Symbiotic Ascension : A Progression Fantasy Adventure

Glenn grunted, forcing his eyes open. His head was scrambled and his stomach heavy, as if a weight was pushing down on it. His tongue felt like wood, as if it had been days since his last drink. But more importantly, he felt he was missing a fundamental component of his being.

'What... damn, my head... Shit, I really need to find a way to stop losing consciousness. Diamanes, Nelg, what happened?'

Diamanes cleared his throat with a certain pride. "Well, as I predicted, the traitor left us! I, your loyal companion, helper, and mentor, am still here!"

The room in Glenn's eyes appeared blurry, and it took a few more minutes to distinguish reality from imagination. He recognized one of the private lodges on Lucian's flying ship, the familiar wooden plank ceiling, and steel reinforcements in the corners. He froze in his movements when he realized that the weight on his stomach belonged to Liara, who had apparently fallen asleep while keeping watch on him.

"Welcome back, lazy fuck," whispered a voice from the corner of the room.

"So you cut me off, huh? I didn't know you could do that," replied Glenn in a similar hushed tone. Nelg uncrossed his arms and shrugged dismissively.

"I didn't either, but well, it happened." He looked at Liara with an amused expression and got closer to Glenn. "Listen, now that I'm here, I can tell you that, undoubtedly, Liara owns a very special place in your heart. Don't ask me how I know, it's embarrassing enough for the both of us. And... You should know, right?"

Glenn was tempted to rebuke his doppelganger but stopped himself when Liara muttered in her sleep, moving to get more comfortable. His lips shut by themselves, a gentle warmth spreading through his chest. There was no use fighting it; he knew it. Perhaps he had liked her since the moment he met her, disheveled, scrawny, and practically lifeless in that black market of the Eastern Town. The princess of the lost Black Heir kingdom, a bearer of elven blood.

'Me...? In a relationship?' He clenched his blanket and bit on his lip. Before, the very thought made him laugh at its absurdity. Why bother loving someone if he was fated to return to Earth one day? But that had changed when he found Lina in this world, giving him a reason to anchor himself in Limbo. A reason to keep fighting, to grow stronger, to become even more dependable.

To not lose to the madness.

"I changed..." he said quietly. "Lina, Mom, everyone..." His eyes softened as he looked at the sleeping beauty. "...Liara."

"I have too many reasons to live now, too many people who love me and support me." He chuckled softly and looked at Nelg, who nodded silently.

"I think I love Liara," muttered Glenn. The aforementioned moved in her sleep, burying her face deeper in the blanket, probably to dull the sounds of their conversation. The young man looked at his left purple hand and sighed dejectedly.

"That does make it a little more urgent to get rid of you, Diamanes. I don't want to be in a three-way relationship with the third party constantly staring at my every move."

Diamanes scoffed. "Sure, if you can just get rid of me! Say bye-bye to the Regeneration, the Nitrogen, Milena's powers, or whatever incredible powers we will be able to steal in the future now that you're an Archmagi!"

Glenn pressed his lips together and decided to lift off one of the secrets weighing his heart down. "Diamanes, I do have ways to get rid of you."

The entity paused before exclaiming quietly in disbelief. "Ways? As in, multiple? How—" He clicked his tongue in realization. "The King. Of course. Who else?"

"Exan," admitted Glenn without shame.

Diamanes grunted in annoyance. Glenn could almost imagine that faceless man living as a hand shaking his head dejectedly. "Why didn't you get rid of me, then?"

"Well, you made for some pretty strong arguments. It'd be a little too bad to get rid of all my monstrous powers. I'd be back to being an Archmagi a little beyond normalcy."

"And...?"

"It's not like I can allow myself to spit on anything that helps keep me and my friends alive. And yes, I do enjoy your company, even though I'm finding myself wishing it wouldn't be so... constant."

"Well, maybe we can do something about that. You'll have to tinker with your soul, but it's not like the thing was exactly pristine. It should be fine."

Glenn froze and almost jumped out of his blanket but used all of his willpower not to do so. Not screaming at the entity took twice the effort for that.

"The fuck? You're telling me there were ways to get actual peace all along?" He hissed as quietly as he could.

Diamanes blew raspberries dismissively. "Well, you never actually asked, and it's not like you were strong enough to do it anyway. But now... You're an Archmagi! Soul work should be fine. You even have some experience with Nelg! And that's not counting all the divine bullshit you always get dragged into."

"Don't say it like it's my fault," complained Glenn. "I still can't understand why the Gods are so interested in me, aside from the fact that I came from Earth!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Anyway, when were you going to tell me these fools wanted to get rid of me? Keeping secrets, hmm?"

Glenn grinned widely, copying the mouth in his palm. "Well, you never asked."

Diamanes chortled in incredulity, keeping silent. Nelg chuckled at the exchange and shook his head.

"Get some rest. There was a change of plan."

"Oh yeah?" The young man's eyebrows rose. "How so?"

The doppelganger scratched the back of his head with a wry expression. "Well, we might have forgotten something back at the Mortelli estate, and..."

Glenn laughed in disbelief. "Don't tell me..."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Nelg grimaced. "Yeah, Sahro's still there."

"Oh, he's going to be so pissed off. Hehehe!"

***

Milena paced in her room, staring at Sir Rakis, the family's perverted mind mage. In a surprising turn of events, the location they brought her to was the Sorenas' Estate. Much different from the pristine white and calm splendor of the Dela Luna's Manor, the Sorenas' Estate was the very essence of luxury and richness. A vulgar display of their inherited fortune, gold and silver sprayed like mortar through expensive hand-sculpted bricks. In a world where construction materials could be easily obtained through magical means, using carefully hand-sculpted bricks was pointless since nobody would ever notice.

Unless the owner of the estate liked to show off and explain how their stuff was better than other people's stuff, of course. This was exactly how Lily of Sorenas and the rest of her family behaved, except for Milena. Always one-upping their neighbors or concurring noble houses. 'You have twelve gardeners working on your vineyard? I'll hire twenty!', or something along those lines. Once more, the young lady swore to herself to catch a word with her father to ask him what he could have possibly seen in this hateful woman to marry her.

She turned away from Rakis and picked up the picture of her fiance, Talor Rosenborn. A relatively handsome man in his early thirties and with pretty good standing. Rumors of him raising the Rosenborns' status to a ducal one kept being shoved at Milena as if it was reason enough for her to fawn over the stranger. In classic noble politics, it would have certainly been, but to Milena, she couldn't possibly care less.

'A romantic relationship... I... I never had one!' she realized in horror. Life had been going so quickly for her, running from one death trap to another with Glenn and the rest of the team, that she simply never got to create a deeply meaningful relationship. And what she had with the others didn't count.

'It's not like I have the leeway to think about this, though.' She shook her head and sat on a sofa, sighing heavily. The Duchess had abandoned her in the estate to go to some sort of noble ceremony, nothing important probably. It would have been the perfect opportunity to snoop around if it wasn't for this pervert of Rakis!

Milena's eyebrows creased as she drew on her Mana, only for Rakis' mind to smash into hers, shutting her efforts down. The Archmagi was unforgiving and determined to make it impossible for her to rebel. 'Should I use Grandpa's gift? I can probably punch above my weight with it, but...'

She wasn't comfortable revealing her secret card so early. Her mother would come running as soon as she defeated Rakis, and anything problematic would be hidden away. And Milena could not have that happen. 'But I refuse to play in her hands like some sort of political pawn. The faster I'm done with the Sorenas, the better. I know they're shady; I just need to find the thing that would revoke their title. If I'm the one to achieve that, the Dela Luna won't be affected and might even get rewarded for unearthing another traitor to the crown.'

There was no doubt in Milena's mind about that last thought. Her mother never knew what righteousness meant, and loyalty was something that was owed to her but that she didn't need to respect or give. Munirp could burn to the ground that she wouldn't give a damn, as long as her precious privileges weren't affected. This was the sort of woman Lily of Sorenas was.

A fiend.

Milena pushed down her rage and shot up on her feet to try and convince Rakis to let her go when the door to her room suddenly creaked. A tanned hand pushed it open, ushering in her grinning mother. Milena's eyes widened in horror as she watched Sahro follow behind Lily respectfully. The Black Heir had no reaction when he saw her, simply standing close behind Lily like some sort of guard.

"Good job keeping her here, Sir Rakis. Please, leave us."

"Are you sure, Lady Sorenas? She's dangerous—"

Lily brushed aside Rakis's concerns before pressing herself against Sahro. "Don't worry, Sir Rakis. I've found a guard more than capable of calming my daughter's ardor. And don't forget," she said, resting her hand on a necklace set with an enormous emerald, "that I'll be fine."

Sir Rakis bowed politely. "Very well, Lady Sorenas." He left the room without further ado. The Duchess let go of Sahro and came closer to Milena, smiling from ear to ear.

"Do you appreciate the souvenir I brought back?" She raised her hand to her shoulder, and Sahro went and slipped his in tenderly. Milena wanted to pluck her eyes out at the sight but stopped herself from doing so.

"What did you do to Sahro?" She hissed, her hands instinctively searching for the daggers that should have been hanging at her waist. Rakis would have been a fool to let her keep her weapons.

"Oh, nothing too serious," laughed Lily. "Simply a little magic I learned from some elegant friends, coupled with the Sorenas' charms. As a woman, you should have learned to make use of those. Unfortunately, you'll never have the chance to. Your husband has already been chosen, after all, and he is more than satisfied with our proposal."

Milena's disgust faded away, replaced by confusion. Magic? From 'elegant' friends? What did that even mean? 'Is Sahro under some sort of mind control?' She activated her Mana Sight with a blink, searching for any sort of enchantment enrapturing her Black Heir friend, and indeed, something was hovering around him constantly, a pink smog clouding her vision.

'What sorcery is this...? How did Sahro, of all people, succumb to charming magic?' Right when she got that thought, the smog cleared out, letting her see Sahro's true form, red lightning crackling with primordial power. The lightning turned into a cheery fox, visible only to those who practiced magic. Raijin purred happily before returning to his master's chest.

The relief made Milena's shoulder droop and her Mana Sight deactivate. Lily smiled victoriously and passed her hand on Sahro's back sensually.

"That is the way of the Sorenas, Milena. Take what you want from others, and never give it back." She chuckled and leaned her chin against Sahro's shoulder. "And this I'll never return."

Anger, disgust, and annoyance flashed all at once in Sahro's eyes, something which Milena didn't miss. The young lady closed her eyes for an instant, thinking about the best course of action.

"You truly are a petty, vicious woman, Mother."

"It's Duchess—"

Milena's Mana surged out in a wave, silencing her mother. The latter had no powers after all, and even if she had some protections in place, it would do nothing to defend her from the bloodlust Milena had nurtured on the battlefield.

"I will be free of this family, whether you like it or not, Mother. And when I'm done, not even ashes will be left of this place. Now, leave you and your slave. I should have known the only way you could have servants was through magic and coercion."

Lily's cheeks flushed red with anger, and she lashed out, slapping Milena with the back of her hand. Or at least, she tried to. It barely took anything for Milena to dodge the clumsy attack. Infuriated, Lily grabbed Sahro's arm and pulled him out of Milena's room.

"RAKIS! Keep an eye on this wench! I feel she will be bothering us for a while now!"

The mind mage frowned as he entered the room. "I will need helpers to create shifts. I might be an Archmagi, but I need to eat and sleep like everyone else."

Milena almost scoffed. That wasn't true, he was just lazy. Glenn could fight for days and nights without sleeping or eating.

"Just take the other with you!" She screamed back. "I have the Black Heir under control; just watch over my unruly daughter!"

"Very well, Lady Sorenas."

The corner of Milena's lips curled upward slightly. Things were looking pretty good. Hopefully, Sahro had received her message loud and clear.

It was time for her to break her chains.