Chapter 13: Chapter 12. The meeting

Chapter 12: The meeting

A day before Babelroth's Ascension, the Deadlands

"It's going for you." Rhea warned. The black boar huffed. It suddenly accelerated forward, towards Aria. Compared to the boar they fought ages ago, this one was bigger and stronger — as it had completed its transformation into a Beast — but they themselves had grown beyond the Zeroth Rank, so it looked smaller and weaker.

Aria received her warning, but still waited calmly, her hair swirled around her like snakes, her eyes radiated a vague warmth. Observing the red eyed, steaming boar charging straight at her, she was like a gentle giantess patiently looking after livestock.

"It's so slow," Aria muttered. Rhea smiled when her enhanced ears caught it. Unlike before, when they could only tire their opponents before drowning them in black tar, they could now fight on equal footing with most enemies in their surroundings.

Plus, with Greenvine holding the fort, they could patrol around much more often than before, and finally claim some territory.

The boar's speed picked up a bit more when it saw its prey staying still, frozen in terror. The Desert Boar didn't have much going for it, only muscle strength and speed, but it was confident in those traits. The prey before it didn't exude any malice, and the boar's instincts didn't detect the aura of the strong on it either. The boar was sure...

"... that this was its victory," Rhea thought out loud, quietly watching the boar's reckless run. When it was only a few metres away from Aria, a bright, spear-like tendril of hair skewered it from the side, anticlimactically killing it in one shot.

"It's a shame we can't keep its meat fresh for long," Aria said as she grabbed the boar in her hair and brought it along with her.

Rhea nodded and started walking home. "We'll have to smoke most of it." To tell the truth, although they seemed to be complaining now, eating dried Beast meat was still more tasty than tar worms. Well, tar worms were surprisingly delicious, but Beast flesh seemed to be on a whole other level.

"That Desert Carp was incredible," Rhea said lightly. Aria hummed, though there was a bit of ref on her cheeks.

No surprise there. It seemed that higher ranking Beast meat had some sort of compulsion effect on those who dared to eat it. So, even though they had intended to only eat a portion of the Desert Carp for the time being, by the time they woke the next morning, there was only the bones remaining.

The two of them had absolutely no memories of that night, but Greenvine, who couldn't eat the same way they did, unfortunately did.

Apparently, the instant they tasted a small amount of the meat, they went into a frenzy and started devouring every last bits of the poor Carp, not even minding that they only cooked their part and the 90% of it was raw.

Rhea chuckled. "Don't worry," she said, giving Aria a small smile, "only the Beasts on the 3rd Rank on should have that effect."

"You really became more cocky," Aria said helplessly. Rhea only offered a smile again. You had to adapt fast if you wanted to deal with a childish brat like Greenvine.

Rhea had wanted to talk further, but something in the air made her wary. Her eyes had become much more powerful since her Awakening, and they were almost completely different from before.

Where before, she could only see farther and be able to see invisible energies, now in addition to that, she could launch attacks and more. With her Side Sight, she saw the small changes in the Aether in the air, and how it scared the animals and Beasts from the surroundings.

"So, that's why there are suddenly so many Beasts going by here," Rhea said, licking her lips in realisation. "Aria, can you throw me straight up as high as possible?"

Aria's eyes were also burning, but even after Awakening, those eyes of hers didn't get as much of a boost as her hair — which was her Focus. Meaning she couldn't see the weirdness in the Aether right around them.

"I can't see much," Aria said. Then she nodded, and immediately caught Rhea's entire body in her hair. It was soft and smooth, the texture was between that of flowing water and liquid light. "Be ready."

As soon as Rhea said she was ready, Aria spun her around once and threw her in one continuous movement. Rhea felt the wind slapping her violently while she went flying higher than she expected. Once she acclimated a bit, a second after the throw, she began her careful observation of the surroundings.

She needn't have worried about not finding anything, because as soon as she put more power to her eyes, intense Aether sources surged into her Sight. They were not near, there was a considerable distance between them, but they were impossible to miss.

"Especially that one," Rhea thought, looking at a blinding sun surrounded by smaller, shining stars. She looked down towards Aria, she was also shining brightly, but comparing her to that inferno over there, her light was more like a candle.

Rhea had begun falling falling for some time now, and when she was in reach, Aria reached out to catch her gently in a cocoon of ethereal hair.

"Humans," Rhea said at once before Aria had the chance to ask, "very powerful humans."

Aria's face lost much of its colour. "How many? And how powerful?"

"Hundreds," Rhea said, "all no less than Rank One, and-" She laughed. "-one that must be in the 5th Rank."

Aria fell silent, but didn't stop walking. Rhea followed quietly by her side. "We must not come near them," Aria said suddenly, "or let them come near us."

Rhea agreed. At this point in time, they were completely vulnerable against even one human at Rank Two, not to mention those at Rank Three. Thinking of an intelligent being with as much power as that Desert Carp froze the blood in Rhea's veins.

She didn't even want to think about what the Blinding One could do. Struggling was completely out of the question, and considering Greenvine, fleeing wasn't even an option, they'd have to hide.

Thankfully, those humans were still a long way away, they had time to think of a way to hide the giant beacon that was Greenvine's main body.

∆O∆

Babelroth at once felt his Domain widening to fully include his Lord's gift.

However, he couldn't feel any joy from it. His heart was heavy, and his duty weighted on him for the first time since his birth. So, since ninety six... hours.

He had inherited some of his memories from his Lord, and it was true that not all of humanity was trash, it was just his luck that he dug gold on his first excursion. Or was it fate?

"No," he thought, "Fate is dead." His frustration forced his new, unfamiliar body to let out a resounding roar.

Just after, his senses picked up a flicker of Aether. At first, he thought it was Gamwick's runaway soldiers coming to look for him, but then he had observed them for a long time before daring to attack them, so he knew their Aether signatures, and this one didn't correspond to any one of them.

On the contrary, this was not a complete stranger's Aether signature, it felt very familiar, like he knew the source better than anyone.

The faint trace flickered again, like it was on the verge of dying. Babelroth didn't need more to finally recognise the signature. He looked towards the horizon, where, to his surprise, the sun was already turning red.

Did he accidentally dilate time during his rank up or something? No, that's not the issue.

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There was an Aether signature very similar to his Lord's somewhere in that cursed desert, and it was fading. Was the source dying?

He immediately set off towards it, fearing the worst.

The world bent around him, and he crashed into a mountain, absolutely obliterating , leaving him dazed in the middle of an enormous crater. He finally realised that he had become a hundred metres tall monster, and that the difference between the 5th and 6th Rank was greater than what he'd imagined.

He flew up as slowly as he could, and reoriented himself towards that Aether signature. He cruised in the air above the Desert, not minding the small Beasts and animals scuttling below him.

Before long, he saw a giant, very conspicuous tree shining and glowing behind a colourful barrier. He stopped and stared at it for a while, he couldn't help thinking that it didn't belong in this desolate place.

He dispelled the black ice around him and the tree and landed softly.

"Come out," he said with his usual tone, but what came out was an authoritative voice that shook the ground and made the air tremble. The barrier shattered. He quickly added, "I mean you no harm."

The Aether he felt should've come from this tree, and it did, but only when he was this near did he feel another source that reminded him more of his Lord than ever. He wanted to solve this mystery more and more.

"We're here," a gentle voice came from inside the tree. A moment later, a tall woman appeared. As soon as he saw her, Babelroth could feel himself be put at ease, it was like she had a warm aura around her that made her seem inviting and harmless.

Babelroth hurriedly checked her level, and found that she was indeed in the 1st Rank. But how could it be possible for one that weak to affect him? The shroud thickened.

From behind the woman came a little girl that looked about five years old. Babelroth immediately knew that this cute girl was the one that clued him in on their small group. While the giant woman was hard to ignore in her own way, this girl was impossible to miss. And it wasn't like she was radiating energy either, as like the woman, her Aether pool was average, but the small amount that she did give off was so unique it might as well be a roaring flame in the middle of the night.

When Babelroth felt he couldn't be more surprised, another girl appeared. She looked just like the gentle woman beside her, but the air around her was completely different. While love and warmth wafted off the woman, he only felt dread and death at her sight.

What the fuck was going on?

There they stood, their ethereal hair moved in an unseen wind, and their eyes were blazing with white flames. For a split moment, the ridiculous thought that they were goddesses flashed in his mind, but his senses clearly told him that they were only in the 1st Rank.

"As I said before," he whispered, quietly this time, "I mean you no harm." He was too tired to play mind games. "I just sensed an Aether signature that I thought was familiar and came to investigate."

The three didn't relax their guard at all. I know I'm a gigantic, terrifying monster, with seven heads and seven flaming tails, but you could at least pretend to spare my feelings.

Maybe because his curiousity had been quenched a bit, that silly thought appeared naturally.

The dark one separated from the two and stepped forward, her gait steady and unhurried, her fierce expression unchanged.

"Now that you've seen us," she said, and Babelroth was impressed by the massive intimidating aura the girl was pushing onto him, "will you leave, now?"

Babelroth's seven heads gathered to observe the girl. Although he didn't want to frighten them, he still should be physically terrifying, but the girl didn't react at all. He couldn't figure her out. "Not yet," he said, "hear my advice first. I imagine you have lived in seclusion here for a long time, only caring about how to feed yourselves and driving the occasional Beast away."

They nodded, the girl asked, "You mean it's won't be possible anymore? Why?"

"Babel, one of the pillars of this world," he explained, his voice low, "has fallen. The unique Aether it contained will be released soon, and the Deadlands' corrupted environment will be diluted."

"What does the falling of this Babel has to do with the Deadlands?"

Babelroth sighed, "I don't want to dump useless information on you," he said, "just know that pillars have territories and this desert is part of Babel's. In a way, humanity was lucky, if this land was under any other pillar, the corruption would've already taken over the world. But I guess you wouldn't care about those humans' fates, huh?"

The girl nodded. "Rhea!" The girl paused, and slowly shook her head. Babelroth laughed.

"You're not humans," he said, "it's alright not to care about them." He straightened himself. "By the way, my name is Babelroth. May I know yours?"

In truth, he didn't need to know their names, he just wanted to let others know of the name his first friend had given him. He wanted this name to be known and spread.

"... you already know my name," the girl finally said after staring at him for a while. Those eyes really unnerving, "this is my mother."

The woman bowed her head, "I am Aria, or Ariadne."

"And this is my sister."

The little girl walked forth to stand by the dark one's side. "I'm Ms. Greenvine, k-kneel before me."

There was a stunned silence. Then the other two sighed, and Babelroth laughed again. He humoured her and bent his long necks down. "I like you, little one."

He floated off the ground once more, ready to go, but then he remembered something. He passed down the remaining floating stone in his possession, he could fly on his own now, anyway.

"This is a floating stone," he explained to the little one, "use it on your next rank up. You have between two weeks and a month of peace, use that time wisely."

"The warning is already a great help," the woman said, "we thank you."

She gave the girls a look.

"Thank you."

"Thanks."

Babelroth couldn't help liking this odd family. He looked them over one last time, and he was gone.