Grey was plopped down next to Tyler, and surrounded by the rest of Tyr's group of Ascendants as they all sat down to go over something 'important'.
'What the hell is an ark… I also think I heard the word Nexus? By the Spire, what the hell could I have missed?'
Grey's brows furrowed and his face scrunched up in frustration. No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't form a solid logical idea on what these things could be, and how they relate to him or any other Ascendant.
Angel, who sat directly across from him, decided to help him out by speaking first, "I hope you're paying attention because I'll only go over this once, got it?"
Grey nodded his head. His attention had been directed from his own thoughts to Angel's explanation. After making sure he was paying attention, Angel spoke: "I'm sure as everyone else knows, an ark is an organ we all possess. In fact it's what generates esovis, and allows us to channel i–"
Before Angel could finish, she was cut off by Grey. "What about exovis then? How does that work."
By nature Grey Aerith was a skeptic. He wasn't naive enough to believe everything he was told, especially not without proof.
'Besides if this organ really existed it would be able to be easily exploited and found physically.'
Tyr chimed in before anything else was said, "Relax kid, she's getting there."
With those words, Angel cleared her throat and continued, "It's what channels esovis. However we can use exovis by using esovis and tapping into the environment effectively connecting our control of exovis to our esovis reserves. This is the only way exovis can be used."
Grey shook his head, he would not flat out disagree with this but it was all too strange to believe yet. Much less from a stranger he had spent less than three weeks together with.
"Grey, you seem to have the notion that vis is some sort of abstract energy control magic thingy," she giggled before correcting herself.
"The truth is, it's just another energy that exists, one that humans have taken reign over through the power of evolution, like electric eels generate shocks with their bodies."
In response, Grey pointed towards his chest. "Before you go on explaining any further, if it is an organ like you say– where is it?"
She let out a small sigh, her lips curving upwards into a slight smile. She wore a cheeky expression that said "wouldn't you like to know?", but nonetheless she complied with Grey's request and yet again answered another one of his inquiries.
"That's the fun part really. Arks don't exist on the same plane as us. To put it simply… they reside within our bodies but, much like a thought, you would never be able to physically touch it."
Grey's heart pulsed. While it was true he wasn't gullible enough to believe everything, in theory, the nonsense Angel was spouting made more sense than the bullshit the academy said about vis.
'Trust isn't key here, it's evidence… I'll have to try something new later.'
With that he motioned with his hand for her to continue. With a subtle nod she complied: "Anyways, the size and shape of an ark vastly decide on factors like vis capacity, output, generation and all of that junk. And well, a not necessary but at the same time necessary fact to keep yourself wary of is that an ark is still an organ. You need to keep yourself healthy and well fed, or else you'll experience a lack of vis capabilities or even organ failure. That would be a permanent loss for vis, or at the very least nigh impossible to recover from."
"It's exactly why we keep ourselves on an all you can eat diet," Tyr added. Angel opened her mouth to speak once again but Tyler held up his hand, signaling for her to pause.
"Give the guy a sec, he's clearly getting a bit overloaded by this information. I mean you can't blame him."
And Tyler was right, Grey's brain was swelling with blood as his brain demanded more oxygen; it yearned to decipher. Even subconsciously while Grey was focusing his consciousness into listening and learning, he automatically sorted out each and every single word between a lie and a truth, constantly processed his surroundings into a picture perfect memory, and took mental notes of the seemingly unimportant things in the group's words.
Finally after his head ceased swelling stood up from his make-shift seat (a rock). As he got up Tyr decided to pick up where Angel left off. "Just for the record, I don't think our spot will be safe for too long. Let's wrap this up quickly."
Sighing he began his spiel: "Besides the fact you can't physically touch or normally interact with an ark, its also randomly placed in the body, meaning not all weak spots are in the same place… Oh and in case you're the curious type, arks are composed of proteins called gloumites. They're crazy tough. It means your ark is roughly twelve times stronger than steel."
'Twelve times stronger than steel!? Wait but if you can't physically touch it then–'
"Ah I know what you're thinkin'. If you can't touch it how do you measure its strength? The answer to it is simple really, whenever an organism with an ark dies, for some reason– not that I really know, it phases back into our plane of existence or whatever."
"So why is it that I haven't seen one before? I mean I've gutted many nati before I should've found at least one, correct?" Grey inquired.
"It takes some time for whatever force is holding them up into that higher plane to completely destabilize. The only way you can harvest an ark is by waiting. Oh which neat fact, unlike other organs arks don't really 'die' like a heart or a pair of lungs would outside of an organism's body. We've yet to study the reason ourselves but I'll bet some mad scientist out there knows how and why they preserve themselves."
As Tyr spoke, a bestial roar erupted from deep in the forest. The group of Ascendants all turned their attention to the forest behind them, all except for himself and Grey. Tyr clicked his tongue and then rushed to speak, "Yeah ill get this finished quickly. So I need you to imagine our group. Tyler is a sniper, Don is the tank, Ariette is the vanguard, you get it? They all have their own unique strengths that compliment our team, but I'm the leader. I hold the most important role, because I lead, I coordinate, I synergize our team. If I'm taken out of the equation, there's a chance the team would be fine, just with reduced efficiency, but it's more likely than not that they would all fall into chaos and lose their ability to work together. That's a nexus. It's a system of arks that pretty much works like that, with your original ark as the leader, the only difference being a nexus will only work when there are five arks, as that is when they all connect together and form the nexus system. Any less won't give you the perks of a nexus system and anymore just branches off into its own thing, or if you end up having ten, you'd get two different nexus systems."
"We aren't humans are we?" Grey asked his voice a quiet whisper. To that Ariette interjected, "Of course not, I mean we're Ascendants. In other words homo ascendus… though I doubt your question was if 'we' were humans now. And to answer that… not really. Our species hasn't been homo sapien for a long time, only the governments around the world refuse to let people discover arks. They've only classified those who go into the Spire willingly and ascend it, as a different species because we literally are. In short Ascendants aren't just humans receiving odd mutations, it's humans evolving into a new species. And non Ascendants? Heh, we haven't been homo sapiens for a long time."
"So you're telling me people can be born Ascendants?"
"More or less," Ariette paused, stroking her chin in thought. A roar of agony and rage rang out once more, only closer than ever this time. "We're running out of time," she said.
"Well to answer this final question, yes, people can be born Ascendants. Ascendants naturally have vis running throughout their bloodstream and body as a slight surplus escapes from their ark. It's intentional by the Spire's design however, it's what gives us our passive superhuman strength and fine control over our bodies. As for the actual enhancements and mutations, only biological ones can be inherited for obvious reasons, and they are recessive. It's not gonna be everyday you see somebody with an ossiwire frame. You might've already met a natural born Ascendant though, they're intuitive, smart, and physically outstanding."
'I see now… I have no real reason to doubt these words, as there seems to be a decent amount of evidence backing these. Some of this sounds like bullshit though, I'll still have to check myself… later.'
Grey stood and summoned the Cloudpiercer, and stared at it intently. If it was a regular vis construct, his esovis would be drained rapidly, however that was not the case. In fact the Cloudpiercer was not a vis construct at all, but a physical weapon. The reason he could summon it through the mist, was because every time he dismissed it all he was really doing was transforming the weapon into mist, and making it cling to his skin, and whenever he summoned it, he would reform the blade completely, with all of its properties intact. However this whole process would still drain vis, logically it should.
But the fact that he felt less drained by dismissing or summoning the weapon rather than when he simply fluctuates vis through his body meant there was only one conclusion.
'Using esovis on its own is more taxing than using esovis to interact with exovis. And exovis only drains your reserves if it's actively doing something! However in my case all its doing is passively clinging to my skin, making the only drain happen during the transmutation process. Interesting… By applying this technique, could I possibly store the Cloudpiercer directly in my ark? That will also help me confirm its existence if I do.'
As Grey stumbled around his thoughts, a black vine shot directly at his chest. Caught off his guard, Grey could do nothing in retaliation, and the vine struck him straight in the chest, knocking him back into a tree stump. Grey would not be hurt by an attack of this magnitude however, and swiftly raised his head in an attempt to see the assailant.
And there it was, standing a measly thirty feet away from him and the group of Ascendants, was the tar amalgam they had previously slain. Grey's eyes widened in shock. It had come back to life so soon? No, how did it come back to life at all!? And then the realization hit him, 'Damn it! I didn't use my right hand to neutralize its immortality!'
How could he be so careless? Now not only had he endangered Tyr's Ascendants once, but due to his failure he endangered them a second time. But Grey knew they weren't half as vulnerable as him. Tyr's Ascendant group was full of experienced low ranks, five of them to be exact. Each of those five would single handedly be able to take down two people a rank above them, and put together they would most likely even defeat a couple of mid rankers. Compared to them he was a bona-fide small fry.
And yet that would not deter Grey Aerith. If someone was faster, he would be stronger, if someone was stronger he'd become smarter, and if someone dared to be smarter he sure as hell would be more skilled. Once he put his mind to it, there was not an obstacle capable of deterring him.
And thus Grey Aerith rose once more and spoke, "Hold on. This guy's mine!" He dashed forward, speeding towards the amalgam with murderous intent. In her periphery he watched as the others held their weapons in a guarded stance, but not engaging. 'Thank you.' A silent wave of gratitude released as he rushed by the other Ascendants.
The tar amalgam was only about ten feet ahead of him, and to anyone with a brain, they'd realize that it held the advantage in this situation. However that truly was not the case, because unfortunately Grey Aerith was its opponent.
Thorns ejected from the amalgam's round surface, tearing through the air with immense speed. Grey was dragging the Cloudpiercer's blade along the ground, slicing a line into the dirt. Many thorns whistled past him, some grazed him, but not one managed to touch him. Finally as the amalgam entered the Cloudpiercer's range, Grey slashed upwards, bringing his tang dao high above his head and dragging dirt and dust along the air as he sliced through the amalgam's tar hide diagonally.
Though the attack would've been lethal to any man, the amalgam was a beast, its tough mantle too strong to be fully penetrated. But Grey wasn't looking for a one hit kill, using his left hand he stabbed his thumb into its side. It growled unceremoniously in pain, but it could not retaliate, for it had been blinded by the dust and dirt in its eyes, and sensing the air was no longer an option as the dust dulled its senses. Grey swung his body into the air using the strong suction force of tar, and then broke his thumb free once his body made it halfway above the amalgam's own body.
Then spinning like a steel typhoon, Grey and his ivory blade sawed through the amalgam's body and tore it to shreds at hypersonic speeds. The shockwave dispersed the tar and flung some pieces across the terrain. Finally when met with what seemed to be the core, Grey stopped sawing his way through the tar. He reached out with his right hand and severed its connection with immortality, and truly the tar amalgam had been defeated.
Moments later, what emerged from the sludged mess of browns and black was a boy with pale skin and gray hair. His bright blue eyes seemed to glow alongside his ghastly appearance. He almost looked like… a ghost.