"Aye!”
Arson looked around and took in the battlefield. His mind raced at what his latest notification meant, and he found it difficult to center his mind on the task at hand.
He, Micro and the others had been returned to the land of the mana monarchs, only this trial was held much later in time after they’d originally been to the land. Many changes had taken place, but the group once more found themselves beset by mana elementals within the capital's palace.
The use of technology and many magical advancements around them stunned even Arson to silence when they had first come back, but the threat of even more powerful elementals threatened every member of Arson’s party with every breath they took.
“Welcome back to the idiot parade, boss. Where did you go?” Arson looked toward Micro’s raised brow and laughed before a wave of conductive water orbs swallowed a nearby crowd of elementals.
“What, can a guy not take a moment to himself? It's not like I take breaks in here,” joked Arson.
“Whatever, mister, breaks are moments of lost potential, no wait, I’ve heard better, uhh, mister, breaks are but moments your enemies steal from your power to inevitably kill you. Are you going to share what really happened or what?” Micro and Arson moved without end through the crowd of powerful creatures. Through the trials, Micro and the pocket apartment group had become more than proficient in combat. An additional effect of their endless push toward runic perfection was their closeness as a group. So the peculiar action from Arson stood out to Micro and the rest immediately. The group around him laughed and Arson rolled his eyes before he spoke up, seemingly proud of something he wasn’t either ready to share, or didn’t know how to.
“It's nothing. I still haven’t figured out the change in my bloodline or whatever that means, but my statuses newest change is something for me to know that I need to work harder to get home.” The others looked at each other confused and Micro didn’t believe that the vague response was truly an answer, so she set it aside in her mind. With shrugs of their own, most of the others did the same.
Days passed, and the group had made a game of guessing what could have frozen their boss in the middle of battle. Micro found herself at the forefront of the debate, and even as they searched for the rune to escape the argument between the former gang members continued.
“What about a combat style upgrade maybe,” asked a former Wretch for the third time.
“Will you sparking shut it, I’m going to pencil you to death the next time I hear the words, combat style anything upgrade, you hear me? It's got to be bigger than that, he learned an entire combat style from those weird dudes on the floating underwater city place and didn’t even blink out of place once.”
“Which underwater city, the one when he first had to, you know, in front of us, with the giant globe ocean around it, or the other underwater city place with the Kraken arena,” said the girl closest to Micro in question.
“Not that that has anything to do with anything right now, but the first one, my point is that combat is something he’s saturated in already, it can’t be business, or knowledge it must be something more intima—“ Micro froze. She stared at her leader's back in utter fear of what she felt the change could be.
“It was your, Marital status, wasn’t it?” asked Micro. The girl felt ashamed by the quaver she felt in her voice when she asked the question, but the smile that Arson wore told her everything she needed to know. He remained silent, and Micro was glad that none of her people had heard what she’d said.
The heat that rushed to her cheeks was accompanied by thoughts she in that moment, had officially confirmed were inappropriate to have in her boss's direction. A now, claimed man.
Arson still wondered about what had triggered the notification. He constantly thought about Troy and the others, but the new connection was oddly more powerful, and pronounced.
Within his internal soul realm, a new line of power could be found easily when Arson looked for it. Similar to the braided runic pillars that represented his mana veins, a new tendril served the purpose of a compass for Arson to find Troy. An ability he knew they both shared now. An ability he feared would bring his best friend into the most dangerous place he’d ever experienced.
“Micro, we have to get out of here…” Arson’s blood ran cold and his aura washed over the landscape as Arson pulled back all of the limitations he’d set on himself within the tower.
Micro was knocked off her feet with every other person nearby, with the exception of Arson.
The young lord instead rose into the air, every playful feature of his face replaced by a focused intent.
“You heard 'im people, let’s clean this up,” roared Micro with a handless kick-up, that allowed her to keep her weapon and shield in hand. She was forced to suppress the swirl of emotions that had spawned in the base of her stomach.
“Figures…,” mumbled Micro.
…
Anastasia watched Arson complete the next few hundred trials in record time. She was angry at herself, but she enjoyed the time she spent with him, even though she knew she would eventually kill him.
Wasn’t her fault. She’d been given a quest long ago to teach the next Lexicon everything she knew. Which was enough to fold any mortal mind a dozen times over.
She knew Arson wasn’t normal, as no Cultivator, talented or nameless, was truly normal. To accept that a flesh and blood creature could ingest everything she knew now as a machine… was, improbable.
Even his mother had given up on learning the entirety of Univers, and had even deemed it impossible. Yet she’d set her own son on the same journey that had taken everything Elizabeth loved away.
She wasn’t even allowed to keep her own name. An injustice that Anastasia wouldn’t stand for, alive, or dead.
So, bound to an otherworldly quest to teach a scion the language of Endless, she did exactly that.
The problem was, Anastasia hadn’t taken Arson seriously, at first… Then their discussions about what runes meant to the tower, left Anastasia speechless.
“What did you say?”
“I said, that with every trial that passes, I feel more and more as if we are reliving memories, or at least we are being taken to prominent locations within someone's memories, or a group of people's memories, maybe,” repeated Arson before he continued.
“That lady PRO mentioned members of my family before I entered, but now I feel like this is definitely someone’s life.”
“Why, just because we have been to the same place, at multiple points in time, I don’t see the logic in that,” stated Anastasia truly confused.
“Okay, imagine for a moment that everything we have done so far was a line of events in chronological order, then imagine that the individual we are following was a mortal that grew on the Cultivation path, it would explain why the magnitude of what we learn grows as the trial number does,” surmised Arson. They had reached 4500 in the trial count, and with every additional trial completed, Arson seemed to slow down how quickly he completed each one.
Anastasia knew why of course, it was the mystery of Endless. The same unanswered questions that plagued his mother’s life, even to that very day. Both mother and son, wanted and needed to understand. Understand the why of all things and their natures. Understand why they existed and what they were meant to do with their time alive.
By the 4600 trial. Arson had stopped completing the trials with speed and force entirely, and had begun to investigate, any and everything he could at each destination.
Originally, he’d done these types of things, such as explore and gather information about his environments, but that had ended once he’d begun to run into repetitious runes, and situations that brought more hardship to himself. He was here to grow, and he knew that, but in what way was he supposed to grow exactly, became more of a question as time passed.
Anastasia ate up Arson’s struggle. She couldn’t help but take joy in his suffering, as once upon a time Elizabeth and her had been beset by problems of the same magnitude, or grander. The only difference was, Arson wasn’t stressed out by the hardships as they had been, more… invigorated by the difficulty.
Now that every trial was being used as an opportunity to grow, Arson’s own development skyrocketed. He still gathered runes, developed skills, and planned for his return, only now, how the trials were completed seemed influenced by a responsible elder, or far more wise teacher than Arson himself. A detail that showed drastically to all involved.
Anastasia watched as even the once unrefined Micro grew into a young lady that many Cultivators back home would see as an HonorBorn scion. One worthy of Arson’s own attention.
Attention, he would never give with thoughts of Troy in the back of his mind.
Arson had never dated, and neither had Troy, but Micro had, and she knew what she was most likely to lose if they returned now. So instead of rushing their leader, she soaked in every chance she was given to spend time with the young master.
“My lord, what would you have us do?” Arson looked from the crowd around them, and down at Micro who smiled up at him. He narrowed his eyes as he thought, his gaze drifted to the side until an idea filled his mind.
“Stop the execution, I suppose,” said Arson. He was conflicted, due to the fact that for the first time since he’d started a trial, two trial options appeared, rather than one. He reread the boxes again to make sure he wasn’t losing his mind.
Trial 4750: Save the Omen scion. *Beware, your actions are far reaching and may affect life as you know it, even after you have completed your trials and returned to your own realm.* Trial 4750: End Omen once and for all. *Beware, your actions are far reaching and may affect life as you know it, even after you have completed your trials and returned to your own realm.*
“You don’t look too sure about that boss,” said Micro with a grin.
…
Symphony was held on a stage beside his closest friend, and his sister. He sighed to himself, and wondered if he should break free, and at a bare minimum, free those who followed him in his pursuit of power.
It was his actions that brought them all here. So he felt it appropriate that it should be him to fix things before his own untimely death.
The angels would soon return, and Symphony wondered if his people and his family would even manage to survive a fortnight, let alone another full season cycle.
The chains wrapped around his body, drank in his power like an alcoholic did booze. He felt so drained. In fact, he began to wonder if he could even reverse the flow of power that left his veins and was pulled into the runic metals around him and his friends and family.
He couldn’t even open his eyes, yet he knew that if he needed, his ancient instrument would appear at his back in a breath and fill him with unrefined divinity in the blink of an eye. He forced away the thoughts once more, as he remembered that his death was the only thing that would allow for mortal Cultivators to live in peace for the next century or more.
“Are you sure, little brother?” asked his sister once more. Symphony simply nodded, as he could feel her eyes on his back in that moment.
“If anything, I will cast you all into the Port of Heaven in the moment before my death, at least that way I will know that the gate to Endless won’t explode and ruin all of our hard work,” mumbled Symphony underneath his breath.
“What about you, Sym? How will we know what to do next after you are gone?” asked a voice from his other side. Symphony couldn’t ignore the anger in his best friend's tone. It was he who was most effected by Symphony’s choice. His friend Arthur had accompanied him through the worst of times, and even allowed his own sister to be coveted by the young man, only for Symphony to sacrifice himself, based on the demands of a moral-less king.
“You know what I want for the Port of Heaven more than anyone else Art, just try not to let my sister ruin things over my family's curses,” said Symphony. His sister scoffed behind him, but before she could respond, a noise drew the attention of the entire crowd.
Symphony tried to focus his ears in an attempt to recognize what occurred around them all, only to become confused by what he herd.
Cultivators screamed all around them as a battle ensued. Symphony wanted to open his eyes, but knew he would be far too tempted to summon his ancient instrument. So he listened.
Listened to a conversation being had hundreds of yards away, amidst the chaos.
“I thought you said the trials are supposed to get harder, these guys are jokes, boss,” said a kind and sweet voice.
“Micro, these men and women are doing their best to defend themselves against a bad situation, your judgement won’t change their innocence, nor their lack of skill, I am sure your skills will be tested as my own has,” said a young man whose voice made Symphony’s entire being vibrate when he spoke.
“Hey Sym, looks like your terrible plan is going out of the window and fast,” said Art by his side. It was in that moment that Symphony finally decided to open his eyes.
The environment changed when he made this decision. Gravity distorted underneath the weight of Symphony’s mana being restored. As his eyes were refined well above mortal beings, and had power of their own, power that couldn’t be suppressed whilst Symphony used them.
The scene around them was pure havoc. A small group of men and women walked through the sea of people casually. Guards were being flung about as easily as toys in the group's path, left unconscious in their wake.
Symphony blinked and the group was in front of them all, on the stage in a breath, as if the distance between them didn’t exist. A brown haired young woman took Symphony’s breath away as she flipped onto the stage gracefully and managed a small wink in his direction before she spoke up.
“Hmm, you sure about this guy, boss? I still have my doubts,” said the young woman.
“”Yes I am sure Micro, now cut his chains, so that we may leave this land and move on,” said a young man. Micro’s gaze flickered over toward a tanned skin young man with a cowled cloak on, before she shrugged and begun to slice through the chains that kept Symphony and the others down as easily as butter to a hot knife. It was in the moment that Symphony’s eyes met the young man’s, that he knew his life would never be the same.
“Come on man, aren’t you older than me? For my supposed rival, you are making me look bad,” said the young man with eyes filled with stars. The young man smiled at Symphony before he pulled a cube from his pocket and dropped it at his accomplices feet.
The strange technology made Symphony gasp, as the young woman rolled her eyes and began to climb inside the small box at her feet. As far as Symphony knew, he was the only person with the kind of spacial magic being presented in front of him, until now…
The young man glided to his feet as if weightless and turned to smile down at Symphony before he spoke.
“Sorry if I ruined whatever farce this was,” said the young man with a waved hand at the spectacle around them both.
“But, it was probably for the best, I know that I would feel ashamed if I ever met Dare again and had to tell him I let his fabled younger brother Symphony die, even though I had the power to stop it, regardless of whether or not we are fated to kill one another,” said the hooded figure, before a large smile could be seen underneath the cloak alongside twin galaxies, then he vanished completely. This left Symphony to clean up a new mess, he was unsure that he was ready for.
“Ha,” came Art’s voice from behind Symphony as his oldest friend came to his feet.
“Looks like nobody is dying today, my friend!”
Laughter filled the area and Symphony sneered at what he knew was to come. He looked at his sister and his friend before he rolled his own rune filled eyes. Two ancient and lost runes glowed, centered within his irises with the power to distort reality and more.
“Something tells me, you aren’t wrong buddy, it's time to let sparks fly once more…”
It was in that moment that Symphony knew that he couldn’t die there, as his family and friends may have a far more pivotal threat being placed like a blade at their necks; the words of his newest quest a god given confirmation of that very fact.
Trial 7500: Stop Sovereign Arson Omni from overthrowing the Port of Heaven and becoming the new Mana Monarch.
Symphony sighed and summoned his Ancient Instrument. The backpack filled with treasure caused an explosion of force and Univers as the straps hung themselves from his shoulders once more and mana returned a hundred fold back into his veins once again. Cheers rose from his party as the legendary ShieldBow was also summoned to his fingertips. Symphony raised the weapon skyward and a single arrow pierced the sky.
The arrow caused the sky itself to rip open and Heaven’s mouth opened above all gathered there.
Seven Cultivators were pulled from their feet and into the sky. Once more being returned to the protected lands for those who rivaled both natural forces and gods themselves.
“Sparks that never gets old,” said Art, while Symphony and the rest of his family and friends disappeared.
The only things left behind, laughter, dancing light, and a single word spoken from Symphony’s lips.
“Sparks…”
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