The mighty predator sneaked through the soundless darkness. He was in his natural habitat, the trusty undergrowth masking his tracks, and the artificial night sky aiding his agile form in melding into the illusory drapes of gloomy shadow, hiding him from view. His elegant scales barely made a sound as he smoothly glided over fallen leaves and branches, bending his serpentine body around the plants, and avoiding patches of light. He turned a corner and before him was… a wall.
He narrowed his now-disguised golden eyes at the barrier. It was a two-leg construct, this one human in origin. He lifted his shimmering head slightly to view the area above. Only an artificial crystal of some kind could be seen betwixt one domain of powerful flora and the next, twinkling with unnatural light. Another construct of humanoid creation. They dare to limit his glorious kingdom’s borders with their mere devices of unnatural design?
The mighty predator scoffed and returned his attention to navigating the treacherous land he found himself within. Destroying the constructions of lowly manlings can occur another day, for today, he had a goal. A mighty journey he had set himself upon, a quest that would ensure he was rewarded with endless riches and honour if he dared but to cross paths with this place of fabled origin. When he turned a corner, slithering around the base of the beautiful waterfall he laid eyes upon once before, he almost let out a gasp when he found it: his goal. But he didn’t truly gasp! No mighty predator, no wondrous king, no emperor, no sovereign should ever, ever lose composure enough to gasp.
For there before him was his objective: an arcane gate of past aeons, a mesmerising portal that would send him to the next world. The one with the name of The Exit. He hissed as he surveyed the area. The gateway of artificial crystal sat there seemingly unguarded, only a slowly rotating decagonal construct of silver magic on its front, but the mighty predator was not fooled. Within his domain of flora lay another entity, one who would not hesitate to take the chance to bar him from exploring grander kingdoms. It was his ancient enemy, his rival for his domain, and his archnemesis: the Great Demon. He narrowed his eyes as he peered through the undergrowth, watching for any signs of movement. He would not be barred today.
He slithered along the edge of the undergrowth, taking care not to touch the polished stone pathways the humanoid beings loved so much, lest his mesmerising scales attract unwanted attention with their sound. The mythical Exit held no bush nor shrub for him to use to sneak closer, so when he made his move, he would need to be quick. Overhead, the decagonal magical constructs let out a faint mist in a false caricature of heaven-sent waters. But he was not displeased, for the rain-like mist would aid in disguising his form when he would dash towards the arcane gate. Yet that was only the first hurdle he would have to pass to enter his new domain.
Even if his glorious form managed to avoid the Great Demon’s sight to reach the gateway, the innocuous magical construct on its front presented a different challenge. That of authority. How his archnemesis had gotten his hands on such grand power of malicious origins he could only wonder, but that was irrelevant. While he may not have the capability to unseal the arcane construct as of yet, he had a plan. For after agonisingly tedious years of scouting out the enemy, he had discovered a weakness in the form of an inconspicuous floating green orb.
He knew the two legs referred to it as a golem, a metallic device with artificial behaviours and motives. The device had six metallic limbs, with an assortment of sharp tools fashioned in the way of the humanoid tools of its creators at its ends, used for the caretaking of his domain. Within the centre of a metallic frame held an emerald green crystal orb, slowly glimmering with what he knew of as a spirit of nature within. He had no conflict with the keeper of his domain, no, it was not this keeper itself that was the gate’s weakness.
He listened silently and with his serpentine eyes, he saw the hovering construct make its way towards the arcane door. It paused, using its many limbs to shuffle, arrange and clip the flora surrounding it, ensuring his domain remained in perfect form. He got into position, his powerful frame wound tight as he prepared to make his move. For this levitating construct was not only a guardian of his domain, but had other domains to guard.
Then he froze as the scent of roses wafted past him. He whirled around, looking for the origin of this scent. It couldn’t be that the Great Demon had found him alread-
Oh. His eyes rested upon the blossoming red flower opposite him on the other side of the polished stone walkway. A magical rose, its potent mana increasing its scent above what its mundane variant could have. He wryly shook his head as he let out a sigh. The Great Demon had obviously not found him yet, that would be absurd! He was the mighty predator, a grand thief of the dark, and a silent assassin. Perhaps the immense significance of this task was getting to him. He would be sure to take a break once he had settled into his new domain, surrounded by the most luxurious of natural treasures and nature’s bounty, in a glorious new home made of-
The golem was moving again. He narrowed his eyes once more, focusing on his task to the utmost. For the Great Demon was surely going to be alerted when he infringed upon its authority as he moved to the next realm and would take countermeasures in the case of his failure. He only had one chance, and one chance only.
As the crystalline gate creaked open and the golem moved to enter through it, he unwound his taut body like a powerful spring and dashed across the smooth surface of the ground. His goal was in sight, and he had no room for failure. For he was the mighty grand Truth-Seizing World-Ender, the dark devourer of a thousand starships, the one and only Scytale, and he would-
“What are you doing?”
Scytale let out an unmighty yelp as he whirled around to see Ashale’viaf staring at him with a rather bemused expression. He hissed and bared his fangs.
“The Great Demon! You shall not foil my plans! Prepare yourself!”
The silvery snake dropped his illusory disguise and lunged at the perplexed white and pink-haired spirit, opening his jaws to take a large bite out of the man… rather ineffectually, as he went straight through the spirit’s immaterial, semi-translucent body and landed on the other side. He spun around and bared his fangs at Ashale’viaf once more.
Ashale’viaf was very confused. “Demon? You do realise-”
“Silence, foul demon! I’ll not have you confound me with your twisted lies!” he yelled, lunging again at the white-robed spirit with his wings outspread.
The spirit caught the snake around the middle with strangely smooth ease, Scytale letting out a strangulated “Gah!” in the process, and raised the snake to look at him.
“-that I am the exact literal opposite of a demon?” he finished with exasperation.
Scytale hissed. “All meaning is subjective, and any term is fine so long as I get myn mengmage acrommlngnm,” he said, with a mouthful of the spirit’s wrist in his jaws. Physical obstruction didn’t actually impact a magical beast’s speech, their thought transmission being a form of telepathy. Scytale didn’t care about that though, being melodramatic to the end.
Ashale’viaf sighed as he undid the materialisation of his wrist, leaving Scytale to snap his jaws uselessly against the empty air. The spirit narrowed his pink eyes at the snake.
“Now, what were you actually trying to do, heading towards that specific access point?”
“I was looking for an exit,” the snake said, blinking innocently. “You said there was one this way.”
“Strange,” the spirit responded dryly, an eyebrow twitching. “For some reason, I distinctly remember saying that the three exits were in the other three directions and that this one was. Not. Open. I wonder why there seems to be an inconsistency between our memories.”
“I wonder why too,” Scytale responded, tilting his head within the spirit’s grasp. “Maybe you got it wrong?”
Ashale’viaf’s expression darkened. “Yet, how come I can remember seeing you make a beeline straight for this exit, as soon as you entered this section of the gardens?”
The amphiptere gave a low hiss. “I think you hallucinated. You should get tested for schizophrenia, I heard it happens to people in their old age.”
They stared at each other in silence for one intense moment. Then Ashale’viaf broke.
“I’m a plant spirit, for heaven’s sake! Plant life is my domain! Of course I could sense you skulking around here like some thieving criminal! AND I CAN’T EVEN GET SCHIZOPHRENIA!”
“Oh really? That’s nice,” Scytale responded distractedly, flapping his wings as he tried and failed to wriggle out of the spirit’s grasp.
The pink-eyed spirit narrowed his eyes at the winged snake. “You.”
Scytale looked back up at the spirit. “Hm? Me?”
“Yes you,” Ashale’viaf responded, his face going red with fury. Then he dropped to the ground, squatted, and rested his head in his arms. “This is a trial for me, isn’t it?”
“Uh…” Scytale said, now placed down on the ground.
“The vengeful ghost of the Founder has decided to get rid of me because I outlived him. This is all a tribulation set by the heavens to test my worthiness. It’s a punishment for me.”
“I don’t think-”
“Was it the insults towards your personality tests?!” Ashale’viaf shouted, now looking up at the glass roof. “Is it because I spent too long finding a successor? I thought I picked well with how perfectly they completed the first trial, but it was a farce! Have you come to mock me by placing this unholy menace within my sanctuaries?!” he said, gesturing to Scytale.
“Hey!”
Then Scytale flinched back as the spirit stood up and gestured to the roof with outstretched arms, looking at the snake with wide eyes. “3 Spectral Cherry fruits, gone forever! My wonderfully neat rows of Blossoming Phantasmal Mandrakes, ravaged by a greedy beast! 28 Illusory Dewberries! 173 leaves of Deceptive Miracle Palmwood, nowhere to be found!”
Scytale slowly started backing away.
Ashale’viaf looked a bit insane by now. “5 Radiant Sun Apples! They were Epic ranked!”
The snake paused. “In my defence, you had a hundred of those on that one tree.”
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“Exactly 100! Now there’s only 95!” the spirit yelled with a hoarse voice. He stared at Scytale with an intense gaze for a silent moment.
Then he suddenly dropped to the ground, wrapping his arms around his knees, and sobbed. “Why is this happening to meeeee….”
The amphiptere shuffled his wings a bit awkwardly. “Um… okay. I’m just gonna…” He crept backwards, ready to hide in a nearby bush.
But a deft hand grabbed him when his back was turned and pulled him to face the bloodshot pink eyes of the plant spirit. “Oh no you don’t,” growled Ashale’viaf.
The suspiciously murderous-looking spirit stood up with a squirming silver snake in his grasp and marched towards the centre of the artificial biome. When he made it to the central area, he turned 90 degrees and strode onwards towards one of the four exit points of the artificial biome. He put a hand against the light-blue mana-circle on the front of the glass door, and it swung inwards. Shutting the door behind him, he looked up at the artificial clear sky.
“Seal all exits until 48 hours have passed in biome A12: Wintery Wasteland. Use Highest Level Seals, so none other than user Ashale’viaf or the Faction Head may access.”
“Command accepted,” returned a metallic, artificial voice, reverberating out of four speakers in the four top corners of the square room. Ashale’viaf gave Scytale a malicious grin as he placed the snake down on a grey boulder in the middle of the barren white room.
“I’ve heard snakes are cold-blooded creatures. If that’s the case, then I’m sure you’ll love this ice cold room.” He snapped his fingers, and the rest of his body began disappearing into rose-pink particles shaped like petals.
“No, no, that’s not how biology works-”
The snake stopped when he realised the plant spirit had already gone. He looked around the room he was within, fearing the worst.
Filled with frosty gales formed from the light blue mana-circles above, he shivered as he gazed at the white expanse, seeming larger than it was due to the artificial semi-translucent sky dome that filled the place. Untouched white snow covered the ground everywhere he looked, and only one corner held a small hill made of hard grey rock to look like a naturally formed stone mountain. Icicles hung from its overhang. There was not a single plant to be seen.
Scytale dashed towards one of the sealed glass doors and flapped his wings as he headbutted it, trying to push it open.
“Wait, wait! You can’t do this to me! This is a crime! My bond is the Faction Head, the Faction Head, you hear me?! This is a felony! A betrayal of the highest order! HEY!”
In another artificial biome of the Pavilion, Ashale’viaf smiled gently as he used his spirit magic to carefully cultivate a white rose on one of several large bushes. Only he knew if the smile was due to the peaceful situation he found himself in, or if it was due to listening to the anguished crimes of a particularly greedy little snake in one of the other biomes.
----------------------------------------
“I’ve had a really bad idea.”
Scytale looked up from within his many layers of blankets to gaze at the dark-haired girl next to him with weary eyes.
“...you wouldn’t tell me you had a bad idea if you didn’t intend to do it. What is it?”
Lucille was leaning forward, a chin on her hand, as she gazed intently at the table with a complicated expression. She frowned a bit as she responded.
“It involves the Citadel of Fate.”
The snake stared at her unblinkingly with golden eyes for a second before forcefully shaking his head and trying to slither out of his bundle of blankets onto the floor of the living room.
“Nope. Nope. Bad idea, very bad idea, I’m out. Goodbye. And besides-”
He paused to let out a short sneeze and looked up at her, lying tangled within his blankets on the couch.
“I hab a colb.” He sniffed.
Lucy clicked her tongue and picked him up within the bundle to place him on her lap, trying to unwind the blankets from around him. “I’m not sympathetic.”
“Fireball spell please.”
She sighed and snapped her fingers, the orange particles of atmospheric mana becoming attracted to the tiny speck that had formed above her fingers, and then merging to turn into a small round ball of flame that sat above her palm. With a bit of will it moved to hover slightly in front of the snake, Scytale sitting there with his eyes closed as he swayed back and forth while she unwrapped the blankets, falling to form a nest-like structure around him.
“I wouldn’t have eaten those natural treasures if I had known the guardian spirit was so vindictive! Who knew a rose spirit could be so mean.”
“Roses have thorns,” she stated flatly. “And I’ve already told you not to eat them, for a good reason at that.”
Scytale didn’t open his eyes. “Are you sure? Maybe you’re becoming schizophrenic as well.”
She unceremoniously dumped one of the unravelled blankets on top of him. “Part of it is so the delicate ecological mana balances of those artificial environments aren’t upset, but most of it is so you don’t aggravate the monsterification process of your Ancient Retribution subskill by absorbing so much incompatible mana without a break.”
The snake wriggled to try to get the blanket off him. “I’ve been good since we’ve come back, so let me indulge just a little bit. I haven’t gone below 80% bloodline stability in the past, and I’ve never been that greedy. You can trust me.”
“How come I feel like I can vaguely remember you running to me to complain about indigestion when you swallowed several adamantium shielded ships because you didn’t have lunch,” she said, eyes narrowed.
“That was one time!” Scytale exclaimed, poking his head out from under the blanket.
“That was three times, actually,” she pointed out.
Scytale hesitated. “Well, three times then.”
He basked in the heat of the fireball for a bit longer and then turned to Lucy after the spell ended.
“So.” He paused to sneeze again, then shook his head and continued, “What’s this terrible idea of yours?”
She leaned back and crossed her arms with a contemplative look. “What if we go visit the Citadel’s new Prophetess.”
He stared at her once more. “You’ve finally gone mad. You’re literally insane. I always knew it was coming, but now it’s here, it feels too soon. Write me into your will while you still have a partially functioning brain, please.”
She held up a finger. “I’m not insane. I have actually put deep thought into this.”
Scytale narrowed his eyes at her. “I’ve heard most don’t seem mad when the process begins.”
She lightly whacked the back of his head and sighed. “Just listen properly for a bit if you’re actually curious.”
He sheepishly turned back around and wriggled himself into a better position for comfort. Once she could tell he was ready, she snapped her fingers, and out of her palm rays of light shone. They beamed onto the empty coffee table, and slowly, a holographic structure of gold crystal towers, bridges and spires was made visible. It rotated slowly above the table, shimmering slightly with its digital aesthetics. Scytale sneaked out his nose to bump the projection. It flickered slightly where he touched it, but didn’t disappear.
“Your 3D model projections are by far your best spell idea for illusion magic. You should use them more often, it makes discussions with you less borin-”
“Do you want this explanation or not?” Lucy said with a glare.
He fell silent and she sighed again, running her fingers through her fringe. Then she gestured to the projection. “We have the intention of avoiding the Citadel of Fate due to several reasons, but the summary of the situation is this: Out of its five forces of Providence, Protection, Pledge, Prosperity, and Paragon, three of them are dangerous to us. Four if you count the fact that the Paladins of Pledge are the loyal hands of the Sages of Paragon.”
She pointed at the hologram, and it zoomed in to show the six main golden glass towers with more clarity. Like a staircase, five of the six towers were arrayed in a circle around a central one, going from tallest to shortest in order. Five bridges connected these towers to the central tower. On top of each tower was a glowing yellow crystal shaped like a star, surrounded by a white frame. She gestured to the tallest outer tower.
“Paragon is obvious. Any member of Paragon is a skilled leader of one of the other subdivisions of the other forces and holds a position of power within the subdivision, having access to resources much greater than any normal individual of the Citadel. This includes the true Fate manipulation skills, as opposed to the lesser fortune or seer abilities gained by Prosperity. Only they can actually manipulate Fate as opposed to reading it, and so we will avoid them like the plague. The Sages have the most power.”
She then gestured to the next highest tower. “Providence is also dangerous, if to a lesser extent. They have abilities to see how much Fate, or what our Fate is.” She grimaced. “I have no clue what we would look like through their Fate-reading skills. We might even seem like Fate Devourers to them.” Scytale gave her a nod, likewise uncomfortable with the idea. Being outed as a Fate Devourer meant the Citadel would initiate a kill on sight order for all their combat-capable members, and provide a big bounty reward for whoever finds them.
She skipped over the third highest tower, that one belonging to Pledge. She pointed to the second shortest tower, or fourth highest one. “As for Prosperity… unfortunately, as part of a Faction heavily involved with nobility, we’ll have to deal with them and their fortune essence eventually. The best we could hope for is to offer them donations to ensure they don’t cause Protection to withdraw their healers from supporting us. I’ll need to at least make myself look busy so any of their representatives don’t become too offended when I have to refuse their attempts at making a connection with me.”
She looked down at Scytale. “They might actually be our way of getting you access to good light skills without me abusing my Authority to directly copy them into skill books for you, which would be highly suspicious.”
He nodded energetically. “The Citadel holds a monopoly on all light-element catalysts for summoning light-element spirits thanks to their elemental origin plane Pedestal anyway, so getting the title of ‘Sacred Beast’ will grant me access to their exclusive Aspects. They’ve always wanted to draw the light element beasts of the Beast Realm under their banner so they can monopolise their support capabilities as well, so it sounds like a good idea politics-wise.”
She sighed. “But that means we need to get past Providence without suspicion first. Which brings me to my plan with the Prophetess. But first, Protection.” She gestured to the shortest tower. “Considering it’s less of a proper force and more of a series of training facilities and hospitals for light-element healers, support mages, and any class that needs Thaumaturgy, it’s not a threat to us. As the force with least power, as they answer to the other forces, we need to take care not to offend any of the other forces before we worry about them. Actually,” she said, holding her chin in thought. “If all goes well with the Prophetess, I should consider expanding the branch of Protection in Gilded Seat as a show of support.”
“Scheme later. What’s this to do with the girl and her fancy light magic?”
She shook her head. “No, that’s the saintess, a position given by Prosperity each 100 years to one female noble of the Empire with high affinity for light magic. The Prophetess is different. She’s the most powerful seer within the Tower realms, has the highest amount of Fate, and best ability to manipulate it. Her class is given out directly by the System every twenty thousand years, which means the prophecies she sees always come true, as they are backed by the System itself,” she explained firmly. “The Prophetess is the highest ranked position within the Citadel of Fate, for all that she was used as a figurehead for most of her life in the past under the thumb of the Grand Sage. While the saintess is mostly just a position used to appease the nobility’s sense of honour and pride, the Prophetess is practically idolised by the commoners, and so has great popularity among them. She has no magic casting abilities.”
“Okay, I get it. Anyway, your plan for the Prophetess?” he asked impatiently.
Lucy rolled her eyes, closing the projection with another snap of her fingers. “I want to meet her before she gets taken to the Citadel’s branch in the Empire’s Capital City.”
Scytale sent his scepticism through the bond. “But that would require knowing the date she became the Prophetess. Her birthday.”
She fell silent. The snake stared when he realised what that meant. “You didn’t…. did you really go snooping around every Faction and their members’ private information in the past?”
The mask-wearing woman glared down at her bond, pulling on one of the tufts of feathers on his crest. “No I did not, thank you very much.” She frowned slightly. “I had to file a report at Pedestal one time when I was Commander due to one of their high-ranked members dying under my subordination at the Distorted Depths. The birth dates and death dates of their members were written together, and the highest ranked members were at the top of the list.”
She scowled and looked intently at Scytale. “I’ll let you have one guess at whose fault it was. I’ll even give you a hint: the victim was pretty, female, and gave up her life for him.” She gave a cruel smirk.
The snake let out a sardonic laugh in response. “His crimes just keep on piling up, don’t they?”
She shook her head bitterly and then went silent, thinking hard as she frowned at the table. “But I saw something else that day when I went to file the report.”
“Oh?” Scytale tilted his head curiously.
Lucille rubbed the back of her neck. “Next to the Prophetess’s name, there was another member who had died, but was placed under ‘Honorary membership’. He died at the time of his joining, which meant it was a case of someone putting someone with a high rank’s name into the memorial tome, as a way of remembering them. But it was the last name that surprised me then.”
She looked at him with a complicated expression. “Did you know the Prophetess had a younger brother?”
The snake blinked once, then blinked again. Then he sneezed. “Ugh… no, no I did not,” he said, sniffling. “That… kind of feels like something I should know. Wait, not even just me, that feels like something everybody should know!”
She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “That’s not the most important bit. He died two hours before she was taken back and officialised as the Prophetess.”
“I… guess that explains why nobody heard about him and why he’s only an ‘Honorary member’….also explains why she looked so depressed all the time.”
She frowned at the table, her expression still complicated. “It’s not a very well-known fact, but the Citadel actually receives information about the new Prophetess and her location 3 days earlier than they officiate her. They usually send a high-ranked member or two of Pledge to guard her in secret as they observe her actions during that three day period she has her class. But there are protective measures in place for siblings and family members of the Prophetess, so if they didn’t step in to save her brother… for some reason, they didn’t want him to survive.”
They fell silent as the contemplated the implications of that for a while. Scytale looked up at her. “So… is your sneaky scheme to be all manipulative and put the Prophetess into your debt by saving her brother?”
She whacked him on the head, but it didn’t have any heat. “It’s dangerous for someone like me to have the Prophetess indebted to me, regardless of my status as the Head of the Aurelian Commission and an honorary Commissioner of Finance for the Empire. I actually just want to talk to her, and see how her Fate abilities interact with me, considering how twisted my Status screen is. I… also want to make sure she’s not set on a collision path with the Hero.”
“That is… a very good point. You think he’ll aim for a connection with her?” Scytale responded, eyes narrowed.
She nodded. “Definitely. He worked solo last time, but I can assume he’ll want to abuse the extremely high Fate and light affinity his class gives him to gain support from the Citadel, whether indirectly or directly.”
She placed Scytale back on the couch beside her, blanket free. Then she got up, went into the kitchen, and brought back some teacups and the brass jug. “But before we consider this any further, I think we should deal with our new visitor.”
“Huh?” Scytale blinked, confused. “New visitor? What do you- oh. Ooooh.” He swayed as he absorbed the new information sent through the bond. Then suddenly he got down on the floor and crept up onto the couch opposite Lucy, the one with its back turned to the entry and kitchen doors. “I have a good idea.” He crouched down with his white-gold wings tucked, his silver body hidden from any newcomer’s view.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you think you are doing?”
Scytale hissed, “Don’t spoil it!” and then went silent.
She rolled her eyes and sighed, and after pouring some tea for herself, leaned back on the couch with her legs crossed. They waited as footsteps approached their room. They heard a knock on the door.
“Uh… hello? Anybody in here? I was told to come here…” came the sound of a familiar voice. They heard him curse as he fiddled with the doorknob. “Damn thing is worth more than a year of my wage,” he grumbled.
The door creaked open as the face of Sedric Ferin was revealed, followed by the rest of him as he peeked into the living room. He surveyed the room and his gaze paused as he noticed Lucy staying studiously silent on the couch while she sipped her drink.
“Oh, so you were in here. Why did you not-”
“ROOOAR!”
“Eeeek!”
Lucy watched as Scytale had suddenly reared up and stretched out his wings in front of the young man, scaring the living daylights out of him and sending him scrambling backwards to lean against the wall with his back pressed flat against the surface, panting heavily as he stared at the metre-long snake, who stared back with golden eyes. Nobody said a thing.
Then Scytale broke the silence.