Symbiotic Ascension : A Progression Fantasy Adventure

Glenn's eyes were stuck to the blinking spot on his Observer. He was sitting on Pebble's back, the dragon flying tirelessly towards their objective. Sahro was rubbing his stump, grumbling about the lack of a prosthesis.

Miyāh al-Ḥayāh. The legendary River of Life, a myth of the Black Heirs. It was supposedly a massive water channel connecting every corner of the Ink Dunes, propagating life. The River had stopped flowing a long time ago, for unknown reasons.

'It would be very cool if we could figure that out,' thought Glenn. The idea of being the cause for the revitalizing of an entire desert was very enticing, much more than 'simply' becoming a hero or a duke of Munirp. Being a hero just meant people expected you to fight for them, and the duke title was just a good excuse for the King of Munirp to tie him to the nation.

Not that both displeased him. The moment his sister and mother settled into Munirp, he had decided that he would protect the kingdom with all he had. Because if Munirp fell, he could say goodbye to his family and their peaceful life.

'That makes me think, you never really stopped to think what you will do once this is all over,' Diamanes questioned, curious.

'When what is over?' Glenn scoffed. 'There's the war with the Celestial Gods, getting rid of the Occult Wanderers, who are probably the same person. Let's add the threat of the vampires, you helping Liara with rebuilding her kingdom, finding Mortelli, huh, figuring out what the Gods want, and possibly fight one or two?'

Glenn frowned. 'Shit, I really stuck my dick in a hundred different beehives, didn't I?'

Diamanes cackled. 'That's one way to put it!'

It took a whole hour for Pebble's jade-like wings to bring them near their destination. As soon as they got close to it, Glenn could feel the difference. The Mana, so sparse in the desert, was overflowing. The air was vibrating softly with power, and they had already passed a few dozen opened Rifts. Monsters were becoming more and more common the closer they got to Miyāh al-Ḥayāh, some that made sense in the context of the desert, such as weird, massive camels with tubular, fly-tube mouths. Some were out of place: large crocodiles with sharp fins on their back, red sharks swimming in the black sand, or other sorts of random creatures.

"Things are getting weird," Glenn commented.

Sahro clicked his tongue. "They're not even worth my time. I can't feel even a shadow of a threat from them."

"We could close the Rifts on the way," proposed Diamanes. "You probably forgot about it, but each Rift you close is a boost in strength for you."

Glenn shook his head. "No, we don't have time. Maybe once we're done destroying the Orcs, maybe? Hmm." He turned to Sahro and stabbed his finger in his chest. "Conserve your strength. I can't take on a Newborn Ruler by myself. And that Monkey-Mask guy was pretty strong. Surely he'll be there again."

Sahro rapped his fingers against the hilt of his katana with a voracious smile. "I hope he will be. I want to sharpen the edge of my blade on a Newborn Ruler's skin."

Glenn scoffed and concentrated back on the horizon. The twin moons were disappearing behind dark clouds, a rare occurrence in the desert. The young man didn't really need the light, but it did give a more ominous feeling to the Ink Dunes. It was always a little reassuring to stand beneath the pale twins' gaze.

Sahro grabbed his shoulder, tensing up. "I can see it."

Glenn frowned. "See what...?" His eyes widened as the island came in sight. It wasn't like the one they had found previously, relatively big and covered in shoddy barracks filled to the brim with Orcs.

No, it was different.

Calling it an island might have been a stretch. It was an inverted pyramid, entirely red. The pyramid looked like it had been carved straight out of a massive block of stone, with no visible cracks or seams. A black jewel the size of a car was embedded at the tip. The area around it was dim, pushing away the light.

"Up, Pebble," Glenn ordered, frowning. The top of the inverted pyramid was odd, to say the least. It was flat, completely flat. There was nothing built upon its surface, no barracks, no Orcs running around, nothing.

"Let me cut this horror in two," Sahro hissed as he unsheathed his katana.

"Stay your blade." Glenn pressed his lips together, directing Pebble to circle the structure and its surroundings. Beneath the pyramid, he could see a few ruins peaking out of the desert, almost entirely buried under the black sand. There didn't seem to be any Orcs running around there either. Instead, the ground was crawling with monsters, roars and groans erupting non-stop.

"That's one hell of a melting pot," Diamanes remarked. "So Miyāh al-Ḥayāh is just a massive monster spawner fueled by Mana. I see. That's a little disappointing. They could have just shoved a Seed of Darkness in there, and it would have had the same effect."

"Don't start jinxing us, Diamanes," Glenn sighed through his teeth. "I don't even know how to tackle this. If this place is the home of the Celestial Gods-Occult Wanderers, then we're in for one hell of an uphill battle."

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Sahro clenched his katana's hilt. "I will gladly give my life if that puts an end to the Celestial Gods and their tyranny!"

Glenn whistled, not even bothering to look at his friend. "How noble. I can't really see how dying will help us free the Ink Dunes, but sure."

"That's not what I meant, you ahmaq-"

"Shhh!" Glenn raised his hand, silencing the scornful Black Heir. "Look! Something is happening!"

He could see the black jewel changing, glowing up through his Mana Sight. The Mana was swirling madly, pulled into the crystal incessantly. Lines of dark green energy began to light up on the red pyramid, similar to a vein network.

'Almost like the W.O.R.M.'s red energy lines,' Glenn realized. The resemblance was striking, oddly so. Whatever the inverted pyramid was doing, the monsters below did not like it. Creatures of all sorts flew up at the floating structure, clawing and shooting all sorts of projectiles at it.

The response of the pyramid was immediate: slits opened on every side, thick wooden spears covered in dark green Aura shooting out. The monsters were pulverized by the projectiles, but they continued their assault, undeterred. For every monster destroyed, a dozen appeared to replace the losses.

And in the meantime, the black jewel continued to pulsate, sucking in all the area's Mana. Glenn blinked, looking in awe at the large rivers of Mana all flowing into that one jewel. Reality trembled and ripped open as a Rift rivaling the Horizon Gates in size appeared.

"Glenn, we need to do something!" Sahro shouted through clenched teeth. "My instincts scream at me to destroy this thing!"

Glenn cursed beneath his breath and stood upon Pebble's back. "Shit, you're right. Even I can feel it." He shivered, his Mana surging out to protect him. "Pebble, take to the skies. Sahro, if we're separated, either try to destroy that jewel or find anything else that could be maintaining the pyramid in the air."

Sahro frowned. "What do you mean, separated...?"

The dragon roared excitedly as he understood the intentions of his rider. He soared above the pyramid and the clouds until only the twin moons were left above his head. Glenn drew a deep breath, taking in the sight and the touch of the moonlight.

"Strike down, Pebble."

The dragon roared and nosedived, his wings stuck to his body, and his tail pierced through the wind. Glenn and Sahro grabbed Pebble's scales tightly, struggling to hold on. The sound barriers exploded as Pebble crashed down through the atmosphere, blue flames covering him. The flames didn't hurt Glenn or Sahro, but they would hurt their enemies.

"You're fucking majnūn!" Sahro screamed as he held on for dear life. Glenn grinned; then the dragon collided with the pyramid. The shock sent him flying through the air, his magical defenses absorbing most of the shock. Glenn watched as the pyramid tilted to the side, a large chunk of its top face caved in. Pebble's vengeful roar, angry after being so thoroughly beaten by the Monkey-Mask, shook the Ink Dunes and made the monsters below freeze for a very short instant.

"The jewel!" Glenn muttered, sending himself flying through the air towards his target. He couldn't see Sahro anywhere, but hopefully, he was being useful somewhere else.

"Glenn, use those black flames we took from the Corpse guy!" Diamanes screamed. "I have a good feeling about this!"

The young man snorted as black flames surged out of his hand, burning through his Mana. "You don't have to say that twice!"

He conjured the spell, a large column of black fire shooting for the black jewel. Just as it was about to make contact, a transparent, dark-green barrier appeared and deflected the spell. It wasn't entirely useless, as the barrier looked charred, dim, and struggling to keep itself up.

"Shit!" Glenn hastily prepared another spell of black flames, but a white projectile caught him in the ribs and almost went through his magical defenses. He flew through the air and barely stopped himself, gasping for air. His suit was ripped, and his skin had been lacerated. Thankfully, his Regeneration was already fixing the damage. Had he not kept his Saturn Rings up...

"Oh? So it was you. You were the one helping that woman," a voice spoke, soft yet impossible to ignore. Glenn stared at the spot he was previously hovering in, finding a man wearing leather armor with iron pauldrons. His face was hidden behind a familiar mask, an Owl mask.

"You!" Glenn felt the Mana surge through his veins. Even if he hadn't fought him directly, he still remembered when Owl-Mask and his two other masked friends came to find him, back in the Beyond.

"Good. Two birds in one stone, like they say." Owl-Mask glanced at the pyramid and sighed. "I must make haste."

Without wasting a second, he raised his hand, a powerful burst of magic exploding out of it. The black dunes underneath exploded as a massive bone arm devoid of flesh shot out, its fingers outstretched in Glenn's direction.

"Eat shit!" The latter threw a massive black fireball at the arm while simultaneously sending a Black Hole to Owl-Mask.

The Occult Wanderers silently surrounded the Black Hole in a cage of bones, compressing it until only bones were left. The arm he had previously summoned was charred, turning to ashes from Glenn's powerful black flames.

'It's been like three days since we got this spell. It sure is powerful, isn't it?' Diamanes cackled, obviously proud of himself. Glenn exhaled, carefully managing his Mana reserve.

'Damn it, had they not activated whatever this thing is, we would have been able to take our time and fight together! Shit, why does nothing ever goes like I want it to go?!'

"You are lucky he wants you captured and alive," Owl-Mask said, an armor of bone encasing him from head to toe. "I knew I shouldn't have wasted time entertaining the two other fools last time. Army of the Dead, Rise."

Glenn clenched his teeth as he watched countless skeletons rise from the black dunes, human skeletons as much as monstrous ones. The creatures that had been assaulting the pyramid turned to the undead and were ripped into pieces, their skeletons repurposed for the Army of the Dead.

Owl-Mask commanded the skeletons after Glenn while preparing another spell, a long bone spear glinting with a sick yellow hue. Glenn hastily took to the skies and crushed the skeletons with his Gravity Manipulation. The bones turned into powder, powder that escaped Glenn's control and flew into his face.

"This is going to hurt," Owl-Mask warned just before flicking his finger. The bone powder exploded in Glenn's face, an explosion large enough to destroy a city. Glenn felt his Mana reserve plummeting as sick yellow flames surrounded him from every side. He desperately defended, mentally cursing his bad luck, when the flames finally cleared out.

Owl-Mask threw the spear he had been preparing, the bone projectile putting through the air with a sharp whistle. Glenn's magical defenses were down and hé couldn't avoid. But a building-sized sword suddenly appeared and stopped the projectile at the cost of itself.

Two beautiful women riding a griffin appeared before him, armed and dangerous, while a crowned, red-cloaked Prince with a shining crown on his hand stood in front of Owl-Mask.

Liara smiled at him, making his heart skip a beat.

"The cavalry has arrived."