Symbiotic Ascension : A Progression Fantasy Adventure

"Are you sure?" Sahro gave Glenn a suspicious look. "Are you really, really sure?"

Glenn nodded. "We figured out a way with my mom. Decimius already got both of his arms back."

Sahro took a long, deep breath. He stared at his prosthesis, at the rustling metal gears and the steam hissing out. The dark metal Liam and Janica had used this time, instead of the usual steel and brass, was an experimental alloy, something engineered with both advanced technology and magic. It wouldn't be a mistake to call it a legendary artifact. After testing, he's even discovered it increased the power of his crimson lightning by around twenty percent when released in a concentrated beam.

It was an incredibly good prosthesis.

But on the other hand, he could get back an actual arm, made of flesh and bones, of muscles he could train and grow stronger. His decision was taken quickly and with no hesitation.

"Do it," he said, his green eyes steeled. "I trust you."

Glenn cleared his throat tensely. "Good. Follow me."

They went to the medical tent, where Emily was already waiting. She gave them a tired gaze as she changed the bandages on Mary. "That's the last one, I hope?"

"Should be," shrugged Glenn. "Let's get this over with."

Emily clapped her hands, her exhaustion replaced by sharp, hardened focus. She sat Sahro in a lounge chair and fastened steel manacles on his limbs.

"This is going to hurt a lot," she warned, "and you'll probably try to move away. The manacles are here to prevent that." She glanced at Decimius, standing guard in the corner of the tent, and then at Glenn. "It wasn't necessary with the two of them because they hadn't gotten used to their missing limbs yet, but that's different for you. How long has it been since you lost your arm?"

Sahro clenched his teeth. "Too long. Around a year, I think."

Emily winced. "Yeah, this is going to hurt a lot," she repeated, insisting on the last word. "I'd love to anesthetize you, but I'll need you to stay conscious and control your Aura so that it doesn't try killing me."

Glenn's head snapped in her direction. "That can happen?"

She shrugged. "You think it's the first time I've healed an Aura user? Try putting a knife through your friend's ass when he sleeps, you'll see what happens."

The young man filed the information away and stood at the ready. Emily carefully took off Sahro's prosthesis, her expert eyes studying the perfectly healed stump.

"Phew..." She exhaled heavily. "Stay ready for my call, Glenn," she ordered. The older woman stared into Sahro's eyes and clasped his shoulder. "Steel yourself."

He gave a nod, and she began working.

Unlike Decimius, Sahro was silent like a tombstone. His eyes were bulging out and bloodshot, but his lips were sealed and his throat empty. He was as still as a statue, Aura running up and down his back in a controlled pulse. Raijin jumped out of his shadow and onto a nearby bed, watching with a wary gaze.

"Now, Glenn," Emily ordered, carefully manipulating her Blumar scalpel in one hand and using her healing powers in the other. Glenn obeyed immediately, putting his hand on Sahro's left shoulder and channelling Regeneration through his friend's body. He fueled the power, and his mother controlled it.

Little by little, tendrils of flesh extended outward, forming new muscles, nerves, bones, everything needed to make a new arm. Emily frowned, and she stepped back, a bolt of crimson lightning missing her narrowly. "Sarho, you need to rein in your-"

Sahro's eyes rolled back in their sockets, and he went limp, crimson lightning suddenly raging all over him. Glenn jumped back and cast his Saturn Rings over his mother, protecting her from the uncontrolled lightning bursts. Golden Aura soon came to reinforce Emily's defenses as Decimius postured himself to shield her from the red lightning. Raijin yelped worriedly, circling his master's feet.

"What's going on?!" Glenn shouted, dodging a bolt of lightning by a hair's breadth.

Emily clenched her teeth. "His body isn't reacting correctly to your Regeneration! It's trying to defend itself! If we don't stop it, his Aura will consume him!"

Glenn cursed under his breath and slammed his hands together. "Absolute Zero - Micro."

Sahro froze over, bolts of lightning paused mid-air, glowing with searing light. Sweat covered his forehead as he maintained the spell.

"Whatever you need to do, do it now!" He roared, struggling to keep Sahro's powers frozen. Emily dashed forward, closely followed by her new guard. "Use Regeneration again."

Glenn clicked his tongue and stretched his resources thin. "Diamanes, you take care of that, I'll keep Sahro unmoving!"

"On it, boss," cackled Diamanes as a purple mist seeped out of Glenn's left hand. The Regeneration ability flooded through Sahro's body, concentrated into his stump. His flesh grew back once again exponentially, at a much faster rate than previously.

"This isn't going to work," Emily frowned, keeping her calm even as Glenn's Absolute Zero crackled, threatening to shatter. The tendrils of flesh they'd managed to grow back on Sahro's arms turned to ashes, burned by the rogue lightning coursing through Sahro's body.

"He's going to die if I don't do something," she muttered. She glanced at the prosthesis Sahro had abandoned and closed her eyes. A second of silence passed, Glenn heaving with difficulty, and his spell sizzling in a desperate struggle to stay active. Finally, she opened her eyes again and grabbed the prosthesis.

"It's do or die," she simply said.

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***

Sahro opened his eyes to a pair of worried Starborn, a red fox, and a frowning Orc.

"I take it this didn't go as expected?" He groaned, pushing himself up.

"Your Primal Aura intervened in some ways, and..." Glenn grimaced. "It was either that or your life. I'm sure you'd rather keep your life, so we chose for you."

Sahro creased his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

That's only then that he cast his eyes upon his left arm. Dark skin mixed with black metal, crackling red electricity running down the flesh. Sahro slowly raised his hand, observing as the light reflected off it with a metal glint. It looked like a perfect copy of an arm, only some parts were metal instead of flesh and muscles.

But the most important thing was how it felt.

Sahro couldn't detect any difference with his other arm.

"What... what is this?" he muttered.

Emily scratched the back of her head. "When we attempted the surgery, your body seemed to reject the Regeneration and was cannibalizing itself. Your Aura was running wild, and our only option was to use something to, uh, plug all that Aura." She pointed at the prosthesis. "Without this, you'd have died from your own powers."

Glenn nodded gravely. "I'm not sure why, but it felt like a foreign force had taken over your power. It was very strange and scary, to be honest."

Sahro shook his head slowly, a smile drawing up on his face. "No matter." He jumped out of bed and grabbed his katana, pointing its sheathed tip at Glenn. "Come outside. I need to test it out."

"...Damn it," sighed Glenn.

'At least he is taking it pretty well,' he thought. Glenn winced, thinking back about the choice they had been forced to make. 'I'm not sure I'd be very happy if I were forced to live with a prosthesis for the rest of my life.'

Sahro didn't seem to consider the thought, a violent smile on his face. The vein on the back of his hand bulged as he clenched the hilt of his katana. They found themselves a clearing in the jungle surrounding the pyramid, careful to be far away not to accidentally harm anyone. Emily came with them, watching with creased eyebrows and her arms crossed. She'd never seen them spar before, and Glenn wasn't sure if he wanted to change that.

'Bah, your mom has the right to know how much of a monster you became, right?'

'I suppose she does,' Glenn sighed. He took a deep breath, his face turning into a mask of seriousness. His Mana exploded outward, bright orange flames swallowing up his hand.

"Lance of Prometheus," he murmured, clenching down on the spell and pointing the tip of the flame spear at his opponent.

Sahro's grin grew even wider, his features taking on a fox's appearance, seven tails sprouting out of his back. Raijin sat by his master's side with an amused look. As if to contest the crimson fox, a crackling sound announced Pebble's appearance as he teleported right by Glenn in his adult form, roaring to the sky. His single jade eye shone bright, impatient to get some exercise in.

Without any words, they began.

Glenn threw his Lance of Prometheus at Sahro, a ray of burning flames charring everything in its path. Trees went up in flames and turned to ashes in an instant as Sahro simply hacked down with his katana. A line of crimson sliced through the spell, destroying it. Glenn felt a sense of foreboding and took a step to the side, feeling the air tremble beside him.

A massive rift was carved open in the ground as the forest split in two. The few clouds above separated unevenly where Sahro's slash had passed through. Glenn chuckled as his competitive spirit began to burn.

"I see how it is." He gave Pebble a nod and pointed a finger at Sahro. The dragon understood his intention right away and took to the skies immediately, soon becoming a dot beyond the clouds. Emily, who was watching from the sidelines, was struggling to keep her jaw from dropping. The two had been careful not to direct any attacks in her direction, but she could still feel the power behind each of their exchanges.

"I sure am glad I'm a doctor," she whispered to herself, awestruck as Glenn shot a massive beam of Nitrogen at his friend and Sahro simply sliced it like it was made of cardboard.

Sahro sheathed his katana and planted his foot back, readying himself in an unsheathing stance. His muscles tightened, his fingers as still as a lake's surface. His biomechanical prosthesis turned bright red, the same crimson as his lightning. Glenn pointed a finger at the sky, lowering that same finger in Sahro's direction.

"Draconic Meteor."

An earth-shaking roar made the jungle tremble as Pebble shot down through the sky, a gigantic ball of blue flames covering him. The dragon was a master in changing its own density to inflict as much damage as possible, and was probably the next best thing to indestructible.

'If I just add my Gravity Manipulation and the Black Flames...' Glenn grinned and let his Mana flow out.

The blue flames covering Pebble turned black, and Sahro's eyes widened. In one swift, invisible movement, he unsheathed his katana.

"Sekiraijin!"

The shadow of a crimson fox loomed over him, hissing its fangs at the dragon coming down on them. Thunder crackled as a red lightning bolt shot out of Sahro's blade, slicing through reality with an unbending will. Glenn's eyes shone purple, and he laughed.

"Boom," he mouthed.

Pebble collided against Sahro's Sekiraijin, exploding against the crimson lightning. The world turned red for a moment, forcing Emily to shield her eyes. Glenn crossed his arms, the explosion of Aura and Mana lashing against his face harmlessly. His clothes fluttered in the wind as uprooted trees flew past him, already replaced by stronger vegetation.

When the chaos finally settled down, Glenn could see Sahro petting the head of a dejected Pebble with a wide smile on his face. His biomechanical prosthesis was in perfect condition, and Sahro looked like he was in perfect condition. Glenn sneered and flew up to Sahro.

"I guess that wasn't enough to put a scratch on you, huh?"

Sahro scoffed. "You'd have to use those Newborn Rulers-killer spells to try to beat my blade."

Pebble had a scratch on his forehead, already healing. The dark elf pointed his thumb at the dragon and grimaced. "What the hell are you feeding your dragon that he's so tough? It felt like striking against a moon!"

Glenn scratched Pebble's chin, soon turning his pet's dejection into pleased grunts. "Oh, you know."

"Just a bit of this and that."

Emily rushed to their sides, heaving for air. She side-stepped a tree sprouting out of the ground and grabbed Sahro's shoulders. "Are you alright? Any strange feeling in your left arm?"

Sahro shook his head, clenching and unclenching his left hand. "It's as good as new. It even feels a little tougher than my right arm, actually. I feel like I could crunch anything with this thing."

Glenn's mother wiped the sweat off her forehead and sighed. "Good. That means the prosthesis integrated well with your muscles. I will need to have a discussion with Lina's friends and see how they designed it. I can't understand how a prosthesis can become so symbiotic with its user. It's like the flesh has turned to metal and the metal to flesh..."

Glenn disregarded his mother's puzzled mumblings and grabbed his friend's shoulder. "You know what that means, then, don't you?"

Sahro raised a confused eyebrow, and Glenn grinned.

"Time to go back to the Beyond."

Diamanes laughed wickedly.

"Demons and eye-filled sky, we are coming back!"