Title The Beginning After the End Vol. 2
Author: TurtleMe (Story), Fuyuki23 (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press, Tapas
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 214
Genre: Fantasy, Action
Publication Date: February 28, 2023
The Story
We open up the second volume of The Beginning After the End with the attack by the bandits. With his father wounded, Art is instructed to take his mother and flee. Alice uses healing magic on Reynolds which makes the bandits discover that she’s a healer. As in most PvP situations, you target the healer. Art takes her and runs but a fourth mage was waiting for them. Art deals with him but takes a nasty fall in the process.
When he comes to, he’s all alone. He hears a booming voice call out to him. He decides that he will trust this voice as it promises to help him. After finding the lair of the voice’s origins, he comes across a woman named Sylvia that is clad head to toe in a dark, evil armor. Once he gets over her appearance, he notices that she has a gaping wound that festers from time to time. Sylvia promises to make a portal and send him back to his family but it will take time.
With the portal nearing completion, Sylvia must be in her true form to finish it. This is when she reveals herself to Art and hands her a gift before sending him on his way. Now in the middle of Elshire Forest, he must find his way back on his own but as he does, he comes across some slave traders and decides to make a pit stop to help a little elf girl!
Characters
Without spoiling too much, Sylvia is the perfect example of not judging a book by its cover. Despite her fearsome look, Sylvia is gentle and is almost like a mother to Art. She’s very wise and even teaches him that he can meditate and gather mana while moving… even while fighting. Art is stuck with her for four months as she prepared the portal so he had plenty of time to practice these new techniques. She was an incredible character and when Art’s mana core makes it to the white stage, she will be sure to contact him again.
The fact that she willingly took a guardian role shows how lonely she was cooped up in her lair all this time. She didn’t divulge all of the information just yet but that’s the promise she made once his core turned white. So, there will be more to her story in the future but for now, she’s a really solid character… very noble… she also knows some times that Art did not expect! This raised a lot of questions about her making her future appearance all that more interesting!
Outside of that, there wasn’t much development from a character standpoint with Art. After all, he is King Grey reincarnated so outside of growing his power and fighting technique, is there really much room for actual character development? Perhaps this new elf girl will answer that question for us!
Final Thoughts
A fantastic second volume! Art received a future power-up through Sylvia and an immediate power-up by telling him about how he can gather mana while moving. I’m sure this will come in handy in the future once he masters it. Until then, it looks as if we are on a journey to reunite Art with his parents but I don’t think that it’s going to be that simple. After all, Sylvia said that she was only able to open a portal “near humans.” There is no guarantee that his parents will be there. The fact that it has been four months makes you wonder if they’re even still looking for Art.
There was also some information early on in the volume that could suggest that Art doesn’t find them but, instead, may run into someone down the line… someone who might take Art’s disappearance in a bitter way. Perhaps they had sown the seeds for a future rival for Art? Time will tell but I don’t think that he’s going to find his parents anytime soon. I think this is the true beginning of Art’s journey and he’ll run into his parents later on down the line. Since he didn’t complete his journey to the city, perhaps he will head there first?
There are a lot of directions this story can take and it has been set up beautifully! Two volumes in and I can already tell that this has the potential to be something epic!
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This item was purchased for review.
