TBATE: aether train track

The aether train

𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗵𝘂𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝘆𝘄𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗢𝗩
(This takes place just after arthur met the first djinn remnant)

"Of course."

Stepping into the portal I found myself wandering in a black space, as black as the ink of a pen.

"What the hell?" My crass companion complained. I was no different in his state of mind. 'You just had to try and haggle that djinn...'

'How was I supposed to know this would happen?' I exclaimed

'Rule 101 when talking to an ancient mage, you don't try to negotiate with a being who has power over a place!' Regis exclaimed.

Ignoring Regis, I walked around... or at least tried to. I seemed to be in a levitated state, but I still couldn't fly. Trying to swim in the dark abyss, I eventually noticed a miniscule light.

'Ah Hell yeah! Our ticket outta here!' Regis shouting, excitedly. I wasn't so easily swayed. What if this was some piece of the relictombs that was not meant to be touched?

'Are you kidding me? We finally have a way out of this space and you wanna stay!?' Regis said, baffled. 'Not stay, but we have to approach it cautiously. It may trigger something we aren't, yet, ready to face.' Though I was tempted to reach for the light, I was also skeptical due to seeing an aetheric presence in that light.

Regis, having no self control, flew to the light in his incorporeal state and hovered just above the light. 'It seems to be some kind of trigger for something... We should activate it!' What the hell was wrong with Regis, though I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to do just that.

Eventually, after some argument between me and Regis, we finally decided to activate the light. Swimming to where the light was in the abyss, I grabbed hold of the light with my hand. Not knowing what else to do, I imbued aether into the light until my core couldn't give out anymore. But... there was nothing. Feeling like an idiot, I turned my body to try and figure out what to do next. When suddenly, me and Regis felt a strong quaking.

Feeling threatened by this new predicament, I augmented my body with the little aether I had left. A strong pull forced me and Regis to the very back of the seemingly endless abyss. 'Regis, get inside of me!' I called out to him. 'Ughh, seriously. I thought we settled on full gauntlet.'

'Just stay inside of me, not for an attack.' I replied, half annoyed and half worried that I might lose Regis. I found myself black out after 2 minutes of being pulled.

Chug a Chug a Chug a, choo choo!

Feeling a cold and hard surface beneath my body, I stood up to find myself in a white room.

'What the hell happened to us.' I thought. Regis was still asleep in my core, so it was up to me to find out where we were. Looking ahead, I found myself staring at a closed door that was, disturbingly, just out in the open. Walking up to the door, I opened it and immediately felt wind hit my face. In front of me was what seemed to be a cart for a train that was as huge as a house with a whole bridge connecting the carts. I had seen trains and even been on one in my past life, but I had never seen train carts this size.

We were moving at a pretty fast rate, though nothing too extreme, I thought with a sigh of relief. Reaching out for my companion, I tried to wake him up. But I couldn't get him up. Eventually I decided to head back into the white room and meditate to fill up my aether core. What shocked me the most was how abundant aether was in this cart, and in no time at all, my aether core was filled up.

Feeling the keystone in my rune, I summoned it out and decided to activate it. But I got even more confused, until eventually Regis woke up. After explaining to him our current predicament, he sighed out the most frustrated breath I had ever heard him be, though we did only know each other for 2 weeks. Deciding to take my time in the room, I went back into the keystone and eventually got something. Moving cogwheels in my mind, I was able to decipher what this godrune was and its capabilities. Fortunately, since the insight was already stored in the keystone, I was able to decipher the rune called "Aroa's Requiem".

'what does it do?' Regis asked, expectantly. Smirking, I pulled out the white dagger and snapped it in two. Regis's eyes bulged and he was about to say something, until I raised my hand. Pushing aether into this godrune, aether latched on to the dagger and as if time was being reversed, the dagger was back together

This was it. This was the kind of power I could use against Agrona and the Indrath clan. Not only that, I could reverse all the damage they had caused. I could save everyone: Buhnd, Cynthia, Alea, my father... Sylvie.

Being in a state of euphoria, I looked outside the door to the other carts and saw no end to them. Feeling that this was a once in a lifetime chance to get stronger, I decided to press on to the next cart. Eager to see what new power lies ahead.