better knowing that my family and all of those from Sanctuary are safe in an aether-user exclusive safe zone. Now though, It's time to keep Cecilia close and see if I can make her believe me. We've got to get a move on through the Relictombs because I'm not completely confident that I could take Cecilia in a fight should she manage to get out of her core restrictor. It's still up in the air of what she can do with all that "Legacy" power.
'Stop worrying, princess. It's not that deep. She seems to be coming around given that she hasn't tried to kill you in your sleep this past week.' Regis comments.
'Well thanks for the well wishes, but I have to be realistic.'
'No, Arthur, you're being paranoid. For fuck's sake, you have a plan on how to kill everyone you've ever gotten close to should they betray you. Dare I say that that's not healthy relationship building skills,' he replies.
'Yeah, yeah, Oh Mighty Asuran Weapon. My paranoia has kept me alive so far.'
"But no one you truly cared about betrayed you. You never liked Lucas ever since the little shit went haywire at his rank assessment. You also had an off feeling about Kai whenever he met you at the door to your first DC meeting. Have you considered that maybe you're a decent judge of character and maybe you can rely on that?' Regis says, cutting off out mental link.
"No, Regis, I haven't considered that. Mostly because I don't really believe it." I mutter.
"What was that?" Cecilia asks.
I was hoping she didn't hear that.
"Nothing really, Cecil. Just talking to myself." I reply and clear my throat. "So what do you think of that? Make any sense to you?" I ask, gesturing to the structure before us.
"No more than you, Mr. Aether Wielder." she replies.
I let out an exasperated sigh.
After we entered this room, I had us follow the aetheric pathways. Well, thinking about it, room is deceiving. This is comparable to the entirety of Xyrus City in terms of scale. Anyway, whenever we started following the pathways, we made way through miles of flower field. Eventually, at our destination, we found what looked to be a platform surrounded by some familiar Elven arches with a pedestal in the middle.
(^^^Think this but with flower field surrounding and a similarly colored pedestal in the middle.)
I can see that there's some kind of object on the pedestal, but I'm wary of stepping on the pedestal in fear that the whole room will fall apart or something. The last thing I want is to get Cecilia -but really Tess- killed. Though I can't even say it's just Tess anymore. Looking over at what should be my childhood friend from this life, but is in actuality my childhood friend from my past life, is really confusing. If I can help it, both Cecilia and Tess will come out of all this alive.
"Alright, Cecilia. I'm going to go up there," I say, trying to start up a bit of conversation.
"It's about time. We can't just sit here forever. We'll starve. Speaking of which, I'm hungry," she replies.
I pull a pouch of dried meat from my dimension rune. "Here, take this. I don't need it in all honesty. My uncle gave me more than I can use," I say.
"This will do. I'll just take a seat here in the flowers. You go be the hero," she says, whether she's teasing me or mocking me, I'm not sure.
I walk to the edge of the first stair and take a step.
'Well looks like you were worried for nothing, princess.' Regis chimes in.
Perhaps.
I take the second step and make my way to the pedestal. On it seems to be a keystone.
I sigh.
It's a puzzle.
'Indeed it is, princess. Let's hope it isn't time sensitive because you've had that last one for quite a while.' Regis responds to my inner frustration.
I take the keystone into my hand, but that may have been the wrong decision.
"What the hell is happening?!" Cecilia yelps from behind me.
I turn around to see the entirety of the fields of flowers to be wilting in a circle starting here at the pedestal.
Fuck.
'I stand corrected,' Regis says.
Unfortunately, yes. Yes, you do.
"Well, I don't think I can mess anything up more than I already have," I say, trying to look on the bright side.
"They were so pretty though. Fix them! They're going to start rotting and stinking soon!" Cecilia shouts at me.
"Well if I could fix them I would have already done it. Though, the Relictombs don't do things for no reason, so this probably plays a part in us getting the hell out of here," I explain.
Cecilia keeps whatever she was about to say to herself and walks over to the steps of the platform to eat there instead of among the dead flowers.
Time to take a dive into this thing.
"Hey, Cecilia, I'm probably going to be comatose for the next few hours. If you try and kill me, the injuries Regis gives you won't be my fault. You've been warned," I tell her. "In case it takes longer than I think, here's more food," I say as I pull a second pouch from my dimension rune.
"It could take you that long?" she asks.
"I've been known to stare at these things for upwards of 12 to 16 hours. So yes, it could take that long," I say, taking the keystone into my hands and pouring aether into it.
Once inside, I find myself hyper-aware of my aging. A 20-foot-tall hourglass that seems to represent the constant passing of my lifespan sits in front of me.
It has a lot of sand. Is that because of the asuran body?
I attempt to use some of my previous tricks. I knock on the glass, it makes the noise I'd expect. I start counting grains of sand, but soon realize that there are probably millions. I even tried to break the glass, but my body wasn't aether-enhanced in my mindscape so it just felt like I broke my hand. Confused, I reluctantly exit from the keystone and return to reality.
The sky is dark, now an obsidian shade of purple.
"It took you long enough. Your dog isn't very great company. He's way too vulgar," Cecilia says.
"You've got that right. How long have I been out?" I ask.
"This is night two, so probably 30 hours," she tells me with a rather angry expression.
My eyes widen at her remark. 30 hours? That's much longer than in the mirror room.
"S-sorry I left you alone out here for that long. It only felt like I was in there for around an hour," I reply, scratching my neck in embarrassment.
"I'd be mad if I thought you were just wasting time and doing nothing, but you started sweating on multiple occasions. So I could tell whatever it was you were doing, was taking a toll," she says, handing me a rag.
"Where did you get a rag?" I ask.
"From my skirt. The dead rose bushes have a lot of thorns and it got ripped as I was bored and took a walk through the fields," she says, showing me the tear in her skirt.
"I can fix that actually," I say, placing the rag back in place and channeling aether into my Aroa's Requiem godrune.
The hem of the skirt begins to reform and the individual fibers begin to reconnect to their previously lost counterparts.
"H-how did you do that?" Cecilia stutters, looking at me with wide eyes.
"It's an ability I picked up in a room full of mirrors. I can turn back time on objects," I tell her, trying to keep my promise of not keeping secrets.
"That sounds hard to believe. How does it work?" she asks.
"Well, it starts with these," I say as I stand and pull the back of my shirt up. I then send aether into my God Step godrune and it begins to glow.
"Ah, that's like the runes that Nico has on his back," she states.
"Sort of," I begin to explain while lowering my shirt and retracting the aether. "These runes are powered by aether. The ones on Alacryans are powered by mana. Similar medium, different effect."
"I like the sound of aether. It seems to have more raw power than mana, while mana has a lot more versatility," Cecilia states.
"That sounds about right, yeah. I like to think of aether like a higher form of mana. It trumps mana in terms of raw power, and from what I experienced with my mana core, it's more potent when in the system," I reply.
"It's almost all Agrona talks about when he's not helping me adjust to this world. He says when he finally understands it, he'll put all of Epheotus in the dirt," she says.
"Sounds like Agrona and I have similar end goals. I just refuse to work with that snake. He manipulates you every time he sees you. He sends Nico to become my friend in Dicathen. And, most importantly, he started a war that killed my father. I'll never forgive that bastard," I vent.
"I didn't know your story here was that tragic, Grey," Cecilia says while averting here gaze from me.
"It was somehow more tragic on Earth. At least I have Mom, Ellie, and Virion. There's also Regis and Sylvie, though Sylv is out of commission for the foreseeable future," I say.
"Who was Sylvie?" she asks.
Oh man... that's a whole can of worms I really do not want to open. But I already told myself not to keep secrets.
"She was.... my daughter. Not was, IS. She isn't dead, just comatose, for lack of a better word. She gave her life for mine whenever I overdid myself and essentially killed myself from mana backlash," I tell her as the tears begin to flow.
"It's okay, Art," I hear from where Cecilia is, but that was most assuredly not Cecilia's voice. She doesn't call me Art. It was Tess. I know she's still in there. She's called out to me too many times through Cecilia.
Cecilia looks shocked at the involuntary words and puts her hands to her mouth.
"That wasn't me," she says.
"I know. It was Tessia. She's one of the few people who call me Art other than my family, " I barely get out before the dam breaks and all the despair, regret, and guilt that I have for letting Tessia get taken come out. My sobs seemed to catch Cecilia off guard because she recoiled away from me in surprise.
"It's okay, Arthur, we'll save them both," Regis says as he emerges from my body and lets his head rest on my shoulder.
"Thank you, Regis," I mutter.
I sit and cry to myself for a few seconds before I'm pulled to the side. Cecilia brings me into an embrace and rests my head in the crook of her neck. She doesn't say anything, but gives me a solid foundation to cry on.
-------------------------
I must have fallen asleep in Cecilia's arms because I'm now laying on the ground. I take a quick glance around me and find a sleeping Cecilia, slumped against the pedestal. Thanks, Cecil.
I pull a bit more dried meat from my dimension rune and set it at her feet before I take a seat on the other side of the pedestal from her and push my mind back into the keystone.
This time, the hourglass is a little askew. It tilts around 15 degrees to the left as if it were placed on a slope. I don't personally notice a slope as I walk over to it, but it can't be doing that on its own, can it?
I begin to inspect the base of the hourglass. It definitely is at a tilt of some kind but why? I place my hand underneath the raised side and it passes through the space. This is obviously just free floating, how? More importantly, what the hell does this have to do with the room outside?
I keep observing the base of the hourglass and get nothing until I eventually place my hands around the bottom lip and lift it further upwards.
It gives slightly.
Just as the edge of the hourglass raises up, it becomes incredibly heavy and falls to the ground with my fingers still underneath.
"Ouch, that hurt," I say to myself.
Obviously the pain I felt in my mindscape as my fingers turned into ketchup was enough to break my concentration.
"You really do take forever in there," Cecilia says.
"How long was it this time?" I ask.
"Not as long. It hasn't been a full day yet," she tells me coldly.
I stand up, stretching my legs, and make my way to sit in front of Cecilia. "Thanks for yesterday. I needed that," I say, bringing up the subject that seems to still be weighing on her mind.
"It was just a hug. She told me to do it," she says.
"She? Can you hear Tess in your head?" I ask, surprise coursing through my veins.
"I think so. I hear a voice that seems to be very familiar with you. It knows that you tend to be very cryptic. It also refers to you as 'Art,'" she says.
I breathe a sigh of relief. "She must still be alive in there, then," I say as I fall to my back and stare up at the purple sky.
"It seems so," Cecilia says, getting progressively more quiet as she went.
"Don't feel guilty Cecil. You didn't put yourself in her body," I reassure her.
"I know, but I still feel like a body thief regardless of who put me here. She has so many emotions that leak out into me and even speaks to me whenever you're in distress," she says as a few tears fall from her eyes.
"I'll find you a body of your own someday, Cecil. Until then, wait for me," I tell her, while handing her my half of the leaf pendant. "Put that on if you want to try and make something up to her."
"Okay. I'll do that," she says, taking the pendant and placing it around her neck. "Thank you, Arthur."
"It sounds weird when you say it, Cecil. Keep it to Grey for now," I ask as I close my eyes, fading into unconsciousness.
-------------------
When "morning" finally came back around, I woke up to find Cecilia walking among the fields of withered flowers.
"Still mad at me for killing them?" I ask.
"No, because I told you to fix them and you will," she says with a smirk.
"I'll probably have to anyway to get us out of here," I say. "Do you have enough food for a while?"
"I should have enough for another day or so. You don't need to give me more. Though please do hurry up whatever it is that you're doing because I'm tired of looking at these dead flowers," Cecilia asks.
"I'm doing my best here, Cecil," I tell her. "I'm going back in."
"Have fun." she says as I pour aether into the keystone.
It is definitely not fun, Cecilia.
Once inside again, the hourglass is still at that same tilt as I remember. Strangely enough though, the blood I lost when my fingers got turned into mush are still there.
Let's give it another try.
I bring my hands under the lip of the hourglass only to end up realizing it's still much heavier than I expected. I manage to pull my hands from under the lip and let it fall.Though what I didn't think of, was that the angle the hourglass was at meant the lip would fall a little further towards me than I anticipated.
"Shit! It hurts so much!" I scream. So that's what it feels like for your feet to turn to paste.
"Back already?" Cecilia asks.
"Yeah, but I'll be going right back in. How long was that out here?" I ask.
"Probably around an hour if I had to guess." she says. "I'm beginning to lose my concept of time in here though. Thankfully there's a kind of day and night cycle, but I don't think it's 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night."
"I wouldn't be shocked. The Relictombs are the epitome of unpredictable," I say, pulling even more meat from my dimension rune. "That should be enough for 3 or 4 days. I'm going to be in and out until I figure this damn thing out."
"Yeah, yeah, Boy Wonder. Hurry it up, it's so boring out here," she pleads.
With a smirk on my face, I press some aether into the keystone.
A familiar sight, the hourglass is tilted. I try and lift while still managing to pull my hands and feet out of the way. The hourglass creates a deafening thud as it hits the ground. My ears begin to ring as, to my surprise, the hourglass begins to raise back up.
Hmm.
This thing is incredibly heavy but not impossible. But what do I do with it after the fact? It should be top heavy because of how much sand is in the top portion. Maybe I need to push it over?
We won't know until we try.
I place most of my body under the lip of the hourglass and push with every ounce of force that I can muster. While I'm not doing much, yet, I'm able to support as it rests on my back.
I try and shuffle my way backwards, using the leverage of the angle of my back to increase the degree of tilt until around 30 degrees. At that point, the load on my back got so much lighter and my legs give out from under me. Turning my head quickly around, I see the hourglass tipping slowly, soon to make collision with the ground.
Yes! I did it!
The hourglass makes collision with the ground and as it shatters, I'm forced out of the keystone.
I didn't do it...
I let out a long sigh.
"Maybe four of five hours this time around," Cecilia reports. "Now get back in there."
I comply readily and push aether into the keystone for the fourth time.
Walking back over to the hourglass, I ponder what went wrong. Okay, so pushing it seems like the right idea. However, whenever it completely tilted, it crashed into the ground and broke. Do I need to completely turn it over without it breaking?
How the hell do I do that?
With a sigh, I devise a plan.
I somehow need to push the hourglass over, THEN make my way around while it slowly falls, catch the falling half, lower it safely to the ground, then return to the side I lifted and push it all the way over.
Here goes, I guess.
------------------
So here we are, attempt #493. It's been around 40 days outside. Cecilia is running out of food, and I'm not sure if we're going to be able to finish this room.
I've yet to be able to catch the falling side without becoming paste or allowing the hourglass to break. I've got confidence that I can flip over the almost empty bottom side after safely getting the full side to the ground.
Let's try again.
I do the routine push, using my back as a wedge to move the hourglass. As the weight begins to recede, I quickly scramble to my feet and rush to the massive blood splatter on the ground where I've died a couple hundred times.
The hourglass comes barreling down towards me. I reach my hands toward the upper portion of the frame and brace myself for the weight.
It crashes into my body with so much force that my form crumples. Is this how people feel when I release my intent?
With every fiber of my being, I press into the hourglass to absorb the momentum. My hands break, my ankles give out, and I'm pretty sure all of the tendons in my knees tear as the hourglass forces me to the ground. For the first time in nearly 500 attempts, the hourglass makes a safe landing with a thud.
I crawl out from underneath the massive frame and roll onto my back. It seems that part of my healing factor persists in my mindscape. I'm only finding this out now since every other time, I died or the hourglass broke.
I let my bones reform and my tendons reconnect as I collect my breath. I will my tired body to my feet and grab under the lip of the empty side of the hourglass. I begin to lift it from the ground and walk the frame upwards. As I get towards the middle, the hourglass falls and lands with a resounding thud.
I did it! For real this time!
As I awaken from my mindscape, I feel my Aroa's Requiem godrune activate and morph into a slightly different configuration.
"I did it!" I yell in earnest.
"You did?!" Cecilia says, joining in on the excitement.
"I gained the insight! It's like the process I showed you when I fixed your skirt but now it's evolved!" I say, jumping off of the platform and moving towards the wilted flowers. "Watch this!"
I pour aether into my Aroa's Requiem godrune and turn my hand counter-clockwise. As the aether leaves my hands, the color returns to the tulips I'm in front of.
"It used to be limited to just inanimate objects, but it seems like it works on organic material now. Even living things. Here, look." I say, turning my hand even further counter-clockwise as the tulips in front of me begin to shrink an recede into the ground. "Now they're seedlings!"
"That's... amazing. Scary almost. You could age someone or bring them back to youth in an instant!" Cecilia shouts in just as much excitement as me.
"Wait... that gives me an idea. Cecilia, will you let me try something?" I say with a plan in mind.
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A/N: Wow! While I was writing this the story began to gain a lot of traction thanks largely in part to @Ironswordman and @GodkillerGrey that shouted it out here on Wattpad and on discord! All of your support this early on is greatly appreciated! You really make writing this series rewarding! Chapter 6 will be out soon. Stay tuned. :)