NOVEL NEXT Chapter 248 - Ascending One
Nar had never been to training arena B, whatever that may be, but the usual white arrows sprung to life to guide him when he engaged his ship's map.
The arrows guided him towards the by now familiar path to the lift that led down to the canteen, however, instead of the expected sensation of slight weightlessness, he instead felt a sinking in his stomach.
Eh? He looked at the numbers flashing by on the deck counter. We're going up?
He frowned. As far as he could remember, he had never gone anywhere above the 4th deck, where their party room was located, and had indeed thought that there were only more party rooms, and the undeads' gun decks on the levels above theirs.
Maybe even the faculty rooms… he thought. But just as he was pondering the slight mystery, an entirely different sensation twisted into his stomach, flipping reality upside down and everything went momentarily "gone". Then it was past him, and he was back in the slowing lift as it neared its destination.
Another jump, he realized, his heart beating fast. But that really wasn't so bad.
Just as Professor Thim had explained to them in Nexus 101, the sensation of the micro-jumps was slowly fading away. Another month or two, and Nar wouldn't even notice them anymore. On one hand, the thought of it brought it some relief, but on the other, to know that he was being cast forward through space and time without even realizing it made him slightly hesitant.
Just then, the lift stopped, the counter reading a surprising -1, and he cast the thought aside to face what awaited him… Tys, an Ascending One that wished to become his master. Or whatever it was to be named, given that he was supposed to become something called a disciple, rather than an apprentice as he currently was.
With his heart pounding against his temples, he forced his features into a mask of neutrality as he followed the arrows through a blank, darkened corridor punctuated by distantly spaced and tiny, white floor lights.
Had he received this offer before Haven, he would've been jumping up and down the promenades in roaring joy and excitement. But now, with the truth revealed, even if he still had every intention to fulfil his duty and pay his debt to the party, with his life if need be, he just couldn't seem to marshal any ounce of the excitement that had before accompanied his dream of becoming a Named Few. Most likely, this was due because becoming a Named Few had only ever been an objective, a requirement of the journey, rather than the destination. But the destination was forever barred from his reach, and what was left of it…
He noticed the end of the path coming up ahead, and shook the thoughts clear from his mind and composed his face once more.
A double door sighed open for him as he approached the final white arrow, and his eyebrows rose as he stepped into a large oval room, its floor covered in what had to be some sort of thick, brown-orange sand.
What in the Pile? He thought.
The air within the room was muted somehow, as though the sound of his footsteps was reaching him through his hands covering his ears, and as the doors closed behind him, the sensation only became more absolute. However, instead of stopping to take in the sight and details of the room, which there didn't seem to be much to, other than a ceiling made up entirely of a diffuse but stark white light, the dark gray walls and the sandy floor he stepped over, and instead he kept going, heading straight for Tys.
The COO watched his approach with a blank expression of her own, her posture easy, hands behind her back, and Nar found himself resisting the urge to gulp as he approached her. Not that he was scared of her per se, but there was a certain, undeniable respect that came from knowing that he was approaching one of the most powerful sapients across the infinite eternity of the Nexus.
No pin again, he thought, noticing the absence of the silver pin from her chest, even as his heartbeat steadily climbed.
Just as he reached her, he succumbed and swallowed dryly before he opened his mouth to greet her.
"Rule number 1," she said, before he could speak. "When we are alone you are to call me Tys. Outside, we will keep appearances until, and if, we establish an official Vow of Ascension. Hierarchy and discipline are important for the ship, and we won't do anything to destabilize that. But alone, I am not your COO. I am something like a master to you, but I don't like the idea of being called that, nor of you calling me Ascendant all the time."
She twisted her lips. "I am your teacher. Your path to greatness. And you are my disciple. As long as we respect each other, I am Tys and you are Nar, and that is all there is to it. Make sense?"
"I…" he sighed lightly, trying to shake the sudden nervousness that had gripped him. "Yeah. I guess so, Tys."
"Good," she said, offering him a tight smile. "Now, the Vow of Ascension is a simple thing. It basically means that I, an Ascendant One, and hopefully soon to be Named Few, take you in as my disciple with the vow to do absolutely everything in my power to assure your ascension, and the creation of another protector of the Nexus and enforcer of the Radiants' will."
She sighed.
"That last bit doesn't sound great, but it is what it is. Named Few fight and destroy anything that stands in the way of the Nexus and its everlasting existence, being that direct monster slaying or delving in the Deep Deep for high quality resources," she explained. "As part of my vow to raise you into our ranks, I will also clothe you, feed you and support you in any way possible. For now, you must first complete your apprenticeship with the Scimitar, so they are still responsible for that, but afterwards, you can think of me as family, and you will support you."
Nar nodded his awkward, and nervous understanding.
"As for you, a disciple is basically an apprentice. The only difference is that you vow your complete obedience to me, and that you won't do anything to undermine me or stab me in the back," she said. "For the second one, we're not nobles or rich heirs to giant conglomerates and fortunes, so we don't really need to worry about that. As for the first… Well, I won't make you do anything that will demean or disgrace you, but I will demand obedience and full dedication to the training, no matter how brutal it is. And Nar, it is going to be harsh."
Again, Nar nodded. "I trust you, Tys. I don't think you're the kind of person that would do anything like that to me. As for the training… I will do anything you demand."
She passed a hand over her ashen dark gray hair, cut just to about shoulder length, then sighed.
"There's a little more to it than that, but I suppose this is fine for now," she said, her eyes so similar to his, looking weary for a split-second. "But before we start and I waste any breath, I need to know whether or not you still have the willpower to go forward with this. You don't have your father's life motivating you anymore, or driving you past the edge again and again to keep you going further. And without a true, soulbound reason to want to embark on this fucked up journey, you will fail."
Nar took a deep breath and crossed his arms, shifting his right foot over the orange sand.
"I still have my party, and there are still people like that yellow guy around. And worse, I'm sure," Nar said. "Church people. Nobles. The rich and the powerful… That is the kind of place the Nexus is, and I will do everything to ensure that my party, my family, finds happiness and true freedom out here. I don't care how much it costs me. I don't care how much it hurts. My party gave and risked everything to ensure my dream, and I will do everything to ensure theirs."
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"And your dad?" she asked. Her soft tone, the undertones of genuine grief within her voice… It startled him.
"I… I will deal with it," he said, pushing the words past the sudden tightness closing around his throat. "Don't worry. It won't affect our training."
She nodded. "Fair enough. Well, as your teacher, feel free to come to me if you ever want to talk. I'm no stranger to loss either."
Again, that grief in her voice, contained, but just.
"I will. Thank you, Tys," Nar said, and he meant it.
"No worries," she said, then her posture straightened once more. "To business then. Some Named Few place a lot of expectations on their disciples. They need to be well behaved. Well groomed. Well educated. Well-spoken and yada yada!"
She tutted. "Not me, I don't care about any of that. You're not some pet for me to strut about with, and I couldn't give a shit about my reputation or standing within high society."
Her eyes pierced into his.
"I only care about three things in this relationship. One, that I give you the utmost to ensure your success. Two that you do your utmost to do the same. And three, that we truly respect and rely on each other."
An uncertain look crossed her eyes and a slight smile tugged at her lips.
"I mentioned family, and many bonded by a Vow of Ascension end up becoming like that, two powerful Named Few who watch over each other's backs," she said, her grin widening. "Just promise me that at best, I'll be like your older sister. I don't know what I would do if you started treating me like a mother. I'm not ready for that."
A surprised snort escaped Nar's lips.
"Don't worry. I don't think that's going to happen," he said, unable to keep himself from smiling.
"Good. I'm not exactly parental figure material!" she said, shaking her and getting a laugh from Nar. "That said, let's talk about your training, and the goal we're aiming for. But before that…"
She looked around herself in annoyance. "It's always so stuffy in here… Arena B, Controls! External mode!"
External mode? Nar thought as the ground shook beneath him. Above him, the lights went off, and a thin line of faded blue light spread from the center of that darkness instead.
With his mouth half open, Nar watched as the ceiling retreated to reveal the distant Labyrinth high above their heads. Above the very ship itself.
The floor stopped shaking and the walls themselves sunk into the ground with a silent ease, leaving behind 30-feet walls of interlocked metal that allowed one to see the view beyond. And what a view it was… Clouds stretched as far as the eye could see, painted in dramatic tones of deep and bright blues and grays as daylight dimmed in the Labyrinth, these enormous structures towering within the mind defying size of the Labyrinth channel they traversed.
"That's better, isn't it?" she asked him, her short dark hair swaying in the breeze.
Nar could only nod, his eyes lost in the distant haze far, far beyond the ship, where cloud and Labyrinth wall merged into a shapeless blue touched with a hint of rainbow-like colors from ambient aether.
"There are two arenas aboard the Scimitar," she said. "They come into use in you guys' second year, when you start displaying a little bit of some real power."
She grinned at him, and Nar held back a sigh. He had a feeling he was in for a lot of teasing and poking with Tys as his teacher.
"Here, you guys can go wild. The sand is aurium, so it will take most anything you guys can throw at it, and the fences are made from ditanium, so you can be sure they're strong enough to catch you. But if they don't, there's a safety mechanism to catch you if you fall down," she explained, her smile turning mischievous.
Nar didn't even have time to frown. One moment he was wondering how the safety mechanism worked and where it was, as he couldn't spot anything from where he stood.
The next, the arena was below him, and he was falling over the side of the ship.
Uh? He thought, his brain failing to comprehend what had just happened. But just as he began his descent, a dull explosion rang from the ship, and suddenly, a vicious clamp was wrapped around him, his ribs complaining of the impact and the pressure squeezing him, and he was jerked back towards the ship.
"Ugh!" he grunted, as he impacted against a cube of thick softness.
"How's that?" Tys voice asked.
He looked up to see her head peeking down from the ceiling of the cube, her eyes dancing with mirth. Instead of replying, Nar closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, his heart threatening to jump straight out of his mouth.
"Oh! Fight back! It's no fun otherwise!" she said, laughing.
Nar shook his head and stood back up, heading for the exit that Tys pointed at.
Part of him reeled from her behavior, but the other part of him simply nodded in quiet acceptance. Her personality and behavior matched everything of her that he had seen thus far, and still smiling, she reached down a hand to him, and he let himself be yanked up back to the arena level.
He found himself perched on a thin ledge between the tall fence and a handrail, and while glancing back below him, he found the entrance to the red and blue safety mechanism mattress, he didn't spot the actual rope and claw that had shoot out to catch him.
"Too risky to use aura for this, and even more for aether," Tys explained. "Lots of affinities can have weird interactions with air or gravity affinities, so, like for most things auramancer, manual is the best way to go."
He nodded, rubbing at his side. "I guess that settles that."
"Right? Now you can train without worry of falling over," she explained, leaning over the handrails to stare out at the ocean of clouds.
You could have just told me! He thought, his heart still in his mouth. But no. That was not her style, now was it? Still, a smile peaked over his lips. He had a feeling he was going to like her…
"Right, so, with the fun stuff aside," she said. "I want you to know that I have no plans in interfering with your hybrid path."
She looked up at him. "Unless you've changed your mind about it?"
Nar shook his head.
"No reason to. We still need to be strong out here," he said, shrugging. "And I still believe I can make it work. And be very strong with it… At least, from everything I've seen so far."
"Me too, but I just wanted to make sure," she told him. "So, if you're sticking to it, and I'm not changing it, then what are we going to be doing, you might ask. And the answer is simple, I'm going to take what the Master of Aura and Master of Blades already had planned for you, give it some tweaks, and dial it up by a quadrillion."
Nar stared at her.
"My goal is simple, Nar," Tys said, and her eyes, her tone, sent a shiver down his spine. "I am going to turn you into a one-man army."
"A… What…"
She straightened up from the handrail and turned to fully face him.
"When I'm done with you, Nar, you will be unbeatable. Very little is going to be able to stand in your way, and I mean every word of that having the full knowledge of what true power actually means."
Nar could only stare at her in a deaf daze, and she smiled at his stunned expression, her face tinged a deep blue as the light continued to fade.
"Does that sound good?" she asked, arching an eyebrow at him.
When Nar didn't reply, still struggling to fully comprehend the gravity of what she had just told him, she shook her head. "If you want to actually be able to protect and sustain your party in the Nexus, then you need to go all the way."
She looked to the view beyond and a distant look took her eyes.
"The Nexus is beautiful… But it is deadly, too. Unfair and horrifying to those who are weak," she said, her tone low and almost taken by the breeze. "That yellow slime ball was caught, but across the hundred thousand ceremonies, how many do you think were not? How many Climbers made it all the way out, only to be taken right back into a much worse darkness than the one they left behind? And Nar, I too was weak once… And no matter who it is, or what promises they make, in the end, I can only rely on myself."
Nar's jaw clenched. "Is that why you kept going? All the way to Named Few?"
She smiled, but it didn't touch her eyes.
"I'm not there yet, but yes. Or, at least in part, but a very important part of the reason why I did it," she told him. "There is darkness in the Nexus, and the more you see it, the more you'll want to be powerful enough to keep it away from you and those that you hold dear."
"Yes… And if that power is what I need, then that's the kind of path I'll build," Nar said, through gritted teeth. "No matter the cost. Even my life. I will do anything to keep them safe. Anything."
He knew he could not protect them from the need to go into dungeons and Crystal knew whatever challenges lay in wait for them. But those were things they had to overcome together, and to gain in strength together in order to surpass, and that was all fine… What he couldn't accept was someone else just deciding to come in and wreck their lives and futures just because they could and felt like it. And for those people… Any who would dare to do what that trash had tried to do to them back in that hospital… There would be no mercy for them. No matter who they were.
"Please, teach me," Nar asked her, bowing his head to her. "Help me be strong. Really, truly, strong, and I will never disappoint you, and you can trust me to always be your family."
She cast a sideways glance at him.
"Don't bow to me. That's not the kind of relationship I want," she told him. "And it all depends on you, and if you can take my lessons and build the path I offer you. Like I said, it won't be easy, and I am not exaggerating, Nar."
"Whatever it takes. I will do it."
She grimaced. "I'll take your word for now, but tomorrow night, after we're done with our first session, I'll ask you again. To see if you changed your mind… And give you a way out. It is only fair."
"Go it," Nar said. But deep inside him, he knew that no matter what came his way, he was not stepping back from this path that was opening before him. Death or success. Those were his only two destinations.