TBATE x COTE | A Masterpiece (Rewrite)

Pain is a reaction, a stimulus that prompts the body to respond.

People show reactions from a slight, sharp inhale and closing their eyes, while some scream and wail and roll on the floor. Of course, it depends on the degree of pain, however, some do that regardless of how menial the pain is. 

This response can be tempered, of course. 

Through different kinds of training, one can build tolerance and fortify the mind against it. 

Some focus on strengthening the areas of the brain that control such impulses, effectively dulling their sensitivity.

However, the true kind of pain...is quite different. 

I finally felt it when it happened. 

The kind that I encountered when the arrow, devoid of any mana augmentation, pierced through my back. 

It was a clean shot, a near miss, with the tip just barely evading my spinal cord as I managed to direct a pulse of wind mana at the last moment.

What I felt wasn't the familiar searing agony, the sharp, jarring feedback of nerve endings. 

No, this was something else. It was the absence of sensation. 

As blood seeped from my lips and my body lost its balance, the world faded. 

Not into light or sound, but into a cold, empty nothingness—my limbs no longer under my control, the distinction between my body and the world around me growing increasingly irrelevant.

And after that, I lost contact with consciousness. 

Arthur POV:

"Nice one, buddy!" I raised a thumb towards Julian as another knife blitzed through the air and tore through the bandit's throat, killing him instantly. 

While he was lacking on the physical side, his control over mana was monstrous. So much that it was terrifying. 

I am a different case due to my status as a reincarnate, but he is something else. If he was in our previous world, he might've contested with Cecil, maybe even more given how ironclad his control over every spec of mana is. 

And his mana capacity is just outrageous!

Kind of proud to be his brother, makes me shed a tear. 

Picking up the arrow, I moved towards Julian. While I was walking in his direction, green mana coalesced around his hand. 

The realization stuck me a bit too late as he tried to divert the mana-less arrow's trajectory but it struck him cleanly in the back. 

The impact caused blood to gush out of his mouth and his lips rolled to the back of his head as he tripped over the edge. 

"NOOOOO!" A guttural roar escaped my lips as I ran after him. 

Using the mana string and coiling it around the arrow, I dug it deep into the ground before jumping after him. 

I caught him and then pulled on to the mana string. 

His eyes were closed, and his breathing seemed so shallow that it felt like he was not breathing at all. 

"Julian! Please, hold on..." I cried out, tears welling up in my eyes as I tried my hardest to pull. 

Mana spilled out of dark red core in one swift motion as I tried to augment myself as much as I could: sadness, grief, paranoia making my heart clench so hard that my vision started to double, and my head felt like it was made out of lead. 

"Julian...wake up...please..." I cried out and pulled at the string as hard as I could. 

However, due to augmenting my strength so much, the hard pull at the string caused the wedged arrow to break free of the cliffside as I felt the anchoring force holding us suspended in midair disappear, like the feeling when someone suddenly pulls the ground from underneath your feet.

My grip on my little brother weakened as he slipped through my fingers like quicksand and went tumbling down. 

I augmented my own body and decided to break—no, at least cushion his fall with my own body...even if it kills me. 

However, before I could direct my body, a gust of wind blasted from underneath, throwing me into the air. 

As I was thrown up while Julian disappeared underneath the pelt of green, I looked back.

Angela's features were scrunched as she focused the spell on me and slowly landed me back on the cliff where dad caught me. 

However, my mind raced, and my heart clenched even further. 

Mana spilt out of me and an unjustifiable anger manifested in the form of bloodlust as I looked at Angela, my teeth rattling and the inside of my cheeks bleeding from how hard I was biting down on it. 

"Why didn't you save him too!" I cried out, freeing myself from Reynolds. 

I looked back, the corner where Julian had fallen down making my insides flip out. 

"No..." Mom breathed out a sigh, whimpering. 

The rest of the Twin Horns were standing a few steps away from me, my intent looming over us like an unsheathed sword. 

Withdrawing it, I tried to run towards mom, but my feet gave out as I fell on the ground, face first. My mana was...gone...what the hell...

Julian POV: 

The trip back to consciousness was abrupt, like closing my eyes one moment and then opening them after a blink. 

My back was stiff, and my hands and feet paralyzed. 

The last thing I could remember was Arthur's desperate pleads to hold on to him. However, the cushioning mana that coalesced around me was too interesting to not go after. And while I am aware that Arthur would have died, resulting in me losing a valuable 'brother,' I did want to study whatever it was who wanted to save me. 

There was no malicious intent. Everyone who uses mana have a distinct color to their mana type which changes with their emotions. It is not just the color of their spells like red mana being fire attribute, or blue being water—no, it is something else. 

Like a dull thrum of something violet. It is not visible, of course, but there is this instinctive feeling that I get whenever I feel someone with mana around me. Grief, Joy, Lust, Loss, Victoriousness...everything is perceived as naturally as breathing. 

I would like to think that it is because of my hypersensitivity to mana. 

A groan escaped my lips, which surprised me. The surroundings were as dark as they could be. 

The walls were dull, held together by mud plastered over them and sediments embedded into it. Multiple flowers and what I assumed to be fruits littered the place, here and there, growing in uneven patches. 

However, the arrow stuck in my back was the second most surprising thing after the...monster—for the lack of better words—which easily towered over ten meters high, was seated cross-legged, on a crudely carved throne of jagged stone with an arm lazily supporting its head. 

The two red eyes looked at me with curiosity as the two fangs that appeared from the side of its mouth moved, and the voice came. "You can drop the act of being injured now." 

I looked up at it and narrowed my eyes. 

"What do you mean?"

It, or she? —its voice was feminine—cocked its head to the side and a bemused chuckle escaped its lips. "Oh, apologies, I assumed you lied about this as well." 

This doesn't seem good...

...it knows who I am.

(******************)

Author's Note: 

So umm, today I felt like writing, but at the same time my mood was very dull. So, if the chapter looks dull, be sure to curse my employer for giving an accountant admin-work. Sucks. Anyways, here is the chapter. Drop any suggestions of what you'd like to see in the next, or any of the future chapters. If it's good enough, I might just 1:1 it. Lmao. 

Well, enough of my yap session. Hope you like the chapter, be it as small as it is. If you do, drop a vote and leave a comment so we can get on the algorithm and climb the rankings.