The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 304

Chapter 304

“Whew . ” Caera dipped her head before walking in through the entrance of the straw hut . “This storm is getting stronger by the day . ”

Even as she spoke, the noise of the wind rushing through the craggy mountains protecting the Shadow Claw village drowned out almost all other sounds, including her voice . However, even with the doors open and the hut exposed to the cold air, the wind itself was barely a breeze by the time it reached the secluded village .

“It seems like you’re enjoying yourself out there,” I said, almost jealous .

Caera had grabbed a woven towel from a table near the entrance and began wiping away the sweat that ran down her neck and arms . “We’re stuck here . If I ever hope to catch up to you, I have to do my best to train as well . ”

I raised a brow . “Is that what that was? All I saw was you chasing after the little kittens . ”

The Alacryan noble frowned . “Says the one that’s had his behind firmly pasted to the ground these past three days . ”

“I’m not just sitting around,” I corrected . “I’m learning how to filter—ouch!”

Rubbing my head, I picked up the wooden spoon that had been thrown at me from the other side of the woven home .

Three Steps, who had been quietly stirring a stone pot, let out a sharp mewl before pointing to her feline eyes with her paw .

“Yeah, yeah, I know . I was just replenishing my aether a bit,” I grumbled, knowing that she couldn’t understand me . Caera let out a chuckle .

I let my gaze unfocus and put both Caera and Three Steps out of my mind before igniting God Step once again . The rune on my lower back grew warm as aether surged out from my core . I couldn’t help but grow annoyed, and slightly worried, by the shadowy presence clinging tightly around my aether core .

Regis . It’s been three days now . Either answer me or stop hogging all of my aether .

After waiting for a response for several more minutes, I gave up . Something had happened to Regis after arriving in the Shadow Claws’ village . He had been taking a nap—meditating—when all of a sudden his eyes bolted open and he shot into my body, refusing to come out .

Since then, he’d been absorbing an unusual amount of aether, and I could feel his presence shifting back and forth from my core to my godrunes .

At least with Regis eating up so much of my aether reserves, it’s allowing me more breaks in between training sessions with Three Steps, I thought somewhat grumpily .

The past few days had been exhausting in a way that I never thought was possible with my asuran physique . After Three Steps had agreed to mentor me in the aether arts of her own kind, she started off by sharing her memories of her own tutoring by a younger Sleeps-in-Snow . They had often discussed the Shadow Claws’ aetheric abilities at length and in great detail, providing a very solid base for my own learning process .

Through it, I had learned that Shadow Claws are born with the ability to see the aetheric passages that allowed one to travel across space instantly . However, for newborns, this ability was actually a curse . With so much information bombarding their undeveloped brains, some of the weaker-willed infants actually died .

It was up to the parents and mentors to properly guide their newborns, to help them learn to first shut off their “mind’s eye” until they were old enough to start learning how to shadow step, which was their term for the aetheric teleportation technique they used .

Most of the memories I’d been shown guided me through how the Shadow Claws honed their shadow step ability . Three Steps didn’t understand my godrune any more than I could fathom how she manipulated aether without runes, spellforms, or an aether core, but by learning the way they learned, I hoped to grow stronger—and quicker—in my use of God Step .

Apparently, I wasn’t even at the level of a two-year-old Shadow Claw cub, because that was the age that they started learning how to filter out the countless paths of aetheric streams .

Seeing it firsthand through the eyes of Three Steps as she filtered out the paths was both fascinating and humbling . There were only a dozen or so around her, which she always kept track of in order to be ready to shadow step at a moment’s notice,

With over two lifetimes of experiences in different worlds, I considered myself fairly intelligent and sharp . However, compared to how the Shadow Claws constantly focused and kept track of the aetheric paths, even predicting how those paths would move based on their own movements was mind-boggling .

My gaze remained focused on the boulder in the center of the pond just outside of Three Steps’ home . Hundreds of branching paths of violet intersected in the space around me, and while I had found the aetheric path leading to the boulder a long time ago, I had no intention of using God Step .

I continued to take in my surroundings through my unfocused eyes, trying to filter out more and more of the aetheric paths that drowned my vision . It was like trying to flex a specific set of muscles somewhere between my eyes and brain in a subtle, yet precise, order .

During these last few days of Three Steps showing me countless memories in hopes of expediting my training, I had learned how to contract my vision in order to filter out the aetheric routes that went past my chosen destination . Three Steps had been particularly excited about this breakthrough even though I wasn’t quite as satisfied .

I trained God Step constantly, even while Three Steps and Caera slept, stopping only when I needed to replenish my aether reserves . I knew that my time here was limited, so it was crucial that I make the most of it .

It was only when Caera appeared again in the corner of my eye that I realized I had gone through another night training my focus on the aetheric pathways .

“How is your progress, Grey?” Caera asked, taking a seat on the ground beside me . She was dressed in a tight sleeveless shirt, giving her a much more casual appearance than I had grown used to . If it wasn’t for the gleaming pair of horns circling her head like a dark crown...

I performed the mental equivalent of biting my tongue, not allowing myself to finish the thought before answering the Alacryan noble . “It’s going well . The fact that I barely need sleep certainly helps . ”

Caera hugged her legs and shivered from the cold . “You know, I used to really envy that particular ability . Perhaps even more so than your ridiculous regeneration ability . ”

I raised a brow . “Oh?”

“I kept thinking to myself how much stronger I would be if I only needed a few hours of sleep a week in order to stay completely healthy, how much I could get done, and how useful it’d be both in and out of the Relictombs . ” Caera rested her chin on her knees, her gaze far away . “But after being with you for this long, I’ve realized that it’s as much of a curse as it is a blessing . ”

“Why do you say that?”

The Alacryan noble turned her head to me with a solemn smile . “You always look lonely or in pain during the night . It’s why you’re always training, right?”

I stared at Caera, not knowing how to respond . My mind flitted to all of the times when memories of my family and friends in Dicathen ate at me, even when I was awake . But it was worse at night .

“It’s not like that,” I lied . “There are things I have to do, and if I want to even hope to succeed, then I need to utilize every advantage I have . ”

“With how strong you are already, it sounds like you’re preparing yourself to fight the gods themselves,” Caera said with a thin laugh .

Before I could answer, a stern mewl drew our attention behind us . Three Steps, who must have slept and awoken again while I was lost in training, was motioning for me to follow her before walking out the door .

“Will you be okay by yourself?” I asked Caera, who was still sitting by the entrance .

“You’re not the only one that has training to do,” she said with a grin .

I smiled back this time, admiring her mental fortitude . She had been stuck with me in zones far more difficult and deadly than she had ventured through before . Yet, despite almost starving to death, nearly dying several times, and almost freezing to death on multiple occasions, she was still able to stay positive .

Following after Three Steps, we made our way toward the rear end of the village, away from the curious gazes of the Shadow Claw villagers .

Much of the storm had subsided overnight, allowing some of the Shadow Claws to go back out of the village . While it was still hard for me to tell the Shadow Claws apart from one another, one of them did stick out to me . It was Left Tooth .

Three Steps let out a hiss beside me before taking a seat on the snow, drawing my attention back to her . My mentor’s sharp feline eyes looked at me seriously while she began speaking in her language . I watched her face carefully . Her eyes were darting from my face to my chest, and her feline mouth was turned down in a slight frown as she spoke, her whiskers twitching .

I couldn’t understand a single word she had said, but I didn’t need to . Three Steps held out her paws, and, as we had done so many times now, I completed the connection .

As I expected, the memory she shared with me was the exact scene of her talking to me just moments ago, except it was from her point of view and I could understand what she was saying to me, even as I looked at my own self through her eyes, staring back in obvious confusion .

“I have shown you enough of our ways to be comfortable asking for something in return . I would like to know more about your unique abilities, passed down from the Creators, even if it is not something I can learn myself,” she said before my vision shifted to a memory she had shared with me previously in which she and Sleeps-in-Snow conversed about their purpose .

The vision faded as my host pulled her hands back from mine . She waited, her eyes unblinking, until I nodded and held out my hands to her .