TBATE | The Brightest Light and The Darkest Night [Discontinued]

The First Sparks

 Aroa's requiem's premise is it could fix things given their energy was still intact, no matter the damage, it only works on inorganic objects however. But made me wonder is how does one define what  a mana core is in terms of biology? 

Perhaps the concept of stating a mana core is inorganic or not can be compared my previous world's scientific debate to whether a virus is classified as a living organism or a shell that contains DNA. 

"Finally back to where I started." I say as a faint layer of translucent white wrapped around my dark purple Aether core. Counterintuitively my mana pool had a 15% boost, and miraculously  my beast will is still intact. 

Even though I have gained insight it Aetheric arts I still have God step as my Spatial mastery, stopping time was something I could do to a certain degree, but I still more insight to make a separate dimension and I could only make 5ft in length and width portals that have a range of fifty meters. But first I need to do something...

I grabbed Sylvie's egg, it had a third layer but I'm close to breaking it. I channel all of the surrounding Vivum around me, trees and grass began to wilt a bit, I gained some insight on Vivum's healing capabilities, the rune I call "Blessing of Eden" allowed me to absorb some life force from the surroundings and some of my aether to heal organic targets back to their stable state as well as give them a small yet permanent boost.

 I charged and poured every bit of aether I could, the surrounding fauna wilted as their very life force was being drained from them, after a few tries and relocating to parts of the forest I could see cracks from her egg, purple light began to blind my vision. 

A familiar sight beholds my eyes , my heart started to feel warmth and I start to choke in my tears.

"Welcome back Sylv." I hug the giant obsidian dragon. Sylvie lowered her head to touch my back.

"Are you Arthur?" She joked to me, she chuckled with a hint of tears in her eyes.

"Looks like I am." I reply with tears flowing down my eyes. Sylvie turned back into her human state and we both embraced each other and tears from both our eyes began to drip.

"Seems like you made a lot of friends, and mama...." Her voice dropped to a sad tone.

"We'll get her back." I reassured her patting her soft hair.

"A father and daughter reunion, does that make me your uncle?" Regis questioned as he exited my core.

The atmosphere was now lighter, a bit of the guilt I carried was removed from my shoulders as I see Sylvie one again.

I got a small power boost thanks to your healing, Sylvie said to me

"You've been through a lot Arthur, and Regis of course. It'll take some time before I catch up to you guys, but seeing Arthur this confident and relaxed I'm sure you guys have already figured out a plan." She said to us.

"Ascending to being a deity is one, saving prince charming's princesses are second, the optional third is to trash Agrona's palace for him to pull out from the war hopefully, return to the continent..." Regis began reciting what was in my bucket list.

"Well then we better get going." Sylvie entered her dragon stage a black mist polluted the field.

 With her receiving a small boost from my healing I could now see her eyes have a tingle of translucent purple in them, her horns were now obsidian black with white outlines that had runes etched on them and her under belly is now creamy white and had scales, her claws were dimly glowing blue in color. Her gaze was now sharper and her body was a bit more bulkier. 

Regis entered to my core and I hoped on to Sylvie. She flapped her wings one time and it caused a sonic boom to erupt as faint black particles emit from her wings, which resembled more of a dragon now instead of having feathers. She was faster than before, the wind passed through us violently.

"THIS IS AMAZING!" I could hear Regis erupt with enthusiasm." I could get used to this."

"While we're flying, why don't you sleep for now Art, me and Regis here need to talk." Sylvie slowed down her flight.

"Looks like I have a niece to talk to, sleep tight princess. And do you need a kiss for that too?"

I didn't conjure a reply as I lay down and immediately fall asleep.

||Sylvie's POV||

I sensed Regis exit from papa's core as we begin our conversation. I could sense that he sensed I was planning to be serious, despite his comedic relief persona he knows how to act serious at times

"Looks like you and papa had a lot of adventures together huh?" I say to Regis, I combed through the countless memories he and papa shared, apparently this is the one that was planted to Arthur as a weapon, but seeing how Arthur and Regis are close it seems I should treat him equally like how I treat papa.

"Papa...... really has gone through a lot."

"Yeah, sometimes I here this voice in his head, the voice of guilt and doubt. He hides it so well to other people, but he can't hide it from me." Regis replied.

I see people that papa cared for die, his memories were fuzzy. But not of memory loss, but it was because he wanted to lock them away, to forget about them. 

A friend of papa, Caera of Denoir was founded to have Vritra blood and was sent to Agrona's castle of experimentation, Elshire forest was reduced to dust. But I saw the Dicathians grow bit by bit and scoring minor victories by using guerilla tactics and the element of surprise, I saw Ellie and the others grow. 

"Regis, thank you for staying with papa all this time."

"Ah, don't flatter me, you've been with him the longest."

"But you've been with him in his lowest point. I was not."

"But you are here now right? Besides the bastard is a tough one, you may not be with him at his lowest point but I'm damn sure you'll be at this highest one."

Regis' words touched me, a tear, not of sadness flowed from my eyes, he's right.

Papa has been through a lot, but there was still hope, he reminded himself that the sacrifices of the people close to him would be futile if he had not moved forward, and this time there's a guarantee that he's not stopping even if the path was filled with thorns.

"Looks like we're here." I hear Arthur speak it only took us 2 minutes to get to the central domain. 

We hovered high in the air, waiting for Arthur's command.

"Do we go in guns blazing?" Regis asked.

"We'll work things out fast and have Agrona caught by surprise. We'll only target Agrona's castle and key points of the central dominion like the academy, the courthouse, the bank and parts of the commercial district, we should also target infrastructures like monuments too." Arthur said. "We wanna target these buildings swifty. There are two possible outcomes but one is more likely than the other, people would think that Dicathen has already managed to send spies and harass the land and the people. Either way a decisive raid and a sudden turn of the tide of battle in Dicathen will hurt the people's morale, the tinderbox is already prepared by Seris, it's up to us to light the match. Minimize causalities, we'll attack two hours after the middle of the night, where most people are already sleeping in their houses."

"We're gonna talk to Seris in the mean time." I said as I read his thoughts.

"Correct." He nodded "We'll be meeting at a specific location, until then we'll wait the night out."

||Nico||

"What?!" I exclaimed at the examiner who checked on Cecilia's condition.

"W-we're doing, e-everything w-we can" He stuttered out because I let my intent run wild a bit "But even with Lord Agrona's intervention, we can't hasten up her recovery that is if she even recovers."

I slam the wall to my left causing cracks to form. I sighed heavy in defeat and frustration.

"I don't care how long it takes" My breathing became ragged "Just, please get her back."

"We will do everything we can." The man bowed and rushed off to the hallways.

Her soul is still alive somehow, despite Cecilia harboring her very body.

"It will only be a matter of time before things turn sour for us." I said to myself as I ponder, walking circles around my room "He's still out there, he's already cheated death thrice. Not only will this make it harder for us but what will the people think of this once it leaks out?"

I focused and closed my eyes. I disperse my mana through the whole room, which was now faintly covered in brown, a domain of mana. This trump card of mine can sense even the tiniest sign of organic and moving life alerting me of their presence and releasing a barrage of spikes from both the ceiling and the floor towards the target.

I saw a fly get immediately impaled once it entered the domain.

I'll be ready, but I don't think this will be enough....