A New Life [TbatexTensura] REWRITE!

Vol 1 Ch 12: What Breeds Respect?

Rimuru Pov:

—-----------------------------------------

Something's off. Something is very wrong, I can't shake that feeling.

Life should be at a peak now, the Leywins are moving. We are on an adventure to a relic of my people's past. I would be able to gleam even if but a single spec of knowledge and connection to them. Yet an anxiety, this anxious and dreadful feeling is creeping up my spine.

I feel prying eyes observing my every movement, each flicker of my gaze- the subtle standing of my hairs on end. All of it, none failed to escape the gaze. I could sense it, something was very wrong.

I felt the promise I made with Jasmine, with mom. I felt as if it would be broken. 'After this I'll take you with me, you just have to keep up.' Words that sounded harsh and quite rude, were an honest recognition from her– she trusted me. She was ready to let me experience the world; as an adventurer.

Even as the Twin Horns remained lively and bright, celebrating the short reunion and getting to know Art. I couldn't fall into the atmosphere, something was keeping me on edge. Ever since we left Ashber my guard couldn't fall. I tried, I craved to experience the calm and excitement like a starved beast– I couldn't.

Even as I saw them laughing and smiling. I stood on edge. Something was warning me, a voice was calling out to me. Its cadence and tone was broken and static. Yet the more we traveled the clearer the voice became, an unnerving clarity coming to it.

'Run Run Run.' the voice came in like a whisper, the heavy batted words breathed into my ears- my mind directly. The motes of purple, the aether all jittering and wailing.

Something was very wrong, yet I couldn't figure it out.

I knew, I knew but didn't want to admit it. I was being warned, the aether was calling out to me. It was speaking to me, yet it was clear now– it wasn't a sensation or a churning notion that made understanding its words hard. I didn't work to decipher the words, the intentions or will.

It was clear, clear as day. A bellowing stereo of foreboding words filling my ears.

Every waking moment the voice continued to speak to me. Louder and louder. My nights were left sleepless, an anxiety and worry coursing through my veins. My aether was benign but the emotions it evoked were potent. An oddly reminiscent and nostalgic feeling.

My other half- he would often torment me in such ways. His voice being sent directly into my mind, the meaning and intentions cryptic and unpredictable. 'Rimuru, are you okay?' A glimmer of light and life broke the veil of anxiety for a moment as Jasmine poked at my mind– despite my thoughts remaining veiled in a wall of obscurity and indecipherability she could see and feel my emotions. 'You've had that rune active since we left Ashber. Are you going to be ok?'

I couldn't help but turn towards her, looking her directly in the eyes– uncertain of what she meant. Her thoughts were clear and void of deception or mal intent, I knew I could trust her but how would the rune be active without my knowledge.

She gave me a reassuring smile, a silent message. She was trying to say, it's ok- even if she didn't know what was happening in my mind or body. It was a subtle reassurance that I wasn't alone. Closing my eyes I looked inside myself, my mindscape remained mostly unaltered. Aside from the addition of a burning star in the sky and a refreshing sensation little had changed. But I could feel it, something was brewing under the surface in the aetheric oceans abyssal depths.

But my anxiety didn't come from there, the aether in my core, even in my mind, remained undisturbed. Reaching a hand toward my neck I felt around for a moment, a warmth; a small burning sensation radiated from my nape. The rune, Dolus' Cerebellum, was indeed active. Yet no aether was flowing into it from my core, or even from the atmosphere.