Moving his consciousness into his Mental World, while just a negligible fraction of it controlled his body in the real world, Felix appeared in his Soul garden. Grim appeared next to him in his ominous form a moment later.
“What did she do?”
Grim gave him a conflicted look, “At first, it was mostly… good… things.”
Felix groaned, “Where is she?”
As an answer, Grim moved the two of them instantly into what appeared to be a palace. The walls were dark marble and hosted many murals with perfectly even gaps between each of them. The ceiling was missing however and instead, Felix looked up at various climates ranging from sunny to snowing to thunder storms to the bottom of the ocean. As they walked along the massive corridor, the climates above shifted from just skies, to mountains, deserts, beaches, tundra’s and plains warped and wrapped around above them.
“Finally!” Felix was dragged out of his reverie by a familiar voice. His gaze snapped ahead of him onto Melody’s projected form, bolting across the hall towards him. Instead of the clothes she had worn, she was wearing something that looked like a child’s design made real in a fantasy movie. It wasn’t discordant, but it was extravagant with a set of glistening armor and a billowing cape of shadow that appeared to distort reality behind her.
She leapt onto him, latching her arms around his neck, “I thought you’d forgotten about me.”
“Forgotten about you? Your body is still draped over my shoulders and you’re in my head.”
She jumped back onto her feet, “Yeah, that’s why I thought you had forgotten about me. It took me a while to figure out what was going on but… I think I’ve figured it out.”
He cocked a brow and his head in confusion, What is there to figure out?
Grim responded without looking, Hear her out.
Melody, not privy to Felix’s thoughts, assumed he was waiting for her to continue and so, she did, “In your Integration, you found something ancient.”
“Like what?”
She quickly shook her head, “I don’t know but from what I can tell, it seems to match everything I’ve heard about The Realms.” She looked upwards at the missing ceiling and various landscapes above them.
“The Realms of Annihilation?”
“Yeah. This must be like, a prototype or just another realm like it. Somehow, it latched onto your Soul. This is what you use as a Soul Space, right? No one’s ever found anything like The Realms but, your an integrated. There’s always weird shit being unearthed from the past in Integrations.”
Felix nodded slowly, “Like a realm?”
She shrugged defensively, “Well, I mean this is one of the most… insane things I’ve heard of but, I mean I’ve seen it now, I’ve felt it. Not much point in denying it.”
“You said you thought I had forgotten about you?”
Her eyes widened as he jogged her memory, “Well, I spent a bit of time exploring. Visiting buildings, shops and just walking around. Then a few hours had passed and I was certain you’d have grabbed me by then. Then a few days passed and I realized you’d forgotten about me. So… I may have started… messing with things a little.”
“What did you do?”
She held up her hands, “Nothing that bad, I just wanted to find the limits, you know? I talked to people and probed them. Tried to find the edges and the seams but… there was nothing to be found. That’s when I realized, this is like The Realms, the time I spend in here must not even be attached to the real world at all.”
“I see. How long have you been in here, in your time?”
“Almost 200 days. How long has it actually been?”
“Just over 15 minutes.”
She gawked, “Oh man I can’t wait for The Real Realms if they’re anything like this.”
“So you spent 200 days here. What did you do?”
“Oh right, so. At first I was just exploring, walking around and talking to people. I was convinced there had to be cracks somewhere, where something would give. By the way, it all makes sense now, about Mera and all that. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still super impressive you managed to move her outside of this Realm but she’s not a construct.”
Felix just offered her a blank expression, giving nothing away.
“Anyways, once I realized this was like The Realms, I figured I’d have some fun with it. Kind of like… practice. So, I started gaining favor, standing.”
“Why?”
She threw her arms up in the air, “I don’t know what else was I supposed to do? Moving on, I pretty quickly managed to weed my way into Arkade’s political system and… well, one thing led to another and I helped Orion get reelected as Emperor.”
“Reelected? Emperor?”
She looked at him like he was an idiot, “Yeah, it’s an elective monarchy. Do you spend any time in here?”
Felix shrugged, “How am I supposed to track everything happening when time is completely detached? I have shit to do in the real world.”
“Alright alright, fair enough. Yeah so, Orion was the one who set up the entire governing system of Arkade in the first place. He ruled as the fairly elected emperor for quite a while at which point, as would happen to any politician, people got unhappy. They blamed him and decided they wanted change.”
Felix sighed a little but just kept listening.
“So, Samuel was elected in his place and they completely changed a bunch of things right out of the gate. As you can imagine, it was a disaster. He was ousted almost immediately but the people weren’t ready to welcome Orion back just yet, they still blamed him for… well, basically everything.”
Felix interrupted her story, “How do you know all this?”
Melody gave him a isn’t-it-obvious look, “I just downloaded the history in the library. Anyways, they rotated through a bunch of Emperors until people finally realized how good they had had things with Orion so, he became Emperor again. This exact same thing happened again a little while later and once again, it was a disaster. That was when the library started letting people download history directly, so they could be better informed. At that point, it was too late though and Orion was disillusioned and tired of trying so hard.”
Holy shit, things in here are way more complicated than I imagined. Also, Orion became Emporer?
Grim responded without giving any indication to Melody that they were having an internal conversation, Yeah, he set up the system of government and did such a good job that he just kind of stayed there for a while. It really did seem like his calling at the time.
“I was trying to solve a much smaller political problem at the time I downloaded all the history, by the way, download is a weird word, anyways… I learned about Orion and basically dropped everything. I ventured out to find him in the middle of nowhere where he had become a farmer with very well trained cattle.”
“It took me a few days but eventually I managed to convince him to come back and try again but this time, I was going to help him make sure people were happy and stayed happy, you know with my… talents.”
Huh. That sounds like an oddly perfect use of her abilities, manipulating entire civilizations, if a little dystopian.
“Well anyways, he was elected again in no time and I helped him out for a bit.”
Felix nodded, “Sounds productive.”
“Yeah well, that was my first 50 days or so.”
That was just 50 days?
“After that, I traveled the Realm for a bit and eventually ended up at Alo’Ward where I helped Arysha transition from Founder and Dean to a more research position by finding her people she could trust to delegate to.”
“Wait… what? What is Alo’Ward?”
“Alo’Ward?” She looked at him with a mix of confusion and shock, “Head Polytechnic Ward of the Alo Ward Network?”
“The what?”
“Schools, Felix. They’re schools.” Melody sighed, “Arysha founded one a while ago, Alo’Ward, but it was so popular she ended up founding hundreds more for all different levels and subjects all over. She set up a standard curriculum template for various subjects and helped with their founding so students could easily transfer between them. Anyways, she’d been running the show and traveling and founding new Wards all over the place but she was a little burnt out and all she really wanted to do was get back to her research. Those under her began to notice she was unhappy but didn’t know why, I sensed why and helped smooth everything over.”
“I see. Well, thanks… I guess.”
She shrugged, “What can I say, I’m… a woman of the people. I mean when you’re this adora…”
None of that really explains why my skill upgraded though. I guess having Orion re-elected could have gotten me to Mental Metropolis…
“…it’s not like I can help it, it’s really just who I am.”
“Yeah yeah, gotcha. Did you do anything else? Anything that… affected the Realm as a whole?”
She shrugged, “After Arysha, I mostly just set out and created a palace and anything I could dream of, just to see what it would be like.”
“No, before that. What else did you do?”
She shrugged, “I got some food, did some shopping, talked to some people, attended a birthing ceremony-which is a little weird by the way-got into politics, got Orion elected, facilitated an alliance between other cities, visited some of the other continents…”
Must be the alliance then. Based on the changes in the skill descriptions. Why did it then become Divine though? Divine usually means it has to do with a God… or maybe it finally reached a threshold and Mera is the reason it became Divine because this counts as he afterlife? What about Zero though? Why is he different? Or did I just need more than one?
“…visited some brothels, did some dancing, became a courtesan for a while-”
“Yeah yeah. Did you do any- Wait, what?”
She smirked knowingly, “Just checking if you’re listening.”
He groaned, “What else did you do for Orion?”
“For Orion? It was for the people but, I don’t know. I helped him negotiate with other cities then mostly just helped him establish ways to keep the people happy.”
“What are those ways?”
She shrugged a little, “It seemed to me like most people seemed kind of purposeless. They were bored and that resulted in a few wars being fought, not out of boredom but, that was the initial seed, if you will. Arysha and some others had dedicated themselves to creating schools and education, others to religion and some to their jobs- Oh, by the way, some of the jobs in here make no sense. Anyways…”
“You helped the people find purpose?”
“I just shifted the core religion around a little then helped to spread it.”
Oh… yeah. That’s probably it.
“What exactly did you do with what religion?”
She put her hands up defensively, “Nothing bad, I didn’t incite war or anything. Jeez, chill out.” She relaxed a little, “For the most part, everyone I met who was religious worshiped a single being. Some kind of Wizard looking guy. The issue was, that was the extent of the religion. They didn’t have any… proverbs or… teachings? It was just, this is the God, he’s the best.”
The fact that she didn’t immediately recognize the deity as him struck Felix as odd, especially considering the statue in the center of Arkade so he mentally checked it and found the face had been replaced by a cloud of arcane lines. It reminded him of the Curses, where looking into one had a weird effect on the Mind and Soul. Instead of Desire or Fear though, it was like the cloud consisted of knowledge well beyond anyone’s grasp, secrets and arcane formulas that were unknowable.
Grim noticed his thought process and explained, That was me. After your last visit, we slowly began altering things because you didn’t want to be the head of a religion and so that you wouldn’t be recognized anymore. So, we detached the religions from you.
Huh. Thanks.
“I listened to those that were more religious and how they felt and created a doctrine of sorts. Just like, basic rules to live by, simple morality stuff. That was good enough for some people but others wanted different things, like the Rakyt mostly worship arcane knowledge. So, their doctrine and morality is different. They see the god as all powerful but more importantly, all knowing. Anyways, it varies in different continents and probably eventually they’ll all forget it’s the same person. Then they’ll argue and maybe there will be problems then but for now, it seems to be working.”
Felix nodded, “Well, it sounds like you had fun.”
She shrugged and nodded a little, like she was surprising herself by saying so, “Yeah, I did. Now,” She stabbed his chest with her finger, “are you done interrogating me?”
“Yeah. Let’s go back.”
Melody smiled and shimmied a little in excitement, “How’d everything go wit-”
Felix moved himself back into his body first then put Melody’s body down before releasing her Soul from his Mental World.
“-Mera…” Melody looked around in confusion, “Where is she?”
Felix gestured towards the door, “She’s gone. Headed back to The Abyss.”
Melody’s jaw dropped a little, “Uh… You didn’t wake me? You kept me in your head the entire time?”
Felix shrugged, “Body was done, wanted to get the whole thing finished with.”
“And you didn’t think for a second I would want to be here for that?”
“Honestly, I didn’t think about it at all.”
“Uuuughh.”
Felix ignored her miniature meltdown, “I’m gonna finish some stuff up here then head to The Record Room then back into The Abyss.”
She waved him off then walked out the door, “I’m gonna see if I can’t find Mera in the arena.”
Turning back to the work in the lab, Felix spent some time with Rewdan, Eni, Ked and Art working through all the aspects of the Soul Forge they couldn’t do without him. Those mostly consisted of things that needed Nova, since he was planning on bringing her, and Felix’s will power. They already had most of the parts finished so it didn’t take him more than half a day or so.
After that, he-with Nova on his shoulder-headed back to the building surrounding the arena where he headed into the lobby. He was greeted by a large crowd, not quite as big as the day Rhonan had arrived, but it was still packed. Flying over most of them and selecting the most empty looking hall, Felix projected his goal into the room and let the building guide him to The Record Room.
The planet only let him in because he was a participant which he only knew because he noticed a spectators just outside who weren’t being let in at all.
The Record Room was not at all what Felix had expected. Instead of a library or a room with shelves or desks he could request from, the room was split up into a number of sections. They were each open but separated from each-other by distance. Looking from left to right, he saw each section showed off one floor grouping, starting from the Boars in the plains, all the way up to floors he hadn’t even reached yet.
He didn’t really know where Peace had stopped but he walked towards the first floors he didn’t recognize anyways and simply memorized everything he could.
On the screens in the section, was all of the information they had on the floor groupings. For the floors he was looking at, there wasn’t much. Glancing back to compare though, the earlier sections had statistical analyses on where the door and keys had been displayed as heat maps. It had patterns and in depth overviews of the enemies on the floors and more.
The only thing all the floors had, were screens displaying the previous contestants runs through the floors.
On the previous floors, there were enough views to run the analyses. On the floors Felix was looking at, there were just a few recordings of a few teams.
Still, it was useful for him to know that just two groups from where he had left, the keys would be inside of the enemies, not on pedestals. That information alone would save him a few minutes.
Continuing on through the groups, Felix saw that Romar and Zeraxes were both currently inside of The Abyss and were both neck in neck, on floors 196 and 197 respectively. Without looking, he noticed he wasn’t the only one watching them from The Records Room and noticed a number of others around him. Despite that, even if he wasn’t identifying them, Felix was pretty sure they weren’t even close to the 200th floor. Which meant, they were watching not to research the floors, but for some other reason.
The only person he noticed that piqued his interest strength wise, was a Drakene with milky white, pearlescent scales. He wore a set of simple pants and a shirt that was long, almost robe like but seemed more casual than anything. In fact, they seemed oddly familiar. Turning around, Felix immediately recognized them even before he identified them.
[C - Legendary] Herald of the Holy Mother: Il Doras (Lvl 2406)
Noticing his gaze, Il Doras nodded to Felix then stepped forwards a few steps to stand next to him.
“I am Il Doras, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Felix nodded, knowing he wouldn’t recognize him because he wasn’t in his Persona, “Felix.”
Nova meowed and Felix quickly shot her a bundle of thoughts to make sure she understood and behaved herself, even if she knew of Il Doras as a friend.
“Which floor are you on now?”
“I stopped at 170 a little bit ago but one of my party members kept going. I’m honestly not quite sure where we are.”
The Paladin nodded appreciatively, “Most impressive. I have been in twice now and am about to head back in to floor 185. It is a wonderful blessing to have friends you can count on in The Abyss.” He looked at Nova with a smile.
He continued to stare for a few moments then his smile fell away and his brow furrowed in slight confusion, “Is this your familiar?”
Felix nodded, “This is Nova.”
The Drakene bowed his head slightly, “It is an honor to meet you Nova. How long has Nova been your familiar, if it is not too personal a question?”
“Since I was in the E grade technically.”
He nodded, “I see. She reminds me greatly of a being I once knew.”
Felix nodded, “Do you have a familiar or companion?”
He smiled, “I do not. I have been searching for quite some time for the perfect being but alas, I have not found one as of yet.”
“I see. Well, good luck in locating one.” Felix nodded and stepped back a few steps to leave.
Il Doras, noticing this, turned and stepped alongside him, apparently also done with the screens, “Do you mind if I walk with you?”
Felix shrugged, “Not at all. You heading into The Abyss as well?”
He nodded, “I am.”
Together, they walked out of The Records Room and towards the entrance to the arena.
Il Doras spoke first, once they were walking down the halls, “You are a student here, on this planet, correct?”
Felix nodded, “I am.”
“How does that work? You have classes, do you not? How do you find the time to enter The Abyss?”
“I’m only actually attending two classes and only one of them, has a scheduled time. Even then though, I know the Professor well and if I needed to shuffle the class around, it wouldn’t be an issue.”
He nodded, “Is this how it works for the other students as well?”
Felix shrugged a little, “I can only really speak to my other party members and I’m pretty sure all of them are only taking one or two classes.”
“I see. In my case, my mentor has paused my lessons as I delve deeper into The Abyss. They will resume once I reach a floor I struggle with and they will help me prepare as best I can for them.”
“What about your party members?”
“They are also Herald’s of The Holy Mother and in a similar situation.”
Felix nodded, “Slightly off topic and I hope you aren’t offended but, you’re a Drakene. Have you noticed-”
“There are very few of us in the stands and all the Drakene Gods are curiously missing?” He nodded, “I have.”
“Do you know why?”
He shrugged slightly, “I’ve heard of this rumor, about this Arthur hunting us down. I had actually previously met this man, a few epochs ago and I find these rumors hard to believe myself. He was not a God then and far from one, I doubt it is he alone that is the source of this mystery.”
“I heard he has a… powerful backer.”
Il Doras shrugged a little, “That seems likely. I know not of who they might be and see no reason to be afraid myself. My understanding is that he has threatened the Dragons for reasons unknown, not the Drakene as a whole. This is why the Drakene are not entirely missing…”
Felix nodded in understanding, “Just the ones that worship The Dragons. Which, is almost all of them. Huh.”
“At least, that is how it seems to be to me. It does however, seem like there is something else at play here.”
“Yeah. That seems likely.”
After muscling their way through the ever growing crowd of sycophants in the halls just outside the arena, the two of them stepped through the preparation room then around the door into the arena. Instead of a large open floor though, Felix was surprised to find a tunnel of sorts.
The once perfectly flat plane of the arena floor had shifted. Where Felix stood, there were two perfectly straight walls of the same material on either side of him, perfectly matching the floor. Above him, was a sheet of glass covering the entirety of the way from where he stood, down the perfectly straight and uniform tunnel to The Abyss’ entrance in the middle of the arena.
Felix immediately understood what had happened.
The arena had shifted so that events could take place in the arena while participants could still head into and out of The Abyss unhindered while the crowd could see who was going in and coming out through the ceiling.
As they walked, Nova tried her best to lick away part of the walls and ceiling while Il Doras donned his armor, which had been substantially upgraded based on Felix’s Matter and Mana Senses. The Enchantment alone was impressive but nothing novel to him and the material, was a metal that seemed to be at least a B grade material.
No one exited The Abyss as they walked so they had no trouble walking side by side all the way there, despite Il Doras’ massive muscle bound frame, right up to the entrance.
Around The Entrance, there was a small circular room to somewhat manage traffic where they stopped and Il Doras turned and nodded to Felix, “Good luck.”
Felix nodded in thanks, “You too.”
Then, they both stepped into The Abyss.
Having memorized the landscape and creatures of each floor from 170 to 197, Felix immediately recognized he was on one of the floors from 176 to 179, meaning Peace had beaten one of the bosses on his own. The landscape was one of an infinite rocky mountain range that stretched out like a spiderweb in every direction. The enemies on the floor, were exactly what Felix expected, Leriff’s, birds with scaled bodies, massive feathered wingspans and dragon like claws.
[C - Special] Leriff (Lvl 1094)
As soon as he appeared on the side of a mountain, out of the entrance portal, a handful of Leriff’s took notice and began circling around him to protect their territory. Reaching into his Force Attuned core, Felix pulled a few million Mana out and split it into two. One part he very carefully manipulated into a precise shape while the other, was looser and more raw.
It took him 4 to 5 Blade Spells-depending where he hit them-to kill just one Leriff which, was more than he had expected to need to take down just a single enemy at their level. Hitting them on the wings did minimal damage but disabled them. Hitting their core bodies was slightly more damaging, but would have been vastly more effective if they didn’t have thick scaled skin covering that area.
These seem… weirdly strong. Far stronger than they should be given their level and grade… I’ll have to ask Melody about it afterwards.
He had initially pulled out what he thought was enough Mana to hold onto for a while, as he flew around, but now that he knew how oddly tough the Leriff’s were, he took out much more.
Leaping into the air, he flew between the mountain tops and managed to spot a couple of keys, which was convenient but he still hadn’t spotted Peace yet. It took him a total of nearly 15 minutes and over 30 Leriffs he couldn’t avoid and was forced to kill, until he finally spotted what he thought was Peace.
Coming around a particularly tall mountain, Felix caught sight of a creature that wasn’t a Leriff at all. It was a massive storm cloud shaped like a flying serpent. It had wings and Lighting coursing through its cloud like body. As it flew, thunderous claps of wind smacked against the rock face and obliterated a pack of Leriffs followed closely by an explosion of Lightning that tickled everything nearby.
The Lightning was much less effective but still, caused the Leriffs to seize and fall to the ground.
Seeing Felix floating in the air, the massive Storm Serpent slithered through the air towards him, vanishing at the last moment only to be replaced by a legless Peace. In place of his bottom half, there was a dense looking storm cloud that held him aloft.
He waved, “Yo, you find any keys?”
Felix nodded, “I have two.”
“Perfect. I have the other four. Door’s this way, follow me.”
Flying alongside him, Felix turned to Peace, “Looks like you’re having fun.”
Peace chuckled, “Yeah, definitely. It took me a while to figure it out but, as you saw, I can combine this ring-” He held up the finger holding the ring Melody had gifted him, “-with all the other animals I have parts and pieces of.”
“That’s… awesome.”
Peace laughed loudly, “That’s what I was thinking. Anyways, sorry about taking so long, I probably could have cleared a whole other group if I had focused.”
Felix waved him off, “Don’t worry about it. We aren’t that far behind that it matters. If it did, I would be in here too.”
“How far behind are we?”
“Last I checked, Zeraxes and Romar were the furthest on floors 196 and 197.”
Peace shrugged a little, “That’s not too much further. These floors have gotten annoying though.”
“How so?”
He sighed, “They’re getting big and the enemies are too strong and fast for me to ignore them all. So, the size of the floor and being forced to fight… Not to mention the number of keys and switches we have to find, is getting tedious. At least there weren’t any hidden inside the fish on the last floor.”
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Felix nodded in understanding, “Unfortunately, I know of at least 4 floors where’s that’s the case.”
Peace groaned, “I take it you watched Zer and Rom’s runs?”
He nodded.
“Alright, I’ll follow you then. Is Adaline still not back yet?”
Felix shrugged, “Who knows.”
He chuckled before speeding up a little and leading Felix to the exit where they inserted the keys they had found and stepped through into the boss chamber.
Just like most of the floors, the boss was based on the enemies of the floor and so, they were up against a massive Leriff.
[C - Special] Leriff (Lvl 1110)
As with all the bosses before, it was deceptively strong. Much like the World Bosses Felix had fought in his Integration. The level and rarity of the boss did not match how annoying it was to kill, not even close. It definitely had some kind of boss buff that made it stronger.
It still didn’t overly matter as Felix could release 25 Blade Spells in very quick succession so even if it was much more durable, it took about the same amount of time to kill. The arena they had to fight it was so big though, that it still took them a while to even find and get to the door. Luckily, there were no other Leriffs to deal with other than the boss.
The next floor held a vast desert with no enemies in sight but, Felix already knew about the worms beneath the surface. He also knew they held keys within them and he would be forced to kill them to make his way out of the room. So, before he had even stepped into the room, he already had a new spell ready.
It combined Attunements of Force and Sound with some very specific Spell Fractals.
Kneeling down, he placed a hand on the surface of the hot sand and began casting the spell. He didn’t need his hand touching the sand to cast the spell, but he wanted to feel it working, and not just through his Matter Senses. As it turned out, he didn’t need to feel anything because just looking around him, the sand began to vibrate and ripple out from where he had cast the Spell.
In just a few short moments, the sand all around them shifted from a still sea of waves frozen in time, to a completely flat, vibrating plane.
As the vibrations grew and spread outwards, the enemies began to show themselves, leaping out of the sand to attack the source of the disturbance. Before he could even cast the Spell he had prepared though, Nova had leapt out, in a chrome skinned version of her panther form, latching onto it as if she were catching a leaping fish.
Peace jumped off to another side, transforming into a fish like creature made of rapidly spinning wind. A few moments after he dove below the surface, sand in a few hundred meter radius exploded outwards into a massive tornado as Peace zipped around snatching worms out of the air.
The two of them dealt with the majority of the enemies but there were a few in between them and Felix dealt with them easily. He fell back to using simple Blade Spells because he both wanted to refine the Spell itself, making it sharper and more effective, as well as turn it into an instinct cast.
It took them all working together almost an hour on each floor as they had to move to a fresh patch of desert every few minutes and the floors were massive to get through the group. The floors also held 4 to 6 keys each.
Luckily, Felix already knew they weren’t getting bigger as the floor group was one of the ones where each floor was roughly the same size.
The final boss was much easier to deal with and only took them a few minutes of concentrated effort before they could move on.
After that it was a group of ice floors with switches instead of keys followed by a group of ocean floors filled with fish and luckily, nothing but a door to find and step through.
The three of them continued on like that, all the way through to floor 215 where they found themselves on a floor much like the mountainous one Felix had first found Peace on except instead of mountains, they were volcanoes. The entire landscape was covered in either flowing magma or igneous rock.
Everywhere there was a stream of magma, there was a lounge of Lava Lizards slurping up the molten rock.
[C - Special] Lava Lizard (Lvl 1220)
The levels have slowed down significantly. These things are way more than just 10% stronger than those Leriff’s though.
Felix quickly ducked past one globule of magma flying at him then diverted a couple others as the Lizard’s began to notice him standing there.
Peace and Nova dove right in. Neither of them complained but Felix was starting to feel the pressure as each floor they cleared, took longer than the last. Each enemy, dealing and taking more damage to kill.
Felix could and did ramp up his spells to keep up and kill everything relatively quickly but, it began to drain his Mana faster as he did so. He rotated between his Attuned Cores, relying on Sound, Lightning and Cold to allow his Force core to regenerate but even then, his main core was rapidly decreasing and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.
He estimated he could get through another couple floor groups before he would have to leave and recharge.
Peace was the first to find a switch in the mouth of a volcano and once they knew where to look, it only took them a half hour to find the rest and step onto the next floor. There, the volcanoes were more like geysers and pools and less like mountains, the magma flows were thicker and the ground between them was thinner. Not to mention, it was hotter.
It took them an hour, once Nova found the first switch in an underground cave, and Felix was starting to doubt his initial estimation.
Even if he ignored the Lizards because there was no need to kill them, he had to defend himself from their magma projectiles and he had to stay low to the ground to detect the caves. At that point, it was more efficient for him to just kill the nearby Lizards so they couldn’t attack him.
The next floor was even worse as the caves were even deeper underground and often below Felix’s Matter Sense range.
Nova did the best she could, swimming through the rock at breakneck pace but, the floor was just too big for her to search on her own. Peace was doing his best with his Spirit form and he had even figured out how to shift his body through the rock but, he wasn’t fast at all and so it took them nearly four hours just to clear the floor and they still had one more before the boss.
Before he even passed through to the fourth floor of the group, Felix had already decided he would leave after the next floor and find a way to better regenerate his Mana. He thought about just draining his Pocket Home or Erevos but, that was a temporary solution and he would rather save that for later, when he really needed a large infusion of Mana.
They searched for a couple of hours on the fourth floor and had found nothing when Felix suddenly saw a number of bright lights appear one by one in the sky above. He had no idea what they were, or even if they were in the sky at all, as he couldn’t actually see very far through the blackened smog completely surrounding him.
As he watched though, the lights continued to appear and he realized there was a pattern to them.
Once they had stretched out in every direction for multiple kilometers, bright lines began to appear, connecting them together in a massive web. Then, the web descended from the sky and into the ground, Felix jumping to the side so it didn’t touch him.
A moment later, a number of lights reappeared from beneath the ground, but there were only 6 of them this time.
The nearest one was just a couple kilometers away so Felix shot over towards it and looked around before shrugging and opening a hole straight downwards. Sure enough, just a few hundred meters down, was a switch.
He activated it then looked up and the light that had guided him had vanished.
Looking around, he found the next that was still lit and activated the switch there then headed to the last one which, was the door.
Standing just outside the door frame, fending off Nova as she tried to eat her and talked to Peace, was Adaline.
[B - Ancient] Adaline (Lvl 2002)
Even from a distance, through the smog, she looked like a completely different person. She was slightly taller, and seemed less dense to Felix’s Matter Senses. Even her armor was the same armor Melody had commissioned but it had clearly been upgraded. As he approached, he realized it was even more Soulful than it had been and Felix could tell it was on the verge of becoming sentient. Her two guns were also completely different. They maintained the shape of revolvers and one was still black and the other white but they were much sleeker.
The revolvers were not only smaller, they were each visibly giving off an Aura in Felix’s Anima Senses that looked like rising smoke.
Lastly, she had a cloak that was a dark green, nearly black, and looked to be made from a couple of massive leaves.
Noticing Felix walking over, she met his gaze then nodded to Peace and slipped through the open portal behind her, not even acknowledging his presence in any meaningful way.
I guess we’re back to this then.
Peace followed behind her along with Nova and Felix who headed through a moment later.
On the other side, Adaline was already gone and the lights already spread out so Felix simply headed towards one of them, taking note of the fact that the group consisted of more floors than before. Halfway there though, it vanished and he redirected himself to another. That one too was gone before he got there and looking around, there weren’t any left.
Cranking up his flying speed as much as he could, Felix raced towards and through the door to the Boss floor where he just barely caught the beginning and end of the fight as the massive Lava Golem popped like a bubble, spraying Magma in every direction. Before he could summon a barrier to protect Nova, Peace, Adaline and himself who were all next to him, Adaline created a hollow rectangle of blue lines that somehow protected them.
From close up, Felix knew the predominant Mana Attunement was a spatial Attunement but he couldn’t tell exactly what it did or how. Her Spells had become, in a matter of a day, equally as complex as anything he had ever felt, including Kryptos’ enchantments, building spatial enchantments and the door beneath the Teleportation hub.
As soon as she could, Adaline dropped the barrier and flashed through the door to the next floor.
She’s even faster than me now. Last I remember my Agility was at least a few times hers and she barely gained levels. Sure she went up in grade but… The Realms of Annihilation seem a little… too ridiculous.
Peace turned to him as they moved towards the doors, “You heading back now?”
Felix nodded, “Need to regenerate my Mana.”
He nodded, “What about Nova?”
Felix looked down at his familiar and shrugged, “It’s up to her.”
Nova meowed at him then leapt through the door to the next floor.
Peace chuckled, “Guess that’s decided then. I’m gonna go work on that pile of Asphellum and maybe take a nap. I don’t really feel the need but, might as well try.”
Heading back out of The Abyss, the two of them found themselves in the corridor that had been carved out for the door but looking up, the glass ceiling was covered in sand. As they floated through, they saw and felt various slams into the glass but the sand obscured everything.
“Any idea what event is going on?”
Peace shrugged, “Not a clue.”
Felix already had his Aether Tunnel Spell ready as they walked into the preparation room but dropped it, reabsorbing the Mana when he saw Melody inside talking to a tall, muscle bound Rhunar man.
[S - Legendary] Kudraac (Lvl 4822)
As soon as they stepped into the room, she quickly nodded to the man then leapt over and grabbed his and Peace’s robes, “Guys, was she as awesome up close as she looked on the screens?”
Peace nodded quickly, “How is she doing that?”
“Who was that you were talking to?” Felix asked as he looked over her shoulder and saw the man step out of the room.
Melody looked back, “Who? Kudraac? He’s a potential sponsor.”
“What does he do?”
“He’s a very well regarded combat trainer. He’s specifically interested in training Peace and Adaline.”
“Not you or I?”
“I don’t need it and you’re… too weird.” She looked at Peace, “Not that Peace needs it either but, Kudraac specializes in weird forms of combat and thinks he can help with the whole shifting in and out of beast forms and shape shifting.”
Peace nodded along, “Sounds good to me.”
“It’s an Organic Spell. Uses Spatially Attuned Mana projected into an area then reads the reflections to scan through materials.”
“The what?” Melody looked completely lost.
“You mean Adaline scanning the floors?” Peace cocked his head sligthly.
“Yeah.”
“Ah… Can you do that?” Melody poked him somewhat teasingly.
“Possibly… I don’t fully understand how she’s doing it but if I had the spell, probably?”
“Can’t you just map her spell out?” Peace asked.
“Yes, if I get close enough to any spell I can map it out. Her’s are engraved into bullets she keeps in a spatial pocket though.”
Peace nodded, “Gotcha.”
“How far did she get in The Realms?” Felix gestured towards Melody, knowing she was the only one who could answer his question.
She smirked, “1804.”
Felix snorted, “She beat Romar and Zeraxes.”
Melody nodded knowingly with a wide smile, “Oh yeah, she did. She’s the talk of the Gods right now.”
“Has anyone declared her as their Champion yet?” Peace took out a small piece of Asphellum and began affinizing it.
Melody shook her head, “There’s talk, there’s always talk but the gods want to at least meet her first. She isn’t exactly the most… friendly person though.”
Felix shook his head, “They want to know if she’s controllable and amenable to their interests.”
Melody threw her hands up, “Well duh. No one’s going to invest their fortune into a B grade without some assurances that they’ll fall in line. I heard you were talking to Il Doras?”
He nodded, “Yeah. What about him?”
“It’s sounding very likely that he’ll become The Holy Mother’s Champion, chosen for the prophecy and all that.”
“What does that entail?”
“Once it’s official, she’ll give him items, knowledge and training beyond our wildest dreams.”
“Sounds like it’s a sure thing then.” Felix stated.
She nodded in confirmation, “He’s technically competing with the rest of his party but… he’s the obvious choice. He’s strong and completely loyal, even dedicated to her.”
“Anyone else locked in?” Peace asked.
She shook her head, “No one else that would surprise you. Anyways, you guys want to go watch Adaline’s run while you recharge in the Records Room?”
Felix scoffed, “No, why would I bother? I-”
She grabbed his arm then dragged him towards the door, which was only possible because he didn’t fight her, “Come on, don’t you at least want to see if she has any other new tricks up her sleeve?”
He sighed, “Yes but I can just come back and watch that later, skip through and save myself time.”
“Just shut up and come with me. You owe me, remember?”
Felix let himself be dragged, “For what?”
She craned her head forwards like it was obvious, “Mera?”
“Oh. Did you manage to catch her on the screens?”
Melody rolled her eyes, “Yeah but now I have more questions than answers and I know you aren’t gonna be any help.”
Peace snickered and followed along as they all headed up into the Records Room together. Inside, there were even more participants than the last time Felix had visited, just a short time ago. They walked together towards the end of the room, towards the records of the higher floors. They weren’t in the lead, not even close. In fact, they were even further behind than they had been the last time Felix had checked.
Adaline was in the process of clearing the 228th floor while Romar had made it all the way to the 260th before leaving. Zeraxes was still on the 258th but would probably leave soon as well considering how drained he looked.
Standing just outside the massive booth for the 225th through 230th floor group, the three of them watched as Adaline blasted through the floors, using Spatial Spells for the most part and clearing them in a fraction of the time Felix and Peace had alone. They occasionally caught sight of Nova though, she was mostly gorging herself on her surroundings rather than helping in any meaningful way.
Despite the speed with which Adaline cleared the floors, glancing off to the right, Felix noticed Zeraxes was moving just as fast as she was, on a higher floor. That meant that even though she was faster, they were still falling further behind every minute.
It wasn’t just Zeraxes and Romar though, Felix also caught sight of Il Doras and his party on the 251st floor, Fyrden’s party on the 256th along with a few others he recognized from the World Event. As he could have predicted, the parties ahead of him were almost entirely teams with either Domain skills or some other godly ability, like Fyrden’s shifting into his Dad and various other Elites.
Adaline managed to pass a few of them, including the Druid Domain user, the Justice Domain user and a Forge Family team but those were just the weakest.
If they wanted to even be in the running, let alone win, they needed to do something to be faster.
A sneaking suspicion wormed its way into Felix’s head as he leaned over and half whispered to Melody, “So why are we really here?”
She didn’t bother turning her head and held up two fingers, “Two reasons. One, which I suspect you’ve already guessed, I wanted you to see how far behind we are and how it doesn’t look like we’ll be catching up any time soon. Impossible odds seem to motivate you. Two, it’s good for people to see us together, as a team.”
As she said the last part, she gestured around slightly which was apparently enough for one of the participants who had been standing behind them to feel like they were invited to step forwards, “Uhm. Excuse me, Miss Melody?”
She swung her head around along with Felix and Peace to see a tall man that was clearly strong but had enough fat on him that they couldn’t see any real definition. He had a large beard that was braided into his long hair and a rather intense glare.
[B - Legendary] Sigaro (Lvl 2404)
“I’m a huge fan. I practiced 10 hours every day for 10 epochs in the hopes I could one day play the Soulfury Symphony in its entirety. I dreamt about unsealing that instrument for more than half my life. The day you came along and played it so perfectly, I knew I never stood a chance. Since then, I’ve listened to a memory of your playing that Symphony countless times.”
She frowned, “Where did you get your hands on a memory crystal? All of them were destroyed and the memory sealed.”
He squirmed a little and quickly bowed, “I’m sorry, I… had to know what it sounded like played correctly. I spent so much of my life-”
“Where. Did. You. Get. It.”
The memory was sealed? What’s the big deal?
“I… I… My…” He stammered for a few more moments before a sigh finally broke through, “I can’t say.”
She scoffed in response.
He looked up from his bow, “If… Could I just… I was wondering, why don’t you use it?”
She glared at him.
“The Instrument… In… The Abyss?”
Melody, looking and giving off the coldest anger Felix had ever felt from her, just stared at the man.
He crumpled beneath her glare and rushed to apologize and gain as much distance from her as possible. As she turned back to her party members, Felix could feel Peace’s amusement which was enough for her to glare at the two of them together, despite Felix’s completely blank expression, “What?”
Peace gestured towards the now a little apprehensive crowd, “He makes a good point… Forget the instrument, why aren’t you participating much in The Abyss?”
She cocked a brow and Peace quickly raised both his hands, “Not that any of us mind, I’m sure, just… curious if there was a grand plan or something.”
Melody glared at him for a few moments then looked at Felix to gauge his reaction but he just shrugged, “I’ve been wondering for a long time why you don’t use that thing to its full strength.”
She scoffed again, “You don’t know what that means.”
Felix cocked his head, “And you do? Have you ever used it fully?”
Her head fell and she looked at the floor, “No.”
Peace leaned forwards a little, “Forget that thing, why are you spending so much time shmoozing sponsors? Wouldn’t it be better to just smash through the floors and show them how great we are?”
Her head shot back up, “You’re not wrong, at least… not entirely.”
She offered her hand to Felix who immediately understood, took both her’s and Peace’s, and pulled them into his Soul Space. He ignored the reactions of those behind him as Peace vanished and moved the majority of his consciousness into his Soul Garden as well.
Placing her fists on her hips, Melody turned to the two of them, “First of all, do either of you really care how much I do in there?”
Peace shrugged indicating not really and Felix shrugged as well, “I want to win and if it comes down to you doing something, I’d rather you do.”
She nodded quickly, “If it comes down to that… we’ll see. It’s not like I’m just sitting around doing nothing, by the way. There are a few reasons I haven’t done much yet, inside and outside The Abyss. Firstly, everyone loves an underdog story. If we were in last place, the crowd would be mad we weren’t trying but… we’re in the perfect spot right now where people are paying attention but we aren’t the favorites…”
Peace snickered.
Felix felt her Soul within his Soul Garden and it was the only reason he could read even the surface level of her emotional state, “Your parents.”
She looked at him slightly surprised as he explained, mostly for Peace’s sake, “Us being behind Fyrden is what they expect and you’re riding out their criticisms because it will be that much more of a hit to their world view if we do pull out ahead and win.”
She nodded along, “If we were winning from the start, they would just be mad I didn’t team up with him. This way, is a little… better for me.”
“It’s more than that though, isn’t it? They’re also the second reason.” Felix squinted a little, as if he were actually reading her.
Her eyes opened a bit wider, “Yeah, they’re another reason.”
“Why?”
She sighed, “It’s… complicated.”
He nodded, satisfied for the time being because he trusted her but she shook her head, “If I offer it, can you play one of my memories?”
Felix nodded and a moment later, felt a memory offered to him which he accepted and played for all of them in his Soul Garden.
----------------------------------------
“Finally.” Melody whispered under her breath as she stepped out from her hiding place behind a stand in the arena and flew over the crowd and into the vertical shaft leading up to the top floor of the arena.
Fephiane was still on the bottom floor, Melody could feel her, and figured it would take at least a few minutes for her to realize Melody wasn’t anywhere nearby. It didn’t matter though, now that Adaline was on her way back, Melody was finally ready to meet with her father.
Walking through the top floor corridor, she passed by numerous booths and made her way over to the one she had been avoiding, until the timing was right. She was invited and so she didn’t need to knock or ask permission to enter and instead just walked right up to the blank wall, trusting it would open in time for her to walk through.
The booth itself wasn’t really that extravagant all things considered but, it was a fully functioning estate. There were many bedrooms, training rooms, viewing rooms, kitchens and a number of empty chambers which, along with the layout, could be tailored exactly how the God wanted them.
On the highest level, the one with the door and therefore the one Melody was on, there were a number of what she would call nests. They were effectively couches and pillows but were easily big enough to be beds for multiple people. On one of them, sat Fyrden along with a handful of young and very naked women.
That top floor took up most of the space in the booth and the only chunk of the footprint it didn’t occupy, was a level right at the front, in front of a large angled window. The level was large and just a half meter lower than the main level but in comparison to the rest of the room, it looked tiny. All it held, was Kjarne sitting atop his throne and a few chairs next to and around him, one of which held Melody’s mother.
Kjarne was occupied staring at the various screens both through the window and at the custom ones all Gods had access to in their booths.
Fyrden noticed her enter immediately, met her gaze, smirked knowingly and waved silently, saying nothing as he was happy to simply watch events unfold.
She rolled her eyes at his company and stepped in with the most confident gait and posture she could muster, which she had trained her entire life to the point where it was indistinguishable to anyone from real confidence.
Her mother also knew she had entered the room, with similar talents to Melody albeit much weaker. She didn’t react in the slightest though.
Kjarne, could have noticed her if he were paying attention but most often, he simply didn’t bother. Her footsteps though, produced enough sound and were distinct enough from Fyrden’s companions that he grunted, without turning in his throne at all, “I thought you ran away.”
Melody scoffed, “No you didn’t.”
He just grunted.
She stopped a few meters behind his throne, forcing him to move if he wanted to face her instead of walking to him, “You summoned me.”
“Days ago.”
She shrugged slightly, “I had matters to attend to. I am quite busy you know.”
His grunt this time was notably more exasperated.
“Well, if there’s nothing else I have a few sponsors looking to meet…”
He groaned and rose from his chair, in a way that looked like he was old and decrepit despite his completely perfect physical form. Even through the thick layer of ruffled fur, he had the same rippling muscles that had been fashionable ever since Rhonan, which meant essentially forever.
Standing on the lower level and turning to face her, Melody’s father was still taller than her by a large margin but she had carefully chosen the distance with which she stood so she wasn’t looking upwards too much.
“Be done with this game. You cannot win.”
She shrugged, “I think we have a decent shot.”
His expression fell a little as he sighed, “You did well on the first day but you’re only falling behind.”
“Really?” Melody gestured towards one of the screens behind Kjarne, silently proud of herself for her impeccable timing. On the screen, Felix was in the process of flying through the smog looking for switches when suddenly an array of lights appeared in the sky.
Those lights spread out in a pattern then connected themselves all throughout the sky before diving into the ground and identifying the locations of the remaining switches.
Kjarne watched silently for a few minutes as they activated the switches then raced through the next room, the view shifting to Adaline as she obliterated the next two floors.
He grunted then turned back to Melody, “You’ve always had a knack for finding hidden talent.” Then he shook his head and gestured with his snout towards a number of other screens, “It’s not enough.”
On the screens he had gestured to, Melody already knew what they held. Romar completely destroying massive castles like he was an unstoppable cannonball. Zeraxes throwing his Divine Bolt into the air, teleporting to it then striking the ground with Lightning, wiping out everything in sight then teleporting himself 8 times quickly to collect the keys that had dropped. Il Doras and his party projecting massive auras of warmth and comfort as they smited their enemies without even looking.
Shadelle using an army of Shadow Summons to single handedly search and clear the floor at once. Novren shooting an arrow through a boss then flying straight through the hole it left behind. Hyd, Lumeris, and a few elites not from Eramith were also displayed, all of them clearing floors far faster than Felix had been and even matching or slightly faster than Adaline was currently.
“I don’t know what game you’re playing, letting them fight for you but you must realize you can’t win. You’re falling behind and even if you did help, you aren’t enough to make up all the difference.”
She shrugged, “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
He spun quickly in anger, “No. You’ve already wasted so much for these people.”
“I’m not wasti-”
“I had three planets ready and dedicated just for you. You could have cleared them and The Realms in just half of your recruitment. Instead you opened a bakery and you refused to gain levels. I can only presume it was so you’d remain a similar level to the rest of your party.”
“Just because I dedicated my time to something other than your grand plan for me, doesn’t mean I’ve wasted it.”
“You’ve been attached to others like this before, but never to your own detriment. We gave you leeway after The Shadow Dealer and the others but this is too far. You aren’t just helping them, you’re ruining yourself for them.”
“No, I’m not. I just don’t agree with your whole life plan for me. I don’t want to be at some God’s beck and call as their personal support bitch.”
Kjarne snapped, “Enough!”
He sighed and scratched at his temple with his claws, “With the prophecy in place, time is quickly approaching where I need to either back another champion or declare my own. You will support them.”
“Of course I’ll support Fyrden if you declare him, he’s my brother and he’s not a complete tool like Talrain was, but I will not dropping everything for him.”
“Dad,” Fyrden sat up and scooted to the edge of the nest, “We all know it’s not gonna be me. Don’t waste your resources. As for Melody, when has she ever been wrong about people? They may not be the ones mentioned in the prophecy, but you know as well as I to never doubt her ability to read people.”
Melody looked over and met her sibling’s gaze for a moment, offering him an expression of gratitude before turning back to her father.
Kjarne looked at Fyrden with a cacophony of emotions mostly consisting of anger as his Aura began to spread, like smoke rolling out from his body and filling the room. As it did, the pressure it gave off increased until it was almost suffocating. Melody and Fyrden both managed to remain standing, because they had experienced it before, they both had Soul training and their Souls were created from his.
Fyrden’s guests however, did not fare nearly as well. All of them looked like they were drowning in a matter of seconds.
Before they did however, a quiet whistling tune echoed throughout the room, in perfect harmony carrying an incredibly potent calming effect.
Just like that, the Aura vanished as Kjarne’s emotions were calmed and he regained control of himself. As he closed his eyes and mentally reined in his emotional turmoil, Melody’s mother gracefully rose from her seat and drifted over next to him, placing a gentle hand on his massive shoulder.
No one dared interrupt the silence for nearly a minute, even Fyrden’s guests contained and suppressed their coughing and gasping as much as they could.
Finally, Kjarne sighed, “This prophecy… you’re playing a dangerous game daughter.” Then, he stepped forward and walked right past her, out of the room, “Fyrden. Enough play. It’s time to train.”
Fyrden quickly nodded, and hopped to his feet, equipping his armor from a spatial storage. He nodded to Melody then hurried along and followed his father out of the room.
With him gone, Fyrden’s guests looked at each-other then scurried out of the room into one of the bedrooms as Melody’s mother drifted over from the lower level to stand in front of her daughter.
She smiled warmly as she stood close enough that Melody could feel her body heat, and was completely enveloped by the core of her calming Aura, “You know your father can be as stubborn as a bear.”
Melody snorted involuntarily and immediately regretted it, considering how awful the joke was.
Her mother leaned in, “Win this thing. Show him.”
Melody wanted desperately to just accept what her Mom was saying at face value but her unique talents made it so she couldn’t. She knew the real reason her mother wanted her to win, “Mom, I’m going to win for me.”
She nodded as if she didn’t have any ulterior motives in supporting her daughter, “Of course.”
Melody pushed her mom away with both her hands, not aggressively, but forcefully, “Mom. Seriously, I’m not doing this to impress some other champion or God so they protect me. Why can’t you just want me to win for me, why can’t you ever want me to be my own person? Just because you spent your entire life dreaming about supporting a God doesn’t mean I-”
“Melody.”
Melody stopped and calmed herself with a quick breath. She knew what that tone meant. It was something they had come up with when she was much younger and much more obstinate. In fact, it made raising Melody a breeze in her Mother’s eyes.
So, Melody reached out and felt her Mother’s Soul. She felt everything and she understood what her mother was saying in its entirety, all the implicit meaning and context. She understood her emotional state and everything that went into why she was saying what she was saying. Why she felt the way she did.
Her mother genuinely believed it was the best way to protect her. Which also meant she genuinely didn’t believe Melody could be her own person.
It wasn’t anything Melody didn’t expect. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t felt before. It was completely unsurprising and it was completely disappointing.
As much as Melody respected her Mother’s position and beliefs that having someone protect her was the best way for her to survive and be happy, she just didn’t agree. Especially not with her Mother’s ideal candidates.
----------------------------------------
The memory ended and Melody turned to Peace and Felix, offering an expression of acceptance towards her situation.
“So you want to win, but you also don’t because that’s what your mother wants and you disagree with her reason.” Peace cocked his head slightly, unsure of his own statement.
She sighed, “Not exactly…”
Felix nodded, “The only way to engineer this favorably is for us to be the underdogs then completely win, not just by a little.”
Peace quickly nodded in understanding, “We need to make it irrefutable that we won because of all of us, not just because Melody started supporting us. Otherwise, your father would be right and it would have been better for Melody to support someone else.”
Melody nodded, “He basically thinks of me like a multiplier, which isn’t… wrong it’s just… not the whole picture. If I’m a multiplier, we need to prove you’re the highest baseline to multiply.”
Felix slightly cringed, “Or we prove that you’re more than just a multiplier, a support for other people. That way… Look, I don’t care what other people think. I don’t want them to know about me.”
Melody dropped her head to the side, “You know this is the end of staying under the radar. Not just if we win but even just competing. You must have already accepted that.”
He sighed, “Of course. Still, why does it matter if we’re the ones that are stronger than them?”
She shrugged, “If all I wanted to prove was my father wrong, it could be anyone. That’s not what this is about though, not entirely, at least. You guys are better than them.”
Peace slightly curtsied, “While I appreciate the vote of confidence-”
She shook her head, “Seriously, you guys are way different than the other students. I’ve told you this before but, Felix you genuinely enjoy what you’re doing and have no ulterior motives. Peace is literally just having fun and trying to figure out who he is. Adaline is… more normal but… I can at least respect her motivations.”
Felix shrugged, “Thanks… I guess.”
Melody sighed, “Another reason… I grew up surrounded by Gods. Not just my father and his dealings, but he was visited, there were parties, and I was introduced. Do you know how many people at those party’s were there just to have fun and see people? Do you know how many of them weren’t scheming to ingratiate themselves with someone, plant a seed or even just spy on someone?”
“I’m guessing not a lot.”
She shook her head, “Not one. Maybe at one time at a specific party but everyone who’s gotten to where they are, have very specific personalities. For whatever reason, you and Peace are close to all these others who have trained or shmoozed their entire lives and so, it’s a chance to go against the Gods. Show them that the way they do things is… not the only way.”
Felix tilted his head a few degrees, “They can’t all be that bad, right? Thorin and Blizz seem normal. Amatara?”
“Thorin and Blizz are focused on their own relationship and sharing that with others, sure. They still focus on who can most benefit them and their power though. If you weren’t as strong as you are, they wouldn’t have offered you a recruitment. If they didn’t think it would benefit their futures, they wouldn’t have bothered. It’s not like they take in anyone. Amatara… I can’t really read her and I’ve only met her once, you might be right. You know who stands out to me as being better?”
They both shook their heads.
“Akaroth. As awful as he is, he’s perfectly clear about what’s happening and… I can respect that. He doesn’t go around and manipulate anything. He’s completely up front. It’s why I don’t use my shifter abilities.”
Felix’s eyes widened, “Your what?”
She cocked her head, surprised by his confusion, “You know, how all my siblings shift something about them? Talrain is a personality shifter, Fyrden is a build shifter, Tanryel is a brain shifter-”
Peace shook his head and squinted, “What does a brain shifter mean?”
“He can shift his brain to be better at certain tasks. Honestly, kind of boring.” She shrugged, “Anyways, I’m a desire shifter.”
Felix’s jaw dropped in realization, “You’re a succubus…”
She nodded, “Yeah. It’s basically just an Aura thing and the main reason I’m so good at reading people. I need to know someone’s desires to reflect them. I just learned to tune into the whole reading thing which, I was just always really good at. I usually suppress the whole aura thing as much as possible because it becomes… problematic. Even still, the number of people that approach me…” She smirked, “You never wondered why?”
He shrugged, “I thought you were just famous.”
“I am somewhat but, not that famous.”
Felix slowly nodded, “So… when we walked into the arena? That was-”
“Yeah, exactly.” She grinned with the side of her mouth, “You know, I was kind of hoping for some kind of reaction from you there. I knew Peace would be able to contain himself but…”
Felix shrugged, “Uh… Sorry?”
She released a long drawn out and exaggerated sigh, “A girl can dream.”
“Are we done with this then, can we get back to figuring out how to win?”
Melody and Peace both nodded.
“First things first,” Felix pulled up a number of screens from the outside and his own memories of The Abyss, “Why are these things so strong? Every enemy I’ve fought in there, is way stronger than I expect for their level.”
She nodded, “It’s because your descending further into the past with each floor. It’s less noticeable now but later on, you’ll fight things at your level and they’ll seem like they’re at least a grade above you.”
He nodded, “At the party in Osgard, you mentioned this. I thought it would be mostly items and be way more gradual.”
She shook her head, “Around floor 450, you’ll be fighting almost entirely Ancient enemies. They won’t identify like that though.”
“Wait… what?”
Peace nodded, “Some people think it’s because the floor is in the past and so, there, they aren’t Ancient.”
Melody nodded like that was a perfectly logical explanation, “Yeah, exactly. Point is though, they’ll be way strong. Like, you remember the Ashound, right?”
He nodded, “Yeah. Took me a while to finally kill that thing.”
“Right, that’s not just because it was higher level than you. Abilities and strengths will start to become weird, like being able to duplicate yourself from ash.”
Felix looked to Peace, “Why do they get stronger the further back it goes?”
Peace shrugged a little, “This is one of the secrets The Reaper hasn’t shared. From what I’ve seen though, it’s mostly Anima density. Will power and Soul Strength was just better. For example, that Ashound couldn’t split itself unless it had enough Anima to literally split its Soul.”
“Is that why items get better too?”
Peace cocked his head a bit, “There are also some materials that just don’t seem to exist anymore. I’ve asked The Reaper many times but this is probably the one secret he wants to share the least.”
“Does Rhonan know? He’s been around since the first integration?”
Melody shrugged and Peace shook his head, “No, I doubt it. Maybe he’s learned why on his… adventures but, I’m pretty sure this all started before The System.”
Felix just looked at the two of them, “I don’t understand why neither of you aren’t more worried, interested, curious about this.”
They looked at each-other and shrugged.
“What am I supposed to do? Who do I go to to ask what is happening and why?”
Peace nodded in agreement, “I’ve asked The Reaper a bunch of times about it. What else am I supposed to do?”
Grim, Mark, ask Rewdan about this.
On it.
“So, just to be clear. When I’m fighting a Lava Lizard and it seems way too strong, that’s because it’s from the early integrations?”
Peace nodded, “Pretty much.”
“Some people think this is why Rhonan is so much stronger than everyone else.” Melody nodded along.
Felix looked at them both for a moment then shook his head, “I guess… we’ll just keep descending and maybe we’ll find out more.”
“You could try asking in The Realms but, you might have to get to floor 2000 or pretty close to it to get a real answer.” Melody shrugged.
“Wait… is that delving into the past too?”
She shrugged, “Not as explicitly but… the people in it are strong and knowledgeable in ways people now aren’t so, it seems likely.”
“Why floor 2000?”
“Well… From what I’ve heard, the residents become more aware the further you go. Early on, they won’t even know about other cities on their continent. Later on, they know about the multiverse apparently… Well, maybe. They’ve said some weird things that may or may not come from implanted memories.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll just get to floor 2000 then.”
She nodded, “Oh really? You’re jus-”
Before she could harp on him any further, he dropped both her and Peace out of his Soul Garden at the same moment as he stepped through an Aether Tunnel, vanishing from The Records Room and leaving the two of them behind.