TBATE - Havaca Rises

Chapter 3 - Beast Will and Black Heart

Slowly approaching Sylvia, I said, "You don't have to give me anything just knowing that my parents and the twin horns survived has removed a great weight from my shoulders."

"Oh, Arthur, as humble as ever. This is something that this old lady is unable to use anymore and wishes to pass on. Tell me child have you ever heard of a beast will?"

My eyes lit up with excitement "Yes! I read about them in the public library once. A rank mana beast and above can pass their will to their kin or a lucky adventurer. Sometimes you might be able to find a beast will in a mana core but the chances of that happening are quite low as most beasts prefer to pass their will to their kin and would destroy the will upon their death. The challenges don't stop there, assuming you somehow attained a beast will it takes take years or even decades before you can use it. Their power activates in phases; the stronger the beast, the more phases it would have. Also, the longer..."

"Alright, alright, I asked if you knew about beast wills, not for an essay about them," she said in between laughs.

"Sorry, I just get excited because ever since I read about them, I always wanted one," I said while scratching my cheek.

"You always wanted one, eh? Tell if you could choose which beast imparts their will to you which would you choose?"

Looking up, pretending to think long and hard about my answer I decided to have a little fun. "If, could choose any beast, hmmm, I'll have to say a dragon as their species have been said to use mana as extensions of their own body, simply willing mana to take the form they desire, which is something I hope to achieve. Unfortunately, dragons have been thought to be long gone as the last sighting was 450 years ago at the end of the beast era."

Staring at Sylvia I could see a glint of amusement in her eyes. "You really are a lucky child," she says as a blindly bright light envelops her body. Quickly looking away to avoid damaging my sight waited for the cave to return to its natural darkness. Turning my attention back to Sylvia, what I saw amazed even me. 'Majestic as fuck' were the only words that came to mind. Sitting before me is a near 2-story tall white dragon with golden runes adorning her body. Before I could say anything her nose presses against my sternum, the dead center of my mana core I felt it, an influx of power but with-it pain, enough to make me pass out.

I awoke to a bright orange-yellow glow emanating from the sun just over the horizon and beneath my feet very reflective water. "Mindscape" I muttered but why am I here? Did something go wrong? As if sensing my mild panic. 

'Notice: I brought Master's consciousness here to talk the future progression of Master's core.' 

"What do you mean? To my knowledge, we should only be receiving Sylvia's will..." 

'Notice: While receiving the beast aether tried to flood itself into Master's core but Master's body subconsciously rejected it resulting in the pain that Master felt.'

"Oh, that's what happened... I guess it's because I don't want an aether core at the expense of my mana core." 

'Master, please explain so that this servant may aid you in achieving your future goals.'

"Well, you see, I've been thinking about having an aether core for a while now and I came up with a hypothesis: Aether is best left alone and kept separated from mana. When Arthur broke his mana core and used aether to form an aether core, the aether then got impurities, but aether is stagnant, and very little could actually affect it. When Aldir used his world eater technique on Elenoir, in the aftermath he says that aether just sits there completely unaffected. So, what if fusing/mixing aether in a mana core is the aether becomes polluted and needs purification. After all, if forming an aether core was as simple as adding aether to a mana core the Indrath clan would have already figured that out by now. What if we form an aether from scratch the same way in which we did our mana core? I think this is something that only I would be able to do since aether is literally waiting for my command, although it may take quite some time."

'Notice: Making an aether core from scratch sounds plausible, however, where would we put it? How would we connect it to your mana veins and mana channels? And if we keep it separated from mana, how would we use it to enhance our spells?'

"'Black heart' I'm thinking of forming the aetheric version of black heart. Then we connect it to our mana channels and veins to output aether and enhance normal spells however we'll create a new set of aether veins for the sole purpose of absorbing aether while we're at we might as well increase the number of mana veins and channels to increase efficiency. Also how long have I been out?"

'Notice: Master has been unconscious for 44 hours 57 minutes

"How long have we been separated from our parents?"

'Notice: approximately 65 hours.'

"Wake me up, we only have 7 hours to contact mom and dad before they do something stupid like attempt suicide over the guilt." 

Regaining unconsciousness, I swiftly pull out the black box containing my ear cuffs. Imagining my parents, a picture as clear as day came to my mind; I command "Group call: Alice Leywin, Reynold Leywin." Hopefully, they are wearing their ear cuffs otherwise things may not work out as well as I hope they would. 

"Arthur, Arthur is it really you," a shaky voice asked. 

"Yes, mom it's me, I can't tell you how much I've missed you guys these past few days but alas I'm safe now and after some preparations, I'll start my journey to Xyrus. How's your travel going?" I hear my parents breaking into muffled sobs over the comms, most likely trying to stay strong for my sake, bless their souls.

"We're safe honey, everyone in the Twins Horns says Hi and are sorry that they couldn't protect you," said my dad

"Life's a bitch, and oftentimes shit goes wrong the only thing we could do is deal with the situation and try to achieve the best possible outcome, please tell them I hold nothing against them," I said.

"Arthur Leywin, I know you did not just curse!!!" My mother practically screamed in anger.

"But I'm just repeating what I heard as I thought it was appropriate for the situation." I lied in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

"Oh, really and where did you hear such vulgar language." My mother asked.

'Notice: Mama Leywin's tone suggests she is most likely out for blood.'

"The mage and I survived the fall thanks to tree branches lessening our momentum, that was some of his final words before he died from blood loss" I lied again

"That bastard! Not only did he separate our family but even on the brink of death he corrupted our baby!!!"

"Now, now honey let's calm down for a bit," said my dad

"Calm, I'm most calm it's just that if I ever catch that scummy mage in the underworld, I'm going to show fury like no other; I guarantee it, I stand by it" stated my mother in a not so calm tone.

'Notice: Master should end the call before the mana trace becomes detectable.'

"Ah, this is unfortunate but it seems as though I'm running a bit low on mana at the moment. I'll talk to you guys within seven days as these comms release a mana trail traceable by different mana beasts. Until then please stay safe, as will I."

"We love you Art, and no matter what we will always love you, please be safe and come back to us in one piece," said my parents.

As I 'hung up' I noticed several tears escaping my eyes; those damn ninjas and their onions I thought going back to sleep. Wait, would I have to explain this to Sylvia tomorrow, ah we'll deal with it when the time comes.