An Expected Betrayal |TBATE

Chapter 25 - Shadow Panthers

A.N I don't know if I can post tomorrow so its an early update

GREY

"-up!"

"-ke up!"

"Wake up!"

I shot up, instantly feeling cold perminating my body. "Congrats my masochistic master, you've successfully created an aether core," I heard Regis say.

I instantly checked my body to find a purple core in place of where my mana core used to be. But instead it was purple. Similar to the purple particles I saw when I was in my second phase.

"So, it seems the runes Bruce just made have fused with your body to create better aether channels," explained Regis. "So does this mean I'm much stronger now?" I asked.

"Probably, from what I can tell you're stronger than when you had your mana core but right now the only thing you can do is enhance yourself. You don't even have any runes to use," replied Regis.

"That's good, but what do you think of that?" I asked as I pointed to a deactivated portal.

"I don't know, looks like we need to activate it somehow, probably just pour aether into it?" responded Regis as he went over and sniffed it like a dog.

"I could, but Bruce wouldn't send me here for no reason. I should try and find places to train and maybe acquire a rune," I said as I enhanced myself with aether and went outside.

The snow was annoying since it hindered my movement. I just picked a random direction since I had no way to know what I needed to do to get stronger herel. "Hey, since this is an empty space, why don't you try and practice Burst Step?" suggested Regis. "Good idea," I said as I focused the aether into my legs.

However something strange happened. I saw a strand of purple go out in front of me.It didn't go more than about 3 meters. At the same time I felt a weird sensation from the bottom of my spine.

I focused on the path and tried to use Burst Step only to suddenly appear at the point where the path ended. "Uhhhh, what did you just do?" Regis asked, as confused as I was. "I-I don't know, I just took a step and... teleported," I said, more to myself to try and understand what I just did.

"Hey, you actually got a rune!" Regis exclaimed.

"I did?"

"Yeah, it's gone now, but I can still sense it. I think it'll only show itself if you use it," Regis explained. I checked my core to see if I could do it again and I could! But it took so much aether that I don't think I could do it many more times before I ran out of aether.

"That's kinda overpowered don't you think?" Regis quipped. I just ignored him and tried to use my new power again. My eyes unfocused and the pathway appeared again. This time I tried to go further along the path but once I did I only moved about three meters.

"Is three meters the limit?" I asked myself. "Why don't you try connecting the paths?" Regis suggested. I did as he suggested and noticed every path was split into 3 meter or ten feet parts. I then tried connecting two of the paths, and it worked! But it took a couple of seconds, a good short amount of time, but too slow for battles.

I was about to try again when Regis stopped me. "If you use up all your aether now you'll die from the cold." I realized he was correct and stopped.

"Thanks Regis, what would I do without you?" I asked, glad my new partner was helpful.

"You'd die from the cold, my masochistic master." I just laughed but stopped once I saw figures in the distance. They were vaguely humanoid but short. I think the tallest was only about 5 feet tall. Its hands and feet were... paws? I then noticed they looked like panthers.