Chapter 34 — Silk, Thorns, and Bad Decisions
"Alone in a place like this..." the woman repeated, tilting her head with such gentle concern that Yuto almost felt guilty for making her worry. "Did you become separated from your family, little one? Or were you summoned here by yourself?"
Her voice had the warmth of summer sunlight, soft enough to make the ruined city seem less threatening for a moment. Michael did not appear impressed. The little Light-type Aetherkin moved firmly between Yuto and the stranger, wings raised as wide as they would go, and pushed Yuto back with his body when the woman took another graceful step forward. Yuto stumbled, more surprised than frightened. He understood Michael's caution, but it was difficult not to feel hope when the person before him looked so completely human. After more than a month surrounded by monsters, ruins, impossible landscapes and adults who were either tiny fairies or trying to kill them, seeing an ordinary-looking grown woman felt almost like finding a piece of home lying in the middle of a nightmare.
"Who are you?" Yuto asked. His voice was quiet, but he managed to keep it steady. "And why are you here by yourself if this place is dangerous?"
The woman's smile thinned by the smallest degree. "My name is Ariel," she said, dipping her head with elegant formality. "And I am not alone. I was summoned here as well, much as you were. I have a partner."
She slipped one hand beneath the folds of her crimson cape and produced a purple device marked with curling silver lines.
Yuto's eyes widened.
"A Resonance Linker?"
"Exactly."
Michael did not relax.
A shadow dropped from the ceiling.
It landed beside Ariel with enough weight to shake dust from the ruined chandelier overhead. The creature was an enormous spider, its dark armoured body low and angular while long bladed legs spread across the marble. Eight polished black eyes regarded Yuto from beneath ridged plates, and two heavy fangs clicked together with an unpleasantly wet sound.
Yuto's Resonance Linker buzzed.
The screen filled with information.
TARATECT
AETHERKIN — ADULT STAGE
TYPE: INSECTOID
SPECIALIZATION: HIGH-SPEED PREDATION
VENOM: PARALYTIC / CORROSIVE
NOTABLE TRAIT: ADAPTED FOR HUNTING FLYING AND DRACONIC PREY
Yuto stared at the final line.
Michael edged closer to his leg.
Ariel ran one violet-gloved hand affectionately across Taratect's armoured head. "Impressive, isn't he? Don't worry. He is very well behaved."
Taratect opened its mouth.
Yuto saw far too many teeth.
"Usually," Ariel amended.
Michael's wings stiffened.
"You said you were summoned," Yuto said slowly. "Do you know why? Or how to get home?"
For the first time Ariel's pleasant expression faltered. Her fingers tightened almost imperceptibly against Taratect's carapace. Something old and bitter crossed her face before the smile returned.
"No," she said. "But I know who might."
She looked through the broken windows toward the distant horizon.
The World Tree shimmered beyond the ruined skyline.
Yuto followed her gaze.
"The Grand Archive?"
Ariel nodded.
"If you know where to go," Yuto asked after a moment, "why haven't you gone already?"
Ariel gave him an approving look, as though pleasantly surprised that the eight-year-old had thought to ask. "Because seeing the World Tree and reaching it are very different things. The road crosses territories far worse than this city. Taratect is strong, but strength has limits. I will not attempt the journey until he reaches Elite stage."
Yuto looked at the enormous spider.
Taratect was already an Adult.
The thought of an even larger version did nothing useful for his nerves.
Still, he understood the problem. Michael could be forced temporarily to Adult stage through the Resonance Linker, but that power was borrowed and exhausting. Against groups of naturally powerful enemies, temporary evolution was hardly a guarantee of safety.
"I have friends," Yuto said. "We were separated when the black hole took us. If we find them, we can travel together. Some of our partners can reach Elite stage with their Virtue Sigils."
Ariel went very still.
Then her face brightened.
"Elite?"
Yuto nodded eagerly. "Three of them can already do it properly with their Sigils. Haruto and Ryu did it too."
Ariel's smile became dazzling.
"My, my. You really are fortunate."
Yuto smiled shyly.
A growl interrupted them.
Not Taratect.
Yuto looked down.
His stomach growled again.
Michael's answered almost immediately.
They stared at one another.
Ariel laughed.
Yuto's cheeks turned red. "Sorry. We haven't eaten since yesterday."
"Oh, you poor things." Ariel's voice softened at once. "Why didn't you say so?"
She turned with a graceful sweep of her cape.
"My shelter is nearby. I have food, clean water and somewhere safe to sleep. You can eat, recover, and tomorrow we can discuss how best to find your friends."
Yuto hesitated.
Michael gave Ariel a doubtful look.
Then Yuto's stomach made another extremely persuasive argument.
Michael sighed.
"Food first."
Ariel smiled.
"Very sensible."
Yuto followed her through the ruined streets, holding Michael close while Taratect moved silently behind them.
He did not notice the way Ariel's smile changed whenever he looked away.
Ariel was not human.
She had never been human.
Long before the current age of the Aetherkin world, before the latest rebuilding and long before Yuto's arrival, there had been a spider-born Aetherkin whose legend had grown around webs, temptation, hunger and queens who ruled from darkness. Her name had become Arachne.
She had survived things that should have ended her.
She had learned patience.
Most importantly, she had once discovered what happened when an Aetherkin consumed something far more valuable than ordinary essence.
A bonded human and partner.
Together.
The result had changed her.
Not permanently enough.
Never enough.
The world had been reborn, old dominions had fallen and entire generations had vanished, but hunger survived remarkably well when given sufficient motivation.
Now Hope walked beside her.
A little boy with blond hair and trusting blue eyes, carrying a Virtue Sigil whose radiance Arachne could almost taste whenever fear made him clutch his Resonance Linker more tightly.
She did not need him yet.
That was important.
Yuto was small. Michael was still Juvenile. The potential between them had not ripened.
So Arachne would be patient.
She would feed them.
Protect them.
Help them grow.
She would encourage Michael's temporary evolutions, guide Yuto toward stronger resonance and make herself indispensable.
And once Hope had blossomed fully—
she would eat it.
Arachne looked down.
Yuto was walking beside her with one hand pressed against his stomach.
"Are you all right, dear?"
He glanced up.
"Just hungry."
"Then it's fortunate we're nearly there."
She smiled.
The little lamb smiled back.
Taratect clicked its fangs behind them.
Arachne's refuge looked nothing like a spider's nest.
The upper floors of an old tower had been restored into something resembling an expensive hotel suite. Warm golden lights glowed from hidden panels. White stone floors shone without a speck of dust. Curtains hung over intact windows, soft furniture filled the rooms, and somehow the air smelled faintly of cinnamon rather than webbing, rot or giant carnivorous insects.
Yuto stopped in the doorway.
"Wow."
Arachne spread her arms.
"Make yourself comfortable."
Michael looked around suspiciously.
"There aren't spiders in the bath, are there?"
Arachne laughed.
"Only if you invite them."
Michael immediately decided he would not.
The bath was enormous and warm enough that Yuto nearly fell asleep in it. After days of dust, sweat, lake water and running from predators, simply being clean felt astonishing. Michael floated beside him until his fur puffed back into its usual shape, then spent several minutes admiring himself in the reflection.
"I look heroic again."
"You looked like a wet dumpling."
"I looked dignified."
"You squeaked when I squeezed water out of your ears."
"Battle cry."
Yuto laughed.
Food came next.
Fruit, bread, cheese, roasted meat, soup, cakes, pudding and enough sweets to make Yuto briefly wonder whether this might actually be heaven and he had misunderstood the entire black-hole experience. Michael remained more cautious, inspecting nearly everything before eating it, although caution weakened considerably once he discovered the sweet rolls.
By the time Arachne led them into a lounge filled with cushions and blankets, Yuto could barely keep his eyes open.
An old screen played colourful cartoons from some world he did not recognise but somehow understood well enough to laugh at.
Michael curled beside him.
Arachne eventually returned carrying a book.
"Would you like a story?"
Yuto nodded sleepily.
She sat nearby and read about a young prince who became lost in a shadowed forest and befriended a great beast. Together they searched for a fallen star that might grant one wish and restore peace to a broken kingdom.
Yuto's breathing slowed before she reached the ending.
Michael lasted perhaps a minute longer.
Arachne closed the book quietly.
The Virtue Sigil of Hope glowed faintly beside Yuto's sleeping hand.
Her pleasant smile sharpened.
"Sleep well, little prince," she whispered.
Tomorrow she would begin teaching him how to grow.
Far away, the Jungle of the Plant Lords had developed opinions about Caelan.
Most of them were hostile.
The first warning came as a fruit the size of a wagon exploded against a tree thirty metres behind him and dissolved half the trunk in bubbling purple sludge.
Caelan looked at the smoking hole.
Then at Luminel.
"Was that fruit?"
"Technically."
Another enormous fruit flew overhead.
Stormmane ducked.
"It tried to kill us."
"Nature contains multitudes," Luminel replied.
A shriek rolled through the canopy.
The creature pursuing them burst through the leaves in a riot of enormous petals, vines and bright tropical colours. Its broad leaf-like wings battered branches aside as it flew, while its mouth opened to release another cloud of poisonous vapour.
Luminel pointed upward.
"Toropia!"
"Yes, I gathered it wasn't friendly."
Two more figures moved through the trees.
They looked almost humanoid, wrapped in bark, moss and tribal armour, each carrying heavy hatchets. The twin Ajatari leapt between branches without a sound, keeping perfect pace with the fleeing trio.
Elite-stage.
All three of them.
Stormmane glanced back.
"I miss the desert."
"You complained about the desert."
"I was young."
"That was yesterday."
"I've matured."
Caelan nearly laughed.
Then one Ajatari threw its hatchet.
His Eyes of Fate showed the trajectory before the weapon left the creature's hand.
Caelan shifted.
The axe passed through the place his shoulder had occupied and buried itself deep inside a tree.
Stormmane stared.
"That was close."
"It wasn't."
A second hatchet flew toward Stormmane.
Caelan's wind caught him around the waist and jerked him sideways before the weapon could connect.
"That one was."
Stormmane landed badly, rolled and sprang back up.
Toropia opened its jaws.
"Tropical Venom!" Luminel shouted.
A brilliant cloud of poisonous mist swept through the trees.
Caelan's wind exploded outward, dividing the cloud around them. Drops struck leaves on both sides of the path and burned holes straight through.
Stormmane grimaced.
"That smells terrible."
"It is poison."
"It can be both."
Luminel raised his spear and generated a shimmering barrier just as the Ajatari released a volley of glowing green needles from their moss-covered hair.
Shotgun Moss hammered the shield.
Cracks spread across it.
Luminel winced.
"My barrier is still recovering!"
"Then stop blocking everything."
"Excellent advice from the person wearing nearly indestructible armour!"
Another volley came.
Caelan stepped forward.
He did not cut the projectiles.
His lance moved once.
A thrust.
The weapon punched through the densest cluster, releasing a compressed burst of wind from its tip that blew the rest apart.
Caelan turned.
"Move."
They ran.
The pursuit lasted far longer than Caelan liked.
Toropia remained overhead, periodically filling the forest with Tropical Venom or exploding clouds of burning pollen with Petally Carnage, while the Ajatari used the trees as though they had been born in them. Their Assault Hatchets struck from impossible angles and returned to waiting hands after each throw.
All three were Elite-stage.
Which meant Destiny's Chosen offered Caelan no sanctuary.
They could attack him.
And they did.
He remained in full Azure armor.
Naturally.
There was absolutely no reason to enter a genuine battlefield against three Elite Aetherkin wearing ordinary clothes simply because one's armour was fashionable enough to be inconvenient at dinner.
A hatchet struck his breastplate.
The impact launched Caelan through a tree.
Stormmane shouted.
Caelan emerged from the wreckage almost immediately.
The armor bore barely a mark.
Caelan's pride had sustained somewhat greater damage.
"That was rude."
The Ajatari charged.
Caelan's body lit from within.
Stars appeared across him.
Not actual stars, but an immense stellar pattern of ki and Destiny spread beneath and around the Azure armor, points of light joining through luminous paths until his entire form seemed wrapped in the outline of a galaxy.
Myriad-Star Fate Body.
He did not push it to its limit yet.
Two hundred times.
Enough.
The Ajatari reached him.
Caelan thrust.
His lance struck its guard.
The collision detonated through the jungle.
The Elite warrior went flying backward through three trees.
Stormmane stared.
"You could do that?"
"Apparently."
"Useful."
"Very."
Caelan maintained external ki mantles around Stormmane and Luminel as they ran, reinforcing their movement and defence without trying to force incompatible energy directly into their bodies. It drained him quickly, particularly while maintaining Myriad-Star Fate Body, but the improvement was immediate. Stormmane's stride lengthened. Luminel's weakened flight became steadier.
Still, Caelan knew this could not continue.
Three Elites.
One injured Elite.
One freshly evolved Adult with one arm.
And himself.
He could fight.
Winning without taking crippling damage was another question entirely.
Eyes of Fate opened wider.
Future possibilities unfolded.
Fight here.
Bad.
Fight farther north.
Worse.
Separate them.
Better.
Caelan activated Path Maker.
A route appeared.
Waterfall.
Narrow valley.
Toropia above.
Ajatari flanking.
Luminel and Stormmane hidden behind the falls.
Caelan understood.
"Split up."
Luminel looked at him sharply.
"Excuse me?"
"Take Stormmane east. Circle around."
"You'll have all three."
"That's the point."
Stormmane growled. "No."
Caelan looked at him.
Stormmane stopped.
"I mean... why?"
"I need them focused on me."
"That generally sounds like a bad thing."
"Path Maker disagrees."
That ended the argument.
Mostly.
Luminel grabbed Stormmane's remaining arm with magic and dragged him toward the eastern trees.
"You had better survive."
Caelan smiled.
"I usually do."
Luminel did not yet know quite how literally that statement could become.
Caelan turned toward their pursuers.
Then ran in the opposite direction.
He had a choice.
Maintain Myriad-Star Fate Body at a moderate level while spending enough ki to support the others from a distance, or release the restraint and fight closer to his current maximum.
Against three Elite-stage enemies, caution had already had its opportunity.
Caelan let the external mantles thin.
Then he increased the enhancement.
Three hundred times.
Four hundred.
Five hundred.
The stellar pattern surrounding his armor blazed.
His next step shattered the ground.
Stellar Movement activated.
The jungle vanished.
Caelan crossed enormous stretches of terrain in flashes, deliberately allowing the Elites to keep track of him while never quite giving them the position they wanted. Toropia screamed overhead and flooded the path ahead with venom.
Caelan moved through a future in which the cloud had not yet reached him.
One Ajatari appeared from the left.
Caelan's lance met its hatchet.
He thrust.
The Ajatari blocked.
The force still launched it through the canopy.
Caelan was already gone.
The second tried to intercept from above.
Chains of Fate erupted around its ankle.
The golden bindings snapped taut.
The Ajatari's leap ended violently when fate itself disagreed with the destination.
Caelan continued.
He wasn't trying to kill them.
Not yet.
He was leading them.
The waterfall appeared ahead.
Exactly where Path Maker had promised.
Caelan reached its edge and stopped.
Water thundered into a deep basin below.
Behind him came Toropia.
The Ajatari spread to either side.
Caelan deliberately allowed his stellar aura to flicker.
Not vanish.
Just weaken.
Toropia's petals opened.
The two Ajatari lowered their weapons.
All three saw an exhausted opponent trapped against a cliff.
Caelan saw the future.
Good.
Toropia attacked first.
The Ajatari followed.
Then the trap closed.
A crimson bolt of fairy lightning erupted from behind the waterfall.
Luminel shot into the sky, battered wings supported by Caelan's returning ki mantle, spear raised above his head.
The lightning struck Toropia directly in the chest.
The plant beast screamed.
At the same moment, Stormmane launched from the rocks.
His remaining fist blazed gold.
Lion King Fist.
The blow caught the first Ajatari under the ribs and lifted the Elite warrior completely off its feet. Stone shattered when it landed.
The second Ajatari hesitated.
That was its mistake.
Caelan's Myriad-Star Fate Body flared back to its full 500× output.
The world seemed to slow around him.
Not metaphorically.
Time's Miracle.
Rain from the waterfall stretched into glittering threads.
The Ajatari's expression changed with agonising slowness.
Caelan stepped forward.
His lance thrust once.
The Azure weapon punched through the warrior's defence and drove into its chest.
Time resumed.
The Ajatari disappeared backward with a thunderous crack, crashing through stone and vegetation before dissolving into drifting essence.
Toropia screamed and released another wave of Petally Carnage.
Caelan's Eyes of Fate tracked every expanding blast.
Luminel flew above them.
Stormmane moved below.
Path Maker showed the sequence.
Caelan followed it.
A dozen points of light appeared in the air.
Then twenty.
Then fifty.
They were not fired from Caelan's hands.
They simply formed wherever he willed them.
Lasers.
Beams of white-gold light descended through the canopy in a coordinated bombardment, striking around Toropia and forcing the giant plant creature lower.
Luminel understood immediately.
He drove it down.
Stormmane met it.
Another Lion King Fist struck its side.
Toropia reeled.
Caelan raised one hand.
Wind compressed above his palm.
Layer upon layer twisted into a spinning disc of screaming air, dense enough that the surrounding leaves shredded merely from being near it.
A wind weapon resembling a vast rotating star.
He released it.
Toropia tried to rise.
Destiny's Chosen did not permit Caelan's attack to simply miss through ordinary evasion.
The creature twisted aside anyway.
The wind-star curved with it.
Toropia's eyes widened.
It threw up its leaf-wings.
The attack struck.
Its defence held for perhaps half a second.
Then the spinning wind exploded outward.
The waterfall vanished behind a hurricane.
Toropia screamed.
Luminel's lightning entered the storm.
Stormmane's golden energy followed.
Wind, fairy magic and raw force met inside the vortex.
The jungle shook.
When the storm finally broke, Toropia fell from the sky.
The remaining Ajatari tried to retreat.
Caelan looked at it.
Path Killer activated.
The path of escape disappeared.
The creature changed direction.
Another route vanished.
It leapt toward the canopy.
Chains of Fate erupted from the air and caught both legs.
The Ajatari hit the ground.
Stormmane looked at Caelan.
"That's terrifying."
"Thank you."
"That wasn't praise."
Luminel landed nearby.
"It sounded like praise."
Caelan walked toward the bound Elite.
The Ajatari struggled.
The golden chains tightened.
Each attempt removed another available option until movement itself became almost impossible.
Caelan lifted his lance.
One thrust ended it.
The body dissolved into essence.
Then the jungle became quiet.
For nearly a minute, nobody said anything.
Smoke drifted between trees.
Half the vegetation surrounding the waterfall had either burned, frozen, shattered or become mysteriously absent.
Caelan sat down on a rock.
Very slowly.
Stormmane stumbled over and dropped beside him.
Luminel descended onto another stone with considerably less grace than he would later claim.
Caelan looked at the battlefield.
Then at them.
"We're alive."
Stormmane nodded.
"Excellent observation."
Luminel inspected one scorched remnant of Toropia.
"The next time we meet a flying poisonous fruit monster, perhaps we should avoid insulting it."
Caelan frowned.
"I didn't insult it."
Stormmane looked at him.
"You called it a decorative salad."
"It was colourful."
"You also said its venom smelled like fermented socks."
"Accurate."
Luminel rubbed his forehead.
"Caelan, there are moments when accuracy is not a virtue."
Stormmane leaned back against the rock.
"My ribs hurt."
"You were hit by an Elite with a battle axe."
"I know why they hurt."
"Just checking."
Stormmane attempted to fold both arms.
His expression changed.
He looked at the empty space beside his body.
"...I forgot."
Caelan stared.
Luminel stared.
Stormmane sighed.
"Don't."
Caelan looked away.
Luminel lasted three seconds.
Then he laughed.
Stormmane glared.
"You are a terrible mentor."
"I lost my wings saving you. I have earned this."
Caelan's shoulders began shaking.
Stormmane pointed at him.
"You too?"
Caelan tried to answer.
The attempt made the laughter worse.
Stormmane looked deeply betrayed.
"I nearly died."
"So did we," Luminel said.
"That doesn't make it funny."
"No," Caelan managed. "Forgetting you only have one arm made it funny."
Stormmane groaned and lay flat on the grass.
"I need a vacation."
"Somewhere without trees?" Caelan asked.
"Without trees, poison, giant fruit, spiders, axes, black holes, monkeys, pyramids or anything that calls itself Elite."
Luminel considered this.
"So nowhere in this world."
Stormmane closed his eyes.
"I hate this world."
Caelan leaned back against the warm rock and looked through the torn canopy toward the distant shimmer of the World Tree.
For the first time since arriving in the jungle, the path ahead felt slightly less impossible.
Not safe.
Certainly not sensible.
But possible.
Considering the company, that would have to do.