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 POV
" Need help?" Caera asked, not taking her eyes off Lucius, whose right side was badly burned. Caera had already seen Lucius and Grey regenerate, and although Lucius looked terrible now, she knew that everything would be fine in a while, so even though she was worried, she decided to wait for everything to heal on its own.
Lucius looked at Kaera with his one remaining eye, shook his head slightly, opened his mouth and replied, "Nonakhhh"
...
Raising his healthy arm, Lucius touched his throat, the skin on which was so badly burned that the muscle fibers were visible, slowly writhing as they returned to normal.
Realizing that conversation was impossible, Lucius waved his hand and went to examine the cave, where only a few coins, swords, and other riches that the Highblood ascendants had dragged along with them for some reason remained.
Since Lucius lived thanks to aether, his torn throat, which prevented oxygen from reaching his brain, did not bother him. He could even stop breathing; his body lived and moved because of aether, and food, water, and sleep were no longer particularly necessary.
After spinning around for a couple of minutes and returning to a better state, Lucius ignored Caera's overly intense gaze, quickly changed his outer clothing, and, cracking his neck, turned to the trio who were waiting for him to fully come to his senses.
Lucius Zogratis POV
Cecilia... Cecilia Sever, one of the most controversial characters in the original story, a constant puppet and a child in an adult's body. To be honest, I didn't like reading from her perspective, but I could understand when you've been kept like a rat in a cage since birth and then in another world someone manipulates your memories so much that you forget your friends, you just can't suddenly become incredibly brave enough to rebel and go against the one who keeps you in a cage, courage has to come from somewhere, and she... ... eternal life in a cage.
But now it doesn't matter, there's nothing to look at, she has already incarnated into the body of Tessia Eralit, and at the moment when I tied her up, she was in a comatose state, staring into nowhere. She has enormous potential, and in the later stages, she will become dangerous, and if given time, more dangerous than all the Asuras, but for me, the owner of the system, that is only a joy.
But as I said, it doesn't matter.
"Don't stare so hard, I'm ashamed, Miss Highblood," I said, adjusting my new black shirt as the old one had been burned by the bone wyvern's fire.
"I wasn't looking at anything!" Caera's voice sounded too loud, too embarrassed, like a child who had been caught doing something wrong.
Ignoring her, I was in a rather elevated mood from receiving the GodRune and the system connection with Cecilia, and turned to Arthur, who was waiting at the teleportation gate.
" I'm ready, Grey," I said as I approached the teleportation gate.
Arthur's gaze quickly scanned me again, looking for wounds or fatigue. Finding nothing, he simply nodded, turned, and stood directly at the teleportation gate.
Just like an older brother. As for Caera's gaze on my bare chest...
That thought flew out of my head as soon as I stepped through the portal and was hit by a gust of icy wind so strong that I could barely keep my eyes open.
A wave of warmth and joy swept through my body and soul again. The GodRunes and a familiar zone, what a wonderful day.
My eyes quickly scanned the surroundings. As before, the portal through which we had passed was gone, leaving us in a pure white space. The cold wind kicked up a pile of snow that obstructed my view.
"Not the right zone again," I said to Arthur through our mental connection. He just nodded and also looked around, but his gaze sometimes lingered on Caera, not for too long, but it was clear that he didn't trust her yet.
"We need to find shelter until this storm passes," Caera suggested sensibly.
Nodding slightly to each other, we set off. The cold wind kicked up a pile of snow that obstructed our view, but we had to move somewhere.
Even after standing there for a couple of seconds, my face and hands were numb from the cold, but my asura body made this deadly weather unpleasant at best. Caera, despite her obvious Vritra ancestry, did not share Arthur's and my resilience, and she was already starting to shiver.
Looking at her, I took out the wool sleeping bag I had taken from her inventory after she woke up, but it was just a regular rank 2 sleeping bag, and threw it to her. "Wrap yourself in this. We need to find shelter."
She took the soft sleeping bag and threw it over herself like a blanket. "Thank you."
"Let's go," Arthur replied curtly in a loud voice, turning away.
"Keep your eyes open, any shelter will do," I shouted after them. I checked every shadow and unevenness in the icy wasteland in search of the place where Arthur and Caera had originally spent the night, as well as the location of the portal.
"I can hardly see anything beyond you. I don't think I could find anything even with mana, unless it was right in front of my eyes," Caera said with disappointment in her voice.
At the same time, Arthur seemed to be having a mental conversation with Regis, because a second later, he appeared next to Caera in his small form, his gaze full of indignation fixed on Arthur, but that look quickly disappeared.
Caera bent down and scratched Regis behind his small, pointed ear. His shining eyes looked at her, but he couldn't stop his dark tail from wagging with pleasure.
Arthur let out a quiet chuckle that was almost lost in the cold horror, but since they were connected, Regis could feel Arthur's emotions, and that chuckle made Regis tense up.
Growling, Regis almost bit Caera's finger, scaring her so much that she pulled her hand away. The tiny shadow wolf rushed forward, struggling through the snow. Without turning around, Regis said, "Stop staring and start walking before you three turn into meat lollipops."
I met Caera's unusual red eyes, narrowed in a cheerful smile, and forced myself to turn away and look at Arthur, who was watching it all from the sidelines. Picking up my sleeping bag, Caera shook the snow off it and threw it over her shoulders, after which the three of us followed our little furry guide.
Deciding that now was the time, I slowly began to raise Arthur and Regis's talent to level x2.
(If you've forgotten, he had returned it to its original level so that Arthur wouldn't figure out the first keystone ahead of time and lead them out of the mirror zone before the Granbehl children died).
"Look over there," I muttered, stopping so that Caera, who was following in my footsteps in the deep snow, bumped into me, and Grey, who was in front of me, stopped and also began to peer into the funnel.
" What's wrong?" Caera asked, taking a step back and looking around.
I grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her so that her gaze was directed down into the wide chasm. The visibility was so poor that I didn't notice it at first, but we were walking along the ridge of a massive shallow crater, just like in the original.
It seems that you should always let the main character choose the path; I myself wanted to go the other way...
At that moment, the wind died down, and a ray of silvery light broke through the grey veil above us, spreading across the snow and illuminating the entire crater. Far below, perhaps a kilometer and a half away, or even further, the clear outlines of a large round bulge under the snow emerged - too round and perfect to be a natural formation.
Then the wind picked up again, the clouds closed in, and the round bulge disappeared behind a white curtain.
"Did you see that?" Caera asked excitedly, pointing down at the hidden hill.
She turned to me, and I suddenly realized she was standing too close. Then her gaze fell on my hand, which was still resting on her shoulder. I calmly moved away, taking a step back, and she awkwardly moved away as well.
"Saw what?" asked Regis, who had run a few meters ahead and was now returning to us. "What did I miss?"
"There's something down there," I pointed down the slope.
"It's just snow," replied the cartoonish puppy, raising his eyebrow comically.
"After you, our mighty companion," I replied, waving my hand and ignoring his teasing.
Regis waved his dark tail and trotted forward. However, within a radius of twenty meters, the snowdrifts were taller than his head, and although the cold did not bother him, his tiny wolf body was not adapted for swimming in the snow.
After several minutes of struggling with the snowdrifts, trying not to fall behind, jumping and paddling through the snow, Regis gave up.
"You know, I think I've stretched my legs enough. I'd better go back and collect the aether," with these words, Regis jumped as if trying to fall into Arthur's arms, but instead dissolved into his body.
We moved forward through the snow, which was now just below my hips, thanks to my tall stature. I walked ahead, clearing the way so that Grey and Caera could follow me more easily. Caera walked in the middle, and Arthur brought up the rear for safety, according to him. I think he just wants to keep Caera in sight, the paranoid... although I would be even worse if I didn't know the original story.
We walked in silence for a few minutes, and soon the snow was just below my chest. A soft yet strong hand grabbed my outer clothing and stopped me abruptly. In these conditions, Caera couldn't reach my shoulder, I realized. I turned around to see what was going on, but there was a sleeping bag thrown over my face.
Caera laughed for the first time, a refreshing and at the same time graceful sound. "I'm not an ordinary mage either, remember?"
An ominous power grew within her, and when she finally met my gaze, a dark fire burned in her eyes. "You'd better step aside, Lucius."
I stepped back into the snow, clearing her path as she drew her sword. The dark, fiery aura I had seen when she fought the giant monster in the convergence zone flickered around the red blade, turning it black.
However, this time, the aura was much more subdued, less wild and dangerous.
Then Caera thrust her sword forward, and dark flames burst forth, cutting a path through the snow at least 180 or even 200 meters ahead.
She turned and walked over to me, sheathing her long, curved blade. Grabbing her sleeping bag and slinging it over her shoulder, she gave me an almost childlike smile. "You look tired, Lucius. Let me walk ahead."
That's a lie, my pace and breathing hadn't faltered once, I had maintained a steady, measured walking pace, fast enough not to freeze in the cold wind and slow enough not to waste more energy than necessary.
"That trick was more impressive when I saw it the first time," I muttered, brushing the snow off my clothes and glancing at Arthur, who a second ago had filled his body with aether. "Are you afraid of girls with horns, Arthur?"
Arthur didn't answer, just gave me a serious look.
Snorting indignantly, Caera turned and strode down the wide path she had made for herself.
I followed her, completely absorbed in thoughts about Caera's abilities. When she used her power in the convergence zone, I was too busy trying not to die, and although I later analyzed it through my memories, I didn't have the time or another demonstration to study it.
However, this time I watched closely as she manifested a dark aura and released a stream of black fire. It was precisely so that she would manifest this flame that I did not immediately turn my hand into an aether drill and cut through the snow.
The flame did not give off heat. It destroyed without burning and was something like the purple fire of the Rune of Destruction, only it did not use aether. In the convergence zone, the same flame passed through the attack of the colossal guard, literally cutting a path through the energy beam.
It was strange to observe such mana. Back in the previous world, I had wondered how exactly Asura mana worked. I knew that it had mutated over the millennia, but to see and feel this mutated flame was... wonderful. Only at such a moment do you realize that the Asura are truly a different, stronger, and more ancient species.
I watched Caera's dark blue hair bounce around her onyx horns as she walked ahead of me, as if nothing bothered her. She was incredibly talented; I had already assessed the level of most of the ascendants before entering the mirror zone, and she was more than exceptional in both her control of her mana and her martial arts... and equally confident in her abilities.
When we reached the end of the path laid by Caera's power, the snow was deep enough that the channel had turned into a tunnel. However, instead of a round, rippled ice tunnel, the five-meter cave in the snow was rough and loose, as if several children had dug it with their bare hands.
Without heat to melt the snow, allowing it to freeze and harden again, the tunnel didn't look safe, but that wasn't the only thing that bothered me.
Caera took her sword from her shoulder and pointed it forward, but I reached out, deciding it was time to become an aether drill myself. "I don't think your ability is best suited for this kind of thing. Save your strength."
"I agree. What do you suggest, Lucius?"
As far as I could tell, we were still five hundred meters, or more, from the round bulge we had seen from the edge of the natural cauldron. The loose snow made walking on its surface impractical, as any of us would sink in up to our heads with every step.
"And controlling the bone bird would be even more difficult because of the strong wind. I would use much less aether if I just started drilling," I muttered, dismissing the option of the aether bird. It was fast but costly in aether, and drilling would also be a form of training.
There was also the fire pseudo-artifact I got from the bone wyvern, but I needed to train myself and give Arthur ideas.
When I passed the aether through my hand, I wanted it to take shape, not just burst out. It wasn't too difficult while Arthur was in the keystone; I was just trying to change the aether into a sword or something else, constantly changing its shape.
At my will, the aether took the form of a sphere that grew larger as I poured more aether into it. When it became difficult to keep the shimmering purple ball from dispersing, and when it grew to more than three and a half meters, I pushed the aether sphere forward into the snow.
Although the large aether ball used only a fraction of the amount of aether that would be needed to release a full aether explosion, it pierced more than twenty meters of snow before disappearing, leaving behind a round, stable tunnel that we could easily walk through.
"Could have been better," I said quietly, thinking that next time I should focus more on the drill.
At that moment, Arthur looked as if he had discovered something in this technique, and aether began to gather in his hand as well after he quickly walked to the end of the 20-meter tunnel.
Caera cautiously entered the tunnel, her hand running along the wall and ceiling as she nervously inspected my work. "Clever. Can you do it again?"
Nodding, I said, "Yes, and I think I can reach that dome with about 40% of my energy depleted. And Grey will probably figure out how to do it soon too, so we'll get there with almost no cost."
She stepped aside, pointing into the tunnel. "After you, my mighty companion."
This girl, haha.
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25 power stones since I posted this chapter -> new chapter