Tbate: Starting Anew

Chapter 31: Scythes and Retainers

Agrona and I sat in the high box of the Taegrin Caelum arena, an overwhelming fight happening below us. Agrona called Uto to test the people I would bring, since he himself was sitting on the edge of Scythe and Retainer but refused the higher position when offered. Cecilia had already finished her battle, but she won by such an overwhelming margin that Agrona decided to call

a Wraith.

Nico was also noticeably stronger than Uto, but their fight wasn't over yet. Agrona believed them to be evenly matched, but that was for one simple reason: he hasn't used earth or metal magic in the whole fight let alone his newly unlocked magma. After aa few minutes he made the decision to end the fight. Unexpectedly walls of magma shot up form the ground and metal spikes started to pierce Uto all over leading to him quickly surrendering.

I looked over at my grandfather only to see him staring at the battlefield with wide eyes. It was obvious he wasn't expecting this from a boy who was barely white core. The experimentation I have been doing with them using aether was successful. I unlocked a new godrune called aetheric blessing, which increased the affected persons power significantly. While it wasn't powerful enough to make Nico rival someone at the integration stage, it made him one of the most powerful white cores in existence despite barely having reached the stage. Cecilia on the other hand is on the level of an integration level mage despite only being around halfway there.

The blessings affect seemed permanent and it only used aether when applied to the target. I could take the blessing away however I could take away the blessing from the ones I have given one to easily making it ineffective against me.

We theorized that If a blessing existed then that could mean I could unlock a curse version of the rune able to considerably weaken my enemies in a similar fashion. Ever since this idea came to mind I have been trying to unlock the curse rune, with no luck so far. Only the three of us knew about the rune despite me having applied it a considerable amount of people already. The most important was Tess whose assimilation started going a lot smoother since I did. Currently the people who it was applied to were the individuals present at the 2 parties Tess and I held.

After the fight I talked with Uto who had to leave swiftly since Scythe Dragoth had a special assignment for him. This made me a bit worried, but I knew Uto was loyal to me and not him.

The next fight started not long after. Seris could barely keep up with Cecil and she wasn't able to land any hits. The fight lasted a mere two minutes before Seris surrendered. During the battle Agrona brought up the topic of a retainer for Nico since the situation didn't go as I planned with him being Cecil's retainer. Agrona brought it to my attention that Seris had acquired a second retainer a few months ago. A young vritra-blooded girl who she has been training for a few years now. She was among the weaker retainers, but still deserved her position. I immediately knew he was talking about Caera.

After the fight Seris came to talk with the me and Agrona about having Caera act as Nico's retainer and I quickly accepted her offer. I knew that she had potential and that she could be trusted so I knew she would be the perfect fit for the position.

After a lavish celebratory dinner we left Alacrya agreeing to come back the next day. I quickly restored both Cecil's and Nico's stamina with my vivium rune so they could go about their day, since we arrived in Dicathen just before sunrise. The time difference between the two continents was just perfect.

The day went as anyone would expect. The classes were uninteresting other than the fact that Nico joined us in team tactics.

At the end of the day after everyone else fell asleep Nico, Cecil and me went back to Alacrya. What welcomed us was the council of sovereigns without Kiros of course. The Scythes were also present with their retainers, but as expected Uto stood without his Scythe. After I took my seat next to Agrona, he introduced Nico as the newest Scythe. And everyone other then Uto and Seris thought his retainer was the girl standing beside him, but to their surprise Seris walked to the door and opened it to reveal a young girl with navy hair, crimson eyes and black horns. Agrona announced Caera to be Nico's retainer and this made the situation even more confusing until the door opened again to reveal the strongest lessurans in Alacrya. The Wraiths.

I could tell from the pressure in the room that no one was expecting them.

"I would like to introduce the sixth Wraith Cecilia Vritra, Codename: Legacy" Agrona said while gesturing toward Cecil breaking the suspense.

After the meeting ended Agrona, Cecil and I went to the main laboratory in Taegrin Caelum. We talked yesterday night about turning Cecil into a lessura using my asuran physique, specifically my Vritra part. Since I was able to regenerate it would be of no consequence to me but the procedure would be extremely painful for her.

"Are you sure?" I asked her once again just to make sure.

"Yes, I am sure. This way I can actually reach my potential without the asuras noticing my presence. My ever expanding power would've already caused problem had you not limited them." She answered laying down on the table.

We decided to let Nico in the comfort her during the procedure. Then we began. For the next hour screams of extreme pain filled the hallways of the castle. A few guards came to check what was going on but Blaise and Ulrick assured them that everything was perfectly fine. They offered to guard the doors for us during the operation.

After we were done I used my runes to help Cecil with her fatigue and a few minutes after the Wraith entered officially welcoming her amongst their ranks. Seeing as we still had two hours we could spend here I decided to spice thing up a bit.

I challenged the Wraiths to a 6 vs 3 fight. All 6 Wraiths on 1 team, Sylvie, Regis and me on the other.

After a bit of discussing they happily accepted despite Cecil's warnings about our strength. They had the opportunity to fight the people closest to Agrona in strength not knowing I already surpassed the old man long ago. They were exited to fight me specifically since they've heard that I was an experienced fighter and It turned out Blaise was watching my fight with Uto.

I haven't been this excited for a fight in a long time.

'Round 2, FIGHT!' I heard Regis imitating a popular fighting game in my head. 'Though I think we should avoid fatalities this time.'

_______________________________________________

Well, hello there!

I know this chapter is particularly late but I had other things to do during the afternoon.

I successfully destroyed my phones screen today, so I am thankful to be the owner of a smartwatch. I am getting a temporary replacement tomorrow afternoon so I am going to be inactive in the discord most of tomorrow.

If you are on the discord you would already know this, but my friend recently started publishing an original book titled 'Necro'. He's a good friend of mine so I would appreciate if you guys would check it out!
It only has a prologue right now, but as someone who had a good amount of input on the story and is a beta reader I can say it's going to be a wild ride! If you like unorthodox fantasy stories filled with mysteries you should give it a read!
The book is strictly 18+ and it deals with heavy topics so read at you own risk.
You can find it here: www.wattpad.com/story/316716721-necro
or in my favorites reading list.

I would also like to thank all of you for 15 thousand reads! I can barely believe it!

This has been Salty and see you all tomorrow!