Chapter 7 - The Realisation

MEANWHILE THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY ON ANOTHER CONTINENT.

(A/n: my readers:: 🤤)

"Gahh" a girl gasps, as she wakes up in the middle of the night, due to an itching burn she's feeling on her neck. "Again? It can't be a coincidence. The nightmares and this miniscule rune sure have a connection" I thought remembering what my brother Severn hypothesised about a tiny rune on my neck that would burn sometime after having a nightmare about a mysterious golden haired man and a shadow wolf. "This golden haired man is real, not some dream. I know this for sure now .I'll find this man at all costs and have him answer my every doubt. I'm sure of it. I'll find you one day"

The Majestic as fuck Regis POV::

It's already been a year and a half since Arthur shut himself inside that cave, and I still can't feel a miniscule of his presence. This is really concerning. "REGIS!" I was snapped out of thoughts by a shout and a blade coming straight at my face but I ignored it as I spun on my heel, my hand In the shape of a claw and grabbed the very lovely and tasty— ahmm I mean my opponent's neck with enough force to make her give up.

"No fair, even at this so-called integrated stage I can't even deceive you let alone land a hit" Aya pouted as I released her and sat beside her. It's been a year since she entered the integrated stage and I've been training her in developing her own illusion type mana arts. My mind once again drifted to Arthur. "Is he okay? That cockroach won't die for sure but the experiment can affect his own soul too. Forced reincarnation is as risky art as going back in time albeit less complex.

"ey, hey? Regis? Are you there?" I was once again snapped out of my thousand yard daze as Aya whispered in my ear making my whole body shiver. 

"You're quite distracted. Worried about Arthur?" She asked while moving her face to me. I gave her a peck and stood up "I know my pitiful master won't die, or anything." I lied "Well I have to go now, I have to train Reynolds today".

"Can't you stay?" She said in a teasing tone. She acted like this but she was actually quite shy. I drew her closer by her waist to which she squealed lightly "I can stay, but you won't be able to continue your training for the whole 2 days... just like last time" I smirked as she blushed remembering the last time. I hugged her one last time and flew away to the Leywin's manor. Arthur will be so happy after he sees what I did for his family, grinning inwards as I went inside.

I saw Reynolds and Bruno fighting each other heating and torching the whole training room. I greeted both of them and sat by a wall. I saw Arthur's mother sitting in the corner where Sylvie was teaching Ellie more about pure mana with the same sad expression she had for the last 1.5 year I've been here. Since I knew Arthur won't return due to their own safety I could never answer them whether he will return or not. This saddened her to such an extent that she almost lost interest in everything. Since she has a miniscule amount of Djinn's blood, me and Sylvie often guide her in her healing magic.

Sylvie entered the integrate phase a few months back, now able to beat a low level scythe. I've been keeping tabs on Elijah knight too, who is actually Nico. Arthur said he'll need him alive As he wants to redeem himself. That idiot, I sighed inwards. It's really lonely without that damned masochist.

I saw to my side where a large explosion occurred caused by Ellie. She was really creative and a top tier genius despite her small age with the bow and pure mana. She turned 6 a few days ago, and awakened at 5 years of age which was early even by elven standards. Of course it was due to the aether orbs that influenced them but well, who cares about the minor details. She was already a dark orange mage which even by Arthur's standards was an anomaly. 

I got up and walked towards Reynolds and Bruno "Come at me, both of you, and Reynolds use your lightning" I said with a smirk on my face. Reynolds was at light yellow stage but his fighting techniques helped him rival an initial silver stage mage. "Oh? You can tell? I thought you can't sense mana." he said with a raised brow "Call it intuition after years of experience" I said simply by conjuring an aetheric blade in my hand. "Now, show me how much you've progressed from last time" 

Arthur Leywin's POV

I sat on a tree branch as I saw my sister like figure cleave, slice and dice multiple beasts.

"About damned time!" I said as I saw the king of money like beasts making its way towards her. Her brown hair flutters due to her favourite wind mana surrounding her, her almond shaped brown eyes not leaving the enemy in sight. Her eyes are full of determination. 

The king Kong dashed towards her as she did the same using wind mana to boost her speed. As the king Kong tried to land a punch on her, she used fire mana to side step creating an explosion and raising some dust. The mana beast frantically wailed his punches in every direction as it can't spot her. 

I suddenly spotted a white light moving towards the beast, as my curiosity rose. It struck it straight in the back albeit a little side to its spinal cord. It came out and in a flash of a second the sword that seemed like a blur moved across the beast's torso. As the dust settled I saw the beast, confusion etched on its face and made a voice which would be the human equivalent of "HUH?" Confused at what was happening. The blur and its source appeared again, this time cleaving through its thick pectoral muscles, across the raised legs, up its thighs, tearing the abdomen, up the shoulders and finally to the left side of neck, tearing the so-called king of this zone in two pieces.

"You've improved quite a lot Cecil. I said with genuine happiness "So, ….. can we go out now ?" She asked with puppy eyes. Since she came here I've been training her in the relictombs by going there through the compass relic. "Yeah, it's about time we go. But, you have one last task to attempt" I said excitedly "and that is? Don't tell me it's a spar against you hahaha" she said jokingly. 

"Ahh. Saves me the trouble of wasting time telling you." I said, seeing the colour visibly fading away from her face. One would have mistaken her for a corpse. "Comeon you're the legacy, and besides with that high silver core you can manage me" I said, throwing a wink. "Urghhh! You're a madman." She complained as I simply lunged towards her indicating the beginning of her torture.

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Time skip :2 years later (Arthur is 10 years old now)

ALACRYA:

"Are you ready?" Asked a certain pearl haired woman. "Yeah" replied a girl who seemed to be 12-13 years old. "Take care scythe seris, I'll surely accomplish my mission" she said as she stepped through the portal 

Arthur Leywin's POV::

Finally the day is here. We'll get outside this cave for the first time in 2 years. Well we did used to go to relictombs but what I mean by out is outside, the place under the real and boundless sky. I deactivated the space distortion around the cave as I went outside with Cecelia at my side. I walked out and I saw two figures. The ones who never left my side, be it my best moments or my worst…. Along with her. I sighed not wanting to remember what happened all those years ago. She's alive now. I assured myself.

As the sunshine subsided I saw a girl now looking in her... teens,? How? "Sylvie?" I asked as she beamed and launched herself at me at a breakneck speed knocking the air out of me. I stood there with her face buried in my chest while I could feel her crying feeling the wetness through my shirt. I made them worry so much.. "You're finally back Papa. I thought I'll never see you again after I couldn't sense your presence" she said while sobbing, throwing soft punches at my chest. "Papa already eh? You're quite a heretic Arthur" Cecelia chimed as she caught up to us.

After I caught up with them I could see Regis hiding somethings which I didn't dig too much into. "By the way Regis, why does it look like you've got your ass handed to you by someone?" I asked, looking at his dishevelled condition. " I was helping Priscilla relieve her stress from council's work and Blaine's dea—" he suddenly stopped biting his tongue.

"You what? You motherfucking mutt! You slept with the queen.?  No, that's not important, why is Blaine dead?" He stood there head down with sweat dripping from his face. "Regis! I think you have a lot to explain even now" I said.

Then I activated a relic sending a particular recorded conversation "Aya grephin" I said as the scroll type relic transmitted the one way message. "Huh? What was that?" Regis said his already pale face looking like a totally dead person now "I believe you've a lot of explaining to do not only to me but .. well you get the general idea right? Simply put you're in some deep shit." I said as I sat down to hear the whole story.

As Blaine was dealt with I didn't need to do anything now. With Priscilla as regent the council was working smoothly. The dwarven replacement attended the public meetings with appearance changing artifacts. 

I decided to pay a far away visit to my family. As I arrived I saw dad training, while Ellie was eating some sandwiches. She was 7 years old now, and looking at her there made my heart flutter. She was so cute, and the best sister one could ask for. Dad went inside, so I took the opportunity to take a closer look at Ellie. She suddenly turned her head in my direction, eyes wide, her sandwich falling down from her hands. Tears welled up in her eyes. "YOU! You're brother right" she said as she started running towards me. I wanted to deny this, no , no I can't. I don't deserve this. Damn it, why? Why does she recognise me? But I couldn't bring myself to walk away.

She lunged towards me and hugged my waist like a koala. I bent downwards and gave her a slight pat before embracing her again. I saw my parents, my only parents in two lives, from whom I snatched their unborn baby away by reincarnating in it, rushing towards me. I let go of Ellie as I stood a few steps away and said while cleaning the tears of my face "Sorry, I got ahead of myself. I hope you forgive me, I won't show myself again" my mother stepped forward with a teary face. I couldn't take it. She's like this because of me. By my presence. If I hadn't shown myself she would've been smiling right now. Before any of them could approach me I god stepped away from there ignoring the searing pain and congestion in my chest. I went towards where Regis was. 

I saw Sylvie with a worried face, evident she read my emotions while Aya stood some distance away, inside a sound barrier , seemingly shouting at Regis , while the mighty sentinent asura forged weapon that killed hundreds of Asuras just sat there obediently, fear etched over his face.

I slumped down the same tree Sylvie was resting. After a bit of catching up which included Regis coercing the council in making Leywin a noble household and a list of alacryan spies.

"Well that explains the new house. It might be good for them as I won't be around all the time" I said while sighing. "So! What now" Cecelia said as she came from a deeper forest area."We'll be taking a rank examination tomorrow at the adventurer's guild and find your knight in shining armour" I said, earning a blush from her. After a good hour of scolding Regis I calmed Aya down, guaranteeing that I'll personally deal with Regis the next time he does something like that, to which he gulped audibly.

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The next day

I was sitting in the stands watching one after another participant getting ranked. I got bored so I stood as I went outside since there was still time. Sylvie wanted some popcorn so I went to grab them. Suddenly I bumped into a girl, with black hair and green eyes. "I'm sorry" was all she said looking up for a split second and then hurridly went towards the arena. She grabbed her neck on the way and rubbed it violently, making me wonder what happened. Her voice felt awfully familiar. No way it's her right? It can't be. She's thousands of miles away. My heart beated as fast as It could.  As I was about to approach her I stopped myself. No, fate has never been so lucky to me. Why would it be so generous as to give her to me? I thought, making my way in the opposite direction thinking of the day when I'll meet her. So many unsaid things, so many unanswered feelings, so many confessions to make, so much love to express. I'm really getting senile.

In the end both me and Cecelia got an S rank. Regis was outside with Sylvie. Regis was an S ranked adventurer too. I waved at him with the golden card in my hand when an all too familiar sound resounded in my ears making my blood boil. I turned around to see him with the same smug face despite how incompetent he was despite the resources invested into him. "I'll do you the special honours of joining my team for today's raid. You should be honoured that me, a wykes, is inviting you to join me". Just how shameless is this guy? I simply ignored him which resulted in him throwing a tantrum. "Can I deal with him? I Promise I won't kill him nor injure him" Regis said with pleading eyes.

"Fine, but within acceptable limits" i said as Regis released a bit of his pressure which made all the people except me and Sylvie fall on the ground. Cecelia was having trouble breathing but she was still standing. Regis went towards Lucas and bent down.  a SLAP resounded In the dead quite hall. He really loves doing that doesn't he. Lucas just stood there, his face contorted into that of fear and anger. Then Regis started slapping his head while laughing maniacally and chanting "Meto mo ne na, Meto mo ne na, Meto mo ne na, honto ni, Kimi wa"



(A/n demon slayer ref. When upper moon kept slapping tanjiro. You can see this video to get the reference.. gahh I don't know how the idea came to me. *Author is high on weed*)

I facepalmed myself, realising the source of his motivation to deal with Lucas, while Cecelia kept laughing out loud, so much I thought she'd die of oxygen deficiency. After a few good minutes of humiliating Lucas with no visible evidence of us harming him since Regis only slightly slapped him except the first one we left, leaving a wet and smelly Lucas still petrified in his place.

The next few days passed by a blur and the day to raid dire tombs arrived. Of course this time I managed to save all the members until the elderwood guardian. We stood there with 2 elderwood In Front of us. Everyone started to panic as they started randomly firing spells. ",STOOOOP" I roared, my childish voice amplified by sound magic. "Cecil, it's your kill" I said as she smirked at me while giving a gentle smile to Elijah before lunging towards the beast while me and Regis just sat where we were standing. Elijah rushed to me grabbing me by my collar "Are you a coward? Why did you send a girl alone to fight what we all together can't defeat?" He said, anger was flaring in his eyes.

"Chill dude. Just sit back and relax. It's gonna be over soon" I said as I watched Cecelia conjuring humongous sized ice spears. As the besats rushed towards her she stabbed one of the spears in its torso, while the other one laced with lightning shot towards its head. The fight was over in a few seconds. Everyone had panic stricken faces as Cecelia slowly descended using wind magic.

Elijah rushed towards her "Hey! Are you okay? You aren't hurt are you? That was quite cool but quite reckless too" Elijah said in a single breath getting awfully close to Cecilia but she simply shrugged "Of course I'm okay. Jeez talking that much In a single breath" she said earning a laugh from everyone. I looked over to Lucas who just sat there looking at us with surprise and fear on his face. Oh, he's alive. Good for me I have some plans for him(grins deviously)

As we got out of the dungeon, and everyone left except Elijah. He approached and asked Cecelia "Hey. If you don't mind, can you tell me how you got so strong?" Cecelia simply smirked and whispered in his ears "Why don't you come with me? We have lots to talk about anyways. Nico~" and delivered a jab at the back of his head making him lose consciousness.  "Really?" I asked with a raised brow "hehe, now come on you were gonna do it later anyways".

I sighed at her antics and we picked Elijah up and went to our hideout.

Caera Denoir POV:

It can't be…. Right? I saw that man in the reloctombs which means he's alacryan. What is he doing here. Maybe they just have similar appearances. Yes, that must be it , I thought, calming myself. But what is this foreign feeling? This feeling that continuously ravages my mind. It's not just curiosity and anticipation. It's something much stronger than that. Baaah, whatever. I should sleep. I have a difficult mission tomorrow.

3rd person pov in a dream

"Noo, caera no, stay with me, I'll heal you. I promise, just don't leave me, please don't. I can't lose you too" a golden haired man said, holding a girl with navy blue hair in his lap, light radiating from him trying desperately to heal the girl but to no avail. He sat there amidst the debris and mutilated bodies. "G-gre-Arthur" she said with a hoarse voice, a gaping hole in her chest and a black fire feasting on her very soul. "Shhh. Don't talk I'll get you patched up in no time" the man said his tears falling on the girl's cheeks.

Her weak hands going towards the man grabbing him by his collar "Dying by your side was all I could ever wish for. Of course seeing things through to the end was better but I can't ask for more. Remember me Arthur, remember me, for I always loved you and will always love you if I got a chance again" she said as she started to feel her vision fade away "I-i-i lov— hey hey no no stay with me, hey caera?" Were the last words she heard as she woke up in her bed, tears trailing from her eyes at the realisation. That boy today his name was Arthur Leywin, she said as she put her hands on her mouth and started crying, out loud realising these aren't just dreams, but a lot more.

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(A/n do tell me if it's fast paced again. I was gonna take my time, but apparently I got food poisoning after munching on a shawarma the size of my face, resulting in me being stuck in hospital bed. Well what I want to say here is that I had time so víola, a chapter for you beautiful people. Also  if it's too fast paced for you to understand comment so I can slow the eff down. All in all that's it for today SAYONARA