Beastforged Bond

Scott couldn’t remember what he’d said. Even when we repeated his exact words to him, he only grew more confused.

“Why would I say that?” he muttered, eyes narrowed. “I mean, I remember saying something, but I haven’t seen Lea in the Strikers in any of my visions. If anything, my visions have been a mess in recent months.”

He rubbed the back of his head, which only highlighted his confusion.

Lea was still fuming. She didn’t like that Scott had exposed her plan, but what she liked even less was his warning. It meant that actually joining the Strikers would be foolish. Her life would be in great danger, which was all the more reason to stay away from the Striker units, and the Ruler of Fire.

“What was that about the Ruler who will bring ruin to humanity, by the way?” Daniel asked, voicing what I’d been thinking. “Is that Raffael, or do we have another Ruler to worry about?”

“Divination rarely shows the truth,” Scott replied, glancing back at the divination beast as it neighed. “It almost never shows the exact branch of the future. There are countless branches. An infinite number of strands, if you will.”

“But?” I asked. There had to be a but.

“But the closer the event I’m looking into, the higher the chance of it happening. The variables decrease, after all.” Scott tilted his head. “Let’s say the Fiend would have killed me in the last fight. In that case, every strand connected to me would have disappeared. That’s only obvious, is it not? After all, I couldn’t have bound the Mare of Divinity if I were dead. That wouldn’t make any sense, would it?”

No, it wouldn’t.

“Mare of Divinity? Is that what your Unicorn is?” Daniel asked, his priorities clearly not where they should have been.

Scott ignored him, his gaze shifting back to Lea and me. “It’s the same with every action, no matter how small. That said, the Ruler who brings ruin to humanity might not even be alive tomorrow, whoever that may be.”

He didn’t seem particularly worried about the Ruler of Ruin, which was reassuring. Scott was far more invested in patting the Mare of Divinity.

The chance of the Ruler who would bring ruin dying was slim. It existed, and Scott seemed to believe that as well, but I didn’t think for a moment that it was large enough to be worth mentioning.

Divination is difficult. He may be an Oracle with decently powerful traits, but the strands of fate are almost impossible to discern. All he can do is push certain events toward branches that are most likely to result in positive outcomes.

Volix’s voice echoed in my mind, sounding almost sagely.

“What are we going to do now? Scott’s done here,” Lea asked, not without glaring at him. “Then again, does it really matter? I can’t even join the Strikers anymore.”

She threw her hands into the air in a brief tantrum. That reaction was more surprising than Scott’s prophecy, or whatever that had been. His vision. Either way, it was strange to see Lea act so childish.

“You don’t have to believe what Scott said,” Daniel told his sister, narrowing his eyes. “But you should take his words seriously. He said you shouldn’t join the Strikers. Not that you can’t help the Bastions. If you want to support the other Bastions, we can figure something out. But if this is about the Strikers and the prestige that comes with them, then you can still join. As long as you’re careful–vigilant, and always prepared to strike or make a run for it.”

Lea glared at her brother but eventually deflated. She muttered something I couldn’t quite catch before nodding weakly. “I won’t join the Strikers, alright?!”

Daniel seemed satisfied. Scott and I exchanged a glance.

“We should message our family and stay a little longer in the valley,” I suggested. “The only real threat here is the humanoid Fiend, and I haven’t seen it in quite a while. Not even Lifesight can pick up its life source.”

Scott and the others agreed readily.

“I found the tracks of something interesting,” Daniel revealed, rubbing his hands together. “They disappear at times and resurface at odd places, like they’re being moved around. That’s pretty fun.”

He chuckled. “I definitely want to find whatever they’re leading to before we leave.”

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That was the first time I’d heard Daniel say something like that.

“Tracks? Of beasts?”

“No, that’s the best part. There are hardly any beasts in the Serash Valley.” He shook his head. “What I’m tracking are traces–signs–of civilization.”

With that, Daniel retrieved a slate from his spatial storage. It was about the size of a sheet of paper, though much thicker, and glyphs I had never seen before were etched into its surface. They didn’t look familiar, but one thing was immediately clear: the glyphs were more complex than even some of the Basic ether circuits I’d seen carved into standard enchanted tools.

“Where did you find that?” My fingers traced the etchings.

Do you know what those could mean, Volix?

I don’t know the meaning of those specific glyphs,

Volix responded.

But?

But I have seen similar glyphs. Considering how sleek the slate is–flawless and polished as far as I can see through your eyes–they belong to an old but decently advanced civilization, because I know the technique used to produce slates of that kind, and they are old.

Volix pointed out, his words igniting an interest in my heart.

Did that mean there was another civilization in the Serash Valley? If so, did they dislike humans? I certainly hoped not. I was tired of war.

You do not have to worry about that, for the civilization I am talking about is dead, removed from existence by the Spirit of Death herself for dishonoring her gifts, because they took them for granted and demanded more.

It felt like Volix was shaking his head at me.

They were like humans, greedy and thirsting for more. Alas… their death may come in handy for us.

The death of an entire civilization could be helpful to us? I… couldn’t quite wrap my head around that.

The Spirit of Death is not one to be materialistic. She is generous, very much so. Volca once mentioned that she loves to pamper those she adores, and that she did. She adored the ancient civilization, if that is actually what we are looking at. If not for her violent tendencies, nobody would think of her as the Spirit of Death. But that is an issue for another time… or hopefully never if we’re lucky.

“...location is changing. I found a few spots that look like they could have been ‘modified’.” Daniel was still speaking, but I hadn’t listened all that well. Volix’s story had been too distracting.

The Elemental Phoenix said something else that caught my attention, which I repeated.

“Volix thinks he knows what we’re searching for: the Netherkin, also known as the civilization of fiends and demons.” I grimaced, earning everyone’s attention.

“We’re searching for the humanoid Fiend’s home?” Lea groaned. “Is that really a good idea? The Fiend must have recovered quite a bit. By now, it must have adapted to the changes of advancing to the Overlord-rank as well. There’s no way we can beat it now.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think the Netherkin is closely tied to the humanoid Fiend, or that they’re the same. But Volix seems oddly certain that the Fiend is looking for the Netherkin’s home, for their… Monolith or Altar or something like that.”

When my friends stared at me oddly, mostly confused, I repeated what the Elemental Phoenix told me earlier about the Spirit of Death and the Netherkin’s demise.

“So we’re searching for a civilization that no longer exists? That’s a waste of time, or am I missing something?” Lea tilted her head.

“Don’t you know how cool that is? I want to find the remnants of an ancient civilization!” Daniel exclaimed, sounding as excited as he had been several years ago. He really hadn’t changed all that much since then.

“You said the Spirit of Death is generous yet not materialistic?” Scott narrowed his eyes.

“That’s what Volix said.”

“Word for word? If so, then the Spirit of Death was either lonely and tried to buy the Netherkin’s loyalty and attention, or plain arrogant. Maybe she was, or still is, an attention-seeker. Regardless of what her true personality looks like, there still is a Monolith or Altar. Is Volix certain about that?” Scott asked seriously.

I am. She would never destroy anything created to worship her, because that rarely happened. Few worship Death.

Volix commented, which I forwarded to the rest of the group.

“In that case, we have to search for that place. The Serash Valley doesn’t feel like a regular Forbidden Zone. If anything, it shouldn’t be one. The ether density fits, but there are simply too few powerful beasts or ether plants.” Scott mused quietly. “The Serash Valley is one of the few places with rapidly growing ether density, so there has to be something, somewhere.”

He looked up to see everyone staring at him. “What? Did you guys really think I was only using my traits to search for the Mare of Divinity? No, I searched everywhere in the Nexus for information about the Serash Valley and just about every other Zone the Mare of Divinity was sighted in. I had to find out why it was here and how long it would stay.”

That made an awful lot of sense. If anything, it made the Zerog siblings and me sound stupid for not doing any research.

“Anyway, the Mare roamed the Serash Valley longer than any other Zone. There has to be a reason for that. As for the Fiend, I am sure it is looking for the Monolith or Altar as well. Either it sensed something, presumably an item the Netherkin or the Death Spirit left behind, or it is searching blindly. And we want to find that before the Fiend, don’t we?”

I just nodded, and both Daniel and Lea followed behind.

“I love adventures!” Daniel exclaimed.

Lea grunted. “Shut it.”

Meanwhile, I was wondering how we were supposed to find the remnants of the ancient civilization.

It’s probably well-hidden. Daniel was lucky to find some tracks, but it won’t be that easy to find their remnants. But it will be worth it. If the Netherkin are hiding what I think they are, you will want to find it as soon as possible. Before the Fiend, preferably.

Volix commented.

Of course, it wasn’t going to be easy. Nothing in life was easy.