Symbiotic Ascension : A Progression Fantasy Adventure

365. One Choice, No Choice



Damp, sticky, smelly, and atrociously badly decorated. Broken statues and hourglasses leaking sand on the black brick floor. The underground area of the hourglass church was odd, to say the least. They had been looking through every nook and cranny to find the rest of the Seal and the Occult Wanderer supposedly holding it, to no avail.

Glenn cursed silently as he kicked open yet another empty room. The underground might be abandoned, but it was still incredibly large. A labyrinth of empty rooms, filthy hallways, and rotting stone. He almost called off the search to go back and fetch Liara, but Milena screamed.

"I found something!"

The sound of Mana and Aura-enhanced footsteps running down the hallways echoed through the underground as Glenn's entire team charged into the room Milena had called them from. It wasn't any different from the rest: damp, dark, and in a complete state of disrepair. 'Which is strange, considering the church above ground was in pretty good condition,' thought Glenn. It hadn't hit him immediately, but now that he was thinking about it...

The sole difference he could find was a lone pedestal of black stone, the perfect copy of the one they had found at the bottom of the crater of what once was the Last City.

"No, it's not the same..." Diamanes muttered.

Sahro sheathed his sword, grunting. "I thought you found the damned Occult Wanderer. Damn it, neither Raijin nor I can get a whiff of an enemy down here!"

The fox walked out of Sahro's shadow, nodding elegantly.

Lucian approached the pedestal, curious. "Interesting. The runes on this pedestal are slightly different from the ones we found previously, and..." he checked in his notebook, "I can't find the half-broken moon rune for 'seal'. No slot to hold the Seal either." He passed his hand on the top of the pedestal. "Completely flat."

Glenn cleared his throat as he glanced at the ceiling worriedly. "I understand your eagerness for ancient knowledge, but I'd rather not leave Liara by herself for too long. I'm confident she'll be able to destroy that betraying bastard, but still."

Milena raised an eyebrow. "Betrayal? How is it that you know some things about Liara that I do not? Wait, no, don't answer that."

"Leave her Highness to her revenge," Lucian waved his hand dismissively. "I'm sure she'll be fine. This here could potentially change our entire understanding of the past! Maybe reveal why the Kings of old killed a God!"

"We could just ask the Guardian when he wakes up," pointed Sahro sharply, his fox sniffing at the air confusedly. Glenn glanced at Pebble, who was chilling on his shoulder. The dragon's single jade eye was darting all around the room, searching for something.

"Glenn, there's something odd."

Glenn looked at his purple hand with a mocking grin, trying to contain his worry. He had a bad feeling about the fight between Liara and that traitorous bastard: the faster they uncovered the rest of the Seal, the sooner he would be able to give her a hand.

"Why didn't I just do that?" He asked himself, frowning. "We could have taken down that fool quickly and be done with it, so why...?"

The young man scratched the top of his head as his friends kept on studying the pedestal. Even Sahro had started looking into it, infected by the others' curiosity.

"I'm not usually so laid-back as to leave an enemy with someone I love, am I?" The words echoed in the room. Glenn paused, something clicking in his mind. The world trembled slightly as Lucian reached for the pedestal, enraptured.

"Diamanes, I need you to translate more of these runes. Tell me anything you can remember, anything! If I just get a little more information..."

Milena suddenly fell to her knees, clenching the side of her head. "Damn it, why is the Arcane Spine acting up?" Sweat drenched her from head to toe, and Sahro was soon kneeling next to her, trying to check her for any injuries.

"Poison?" He glanced at Raijin, but the fox was too busy sniffing the air to reply. "Probably not. Milena, were you hit on our way down? A sting, a weird itch, anything?"

Milena shook her head slowly, careful not to worsen the pain. "No, no, it's something different. The Spine is making my senses fire up on all cylinders, it's..." Her eyes widened, and she looked at Glenn. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. The world shivered once more as Lucian's hand sank into the pedestal, the ceiling crumbling above them to reveal countless titanic eyes staring down with unbridled evil. The sky of the Beyond, burning with a thousand glares.

Glenn looked up as more clicks echoed in his mind. His Mana surged out like a solar flare, burning the confusion away.

"Fuck," he simply said.

'How did I not realize?' He reached forward, pushing Diamanes through an invisible barrier.

"By the Original, this is...!" Diamanes gasped in a rare fit of awe. Glenn ignored him and activated the entity's power, clenching down on the key component of the illusion. He could see it now. It was intricate, an incredibly precise and elaborate enchantment, meant to imprison its victims forever.

'I have no idea why I can interpret this shit. I just want to break it down!' He forced his willpower on the magical construct, ignoring everything around him.

And for the first time since uncovering his first illusion, he failed. The spell resisted him, pushing back against his willpower, almost as if it were alive.

'No, it is alive!' Glenn felt the world twist and swirl around him, up and down, switching up to try and break off his concentration. Hanging corpses of his family and friends appeared before his eyes, but he ignored them. The Dead God himself appeared, but it was nothing compared to the real deal.

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"What sorts of shitty illusion is this..." Glenn's face strained as he funneled all of his strength to break the damned spell, but it wasn't enough. The illusion grew stronger, pushing back against his efforts and contamination his mind. Thoughts of giving up everything sprouted out of nowhere - buried memories of his father, hatred, and desires of revenge.

Glenn couldn't stop himself from stepping back as a shadow with his father's face appeared before him, its hand outstretched towards him.

"You're nothing, you're not worthy of me!" The shadow roared, controlling the darkness to wrap around Glenn.

The spell was taking control of him, sundering his being into pieces. Dividing and conquering.

But suddenly, like a lighthouse in the darkest night, a friendly presence chased away the dark thoughts, joining Glenn's efforts. It was cold like metal, yet fresh like river water. Refreshing would be the most fitting word. Milena spat blood as she helped Glenn, her Mana exploding outwardly. Lucian ignored the burst of Mana, his entire arm now completely sunk into the stone pedestal. Sarho finally noticed the Prince being eaten alive by a stone pedestal and tried helping him, but Lucian kept on inexorably being pulled into the damned thing.

"Damn... You!" Glenn roared. The magical click within his mind translated into a lock breaking within him, within his soul.

"Oh?"

The illusion spell suddenly shattered, a third presence joining the fight. A wicked being, filled both with malice and hope, hatred and despair, rage and shattered memories.

'Diamanes?'

The entity did not respond. It worried Glenn, but he had bigger fish to fry at the moment. When the illusion had shattered, it had revealed the true nature of the underground area. A desecrated shrine, half-buried beneath rubble. Sahro and Milena were sprawled in different corners of the room, groaning painfully. Raijin and Pebble were both rolled around each other, almost protectively. An hourglass had been thrown on the floor, replaced by the statue of a woman opening her arms warmly in true motherly fashion. Right before her was a red crystal table, a jewel-like crimson that reminded Glenn of Palancar's events. The Jewel of the Fallen Mother, the one that birthed Her Son.

On the altar lay Lucian, his hands crossed and his face emotionless. Blood streamed on both sides of his face, leaking out from his empty eye sockets. 'Empty eyesockets?'

Glenn stumbled up to the altar, not thinking twice, as he threw a Black Hole in the Fallen Mother statues face. He could have recognized that accursed posture anywhere. His first meeting with that evil God was in Palancar, where she took control of the village and tried to organize a mass sacrifice to summon her Son. Then it was when he fought the Pope of the Thorns Church, where her Envoy sealed space so that they could not flee from the fanatic religious leader.

And now she was in the Beyond. In a cathedral connected to an hourglass of some kind. Time. Glenn discarded the thoughts for later and applied Regeneration on Lucian's empty eyesockets.

"Lucian, Lucian!" He tried to shake the Prince awake with his free hand, to no avail. A thought suddenly occurred to him, and he pressed his fingers on Lucian's jugular.

Thud, thud.

Glenn kept his relieved sigh for himself, convinced that they weren't out of the woods yet.

"This is... Interesting," muttered Diamanes, completely unconcerned.

"Fuck, Diamanes!" Glenn shouted, the blood beating at his temples. "Lucian looks like he's fucking dead, what do you mean interesting?! Help me out, damn it!"

"He's alive," replied Diamanes. "He's just elsewhere."

Milena dragged herself to the altar, her face as pale as chalk. "No, no, this can't be. Lucian, wake up!" She shook his arm, forcing a hopeful smile. "Come on, just rewind time! You're a Newborn Ruler, I'm sure you'll be fine!"

Sahro coughed, blood splattering on his bio-prosthetic hand. He wiped the filth away with a wince and leaned on the wall. "Glenn, something is happening above!"

Glenn turned his senses to the surface, feeling an incredible power suddenly unveiling itself. It was nowhere close to what Liara or Salim could produce, if he hadn't been mistaken when judging the latter's power. But worst of all, he could feel Liara's energy fading away, crushed by the overwhelming presence.

"Damn it!" Glenn grabbed Lucian and threw him on his shoulders, before clenching Milena's hand and pulling her to her feet. "Come on, come on!" '

They rushed out of the underground area, discovering that the black cathedral was gone, completely razed to the ground. The only thing that remained was the hourglass that had lain on top of the structure, now resting on the ground. Salim was laughing manically, Liara's throat tightly clenched in his non-mutated hand. Whitey was being crushed by a sort of flame vulture, screeching for help.

And last but not least was a man with a dragon mask, contemplating a stone orb covered in intricate etchings. A complete, perfect orb. 'The Seal!' Glenn realized. 'He must have taken the Seal's fragment from Liara to complete his own! Damn it!'

He rushed forward without thinking, but Salim clenched tighter on Liara's throat. "No, you ahmaq human! Stay where you are, or I'll crush her throat now!"

"Salim."

Dragon-Mask spoke softly as he contemplated the completed Seal. Silence fell upon the ruined cathedral as no one dared to breathe. Lucian felt heavy on Glenn's shoulders, his breath steady yet ragged. The world itself felt like it was waiting for Dragon-Mask's next words.

The Occult Wanderer slowly turned his head in Glenn and his friend's direction. The young man's mind went blank, his knees giving up under his weight. He crashed on the ground, Lucian rolling away like a broken doll. Even Diamanes held his breath, for once.

"You... Did not die from the Fallen Mother's trap. Interesting." He rubbed his chin, pondering. "Is it because you're not a Newborn! Ruler yet? I see it worked perfectly fine on the Crown Prince..."

Glenn gritted his teeth and forced himself to his feet. It wasn't the first time he was facing a seemingly unbeatable opponent, and it will probably not be the last. "What did you do to Lucian?!"

"What I did?" Dragon-Mask shook his head. "Nothing. He fell into the Mother's trap, guided by his own Corrupted desires. Being a Newborn Ruler isn't as easy as just existing, you see?" He held the Seal high, admiring it. "I was too busy completing this to bother with this fool. Anyway. I must thank you for bringing me the missing piece."

He turned back and approached the giant hourglass resting on the ground. Salim licked his lips with a vicious look, putting Liara between him and Glenn's team.

'This man is as strong as Munirp's King,' muttered Diamanes. 'And as much as I'd like you to cave his head in, I think it might still be a little early for that.'

'No shit. Can you try to find out what happened to Lucian while I keep us alive?'

'I'm on it.'

In a rare show of competence, Diamanes went to work, observing the Mana and Divinity left in Lucian's unconscious body. Glenn forced himself to ignore his instincts, pushing past them and conjuring a spell. Black flames swirled in his hand, burning desperately.

"Try anything, and I will kill her," hissed Salim. "I have been waiting my whole life to put this bitch in her place. Just give me a reason to do it!"

Metal rustled on Glenn's side as Sahro unsheathed his katana, crimson lightning crackling all around him. Raijin bared his fangs, Primal Aura burning over his fur.

"Never a dull moment, huh?" Milena heaved, her forehead covered in sweat. All of her four arms were tense, ready to cast spells and tear limbs. Pebble blinked, adopting the same wicked grin his master often wears. In a flash of jade, he transformed into a house-sized dragon, glaring down at the fire vulture holding his griffin friend hostage.

Liara cast a knowing gaze at Glenn. They locked eyes, and for a moment, everything else in the world disappeared.

No words were exchanged. No orders were given.

But as Dragon-Mask fitted the Seal into the hourglass, they all knew what they had to do. It had always been this way, and it always will be, for this was Limbo's rule.

Walk or die.

And they were not going to stop walking today.


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