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
Arthur, Caera, and I appeared atop a snowy cliff guarding the entrance to the village of the Spear Beaks. Several dozen enormous birds greeted us with intent stares while aether lightning crackled around us, caused by the use of God Step.
The warm light of large torches illuminated the once bitterly cold village and filled the hollow mountain peak with a woody, slightly acrid aroma.
Suddenly the Spear Beaks erupted into a loud clamor. They began flapping their wings, booming and shrieking. Some even rose into the sky carrying long colorful ribbons that swirled above us in intricate patterns.
"Are they… throwing us a party?" Caera asked uncertainly.
"Stay alert. They lied, and you saw it yourself," I whispered, stepping forward behind Arthur, since last time he had handled the conversation with Old Broken Beak.
At once the crowd of Spear Beaks parted, clearing a path for us, and Old Broken Beak appeared before us, dressed in an elegant fur coat that reflected the flickering torchlight.
The tribe's warriors, standing on both sides of the road between us and Old Broken Beak, held out various foods to us.
"Welcome, welcome, mighty ascenders!" Old Broken Beak cried excitedly, prompting another wave of approving calls from his tribe. "Yes! Today we celebrate the return of our warriors."
As if possessed, all the oversized birds began writhing and moving chaotically to the quick beats of two Spear Beaks pounding on an enormous drum.
Old Broken Beak began approaching us, his thin legs trembling slightly as he slowly took one step after another. He carefully laid a wing on Arthur's and my shoulders, then did the same to Caera and let out a mournful shriek.
"Our scouts reported that Swiftsure fell in battle, but he was brave, yes, very brave, and now he will soar high among the Creators!" the old Spear Beak rasped.
Lowering his frail wings, he continued, "Our scouts also told of your triumph over the wild beasts. This feat shall be written into history so that every member of our tribe may read it, yes!"
"Their attitude is a lot more respectful than when we first spoke with them. I like it," I faintly heard Regis's thoughts. After spending a couple of days sharing thoughts with Three Steps, I had gotten used to deciding what I wanted to show and at what moment to pass along feelings or thoughts, so I decided it was time to reconnect the mental communication and not be overly suspicious.
At that moment I could show exactly what I wanted and nothing more. As I spoke with the two of them, unlike before, they couldn't feel my thoughts or intentions this time, only the words I wanted them to hear.
Although Regis was no longer clinging to Arthur's core like a leech, and could even speak with us, he still wasn't strong enough to maintain a physical form after using the Rune of Destruction.
"There's nothing heroic about it," Arthur waved off. "We're just doing everything we can to leave this zone."
"Heroic is a good word! Truly, yes. We Spear Beaks can only stand in awe of your bravery," he said, gesturing with one wing toward the table of food. "Ascenders, you must be hungry. Please, the warriors of my tribe have brought you gifts of food and drink!"
"All of this is for us?" I asked, studying the items held in the Spear Beaks' wings. Three carried cuts of meat, three others were struggling to hold armfuls of fruit resembling giant blueberries. A sixth carried a sharp black stone, and the last three held ceramic jugs whose contents sloshed out a little with their awkward movements.
Old Broken Beak nodded. "A humble gift from humble Spear Beaks, yes."
Caera squeezed the back of my hand twice, almost imperceptibly, though the smile never left her face. Even without prior study of nonverbal signals, I understood what she meant.
Although I could have simply grabbed the old bird by the throat and forced him to hand over the portal piece, I knew Arthur wouldn't approve. He needed evidence more direct than Three Steps' memories and my analysis.
"Please don't take this as disrespect, but we can't accept so many gifts. Perhaps your brave warriors would like to enjoy these blessings themselves?" Arthur said, lowering his gaze. "It would be more than enough for us if we could count on your hospitality one more time."
The old bird looked down at him in silence, his beak crackling, until at last he spoke.
"Very well! Though some might consider it disrespectful-though not I, no, not Old Broken Beak-to reject the gift of the Spear Beaks, I see that Swiftsure's ascent to the Creators was hard to bear, and that it spoiled the ascenders' appetites. It weighs on us too, very heavily. But the feast will happen anyway, yes!" he said with a nod. "Come into Old Broken Beak's hut so we may sit and discuss your journey. You surely have much to tell."
Old Broken Beak led us past the line of Spear Beaks bearing gifts.
"If they were smart enough to lure in two cautious Shadow Claws, who'd been taught since birth to beware the Spear Beaks, then they were smart enough to poison the food in order to weaken or even kill us," I heard Arthur think.
"And I thought your cockroach body was immune to things like poison," Regis remarked.
"But Caera doesn't have a body like that," Arthur replied. "Better rude than stupid. In any case, I wanted to see how Old Broken Beak would react to our refusal. Now sit quietly and focus on recovering. In your current state, you're useless to me."
I could almost feel Regis rolling his eyes as he replied, "As you say, princess."
"I don't want to interrupt," I began, enhancing all my senses with aether and sniffing the air coming from the food a few times, "but the food isn't poisoned. Either that, or it's some super poison that has no scent and can't be sensed."
"Are you sure?" Arthur asked, still walking ahead and looking unbothered.
"More than. I can't feel anything at all from the food," I answered.
"Stay careful anyway. Tell me if you notice anything," Arthur said in a responsible tone.
Nodding mentally, I watched as the elderly leader ushered us inside his home. He lowered his cracked beak and stepped back outside. "Please, rest here. We still have much to do, but I shall return soon, yes."
"Wait. We came here with the portal pieces, just as you asked," Arthur said quickly, not wanting to wait. "I want to try repairing the portal with what we have, so we only need your tribe's piece, and we-"
"No." Old Broken Beak snapped his beak sharply to cut him off. "You must provide four, and we shall provide one. Right now, ascender holds only three. Rest for now, and together we will find a way to obtain the last piece."
With that, the leader strode away, leaving us alone.
Caera sighed, lowering herself to the ground beside me. "Infuriating."
"That's putting it mildly," Arthur replied with a mocking tone, turning his attention to the bedding of straw, feathers, and grass where Old Broken Beak usually sat.
"It's unlikely the old bird would leave what we need in this room," Caera said when Arthur approached the spot where the portal fragment had once been hidden.
"There's nothing there," I said, not sensing any aether aura.
Arthur searched Old Broken Beak's resting place, but found only the dusty floor. "Damn you!"
Caera remained silent, and Arthur paced around the hut, tense and angry. I simply let aether flow through my body, sensing the changes after gaining the second layer, and after some comparisons I could say with one hundred percent certainty that my aether core was about twenty percent larger than Arthur's. It seemed that understanding aether from a rank 13 GodRune, rank 10 intellect, and rank 8 aether channels had paid off.
Just as I was about to begin trying to recreate the Ghost Bears' technique, Caera's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "How's Regis doing?"
"He's using my aether reserves to recover while he rests," Arthur answered, turning to her. "Aren't you cold?" he asked when he noticed she wasn't even wearing the clothes I'd made for her.
"It's much warmer here than before. Maybe because of the torches they lit outside for the festival," she said, shaking her head. "Anyway, do you know what made him act so wildly during our battle?"
"It had to do with him connecting to my GodRune of Destruction," Arthur began. "It's hard to explain, but Regis is much more compatible with that specific kind of magic than I am, even though technically I'm the one who has access to it."
"So he couldn't fully control it," Caera said with understanding.
Arthur looked at his empty palm. "Basically. That magic is very harmful to the caster if they're not compatible, so it's hard for me to practice it. Since Regis isn't limited the way I am, I think he's learning much faster…"
He stopped, realizing he'd started rambling.
"The campfires," I said during that awkward moment of silence for Arthur.
"The campfires?" Caera asked, puzzled.
"They smell different," I replied, sniffing the smoke slightly. "The food isn't poisoned; it's the fire itself that's been poisoned."
"They were going to poison us with the smoke from the fire," Arthur said, realizing what was happening.
"The poison isn't strong enough; otherwise, I would have smelled it," I corrected him. "It won't kill you, just make you sluggish or sleepy-Caera, to be precise."
Arthur and Caera gave me odd looks. After a couple moments of silence, Caera said in a light, slightly teasing tone, "Did you take Regis's place?"
"I'm not going to use a rune to restore you after you breathe in the smoke," I answered dryly, staring into her widening ruby eyes. "Or better yet, I'll leave you here to be eaten by these birds."
Despite the threat, Caera still laughed softly. "Yes, yes, sorry."
× × × × ×
"Elder Broken Beak," Caera said, her voice clear and steady as we walked behind the old bird. "You said your tribe would help us obtain the last portal fragment, but it looks like we're heading deeper into your village."
We had waited for him in the hut for several hours before he finally showed up, dragging a number of battle-hardened Spear Beaks with him to summon us to follow. And now we were walking along a well-lit path toward the sheer cliff sheltering the village.
"The Spear Beaks will help you hunt the Ghost Bears, yes. We will find them, and you will fight." His cracked beak bobbed up and down as he spoke. "But first you must join us for the feast. A very rare feast."
Two scarred Spear Beaks carried Old Broken Beak, as he was too weak to fly.
We stepped onto the edge of a broad sloping rock overlooking the village. Tall torches had been set all along the cliff, casting warm light over the crowd of Spear Beaks already gathered there. A pillar of smoke rose from a fire behind the large birds, who parted at the sight of Old Broken Beak.
The elderly leader of the village waited for us, his single violet eye gleaming excitedly as he swept one wing outward. "Look!"
"Lucius?" Caera's voice was thin and displeased.
I shifted my gaze from Old Broken Beak to her, then followed her line of sight to the "feast."
On a broad flat stone lay a huge member of the Four Fists. All four arms, both eyes, and its largest tusk had been cut off. Its hide had been flayed away, and a large wound in its stomach, like a spear wound, had been pulled open and stuffed with large round berries like blueberries, while beneath the stone slab a fire burned.
"What the hell is that?" Arthur asked, unable to hide his disgust.
"The rarest feast!" Old Broken Beak exclaimed. Then he turned to the waiting Spear Beaks and began clattering and cawing at them in their harsh avian tongue. The tribe listened, then cried out joyfully and took to the sky, while others leapt from their perches and circled the high peak.
"I told them," said Old Broken Beak, turning back to us, "of your victory over the crude clan of the Four Fists, of how you took the Creators' fragment and left their clan weak and defenseless." After that, he bowed slightly.
My gaze returned to the Four Fists corpse. "How did you get this?"
"A raid on the village after your battle. They were consumed by grief after losing the Creators' fragment," Old Broken Beak answered proudly. "To feast on a fallen enemy is a great honor, yes."
"Barbaric," Caera muttered. The leader's violet eye snapped toward her.
"Forgive us," Arthur said, bowing his head to hide his revulsion. "In our culture, we do not eat... fallen enemies."
Old Broken Beak let out a harsh sigh. "What waste, to let strong enemies rot upon the ground. But we will not force you. Perhaps the ascenders would prefer one egg for restoration?"
I shook my head. "That won't be necessary. In truth, we'd like to set out as soon as possible-"
Old Broken Beak, not letting me finish, broke into loud cackling laughter. He hopped back and spread his wings toward his people, then shouted loudly.
The Spear Beaks cried out and descended upon the corpse, tearing and ripping at the half-frozen flesh like a flock of vultures. Arthur and Caera turned away, glancing down toward the village below. After watching it for a couple seconds, I turned away too.
Two Spear Beaks left the summit and slowly descended toward the cluster of huts.
Beside me, Old Broken Beak said, "The Spear Beaks will celebrate with the trophy flesh of the enemy in your stead, yes."
"There is another egg from which a chick never hatched. We will bring it."
"As I said," Arthur began again, clenching his jaw, "we'd like to leave as soon as possible. My companions and I see no point in hunting Ghost Bears unless we can restore the portal with the four parts we already have."
"Three," said the leader, visibly enjoying the sight of his tribe devouring the Four Fists corpse. "Honored ascender agreed to bring four parts, and we agreed to give the fifth. You have only three pieces."
Arthur took a deep breath, meeting Old Broken Beak's gaze. Aether pressure spread through the air in a palpable chill, making his intentions plain. Caera and the old bird tensed, and three scarred Spear Beaks moved to defend their chief.
"I have behaved politely until now, but everything has its limit," Arthur said in an icy voice. "We are not weapons for you to point at your enemies. You may either help us willingly, or our time as allies is over."
Silence fell, and even the Spear Beaks feasting on the Four Fists chieftain's corpse stopped and stared at us.
"As you wish. At least stay for this feast. My brothers do not often rejoice in such victories. Eat the egg of Rising Wind and Thunder Cutter, let the tribe have this moment, and I will bring you the fragment, yes."
"We'll refuse the food," Arthur said firmly, piercing the old bird with his gaze.
Old Broken Beak clicked his beak in displeasure, but quickly masked his emotions with a sharp laugh.
"Heroic ascenders wish to fly as swiftly as the Spear Beaks? Very well!"
The leader let out a series of sharp cries to one of the Spear Beaks behind him, then turned back to us. "Sharp Wing will bring our portal piece."
"Caera's gaze is swimming," I said to Arthur, catching Caera under the arm to stop her from falling. Meeting her eyes, I gave a faint nod, after which she visibly relaxed and even smiled weakly.
With a jerky bow, the old bird started back with his three guards.
Arthur's gaze snapped to Caera, then turned icy.
"Is that enough? I told you they'd poison us, and you still wanted to play nice."
Arthur's jaw tightened with restrained anger.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the single eye of Old Broken Beak gleam with excitement as he eagerly watched what was unfolding.
Purple lightning flashed around Arthur as he used the God Step to teleport behind Old Broken Beak and clenched his fist around his neck. "It looks like our negotiations are over."
Two of the three scarred warriors surrounding their leader moved immediately, their sharp beaks aiming for Arthur's throat, while the largest of the three remained still.
A graveyard silence descended upon the cliff due to the sudden turn of events. No one wanted to so much as breathe, because Arthur held their leader's life in his hand.
Arthur leaned toward the trembling chief without taking his eyes off the guards. "Will you risk your life so your soldiers can maybe kill me before I break your neck... or will you simply call them off?"
The old bird froze under the threat, but said nothing.
"I thought you were smarter than that," Arthur muttered. There was a loud crack as Old Broken Beak's entire left leg snapped right down to the ankle. The chief let out a hoarse groan and doubled over in pain.
Panicked cries rang out from the peak, and at the same time the three soldiers brought their deadly beaks closer to Arthur.
"Shall we try our luck again?" Arthur asked in an indifferent voice.
Old Broken Beak gave a tortured caw, and the two guards recoiled from his gray wings.
"H-here! Old Broken Beak orders all to stay back, yes!" he shrieked, leaning on his good leg.
"Good." Maintaining a tight grip on his hostage's neck, Arthur made his way to where I stood with an unconscious Caera. "Now you will lead us to where you hid your tribe's portal piece."
The chief nodded fiercely with his lanky neck. "Yes, yes! Then ascenders let Old Broken Beak go?"
"I'll let you go after we have the portal piece," Arthur confirmed. "Where?"
"T-to my house," he stammered, his single violet eye flicking from us to his broken leg.
With two cracks of violet lightning, we appeared before the chief's crude straw hut. High above us, I could see the tribe erupt into frenzy as they descended from the cliff we had teleported away from, trying to follow their leader.
"Where next?"
"Below, in the hollow behind the village, yes!" Old Broken Beak cawed, his cracked beak babbling without pause.
Arthur activated God Step again, widening the distance between us and the crazed Spear Beaks.
"I don't see anything," Arthur said, his patience apparently beginning to fray.
"Hard to reach, yes! Must go around this bend," said the chief, pointing with a wing.
My gaze ran along the narrow canyon hidden among the steep rocks at the edge of the Spear Beaks' village. Activating God Step again, we covered more than fifty meters in a single move.
I saw Old Broken Beak covertly glancing back toward where the Spear Beaks were circling in the sky, waiting for a chance to pounce.
Sighing, Arthur twisted his free hand at the base of Old Broken Beak's right wing. A clean crack echoed along the canyon walls along with the old bird's rasping caw, and his wing bent at an impossible angle.
Bringing Old Broken Beak's face closer to his own, Arthur spoke calmly. "If the portal piece is not within arm's reach after your next directions, the next thing I break will be your neck."
"Y-yes..." he rasped before giving us a long set of instructions.
The old bird's directions led us deeper into the canyon to a hidden cave covered by a woven net laced with feathers and snow. Though I could have activated the GodRune of Theft and God Step, sharpening my senses to the maximum and found the portal piece easily enough. But I wasn't going to let this bird live the way he wanted, and Arthur now felt the same.
"Into the tunnel, straight ahead," Old Broken Beak said weakly, his broken left leg dragging through the snow.
As dark as the hollow was, I could barely make anything out ahead of me, but what I saw almost made my jaw drop. A heap like a greedy king's hoard, it was a collection of gold coins, gemstones, and artifacts.
Tearing my eyes from the riches, I activated Aroa's Requiem, rewinding time for Caera's body so that it returned to how it had been before she inhaled the poisoned smoke.
"Lucius?"
I lowered Caera to the ground and propped her against the wall of the cave. "How do you feel?"
"Fine. Like I slept for too long," Caera said, drawing a breath as her eyes fell on Old Broken Beak in Arthur's grip. "He... why is he..."
"I turned out to be right, again, and someone had to help us find the portal piece," I said with a faint smile. "Don't worry. He can't do anything."
"The Creators' piece is here, yes! But hard to see without light, hard to find," said the old bird, pointing toward the heap of artifacts with his good wing.
Snorting in amusement, I headed toward the back of the pile, where the aether presence felt especially strong. Moments later, a smooth slab of white stone was in my hand, and it immediately vanished into my inventory.
Caera sighed, leaning back against the wall. "Finally."
Old Broken Beak stared silently at the portal piece that had disappeared from my hand, then bobbed his head while looking at Arthur. "G-great ascenders found the piece. Old Broken Beak may go, yes?"
"Not quite yet." I turned to Caera and pointed at the massive heap of treasure. "We don't have much time, but we can't let all of this go to waste."
Caera glanced back at Old Broken Beak, whose eye twitched with fear, then gave me a smirk.
Now that she had a functioning spatial ring again, I expected her to try taking quite a lot of artifacts, but just as in the original, she returned carrying only a single item.
"That's all you took?" Arthur asked Caera, staring at the thin metal bracer in her hand.
"Mhm. When I touched it, I felt it trying to absorb my soulfire," she explained. "I don't know what it does, but among the countless artifacts I held, it was the first one that interacted with part of my power."
Arthur shrugged, still holding Old Broken Beak by the throat. "Are you sure you don't want to take more? Even if it's not useful, you could probably make a lot of gold."
Caera slid her left hand into the bracer, and I saw the metal band tighten to fit her forearm. She put on her new artifact and looked at Arthur and me, standing nearby, with lofty pride. "I already have more gold than I can spend."
I rolled my eyes. "Show-off."
At that moment Arthur quickly began unloading the contents of his dimensional rune, and I absorbed all the treasure into my inventory. Arthur's extradimensional rune simply wouldn't have been able to absorb such a huge quantity of treasure.
Seeing that Caera had taken only one item, Old Broken Beak let out a ringing sigh of relief, which cut off immediately when Arthur poured aether into his dimensional rune.
Within minutes, the heap of treasure, as large as the Four Fists chief, completely vanished.
Caera giggled. "Now that's showing off."
"S-so now Old Broken Beak may go?" the chief asked, lowering his beak with barely restrained fury.
Arthur glanced at me, got a nod, released Old Broken Beak's throat, and shoved him forward. "Of course."
The old bird limped on one leg, barely keeping from falling, using his good wing to support himself.
"Is it really wise to let him go so quickly?" Caera asked in an icy voice.
"We have a plan," I answered, dropping to one knee. "Come on, climb onto my back."
"I-it's fine. Besides, I can run already thanks to your rune," she stammered, stepping back softly.
Raising an eyebrow, I asked, "Would you prefer I carry you like a princess? Or have you secretly developed teleportation without telling us...?"
After a pause, Caera cleared her throat and slowly wrapped her arms around my neck.
"Thank you," she said, pressing against my back as I stood.
Taking an even breath, I focused entirely on my surroundings. I could sense Old Broken Beak limping toward the exit.
We had little time.
"Caera, the moment we teleport, I'll need your help," I said, sliding my arms beneath her knees for a better grip.
"Of course," she answered with a slight shiver.
After briefly explaining the plan Arthur and I had come up with during the descent to the treasure chamber, I shifted all my attention to the perception of aether. My consciousness began to catch countless branching routes stretching around us, like an invisible network woven through all space. Amid that seemingly chaotic flow, I needed to find only a single path.
Filtering through the aether-laced surroundings, I focused on the unique signatures each of the Spear Beaks possessed as more and more of them gathered at the mouth of the tunnel.
The minutes dragged by painfully slowly as my concentration continuously shifted between the aether paths and the Spear Beaks massing outside. It was a good thing I had rank 10 intellect, because without that I would have wilted long ago under the strain and volume of information.
Apparently mistaking my concentration on the birds for a moment of carelessness, Caera inhaled my hair a couple of times, and I felt her very carefully bring her head closer to my neck before taking a few quiet deep breaths.
That tickles. Don't do that.
Besides... I lightly squeezed her leg, pulling her out of her perverted fantasies.
Now!
It felt as though space itself tore apart and reassembled around us, while pale violet lightning flashed at the edges of my vision. Everything happened so quickly that familiar reality blurred, yielding to a new scene.
Before me was the canyon ledge directly above Old Broken Beak's secret cave. Above us was a flock of Spear Beaks, each of them in a frenzy, cawing and shrieking, feathers flying as they collided with one another in their rush to catch us.
"Caera!" I said the moment I spun on my heels.
Caera released her grip, her leg muscles tensing in my hands just as Arthur and I started running. Activating her soulfire, she sent a stream of black flame directly into the edge of the cliff, creating an avalanche of snow, ice, and stone down toward Old Broken Beak and most of his tribe waiting at the cave mouth to ambush us.
A deafening roar rolled through the canyon, nearly drowning out the panicked honking and cawing of the Spear Beaks. The birdfolk still high above, however, began chasing us, diving in streaks of black and gray, with their vile talons spread wide.
I dodged a couple of Spear Beaks while Caera fired arrow after arrow of black flame, but more and more of them began to surround us, and we were forced to stop.
"Gray, focus on the paths. I'll cover you, and make the jump at least three hundred meters, then without stopping do a couple more God Steps toward the dome," I said beneath the cacophony of the Spear Beaks circling overhead.
He nodded, and his movements slowed slightly.
Caera tried to jump off my back, but I didn't let her. "This will take a little over twenty seconds."
"Understood," she answered simply, tightening her legs around my waist while I pulled one hand away from beneath her knees.
A thick coating of aether wrapped around my body like a second skin just as another pair of Spear Beaks began diving toward us. The long birds circling overhead began spewing streams of black substance with a faint violet sheen.
Turning to the right, I struck one of the diving Spear Beaks in the neck just as it tried to sweep back into the air, narrowly avoiding a stream of filthy black sludge.
The vile slime ate through the snow and ice and part of the stone beneath, leaving a pit half a meter deep.
At that moment Arthur's figure was covered in violet lightning, and then he vanished.
Catching a Spear Beak by the throat, I used its sharp beak to skewer one of its tribesmen.
Glancing back toward the source of a sound, I saw Old Broken Beak being carried by two scarred Spear Beaks, with one large one flying close behind them. They were keeping their distance from the flock of Spear Beaks surrounding us.
"Of course he's alive," Caera mocked.
The maimed chief glared at us in tangible fury and at the place where Arthur had been, then began angrily shouting at his tribe and pointing toward us with his single good wing.
The Spear Beaks remained in the air, their heads flicking left and right as though uncertainly watching members of their own tribe. A few dove again, but without the caustic black tar that had supported them, they had no chance.
That only seemed to enrage Old Broken Beak further, because his hoarse cries grew louder and harsher, his old body shaking with rage as he kept shouting and signaling with his wing in our direction.
Old Broken Beak's ceaseless screeching was abruptly cut off at the exact moment a bloodied beak emerged from his feathered body.
Caera stared, eyes wide, as the scarred Spear Beak flying nearest to the chief and his two attendants pulled their leader's body from the dark red beak.
Old Broken Beak's cry turned into a wet gurgle as blood spilled from his cracked beak, his long neck sagged limply in the air, and his violet eye remained wide open in shock.
The only sound that could be heard in the curtain of silence around us was the soft thud of Old Broken Beak's corpse hitting the ground.
Without hesitation, and squeezing Caera's thigh, I activated God Step and immediately found a path roughly three hundred meters toward the dome. After I formed the second layer and learned to control the rune better while training under Three Steps, God Step stopped consuming most of my aether core, and its basic range increased to around three hundred meters.
That meant I could go farther too, but in the span of a heartbeat I could teleport three hundred meters, spend slightly less than a second finding the next path, then make another teleport, and then fifty more if needed. The only downside was the roughly 0.8-second pause needed to find the next route, but given that I could jump three hundred meters at a time, very few could appear at the same distance quickly enough to pose a threat.
× × × × ×
The journey back to the dome was far easier than our first trek through the stormy tundra. Though most of the route was over snow, I used God Step over relatively short distances so I could find Arthur along the way.
When we reached the dome, I simply activated God Step straight into it rather than digging out the tunnel again.
We wasted no time. I pulled out the four pieces, and Arthur helped me fit them into the portal frame. There was still a broken section about thirty centimeters long and ten wide missing, and I knew that with the current rank of Aroa's Requiem I could restore it even without that last part. I could have done it very easily with nearly all the portal pieces except one, and still had an alibi in that I had simply come to understand it a little better.
But I still wanted to see the adult Ghost Bear.
Arthur drew a deep breath, and through the mental link I felt his excitement.
"This is it," Caera murmured, taking a step back.
"Drum ro-"
"Regis, I swear..."
"All right, all right."
I watched as he placed a hand on the white stone. The rune activated, casting a golden glow across the platform. Violet motes, like a festival of fireflies, streamed from his hand across the arch, sealing the cracks where the fragments had been returned. The fissures vanished, healing like a wound, until all four pieces once again looked as if they had never been broken.
Stepping closer, I ran a finger over where the cracks had been. The arch was flawless... except for the final piece, which was still missing.
"Damn it!" Arthur slammed his fist into the smooth white frame of our only way out, which stubbornly refused to activate.
Caera, standing beside me and watching Arthur impatiently, spun away and slid to the edge of the platform, sitting with her legs dangling over the side.
I sat beside her. On the floor below us lay the remains of our previous camp. There was a thin layer of snow that had been dragged in from the tunnel into the dome.
"Breathe out, Gray. We learned a lot in this zone. Now we just need to spend a little more time until we meet the Ghost Bears," I said in a calm voice, meeting his gaze. Arthur's teeth ground together with impatience in the quiet stillness.
thrummm!
My aether senses flared in alarm when I caught a faint trace of aether, one I noticed only because I had kept my senses at the maximum the entire time. Without that, I wouldn't even have realized the Ghost Bear was already in the dome, right beside us.
"Gray, Caera," I said quietly, and jumped toward the base of the stairs at the exact moment something thudded into the pile of bones there.
I looked back at the heap of bones. On top of it-where it definitely had not been before-lay a dimly glowing piece of stone. At that same instant Arthur was already in front of the pile.
Arthur's hand trembled as he held the last fragment. "T-this..."
"And you say you're not lucky," Regis smirked.
Caera rushed toward us, her blood-red blade unleashed, swiftly turning her head as if searching for something. I activated my observational and analytical abilities to their utmost, and time seemed to slow. My thoughts rapidly branched out, quickly reaching forty parallel streams, while my perception sharpened dramatically-his was the power of a 10th-rank intellect. I fixed my gaze on a single point where aether pulsed faintly.
That was when the creature appeared.
I saw a massive snow-white bear like the one we had seen before, with a thick crest of bone jutting from its forehead and shoulders, and when it moved, there was a delicate pearlescent shimmer to it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Arthur raise the portal fragment and hold it before himself, but that took only a second, because I shifted all my attention to the adult Ghost Bear's aether art.
"Thank you," Arthur said, keeping his voice steady despite his racing heartbeat.
The Ghost Bear snorted, a deep rumble that vibrated through the soles of my feet. Its dark violet eyes met mine, apparently realizing that I had seen it, and then it left-or rather, turned invisible.
I stared at the floor of the dome, but somehow it avoided even disturbing the dusting of snow around the doorway. What struck me most was that the moment it realized I could see it, I could no longer read the aether belonging to it. It had become serious, and I lost it, even while focusing at the maximum.
I lifted the portal fragment to inspect it more closely. On the silky white piece of stone there was part of a tree depicted. A little bear cub was sniffing a flower at its base.
"Lucius. Was that... the same Ghost Bear we were chasing?" Caera asked, her eyes fixed on the place where she had seen the invisible bear.
"No. The one we first saw couldn't hide its aether. This one was much more experienced, and after it realized I had seen it coming, it vanished completely," I explained.
"You noticed it?" Arthur asked in disbelief, then flinched. "I didn't even feel it."
Caera stared at the portal fragment with a slight frown. "Then it's no wonder these Ghost Bears were watching us and wanted to avoid conflict."
"Whatever the case..." I met Arthur's eyes, then Caera's, and smiled faintly. "We did it."
Caera's scarlet eyes widened in surprise, but she smiled back. "We did."
Arthur's golden eyes seemed to blaze, and his lips curved into a broad smile I hadn't seen since the moment he formed his aether core. "We did."
"I'd put on some background music to match the mood, but maybe we should save this sentimental moment until after we try repairing the portal again?" Regis interrupted.
Clearing his throat, Arthur held out his hand and took the piece of the portal. He returned to the platform, walked up to the portal frame, and set the final fragment back into place. The rune on his back lit up once more, and motes of aether streamed into the cracks, sealing them shut.
Crackling, energy began pouring from the arch, flaring and blurring for several seconds before it resolved into a clear portal. On the other side I could see a small, clean, bright white room.
"We really did it," Caera whispered with a trembling smile as we looked at one another.
"Before we go any farther," I began, unclasping the cloak I had found in the centipede zone, "I think this is worth returning to you too."
Caera's eyes widened, and her hand tried to push mine away. "I don't think-"
"It's what remains of your brother, besides the dagger," I cut her off in a firm tone, placing the fur-lined cloak in her hands. "Take it."
"I... understood. Thank you," Caera replied quietly, then blinked quickly, and faster than I could quite process, she tried to return the snowsuit I had sewn for her. "Then I'll return this to you... though it's yours anyway..."
"That outfit's too small for me." I raised an eyebrow, looking at the snowsuit tailored to her height and shape, then shook my head and moved to gather the remaining things, leaving the snowsuit with Caera.
My height was around 207 centimeters, maybe a little less, maybe a little more. Caera's height was around 173. More than thirty centimeters of difference, and even aside from height our natural builds were different.
We quickly gathered everything, and Arthur stored it all in his dimensional rune, when he suddenly flinched and stared at the intricate rune covering the back of his forearm.
It seems the effect is still in place. I have no idea why, but Arthur never once tried to restore the artifact. I saw his hands reach for it, yet each time he stopped himself. Only yesterday, after with my help he had formed the second layer, had he borrowed my tracking relic and taken a look at his mother, who according to him was sitting by the pond.
Maybe it was the work of fate?
After collecting the last of our meager belongings, I went back to the portal and stood beside the quiet Caera.
With a sigh, Arthur turned toward the shimmering portal. "Let's get out of here."
Even though each of us had a medallion, Caera still grabbed my sleeve as the three of us stepped forward, just to make sure the will of the relictombs would not separate us.
Our short step through the portal turned out to be disappointingly ordinary. The bright white decor of the small room greeted us with warmth, unfamiliar after so many days in the cold. The place felt sterile, as if it had been cleaned very recently.
A round pool occupied most of the center of the room, and against the wall stood a low white bed. Behind the bed was a closed door that undoubtedly led deeper into the relictombs. However, the room's main feature was a second portal occupying most of the wall to my left.
Despite the distortion of the portal's surface, I could make out the second level of the relictombs on the other side. It was the very floor where Caera, the Granbehls, and I had begun our journey.
There seemed to be an unusually large number of figures hurrying about in the square beyond the portal, but my attention returned to Arthur because the dimensional rune on his forearm lit up against his skin.
The once-dead Relic practically leapt from the rune into his hand. Its cloudy white surface glowed noticeably and gave off thin threads of aether.
Fate.
I was almost certain of it. From what I had read, Fate could not directly impose its will on someone, because every possible future was already part of Fate's design. But Arthur was the main character of this world, so perhaps things were different for him.
A few seconds later Arthur froze like a statue.
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