Chapter 98: A Conference Call with Icons

Lilith fought alongside her brothers. They’d been inside of their current dungeon for three days realm time, and an astonishing three months dungeon time. A time period in which the siblings grew far more powerful than they’d ever been before.

Fighting ghosts had been odd at first, but as the three grew in power, they learned various ways to exorcise spirits without using spiritual methods.

Lilith felt on the verge of something grand with her momentum abilities, attuning toward something that felt to her like the weight of gravity on her body as she moved. Her punches now sent echoes through the air that could kill several ghost at once, sometimes flying to kill more in the distance.

"Rare now, but soon the standard," thought Lilith as she dodged numerous ghost, the swarms that rushed them like a fog cloud of lashing dead limbs.

Orbit was currently on a level that she nor Tartaria could understand. Each time the young man was seen, only the dead or dying was left behind.

After unlocking a skill he’d said the system called Split Shift, he was able to teleport to multiple points around himself at once, equal to the number of times Orbit could split his own mind.

A number Lilith now knew was larger than what he’d previously shared with the rest of his family. The young man was forced to fight at his full strength in every moment that they fought within the dungeon.

Orbit could attack a group of opponents from many angles, reality bending from the power of his skill and thought to place him in many locations at once. While the skill's power should end there, Orbit had pushed it to trigger a second time after he was already active. At times, Lilith couldn’t count the various places her brother could be seen when attacking, but focused on the still overwhelming enemies around them.

The perilous city they fought through remained regal even though its inhabitants all seemed to have perished.

They’d been forced into the dungeon while fleeing from an abomination of metal and raw power. A machine filled with so much carnage and pent up aggression that they still wondered if the giant was truly all machine, seeming to emanate hatred toward them.

After barely managing to escape their mad dash in a random direction, they ended up darting into the exact portal that she’d seen from her earlier hiding place within the dump that held the dungeon.

The area they’d entered had been the center of a town named Dreadmire. The low level ghost by the entrance proved to be easy to defeat, and granted large amounts of experience to the siblings, and Tartaria reveled in the battle that never seemed to end.

He’d fought off his urges to shift, but as they approached the large manor within the dungeon realm, she heard the howl. A howl that let her know that she needed to be on her guard now more than ever.

Here we go Lilith, just try and stay alive a little bit longer. We may not be able to kill that giant robot, but by the time we leave here, we better be able to at least run from it…

Lilith had no doubt in her mind that Orbit could escape easily, and that Tartaria might even be able to outrun the robot that they knew was still by the entrance to the portal, as Orbit had done a quick reconnaissance mission shortly after they’d just entered.

He’d returned quickly and had shaken his head rather than giving a single word on the potential for escape. The changes in her brother’s persona so swift that Lilith wondered what may have happened to turn her once talkative brother into a young man of few words.

Another howl came and Lilith turned to see a bus-sized wolf charging in her direction. Tartaria’s shifted form unbothered by the hundreds of attacks that brushed his beautiful white fur, its crimson patches easily mistakable for the blood of his enemies a natural characteristic of his coat.

Orbit could be seen teleporting all around his brother, who charged through hordes of ghosts with a massive great hammer and glaive lodged between his canines. The weapons filled with primal manas that cut and smashed through the normally intangible foes.

Seeing the hundreds of enemies her brothers cleaved through in moments filled Lilith with a rage she couldn’t push down, the feeling that she’d been eclipsed in all areas of Cultivations by her brothers after a lucky encounter was infuriating.

She was supposed to be the Chozen of her family, but knew that if her parents saw her brothers power in this moment, that would be in question in an instant.

She dove out of the way as her incensed older brother was like an easily excitable dog with a heightened IQ while in his shifted state. Their parents described it as, a genius being affected by aggressive ADHD when Tartaria had shifted as a teenager, a description Lilith felt suited him even to the current day.

She’d asked him about it, and he’d told her that he felt like he was having thousands of amazing ideas all at once, and was in a constant battle to find out which idea to pursue with every breath his wolven body took.

She quickly got onto her feet, and raced after Tartaria and Orbit. A massive path made through the hordes of ghosts around them as they were either brushed aside and slain by Tartaria’s orally wielded weapons, or stabbed by Orbit, gave Lilith the space to move that she hadn’t felt in what seemed like days.

She’d thought her brother would have done this far sooner, but remembered that his mind while in this form was chaotic enough to also spend his saved stat points, so she worried what would happen if he shifted while having a large excess of the unspent resource. He wanted guidance on how to spend them best from their elders, wanting to get the best build for himself possible in both forms, often leaning toward both strength and dexterity, while his wolf-mind chose other stats like intelligence, wisdom, and perception, his specialty stat.

Watching the wolf move now, Lilith sensed something, a shift in Tartaria that she would have never expected to witness in her lifetime.

A crimson energy wrapped around Tartaria, and his weapons. The large wolf coming to a completely random stop, before the eyes of her brother’s met her own. The wolf’s eyes slowly beginning to twist with the same energy. Then she received a message.

Tartaria: Guys, I think something is happening to me. I can think straight and I feel mana building in my chest.

Lilith almost froze in her dash toward her brother, but her glance toward Orbit showed the same shock she felt inside. Only for things to change further.

The red glowing energies lifted the weapons held in Tartaria’s canines into the air just outside his mouth. Hammer and Glaive, moving with deadly intent, seemingly of their own will; both flying defensively around his head.

Tartaria shook his entire body like a wet dog. Then his head aggressively before his entire coat rose in warning of what was to come.

Tartaria: Run!

Tartaria’s howl came with an accompanied blast of energy that pierced the sky, until the wolf’s head came down, a massive beam of crimson traveling 300 yards from his mouth, killing everything it touched as Tartaria slowly turned his head toward more enemies.

Lilith didn’t even have the time to run, diving to the ground as the beam swept through the air above her. Two massive weapons twirling through the air around the beam, catching any enemies lucky enough to be missed by the beam. The great hammer managed to only clip her side on her way toward the ground, but the energy still sent her crashing in a roll across the ground.

An explosion like that of a crumbling building was heard as Tartaria’s beam and weapons swept through a structure nearby, folding the building in on itself in a blink.

Lilith groaned as she watched this, slowly getting up to her feet, and shaking her head.

So many of the ghosts had been killed nearby, none were even close enough to attack the three cultivator siblings. Which included Lilith who had been sent quite a distance by her brother’s hammer. She looked around at all the destruction, and knew that Tartaria may have just gained more experience in the last few moments, than she’d gained in her short lifetime.

How… How is any of this fair?

Lilith balled her fist, and punched the ground with as much force as she could. Stone cracking underneath her punch, and still she knew it wasn’t enough to face either one of her brothers now, let alone the young man she suspected still may be stronger than them all individually, if not combined.

Tartaria: You okay guys? I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop it.

Orbit: I managed to get out of range just fine. Just trying to get used to you messaging while shifted to be honest.

Lilith: Your hammer got me, I think some ribs are broken, but I should be fine with some time and a potion or two.

Lilith remained stoic, but could see that Orbit’s indifference to what had just been done by their brother, probably meant he still had more to be unseen, or had somehow matured in the short time they’d been apart from her. She doubted the competitiveness her brothers and sisters all showed had been wiped from Orbit completely, so assumed that what was being done by the two was only the beginning.

Embers and sparks, if I don’t do something soon, I’ll be left behind completely…

Her brothers quickly closed in on her position. Tartaria trotting over before he licked his sister’s face free of blood and grime with a single wet lick that made Lilith splutter. Orbit laughing at the sight, the first smile she’d seen on the young man in days.

Until Tartaria licked Orbit from nearly his ankles to his crown, and the frown returned. Which made Lilith laugh. A new silence growing between them all, until Lilith felt forced to ask a question she never would normally ask her brothers.

“So what now?”

…

Troy did her best to pump herself up. Her first test was today, and she knew it wouldn’t be like any other test she’d ever taken.

She’d never been tested by being forced to hunt a specific creature in her life, and her only real training against non-Cultivators had been against the entities within the dump, and the Naga that Jade had used to train her and a small group of other orphans.

Now though, she was being put up against a creature that was naturally powerful against light mana, seen to be impervious to the energy type in fact. A fact that many on the team she’d been assigned to were completely aware of.

“Look, just stay in the back, and help where you can. Someone falls over, get them upright. Someone bleeding out, do what you can. I know that many are going to see you as dead weight through most of this place, but I don’t, I’ve heard what the head light instructor is capable of, and don’t believe for a second that the student who has caught her eye is useless at any point.” Troy looked up toward the team leader who’d just stopped in front of her. The young man staring into her eyes the most dangerous youth she’d met within Adroit Academy thus far.

“I’ll do my best, Sniper, but I expect this to be like most of the practice exams I’ve had since people started to figure out one of the instructors favors me,” said Troy. The pair of glowing green eyes were the only thing visible below the hood worn by the young man she knew as Marcus Regalia Sniper. He went by his last name for whatever reason, Troy still hadn’t quite figured out, but was an odd practice for those outside military families, from what she knew.

“This place gives opportunities that can’t and won’t be had anywhere else, and you’ve been here a short time. Catching anyone's attention on the staff is nearly impossible for those who have far more time in their studies than you. Just make sure not to get killed by another student, or eaten, and you’ve pretty much skipped many steps for what is seen as normal in this place.” Troy couldn’t help but nod, rushing to her feet as she saw the other members of their party come closer.

“You get our anchor squared away,” said a young woman to Sniper. Her words causing a chain of laughter to burst from the remaining four members of their team behind them.

The young woman named Queen Augustine, was incredibly powerful as a fire user, enough in fact that even Troy didn’t believe she had a chance in even scratching the young woman at her top speeds.

“He did, he told me to make sure that your air balloon of a head doesn’t float away and everything will be fine,” retorted Troy casually, cursing herself after she realized she could potentially be making her next graded test, even harder for herself.

“We don’t have much time left in the armory, and you’re making jokes instead of getting ready and actually arming yourself, I pray to the maiden that you don’t die today…” said Queen. The heat around them rising as tendrils of silver flames rolled innocently up her arms, twisting through the links of her armor.

“You’re right, thank you for the concern. I apologize for being rude. As the weakest member of our party I have just suddenly found myself worried that I won’t effectively be able to help my team, thus I am beside myself with guilt and worried over the results of my grades…” The sarcasm dripped from Troy, but she could see smirks from the rest of her team. Especially after Sniper managed a small chuckle. A reaction he never had. To anything.

“I could pierce your unprotected figure in an instant and you act as if you can speak to me however you please? Hearing the underlying poison in your speech makes me want to bless you with a slow death, but I don’t care how powerful the staff thinks you are, I will be declared this season cycle's strongest new admission, even if I must lower myself to clean the fireplace of ashes,” said Queen, leaning confrontationally toward Troy in a way she hadn’t felt since being adopted and forced to fight in a nightclub she felt destined to die within since childhood. A feeling she fought everyday to escape.

Queen lifted a pointed finger as if to touch Troy, and Troy couldn’t help but sneer back at the young woman as an armor suit made from hardened light formed around her body.

Her own multicolored armor suit had been inspired by the two women Troy had come to idolize the most in her life, The Orphan Mother, and the Heiress of Crime. The regalia closed around her body in the exact way she had seen Jade’s own armor do in her younger season cycles, glowing with the same deep blue and silvered white that Almarine’s mana shown with. Silver fire splashing harmlessly across Troy’s now armored chest when Queen’s finger made contact filling Troy with pride.

“Is this sufficient, or should I put something else on?”

The group’s silence made Troy wonder if she’d done something wrong, but then she realized everyone in the armory was looking at her. Not just her team, but all the teams readying themselves for the upcoming test.

“You see, I dare not doubt any that an instructor of this Academy sees as someone with potential. You never know what they can or will do next,” said Sniper. The words making Troy miss Arson terribly, the exact person she was pushing herself to be worthy of competing along with.

What would you say of my partner if you saw him I wonder…

It took a while for the room to return to normal, and Troy didn’t retract her armor, as the awestruck Queen left her finger pressed to Troy’s armored chest in shock, her jaw slightly hanging open.

“Would you mind,” said Troy with a glance down.

Might be able to block her fire, but my armor is exhausting, and this chick is acting like mana is free to her or something?

“Hmm, I guess there is more to the rumors than I originally assumed,” said Queen, straightening and removing her finger. A chime resonated through the entire space like a giant gong, signaling the beginning of the test. Their hunt for a crystal golem would now begin. Troy’s life will be forever changed by the things learned from her experience to come.

I hope you're doing better than me, love…

…

Arson ran through the streets where he’d seen Oscar last. The young man had ended up being used as bait, but Arson and Khalif had lost sight of him in the last few moments. Now they were both in a scramble to find Oscar.

“Hello, now is not a good time,” yelled Arson as Oscar was heard screaming frantically in the distance, Arson answering a call from Seneschal as he sprinted toward the screams.

“Hello, young master. I wouldn’t normally bother you with this kind of thing, but what your cook is doing needs to be seen immediately, sire.” Arson didn’t stop running, using the glimpses his closed eye dominion gave him with each blink to traverse the ruinous streets of the Under-City, the perspective of the holograms his watch displayed changing to show Rob from a distance.

The young man sat on the roof of what seemed to be the remains of the ManaWell. Brianna at his side, cooking as he worked one handed to prepare potions.

None of these things were strange, what was strange was the multiple winged foxes that guarded the area, while a demon seemed to be latched onto Rob’s free hand, thrashing wildly about as Rob and Brianna simply laughed about something, their conversation unheard from the distance.

“What in the maiden’s light…”

“I have been alive for many season cycles, sire, and whatever he is doing is beyond me. He seems to be purging these creatures souls and mana systems, as well as even their bodies of impurities, curses, rot and more. As far as external healing goes, I have seen none more grand than what I’m seeing now as far as ability and capability go for healers,” said a demon older than his immortal mother and father. So the words struck Arson as potentially a severely bad situation.

“Does he seem to be harming himself in any way?”

“No, sire. Instead he seems to be growing stronger in leaps and bounds, almost like you when you first received your own core,” responded Seneschal. Arson only nodding in response at first as he’d assumed Rob would form a core soon.

“Late in life is better than not at all, brother. I was seven which should give me a long life, and you managed it before your mental maturity, which only means you have much of the same potential,” said Arson more to himself, worried for Rob but still excited for his friend.

“Since birth, you mean,” said Seneschal, the camera turning back toward him as he spoke up. Arson confused by the words, having moved on mentally as Oscar’s screams were becoming more frantic by the instant.

“What do you mean from birth? What from birth?”

Arson turned a final corner to see Oscar dangling from the side of a rooftop, the eight legged wolf they were tracking beneath him, swatting at the building Oscar hung from with its mouth wide open. Each smash of the demonic creature’s paw shaking the building enough to threaten to make Oscar let go of the ledge he struggled to climb.

“Son of a…”

…

“You were a born cultivator, sire. You can’t experience Tribulations without a core,” stated Seneschal, but Arson couldn’t have heard him, a loud sound drawing Arson’s attention.

“Son of a…” The call ended, and Seneschal smiled before he chuckled to himself. The demon sliding silently into a portal of black flames and shadows. Once again moving to stay out of sight of Rob, whom Seneschal was beginning to believe could feel the demon’s eyes on him. The young man’s unrefined power growing incredibly fast.

“Ahh, to be young again... what this demon would do to never have to experience that again,” said the ancient being to himself, as hounds of his own dove after him into his shadow of flame.

“Maybe this time, I can…”