Half awake Tess rolled over in bed. She reached her arms out and felt around, she was alone. Feeling more awake she lifted her head and opened her eyes as she confirmed she really was alone. Looking to the doorway she could see the faint light coming from the kitchen, and noticed a delicious smell in the air. Deciding to investigate, she got out of bed and slid her feet into her slippers, and walked out of the room.

Quietly she crept down the hall, and saw Arthur standing by the stove as she heard something sizzling. She saw Regis lying on the floor and Sylvie in a corner refining her core. No one seemed to be paying her any attention as she closed in on Arthur.

"Good morning my sleeping beauty," Arthur greeted, not taking his eyes off of whatever he was cooking.

Tess pouted in frustration of being discovered.

"How did you know I was coming? I was trying really hard to sneak up on you," Tess replied as she continued to walk toward him.

"I learned how to perceive mana with aether, you can restrict your core as much as you want, but I can still see your core no matter what. And now that I have a mana core again, I can see the different types of mana too and even if that wasn't the fact you know that I can sense you better than anyone."

Tess arrived and wrapped her arms around him from behind.

"So I guess I really never will be able to sneak up on you," she pouted.

"Probably not," Arthur chuckled. "Although I was actively trying to see mana. Being able to see the different types is a little new to me, so I'm practicing." Arthur shuddered. "Although part of me wishes I didn't."

"Why," she asked as she came around and gave him a good morning kiss.

"I was looking at everyone in this building, and saw that Mica spent the night in Bairon's room."

"Why is that...ohhh, I see. I never would have expected those two to have that kind of relationship. But how did you know she spent the night in Bairon's room?"

Arthur slid a pancake off the frying pan and onto a plate, then poured more batter into the pan.

"I was doing this training all night."

"All night? How much sleep did you get?"

"I got a good hour and a half," he stated proudly

"Arthur! You need to sleep too!" She scolded.

"Didn't I tell you? I only need about an hour of sleep every few days," he said, amusement clear in his tone.

Arthur flipped the pancake.

"Well there goes my vision," Tess said, sounding disappointed.

"Your vision?"

"Yes, I envisioned us sleeping in, waking up in each other's arms."

"I can still do that," Arthur replied as he slid the last pancake onto the plate, and turned off the heat. He then turned around and wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss. "I did that those last few days in the castle, I just had some work I wanted to get done."

"What kind of work?"

"I'll explain as we eat," he said as he handed her the plate.

Arthur laid out a blanket, then poured two cups of Java tea, making sure to mix Tess' with chocolate just how she liked it. He then pulled out a bottle of syrup and poured some on her pancakes. Once he thought she had enough he tried to pull it away, only to have Tess put her hand on the bottle and pour out some more onto her pancakes.

"So," Tess started as she allowed Arthur to take the syrup away. "What was it that you were working on all night?"

"The mission I'm proposing to the council today, to dive into the last relic tomb."

"Oh, so does that mean you'll be getting a team together?" Tess asked, then took a bite of food.

"No, Just me and Regis. It's too dangerous to bring anyone else. The last time was a massacre," Arthur replied as he remembered when he took a team into the third tomb in the last timeline.

Lunaris was dead inside after Kathyln died, and was looking for a battle to die in, the tomb gave him that chance early on. Claire became separated and she was overwhelmed by sheer numbers of insect type beasts on a different floor.

When Kaspian saw Claire was in trouble he fought to get to her, only to have one of the insects rip off his leg while running. Once on the ground he was swarmed and eaten alive in seconds.

Feyrith and Orson chose to split up for a two pronged attack on a floor. The attack was successful, but Feyrith's core became depleted from using too many advanced spells. On their way back they accidentally disturbed a sleeping flock of winged beasts and were forced to run.

Curtis had brought Grawder, and rode him to double back and pick them up. Unfortunately the winged beasts were too close, and Orson chose to stay behind to buy the others time to escape. It almost worked. Before Grawder was able to make it through the portal, the beasts revealed they had tongues like frogs, but with toxic barbs on the ends. Grawder was hit in his right hind quarter, and died within minutes on the following floor.

Only Curtis, Feyrith, Jasmine, and Arthur survived the dive, only to be attacked in the sanctuary less than a day later.

"If it's too dangerous for you to bring a team, then how are you and Regis going to survive? And why not bring Sylvie?" Tess argued.

"Oh we've done it before," Regis chimed in without opening his eyes. "Trust us, it's a lot easier when it's just the two of us. We don't have to worry about supplies or resting too."

"And as for Sylvie, the relic tombs were designed to be Asura proof. She can't even get in, and who knows what would happen if she did," Arthur stated. "There will be a second team with a different mission, but they won't be diving."

"Well I still don't think that's a good idea for you two to be going alone. Just because it didn't work out last time doesn't mean it would play out the same this time," Tess argued.

"I know, but I don't want the blood on my hands just so I can reach the bottom. The reward for this dive really only benefits me."

"No. You gaining that ultimate art benefits everyone," Tess disagreed. "You said it yourself, with that you can defeat Agrona, and if you can do that you end the war for good, saving thousands of lives."

"Ok, I guess you have a point there," Arthur said, conceding to her logic.

Arthur's watch beeped.

"That's my cue," Arthur said as he stood up. "Time for me to meet with the council." He leaned in and gave Tess a kiss. "Gramps wants me to take the rest of the day off after this proposal, so I'll be back by lunchtime. If you want, you can start absorbing the mana from that horn. Regis already knows what to do and can explain everything. And Sylvie will make..."

They all suddenly felt something they could only describe as a wave hitting them, coming from Sylvie.

"Finally," Sylvie groaned.

"Integration stage?" Arthur asked.

"Yup," she announced proudly. "Next step is to work on my clan mana arts."

"Clan mana arts?" Tess questioned.

"There are certain mana arts exclusive to each of the different Asura clans that can only be learned after they reach the integration stage," Arthur explained.

"What about you then?" Tess asked, looking at Arthur curiously. "What are the human mana arts?"

"Who knows," Arthur replied, looking deep in thought. "To my knowledge I'm the first human to achieve this stage."

"Then I guess it's your responsibility to figure it out then," Sylvie stated with a smirk.

"Alright, but not now," Arthur said, and bent back down and kissed Tess again. "Mmm, sweeter than usual," he commented with a smirk as he tasted the syrup from her lips.

Tess giggled.

"Sylvie, make sure Regis behaves with Tess.

Sylvie gave a salute in response, and Arthur walked out.

—————————————————————-

Arthur exited the building, he was running a little late, but he wasn't worried, he could god step to Town Hall in a matter of seconds if he needed to.

"Good morning Arthur."

Arthur turned to see Elder Rhina standing there with a suspicious smile on her face.

"Good morning Elder," Arthur said, with an equally suspicious tone. "Why do I have the feeling you were waiting for me?"

"Because you have always been a very bright young man."

Arthur walked closer, then cast a sound dampening spell around them.

"Hmm, this is a convenient spell. I wish I could do it," Rinia commented as she appreciated the spell.

"So, what did you want to tell me?"

"This wasn't really necessary. My advice comes in the form of your answer to a question. What is the most important thing required in all of those dungeon raids happening for it to be successful?"

Arthur thought for a second. He immediately ruled out the obvious things like food, medical supplies, and good weapons and armor.

"I'm really not sure. Knowing you, it can't be any of my answers," Arthur replied.

"Teamwork. Even though all of those teams in this war are clearing dungeons while aiming for the same result, they sometimes have additional goals. One may be wanting to try out a new spell, another may be looking for a valuable enough beast core so he or she can feed their family, or someone could just be looking to get stronger. In the end they all achieve the results and their different goals, because of their time battling together and building a mutual trust, they have developed a level of teamwork that will always stand the test of time."

With that Rhina nodded, and Arthur ended his spell as she walked away. He stood there pondering her words. He was pretty sure he knew what she meant, but wasn't sure if he wanted to take that risk. Then Tess' words rang in his head. He looked up at the light emitting runes on the cavern walls and sighed.

"A leap of faith then."

—————————————————————-

"Hmm, looks like our lances are almost late," Buhnd commented as he leaned up against a wall.

"Oh, I see Bairon and Mica walking down the hall," Merial informed them.

"What about Arthur?" Virion asked.

Merial shook her head.

"I hope he doesn't think being from the future is a good excuse to be late," Blaine grumbled.

Suddenly there was a flash of purple light between Blaine and Priscilla, and Arthur was there standing between them as there were several purple sparks of lightning.

"Am I late?" Arthur asked.

The other two lances just entered the room.

"No, it looks like everyone arrived right on time," Virion replied.

Finally realizing he was standing between the last person he would ever call a fan and his wife, Arthur decided to move beside Virion and Tess' parents. As he moved he noticed Merial and Alduin watching him as they appeared to be trying to hide their smiles. This in itself wasn't very suspicious or any cause for alarm, but the fact that Virion was also avoiding eye contact, Arthur couldn't help but suspect there was some kind of scheme being piloted that somehow involved him.

"Ahem," Priscilla cleared her throat as she stepped forward. "Allow me to start this meeting with an update on yesterday's issues. The first shipment of requested supplies will be ready by mid afternoon at the latest, as well as several additional guards." She then held up a communication scroll. "They will contact us through this visual communication scroll when everything is ready."

Everyone nodded and commented their approval of this.

"Also, Curtis has requested some duties while he is here with us. Unless anyone objects, I'd like to make him responsible for all returns to the castle to collect supplies." She looked around, and no one had any objections. "Thank you," she replied and stepped back.

"Alright then," Virion said. "New business. General Leywin here would like to propose a mission."

"Thank you commander," Arthur said as he stepped forward. "If we are ever going to win this war, the lances must start taking a more hands on roll, get their hands a little bloody."

Bairon was behind Arthur, but he could feel him glaring daggers at him. No doubt interpreting it as he felt the other lances weren't carrying their weight. This wasn't true, but Arthur didn't travel back in time to care about other people's feelings, so he continued.

"However, most of Alacrya's elite soldiers, who I feel that would be the best use for them, use a combination of close quarters and ranged attacks, leaving the other lances at a disadvantage."

"And how are we at a disadvantage?" Bairon questioned.

"Bairon, Mica, what happens when a white core mage channels the full force of their mana into a weapon?"

"It shatters," Mica answered." But there's nothing that can be done. The best blacksmiths in Dicathen have tried, they can't make a weapon durable enough."

Arthur pulled a simple white knife from his storage rune and held it out to Mica.

"If you would be so kind, channel the full force of your core into this blade."

Skeptical, Mica took the blade and started channeling mana into it. Everyone could feel a bit of pressure, but not so much that it was a problem for the council. After a few seconds Mica stared intently at the blade as the pressure emanating from her grew. Soon she looked up at Arthur completely bewildered.

"It's not breaking?!" Mica said in amazement.

Arthur smiled.

"That knife is made of a material called industructium."

Everyone immediately gave a deadpanned look due to the name.

"Remind me to warn Tessia to not allow you to name my great grandchildren."

"Hey I didn't name it, Alacryan's did," Arthur stated defensively. Arthur cleared his throat. "Anyway, I'm sure you all remember the relic tombs I told you all about yesterday. Well apparently this industructium is only found in the Dicathen relic tombs, and from what I learned, more durable than the ore they are mining in the Alacryan relic tombs."

"So what you're wanting to do is establish a mining operation in one of these relic tombs, correct?" Buhnd asked as drew that conclusion.

"That's only part of the plan." Arthur took a deep breath as he prepared himself for what he was about to say. "The other part will be me leading a team down into the relic tomb, all the way to the bottom level."

"I'm sorry," Bairon interrupted. "But from what I understood from yesterday, these relic tombs are highly dangerous. More so than our dungeons in the beast glades."

"That's right," Arthur agreed. "From what I saw, in Alacrya just to be trained at an academy to be an ascender, the mages were having to be at least in the dark yellow stage. So we can assume that everyone who entered a relic tomb had to at least be at the mid yellow stage."

"Then why are we going to be sending a team in there?" Alduin asked.

"Two reasons. One, planning for the future. Everyday more and more dungeons are being cleared on the beast glades. Now it will only take a few generations to actually clear the beast glades,

however, what we will see in the near future after the war, are all those adventurers with not enough mana beasts to hunt."

"You want this to replace the beast glades," Priscilla said in understanding.

"Correct, at least for the higher ranked adventurers. The lower ones will have to be content with the beast glades, since the tombs would be a suicide mission for them. In Alacrya there are veteran ascenders who all they do is take new freshly licensed ascenders on their first dive. In this case that will be me. I will take a team down there and give them a chance to see first hand what the relic tombs are like. If everything goes according to plan, after the war the Adventures Guild will establish a guild hall on the first floor where the mining operation will be, and not only provide protection for the miners, while some of those original individuals will form parties of their own and take others down as well."

"It almost sounds like you're trying to turn us into Alacrya," Blaine commented suspiciously.

"No. Even though there are many things I saw that I believe would benefit us, the way they operate the relic tombs can't work for us."

"How so?" Virion asked, his curiosity peaked.

"Almost their entire economy revolves around the relic tombs. That works for them because the Vritia don't care about money. They just want the knowledge that's gained from there. However, here everyone wants and needs money. We can't afford to pour everything into the tombs, otherwise our economy would eventually collapse. Treating the relic tombs like the deepest parts of the beast glades would be the wisest thing we could do."

"What was the other reason you wanted to lead a team down there?" Merial asked.

"This is the biggest reason. This war won't ever end as long as the Vritra and Asura are at war. Now I've learned Agrona is trying to understand an edict of Aether called Fate. With it he will become unstoppable, so what I was doing in the last timeline was diving into each of the relic tombs to ultimately try and gain Fate for myself so I can stop him."

"You must be joking," Bairon scoffed. "He keeps defeating the Asura at every turn, do you actually think you can defeat him?"

"As I am now, no. That's why I need to gain Fate."

"What does fate do?" Priscilla asked.

"I wish I knew. The Djinn I keep encountering keep telling me I'm gaining insight into it, but that's all I know." Arthur paused for a second, then continued. "Sylvia, Lord Indrath's own daughter left

me a message in her will that told me I needed to dive into every tomb and reach the bottoms, and that will help me gain the edict."

The council all looked deep in thought. It did sound like a worthy mission, but when they considered the logistics during the war, and personnel they would need to pull from all over the continent, they weren't sure if now was the time to be worrying about this, when the Vritra couldn't actually attack them. On the other hand, they remembered that these relic tombs were created by the ancient mages, meaning there could be countless useful artifacts just waiting to be discovered.

"I know we have a lot to consider," Virion said to everyone. "But this isn't something we can waste a lot of time on. If we're going to do this then it's better now than when Alacrya sends yet another invasion fleet. So let's have an initial vote now, if it's a landslide majority the operation will be approved and we'll begin making preparations. All in favor?"

Every hand but Blaine's went up.

"All opposed?"

No hands were raised.

"Council member Glayder, you didn't vote," Virion stated.

"I'm aware, but this seems extremely risky. I approve of the mining portion, I can see the benefit of sending the Lances to the front lines, but the rest, I feel it can wait for now."

"I understand your feelings," Arthur said. "But we will inevitably lose in a drawn out war, we just don't have the numbers to realistically keep up. And if Agrona gains fate before us and defeats the Asura, there will be nothing left for us to fight for. Without the Asura the Vritra can step foot in Dicathen and kill us all on their own, and no one, not even the lances will be able to stop them."

"Very well," Blaine conceded. "I vote in support."

"Thank you." Virion then looked to Arthur. "General, I need a list of everyone and everything you'll need to complete this mission."

Arthur handed him several sheets of paper.

"The one I need first and as soon as possible is Gideon. Without his help this mission will become a suicide mission."

"We'll send word out right away," Virion replied as he skimmed the list, then stopped when he saw one name in particular. "Are you serious about this one?"

"Completely. I have no doubt that he'll become invaluable," Arthur replied.

"Very well," Virion said, accepting Arthur's answer and continued to look over the list.

"We have no further military related business at this point," Priscilla stated. "So Lances, you are dismissed.

The three bowed and turned to leave.

"Actually, Arthur," Merial said, stopping him before he could leave the room. "Could you stay? We do have one more issue that I feel we could use your input on."