After spending some time on the beach, Lisa and Bath continued on their tour of Illudis. Bath originally suggested that they swim in the water a bit, to which Lisa adamantly refused. Sunbathing alone was more than enough, she thought scathingly. We'd probably scare the verdora babies to death.

After an additional day of travel, the two decided to return to Whitesun. This time, instead of passing by the landscape at a steady, slow lope, the duo took to the skies and flew over.

"Seeing everything from above..." Lisa began, trailing off.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Bath said, finishing her words.

"Yeah."

"You know," Bath began, "when I first assumed the form of a human, I had this..." Bath snorted, shaking his head, "absurd misconception that I couldn't change my form."

Lisa laughed. "Really? That's so stupid."

"Anyways, when we were in grade school, it dawned on me that I didn't need to confine myself to a human body 24/7."

"Mhm," Lisa intoned.

"Do you know what the first creature I turned into was?" He glanced at her expectantly.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Well, let's see: what started this entire train of thought?" She look off to the right. "We were essentially talking about how a bird's eye view is awesome." She looked pointedly to the left. "Therefore, the only conclusion that I can draw..." Now she looked directly at Bath, "is that the first creature you turned into after assuming the form of a human is none other than a glittering, pink pegasus."

Bath's eyes crinkled. "Very astute," he replied, a sagely expression on his face.

Lisa struggled not to laugh, but failed, a snort-laugh escaping her carefully-composed features.

The time passed quickly; soon, Whitesun was on the horizon.

"What the hell happened to it?" Lisa asked, voice filled with awe.

"They were quick to emulate the city-seed I left for them on Gray Land," Bath noted. He turned his head toward Lisa. "Do you remember how it looked?"

Lisa nodded. "You're right. But...how? That isn't dragonleaf."

Bath shrugged, flashing Lisa a lop-sided smile. "Evidently through technological means."

The marvel at the center of their attention was the giant, spiraling tower wrapping snake-like around the mountain. It looked as though someone had taken the Spire from Gray Land's city-seed, stretched it out, and bent it into a spiral shape. After the first few hundred feet, the mountain narrowed out enough to form the center of what appeared to be a continguous glass structure: as the spiraling Spire wrapped around the narrowed mountaintop, it looked like a seamless whole.

"We've been gone three days," Lisa muttered in disbelief. "How?"

"Why don't we go and ask?" Bath replied, eyebrows pulled up in curiosity. "Dean will know."

Lisa and Bath swiftly approached the city without announcing their arrival; Bath sent out his essence for the first time in days. After abstaining from doing so for such a long time, he realized...Filling up the entirety of my 3.6 mile range of influence...he flexed his jaw, makes me...hungry.

The increase in hunger was barely perceptible. However, it got Bath thinking: Why? His essence was his essence, himself. Why would reforming himself into tiny, linked, mist-like microorganisms and sending them out...make him hungry?

Bath's face grew severe. Organisms become hungry when they lack energy, he noted, though this isn't the case with myself. My hunger...never dissipates, only lessening when I devour all new organisms I come across. His knuckles turned white.

Or maybe, he thought, cocking his head slowly to the side, maybe...this isn't typical. Maybe there's an organism here, one I cannot sense...or that I can only, just barely sense through proximity. His eyes suddenly flashed.

"Lisa," he murmured, snapping out of his reverie. He stopped moving; startled, Lisa looked back, already hundreds of feet ahead. She arced around, eventually coming to face him in the air.

"Something wrong?" she asked, eyes squinted against the sun.

"Remember how you wondered at the origin of this mountain?" Bath asked, face devoid of emotion.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Yeah," Lisa replied. "Hold on; you have a theory?"

Bath sighed. "Not really. I think...there might be something beneath the mountain."

Lisa's eyebrows rose up. "Huh?" She pivoted to face the mountain's white majesty. "Beneath the mountain?"

Bath described to Lisa the small increase in hunger he felt when spreading his essence over the mountain. "I've never felt this before, just spreading my essence out."

"Well, why don't we troubleshoot what's going on?" Lisa offered. "Internalize all your essence into yourself like before, then go...oh, several miles away. We'll see if it's you, or the mountain."

Bath blinked. "Oh."

"Pfft, you're so helpless." She blinked her eyelashes rapidly, giving Bath a dazzling smile.

"And you're hopeless," he muttered back, mouth quirking up.

The two of them rocketed away, back towards the direction they came in. After traveling more than twenty miles, they stopped, hovering in the air. "Okay; now," Lisa ordered, giving Bath an expectant look.

He nodded. In an instant, his essence was flowing outward like an invisible torrent of water. "You're right," he said, looking back toward Lisa. "This was an excellent idea."

"So, what's the verdict?" she asked, voice elevated with anticipation.

He grabbed her hand before shooting off toward Whitesun. "There's something beneath Whitesun."

Lisa nodded her head, unable to talk with the wind whipping into her face at speeds exceeding terminal falling velocity. Despite her many enhancements, she still felt like her arm would snap off if Bath made any sharp turns. Thankfully, their path to Whitesun was straight.

Without warning, Bath stopped; Lisa shot forward ahead of him several hundred feet before using her magnetic sense to counteract her movement forward. She turned back, shooting Bath an accusatory glare.

"Well, that's one way to arrive," she grumbled, patting her head to make sure her hair wasn't a mess. "The wind felt like it was trying to tear my clothes off." This was largely due to the fact that Lisa's dress tapered at the bottom, catching the wind at several points.

"It does worse to my cape," Bath rebutted, "and it's still on my back."

"Whatever," Lisa sighed. "So, what's the plan? Maybe we should ask Juserin first like we originally planned, see if he knows anything."

"Eh, I doubt he knows," Bath said dismissively.

Lisa groaned and rolled her eyes. "You're just like my dad when we need to stop and ask for directions..."

Bath ignored her. "What do you think would happen," he murmured, "if I just...dig down?"

"We could also ask any jerboa the humans brought along," Lisa reasoned.

Bath's eyes flashed. "Good point."

Lisa smiled in self-satisfaction. Bath simply formed an avatar of himself next to what appeared to be Whitesun's jerboa headquarters.

"Virigard," Bath called out, unsurprised to see Dean's companion on Illudis. "A word."

Virigard squeaked, startled, her elongated teeth snapping together like a noise-maker. "Of course, Creator." She swished her tail and bowed forward.

"Is there anything peculiar about this mountain?" he asked, exuding an air of absolute authority, such that even the air seemed to still around him.

Virigard snapped to attention. "After several thousand or so feet of digging into the mountain, the rock becomes...spongy."

Bath's pupils dilated. "Spongy?"

"It's terrible for digging," Virigard complained. "It closes up and stuff. I was gonna tell Dean about it eventually," she said, a guilty expression on her face.

"Do you have any tunnels leading to this spongy rock?" Bath asked.

Virigard nodded happily, her expression brightening. "Yup!"

Bath smiled icily. "Excellent. Lead the way."

At the same time, Bath grabbed Lisa by the hand again. "Follow," he urged, flying toward the location of his essence clone and Virigard.

"See? What'd I tell you?" Lisa said triumphantly. "Sometimes it's easier to ask for help, even if you're...well, you." Part of her felt strangely elated that Bath wasn't as omnipotent as he sometimes seemed.

"Yeah, yeah," he murmured softly, his attentions focused on the tunnel that he and Virigard were moving through. After around thirty seconds of flying, he and Lisa entered the tunnel and caught up with Virigard. Bath released his grip on Lisa, then destroyed his clone. Concurrently, Lisa flared a small flame in her left palm, illuminating the cavern in a dim light.

"What!?" Virigard suddenly cheeped, freaked out by the spontaneous disappearance of her Creator. Hearing the approach of two individuals behind her, she spun around. A sense of relief pulsed through her.

"Oh," she said, straightening up. "Chur--Asil." In this moment, she realized that Bath must have simply moved so quickly from his position at her side that she'd thought he had disappeared.

"Hello, Virigard," Lisa beamed. This jerboa is the luckiest little quasi alive, Lisa noted. Being Dean's companion is a huge blessing. How else would both Lisa and Bath know Virigard's name?

"Your Radiance," Virigard stated, bowing ceremoniously.

Bath snorted. "You didn't give me that kind of treatment."

Virigard gave him a wide-eyes, innocent stare. "But you're the Creator," she murmured.

"You're like her father," Lisa chuckled. "I'm her aunt; with that in mind, her behavior is entirely appropriate."

Bath gave them both a deadpan expression. "Fine. Virigard, we should be approaching the spongy rock, correct?"

"Yeah." She bounded forward, her long legs propelling her through the already-erected tunnels at a blistering pace.

After traveling another thousand feet, Bath's eyes suddenly grew wide, and his mouth began to salivate. Despite the darkness of the tunnel, Lisa noticed the change in Bath's demeanor immediately.

"What's here?" she asked, eyes alert.

Bath didn't reply immediately. "It's...enormous," he breathed.

"What?" Lisa repeated, slightly annoyed at Bath's lackluster description. "What is it?"

He didn't respond until they reached the end of the tunnel. He placed his hand upon the spongy rock at its terminus, inhaling deeply.

"It's like...a giant tumor," he said at last. "At least, that's what this wall smells like." Without any warning, he transformed into a worm with a giant, tooth-lined maw. He began to burrow immediately into the spongy wall. After a few seconds, Lisa and Virigard completely lost sight of him, the only sign of his passage being the hole he left behind.

"..." Lisa looked at the hole in disbelief before turning to Virigard. The two of them shared a moment of silence.

"Well," Virigard said, breaking the silence, "the Creator looks like he's busy. Wanna have some rum coke?"