“But why? We have all these—“ The construction worker was cut off by Xani’s waved hand.
“Either join the training and build as our leader has begun to, or come back when you are needed later,” said Xani, before she herself flew off to join the others.
Arson headed a line of orphan cultivators that made Arson know he may be able to reduce the timeline on the coliseum's production. Glancing over his shoulder as he ran as fast as he could with 10 ton stone slabs, Arson saw many familiar and unfamiliar faces.
Aura was in line, sweat drenched and jogging, Khalif, and to Arson’s surprise, Oscar and Micro could also be seen struggling with the same sized stones across the coliseum's foundation.
Ash literally cursed at Arson each time he ran by the members of the line, everyone there struggling to complete the construction in the way Arson was, while Arson struggled in a different way.
He’d never asked for help, but now when he went to set down the stones where they needed to be laid for Moriarty to shape them, he’d often be cut off by those who moved much slower than he did. The groups there had far less trained physiques that struggled more to set the ten ton slabs down in a precise location, than they did when carrying the weight.
Come on, come on.
Arson’s mind raced until he huffed aloud, many there only realizing he was waiting to set his next slab down after his exhale caused a literal breeze to blow through the group in front of him, then an idea struck Arson, and without a second thought, he went with it.
“If I have to wait on you all to set these materials down it defeats the purpose, so if you all want to continue to train, do it as units, yes we are all here to get stronger, but we are not all in the same point in our journeys,” said Arson dropping the slab he had on his shoulders down as he spoke. A boom of noise making Arson’s words seem even more powerful as he was heard precisely by all there even as the sound echoed. He then pointed at the slab and looked at the group of almost 1300 cultivators and smiled.
“Make this easier on yourselves and help one another place the slabs until you have the strength to do it properly yourself.”
Then Arson darted off, Ash once again cursing the gods who consorted in the birth of the demon that was Sovereign Arson Omni. He just rolled his eyes and pushed forward. His mind moving into a meditation of sorts.
He sprinted outright toward the resource piles, grabbed a slab, and raced off, passing cultivators he’d never suspected would join him in something like this, and even though they moved slower, he was intelligent enough to understand that every slab he didn’t carry and place was beneficial.
The greatest surprise, however, was Rob. His body didn’t seem to allow for him to struggle. Arson had witnessed the young man’s first attempt at lifting a slab and was shocked to see mana rush into him, expanding every muscle group used through his pores, until Rob ended up lifting the tab easily with a roar, flipping the slab through the air in front of him.
At this sight alone, Khalif had cursed under his breath, Arson mentally shifted the power ranks of the builders, and Ash’s disappointment became felt rather than heard. Her body literally ablaze with purple and gold flames.
At least, she’s moving faster. Ha.
Moriarty alongside a few more of Arson’s relatives, he’d yet to meet from the Eco family, shaped the stone slabs being used. Their natural stone shaping skill along with an ancient bloodline ability allowed them to form thin sheets out of mana stone. This mana stone was now housed within the coliseum, after being installed into the ceiling, floors, and walls of the halls, bedrooms, and viewing suites, and was the foundation of the entire runic system being developed for the coliseum they were building.
They were slowly constructing all of this around the exterior of the platform for Xani to use. All of these building features were necessary for the coliseum’s occupants to be able to tap into and control their own levels of luxury and specific needs.
Before Arson knew what was happening, he was running through marble archways that separated each section from one another, rather than across a bare stone platform. Many separate teams could be seen at work, and Arson even saw some of his own BHC members learning and helping the Eco family work more quickly, as some of his own people had learned to stone shape through the use of runes Xani learned from Jade, and may be able to internalize the skill with the guidance from the Eco family members. Arson thought momentarily before moving on mentally.
He ran by Jasmine, who’d pretty much pledged her life to the BHC, after realizing that Arson would only have more and more projects of this scope if he was successful, and would now do anything to make that happen.
What had brought on this realization? Arson had noticed her sulking nearby Xani’s team of Bookish working on the new bed for the tree they would be using to power the entire coliseum and approached with a ten ton slab across his shoulders.
When he asked what was wrong, she’d replied that she felt as if everyone had things to do, but there was nothing left, as no one needs clothing to help them build faster, and that she felt out of place. Only for Arson to laugh at her and say words she’d never expected.
“Don’t be ridiculous! Every craft needs an efficient uniform, and I can’t believe I’m the one saying this but Jasmine, the building needs clothes, get to work. You don’t want me or Xani interior designing, do you?”
The girl's eyes had gone wide in that moment, and since then her teams had begun decorating far more than they ever had before. Of course they’d decorated the ManaWell a handful of times, but never had they thought they’d be the ones doing such a large job, and now even felt behind.
“That is a terrible color match up and you know it, Aubree, try again. Oh hey boss, what do you think?” asked Jasmine before Arson could make it out of the hall they worked on. He turned back slightly with a smile and gave his customary nod, before disappearing in a burst of speed.
He was focused in a way that he hadn’t reached since training with his mother directly as a child. Only he and the objective were large enough to take up space in his mind, and Arson began to move faster.
Not because of mana, or skill. Not because of armor or enchantment, but raw discipline. His identity as a Cultivator and his inner drive the only things pushing him forward, and limiting him simultaneously.
He grew tired as he ran continuously, and ignored it. Everyone got tired, Arson saw those around him had gotten tired. Yet Arson kept running, not to prove himself better than anyone, not to set an example, but to complete the tasks he set out to.
Arson wanted to do what he was doing, so even though he was tired, and felt his natural regeneration hard at work as he constantly strained his entire body without the aid of mana, he pressed on. Ash cursed his birth, and he pressed on. His mind drifted, but he refocused, letting his worries flow around him like the cool waters of a river sliding past smooth stones, and pressed on.
“Just keep running…”
Even as he mumbled the words to himself. A new idea struck him. An idea so mad Arson wondered if what his friends and family had said about him as a child was true…
Am I crazy?
The thought settled and Arson shrugged, the weight on his shoulders immediately needing to be rebalanced.
Hasn’t made my life anymore difficult thus far I guess, so should I even really care?
Arson closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened his eyes once more ready for another attempt at a wolf hunt, that would now be even more difficult without his mana.
“Just keep running!”
…
Amethyst MirrorLight was receiving data at an unfathomable speed. His brother had given him access to a growing network being constructed within the Under-City of Maelstrom.
Something of this magnitude had never been done, as none dared try and enter the area beneath the CityNation. The area that had already proven to be larger than the landmasses of giant Platforms above that was Maelstrom itself.
This made absolutely no sense to Amethyst in structure alone. He understood fully that somehow Maelstrom’s outer layer was a sphere that consisted of many moving parts, but how that could result in an even larger sphere of land being held underneath, or inside the continental platforms that constantly shifted their movements, Amethyst did not know.
He began to think of Maelstrom’s shell as both a container, and access point to the vastly larger lands hidden within it. The advanced infrastructure built by the Ikarus or the SunSpire race, was a planetary sized spacial inventory, that they currently weren’t close to being able to map out easily, as runic satellites needed open air to operate and tap into the gravitational mana being produced by a planet to stay in a propelled orbit.
Orbit stood at the edge of the scar that had severed the land, and sighed. He wanted to create the grid they would all use to navigate and traverse the perilous ruins below, but kept getting flashes of a smiling young man’s face taunting him mentally.
“Give me time and I will help you build one of the most advanced gateway grids you have ever encountered," thought Amethyst, mocking Arson mentally.
“Bah, utter garbage,” said Amethyst to himself. Yet, he waited.
Many graveyard officers filled tents nearby, the makeshift command center was more than Amethyst had ever seen the organization need to build and use for an emergency. The tents forming a growing occupancy of volunteers and officers assigned to aid the afflicted areas of Maelstrom.
“Sorry I’m late.” Amethyst stopped pacing and turned slightly to see Arson climbing out of the scar nearby, using a root like a simple climbing rope.
Amethyst immediately noticed the changes in the young man. The muscles that rippled visibly through the fabric of his guild tabard showed not explosive growth in size, but rather in muscle tone, density, and potential stamina.
“What took you so long, boy? Down there eating demons or something?” Arson laughed at Amethyst question, a scythe appearing in his hands as he responded, the beautiful weapon whistling as Arson twirled it casually.
“Not exactly, but I do have a few pressing tasks to get done, and since I can’t keep bothering the most experienced person I know when it comes to inter-dimensional travel, I decided to give you a call. Uncle Winter wanted us to touch base for some reason anyway,” said Arson. The words at first were innocent to Amethyst, until he realized that Arson had called him his second option, which dug deep at the man’s pride as a Cultivator. As Amethyst had been under the assumption that Arson was a fluke of random genius, and now knew that Arson most likely had an even more knowledgeable access to information than even himself.
“So…” attempted Amethyst, doing his best not to show any signs of agitation.
“What exactly do you have planned for us today? Are we start—“ Arson waved a hand through the air, dismissing his scythe alongside any assumptions Amethyst had made about their next steps.
“We need to take care of something before we can start to build the grid. I have something planned and with your help, I am sure we can pull it off,” stated Arson, smiling slightly, glancing over his shoulder at a roar loud enough to shake the ground where they stood.
“I see… and what does this plan require of me?” Arson took another glance toward the scar. Then looked Amethyst in the eyes and spoke up once more, making Amethyst know he may be in trouble.
“I need you to help me feed a robot the size of a communications tower, to an 8 legged demonic wolf,” said Arson with a glance over his shoulder toward another roar. Amethyst looked over the young man, taking him in. The illustrious tabard. The armaments that almost made him gasp as the two hands began to tap their fingers impatiently, and a crown he’d only just noticed was drawing in mana visibly, all made the request feel more, weighted.
“What?”
“Or maybe I said that backward, it would be better, if we didn’t unleash another problematic situation into Maelstrom,” responded Arson in an attempt at extending confirmation to the face of confusion Amethyst knew he wore.
“Child, either start using words in sentences I can understand without being drowned in the sensation of a vague trap being slid around my throat and I’ll consider helping you with whatever it is you are planning,” stated Amethyst firmly. He was surprised by the heavy sigh that reminded him of his brother’s ex wife down to how he’d slowly closed his eyes. Arson spoke his next words in a way that told Amethyst that he had no choice, and reminded Amethyst of the last time he truly feared for his life.
The young man raised his wrist as he spoke. The light poured from the watch until holograms showed two locations; one a crash sight that held a battleground of Cultivators fighting around a ruined ship against a titan sized robot, and the other an overhead view of an eight legged wolf’s monstrous black form charging through buildings after a group of fleeing targets.
“We are going to open a portal from here to there,” said Arson, pointing from the wolf to the robot. Amethyst couldn’t help but bring up the Cultivators that stood in-between their targets, only for Arson to scoff and shrug in dismissal.
“Invaders… maybe even the ones at fault for all this,” said Arson, waving a hand toward the scar behind himself.
“I see,” said Amethyst. This wasn’t what the man had expected when he’d been asked to meet this young man here. Yet he knew not helping wouldn’t get his local Realm travelers branch any of the recognition it already lacked, any higher.
Spark it, I might as well try, not like I can’t leave if things become too dangerous.
He’d left many battlefields behind chasing his brother in his younger days, and found no reason in his life thus far that would change his flight over fight instincts. Amethyst sighed at the thought of being faced with an encounter of either creature being shown and nodded slowly.
“You're lucky I need this to work for me as much as you do for yourself. I can not imagine what would make you play with monsters, but we’ll see if you have the fortitude for it shortly, I assume?” Arson laughed and nodded in response to Amethyst question, before another roar came and the young man looked back and asked a question of his own.
“Are you ready?”
…
Arson was the last to arrive at the engagement point. He and his group's target was rampaging through a small town of mortals that had built up an area within one of the many, more refined sections of Maelstrom’s Under-City. The giant wolf ate anything that moved and couldn’t defend themselves. The sight of two men being snatched like scurrying rodents made Arson grit his teeth. A single bite from the monster in the distance enough to end multiple lives, each chomp made after the creature charged severing and lacerating its fleeing victims. Only pieces of those who once lived here left behind.
Arson couldn’t take the sight anymore. His blood boiled at what was being done by the demons, and he no longer cared who was to blame for the plague's presence. The time for action was upon them all and Arson felt a growing tide of events converging all at once all around him.
I’ve left Endless and still feel a puppet to my environment… I refuse to be bound by my current limitations, thought Arson as he raised an arm toward his next obstacle, his weapon in hand, untapped mana thrumming through him at his growing rage, begging to be used.
He felt the eyes of his party and all those gathered to assist them lock in on him. Cultivators hidden in various locations in the crumbling ruins all around them. Arson even more set on fire internally by the sight of the history that had housed the mortals of Under-City, now forever lost to the demon’s rampage.
This ends here!
“For the maiden that blesses the land of Maelstrom!”