The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 251

Chapter 251

Chapter 251: The Next Message

I bristled in anger at the sight of the black ball of flames.

“Why...” I seethed.

“Why what?” it looked back in confusion. It’s expression was so lifelike, so...sentient, that it infuriated me even more.

“Why?!” I roared, taking a slow and painful swing at Regis.

My hand slipped through its snarky face, the momentum causing me to lose balance in this debilitating body. I toppled forward, slamming my face hard on the cold smooth floor of wherever the hell I was.

“Don’t do that!” the will-o-wisp snapped before muttering, “...I feel violated.”

Rage continued to bubble up and rise as I stared at my left hand, the exact spot on my palm that Regis had come from. “Why. Why the hell are you here now? After years of draining my mana and doing what you want, why do you appear now?”

I whipped my head up, glaring at the black flame. My vision blurred as tears welled up in my eyes. “If you had come out earlier, I could’ve won. I could’ve saved everyone!”

A trace of what looked almost like...guilt manifested on Regis’ face before the horned will-o-wisp shook its head and turned away. “Well aren’t you a ray of sunshine. Even asuras would die trying to fight over a sentient weapon yet here you are, moping about—”

“I needed you,” I whispered, tears dripping on the ground beneath my face as I clawed the smooth floor.

Regis remained silent as I let all of the emotions out of my system. I was angry at Regis, but I was doing the same thing—using him as an excuse for my own failures.

After some time had passed, my tears ran dry and my parched throat started letting out raspy stutters trying to take in more air.

Regis’ voice sounded from a small distance. “There’s a pool of clean water here. Drink before you cry yourself into a mummy.”

I hesitated, not knowing whether I even deserved water when the small iridescent egg glistened in the corner of my eyes.

“Yes, that’s it. You can do it! Do it for that rock!” Regis cheered, hovering around me like a fly I couldn’t reach.

Pushing aside all of the emotions that weighed down on my body, I dragged myself in the direction Regis led me.

My milky pale arms looked foreign to me, even as I moved. I felt like I was still in a full suit of armor despite being almost bare.

Time crawled alongside me as I slowly pulled myself across the smooth floor, my biggest source of motivation getting my strength back to shut Regis up.

“Come on, pretty boy, almost there,” he continued.

“Shut...up...” I mustered, my voice barely coming out as a wheeze.

“If you have the strength to drawl, you have the strength to crawl!” he intoned.

I’ll kill him, I decided.

I focused my attention on the marble fountain beckoning for me, spouting water so clearly and silently from the top that it looked like glass.

After struggling once more, trying to pull myself up over the rounded base that held the water, I immediately buried my head inside.

It felt like I had slammed my face into a wall of ice, but I didn’t care. I opened my mouth and gulped it all in, the water crisp and cool as it rushed down my throat.

My body continued to swallow mouthfuls of water until I couldn’t hold my breath any longer.

“Gah!” I pulled my head out, gasping for breath, when a curtain of beige covered my vision.

I tried moving it aside, assuming that maybe the back of my shirt had fallen over my head, when Regis chortled behind me.

“You’re acting like a pup seeing its own tail for the first time.”

“What are you talking about?” I grunted, still trying to flip my shirt off of my head.

“That’s your hair, oh-wise-one.”

“Huh? That’s impossi...” I looked down, seeing my reflection for the first time since waking up. My eyes widened.

The person staring back at me looked a lot like myself yet a bit older, with sharper features and skin the same milky white as my arms.

The red scar around my throat that I had gotten from the witch was no longer there, showing only a smooth long neck and adam’s apple.

But what shocked me the most were the changes in my hair and eyes. My eyes were a piercing gold and the color seemed to have been completely washed out of my once-auburn hair. The head of deep reddish brown was now a grayish wheat color, even more pale than Sylvie’s hair in her human form.

My chest tightened at the sight of my reflection, my own hair and eyes now a sore reminder of what my bond had done for me.

“W-What is this? Why do I—” A scream suddenly tore out from my throat as a searing pain ignited inside me, as if my mana core had caught on fire.

My vision doubled and became hazy until I heard a voice. It was one that I hadn’t heard in a long time, but one I could never forget.

“Hello, Art, this is Sylvia.”

My heart pounded against my ribs as excitement rose up. “S-Sylvia?”

“I recorded this at the same time as my first message to you, but I suspect that, for you, it has been quite a while since hearing my voice. Haha, I suppose I should say that it has been a while.”

I let out a laugh as I felt fresh tears stream down my cheeks.

“I’m conflicted by the fact that you’re hearing this message. On the one hand, I’m proud that you’ve been able to get to where you are now. But the fact that you’ve had to push yourself to this point means that life has not been easy for you, perhaps even more difficult than your previous one.”

I felt the weight of her somber tone but continued to listen.

My brain hurt from trying to wrap all of this information together.

“Fate ties into not only the life we live in now but lives elsewhere and elsewhen.”

My breath hitched.

“I would surmise this sounding familiar to you. Fate, afterall, is the core component to reincarnation. Agrona believed that the vessel was the key component in forceful application of reincarnation, which is why I could not risk you falling into Agrona’s hands. After finding out that I had carried a child from both the basilisk and dragon lineage, he kept me imprisoned until I gave birth. Of course, I couldn’t let my child be subject to his cruel experiments so I locked my child in the pocket dimension that I created within the stone.

“As I have said before, I could not figure out the scope of Agrona’s plans before my escape, but I found that there are four ruins built by the ancient mages that he nor any other asurans are able to cross into. I was able to imprint and pass on the locations of these four major ruins that Agrona had been breeding and sending lessers into in hopes to learn more about what is down there.

“What I am leaving you with is not some grand quest; that was never my intention. But if you are in a situation where you are lost or feel weak and outnumbered, perhaps the answer Agrona is looking for is the answer you are as well.

“Take care of my daughter and yourself. Goodbye, little one.”

Just like that, Sylvia’s voice faded, leaving me stunned in such complete silence that it was palpable. It was only when Regis appeared out of my body that I jolted out of my daze.

“Well, that was a lot to take in,” the black will-o-wisp said, letting out a sigh.

I stared at him, dumbfounded. “You were able to hear all of that?”

“Why else would I want to literally be inside you.” He rolled his eyes. “Now, I’ve got some good news and bad news—well, two pretty good news and one really bad news. What do you want to hear first?”

I hobbled back to the area where the iridescent stone was and picked my bond up—Sylvia’s daughter that she had entrusted me to take care of.

“Let’s just start with the good news,” Regis said, hovering in front of me. “Based on what I discovered while you were lying over there half-dead, I think we’re actually in one of the hidden ruins of the ancient mages.”

I pried my gaze off of the stone in my hand and looked up. “What?”

“Yup, take a look at the door on the opposite end of this room. Along with the dried blood and drinkable water fountain, I’d say that this is some sort of waiting grounds for whatever horrendous challenges that the ancient mages built to keep outsiders from whatever knowledge is stored at the bottom.”

After looking at the metal door etched with runes along the frame, I studied Regis.

“You’re pretty smart,” I admitted.

Regis gasped. “I have gained master’s approval! I am worthy!”

Ignoring him, I looked back down at the small stone in my hand.

“The second good news is one you probably guessed, but I confirmed that Sylvie is alive by taking a peek inside.”

“You went inside here?” I asked, holding up the stone.

“Bite me. I was curious,” he—assuming by the timbre of his voice—quipped. “Anyway, your bond used a high-level vivum art to give you some of her asuran body in order to save you...”

Regis’ eyes turned sharp. “Which leads me to the bad news.I don’t think you were able to hear Sylvia’s message because you’ve ascended past the white core stage. In fact, your core is damaged beyond recognition.”