Symbiotic Ascension : A Progression Fantasy Adventure

Glenn opened his Observer, updating it on the same occasion. The enemy and allied lines had changed quite substantially in the short time they were away. Not that long, but still enough of an absence to be noticed. And, of course, their enemies didn't miss that opportunity.

The Celestial Gods' army had progressed substantially, pushing Munirp's forces back to the Horizon Gates. Munirp had lost its advanced frontline, the fight getting closer and closer to its citizens. King's Rise was still very far away, of course, and the King would probably not allow the Celestial Gods to progress further.

"By the Gods," muttered Milena. "I didn't realize we were so important to the war."

"You're strategic assets," Lucian declared. "Don't feel guilty over that. The soldiers knew what they got into when they signed. And thanks to them, we have all the time we need to cut the problem at its roots."

Sahro grunted. "So, what are we looking for? What did you figure out, Glenn?"

Glenn dismissed the unease built up from seeing the collapsing front lines and forced a grin on his lips.

"Where the sap connects, where the root joins..." he repeated. "That might be a long shot, but I think I know of a specific place where Mana behaves strangely and where we found a root. Remember?"

Lucian chuckled in disbelief. "The random tower I brought you guys to? Really? But there are dozens of such towers in the..." he paused, his eyes widening. "...In the entire desert. By Onnea."

Liara examined the map closely, her arm brushing against Glenn's. "You mean to say that all these towers are connected like in the myth?"

Glenn cleared his throat. "That's what I'd like to believe, yes. I'm not certain of anything, so take it with a grain of salt, but I do think it's our only option."

"What are we waiting for, then?" Milena smiled, her four arms on her waist. "We have ancient secrets to uncover and a flying base to destroy!"

Sahro grinned, his Aura pulsating violently. "Well spoken!"

"Ah, I love the direction of this team! More slaughter on the way, excellent!"

Everyone tried their best to ignore Diamanes' laughter.

***

Flap, flap.

The twin moons shone their pale hues upon the flying dragon and its avian companion, carrying the team's members through the night. The air was chilly, but nothing compared to the cold they experienced back when they teleported in the sky. Dunes of black sand rolled across the horizon, wind raising dark clouds of dust from time to time.

"Did I already say I love flying on a dragon? I can already fly by myself, with magic and all that, but I have to say, flying on a dragon does make me feel like a hero of the ages past," Lucian blabbered, petting Pebble's scaly back.

Sahro grunted. "Yes, we know. You already said that three times. Tsk, can't you ask your father for a steed or something?"

Lucian shrugged. "I could. But what's the fun in that?"

Glenn pressed his forehead on Pebble's long neck, sighing internally. 'I could have ridden with Liara instead of these two idiots. Damn it... Next time we're going on an adventure, I'll only bring her.' The journey to the nearest tower had taken them a lot of time, and Lucian hadn't been able to stop himself from constantly annoying Sahro. The only positive point was that Glenn had managed to somewhat recover his Mana. He needed a good night's sleep if he wanted to recover entirely, but that would have to wait.

'Don't say that!' Diamanes mocked. 'Don't lie to yourself. You can't stand not being with your friends. Which is something I can understand. Many people need social validation, after all.'

'What are you even talking about?'

Lucian pointed in the distance, smiling. "There, I see the tower!"

"Excellent." Glenn steered Pebble toward the direction Lucian pointed at, the dragon's wings creating large gusts of wind behind him. Whitey was flying close by, carrying Liara and Milena on his back. The griffin was eyeing Glenn's left hand suspiciously, probably wanting to nibble on the demon living inside it.

'Tell the bird to look away. I don't want to end up in that empty body of his. Hey, did I tell you I can read only your mind?' Diamanes said, changing the subject on the fly.

Glenn rolled his eyes. 'I am honored by this... uh, exclusivity. Loyalty?'

'Ha, ha, very funny,' deadpanned Diamanes. 'Seriously, I can't help but wonder. What is going on inside that bird's brain? What does he think about? Worms? Big worms? Maybe slaughter and chaos? Or is Whitey just obsessed with his master, Liara? Or me? Probably me.'

Glenn mentally muted Diamanes' voice, focusing on landing near the tower. The black sand exploded when Pebble made contact with the ground, blowing off the tower.

"Sahro, go check the underground area to see if there's another root. It wouldn't hurt to verify my theory. I'll verify the seat at the top. Lucian, Liara, if you could watch over the area from the back of Pebble and Whitey, that'd be perfect," Glenn quickly ordered, putting things in motion.

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Milena frowned. "What about me?"

"Come with me. I'll need your help to input the date into the Observer." Without waiting, Glenn launched himself up to the top of the tower. As expected, there was a high stone chair just like the one in the first tower they investigated. He sat in the chair and activated his Mana Sight, still a little startled when he saw the massive line of Mana coming from the tower and into the distance. He propped himself up and turned to look at the opposite side, finding another line of Mana.

'Can you imagine what sort of spell is in place to move so much Mana?' Diamanes whispered excitedly. 'Imagine if we could take a bit of that power for ourselves!'

'Why is your first thought always to take things? What is that Mana even going to bring me? I'm not going to break through to the Newborn Ruler with it,' jeered Glenn as he let his chin rest on his closed fist. It was quite a sight, watching the Mana move like that, controlled by some unknown sorcery.

"So, how can I help you, Duke of the Stars?" Milena sneered, approaching Glenn on his throne.

Glenn lifted his chin toward the sky in an absurd manner. "Hmm, Duchess Dela Luna, I hoped to use your talents to help map the Mana 'road' out."

Milena shook her head and pulled him off the throne, taking his spot. "Get rid of that haughty tone, Glenn. I'm the one who was born a noble, remember?" she joked.

Glenn rolled his eyes and bowed mockingly. "But of course, milady Milena."

He turned on his Observer and looked at the locations Lucian had marked. A few dozen tower-shaped icons covered the Ink Dune's map, scattered across the desert.

"We'll need to figure out where the Mana leads to." He jumped on the tower's guard rail, staring at the distance. "If we can discover the pattern behind this thing, we'll probably be able to find the River of Life."

"We will find it," Milena corrected, drawing on her Observer's map with a pen of Mana. "We have to, for the soldiers who are giving their lives on the front lines, and for the citizens they protect. For Munirp."

"For Munirp," Glenn nodded.

Even if Munirp wasn't the place where he was born, it was the place where all of his friends were. The place he changed from a weak, naive man to the Devil's Hand of today. Where his family resided, protected by the power of the King and his soldiers, in the relative safety of King's Rise.

'Yeah, King's Rise kind of suck when you think about it. Cults, secret organizations, vampires... And who knows what else lurks down there?' Diamanes said with a grave, exaggerated tone.

Glenn shook his head and sighed. 'King's Rise is still much better than the rest. Satidipug and Eari were fortress cities, and they ended up being sacrificed to the Thorn's Church. Palancar, a seemingly random village near the Still Peak, ended up sheltering an evil God's spawn.'

'When you put it that way...'

"Glenn, I think you were right!" Milena called out to him. Glenn rushed to her side, looking at the modifications she'd done to her map. Two lines departed from her spot, a tower icon, and touched two other tower icons some distance away.

"Then the path forward is clear," Glenn grinned. "We just need to go to these towers and draw up the rest of it. I wonder what will appear when we have connected every tower."

Milena sighed. "This is going to take the whole night. We'll have to split up to go faster."

"Munirp's scouts truly did one hell of a job, ay?" Diamanes laughed wickedly, his laughter echoing over the black dunes.

Glenn and Milena joined up with Sahro at the bottom of the tower. The underground area was much the same as that first tower, filled with black sand to the brim. Sahro was clenching a wilted root in his hand, pensive. He turned toward them and pointed his chin at the root he held.

"There was another sand apparition down here. It said the same thing as the last one, about reviving the tree or something." The Black Heir looked at the root before storing it in his dimensional pouch, tied up right next to his Katana. "I think it would be worth it to get all of the roots as well. We never know."

Glenn nodded. "Good idea."

"What about you? Was your theory correct?" Sahro asked while holding his stump. He looked uncomfortable without his prosthesis.

Glenn slapped him in the back with a grin. "Of course it was! Who do you take me for?"

"An idiot?"

"Tsk, and look at who's saying that!"

A few minutes later, the whole group was back together at the foot of the tower, staring at their respective Observers.

"Lucian, go with Milena and Liara." Glenn pressed his finger on the map, drawing a circle on a large area. "We'll take care of all these towers north and east with Sahro. You take the south and the west. Whatever happens, by the third day, we join back up at the center." He drew a cross at the map's center. "Here. We need to move fast. Also, if a Newborn Ruler appears, just run or call Exan. As for Sahro and me, we can try calling Lina to bail us out, but I'd rather not rely on her teleportation." He grimaced and shook his head. "I can't even imagine putting her at risk by bringing her into a war zone. Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

"Me neither," scowled Sahro. "I did not appreciate being her testing subject back during training. My guts can still remember it."

Lucian suddenly shivered. "Damn, that was awful. Why did you have to bring this up?"

Glenn ignored them and glanced at Liara. She bit on her lip while rubbing the back of her hand, the flame tattoo still imprinted on her skin.

"You're good with that?" He asked, unable to help himself. She nodded slowly and clenched her hands with silent determination. Glenn smiled and slapped his hands together. "Alright! Let's get this thing going, then!"

***

The first day, Glenn and Sahro managed to connect seven towers. The fifth one made them realize that there could be more than just two Mana roads, making it much harder to map them all. Lucian, Liara, and Milena, on the other hand, connected only four towers, but in exchange, discovered that some towers differed from others. Glenn and Sahro could only infer as much when the icons on the map changed to a completely black tower one instead of the usual gray ones. These towers seemed to function like buffers, gathering Mana and simply sending it back the way it came from. Liara's team lost time due to all the backtracking.

On the second day, Glenn and Sahro mapped six more towers, while Liara's team added a grand total of eleven. The map was covered in lines that strangely connected the towers. There was no pattern, as far as Glenn could see.

'There has to be one,' he thought as he added more information to the map. 'There has to be a pattern. No way the Black Heirs—no, the dark elves built this randomly.'

By the end of the third day, Glenn and Sahro had added and mapped another seven towers. They took a little more time than they were supposed to finish mapping their side—Pebble was also starting to tire out from flying all day and night. As for Liara's team...

They hadn't added a single line to the map by the end of the day.

While they were flying to the meeting point, at the center of the desert, the location marked with a cross, Sahro grabbed Glenn's shoulder.

"I think something went wrong," he muttered. "We need to hurry back."

Glenn nodded tensely and nudged Pebble to fly faster. They arrived by nightfall at the meeting point. Whitey was nowhere in sight, nor were Liara, Lucian and Milena.

Four days left before the full moon.