The Beginning After The End 08

by Turtle Me

  “I don’t think stress eating is the way to handle this, m’lady,” Regis said, snickering.

  Ignoring him, I continued despite a crushing pain growing within my body. It felt like every muscle, bone, and organ in my body were being pumped with fluid to the point of bursting.

  But it wasn’t enough. I needed as much aetheric essence as possible if my plan was going to work.

  “Seriously, Arthur. You’re… sort of bleeding from your body.”

  Just a bit more.

  Unable to withstand the growing pain any longer, I pried myself away from the chimera corpse and sat down.

  Regis was right; it looked like I was sweating blood as beads of red trailed down my body. My vision spun and pulsated, and I could feel my heart beating madly against my chest.

  Controlling my breathing in order to keep myself from passing out, I seized one of the bone arrows—I had gathered a few earlier in preparation—and pressed it to my side, directly below my ribcage.

  “Regis. On my mark, position yourself right where my mana core used to be, then leave as soon as I tell you, okay?”

  Regis stared down at the sharp arrow in my hands. “What are you planning on doing with that?”

  “Okay?” I repeated through gritted teeth, barely able to breathe.

  Regis let out a groan. “Okay.”

  With that, I plunged the arrow deep into my sternum, into the small space just between my liver and stomach where the mana core was held. And just for good measure, I twisted the arrow.

  “What the f—”

  “Now!” I snapped, keeping my eyes closed in concentration.

  Pulling the arrow out of my body, I clasped my hands over my wound as Regis flew inside me.

  Immediately, like millions of tiny insects crawling inside every inch of my body, I felt all of the aether held within me coalescing around Regis—and my wound.

  Just as the aether was about to reach my mana core, attracted twofold by the black will-o-wisp and my fatal injury, I barked at him to leave.

  A black shadow zipped out of me almost instantaneously and all the aether that had gathered within the vicinity condensed together to heal the wound.

  I focused my intent on forming a solid core around the coalescing aether where my old mana core used to be, using every mental trick I’d ever learned to maintain the state of meditation, of absolute focus.

  My thought was this: unlike even dragons, I was able to absorb aether directly into my body; I had Regis, who naturally attracted the aether within me; the remains of my mana core still existed inside me; and I could influence the aether to a certain extent.

  Having made it this far, I proceeded to the most important step.

  The concept of time escaped me as the battle between my will and the aether gathered around the fragmented parts of my mana core raged on.

  I needed to not only trick the aether to restore the mana core rather than to break it down, but I also needed it to rebuild my broken mana core around the compressed orb of aether.

  If forming my mana core for the first time when I was a toddler had been difficult, this was next to impossible. Even a slight twitch of internal movement or leak of intent could cause the condensed orb of aetheric essence to break down my mana core until it was completely cleansed from my body. I wouldn’t get a second chance.

  It felt like every experience, every tribulation that I had gone through, was to prepare me for this moment. I was being tested to my utmost limit. The wound in my side was agony, the raging ball of godly power sitting within me like a bubble of molten gold, and my task was akin to holding that molten gold in shape with my bare hands, waiting for it to cool. My concentration was absolute.

  Finally, as the last bits of my old mana core were restored, encasing the condensed aether within, my world erupted into a sea of purple.

  By the time I came to, my head felt like it had been split in two, and my breathing was ragged. Prying my eyelids open, I was greeted by the sight of a smirking Regis in front of the familiar backdrop of the battle-scarred walls of the chimera hallway.

  “Welcome back, sleeping beauty,” Regis chuckled.

  I pushed myself off my back, sitting up. “What happened?”

  “Well, after you committed seppuku and sat completely still for about a full day, your body suddenly combusted into purple flames. Then you passed out for another two days,” Regis explained, grinning maniacally. “But you did it, you sick, sadistic bastard!”

  My core!

  Taking a moment, I concentrated internally, getting a feel for the state of my body.

  Regis was right, I had done it. I had successfully forged a new core. The color struck me as odd—it was closer to a red color, like magenta—but it still held the ethereal purple sheen of aether.

  I had done what even the asuras of the Indrath Clan couldn’t do.

  I had forged an aether core.

  262

  Forbidden Fruit

  The purplish-red core thrummed with life inside me, wishing to be unleashed.

  A wild grin spread across my face, and I was impatient to try out my new powers—whatever they were—but there was one thing I had to test first.

  Taking a deep breath, I meditated. Focusing on my newly forged core and the ambient aether surrounding us, I slowed my breath.

  Force of habit made me assume that the breathing technique I had utilized to gather ambient mana could be applied to absorbing aether. That wasn’t the case, but concentrating on my aether core in a way that felt like I was flexing it, the way one flexes a muscle, caused a change to stir outside my body.

  Almost immediately, the effects were made clear.

  “What? What is it?” Regis asked impatiently.

  I opened my eyes, looking at the will-o-wisp with a smirk. “I can gather ambient aether into my core.”

  Regis’s bobbed excitedly, his bright eyes flaring. “Seriously?”

  “Consuming the aether from these chimeras directly is definitely faster and more potent, but at least now I’m not dependent on consistently running into beasts fueled by aether. Even if the monsters here are filled with aether, who knows if I’d be able to find any more outside of this dungeon.” I flexed my core again, thrilled by the sensation of aether being drawn toward it.

  Regis nodded. “That’s good. Now I don’t need to worry about you dropping dead because you couldn’t get a meal.”

  “Aww, are you worrying about your master?” I teased.

  “Of course I’m worried about you. As far as we know, if you get yourself dusted down here, I go poof too. And, let’s be honest, you don’t exactly make good choices when it comes to your health.”

  “I’m so glad to know you care,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Anyway, keep testing! We need to know exactly what your limits are before we go on to the next stage.”

  Concentrating on my core once more, I released a bit of aether and focused on my hand. As soon as the aether left my core, it spread throughout my body, directionless.

  Furrowing my brows, I tried again, visualizing the aether flowing through my mana channels.

  “Crap,” I muttered, realizing the problem. Out of desperation, I tried yet again, but was met with the same result: the short, concentrated burst of aether that I had expelled from my newly forged core was distributed evenly throughout my body.

  “What’s with the thunderous eyebrows?” Regis asked, watching me carefully. “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

  “I can’t control the distribution of the aether from my core.” I could feel the aether strengthening my body, but the amount left by the time it reached my hand, where I actually wanted it, was just a small fraction of what I released.

  Regis frowned in confusion. “But what about your mana chan—ohh… I see the problem.”

  Straightening up, I looked at my companion and smiled. “Just one more mountain to climb. I’ll have to figure out another way to direct the flow of aet
her.”

  Regis bobbed in a shrug, flying toward the unlocked exit. “Nothing we can do but move forward, then.”

  “Wait. Let’s go back to the sanctuary.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “If I’m not able to control the aether inside me, then I should at least strengthen my core, and even if it gets harder here, we know what to expect on this floor,” I explained.

  “Ugh…” Regis groaned as he wobbled his way toward me. “I’m going to be haunted by visions of these skinless monsters every time I close my eyes for the rest of my life, you know that?”

  “You don’t have eyelids, Regis,” I said flatly.

  “It’s a figure of speech!” he snapped.

  Chuckling, I opened the door back into the sanctuary. I made some minor preparations while we were there. Ripping my pants from my knees down, I fixed up a sash to safely store Sylvie’s stone and wore it across my shoulder. Then, I made a crude waterskin out of what was left of my leather vest. After making sure water didn’t leak from it, we went back into the hallway.

  “Why aren’t they waking up?” Regis said as we reached the center of the chimera room.

  The long hallway had returned to its pristine state when we had gone into the sanctuary, but no matter how many times I walked back and forth past the statues, they didn’t budge.

  Regis flew up to the statue of the warrior wielding a sword. “Are they broken?”

  “Maybe?” I walked up to one of them and pulled back my fist.

  Not daring to use more than a tenth of the aether in my core, I struck one of the statues, sending splintering cracks throughout its leg.

  Not bad, I thought. Ounce for ounce—or whatever unit of measurement was used—aether was much more potent and efficient than mana. Still, I wasn’t satisfied.

  “Hey, Regis. Occupy my hand again,” I ordered, holding out my right palm. “I want to test something.”

  “Okay, but we should really come up with a name for this.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, it’d be better than having you shout out, ‘Regis, enter my hand!’ That’s pretty much the worst battle cry I’ve ever heard.”

  Closing my eyes, I wondered if Wren, the asuran craftsman who gifted me the acclorite that eventually became Regis, had known what it would become. He had claimed not to at the time, but now I couldn’t help but wonder. He’d always been a bit sadistic. “Fine. Why don’t you give that some thought while you’re sitting around in my hand being useful?”

  “As you command, oh master,” Regis grumbled before flying into my palm, coating my entire hand in a layer of smoky black.

  Immediately, I felt the aether that I had released beforehand gravitate toward Regis. After the rest of the aether in my body had coalesced in my right fist, I punched a different statue.

  The impact cracked the statue, but there was no expulsion of aether like when I had used this same move against the fused chimera.

  ‘I don’t have enough aether to release it as an attack,’ Regis said.

  I gritted my teeth. “Fine. Tell me when.”

  I released more aether from my core, and it was immediately pulled toward my right fist. After nearly half of the aether from my core had been consumed, the smoky black glove surrounding my hand began glowing with the same reddish-purple color as my core.

  ‘Now!’ Regis barked.

  I jabbed my fist into the statue in front of me, releasing a torrent of black and magenta energy from my hand and demolishing both the statue and the wall behind it in a concussive wave that distorted the very air around me.

  Regis fell out of my hand, dazed. “I can probably use that move like one more time.”

  “Same here,” I replied. “That used only slightly less than half of the aether in my core.”

  “Well, it definitely seemed to do the trick,” he noted, studying the aftermath of our attack.

  Without the chimeras coming, it made little sense to remain there for any longer, so after spending the next half hour replenishing my aether core, we walked toward the door that would lead us to the next floor.

  “Let’s go.” I pushed open the tall metal door and stepped through.

  I was welcomed by a hot gust of humid air that clung uncomfortably to my skin. However, the mild discomfort of the atmosphere was immediately washed from my mind by the scene ahead of me.

  “Holy mother of mothers…” Regis mumbled as he, too, surveyed our surroundings.

  We had stepped into what could only be described as a jungle, except that many of the trees were shockingly white, with leaves that glowed in various shades of purple. Strangely, the trees weren’t only growing out from the ground but also on the ceiling of the enormous cavern.

  Despite the jungle’s alien beauty, my attention was quickly pulled away as the door we had come from began fading out of existence. Shocked, I hurriedly reached for the metal handle, but it was too late. My hand slipped through and I was left grasping at the air.

  “Shit.”

  Looking back to the white trees, my mind raced. What terrors hid within this jungle? Would they be as bad as the chimeras? Or worse?

  I had—wrongly, it appeared—assumed Regis and I would be able to return to the sanctuary room as needed. Had we simply been lucky that the sanctuary room connected directly to the chimeras’ hall?

  My eyes continuously scanned the area, my body tense in preparation of unexpected dangers. “Well, it doesn’t seem like we can go back the way we came from. Come on, it’s a bit too open out here for my comfort.”

  The two of us ventured deeper into the ethereal jungle, taking note of every oddity, of which there were many. We found thick, pale vines that connected the trees on the ground to the trees growing on the ceiling. Hundreds of blue globules filled the air, some floating up, others floating down.

  My senses were on full alert as we continued walking carefully through the dense array of otherworldly trees. From time to time, I’d see shadows flit from tree to tree at a speed that exceeded some S-class mana beasts in Dicathen.

  Despite how calm and quiet things appeared, I couldn’t help but feel restless, waiting for the moment when something in the forest would try to kill me.

  Regis, on the other hand, was enjoying the scenery, flying up over the canopy of trees that blocked much of my view.

  “I can’t see much except for these two-tailed monkey creatures climbing up and down the vines,” Regis noted. “Oh! And you know those floating blue orbs? I think they’re made of water. I saw a few of the monkey things hanging from the vines and drinking from them.”

  I nodded, but maintained a constant lookout for anything potentially dangerous.

  “Will you ease up? Compared to the last floor, this place practically seems like paradise,” Regis said. “All it needs is a hot spring full of beautiful women and we’re set!”

  “It’s easy enough for you to relax, you’re incorporeal,” I retorted, continuing to walk carefully, aether coursing within my body just in case.

  Unlike the straightforward hallway we had come from, this jungle didn’t seem like it had any sort of predatory monsters of any kind, nothing that we had to beat in order to move on.

  “Over there! It was a different color and a little smaller, but I saw some of those monkeys eating whatever that is,” Regis said, gesturing toward a pear-shaped fruit hanging from a branch above us.

  I gave my companion a skeptical look as he floated above me, near the fruit.

  “Hey, I’m not the one that has to eat,” Regis groused, offended by my lack of trust.

  My initial impulse was to avoid the risk. After all, who knew how different the monkey creatures’ anatomies were from mine. However, the longer I stared at it, the more my stomach reminded me that I hadn’t eaten since waking up in this god-forsaken dungeon. What’s more, the orange fruit was enveloped in a sheen of purple, suggesting that it might contain aether.

  With m
y newly-forged aether core revitalizing this body, I knew that I didn’t need to eat nearly as much as before, but eventually, I would have to find food, and the temptation staring me right in the face got the best of me.

  I easily jumped up to the first branch, then scrambled to the next, quickly ascending the tree. To my surprise, the branches didn’t even bend under my weight, making it easy to reach the glistening orange fruit.

  Just as I was about to reach for it, something caught my eye: there was a subtle distortion in the area around it that made me immediately pull my hand back.

  And that’s when I noticed the giant mouth rimmed with rows of serrated teeth clamping shut around the fruit, right where my hand would’ve been had I not pulled back. Strangely, I could still see the fruit inside the monster’s mouth.

  I leaped back to a farther branch, bracing myself for its next attack. However, the monster merely parted its puffy lips once more and everything but the fruit it used as a lure became transparent.

  “Oops. My bad,” Regis said with an uncomfortable chuckle.

  “From now on, you’re checking everything first.”

  My annoyance, however, was clouded by my greed for that fruit. It wasn’t just a lure; I had felt my aether core quiver in excitement when I had been near it.

  “Wait, why are you going back?” Regis asked, seeing me hop back toward the branch that the fruit hung from.

  “I’m going to try and get that fruit.”

  Slowly, my outstretched fingers approached the area where I knew the transparent teeth would snap shut. The instant I sensed movement, I whipped my hand away, just barely avoiding the monster’s bite.

  It shut faster this time, I noted.

  With its mouth now clamped shut, I struck at its transparent body, hoping to at least knock it unconscious. However, rather than hit it, my hand slipped right through. Losing my balance, I fell and had to catch myself on a lower branch, but by the time I climbed back up, the creature had opened its mouth once more.

  “Nice one,” Regis said, the dark slash across his face turned up in a smirk. “You’re making the same face you did when you first tried to hit me.”