Awakening

Caera Denoir's POV:

I sat taking tea with Sevren and Scythe Seris.

It was anything but an average meeting, it was rather tense even.

"So… you came back from the future? And the future was so bad that everyone, humans and deities alike, all died."

Sevren was the one who broke the rather awkward and tense silence that had begun to permeate in the room. When I had told them initially about the situation in private, they didn't believe me but after a moment of wearing a serious stare they could tell it was anything but a joke.

"Yeah, barring the fact that you forget to mention the rest of the living things in the world, then yes you're right."

I sighed and began explaining the situation.

"In the future there is a man that could wield Aether in a way that even the ancient mages couldn't, I suspect that it is his doing that we are sitting here today."

I said with a fond smile on my face which didn't go unnoticed by Seris before I quickly covered it up with a cold facade.

Seris smirked at me before Sevren exclaimed.

"Someone found out how to wield Aether?! How?"

I looked at Sevren and with an exasperated sigh told him at least some of the truth of the matter.

"It isn't something that can be completely taught or learned, it is something that one is chosen by the world to wield, in other words, he wouldn't be able to teach you even if he managed to come back with his knowledge too."

Sevren visibly deflated at the news, and I sighed before a sorrowful look met my face.

"Either way, it is highly unlikely that he made it back even with his magic because the only person who I know has their memories from the future is myself-"

"You loved him didn't you."

Seris stated boldly, I could only look at her for a moment before letting my hair cover my face before responding.

"Yes, I did."

—

Reynolds Leywin's POV:

I was knocked out of my thoughts abruptly and paled as I came to realize the sight in front of me was not an illusion.

After all, the house was currently flying at me.

My wife wore an expression of shock on her face, and I moved to protect her as she doesn't have the ability to protect herself from the situation at hand.

Placing myself in between herself and the building currently attempting to kill us, I augmented myself and dropped to the ground, covering my wife as our shattered home rained down upon us.

My wife screamed out; its contents made me pale.

"THE BOYS! REYNOLDS THE BOYS WERE INSIDE THE HOUSE!"

After the debris from our home began to settle I pushed myself at full speed to inspect the house, or at least where it was.

I frantically ran around the perimeter of our property looking for the boys and finding nothing. I began to panic as tears threatened to spill from my eyes.

My wife came up and was panic stricken as well.

After what felt like an hour of searching the house, we realized that they weren't there currently and prayed that they were playing away from the house, the explosion had settled and I desperately looked for the boys at the epicenter where the explosion had taken place, praying that the explosion was not near where the boys were, and that I wouldn't find their corpses laid out in the core of the explosion.

I couldn't see much, there was a dust storm emitting from the epicenter where the explosion had burst forth from, moving closer I felt an extremely powerful barrier pushing on me, resisting my entry.

Inching closer I saw two floating silhouettes in the cloud, praying that they weren't my children. I pushed myself through the barrier and it began to wane and weaken as if to allow my entry.

Arriving feet from the center of the explosion, my body collapsed and I let out a laugh, my wife had been following behind me for the last few minutes.

We've been looking for 15 minutes…

So how has their awakening lasted so long? The barrier has hardly waned in power!

"Reynolds! Did you find the boys?!"

My jaw slack. I simply pointed in their direction.

My wife looked over before covering her gasp.

"It's been fifteen minutes, Reynolds, how is that even possible?!"

—

Arthur Leywin's POV:

*BOOM**BOOM*

Seeing as we've just awakened I should use this time to inspect our cores and talk to Ben seriously as it is likely that we won't get much of a chance to have a conversation for a while to come.

"The barrier should hold for a good amount of time, we should have a conversation now."

Ben looked over at me, confused. He looked around only to be met with dust that I had created to block the view of us.

Looking at my core briefly I was struck with something unexpected, my senses felt like they had been dialed to a whole new level, and I was able to perceive Mana and surprisingly Aether with all five of my senses. It was a strange phenomenon that was completely foreign to me.

Not to mention the shell and Beast Will currently on the exterior of my core, the Will for some reason felt both stable and stronger than my previous Will but in its core, I could tell, it was Sylvia's.

Looking at my brother briefly I could tell he was taking in the feeling and new ability set that he had gained.

I felt something else too, something unrelated to Mana or Aether, a different power.

Something closer to the potency boost that I had before coming back in the sense that it doesn't originate from Mana or Aether, but it empowers them all the same.

I could feel what it was doing, or at least part of what it was doing, it was surprisingly generating a small amount of Mana and Aether, like Mana and Aether rotation, it didn't generate much though and it wasn't coming from the atmosphere.

It was being created.

Looking over at my brother I noticed that he had the same shell as me though he didn't have the Beast Will.

'Regis, what's up with these abilities?'

'I'll find out, it'll take me a moment though so have the conversation with your brother while you wait for the sake of efficiency.'

I turned to my brother, he was inspecting my core, I suspected that he had the same abilities as me.

Getting his attention I began.

"So what do you want to know?"

He took a moment to think before he asked his question to make sure that he wanted to know the answer to it.

"Who were you in your first life?"

…

I let the question sink in while reminiscing in the past. After a moment I answered his question.

"My name was Grey."

Hearing the name his face turned to shock before it turned to relief.

"Looks like you were right that we aren't enemies."

I raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue. Understanding what went unspoken he continued.

"My name is Alexander, it is an honor to meet you again in this life."

I let a smile meet my face before saying.

"Although I'm sad to know that you died, I'm thankful that I have a friend by my side this time around."

Confusion was written on his face, it became clear that this was his second life.

"This isn't my first time living as Arthur Leywin, I'm both reincarnated and a time traveler."

He wore a shocked face, whilst I just frowned at the reaction.

"What, you were reincarnated and you get shocked at something as trivial as time travel?"

He looked at me like I had no common sense.

'Yeah about that, you don't have any.'

'Really?'

'Really.'

Oh well, whoops. Moving on.

'Regis if you're responding does that mean that you've figured out what's going on with the shell and beast will?'

'Yeah, thank me because I hauled ass to figure all this out in such a short amount of time.'

I mentally sighed before responding.

'Thank you Regis, oh mighty weapon of the Asura.'

'You are welcome my pitiful master.'

A tick mark grew on my head.

'Well anyways about that shell, it's weird, it functions kind of like the layers of an Aether Core, but slightly different as it functions for both Mana and Aether, it has some useful abilities like core stage and affinity concealment as well as detection and flight, whilst having other abilities that can give you an edge, it is kind of like a second, limited in function, core.'

…

I have absolutely no idea what to make of this.

'As for the Beast Will, it is what it is, a Beast Will, although it is the Beast Will that was from your original mana core, it has both adapted to your body and core more as well as strengthened over time. Although you will still need to assimilate.'

I have absolutely no idea what to make of this either.

During this mental conversation Ben was simply staring at me looking at me like I had gone insane.

'As far as the shell goes, is there anything else to say about that, and what about the other power that I have, the weird one with no discernible source?'

'I was getting there genius.'

The tick mark grew as he continued.

'The shell has two additional abilities, the first is that it has the capacity of a second, larger core, although you will have to refine the shell for it to reach its maximum. It functions as another core, but more importantly a large mana pool extension. The other ability is layered augmentation, but let's move onto the other power.'

Ben was looking at my face with serious concern as Regis continued.

'The other power, if you had actually read in the library, is a common power that is new since coming back, another one of the abnormalities per say, what it does is it gives a small number of people, an unquantifiable percentage of all races, one or two abilities that represents themselves and their needs, they are called pillars, pillars represent either a sin, a virtue or both, you seem to have won the lottery and got both lucky bastard.'

I rolled my eyes at the comment, Ben's concerned gaze still piercing my head.

'What do they do?'

Regis seemed excited at this part.

'Firstly, you've already figured out what part of one of them does, that one produces Mana and Aether, it also allows you to heal anyone, create false memories and weapons dependent on a factor I don't understand yet, the other ability is more discrete in its function, it allows you to get a better result depending on your exertion as well as increases the effectiveness and efficiency of what you set your mind too.'

'That sounds really good. Wait Regis, why are you being quiet all of a sudden.'

Regis seemed a little disappointed by the results.

'Well, your abilities aren't bad, it's just there are several examples of abilities that completely outclass it, by like, a lot. In other words, this power is a dud. Oh but Ben seems to have the same abilities, although altered a little.'

Damn. Wait what? How does Ben have the same abilities as me? I thought it was based on the individual.

'Don't know, don't care.'

My tick mark looked like it had become varicose veins.

I sat there for a moment before responding mentally, Ben's gaze now becoming almost panicked thinking I had gone insane.

'Wait, Regis, how in god's name did you figure that out anyways?'

'Easy, I tested it on myself like last time.'

…

'You know what, I give up, you win.'

Turning to Ben, he looked about ready to call our parents over with a look of serious concern plastered on his face.

"What?"

I asked nonchalantly as if nothing wrong had happened.

"I was just talking to Regis, you'll get used to it."

His eyebrow twitched in annoyance, though he accepted the answer it was clear that he was exasperated and annoyed that I had made him think I was insane.

"I'll tell you about it later, for now we need to prepare for the barrage of concern from mom and dad."

He sighed and nodded, I lessened the dust field I had created to block mom and dad's senses allowing them to see us.

It wasn't long until I felt like my ribs were going to give out from the pressure my mother had put on them.

Seriously, I have an asuran body and she still manages to nearly crush the life out of me with her concern.

Ben wasn't faring any better.