Experiences

[ Arthur Leywin POV ]

"Art?"

She called out, I couldn't help but stare. Was this really Tess? I mean it had to be, she was one of the only people who called him Art, but even then she should've been stuck back there.

Her appearance changed, her emerald eyes and gunmetal hair seemed to of vanished. Well, actually, a lot about her had been altered. What once flowed like molten metal had been replaced by the same darkness I woke up to, it framed her face quite nicely.

I couldn't help but stare into her amethyst eyes, did I like her change in appearance? I mean, it did contrast my own so-

"Is Sylvie okay?"

I heard her ask, my mind dropped back to her final words and actions of sacrifice for myself, alongside Tess as well apparently. My hand gripping on her egg before presenting it to the newly crowned black-haired woman.

"Oh, my-is that, her egg?"

I nodded, silently feeling tears begin to weld before I felt her slender arms wrap around my body, and my head was placed against her shoulder.

Tess probably whispered some things to make me feel better, but I didn't listen, I just laid there for a meanwhile as I processed whatever I could.

"Well that's nice and all, you wake up to a caring woman, while I wake up to a puppy who can't tell the difference between his hair to his own shirt!"

Regis quipped out, floating swiftly around myself and Tess. I couldn't help but stifle a soft laugh as Tess went to touch Regis.

"Hey lady, keep your hands off the merchandise! I know I'm stunning, but please, control yourself,"

I figured I was in for a ride, considering Regis' rather vocal and, forthright personality.

"So, I assume you're going to be the person to accompany Art with me?" Tess asked simply, just watching Regis' form float about without much care. His eyes widened at her question.

"Wait, so not only do I have to follow this damsel in distress," Regis paused to contain a laugh from humorously teasing me "But you're coming with us too? God, I can't wait to experience the joys of such daring travels,"

His wisp formed letting out an annoyed laugh with prolonged silence between every laugh.

"Alright well, that's one of the good news. Pretty sure we're in one of these, ancient tombs that are littered around like dropped chips in a carpet. Mainly because of the drinkable water, I'm confident this is a restroom for travelers,"

Tess and I looked around, understanding our position before I nodded. "Well, aren't you pretty smart," I teased my floating fireball.

Regis turned to me swiftly, a smug smile on his face before he laughed. "Of course! I have to be, there's a beautiful woman with us, and I have to make sure she's safe!"

Tess softly punched Regis, her fist passing right through him as she spoke, "I'll have you know I can keep myself plenty safe,"

Regis laughed, I could almost see a tear in his eye. "Yeah, with that shattered mana core, sure you can!"

His laughter just bellowed out as he, basically, skipped over to one of the doors.

Tess looked at me, shock and fear in her eyes. "What does he mean, shattered mana core?"

"I guess, with these new bodies, our cores just couldn't handle the backlash," I whispered, standing up before stumbling slightly.

I tried doing anything, kicking, punching. All of it was slow and painful to do, even the simplest of movements to crack my knuckles hurt, and I just slumped against the wall.

I heard the soft ripples of water as I assumed Tess drank a bit, making sure her body was at least usable despite her broken core.

Joining her by the fountain again, I took a long look in my reflection, seeing Sylvie for a brief moment until all that was replaced was my own face staring back at me.

"So.. what are we going to do now?" Tess asked, mainly looking towards Regis considering his apparent knowledge of this place.

His black flame body only cocked a brow as he titled the edge of his lip upward. "You're asking a sentient weapon for help, woman. Do you know how insane you sound? By the way, we're matching with horns!"

Regis spun about as if laughing at an apparent victory over me. Now that he mentioned it, Tess did have some horns, mimicking Sylvie's in crowning around her forehead.

Crimson flushed on her face as she grabbed them, groaning loudly. "That's great, not only is my appearance different but I also have horns! I'm looking more and more like those people you fought,"

"Well, at least the two of you have better bodies than before. One of you had a dragon body and the other has a basilisk, I mean, it's like a match made in heaven!" My charming little weapon commented, earning a brighter colored Tess.

"That's enough teasing for now, right now we have to figure out exactly how to get out of-"

My mouth was clamped shut by Tess' hand, eyes questioning as to why before she mouthed to stay quiet.

'There's people coming, just act unconscious, oh and hide her horns too. It'll save some trouble,' I heard Regis say, I nodded softly and leaned my head forward, my bangs covering my eyes before moving Tess' head under my elbow, covering her additions with my body.

A dim light was apparent for only a brief moment, I listened in for the sounds of footsteps as three figures made their way into my view.

The first male, tallest amongst the trio, was clad in a hybrid of plated and leather armor that barely did much to conceal his bulky appearance. Wielding in both hands were two spiked maces, rogue liquid dripping from them to match the untamed vermillion hair.

The second man, slimmer and shorter, was built more like the average athlete with crisp brown hair; broad shoulders enhanced by toned arms, all compacted beneath a layer of silver.

Instead of either male noticing us, it was the woman that did. Her brilliant eyes shone directly on me and Tess as if trying to study what we were doing passed out in this room.

Midnight blue hair graced her high-kept figure, armor appearing more like a uniform than anything else.

Because of her attention on myself and the resting woman beside me, the other two soon caught on, with the tallest approaching only to station himself directly between myself and the red-eyed woman.

The slimmer one drew out a longsword, humming similarly to Dawn's Ballad as he walked towards Tess, studying to see if the two of us were any proper threat.

My eyes properly shut, I kept my breathing at a steady pace to not alert either of the trio.

Regis, they're going to kill us!

'Relax, princess! Just relax, it'll be okay. Don't do any sudden movements,' He scolded as if on edge to keep us safe.

I tried my best to listen to Regis, peeping an eye open to look at the feet of the man between me and the midnight haired woman.

"Leave them, they're of no use to kill," She stated, beginning to walk away.

Oh, thank fuck...

"Lady Caera, they may pose a threat on the lower layers," He reasoned, eyeing me and Tess. "Several people feign weakness only to stab us in the back,"

I understood his reasoning, to some degree. It was evident he cared for the woman, or at least, that's what it seemed.

"Take pity on them, Taegan. In case neither of you noticed, you didn't grasp their presence until recently, that's because their mana cores aren't functioning properly, so we can only assume they're damaged. It would be better to leave them," She countered flawlessly, continuing to stride forward.

Taegan grunted and followed, removing himself from the position.

Mentally, I released a sigh of relief. They were walking with their backs towards me, so I was able to properly get a glimpse of whatever they had. Mesh or chainmail revealed their spines, showing runes I'm all too familiar with belong to Alacryan mages.

Anger built up, and I felt myself wanting to stand to fight them, but that was quickly dropped once the crimson male immediately shifted his gaze towards us.

"What's the hold-up?" The brunette called, waiting alongside their female companion for their man form of defense.

Taegan simply stared, studying us for brief moments before returning to his party and shutting the door behind him.

Tess and I waited for what seemed to be hours to finally move.

"Haha! Oh, that got my tiny heart pumping! Thank God for that woman's heart, it's just as big as her ch-"

Tess cut him off with a death glare, before turning to me as if asking where this side of him came from.

I could only meekly smile before answering.

"He's like, the result you'd get if you mix me, Sylvie, Sylvie's mom and a retainer,"

She sighed and pinched her nose. "So that explains the overly.. energetic personality of his,"

I cleared my throat to change the conversation. "Yes well, that still doesn't explain why Alacryans are here,"

"Did you really not pay attention to Sylvia's message? It's obvious, Sherlock. Agrona has been sending the people he can into these ruins that Asuras, like your dear grandmother, can't enter,"

How Regis knew of Sherlock was beyond me, but I figured it was something like my bond with Sylvie, and that's what allowed him access to my memories.

Tess stopped tugging at her horns, dread clear as day in her eyes. "Does that mean we're stuck below Alacrya?"

"Hell if I know, Milady, all I can say for sure is that if those mages could use aether like Princess could, then we could be in the middle of nowhere for all we know,"

Closing my eyes, I brought up the locations of the four ancient ruins that Sylvia said she had imparted to me. What I realized was that it wasn't some sort of internal map laid out for me to visualize.

It was more like an artificial memory that had been embedded into my brain. It confirmed for me what Regis said earlier-we were inside one of the four ancient ruins. What it didn't tell me was where this ruin was located in the world.

I rubbed my eyes. In my previous life, I was King Grey. I isolated myself and kept emotions inside, just letting them feast away at my mind. So, I slipped into old habits and warded off any feelings of panic or insecurity, keeping the anger deep inside to use a driving force.

The loose numbness helped, as I turned to Tess I could see her calming herself down before remembering what Regis said about horns.

"So what are we going to do about her horns? It's not like we can use magic to conceal them," I mentioned, something which caught with Tess.

[ Tessia Eralith POV ]

I nodded and tapped my horns again, they were definitely real so I couldn't just say they were fake or pluck them off. I felt that something worse than my mana core shattering would await me if I tore them off, so I looked around and sighed.

I bent down to a few series of plants and apologized, plucking them up before braiding them into a makeshift circle. I pulled my hair up and into it, before styling it in the mirror until my hair covered the horns.

"This should do, right-?" I asked insecurely to Art.

He responded by nodding and rubbing my shoulder gently before helping me up.

"We should get moving, if those three are Alacryans, then they probably know this place better than we do, so we might as well follow them best we can,"

He spoke with such determination that I hadn't heard in months. It was refreshing to say the least, so I stood up and dusted myself off, and followed him.

Before we left, we took the time to add some proper additions to our clothing. Arthur created a vest from the leather his pants still held, before using a portion of his shirt to make a mask around his face. I followed suit, using part of the shirt I woke up in to make a rough styled mask down to my shoulders.

Regis looked at us in confusion before voicing such thoughts. "What, are you two a dance act with those masks?"

"All three of them seemed to have masks on, as much as I'd rather not trust the mages of this continent, they seemed to know what they were doing," Art said, finally stepping out of the room.

Regis looked towards me and whispered. "Was he always this smart?"

I couldn't help but smile and nod. "Well, he did awaken when he was three, it's only natural he'd be smart, now come on. Let's not keep Pups waiting,"

I joked, picking up on Regis' teasing habit on Art.

Beyond us was no real shocking sight, just what seemed to be another version of this room.

Arthur looked back to Regis and motioned him forward, to which Regis fought back against.

"You're incorporeal, you'll be fine you big baby," I heard him say, it was good to have these enjoyable times with Arthur again.

As Regis hovered forward, he suddenly jerked to a stop as steam slightly escaped from his horns. "What the fuck! Why did that hurt?"

Arthur stepped towards the frame and pushed a hand through which caused Regis to curse again.

A smug smirk grew on his face as he did it once more.

"Will you stop that?! I am a weapon made by the Asuras, not some plaything for a sadist!"

"Just checking," Arthur laughed.

"Well, if it hurts Regis when you put your arm through, and since he couldn't go through, maybe it's a portal like the one you made before?" I suggested, I wasn't really sure what their relationship was, but it was probably something like a bond.

Regis' eyes widened as he looked at me. "You're a genius, it totally slipped my mind that I felt this pain before when I was seeing how far I could get from buttercup,"

"And you were testing that for what?" Our resident buttercup said I liked that name. It seemed to fit him, so I'll probably use it in addition to Art.

"I'm a sentient being, I have free will. Just wanted to see my limit, plus it's not like I was born to serve just you, what if I want to serve this black-haired goddess of the night?"

Regis said, licking his nonexistent lips.

"Well, at least he knows how to flatter a lady, I suppose that's from Sylvie isn't it?" I said with a raised brow to Arthur, which he just nodded slightly.

"Well, seeing as Regis and I can't go before or after the other, we'll have to all go through together, so on the count of three, alright?"

Regis and I both readied ourselves right in front of the portal. "One. Two. Three!" We all soon rushed through once Arthur's lips released the word.

The once stone floor was replaced by a smooth marble, it wasn't like the last room and was just a straight hallway with statues of men and women on both sides holding various weapons. From swords, spears, axes, wands, to even something I'd never seen before, so I asked out loud.

"Hey Art, what do you think these are?" It was probably stupid asking but, I was curious. They didn't look like average items here, but they were probably common in Alacrya.

"That is, a gun if I believe so," Regis answered, and I swore I saw miniature glasses on him as he did. I kept walking forward as Art stared at the guns.. what a funny word.

He started walking beside me as Regis pondered. "There are giant statues lining the walls and just a door on the other side, yeah this doesn't seem like it'll be trapped,"

My wrist was grabbed by the frail hand of Art as he suggested we look around for a sort of secret exit, to which I nodded and went around.

Considering the distance between us and the door, I may have just started running. My body ached but I didn't listen, everything was going well until I tripped and fell flat on my face.

I felt embarrassed for tripping in front of Arthur, so after slowly lifting myself and rubbed my nose. "You better not laugh," I whispered.

Regis had his cheeks puffed, trying to hold it back while Arthur just helped me regain my balance. "Say, Regis,"

"What's up, Goldilocks?"

Another nickname for Art, where was he coming up with these?

"Well, I was just wondering what would happen to you if I di-ended up in a bad state?" I stared at Arthur as he struggled to dance around the phrase 'I died', I couldn't help but click my tongue at that attempt, but at least it showed he wasn't trying to die anymore.

"Huh. I never really thought about it.. I'd probably go back to that rock, or I could just become our umbral beauty's companion instead!" He exclaimed, almost as if that's what he wanted.

"Good to know I can count on you for something, you useless weapon," I heard the resident teasing pin sigh.

My stomach rumbled as I rubbed my head in embarrassment. "Hehe.. maybe we should take a rest? Afterall the door is only about, two hundred feet away? It'll be good to regain some stamina," I suggested, it was approved and all three of us rested beside a statue holding what seemed to be a bigger version of that smaller gun I saw a few statues back.

Soon the lights dimmed to an almost unbearable level, but somehow I could still see just fine. The handle from the door disappeared as runes glowed. "Art! The door, we won't be able to open it!" I called out as I looked around swiftly.

We ran back to the door we came from only to stop in our tracks, the statues cracked apart to reveal creatures that had their muscles and tissues revealed. The weapons from the statues were made of their own body parts, and I couldn't help but be forced to slap myself to focus.

The first one to gain sentience was one wielding a bow and arrow, letting out a screech that I could barely withstand even by covering my ears. It jumped to the podium it almost came from and drew back its bowstring.

Art and I split up temporarily, he took one wall and I clung to the other. The arrow seemed to be aimed at me, so with my slow movements, I managed to just barely move out of the way, a fissure erupting from the impact.

The creature broke off a piece of its spine and loaded the 'arrow', more of these chimeras beginning to join the fight as I saw Art be blasted away by a direct hit to his side. "Art!" I yelled out, rushing to pull him out of the incoming swing.

He broke off the part of the arrow which jutted from his body, one of the arrows aimed for him instead of hitting me directly in the thigh. I grunted out in pain as I mimicked what Arthur did.

My eyes throbbed as the color drained from my sight, and all that remained were hues of purple that surrounded the more fleshy bits of the creatures, including the arrow in both our hands.

[ Third Person POV ]

Arthur and Tessia exchanged quick glances, understanding they were both seeing the same thing, and swiftly began consuming the aura they saw respectively.

While Arthur himself knew what it was, Tessia had no idea that what she was eating was aether itself, but it was better than starving in a very one-sided fight.

"What the fuck are you guys doing?!" Regis cried out, distracting a group of ax-wielding chimeras by weaving through their attacks.

Their bodies glowed with newfound energy, their wounds healed respectively. They, namely Tess, didn't fully understand what happened but they used the energy to their advantage and rush towards the door at the end of the hall.

Tess and Arthur split up for the meanwhile, with Arthur focusing on a sword-wielding chimera while Tess kited the ax-wielders into attacking themselves.

It was rather easy for her to avoid their attacks given her energy and nimble body, it felt liberating to finally fight alongside Arthur.

Arthur was busy giving it his all in the one-on-one battle with his foe, before biting into its flesh to regain more energy.

His strength increased for every bite he took until he landed a clean hit onto its head, enough force to seemingly send it into Tess' direction.

The impact of the skull into the bodies of the others was enough to shatter portions of their body off for Tess to consume.

Everything seemed well until a loud rumbling shifted Tess' attention off her enemies and caused a clean hit on her hip by an archer to land, but also the graze of an axe by her wrist.

A chimera wielding a shotgun approached the two, an arrow piercing directly through Arthur's leg as he and Tess tried to make use of the door, to no avail.

Another flurry of spinal arrows shot at them, with two hitting properly; one in Arthur's shoulder while the other went to Tess' calf, properly putting her leg out of commission for the meanwhile.

Arthur desperately tried everything he could, until turning his gaze to Regis to notice the same aura surrounding him. "Regis! To me, now!"

"Just don't eat me, you damn weirdo!" Regis cried out as he rushed to Arthur.

Tracing the runes yet again to be welcomed with a hymn of choruses, the door opening just enough to let Tessia slip in first and for Arthur to close the door behind them, not without a pellet of the blast piercing his hand.

The door itself rattled from the force behind the blast.

Meanwhile, the two were safe and removed the arrows from their body to consume the ethereal substance.

[ Arthur Leywin POV ]

I felt my wounds close up as I let out a heavy sigh of relief.

My body ached, but I mainly cared about how Tess was doing.

"Are your wounds healed?" I asked my voice heavy with exhaustion.

She could only nod as she could barely lift herself up. I picked myself up and threw her arm over my neck, dragging the two of us to the fountain we drank at before.

Placing her down gently, I couldn't help but drink several times which Tess also matched.

My body was heavy, and my eyes just closed, allowing me to be brought into darkness.

───────────

That's a wrap. To clear up some confusion, I do plan on giving Tessia an Aether Core all things considered. Her future abilities will be somewhat similar to Arthur's, at least in terms of Mirage Walk/Godstep, but other things such as runes or abilities will be unique solely to her.

Oh, and in case any of you missed the conversation I previously had with Shades. No, Tessia and Arthur are not related because of Sylvie, how I'm going off is because of Tess' soul exiting her body, her soul created a pseudo body using the energy of the Alacryans around, which is why she has horns and is Vritra blooded.

Word count: 4006 words