Ancient War - TBATE

The Surprise

Arthur Leywin Pov

"Wait, she?" I echoed.

"Yep, you haven't seen in her in a while, so I'll keep the surprise." Aurora replied, his voice echoing throughout the zone.

I let out a sigh as I thought of people I hadn't seen in a while. Suddenly, realization dawned on me as I unknowingly smirked. Ellie was confused by what was happening, but kept quiet.

"It's Sylvie." I stated, confident of my answer.

"Here I thought telling you asuras can't enter the relictombs would throw you off." Aurora sighed with regret.

"Where is Sylvie anyway?" Ellie asked.

"She's been training in the relictombs for a while." Aurora answered cryptically.

"Is she okay?" I narrowed my eyes.

"She's fine. I've been sending the lances there to train with her." Aurora comforted.

I let out a sigh of relief, but instantly remembered something. "How long has it been for her?"

"Uhhh..." Aurora paused, making my heart beat faster. "... Around fourteen years."

"What?!" Ellie and I shouted in unison.

"Don't worry. She's still a child, especially when you consider she's an asura." Aurora instantly replied, calming me down. "Last time I went there, nothing aside from her strength and size changed."

"And how long ago was that?" Ellie questioned suspiciously.

"A few months." He answered.

Knowing Sylvie has changed little to nothing made me relax. It's been a while since I've last seen my surrogate daughter, but just knowing she was okay made me feel fulfilled. I've always seen Sylvie as my own daughter, so seeing her grow up during the years made me feel accomplished.

We might not be related by blood, but I wished we were.

"Where's the portal?" I asked.

"I'll send the location to your mind." Aurora stated.

Instantly, I could feel him connect to my mind and engrave new information into it. Closing my eyes, I imagined the location of the portal and saw what looked like a hologram appear in my mind.

Opening my eyes, I grabbed Ellie and godstepped towards there. Appearing in front of the portal, I let go off of Ellie as she groaned. "Can you stop doing that?"

"Sorry, but this is faster." I chuckled.

Standing back up, Ellie augmented herself with mana and gestured for me to step through. Stepping through the portal, I felt my surroundings blur. Moments later, I arrived in the next zone. Ellie stepped out from the portal and stumbled before regaining balance.

Trees covered the entire zone as the sounds of rivers flowing echoed throughout the room. The sounds of birds chirping filled the zone with ambience, and I could see even monkeys traveling around the zone.

Multiple stone pillars were dotted around the zone with moss and vines covering them. Unlike the previous jungle zone, which was filled with deathly silence, this zone looked like an ancient forest with many living beings that made me feel relaxed.

"Another forest?" Ellie groaned.

"There's something different..." I muttered, feeling the lack of ambient aether.

Boom!

Suddenly, the sound of an explosion echoed throughout the peaceful zone. Grabbing Ellie, I flew up in the air and looked towards the source of the sound. What I saw made me smile with wide eyes.

Purple runes slithered across the zone, trapping the ambient aether inside a large barrier. Inside the barrier was a platinum haired girl training. Her sword traveled swiftly like a fierce cyclone, tearing apart the inside of the barrier.

Each swing was fast and powerful, carrying enough force to kill a silver core mage. It was astonishing to see her train like that. Her technique was flawless, with no obvious opening.

Swinging her sword upward, she let go of it, spun it around, then grabbed it again before sheathing it. That movement was flawless and fast, which amazed even me. Ellie and I continued to watch her train, as she didn't notice us.

She raised her open palm, and a massive ball of pure mana instantly formed in front of it. Spreading her fingers, the ball traveled forward swiftly before hitting the other end of the barrier a few kilometers away.

While she's no match for an asura, I knew she could defeat even Varay at this point. She lunged forward, swiftly firing a blast of pure mana slightly smaller than the previous one before spinning around and slashing with her now unsheathed sword.

I could tell she was attempting to incorporate conjuring into her sword fighting, which was by no means a bad idea. Swinging her sword wildly, she fired narrow waves of pure mana that followed her swings.

My interest rose as I saw her use pure mana variants of elemental spells. The move she just used with the mana waves was similar to a fire spell, where someone would fire a narrow wave of scorching heat.

It was a technique I was familiar with, but I wasn't sure if I could do it with pure mana.

She stabbed her sword forward, hitting a tree, but instead of just piercing the tree, she distributed the force in the tree, causing the entire tree to be blasted out of the ground and towards the barrier.

Dust kicked up in the air as the tree hit the barrier. I smiled in pride as I recognized this to be similar to a water spell. Seeing the tree still standing next to the barrier, she stabbed her sword into the air a few times.

Bullets of pure mana formed and followed her will, traveling at a speed that even I found hard to keep up with before hitting the tree, causing the entire zone to tremble. Turning towards Ellie, I silently took away her bow and pulled back the string.

An arrow made of blue flames formed, and I instantly covered it with black lightning. Thankfully, I was proficient enough in mirage walk for her to not sense it. Sending more mana into the arrow, I forced it to overflow.

Sylvie turned to look at me just in time to see me let go of the bowstring.