You know, I never saw myself as strong. From hunting in the woods to find food with the screens causing everything to be more difficult, to even play fighting with my siblings, I was stronger, but in no way strong. Yet as I traveled with the Hogs feet party, learning, improving, and figuring out how to handle myself better, I got stronger. Still not strong, but stronger to a point where I could look back to my past and realize that I am better than I was a month ago, or even 2 years ago. So the natural next course of action is to look forwards to see what the next point would be.
"Did that crab just create a sonic boom with a punch and liquify a turtle ogre thing?"
I asked without turning away as beside me one of the other members of the plate games also stood watching as he simply said.
"Yes, yes he did, though I'm a bit more concerned about the guy in armor who just summoned a massive angel and the scorpion guy who basically opened a portal to dino would to allow a bunch of trained monsters through to rip into these guys."
I nodded along as I turned to the two in question as on one side the figure dressed as a knight was holding their sword in front of their helm, muttering something as on the other side a massive swarm of mammoths, raptors and all other kinds of ancient beasts poured out to rip into the charging army. Yet even through the chaos, crashing trees, and distant sounds of destruction I heard what sounded to be a strange tinny instrument. I made sure I was still in my part of the circle as I felt my mana still slowly being drawn out and circulating as in the middle Liora floated with bloodshot eyes and a small trickle of blood running down her lip from where she was biting it as she focused. Leaning over I saw what looked to be a dwarven man in warm clothes with a bald head and a full brown beard ass his bead was bobbing up and down, a thing that seemed to resemble a banjo with a bunch of metal theming's on it as he moved like he was performing in a death metal band.
I had no Idea what he was playing but the girl who was doing things like messing with gravity and turning dirt into quicksand screamed something about Banjo Through the fire and flames, so.
"Hey Bea, what's exactly the point of us being here? Like Liora has a whole job to do, but the rest of us are basically just here for some reason."
Mari protested as she laid between my ears as if it was a lounge chair. I shook my head to shake her off as I turned to my system screen looking for something to do aside from just sit here.
You have encountered Potential Son of Blue Zilla, Godblight
You have gained 50,000 XP for encountering a creature above A rank
Your maximum possible damage cannot harm Zilla
System advisement for user survival: Run, because the gods won't risk answering your prayers
You have reached level 20, upon completing something great you will receive an evolution to your class
Currently unlocked possible evos: 3/102
I knew the top part already, but what really puzzled me was the last bit about evos and how many I had unlocked. So I did the thing that had always served to help when I was confused so far and turned to someone who probably knew more than me. I turned to see a large spider wearing a backpack, probably a fullblood like me as they were much larger than a normal spider, close to my own size now that I was looking. They seemed to be laying and using their bag as a sort of backrest as they were doing what looked to be some kind of string work to make a shape that was slowly growing out the bottom as they moved.
"Uh, shouldn't you be more attentive to this?"
I asked before I thought about it, something Jax said would make me rude and cause a lot of fights if I wasn't careful. The spider glanced over and seemed to shift a bit before they said in a very light tone.
"Not really, we're just anchor points, which means that we are just here to make the mana flow better, besides I know I can't handle the things out there, and since I can barely see them move, much less attack, I prefer dying casually then frantically if it comes to that."
"That…. That just feels wrong on so many levels to be honest."
The spider turned to me slightly before sighing and asking
"Are you making small talk because your nervous and trying to not be, or did you have an actual thing to talk about?"
I took a moment to turn to the three little angels who gave various gestures of 'well go on already' before I turned back and said.
"Ok, so I'm new to all this as I was a feral fullblood till like a month ago, what exactly is this whole thing about evolutions and is it bad I only have like 3 out of a bunch unlocked?"
The spider seemed to pause, fully rolling over before they raised like 4 eyebrows before asking.
"A feral fullblood, like animal mom, animal dad, and you with the system screen popup?"
"Yea, for years I couldn't get it to close at all, but I figured it out recently with some help, thought I was a freak of nature until a few months ago."
The spider nodded along with an amount of expressiveness that made me wonder if all spiders could express themselves like this and they were just too small for me to look at them seriously.
"Never realized that was a thing, weird ass past you got there. Aside from that though, if your worried about the evo thing, don't be. Basically when you reach level 20 the system says to do something big, its mainly to prevent those dumbasses who try to hunt super weak enemies to get a bunch of XP to level up. If you succeed you get some evolutions that give you new skills and stu-"
She was cut off by the sounds of clamor as we both turned to watch the crab, scorpion guy, and girl all run into the large magic circle, a second spider guy, this one seeming more like a halfblood with a humanoid torso and spider bottom came walking up with another human with blue colored hair.
Before I could stop myself I turned and more panic in my voice than I had intended said.
"H-Hey, why are you coming in here, aren't we still under attack?"
The others except for the girl ignored me as she turned and gave a calm smile before she said.
"It will be fine, were just getting out of his way before we get caught in the crossfire of his ability."
She pointed a finger outward as I turned to see the man in armor as she stood, a ominous red flow like slowly dancing fire leaked from him as he held his sword aloft and began to speak.
"A name stolen, a mother silenced—our pact endures. My will speaks where her voice was taken."
As he spoke there was a small surge as the armor began to shift slightly with chains wrapping around parts of it and a yellow glow beginning to permeate the red from before.
"Her sorrow is ink, I carve fate in fury. Let chains become letters of vengeance."
He ran two of his fingers down his blade as a set of twin yellow chains rattles down the length before tightening as a strange yellow blade formed around them making his sword larger than before.
"In this world, her words are wings again. Witness wrath reborn—by oath unbroken."
As he spoke the ground began to turn yellow, only stopped at the edge of the magic circle. A looming statue beginning to climb its way from the dirt as stone chains snapped off the female figure and her now sprawling stone wings.
"Mother of mouths, chained and rewritten, hear me. Your stolen lullaby spreads like plague-light through breath and thought. Let every tongue remember the correct shape of mercy, and let the unworthy be edited until they fit."
The yellowed ground expanded further as I felt a strange writhing feeling along the sides of my mouth as I turned to the girl in panic, but she held a hand up where a crackling blue energy instructed
Don't speak in this domain, it will kill you
My eyes turned back as growing worry built in my chest.
"Chains become teeth. Letters become hunger. Magentina, eat what dared to cage you. Let weaker worlds be swallowed— and let their laws become my punctuation."
From the yellowed ground, though seemingly shaped away from forming on the magic circle several chain like beasts with wrapped maws and broken chain teeth began to slither through as if exploring this new domain.
"The horizon is a sentence you cannot finish. Step past it, and you belong to my grammar. Magentina, mother of voices— close the world's mouth and open only mine."
The edges of the yellowed land vanished as where there was once dirt now rose a looming stormy sky filled with flying words in a variety of languages. Their meanings both comprehensible and not at the same time. Several people opened their mouths as if to speak to protest or something else, but the girl held a finger to her lips and said.
"Silence is to be kept by those outside our party"
A feeling washed over me as I looked around before a system notification appeared
Verdena's Aether Manipulation has been used to temporarily disable your vocal cords, speech will be impossible for the next 30 minutes
"A mother's voice is not a sound. It is a law. Magentina, chained goddess—lend me your first lullaby, the one that named the world before it had ears. I speak the True Name now— and reality answers like a child caught lying. World Will - Hailer of the Chained Goddess!"
I would like to say I could describe what happened next, but I was stuck, surrounded by so, so….. So much but at the same time nothing at all, it felt like I was seeing everything and blind at the same time. Yet as I was paralyzed a single thought broke through
This…. This is something people can achieve!?
"Alright, that should be good, we gave them 5 minutes, plus it looks like fireboys ready to light, let's head out. Verdena, if you could open a portal for us?"
The group all seemed to step forward as I saw the domain around us shatter and fall inward, several figures beginning to move in from the distance as the group that had been protecting us began to step through a looming oval of light. I turned to the sky's, wanting to yell but my vocal cords still weren't working as I went to step after the group before I felt a pulse of mana suddenly draining faster than it had before. I began to turn towards where Verdena was floating, but my eyes instead caught on the blinding flash of light in the distance above the city.