TBATE - The Help of a Certain Being

Floating Castle

Arthur Leywin

Blood. Sweat. Too much blood and sweat for tears. Maybe.

I was too tired to differentiate either way. I was covered in it all the same.

Again.

Again.

Again.

That was almost the only thing I'd heard for five hellish hours. I don't know how I even kept my sanity as long as I did.

But then it happened.

Kuro's fist collided with my palm and, expecting yet again to be thrown back, I tried to envision the tunnel-like pathway of earthen mana inside and outside of my augmented body.

A familiar but ever debilitating pain pulsed through me and my body protested.

The ground below splintered into webs and the soles of my feet dug into the ground.

My thoughts flew as I, anticipatingly, slowly opened my eyes.

Did I do it?

A once merciless voice which forced me into this pain in the first place broke me out of my stupor, answering my question as if he'd heard my own thoughts.

"You did it."

My vision slowly returned, just as rays of orange climbed over me.

I found myself in the epicenter of a crater easily the size of Sylvie's dragon form and at least six feet deep.

"I... I did it..?"

"You did it."

My fatigue hit me all at once in that moment, finally relieved that I finished that hellish training, and my body went limp as the world began turning black.

The ground was cold, but not in a bad way. It was almost comforting, and lulled me to a world of darkness that I let take over.

**

Kuro Helstea

I sent a gust of wind under Arthur, raising him skywards just as a crumbling noise interjected from our campsite.

Varay and Olfred stared at us in silence, almost as if they'd been turned into statues.

Olfred's knowing gaze told me that they had been watching us. How long they did so was as much of a mystery to me as the timeline I altered.

"Let's go," Varay spoke up, already in the air. "There is still much to travel."

We left silently as our journey across the sky resumed.

**

Over the course of about two hours indicated by the sun's position, we flew nonstop.

Nico and I spent that time talking about his own progress, which interested me far beyond the awkward silence the two Lances opted to create.

Nico's approaches to magic and insight into the earth attribute was something I found particularly intriguing, given he viewed it in a completely different way than myself.

Even though it'd only been a few months since he properly had an individual existence in this world, he seemed to have completely adjusted, in more ways than one.

"I've also noticed that manipulating mana as a Silver core and as a White core are so different. Like, worlds apart, kind of different."

I would've chuckled at the obviousness if he didn't sound like he meant it.

"I mean, that's how it works fundamentally. Everything becomes easier, yes, but as your core stage advances further, it transforms into something deeper than just 'easy'.