The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 16

"Hey, Art! Hurry up! We’re going to be late!"

"AAAGGHHHH!! Tess! Stop! I give! I GIVE!" I cried out.

Tess finally got off of me, letting go of the leg lock she had in a firm grip.

"Can’t there a gentler way of waking me up, Tess?" I grumbled, massaging the feeling back into my leg.

"It’s getting harder and harder to wake you up in the morning! I have to do something, right? Besides, you should be grateful such a pretty lady is waking you up every morning." She fluttered her eyes at me.

"I find the maids here plenty pretty, thank you very much." I muttered under my breath.

She must’ve heard because that earned me a firm squeeze to the side.

Where did the shy Tess that was too scared to sleep alone in the tent go; the sweet Tess that begged me not to go? Bring her back! I liked her better!

Something I realized in my three years of living in Elenoir was that elves awakened much earlier than humans did. Whereas the average age for a human is around thirteen years old, elves awoke around the age of ten.

Tess had awakened fast, even for an elf. It happened last year and boy did she awaken with a bang. It wasn’t as big as when I had first awakened but she had managed to destroy her room upstairs, fall down, and create a small crater from the implosion in the kitchen right below. Since then, she’s been joining me in training with Gramps. All I can say is, since awakening, she’s become a lot more confident and bold, in more bad ways than good. She knows how strong my body was so she had no hesitation in using me as her sandbag as she tried new spells that she learned from Grandpa Virion and other conjurer teachers. What she just didn’t seem to get after all of my cries was that I still felt pain dammit!

As for me, today was a very special day because, after three years, I was finally able to complete the assimilation of mana into my body. It was almost my birthday so while Tess had turned nine a couple months ago, I’ll be finally turning eight. During this time, I wasn’t allowed to absorb any mana from my surroundings and only allowed to use my innate mana formed from my mana core to spread it into my body. Today was the final step that took place once a beast tamer finished his assimilation.

I skipped showering and just changed into a more presentable robe, tucking the stone, into my robe before heading out into the courtyard with Tess.

"Finally awake now, eh Art? How did your wife wake you up today? Haha!" Grandpa Virion mused as he sipped his tea on the small table outside.

"Ugh, wife? Where? I didn’t know you could marry demons. You’re turning her into a monster, Gramps," I groaned.

Luckily Tess wasn’t able to overhear as she came outside just moments after.

"She’s going to grow up into a fine woman, Art. Better sweep her off her feet before it’s too late," He chuckled, lifting his teacup in a toast.

Tess just blushed at that and elbowed my side.

"AGGH!" Why? What did I do?

"Hahaha! Art! Are you ready? Today is finally the day. After this, you’ll be a true beast tamer, not like those lucky adventurers that just have a beast will," He emphasized, arms crossed.

I gave him a firm nod while Tess headed to the table Gramps was sitting on to watch.

It wasn’t much of a ceremony. All it consisted of was Gramps exerting a large amount of mana into my core. This would trigger a large surge of mana that I would have to direct and spread into my body.

"Do you remember the basic phases of beast tamers, Art?" he quizzed.

I recited the basics that Grandpa Virion pounded into me these past years. "All beast tamers have a different number of forms that they can will their bodies into. The number of forms depends on the strength of the Beast’s will that is left in the mana core. The first phase, that all beast tamers have, is Acquire. In this phase, the Tamer can utilize a small portion of the inherent ability that their beast has. The second stage is Integrate, where the Tamer’s body wholly infuses with the Beast’s will, allowing a much better control over their beast’s inherent abilities."

"Correct! The phases that the beast tamers are able to unlock simply shows how much they can utilize their beasts’ will. The stronger the beast, the harder it is, but at the same time, if the tamer can’t get insight, then it is also impossible to get past the first phase. One thing to note, however, is that, not always is the Integrate stage more powerful than the the Acquire. The Acquire phase is tapping into a specific inherent ability of your beast’s while Integrate is a much more all-encompassing power up using your beast’s will," he reminded, his face deathly serious.

"While I didn’t tell you earlier, now that you are about to become a true beast tamer, you should know is the differences in how a beast tamer’s will is acquired. If the beast is killed and his mana core is extracted with its will still intact, a mage can absorb the will and try to gain insights. That mage would be considered a forged tamer. While it is a lot easier and straightforward to be a forged tamer, the probability of gaining insight is very rare and limited. One of the reasons it took me so long for me to be able to break into the second phase was because I am a forged tamer. I consider myself lucky to even be able to break into the second stage though. Arthur, you are one of the extremely rare legacy tamers; where the beast willingly imparted its will onto you."

Continuing on, he explained, "Art, my first phase doesn’t really make me that much faster, but I’m able to erase a bit of my presence and blend myself into the shadows. You haven’t seen my second phase, right? Watch carefully. It took me over ten years for me to make a breakthrough into this phase."

Feeling a powerful surge of mana surrounding his body, I couldn’t help but involuntarily cringe. All of a sudden, the mana around his body seeped back into him and my eyes widened.

Grandpa’s skin turns pitch black. Even the whites of his eyes became black while his irises turned sharp and glow yellow. His tied white hair became unbound and was also a shiny black color. The aura that surrounded him makes me shudder and take a step back.

"This is the Integrate phase. I’m going to sneak up behind you. Pay attention," He growled, his voice much raspier than before.

Was it really sneaking up if he tells me... was what I was thinking when he disappeared from my vision. I couldn’t feel his presence at all but I when looked behind me as I had been told to do, his finger was already pressed against my jugular as he looked down at me with his glowing yellow eyes.

Fast. It seemed like instant teleportation but I knew it wasn’t by the skid mark from his initial position. It was speed that even I couldn’t keep up with. Not even close. No. The scary part wasn’t even his insane speed. It was his lack of presence. Even directly behind me, I couldn’t sense where he was.

He turned back to normal, his face slightly flushed as Tessia began clapping as if this was a show.

"Whew! Using that form always takes a toll on me. After training with it for a couple decades, I’m able to keep the form on for a bit less than an hour. During my Acquire phase, I am simply channeling a small portion of my beast will and I’m able to borrow the the speed and stealth of the shadow panther. However, with my Integrate phase, not only did my speed and stealth rise, so did my senses to keep up."

I nodded in agreement.

"Good! Let’s begin the ceremony," he replied, clasping his hands together.

We stood face to face, only an arm’s length apart. Tess was now leaning forward in excitement, as we were about to start.

"Just let your mana come out freely. Don’t try to control anything. I’ll restrain you if necessary so it’s crucial that you keep a relaxed state of mind and rouse the particles of mana you assimilated all these years," he instructed.

After a nod in response, he then began exerting mana into my core, flooding my core with his mana along with mine.

Instantly, I began feeling a warm sensation, like a hot gust of air was flowing in and out of my pores.

As I felt my body reaching it’s limit, a loud explosion startles me out of my concentration, only for me to see Gramps getting thrown back and Tess falling back on her chair and rolling back as well.

An unbearable pain immediately surges from my body, as if my very skeleton was trying to crawl out of my skin. Without even the strength to scream my vision darkens. I welcomed the darkness because i knew it would relieve me of my pain.