The Beginning after the End

Arthur Leywin's POV:

The chicken's screams woke me up this morning.

Today was the day we'd been waiting for, for the last year we had been preparing both the spell that would send us back and the equipment that we would be taking with us.

The last year had been monotonous task after monotonous task now that my insights into Aether were almost complete. I had abilities that would make it hard to compare me to anyone else, abilities that made me powerful enough that I could do anything except for changing Fate's path.

Therefore, we weren't time travelling per say, we were, shall we say rewriting reality with Aether, but honestly, they are the same thing.

You see, time travel is truly very simple, however, that insight hides behind the Fate Edict as I have learned over the last megaannum, it is an ability that can be performed and it can be used to change the timeline, however, that doesn't mean that the ability to travel through time is exclusive to Fate's edict.

There are many things one must understand about Aether before they can begin to assume what each genus does, after all, every genus can use practically every basic ability of other genus, albeit at a higher cost than if one was to manipulate the genus where the ability originates and correlates, therefore with a deep enough understanding of all three basic genus, one becomes able to coax Fate into doing something small for them, or in my case, because well, my understanding of Aether is at the peak of what can be done with it, I can make it do something small many times, or something massive just once…

I think you already know where I'm going with this.

The plan was to break down the universe and rebuild it as it was when I was conceived and then pause the universe as I complete the spell and finish casting it, though this is functionally what happens when someone turns back time using fate, it just guides you through the process.

A simple explanation for something infinitely complex.

My understanding of Aether may be incredible but what we are planning to do is not as easy as snapping my fingers and boom I'm in the past, if that was even remotely possible then this world might as well be the size of a marble. In addition to the blast to the past that we would be taking, the world would be slightly different. I can't make a perfect replica of everything in the universe so things will be different, but the major thing that I would be doing is preserving our memories. But to do so…

I had to create the most complex godrune ever conceived to prepare for this.

The godrune is an amalgamation of every ability in all three of the basic genuses, it can change and allow different abilities to be manifested or created within the range of abilities that Aether can control.

It covers my whole body and changes the way I think, it made me look a lot like when I had realmheart active in my youth. It reminds me of grandma.

At least I'll be seeing her in a few years from my perspective.

'Jesus Princess, stop torturing us with your ramblings about your abilities, some of those thoughts weren't even properly structured! Jeez, you've been here for what, a million years and you still can't form sentences worth a damn!'

'Fine Regis, I'll shut up when we get back.'

'Finally.'

—

'Sylvie, are you ready?'

'Yeah, papa, I'm ready over here!'

Sylvie came barreling over to me in excitement, the ecstatic look on her face never leaving it as she pummeled into my chest knocking the wind out of me.

Oof…

Damn, when did she get so big?

I could see Sylvie's eyebrow twitch, had she just heard my thoughts? She looked up at me with hidden malice behind that wide smile and said with a calm, scary tone for some reason reminding me of my mother.

'Papa… do you think that I'm fat?'

'Oh boy, really lit the fuse with this one Princess.'

Sylvie glared in Regis's direction, shutting him up before she turned back to me.

'No Sylv, it just makes me realize that you're an adult now… Although if you start bringing other little boy and girl dragons home, I don't care if it will start a war, I'm beating them down.'

I said with an equally menacing smile directed at my daughter, I'm starting to think that my mother was the one who gave us this rather terrifying ability and disposition.

Sylvie laughed after hearing my thoughts and told me.

'I don't plan on taking any boys-'

I looked at her with intention in my eyes.

'Or girls-'

I visibly relaxed.

'Home any time soon.'

I looked at her with a smile that didn't quite reach my eyes.

"Sylv…"

She visibly flinched.

"Tell me I didn't just hear you say: Home any time soon"

'Y-you didn't!'

"Good."

She sighed in relief.

'I wonder what will happen to the world when Lizard Princess finally reaches puberty.'

Sylvie glared at Regis again, shutting him up.

'Now back on topic, Regis if you're here that means that you're done with your task as well, good work, now let's begin the first step of our journey preparing our minds, bodies and souls for the trip.'

They nodded to me as I decided to elaborate.

'To survive something like this and effectively be reincarnated as well, ourselves we need to go back to our birth and be conceived again, but this time around I will have our bodies and minds altered to keep the abilities that we've collected over the years… Do you understand?'

They responded by nodding in the affirmative.

'The spell will have many aspects to it to allow for us to do this properly and we won't keep our core stages, we will have to restart at zero. Well, Other than Regis, he is a special exception though he won't be able to do much until we get stronger.'

Regis whooped and Sylvie moped, after all, they've competed to see who would become stronger as a way to entertain themselves for the past few millennium, she had effectively been told that all of her hard-earned progress would be reset.

'It's okay Sylvie you'll be able to catch up in time, after all Regis's abilities will likely stay the same while yours grow until we catch up to Regis.'

At this Sylvie perked up and Regis looked annoyed because his advantage had just been toppled, though the look on his face told me that he was still going to gloat about being stronger while he had the chance though.

'Next order of business. Taking inventory.'

After that announcement, I created a set of large tables, almost like what auction houses used to present goods to bid on in my old world, and laid all of the contents of my extra-dimensional storage rune out on the table to decide on what to do with each item.

Some of the items out for Sylvie and Regis to see hadn't been seen before or hadn't seen in a very long time, making the chance to see all these legendary relics both for Mana and Aether enticing and exciting to them. After looking at the items and brainstorming uses we decided that we would take them all rather than replacing them with something new that would take extensive time and effort for not much reward, after all even though we might as well have all the time in the world, we aren't going to spend it on something that makes a marginal difference if we are already prepared for what we need.

The standout items of the collection were the Armor Relic, weapons that I had created over the last year and finally the sheer amount of cores and mana thick objects that I had in my possession. The plan for the cores and mana rich items was to give them to Sylvie and I to expedite our growth while saving the ones with beast wills for if the situation became dire.

The Armor had been upgraded using my understanding of Aether to be able to increase my control of Aether even further than ever before, as well as making it even more difficult to damage the armor or the user's body while they are wearing the armor.

The final piece of the standouts was a collection of three swords that I had made, any of them would make even the greatest smiths cry tears of joy and jealousy all at the same time just to be able to see such masterfully crafted weapons. They were each capable of controlling a single genus to its absolute pinnacle of ability making them each unrivalled in their abilities. However, they are unruly and require an immense amount of control over Aether to be used, something that I disappointingly won't have after we make the trip.

As for the other pieces, most of them were miscellaneous things that I've kept throughout the years like the relics I had gained during my time in Alcraya with Caera and before the war had obliterated the world from the large-scale magic used all around us.

But life persists, I'm proof of that, and I'll make the world a better place than it was in my time, I swear it.

—

'Sylv, Regis, it's time, let's watch the sunset just one last time before we go.'

I walked out of the place that we had called home for so many years and looked out at the sky in front of me to see a sight that paralleled the sight that gave me hope all those years ago, the sky above looked the same as it had before, perhaps by coincidence or the world offering us prayers. But underneath where the sky had ended was the abundant growth that had come about over centuries of insight into Aether, all contained just below the horizon. I looked out across the grand distance of Dicathen from one ocean to the other, taking in everything.

The Elshire Forest, The Plains of Sapin, the Desert of Darv, The Beast Glades, the Grand Mountain Range and finally, up above in the sky, Xyrus, the place that had been home to my family for all those years ago.

I wanted this fulfilled hope to be captured in my eyes as proof that we could save the world, so I closed my eyes once again and when I opened them, my left eye had captured the image within, and I felt that my hope had been returned to me.

After all these years… All the hardships… All the loneliness, pain and suffering…

It's finally over, I'm free.

Free from this beautiful purgatory.

Free to be reborn anew once again.

…

—

It was strange…

I don't think I'll ever get used to this situation, ending up in the void of darkness with a light at the end of the tunnel.

But this time I had someone tagging along…

And he was annoying in the passenger seat…

'WOOOO finally princess, we're being reborn-'

He's been doing that constantly for months now…

We were drifting very slowly towards the light and for what literally has been the last several months and yet his enthusiasm has been skyrocketing every minute that passes in this place, it almost makes me wish I didn't go through the process.

But taking Regis's unique form of torture was just part of the gig that comes with being reborn.

I was ecstatic to see my whole family in a few short years and my parents after just a few months of waiting. After all, for me it has been ages without them, I may have moved on but that doesn't mean I'll ever stop loving them.

After extensively and carefully adjusting the spell to make sure that there were no errors within its parameters, the spells final abilities would be as follows:

1: I can change the timeline to my desires as I please without it changing significantly.

2: I can go back again, however, every time I do more things will change out of my favor.

And finally.

3: My actions must follow a similar path as the one that I followed in my previous life as Arthur Leywin, as well as if there are any changes related to me, then they also have to follow the path that I went in my last life.

These are of course the rules that must be followed to make sure that I don't do something that would create an even worse outcome than before.

It will be only a few short months until I'm born, I need to make some plans to prepare for my new life and the journey that I will have to take, because well, it seems like my odds of success this time around, even with my insights into Aether, are lower than in the original timeline. I wonder how that will play out, but for now, let's focus on the present and work on my mental acuity so that I can form my Mana core faster.

After all, I want to make some progress before I meet grandma Sylvia.

—

'-P WAKE UP!'

'Fuck Regis, shut up!'

'WERE BEING BORN!'

'...Oh…'

'...Oh shit…'

Well, Regis certainly wasn't wrong, my senses shifted into that familiar and blurred red and I heard my mothers screams from the pain of giving birth while I myself winced from the volume that I hadn't prepared for, damn I should've thought of a solution for that, I guess I'll just have to suck it up.

'Yeah be a man, Princess.'

'Shut up Regis, now isn't the time.'

Regis went quiet for a while before he made a response.

'Fine I'll wait until you're born to talk to you.'

I tried to retort verbally as I had made a habit of doing when I'm peeved but all that came out was a cry, damn. Regis was really laughing it up after that.

The muffled voices became clearer and I made out the doctor say:

"Congratulations Sir and Madam, they're healthy baby boys."

'...Wait…' '...Wait…'

Regis and I thought it at the same time as we both looked over deadpan to see a baby boy right next to me after prying my baby eyes open for the first time in this life.

…

I guess someone who hasn't been in this situation would think 'Oh shit I've got a brother, great.' or something else along those lines but Regis and I are just staring at the little bastard and wondering one thing…

'Why the fuck do I have a brother?'