There may also be some inaccuracies, since English is not my native language.
Essentially, TBATE is first translated from English into my native language — and in that process, some details are already altered to make it more understandable for us. Now I'm taking that adapted (and somewhat distorted) version, revising it, rewriting it, and then translating it back into English.
I hope you'll point out any mistakes in the text that I might have missed.
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Third-person view
Arthur and Lucius were preparing for a long run when a familiar, gentle voice from behind made them turn around.
"Wait!"
They turned and met the gaze of a dark-haired spellcaster who wanted them to join her team.
"What is it?" Arthur asked coldly.
Daria flinched under his heavy stare, but quickly pulled herself together and looked back at them.
"If we assume everyone here follows you, then by the time we reach the energy source, most of our mana will be badly depleted, and fighting the guardians will be difficult."
"So?" Arthur asked irritably.
"You don't seriously think you and your companion will still be strong enough to take on a guardian after a marathon run, do you?" Daria shot back, stepping toward Arthur. "You're going to need all of us. Hell, even if you think we're just dead weight, at the very least you should make sure you still have plenty of strength left, right?"
"Get to the point."
Her brows knit together, and she had just opened her mouth to reply when, a few moments later, they found themselves standing in front of an ice sled.
"You think all of us will fit on that?" Taegen asked, looming over the ice sled.
"I compacted the ice several times, so it's stronger than it looks. I borrowed the general design from the sea riders and tested it myself a few times," Daria said with a hint of pride.
Everyone waited for Arthur to climb aboard first, while Daria stood at the edge of the ice craft, waiting for him to approach. Placing his hand on the icy surface, Lucius-who had never before seen how much mana could be condensed-pressed down hard enough to make sure it would hold his weight.
"Are you seriously doubting the durability of my spell?!" Daria snapped, shrugging off her magical cloak and letting the luxurious fabric slide down her bare back, revealing a row of tattoos. "I have four crests and two emblems, idiot!"
Nodding to Arthur, Lucius stepped onto the slab of ice, turning his back on her.
"We've already wasted enough time. Let's go."
One by one, the remaining seven ascenders-excluding Arthur, Lucius, and Daria-climbed onto the massive sled until they were all pressed together, gripping the railings Daria had so graciously conjured.
With one gust of wind lifting the sled slightly and another driving into the mast, they shot across the barren clay plain. As they picked up speed, the cool wind struck their cheeks. Despite the weight of ten adults-eleven, if one counted Taegen as nearly two-the huge sled never once wobbled or creaked. Arthur couldn't help but be impressed that Daria was maintaining three spells at once to keep it moving.
She used two wind spells for propulsion, while her legs, encased in ice, anchored her to the sled so she wouldn't fall, and a separate ice spell kept the sled from melting or breaking apart as it skimmed over the ground.
Daria's remaining partner, Orid, used earth magic to guide the sled and smooth out especially rough stretches that might damage it.
After about half an hour of travel, the other ascenders trusted Daria enough to relax and begin enjoying the ride.
Arthur and Lucius sat at the back of the sled, leaning against the railings Daria had created, staring mindlessly at the endless monotony of clay wasteland and the clear blue sky above. Arthur had long since come to terms with the fact that they were looking at the sky of ancient ruins, which he assumed lay deep underground.
Lucius grew bored of the dreary scenery and turned around. Aside from Daria and Orid, who were focused on keeping the sled moving, the rest of the ascenders were occupied with their own affairs. Caera's group seemed to be the only one left unharmed after the last wave.
One of the ascenders, a man named Keir who wielded a staff and controlled electrical discharges for offense and defense, was polishing his weapon, using a thin cloth to clean the dirt from the engravings in the wood.
Trader sat with his eyes closed, leaning back against the railing with his arms folded and legs crossed while another ascender rewrapped his left leg.
Lucius's gaze continued to wander until it settled on Caera, seated in the left corner of the sled's bow. Arian sat beside her, while Taegen sat alone across from them, most likely to keep the sled balanced.
Arian was meditating, and though Lucius couldn't sense mana, the pressure coming off him was proof enough. Meanwhile, Caera stared at the white dagger in her hand, still sheathed. Her face was unreadable as she studied the weapon.
Then suddenly, a tear slid down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand and glanced around warily to make sure no one had seen. Her eyes met Lucius's, and for the briefest moment he caught a flash of embarrassment on her face before she quickly looked away.
Calmly raising an eyebrow, Lucius turned back toward the rear of the sled and rested his hands on the cold railing. He tried to find something-anything-to pass the time, unwilling to sink back into thoughts of his family, and began slowly visualizing the aether pathways needed for God Step.
At the same time, Arthur's emotions surged through their shared mental consciousness, and Lucius temporarily withdrew, giving Arthur space for a heart-to-heart.
A few moments later, the sky itself seemed to warp. A dark crimson seeped across it, spreading over the once-blue expanse. The air felt thinner somehow, and the pressure around them had become almost tangible.
"The wave is here," Taegen said, rising to his feet.
"We're not stopping, so hold on tight!" Daria announced, sending a powerful gust of wind into the mast.
At that moment, Lucius reactivated their mental link. The sled lurched forward, bouncing over the uneven ground. Cracks were already splitting open ahead of them, and creatures were rising from the earth one after another. Only a few kilometers remained before the obsidian tower, but those last few kilometers promised to be the hardest.
"Defenders, get ready to clear us a path! We need to reach the tower before the guardians arrive!" Arian barked.
Orid immediately changed tactics. Instead of smoothing the ground, he raised several massive slabs of compressed earth around the sled and set them spinning through the air, turning them into a mobile shield. Without his support, the road became rough and jagged at once, but no one complained anymore-they just clung to the railings while Keir summoned spheres of electricity around himself.
"Give me the mast," Trader shouted, limping toward Daria. "You'll have to keep a constant updraft going, but you're the only spellcaster left. Help the defenders."
After a brief hesitation, Daria nodded, freeing herself from the ice restraints holding her to the sled. Pale and sweating, she gave Arthur a knowing look, and he nodded back.
Trader went to work immediately, summoning gusts of wind. He lunged forward, aiming his fists at the mast as soon as Daria secured his feet to the sled. Freed of her heavier burden, Daria unleashed such powerful gusts that they knocked the enlarged carallians off course. Those she missed were either battered aside by one of Orid's spinning slabs of compressed earth or stunned by the electric spheres floating around them.
Arthur Leywin's POV
"What the-what's happening?!" he shouted, trying to get to his feet.
The second tremor was far stronger. The ground beneath us literally swelled upward, and then a roar followed-low, monstrous, the kind that sent ice through my veins. My hair stood on end.
"Get out of there, Arthur!" Regis screamed.
I already knew I had to jump.
The sled, along with the earth beneath it, began rising higher and higher toward the crimson sky. Keir was hurled toward the edge, and in the next instant he flew overboard, slamming into one of the spinning stone slabs. His body vanished from sight almost immediately.
Then it appeared.
At first, I mistook it for a tower-a black silhouette looming above us, blocking out half the sky. But then it moved. The shadow wasn't a tower at all, but a neck. An impossibly long neck, covered in coarse hide and stretching upward the height of ten stories. At its top sat a grotesque head like that of a bat, with an enormous maw and two violet eyes, each the size of a carriage.
And those eyes were staring directly at us.
Shock froze everyone for only an instant. That instant was all the monster needed to strike.
Only Regis's second warning saved me. I threw myself aside a split second before the tip of the giant tail slammed into the ground. The impact was monstrous. The sled shattered like dry kindling. Taegen managed to shove Caera clear, but he and Trader were crushed beneath the tail. Everyone else was thrown by the shockwave.
I rolled across the ground and sprang back to my feet, my ears still ringing from the impact.
"Why didn't you tell me there was something like this here?!" I nearly shouted at Lucius.
"Because it wouldn't have helped. The only way to kill that monster is with your destruction rune. The fewer people who see it, the better," Lucius replied coldly.
"We need to get out of here!" Regis insisted.
Ignoring both Lucius and Regis, my eyes darted between Daria and Caera—both unconscious, both falling from the rising earth that I now realized was the body of this gigantic monster.
My gaze locked onto Lucius, who only shrugged and dashed in the nearest direction—toward Caera.
"Yes, yes, I know what to do. This is the final part of the plan. No more surprises."
I was shaking with anger, but there was no time to argue. I tore away the last of the restraints I'd placed on myself, releasing aether. Power exploded around me in a violet shroud, and the world sharpened, clarified, as though the entire battlefield were laid out in the palm of my hand.
I rushed toward Daria.
Lucius Zogratis's POV
I lunged toward the falling Caera and caught up to her at the last possible second. Her dark blue hair covered her face as she dropped. Hanging over the edge of the risen earth, I grabbed her by the ankle and, with some effort, stopped her fall. But before I could haul either of us back up, I looked up-and met the creature's gaze. Its enormous violet eyes were fixed directly on me, and inside its gaping maw a massive sphere of silver mana was already swirling, ready to fire our way.
Why me again? Why not Arthur?
My heart thundered in my chest as I frantically calculated my next move. Wasting no time, I threw Caera onto the ledge and hauled myself up right as the beast released its attack. The moment we hit the ground, Caera came to, clearly having no idea what was happening-especially after I unceremoniously hoisted her over my shoulder.
"W-what does this mean-" her words were cut off as a bright white light flooded the zone.
I glanced back and saw a roaring torrent of mana sweeping away everything in its path.
"Can you run?" I asked over my shoulder as we raced past the shattered remains of the sled. Where the monster's tail had struck, what was left of Trader lay in the blood.
"No. I think my left ankle is broken," she replied, surprisingly calmly.
Behind us, the beam of pure destructive mana kept coming, while I continued sprinting across the mangled surface of the risen earth-across the monster's own back. No matter how tense I was, outwardly I remained calm and continued following the plan.
"Then do something. Otherwise, it'll be easier to leave you behind."
I felt Caera clutch my arm tighter, but she said nothing. We were getting closer and closer to the edge of the rocky platform.
"I can't-"
She gave a frightened cry when I deliberately loosened my grip, making it clear that I really could leave her.
"Fine!" Caera gasped, digging her mana-filled nails into my skin. "Just don't stop."
"There's nowhere to stop anyway," I shot back as the edge of the cliff loomed ahead.
She stayed silent, but I could feel that same dark power building inside her-the one I'd sensed before in Cadell. The power of Vritra.
Realizing where this was going, I sharply changed direction, veering away from the oncoming stream of destruction as the patch of earth beneath us became more and more unstable. Reaching the very edge of the outcrop that had risen above the monster, I gathered aether into my legs and back and pushed off with all my strength.
As we flew, and the dark power around Caera thickened, I managed to glance down at the guardian rising from the earth below us. By itself, it was enormous-nearly as tall as the energy-source tower-but next to the main beast it looked pitiful. From this distance, the monster resembled a colossal wingless dragon: a long neck, a massive tail, a leathery body like a mountain of flesh, and six monstrous legs supporting its impossible weight.
"Caera!" I shouted as a blazing beam, still shooting from the giant monster's maw, blocked our path just as we began to descend. I could have used Burst Step, but I needed leverage over her, so I waited.
Arthur and I will need help from Scythe Seris after the mirror zone and the deaths of the Granbehl Blood children, so I need Caera right now, too.
I decided to stick to the storyline until the Academy Arch, so until then I'd have to play out a couple of tedious scenes to intrigue Kaera and show her just enough so she'd tell her mentor about us and Scythe Seris would realize that Arthur Leywin is still alive.
And just as we were about to plunge into the torrent of destructive mana-just as I was about to resort to my backup plan-Caera jerked in my grasp. One arm hooked around my neck to hold on while with the other she pulled her curved saber from her spatial artifact.
A familiar blazing black aura enveloped the crimson blade as it came down.
What had once been a red blade became a burning black crescent that split the shining white cone of destruction, carving a gap wide enough for us to pass through before the black flames vanished. Judging by how the trajectory of the attack continued arcing upward, I realized it would be difficult for the beast to redirect it toward us again anytime soon.
Caera went limp, her left arm still hanging around my neck as she sheathed her sword.
"I won't be able to do that again," she said, her voice barely audible through the wind.
"Arthur, where are you?" I asked.
But Regis answered instead.
"I caught Daria and used the guardian's tail to get to the ground, but I don't think we'll reach you in time!"
That meant there was only one option left: an aether burst. Its force might be enough to slow our fall so we wouldn't die on impact. Of course, it might also drain my aether reserves completely and kill me, but at least I had a system for replenishing aether quickly.
Pushing aside the doubts clouding my mind, I focused on another aether art. I had tried to use it again and again before, but it had never worked. And only now-when death truly loomed over me-did something finally click.
Seriously? Am I the protagonist of some shounen?
I needed a path. Any path at all.
A path home.
A path forward.
A path out of this.
I felt the surrounding aether answer that desire, vibrating through every inch of my body. A wave of warmth spread upward from my lower back, followed by understanding-clear, almost instinctive.
Caera seemed to sense the change too, because she clung to me even tighter.
My vision blurred, and then I saw them: countless aether pathways, each leading somewhere different. I chose the right one and stepped.
A single God Step was enough to bring me to Arthur.
Violet lightning still crackled around me as I appeared barely a meter away from him. From the look in his wide eyes, I knew at once that he understood what I had done.
I only gave a tired smile-nearly eighty percent of my aether was already gone from my core, but apparently it had still been enough.
Then I turned to Caera. She was staring at me as if she still didn't fully understand what had just happened. I reached toward her waist.
"Eek!" Her voice burst out sharply as my fingers gently touched her body, unfastening the buckle that held the leather sheath and dagger at her waist, and I fastened it to myself.
I undid the strap holding the leather sheath and dagger at her waist and fastened it to myself.
"You don't mind, do you? I'll return it later," I said calmly, looking at her flushed cheeks.
She only widened her eyes even further.
Then I turned, looked at Arthur, and gave him a nod toward the monster.
"Come on. Let's kill that creature."