There may also be some inaccuracies, since English is not my native language.
Essentially, TBATE is first translated from English into my native language — and in that process, some details are already altered to make it more understandable for us. Now I'm taking that adapted (and somewhat distorted) version, revising it, rewriting it, and then translating it back into English.
I hope you'll point out any mistakes in the text that I might have missed.
× × × × ×
Lucius Zogratis POV
Even though I had already shown Arthur Chapter 273, we were still on high alert as soon as we crossed the threshold. What we encountered was dead silence and a corridor about two shoulders wide, brightly lit by panels of light descending down the tops of the walls. I turned around and saw that the portal we had passed through had disappeared, leaving me with only one way out.
"How good it is to have you with us," Regis remarked, tails of black and purple flame swaying from his wolf form as he walked alongside Arthur. Moments later, Regis's shadowy form disappeared into Arthur's body.
As we walked, we must have triggered something, because runes suddenly lit up on the wall on either side of me, and the light in the corridor suddenly turned purple. I didn't have much time to react after that, because an indescribable force suddenly pulled us forward, placing us both in front of a massive entrance made of something resembling black crystal, which was definitely not somewhere near the path we had been walking on.
Air suddenly returned to my lungs, and I realized I had been holding my breath. Indigo colors were engraved on the massive gates of shimmering blackness, which only upon closer inspection turned out to be runes.
"Welcome, Being of Aether and Flesh. Please enter," a voice suddenly said in my head. Communicating telepathically with both Arthur and Regis, I was used to voices in my head. However, now it was different; it didn't feel like someone or something was speaking to me, it seemed that I had suddenly thought about it myself.
"Did you hear that voice too?" I asked Arthur.
He nodded slightly. "Yes, just as it was described in the book."
"It's strange that I heard that voice too."
I looked around again. Now there was no corridor behind me, only three white walls, one white ceiling and floor, and one solid crystal door that emitted a purple glow. I stood in front of it, carefully reaching for the door. However, when my fingertips touched the surface, a warm and almost familiar touch enveloped me, and my hand sank into the seemingly solid crystal.
I stepped forward again through another entrance, and the crystal gate clicked and buzzed like millions of solid tiny moving parts, clearing the way for us to slip inside. Until, finally, my whole body was completely submerged.
The scene that unfolded before me as countless black and purple crystals parted was strange. It just seemed like a laboratory. The room was quite large, but it felt cramped because of the more than ten tables scattered throughout the room, each of which was 'decorated' with a multitude of measuring cups and test tubes. Along the walls of this hexagonal room stood tall glass shelves filled with various trinkets and containers — some empty, some not.
Only one wall was different from the others, and that was because it had a portal. Unlike most portals, which glowed with a multitude of colorful lights, this portal looked more like a glass screen. On the other side, guards dressed in black armor were clearly visible in an empty room.
Knowing what to do and exchanging glances with Arthur, I released my aether aura, enveloping the room in suffocating pressure.
The room began to change as if everything we saw, smelled, and felt in this room was an illusion, everything began to disappear... including the floor.
I started to fall, and then just stopped. It felt like I had suddenly awakened from a dream when my feet were suddenly firmly pressed against the floor that had not existed a second ago.
Ignoring everything else, my eyes were focused on the structure in front of me. A ten-foot-tall pedestal with aether runes carved around it. Four rotating halos of glowing stones with equally complex, intricate runes engraved on their surfaces spun in a circle without touching each other. I had already memorized all these complex runes, and once I got out of Relictombs, I would begin to analyze them.
Directly above the pedestal in the center of the stone halo, a small shining crystal floated in the air. It emitted a bright lavender light, although the amount of aether it emitted was negligible. The first djinn was right in front of me.
However, at that moment, something touched my consciousness. My soul was too strong for anyone to just break into it, but this time I allowed it to happen.
Immediately, something appeared in the room that contained an incomprehensible amount of aether.
Out of habit, I looked around and assessed the terrible condition of the room. Unlike the illusion of the laboratory from which we had fallen, the stone walls, covered with runes, were cracked and chipped. There were even several holes the size of a person in the floor and walls, with debris still littering the floor.
Feeling the aether move from point to point, I took a stance, trying to follow the huge cluster of aether with my eyes. Suddenly, I felt it rapidly approaching from the other side of the room. I enveloped myself in aether and delivered a blurred forward strike.
I watched spellbound as the spell forms flashed on the genie. In that same second, the power behind my attack was completely nullified. And before me, with its arm wrapped around my fist, appeared a djinn figure about 180 centimeters tall.
"So you can track me," he said with an expression of pure shock.
I pulled my hand back and stepped back a few paces, analyzing his runes. The djinn's figure was a matte purple color with short-cropped hair of the same shade. The only dark parts were the intertwining rune tattoos that ran across almost the entire surface of his body. They even reached his cheeks and forehead, leaving only his eyes, nose, mouth, and chin exposed.
The djinn studied me, frowning and flashing his eyes. "You have an aether core, but no spell forms to protect your body."
"Yeah, it's been less than a month since I created the aether core," I replied without hiding anything.
His eyes narrowed intriguingly. "I see. A man with the body of an asura, no less than a dragon. What an unprecedented anomaly you are."
The djinn looked at me even more intently. A look of shock reappeared on his face. "You carry the GodRune of spatium, but why... isn't it on your body?"
....
"I waited a long time, but the fact that two of them ended up coming to me at once is something even I couldn't have imagined." Jin waved his hand, and I felt a change in my mind, but I let it happen. A moment later, I found myself in an incredibly large room surrounded by a dome of translucent purple.
"You have a very strong soul," said djinn, spell forms lit up on his body, "but since you allowed this to happen, you also want to see something."
I nodded weakly. I had an aether core and knowledge of the plot, but I had no idea how spell forms were created, and although I could strengthen myself with aether, I couldn't understand how to make a spear or sword out of aether, and this djinn would be the perfect example for me.
"Then let's begin," he said as the aether spear appeared in his hand.
I lunged forward, swinging the white dagger in my hands. As I attacked, I analyzed how the aether moved and what form it took. My blade met the shaft of his purple spear, and once again, the force of my attack was nullified. There was no delay or recoil that I could stop; my attack simply ceased.
Soon we were both caught up in a flurry of attacks, and I went on the offensive. Using the dagger as an extension of my right arm, I slashed, lunged, kicked, and struck at the creature, which responded to each of my attacks with perfect defense. Dodging a flurry of blurred strikes from its glowing spear, I used my left palm to redirect its last strike down onto my right, and used the momentum to deliver a spinning kick to its head.
As I expected, the tip of my dagger remained hanging just above his right ear. He swung his spear, closing the distance between us before lunging at me again, and having trained with Arthur and possessing eleventh-rank talent, I had to admit that his spear technique was impressive.
I will take this technique, just as I will take these spell forms and his mastery of aether control, at the end of this battle.
Which will end right now.
A strange force ran through my body and mind, but then it disappeared, allowing me to focus on the djinn again.
I had already memorized everything; later, I would just have to repeat it in a calmer environment. The shaft of his weapon swayed and bent as if it were made of wood, bending and bouncing in the air with every thrust and blow he threw at me, as if his spear had come alive.
Lowering my head, I allowed the aether to flow freely from my core. I felt the surrounding aether react as it vibrated through every cell of my body, activating the god step, and I found myself behind the djinn at a very inconvenient moment for him.
"I think that's it," I said calmly as my dagger sank deep into the djinn's neck.
The translucent purple dome disappeared, and I found myself back in the secret room. The aether crystal was still humming quietly, and Arthur was still frozen like a statue.
After a couple of seconds, Arthur finally twitched, purple lightning stretched across his body, and a pleasant light emanated from his back.
"I have never seen aether manifest itself in this way before," echoed a familiar deep voice in front of me. The source of the voice came from a crystal floating on a pedestal.
"Forgive me for the confusion. Since I no longer have a physical form, I transferred our battle into your consciousness," the crystal declared, emitting light in accordance with the words it spoke.
Arthur's eyebrows furrowed. "So, this whole battle didn't actually happen?"
"The mind is a powerful tool that even asuras rarely exercise, preferring to hone their bodies and cores," replied the crystal in a rather dismissive tone. "But you two seem to be different, and not just in one sense."
"The princesses here are a little strange," Regis agreed, nodding his head.
Arthur asked, coming to terms with what had happened. "So what's going on now? Have I passed your 'final test,' or is there something else?"
"The fact that I decided to even talk to you means that you passed," replied the crystal. "This little sparring match was more to satisfy my curiosity and boredom, and you did a great job satisfying both. But your friend with the enormous strength of soul is even more interesting."
"A strong soul?" Arthur asked, turning his gaze to me.
"Hmm, hmm, the soul, like the body, has power. The soul of a wolf is the size of a small house," said the crystal. "Your soul is like a huge lake in terms of power, but your friend's soul is so strong that I can't even compare it to anything."
Arthur's gaze shifted to me, and I shrugged in response.
But the crystal continued. "Tell me. How can you control the flow of aether in your body with such precision? Perhaps your asura physique helps you?"
***
"Fascinating! To think that you were not only able to forge an aether core, but also forcibly tempered your own internal channels to control its output. Truly, this can only be done with the physique of an asura," blurted out the crystal, its runes pulsing excitedly.
"That's what these runes covering your body are for, right? They are used so that you can control the flow of aether," Arthur confirmed.
"Quite right. While our people mastered spell forms in order to fill and manipulate the aether, true mastery and the natural appearance of godrunes such as the spatium branch you just received and your friend received some time ago only come through serious epiphanies."
"So, this godrune means that I have gained an understanding of a certain aspect of the aether, right? Who or what?" Arthur asked. "Is there a higher deity above the asuras that grants them?"
"That information is not stored in this fragment," replied the crystal. "But the aether surrounds us on all sides and can work in ways beyond imagination. The path to gaining power over the aether is different for everyone, and yours is certainly the most special."
"In what sense?" Regis asked.
"Our people were limited by their physical bodies. Most of our efforts were not focused on gaining enlightenment, but on finding ways to make our fragile bodies cope with the burden of the aether."
"I may be speculating, but I believe that your godrunes took the form of lightning not because it is lightning, but because that is how you conceptualized the abstract nature of this particular branch of the aether," the crystal continued.
"So the dragons of the Indrath clan couldn't do what you and I can do with our people?" Arthur asked. "They have the physique and ability to handle the aether, but they don't have the knowledge and insight to conceptualize the aether as their own, right?"
A heavy pressure emanated from the crystal. "These beasts do not deserve the title of asura for the atrocities they have committed. Their greed for our knowledge and their fear that we might usurp their position as the true masters of the aether led them to not only kill our people, but also to capture many of our most powerful mages in the hope of torturing them and learning from them."
The crystal seemed to study us before speaking again. "I apologize for my outburst. Not only my knowledge was stored here, but also my emotions. As you suspected, the Indrath clan, along with the other asuras who were fooled by their leader into believing that we were a threat seeking to destroy the world, succeeded in their genocide, but not in borrowing our knowledge."
"Because of these relictombs that you built to keep the asuras away?" Arthur asked.
"Relictombs?"
"That's what the people who dig here call this place," I explained.
"How fitting. Yes. This place is the work of hundreds of mages skilled in manipulating the aether of various edicts, as you might have guessed. Time, space, and life work differently here, and this is largely due to the natural passage of time rather than our own design," said the crystal with a hint of pride. "While our civilization was plundered and burned, we created an ecosystem separate from the rest of this world, one that cannot be affected by the asuras."
"How exactly did you come to this form of confinement for your knowledge?" I asked sincerely.
"It's... we took our cue from the tree of a hundred worlds," replied the crystal with a strange hint of awkwardness, "and as the name suggests, this tree creates small worlds once every thousand years, the last world being only about 3,000 km². But each of these worlds is unique with its own ecosystem and minerals."
"And where is this tree of a hundred worlds now?" I asked with some impatience.
"This information is not stored in this fragment," replied the crystal, "but I have a gift for you."
A few sentences later, the fragment of aether began to distribute gifts.
Suddenly, the stone halos spinning around the crystal stopped, and a flash of purple light enveloped me before I could react. A soft warmth spread across my back as I felt the light take the form of runes. The light faded, and the first thing I noticed was a black rune running along the inside of Arthur's forearm.
"What is this?" Arthur asked, examining the new rune.
"It's..." said the crystal, "an extra-dimensional storage engraved right on your arm. Your friend said he already has something like this, so I'll give him something else. You mentioned your regenerative abilities to me, so this rune is a little special in that even if your arm is cut off, as long as it grows back, this rune will remain with you."
"So no one can steal what's stored inside?" Regis asked, lowering his paw to get a better look.
"Exactly," replied the crystal. "It will limit the space inside the rune, but I would say it can still hold about a box's worth of something inorganic or dead."
"You also told me that this asura you are fighting created a civilization of mages with basic spell forms running down their backs to aid them in magic. To help you blend into society better, I engraved some useless runes on your backs that roughly describe your aether spells as a rare subtype of pure mana," the crystal explained. "I'm not sure how well they can read spell forms, but it should at least allow you to use your basic aether abilities without arousing too much suspicion."
Looking at the runes, I realized that although our runes were similar, my runes, when viewed from Regis's perspective, were slightly more complex than Arthur's.
"However, be careful. If you use the edict of the aether, the godrune will shine above these fake runes," the crystal warned.
Arthur nodded understandingly, showing respect for the first time. "Thank you, really. Both of these gifts will be extremely helpful."
"Don't thank me yet. The real artifact is in the extra-dimensional storage space in your hand. It contains the insights necessary to unlock another divine rune. There is also a gift for your friend."
Arthur's eyes widened as he hurriedly pulled the item out of the storage space. A small cube-shaped stone lay in his palm.
"Will this teach me to create aether weapons like you? Or perhaps nullify a blow?" Arthur tried to guess, based on the abilities the djinn had used in sparring.
The crystal lit up. "No. It will be something much more worthwhile if you can decipher it."
"Decipher?" Regis asked. "So this stone won't just give Grey a godrune?"
"If that were possible, I'm sure the Indrath or Vritra clan would have taken control of the edict of Fate long ago," replied the crystal. "No. It's just a compass of the mind for gaining insight, and even I couldn't figure it out while I was alive."
As soon as Arthur opened his mouth again, we suddenly found ourselves back in the laboratory, standing in front of a glass-like portal.
"Did you really have to bargain with an ancient intelligent aether crystal?" Regis sighed and shook his head.
"I was able to gain some additional abilities because of it, wasn't I?" Arthur refuted.
"By the way," Arthur said, reaching out his hand to me. In response, a small
"A seed?" Regis asked. "A strange gift."
"No, it's not just a seed," I said, examining it, my hands trembling slightly. "He didn't just talk about the divine tree of a hundred worlds for no reason."
"Are you saying that this is it?..." Arthur asked, staring mesmerized at the small seed.
"I'm not sure, but," I said, handing the seed to Regis, who passed it to Arthur five seconds later, "I think I have a chance to find out."
[Rank sixth seed of peace x10 or upgrade to rank seventh?]
[Rank sixth seed of peace x10 or upgrade to rank seventh?]
Without even thinking, I upgraded to the rank seventh. Without saying a word, I took the seed from Arthur's hands, and in a moment, two other seeds appeared in my hand, very similar, but if the rank sixth seed of peace looked like a brown seed the size of a thumbnail. The rank seventh seed of peace looked like broken glass, with all the colors of the world gently shimmering in the seed, which was still the size of a fingernail.
The strange thing was that I felt nothing from this seed, but my aether core wanted it very much.
Handing the two seeds to Arthur and Regis, I turned my gaze to the system.
[Rank seventh seed of peace x10 or upgrade to eighth?]
[Rank seventh seed of peace x10 or upgrade to eighth?]
Choosing to upgrade to the rank eighth, I took the seed from Arthur's hands and Regis's paws and finally opened my mouth. "This is not the seed of the tree of a hundred worlds itself. This is the seed of the fruit of that tree, and judging by all appearances, if you place it in the aether core, a small world will appear in the core. "
Regis's eyes burned as he spoke, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's give this seed what it asks for."
"No," I replied calmly, "although the seed has risen to the unusual rank, I think it would be hasty to use something so powerful on the aether core of the first layer."
Turning my gaze to Arthur, I continued, "I think it would be better to wait until the third layer of the aether core. And if you're wondering when exactly we'll create the second layer, the answer is coming soon. If everything goes as planned, next time I'll give you this aether bead, and with it, you'll definitely be able to make the second layer."
Arthur nodded slightly as he examined his rune. I think it would be excessive to give him the rank seventh, as there is too much ether there; the rank sixth is quite sufficient. But now something else is important. My gaze shifted back to the system.
[GodRune God step rank eleventh x10 or upgrade to rank twelfth?]
[Keystone rank eleventh x10 or upgrade to rank twelfth?]
[Rune of Extraspatial Storage rank sixth x10 or upgrade to rank seventh?]
After choosing to upgrade the Rune of Extraspatial Storage and the KeyStone to the next rank, I chose x10 for the GodRune God step.
Finally, I turned my attention to intelligence and pain adaptation, which I had been ignoring for some time.
[Intelligence +726] x10
[Pain Adaptation +183] x10
Accept
[Intelligence +7260]
[Pain Adaptation +1830]
The thing is, after each time I gained an understanding of aether, I received an intelligence perk from Arthur and Regis. And the godrune carried a lot of this intelligence in conjunction with the aether perk.
I think the aether perk is also versatile; it's not just the amount of aether, this perk increased everything related to it, understanding of aether, quality of aether, amount of aether, and much more related to aether, and although I was tempted, I refused the immediate benefit, I will be able to use it later.
After a couple of minutes of discussion, we turned to the portal. I had already told Arthur that nothing would happen there, so I didn't even bother sending him the next chapter.