I consider fighting the Guilty Chimeras again before heading off, but I feel a little pressed for time — there are too many things to do, and I still haven't seen the chat with Earth connect again. A few other humans have died, from the looks of things, and I'm no closer to figuring out how to escape this Trial than I was last loop.

Hopefully figuring out what's going on with Guard and Whisper will help. If nothing else, Rotar's connections in the Great Cities might be able to get me a better lead on how the Interface works. I haven't forgotten the message from Hestia's Heart about needing allies, about needing to break the hold of the Interface.

Getting Rotar back will be a start.

Come to think of it, I haven't seen head nor tail of the secret societies that Rotar mentioned were a thing — there's no underground rebellion or laboratory that I've noticed. I haven't met any other morphlings like Ikaara, either, in or out of their void suits. I suppose Isthanok is the one place I'm least likely to notice anything like that. It's a City that's under constant surveillance due to Whisper's efforts, and she's got her own army in the form of Guard and his multiple bodies.

I glance around the clearing I'm in. "No sign of Tarin," I say to Ahkelios. "You think he's going to actually stick to the agreement for once?"

"I bet he just forgot," Ahkelios says, crossing tiny mantis arms, and I snort. He's... probably not wrong.

If I want to evade the Guilty Chimeras on my own, that's going to mean figuring out how to fly. Which... I'm kind of ashamed I haven't already tried, honestly. I've managed to stay in the air for long periods of time with various combinations of skills; I'm surprised I haven't straight up tried to fly yet.

Warpstep to get me high enough, and Accelerate to counter the force of gravity. Any sufficiently strong propelling force will keep me in the air as long as I can maintain Accelerate.

That's the theory, anyway.

"Hey, Ahkelios?" I say.

"What?" His voice is wary. He probably knows I'm planning something. Triplestep Firmament gathers at my feet as I begin to run toward a tree.

"Hold on tight. I'm going to fly now."

"What do you mean, you didn't unlock any new ski—" Ahkelios's voice trails off into a yelp and a cry of dismay as I ignore him and launch myself straight toward the tree, Crystallized Strength bunching up around my thighs as I run up, then bounce off, catapulting myself in the vague direction of the crow village.

Accelerate kicks in as soon as I'm in the air. I adjust it to counteract gravity so that I'm basically flying in a straight line — it's a little finicky, trying to control it like this, but I've done it before. The worst that happens is that I wobble a little as I lose my grip on the exact right amount of force to use, but it's still easier than I expect it to be.

"This is going surprisingly well!" I have to yell to be heard over the sound of the wind rushing past my face.

Ahkelios doesn't seem to agree. He doesn't bother speaking out loud, instead reaching out through our shared Temporal Link so I can hear what he's saying. "Please stop bobbing up and down like that," he tells me. "I'm going to be sick."

"Can you even get sick?"

"I'm going to be sick metaphorically."

The boost from Crystallized Strength isn't quite enough to carry me the full distance — that required a throw with the full force of Mari's strength, and even with Accelerate to mitigate the force of gravity, I still have to contend with the wind slowing me down. I can extend the jump a little further by adjusting the vector of Accelerate, but it makes more sense to just kick off the ground again, so I let myself land—

Premonition activates. These things are fast, and they've clearly been keeping track of me... somehow.

Crystallized Barrier. I pour more Firmament into the skill than I ever have before, Firmament Control giving me the edge I need to force a raw flood of power into every edge and facet I can. The barrier that forms in front of me looks almost real — it takes on an opaque sheen, with a solidity and presence it simply didn't have before.

Not all of that is from the Firmament I've poured into it, either. I can sense the way the skill has grown and evolved every time I used it, every time it's been broken. That outpouring of Firmament was enough to trigger some fundamental change in the skill.

The last time I did this against a chimera, it tore through the Crystallized Barrier instantly and was only briefly stopped by the Hexfold Shield after it.

This time, it slams into the barrier and nearly cracks its neck from the abrupt stop to its momentum. I hear one of its many horns snap, and the chimera lets out a roar of frustrated anger and pain, shaking its head wildly. It stares at me with eyes that fume with green-grey Firmament, momentarily retreating to recover. I watch as its scales roil and ripple with roiling energy. There are cracks in its flesh that ooze thick streams of Firmament into the air, and I grimace at the amount of power this thing wields.

Some of this, I know, is just power I wasn't able to see before. Firmament Sight augments my ability to sense Firmament, and now that I can, I can see how much sheer power this thing is packing.

And it's still just a Rank B.

I shouldn't give it time to recover. My Strength skills flow into my arm as I prepare myself to meet it head-on once again. Ahkelios gathers his strength to join with mine, and this time I can feel the way his Firmament spreads out within my Amplification Gauntlet, a lattice of energy that reinforces and augments my power into something formidable.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The air cracks around my fist as I launch myself forward and into the chimera.

[ You have defeated a Guilty Chimera (Rank B)! +43 Strength credits. +15 Durability credits. +21 Reflex credits. +9 Speed credits. +20 Firmament credits. ]

The chimera's flesh... shatters, for lack of a better word. Last time I killed one of these, I couldn't break through its outer shell; the best I could do was liquify its insides with the energy from my punch. This time, that outer shell doesn't hold up to the force of my punch.

I recoil a little from the sight. Watching something organic shatter like glass is not pleasant, no matter how used to violence I get in these loops.

"Ew," Ahkelios remarks. If he had a nose, I'm sure he'd be wrinkling it.

"No kidding," I mutter. "We better get out of here before any more of these arrive."

They're pretty decent for credits still, don't get me wrong, but I have more important things to deal with at the moment.

The rest of the trip back to the crow village is uneventful. I have a nearly heart-stopping moment when I find Tarin in roughly the same position I met him at within my first few loops — there's a terrifying moment where I think whatever connection he's made with the Interface has fallen apart and he no longer remembers the loops. But no — he glances up at me the moment he senses my presence and gives a sharp caw of greeting.

"Ethan!" he says. "You take too long! Mari almost not believe me."

"You told her?" I try not to wince. I remember Mari's request.

"Prank stupid," Tarin says, waving a wing dismissively. "She need know. Then she help, yes?"

There's something in his tone that strikes me as a little off — and now that I look a little closer at him, his body language is a little more reserved. He speaks with just as much boisterous bluster as ever, but he holds his wings a little closer to his body, and doesn't move with quite so much exaggerated energy.

"It might be kinder if she doesn't know," I suggest softly. Might as well be honest. It's not like the prank plan was going to last for more than a couple loops, anyway; I'm sure Mari expected me to improvise.

I expect Tarin to deflect me immediately. To my surprise, he doesn't; instead, he casts his eyes downward and seems to contemplate my words before he responds. "Maybe," he says. "I think about it."

That... will have to be good enough, I think.

"So she's agreed to help?"

"We go see her first!" Tarin declares. "She not even believe me yet! You show her you real, yes? Then we discuss. She help."

"I need some of those imbuement stones—"

"Yes, yes," Tarin says impatiently. "You get stone. I can give stone too, you know! You not need Mari."

...He's got me there. It's not like he's any less in charge than Mari.

----------------------------------------

"You Trialgoer?" Mari says, peering at me. She folds her wings across her chest in a way that reminds me remarkably of Tarin, then sniffs in a surprisingly human-like gesture. "You small. And no feathers."

I'm not sure why she's commenting on my appearance first, this time. "What did Tarin tell you?"

"He tell me you strong!" Mari looks almost offended; she lifts one of my arms and pokes at the muscle there, and I just kind of stand there, allowing her to manhandle me. "But you small."

"The Trial doesn't exactly let me build muscle," I say dryly. "And is this really important?"

"No, no. I just surprised." There's a lot of nervous energy about her, just like there was last time. Mari busies herself by cooking, fanning the flames on the open fire and checking on the dish she's making. I don't recognize it. "Tarin say you try to help Rotar?"

"Yes," I confirm. I briefly consider explaining Rotar's entire... situation, but it's a little complicated to explain at best. "And there's something weird going on in Isthanok with that friend of yours. Miktik?"

"Miktik!" Mari brightens briefly, then frowns. "What mean something weird?"

"She's being blackmailed by the leader—"

"WHAT."

...I had almost forgotten that Mari could yell so loudly. I don't think she even did it on purpose — it looks like the Firmament worked its way into her lungs just through her sheer, sudden anger.

"—of Isthanok. She-Who-Whispers." I glance surreptitously at Tarin, who's doing his best to look as uninvolved as possible. Did he leave this part out for me to tell her on purpose?

"You help her, yes?" Mari says fiercely.

"I'm trying." How much of this do I want to explain? The situation is complicated, and half the pieces I haven't even managed to completely put together yet. It's clear that everything I've witnessed so far is connected — if I could just put all the pieces together... "You know about Whisper's whole thing, right?" I ask. "Her Whispers."

Mari snorts. "Yes," she says. "Coward skill."

Tarin snickers somewhere behind me, clearly in agreement. I have no doubt if Ahkelios were out at the moment he'd be laughing as well, but he's chosen to retreat back into the recesses of my Firmament for the moment, citing 'being tired'. Far be it for me to deny him a break.

"Miktik's found a way to mitigate the effects of her Whisper, but her invention can't withstand it for long," I explain. "I'm trying to improve on her design using imbuement, but I'm not good enough yet, and the imbuement stones I use can't take the strain very well."

Mari comes to a conclusion rapidly. "You want village stones?" she asks suspiciously.

"Yes—"

"It not help you," she asserts.

I frown. "Why not?"

"Village stones special." Mari seems to struggle to find the right phrasing. "It for... special imbuements. You use before?"

"You lent me a few. They held a skill charge just fine."

"But you not carry them long, yes?"

"Well, no," I admit. I don't think I had them for more than a few hours, and certainly not more than a day.

"Stones take imbuement easy. But they lose imbuement easy, too. Cannot lock in enchantment. You say your imbuement have strain? How it work?"

"It takes in Firmament—"

Mari holds up a wing to stop me. "Village stones not work for you. More Firmament will push out old Firmament."

There goes that idea. "You couldn't have told me that, Tarin?"

"I not know!" he protests.

Which is a mistake, because Mari immediately swivels her gaze to him. "How you not know!" she demands. "It your inheritance!"

"...I forgot."

Mari baps him over the head with a wing, but she does it with surprising gentleness. I see the way Tarin melts a little into even that briefest of touches. These small moments between the two aren't something I paid that much attention to, before, but there's a lot of genuine affection in their banter and interplay, as aggrieved as she sounds.

"You go see Virin," Mari says, turning to address me. "He better imbuement teacher than me. He help you. Tarin stay here."

The way she says that brooks no argument, and in fact, before I can respond, she's already ushering me out of the hut. "You go!" she says.

Their hut doesn't exactly have a door, but the cloth piece they use as a door hardens into something as solid as steel as Mari injects a burst of crow Firmament directly into it. I blink, staring at what is now effectively a locked door.

...Alright, time to find Virin, I guess.