TBATE: Let The Truth Be Known {Completed}

Chapter 21: The Weight of the World

OLIVIA WILLBECK

"It's time to get moving, Headmaster. We've been in this zone for too long," Nico says while picking up his backpack. "You three too. Haedrig would you place this in your dimension ring?"

Haedrig takes the pack and it vanishes almost immediately. It's only been around a week since I woke up in this world. My last thoughts from my life were how bright the incandescent lights in my hospital room were. I had to squint the whole time I was there.

I closed my eyes in that cold and stagnant hospital room only to wake up in an equally cold and stagnant holding cell. I never thought I'd have a second chance at life, so I tried to make the most of my first one. I took care of those kids for decades. My three main success stories all were able to go to school. I hope they made it. Though, from what Nico has told me, it sounds like the group imploded soon after I died.

Nico told me all about what happened after I was gone. To think that all three of those kids got a second chance at life too. It makes me happy that I wasn't the only one. Cecilia and Nico almost got married, but Grey killed them. I never could have imagined in 100 lifetimes that a boy as sweet and caring as Grey would kill his two best friends in vengeance. I was asked by Agrona, the man who brought me to this world, to talk some sense into Grey and turn him to the Alacryan side.

I hear he became a genocidal maniac in both lives. He even took Cecilia from Nico in this life too. His sins are inexcusable. I didn't give that boy my last name for him to become a monster. I didn't raise him to become everything I despise.

I sigh through my mental frustration and stand. Moving toward the quartet of ascenders, we begin to enter the portal leading to the next zone.

This world and its mechanisms seem so different in comparison to Earth. Instead of ki, there's mana. Instead of kings fighting in battles for their countries, augmenters and conjurers are fighting large-scale battles on shorelines. Only the monarchies seem to stay consistent. Agrona leads Alacrya, and before this war began, the Elves, Humans, and Dwarves had kings and queens. Well, I suppose the political turmoil also is consistent.

"So the plan is just to continue along through the zones until we find a convergence zone? I feel like that's a little bit of a stretch just to find someone within the Relictombs," Haedrig asks Nico as we step into the next zone. From what has been made clear, we'll be making our way through these 'Relictombs' continuously until we find a 'convergence zone' to find Grey.

It's hard to wrap my head around all the new terminology. I've been experiencing culture shock ever since I arrived in this world. Magic, mana, elements, asuras, elves, and dwarves being thrust at me in rapid succession give me a migraine.

"That's the whole plan. We've already discussed this among ourselves as well as with Scythe Seris. I was given a job as a last-ditch effort to appease the High Sovereign. That job is to find Grey and Cecilia, who have presumably been hiding out in the Relictombs since they escaped from us at the Victoriad. Make sense?" Nico explains to Haedrig.

"I suppose, but why are we here with you? Couldn't you just do all of this by yourself? You're a Scythe," Haedrig asks.

"I may be a Scythe, but I've already been defeated by Grey once. I've got to resort to methods other than brute force to get Cecilia back," he replies.

"So this is all some elaborate scheme for you to get Cecilia back?" I ask.

"More or less. Agrona said that if we help him in this war between asuras and continents, we would be given a new life together. I'll do anything to have the life that was stolen from me back on Earth. I don't care if that life is here or if Agrona sends us back. I just want to live and die alongside Cecilia. Getting revenge on Grey for all the pain and suffering he's inflicted on us is a secondary objective," Nico answers.