Nil and Lyn spent the next couple days training together, working on their teamwork formation and general combat skills. Her main goal, she told him, was to have Phantom reach Evo1 before they ventured into uncharted territory.

“Uncharted?” he asked her while sipping on water. “Haven’t you gone through the cave already coming here?”

She didn’t answer, choosing instead to have Haven kick a nearby tree that released an angry Thaeon: a ball of fuzz with powerful limbs and a tail that ended in a hard ball. He had gotten accustomed to her shenanigans; he accepted them now as her methods of fighting everything in sight had indeed helped him get better. Combat was the only way to improve and there was no way around it. He would have to throw Phantom at every wild Thaeon and Trainer he saw if he was to have a fighting chance at tackling the ranking leaders.

“The leader in Pol city is rough, I’m telling you,” Lyn said as they walked along the road. Up ahead rose a wall of rock with tiny buildings speckled below it. They were close. “She is aggressive, skilled and won’t accept just anyone to fight her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Before fighting her you have to pass a trial. Yeah, I made the same face. Why can’t I just fight you, grab my token and leave?”

Nil felt his Bond tighten again, a feeling of understanding passing between him and Phantom.

“So you wanted to challenge her but failed her trial. That’s why you came here to get stronger. The Thaeons and Trainers near Pol City were too strong for you.”

“That’s not–” her face was red again. A common gesture, Nil was beginning to understand. Lyn was easily flustered and that fact made him uneasy during their double battles together. If she lost her head in a bad situation, how could they win against whatever danger lurked ahead in this cave. Which got him thinking.

“For that matter, how did you make it through the first time?”

“Niiiiiil!” A voice from behind. He recognized that voice: Rose.

Both turned to see her running up along the road with not one, but two Thaeons in tow. At first he thought she had picked up a new partner which would have been counterproductive this early on. Only when more popped up over the hill did he realize she was fleeing from a horde of…

“Oh, come on.” Behind her was a group of five of the same boar Thaeons that had almost maimed him day one. They were almost all identical except for various changes in their horn placement and some glowed with other colors. By now he understood that different aspects came with different colors–as if that wasn’t obvious by now. It gave a quick synopsis on a Thaeon’s abilities and potential techniques. Not always, obviously… He had encountered a few that glowed a dark green for [Wood] aspect but did look like one would expect. Similar to one of those Thaeons barreling over the hill who glowed the same dark green. This one lowered its tusk, as Nil remembered all too clearly, and ripped into the ground to send out a mesh of clinging roots towards Rose’s feet.

“Come on, Lyn, we need to help her.”

Rose’s Thaeon Rager, though Nil didn’t have time to dwell, had donned its own slight, light-green glow. Along with that it was taller with bigger jaws, powerful looking legs, spikes now running down its small arms and a ball on the end of its tail. He couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy but it quickly vanished when the roots snagged her feet and she ate dirt. Haven was sprinting ahead sending out golden beams–Nil had learned they were officially called Ether Beams and was disappointed in the lack of creativity in the naming–that slammed into a couple of the Thaeons. Phantom was closing the gap like a black blur, a liquid shadow, to start pounding away with flying kicks and punches where the beams had hit. In that moment of distraction, Nil helped Rose to her feet.

“T-Thanks, Nil. I was testing out a new technique when these appeared out of the grass attacking me. What the hell?” Rose said. Rager pivoted, using his tail for balance, and ran to join Phantom. Rose’s Thaeon opened its jaws, dripping tiny drops of more bright green, and tore into the closest opponent then immediately swung in a circle to slam its thick tail that landed with a resounding thud.

“Evo1, huh?” Nil said. Meanwhile he was connecting by tether to Phantom who was ducking and dodging, leaping over rock spikes, dancing over more tangling roots, to land more flurries of punches.

“Yeah, didn’t you talk to Raven? He called all of us.”

Nil sighed. “Yes, I did. Phantom hasn’t made the jump yet.”

Rose, despite her momentary kindness from being saved, was still Rose: “Ha, figures with you.”

Haven joined the fray to side kick a boar that was preparing to stomp the ground. As it fell to the side, Phantom jumped up and punched it in the jaw, grabbed its horns, then flipped the thing onto the ground. Rager was beside him then, spitting globs of green into the face of another before clubbing it with his tail.

In a matter of minutes, the road was strewn with wild Thaeons knocked out.

“Hey, I know you,” Lyn said with a smirk. “Caught up to give me more money, huh?”

“I’m Evo1 now you wouldn’t be taking anything from me. That I can promise.” She looked over at Nil. “Besides, we got a mission from our professor to check out this cave situation… Thanks again for the help.”

With that, she and Rager sprinted off before anything else was said.

“Girls piss me off,” Lyn growled.

“Rose has always been a bundle of joy.”

“I’d like to punch that bi–Nil, are you okay?!”

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His chest had constricted completely now, making his breathing haggard. Had Phantom phased out? No, it was all physical attacks, no techniques this time. His vision blurred and Phantom stood in front of him, his body a deeper shade of black–if that was possible–than before.

“Oh, I see. Finally. Geez, I was beginning to worry about you. Haven, stand back.”

Instead of glowing, Phantom was becoming obscured and fuzzy looking. As if the light he usually absorbed was scattering instead. With the sound of a splashing water drop, Phantom collapsed straight down into a black puddle that evaporated away. Gone, just like when he broke from his egg.

“That’s not normal. Hey, Nil, does everything…feel all right?”

“Amazing,” he said through gritted teeth. His vision was dim now, almost gone. Don’t pass out, don’t pass out. Then, as if someone flipped a switch, he was standing and feeling normal again. The black puddle reappeared and from it rose Phantom, standing a good three feet taller–he rose to just under Nil’s chest—with all his features the same except for small, nub-like raised sections on the side of both hands and at the bottom of his legs.

“That was anticlimactic.” Lyn scoffed.

The difference was more than appearances, though. The Bond, humming with excitement, communicated that Phantom was not only taller, but denser. Heavier. His composition had changed drastically in this small jump to Evo1. Which meant, maybe his body could handle another phase.

“Lyn, watch out. I’m going to try something.”

“You better not pass out on me.”

With a nod, Phantom stepped off to the side, like going through an open door into a direction they couldn't see, and disappeared, stepping out behind the two. Nil felt haggard, his heart rate spiking through the roof, but he was standing. Techniques would get stronger as they did. Good.

“The twins had,” he stopped to catch his breath, “used their aspected techniques upon evolving. Did you, too?”

“Everyone is different. Thaeon’s evolve and change based on the Bond and battle experience. Those twins had probably already been working on concepts before it happened. It’s not always certain with these things but”–she looked over to Haven who was poking Phantom with a pointed limb–”with enough focus you can actually change the trajectory of your partner. It goes both ways.”

Nil was fiddling with his watch to see the changes on the screen. “Both ways how?”

“Are you dense? Thaeons change us as much as we change them. It’s the Bond and experience together that promote growth. It’s only with them that we as humans can reach our fullest potential.”

The watch face showed the small changes with the only information under the technique tab was “Phase” which he already knew. The rest was blank.

“Thank you, Lyn, for everything.” His voice trembled with joy. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

She waved him off and turned away towards the massive wall still looming ahead of them.

“Don’t thank me yet. We still have a ways to go before we’re in the clear. Come on.”

By the time the sky was red, they reached the various buildings where strangers milled about talking, others battled their Thaeons out in a field with lines marked out over the dirt. He saw Max and waved, but the big oaf was engaged against another Trainer. It looks like everyone had reached Evo1 in under a week–good. Max’s had changed quite drastically from when Nil saw it last: the shape was generally the same, but now Brute had sprouted two more limbs with a longer tail to boot. It scurried around quickly, alternating between lying flat with its six legs, to running around on either four or two. Interesting. Brute opened his fanged mouth and shot narrow, black darts that barraged the enemy. In that stunned moment, Brute became lost to sight–not gone like Phantom does, but rather hard to notice as if stepping into the shadows–before pouncing and landing a rain of blows ending with a fierce bite that incapacitated the enemy. They shook hands and Max headed off towards Nil.

“”Hey, Nil and,” he cringed back,” you.”

“Wow, looks like your entire team is growing stronger. Nice. Maybe they’ll pose a challenge next time,” Lyn smirked with her arms crossed. Nil was growing weary of the tough girl act, but ignored it.

“Any word on the cave, Max?”

“Finally answering your calls?” Max laughed with his low baritone voice. “Not yet. A couple Trainers have gone in but always come running out. We’ve discussed tackling it together, us five, but the corridors are too narrow for everyone.”

“Where did all these Trainers come from?” Nil said, looking around at the unfamiliar faces.

“Some arrive at the port in Fan Town to begin their journey through the rankings. Others travel here over the mountain pass.”

“Over the pass?” Nil checked his watch’s map again to make sure he heard that right.

“You don’t think all travelers go through the cave, do you?” Max laughed again. “All incoming Trainers take the mountain pass, but it’s a one-way trail that goes down several cliff faces. Catch you later, Nil. I’m going to go spend this new money on some grub.”

Nil slowly turned to Lyn who was turning red in the face again.

“No wonder you didn’t notice anything suspicious on the way here. You never went through the cave at all.”

“No, I…” Lyn sighed. “Fine, yeah, I came here the easy way with a group of merchants headed for Fan Town. But I did attempt to go back through and it was too hard for me. Happy now?”

Nil wasn’t sure why she had such a chip on her shoulder, or why she felt the need to act like she was too tough and independent for help. Did he really want to risk his life braving his way through the mountain with someone like that?

“I’m…sorry, okay? It’s not like me to ask for help”

“The hell you say.”

“Don’t be a smartass!” The red was fading from her cheeks. For a moment, he thought she looked pretty, but pushed it aside.

“Okay, look. We’ve both gotten stronger over the past few days. Let’s eat, rest up and find out what’s going on with that cave tomorrow. No more of this.”

“Deal.”

With that, they found the pub where all his starting crew was gathered, having drinks and plates of food, with the exception of Dave. He was nowhere to be found. Not much of a loss anyway. That guy’s too aloof and no fun to be around.

The bed that night was soft, better than the ground, at least. Lyn was across the room in her own bed, humming a song as she wound down. It was something he heard multiple times over the days but always too tired to ask.

“Lyn, what’s the song?”

“It’s an old nursery rhyme my mom used to sing to me when I was a child. It helps me fall asleep when I’m nervous or stressed out.”

“What’s it about?”

“Well I’m not going to sing it for you, if that’s what you think!” She laughed in the dark. “It’s about an old legend that talks about some powerful Thaeons that helped shape the world. I don’t like myths, personally; fun stories don’t help you win fights. But… My mom always told me there were seven total that laid the foundations of the region and found rest soon after. We have no proof of this, obviously, otherwise Demiurge would’ve already torn open the earth to find them”

“Interesting. I’ve never heard these stories.”

“Right now we should focus on resting before tomorrow.”

“Right. Good night.”

Nil dozed off with images of what dark horrors lay in wait for them inside that cave.