Chapter 101: Symmetrical

Arson and the giant robot he fought, once more charged one another. Arson only then noticing the two circular dents on the robot’s chest, that he knew hadn’t come from his conductive water orbs.

Mana Lightning…? Maybe if I’m desperate enough.

The distance between the two closed in no time, but when Arson heard the explosion that sounded like the felling of thousands of trees simultaneously, he couldn’t help but glance, the sound outside his closed eye dominion’s range. This, he paid for immediately. The giant robot delivering a downward punch that dragged Arson through the air, until he was stamped into the only slightly forgiving earth below.

Yet even as the robot raised another fist to finish off Arson, The massive ship that had been rolled from a mountain top after crashing had entered his closed eye dominion’s range, and he knew. He may get punched a second time, but a third…

The fist landed and Arson felt his shoulder dislocate as his ears began to ring. The ship's collision with the giant robot unheard, but the sight would forever be burned into his memories. A new star born within his internal soul and cerebral realms.

"Wish I could share this with people," was his only thought as he screamed and his body bent. Pain filling him from head to toe, the last thing on his mind as he gained a sense of what was to come.…

Arson slowed the sight of the robot being smashed into. Though it was large, the ship’s structure made the Robot seem as if it had been struck by a vessel it too would only be a small passenger on.

The yard of space that separated Arson’s earthen embedded body from peril, gave him a front row seat to havoc he wouldn’t have otherwise. Arson enjoyed it in a sequence equivalent to frame by frame in the world of cinematography and film.

Many sections of the ship were invisible, but luckily for Arson the section that swept away the giant robot with what he hoped was a metal knee breaking slam was visible. The wall of Titan Steel that was the ship had perfectly bounced in its momentum that Arson counted himself lucky that he too hadn’t been landed on by the incredible ship.

“You see, you aren’t completely unlucky,” said Anastasia while Arson managed to get to his feet.

“Oh yeah? What about anything you just saw happen to me feels like luck?” asked Arson. Both the AI and the young cultivator took in the destruction caused to the area around themselves in mere moments, while Arson hissed in pain after popping his arm and shoulder back into alignment.

“Ehhh, maybe you're right. I got an idea, find me someone actually lucky to assist. Maybe they can get me a new body,” said Anastasia. Arson looked down and met the AI’s eyes and scoffed. Arson sensed an invisible shrug once more.

“Yeah right, you better hope someone equally as dedicated to dealing with your antics gets you next, or—“ Arson was cut off, and missed the frown Anastasia gave at being spoken about like a simple item that could be just given away. Ashamed at feeling attached to the young cultivator, and bothered by the thought that anyone else would ever wear the watch that still housed her soul.

Arson may not be aware, but Anastasia would never be worn by another Cultivator. And it wasn’t just because she didn’t want to, she physically couldn’t at this point. The watch anchored to Arson’s soul since they’d travelled in Endless together for more than a decade of season cycles.

The sound of the giant rampaging through the ship that apparently hadn’t killed or crushed it could be heard in the distance, and rather than charge toward danger, Arson took a mental inventory of his priorities and all the distractions that seemed to fill his every waking moment. Then made the decision to not engage.

“Let everyone know an enemy ship has just crashed into the dump and that we need the area surveyed before nightfall and all hells spawn break loose.”

…

When the Crown siblings managed to exit the dungeon, everything was different. Not just the landscape that seemed to have seen much battle and conflict, but also the trio.

“We must find a way back to Prism,” said Lilith. The words felt loud in the odd silence left within the space now more open land than fields of trash heaps. Nothing more dangerous than the potential of what could be born from giving the inhabitants of the night room to build and grow.

“We must head that way then,” said Orbit. Pointing his spear in a seemingly random direction.

“What tells you—“

“I can feel home in that direction, it's most likely a portal, as I also feel home far less faintly in that direction,” said Orbit, pointing his spear directly down toward the ground.

“That’s good enough for me,” said Tartaria, his ragged clothing the only thing he had left to change into after his transformation ended, his two weapons at his back, lifted off the moment he saw Orbit teleport away.

Lilith followed the pair from the rear of the pack, forced to give running everything she had just to keep up with her brothers.

Things are going to be different in my life now, but I will not be ruled… She grit her teeth as her momentum abilities were pushed to their new maximums, and the group was finally able to leave the edges of the dump they managed to explore.

Soon they found themselves at an orphanage, that informed them that they’d reached Maelstrom of all places, and became even more confused by the things they saw.

“Hey, isn’t that a Rubik’s Tree?” asked Tartaria. Their group being able to see the Orphanage they strolled through was for multiple reasons.

The first being that they’d jumped over the perimeter wall, and raced imperceptibly across the forested outer portions of the Maelstrom orphanage lands. While the second was that new faces during the recent crisis within Maelstrom was commonplace.

Lilith nodded in answer to her brother’s question, the multicolored limbs in constant motion only a few hundred meters away. A tree seen as mythical or sacred in their homelands being used as a playground for the young.

“Do they know not what they have?…” Tartaria, looked at his sister then, and the mixture of emotions she saw there, she wondered if her own features were replicated.

There was an innocence in seeing children play in a sacred tree, as the tree was known to grow larger the happier the tree became. And they all knew that this was the largest one of the trees kind they’d ever seen.

Yet their heritage forced ideals in their minds that stated that the trees were not to be climbed, as each of the trees tops carried their own legacies, and some were seen as boons, as others were seen as curses.

Due to Orbit’s confidence in the direction they traveled, they were easily able to navigate the maze-like pattern that was the Orphanage's road system.

Along the way, they passed many sights of interest to her and Tartaria, but only one thing caught Orbit’s eyes.

In the distance a beautiful building could be seen. To Lilith’s eyes, she couldn’t imagine a more intricate and advanced structure, so she understood why he couldn’t take his eyes off of it, yet his fixation continued to scratch at the back of her mind to the point she felt required to ask.

“What is it about that building has you so focused, Orbit?” asked Lilith. Her brother turned away his mouth opening as if to answer, but then he looked to Tartaria, who gave him a slight nod before he answered.

“It's actually in poor form for me to stare,” said Orbit in a whisper.

“There are some awful practices being followed in these lands, can you not see the building for what it truly is?” Lilith looked around for anything that would force her brother to whisper, and found them to be alone as far as she could tell.

“No… I only see a beautiful building, glass walls, immaculate Solar Flare roof panels…” said Lilith before she trailed off in thought. What she was seeing was impossible.

What the sparks… Solar flare panels aren’t sold outside of Prism, they don’t work without a solar cycle’s time being dominated by sunlight.

“What is that building?” She meant to whisper but both her brothers shushed her. Which only made her more frustrated.

“That building is at the center of of everything we’ve seen thus far. It is in fact not a building, but a mountain covered in the bodies of those who failed its trial, from children to fully grown Cultivators. A tremendous light is washing over this entire land filled with mana that is coming from the mountain top, and we don’t have to imagine how many sacrifices have been given to this place to make the abundance of mana so rich and filled with life force,” said Orbit still whispering.

“Let's hurry this up and get to the portal you think is nearby,” said Lilith, her eyes widening at Orbit’s words.

“We have a long way to go, unless we come across a teleportation station, but I doubt we will be able to find something like that in this backwater of a realm,” said Orbit. Then he looked around and changed his mind.

“Or maybe I shouldn’t assume that Maelstrom is a third realm society after what I have experienced while here. Especially if where they keep their trash is more dangerous than most of the dungeons back home,” mumbled Orbit. Lilith and Tartaria agreed and the group quickly made their way out of the orphanage grounds.

After following the road to the inner city, they quickly came to a well designed slums that ringed the outside of the entire CityNation. They couldn’t believe their eyes, as the slums of Prism seemed like far more desperate a place to come across, until they came across a stone bridge, built across a massive scar in the land.

“What could have done something like this,” asked Lilith. She’d seen warfare and natural disasters, but this was an incident in a category of its own magnitude.

They walked the bridge and were able to see down into the lands below. Daylight offering a dazzling view of both destruction, slow burning conflict, and covered endless stretches of ruins and demons.

“We must find a way home before we are caught up in any of this,” said Tartaria. The young man had pulled his sister to keep up with Orbit when she’d frozen at the apex of the bridge's arch.

Soon they started to come across signs for a relief shelter built by a group name the BHC, which was coincidentally in the direction of the place Orbit was leading them to.

The beautiful streets led to a massive warehouse, currently being raided on all sides. The trio would pass the building on their left and be able to go straight or turn right, but something about the sight as they drew closer made Lilith slow and take in the scene.

“Come sister, not every fire is to be stoked by those with a willing heart, sometimes only time can see matters through for the weak,” said Orbit. Not understanding Lilith’s current battle with weakness, a battle that made her want to race into the building filled with screams and flames even more after his comment, Lilith sighed knowing herself.

"Better to die weak and with a heart able to feel for others than to run when I see those struggling and in need, brother,” said Lilith as she stepped onto the sandstone path that led down toward the warehouse seconding as a relief shelter.

“Embers and sparks, sister, not again. Maiden rest my soul, if you get hurt in here, I’ll kill everyone involved, in need or not,” roared Tartaria jogging after his sister.

“Looks like some things never change,” said Orbit, teleporting after his siblings, passed fleeing men women and children.. Their arms full of food, water, and miscellaneous goods.

“Come on, boys. Lets help the needy…”

…

Arson strafed the final crash point of the ship from a distance, watching soldiers from what he now knew were the Mana Monarchs kingdom being grabbed and tossed out of any hole the giant robot could find and fit its arm into.

Seen and done many things, but this is new…

Much of what Arson had lived through previously was either fixed with overwhelming power, or unrivaled skill. Yet while the light at the base of the tree grew brighter, Arson knew he’d faced nothing like this before by any means, small or large, and for the first time in his life, he called his mother for help, not guidance, but a helping hand.

“Hello, dear, kind of busy at the moment,” answered Jade, who was forced to yell over the explosions nearby.

“Hey, you do sound busy... I really need some help, but I can try and figure it out myself,” whispered Arson, not wanting to be heard by the giant robot he kept his eyes on. So even as his mother battled within the interior of the organic spaceship right in front of him, Arson remained unaware.

“Busy, but not busy that I can’t listen to what’s going on,” yelled Jade.

“Thanks mom, just facing things outside my cultivation weight class I guess, wondering what to do when my opponents aren’t just slightly stronger than myself, but immensely so,” said Arson. Mana Monarch soldiers being tossed so far that some of their screams sailed past Arson himself. Either far above, or when they smashed like meteors into the trash heaps he hid within.

“It's going to happen more and more as you grow, son, I fought a sleeping immortal that I doubt me and your father could beat with perfectly timed teamwork and all the forces and power we both wield being used in sync, and that was before your father and I became immortals, and I still don’t think we could achieve it,” said Jade. The words the first thing to make Arson look away from the Robot and nod toward his mother.

In that same moment, an explosion of light and mana washed across the area around Jade so bright that the camera of her watch was only able to show her face as she finished her response.

"And even now that we’ve grown, I don't think we are that being's match. Regardless, we still beat it as mortals because we used our brains, something that we need to do more of as we gain power as Cultivators, my son, not less of,” said Jade. Arson gave her a final nod, smiled, and hung up the call after saying goodbye, His eyes already having had drifted back toward the robot long before the call ended.

“Use my brain huh…”

Arson thought of all his struggles and as he watched the robot rampage, he was filled with memories of fighting an eight legged wolf. A beast more than formidable enough to fight a giant robot. The thought filling Arson with a series of plans that made him grin.

“Hmm, no way that could work,” said Arson as he began to backpedal, leaving one of Xani’s Propeller Palm Drones to track the movements of the giant, and another for the ship.

“What are you thinking, nuke the whole place or what?” asked Anastasia once they had gotten quite a distance away from the crash site.

“Yup, something like that!”