The Light at the end of the tunnel

This story was inspired by 'TBATE- A force to be reckoned with' by yours truly.

Disclaimer : I don't fucking own tbate, Turtleme93 does...and tapas I guess.

To the people who have read A force to be reckoned with, you'll recognize the story to be similar yet different from it. I ask that you do not spoil certain parts for the new readers.

I always believed that there was no afterlife, that after death we would simply stop existing. The whole phenomenon of "The light at the end of the tunnel" was absurd to me. I considered the people exclaiming "I saw the light!" after waking up in cold sweat, utter fools.

Yet here I stood, corrected of my notions, slowly gravitating towards that very same light. The last thing I remembered was resting in my room in the barracks when I felt a burning pain at my chest and my vision slowly descending

Not a surprise that someone would want me dead, after all working as his right hand man, one makes many enemies. I was more surprised they succeeded.

I failed in protecting him.

I sighed but I no longer had a body, 'If souls exist and there's an afterlife, I can only hope my punishment isn't too severe.'

It seems that fate, however, had different plans. When I reached the end I was not greeted with hellfire and cries of the damned, rather I 'awoke' to a mess of blurred whites and greens and muffled noises. I tried to speak, to question what sort of hell this was, but only a cry similar to a newborn babes came out.

"Congratulations your majesties, it's a boy."

Excuse me, what?!

And did he just say 'your majesties'?

While I was thankful that I understood the language, what I heard was troubling.

After regaining my vision, I scanned my surroundings, expecting to be in the white room of hospitals. 'Or a mental asylum cause I have clearly gone senile.'

Instead I was met with a room fit to be in a palace. The white marble brought out the gold accentuated windows and velvety red carpet even further.

My doctor looked like the generic portrayal of elves from the few fantasy books I had read, long platinum blond hair, sharp nose, cobalt blue eyes and tall, very tall.

Looking around, I spotted what must have been my father. Unlike the doctor my father had silver hair with shaved sides, parting down the middle and turquoise green eyes. He didn't really give off a kingly air, maybe it was just because of the circumstances.

My apparent mother on the other hand, had brighter silver hair running down to her lower back and the same turquoise eyes. She had bags under them, obviously exhausted from childbirth. With how similar they looked, I idly wondered if they were related, after all inbreeding wasn't uncommon in noble houses.

"We shall name him...Fayden."

"Fayden Eralith, heir to the throne of Elenoir."

'Yeah, no you'd better think of a contingency plan. I do not wish to be a king, and I never will.'

The following couple of weeks made me think if I was actually in hell. I had little to no motor control over my body, nor over my excretion. On the bright side, I was finally given some respite from my duty, being able to relax was...nice.

I could figure out that this world was magical in nature, there was no ki here but something else they called mana. I would have scoffed if I could. 'Generic fantasy world elements, was there not a genre for this kind of situation? Ise something?'

As the days turned into weeks, the weeks to months and the months to years, I found out being royalty was not all fun and games. At the ripe age of three my lazy regime had come to an abrupt end. Every day I would spend at least four hours honing my body, and then two more in learning etiquette.

As if a few hours of these 'classes' would change decades of being who I was. The good thing that came out of this was that I was finally granted access to the royal library. I had been itching to go in there for a long time, but there were guards at the door all the time. Now I could come and go as I pleased.

I learned what this world was like politically and geographically. Dicathen, the rhombus continent we were in, was separated into four quadrants, Sapin was the kingdom of humans to the east, Darv was the underground nation of the dwarves in the south, and Elenoir was the realm of the elves. The fourth quadrant in the west consisted mainly of mostly unexplored forests, the Beast Glades they called it. Caution was strictly advised when entering there.

I also learned of the hostile relationship between the humans and the elves, apparently there had been a war not too long ago, in my grandfather's time. Sapin and Darv had a symbiotic relationship of sharing resources.

I turned to the next book, the one I was most interested about. "Beginner's Guide for the Privileged Mage"

"While the power to control mana is largely genetic, there are many cases where children of Magi come out unable to sense the mana around them. A recent census showed that roughly one in every one hundred children are able to sense mana, but the extent of which could only be tested when their mana core first completely developed—anywhere from their early adolescence to late teen years. It will be apparent when a mage first awakens by the initial repellence of the surrounding mana when their mana core manifests. This results in a translucent barrier forming around the awakened that lasts a couple of minutes."

Flipping through the pages, I found something that caught my attention.

"...Mana can be used in a couple of ways. The two most common methods of utilizing mana are: enhancement of the body with mana (augmenter), and emission of mana to the outside world (conjurer)..."

"...augmenters are most commonly seen amongst warriors who utilize mana, channeling it through their body to strengthen themselves and their attacks."

"...The practice of conjuring is seen in Mages, who, after utilizing their mana, can cast spells to give off a certain effect on the surrounding area or directly at a target."

Weaknesses and Limitations

"While augmenters can possess incredible strength, defense and agility, their weakness lies in their limited range..."

"Conjurers possess unfathomable powers, being able to bend their surroundings to their will. However, such powers come with limits. Unlike augmenters, who utilize most of the mana in their own mana cores, conjurers need to borrow mana from the outside world, in addition to their own mana core, to exert mana into their surroundings in the form of a spell."

"While both types of Mages, or Mana Manipulators, for the more scientifically accurate term, depend on and are categorized by their mana core, augmenters and conjurers also have different ways of measuring their aptitude."

Flip.

"An augmenter's prowess or talent is measured by the strength of the mana channels in their body, which measures the speed and efficiency in relocating their mana from their mana core into various parts of their bodies..."

"...A conjurer's power and talent, comparatively, is measured by the power of their mana veins, which indicates the speed and effectiveness of absorbing mana from the outside world to cast a spell."

Flip.

"...Mages (Mana Manipulators) are typically categorized into one of these two divisions since attempting to become proficient in both from an early stage is incredibly time consuming and inefficient. Most are born with a skewed difference in their mana channels and mana veins..."

"...augmenters do not need very strong mana veins because they mostly utilize the mana from their cores, while conjurers do not need very powerful mana channels because they do not release their mana into their own bodies."

"As proficiency level rises, the distinction between augmenters and conjurers lessens naturally, but that is only so at an advanced level..."

Hmm, so it doesn't really matter if you're an augmenter or a conjurer, as long as you get strong enough they're the same.

"What are you reading, brat?" My grandfathers voice forced me out of my thoughts as I involuntarily jumped in surprise.

Virion Eralith was a man well into his hundreds, in fact he was getting close to the two hundred mark, he had a sharp face, ashen white hair and amber eyes, in my years I had seen him glare at people a few times, and if glares could kill he would've been a mass murderer.

"Look, Magik." I said in my best baby voice, so that I'm not overly suspicious.

Virion stared at me for a few seconds, unmoving.

'Crap, did I mess up?'

My worries were unwarranted however, as he began laughing his heart out, "Hahahahahahaha, you like magic huh, kid. Well why don't I show you some."

I nodded enthusiastically, partly to keep up the act and partly because I was genuinely excited, "Pwease."

Blades of wind began swirling around me as a mini tornado was made inside the library. Without much effort, it lifted me off the ground and high into the air, allowing me to see the dusty top of the bookshelves. Someone had been slacking off at their job.

"Whoa!" I said in genuine excitement now, never in my wildest dreams would I have expected something like this to happen. It was as if I was flying.

Chuckling, he put me back down, "How was that for magic, cool huh?"

I nodded, "Kuul."

Virion laughed once again, leaving me to my studies.

The best thing that came out of this was the freedom. I was now allowed to go outside the confines of the palace, although not without guards watching my every move.

I sighed, they could at least have hidden their presence better. Even a toddler could notice them at this state. Oh yeah, I am the toddler.

At least they didn't interfere whenever someone tried to talk to me, and I was glad for it. But I was also sick of being observed at every turn. I felt like an animal in the zoo.

I sighed again, I was no longer in the mood to explore. So I headed back, but not before noticing the kid about five years older than me staring at me. I waved at her politely once before turning away. I could feel her, and the guards', gaze boring into my back.

.

.

.

That night I stayed awake until the lights were out, and the streets silent. Getting out of my bed I grabbed the singular knife I had been given on my third birthday. Virion had insisted I begin training with real, albeit dulled, weapons. That senile old man.

Walking to the window, I made sure no one was around to see me, and promptly proceeded to throw myself out of the palace. It was difficult safely getting down from the second floor, but it wasn't impossible. So after spending an hour or so getting down to the floor, I booked it.

Once I assumed I was sufficiently away from the palace, I slowed down and truly took in the sights of the nation. "Pristine." I whispered, my gaze washing over the city in the trees. The buildings looked like they had been carved out of a single jadestone, the ground was mostly soft moss, with the main roads being the only paved portions. The dense canopy caused by the interweaving of massive vines would have plunged the city into eternal darkness had there not been hundreds and thousands of floating orbs of light, although dimmed to the point where it could be considered night now.

I felt a tug at my gut, as if something was calling for me, and I ignored it. I was here to see the city, and that was exactly what I would do. But it got harder and harder to resist the urge, and I walked closer to the teleportation gate.

I was in a trance-like state when I placed my palm over the green teleport gate, and was immediately sucked in. But something felt wrong. The green hue of the gate was lost as soon as I entered it, the coldness of black and blue replacing the warmth of the green.

I have a very bad feeling about this.

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A/N :

Hello there, bet this brings back memories huh? Who am I kidding those readers have left lmao.

Anyways, this is kinda sorta a sequel to my original tbate fic, hence the description. MY updates might range from 2-3 times a week to once a month, as usual. (Hey, I still need to finish transcendence and write ToA.)