1 week and 6 days until invasion (Still)

  For a moment I have to consider whether opening the door is the best course of action. firstly, I’m tier 2 now, and she'll notice that. That'd be a dead giveaway something is wrong. Second, my entire room is empty. If I open the door and she looks behind me, again, another dead giveaway. If I had skill in illusion magic, maybe I would have had a chance as this, but unfortunately I never chose that path. I chose mind magic as my tertiary specialization. Of course, I could get a fourth, but specializing in 4 complex magics means all 4 lag behind, and I have no particular affinity to illusions.

  I pull the amulet out of my pocket and groan as Trista knocks on the door. If only I could have waited, but alas; it was not to be. I smash the stone in my hand.

  {A god has taken notice to you}

  Space crumples soundlessly around me and everything melts away into black. I find myself floating in an endless void, nothingness in all directions.

  “You have been through quite the journey.” A voice echoes through the nothingness. I turn to see Red, the person I met in this same space months ago, standing there, looking down at me.

  ‘That I have.’ I say, and sigh. ‘For one thing I could talk last time.’

  “Corruption is a bitch, I know. An affinity that I feel nobody likes, but exists nevertheless. All concepts have a form in magic. Even corruption, death, destruction, and pain.”

  “I don't need this information.’ I say. ‘Not to be rude, but I would like to know why I'm here. I should be with the skeleton guy Abhor talked about.’

  “I am well aware, little soul.” He says, a smile gracing his lips, of which I can only somewhat make out. “You have nothing to worry about.”

  ‘I murdered his friend.’ I say flatly. ‘Shouldn't I, like, run?’

  “You couldn't escape him if you tried.” He chuckles. “No. You will be fine.”

  ‘I suppose you would know.’ I frown, crossing my arms.

  “Oh, I do. I knew him personally, long ago.”

  ‘Not anymore?’ I ask, curious.

  “That was long ago. Many billions of years.”

  ‘So you're a god? Or some sort of immortal being.’

  Red snorts at that.

  “Hardly immortal, considering my current state of dead.” He says, sighing. He leans back onto nothing and looks down at me. “Anyways, it's time you go back. When you see him, tell him Pyronite says hello.”

  Before I get a chance to respont, the void fractures and gains color. Within a moment, I'm suddenly in a strange cavern of wood, empty save for the cushions and decorations, the hole that leads downwards, and the massive skeleton looming above me.

  “Oh, that clever bastard.” The voice reverberates out from everywhere as 2 green whisps stare down at me. “Welcome to the Great Tree, Pyro.”

  <{0}>

  “How much longer?”

  “Only a few more hours.” I say for the third time. “I’m not the flash, but I'm the fastest one here, so be patient.”

  “I could outspeed you.” Phoebe counters, arms crossed.

  “For 5 seconds, yes, until your mana and stamina run out.” I snap back, rolling my eyes. I leap up, deciding to shoot up above the canopy to get a glimpse of our destination. In the distance, we can see the tree. Beyond any mountain in height, reaching up to the sky with its colossal branches. A true picture of beauty in nature. Although, I am unsure whether this would classify as natural in the first place. From what I know, Aftermath has a major part to do with the tree and its creation. I forget what he had called it. A… soul… something.

  “It's beautiful.” Phoebe mutters, pulling her children close to her side. Both are confused, unable to see the tree due to their lesser perception statistics.

  “It's not too far, either.” I say, beating forward with newfound quickness. “Another few hours.”

  “You can travel that far in a few hours?” she asks, her brows furrowing skeptically.

  “I can maintain my top speed for longer than normal, even with maxed out stamina.” I say.

  “Why in the gods' names did you max out your stamina of all things?” Phoebe mutters. I chuckle and roll my eyes, but continue on.

  “I've got a stamina boosting skill, so it’s above what it should be. The skill also decreases fatigue by a solid 40%.”

  “What? There's only, like, 5 permanent main stat boosting skills that exist.” Phoebe says, eyes narrowing. “I know Pyro had one. You have one?”

  “He does, huh?” I mutter. “Strength, I'd guess. He hit like a monster.” I lower a hand down, snagging and ripping off a branch from a random tree and plucking at the leaves as I fly. “My stat is, obviously, stamina.”

  “I’m starting to see how it could be helpful.” Phoebe admits grudgingly. After that we descend into silence, broken only by the kids pointing out something they see or smell or hear. Which is a lot of things, by the way.

  “What were you taught, growing up?” I ask after a while, fiddling with the bare branch in my hand.

  “About what?” Phoebe asks, voice tinged in suspicion.

  “Dragons.” I say softly, not looking up at her. There's a hint of nerves infused into my voice that I hadn’t intended. For a moment, Phoebe says nothing, but I feel her gaze on my back. I don’t look up, just gazing forward.

  “We are taught that dragons are mindless in lower tiers and pitiless in higher ones.” Phoebe says eventually. There's something I can't quite place in her voice. “I remember bedtime stories about dragons. Burnt villages, eaten children, that sort of thing. Stories meant to scare children into behaving and not running out.” She pauses, taking a steadying breath before continuing. “They were wrong. I see that now. I never told those stories to my own kids. I…”

  “It's not fair.” I mutter to myself, barely hearable even to myself.

  “What?” She pauses.

  “It's not fair.” I growl out, louder this time. “All of this. None of this. It's all fucked up bullshit and I’m caught in the middle. What, I spend 16 years of my life with the 3 people that matter most to me. Then what happens? One gets fucking murdered and the other gets kidnapped and brutally mutilated! Then what? Just me and my brother all fucking alone trying to figure out what on the gods green earth we should be doing, stumbling about and eventually finding our way to somewhere I can finally call home! Then, I go and try to save the one who was kidnapped, and you know what happened? I watched one of my friends decapitated head roll down to my feet, then myself got murdered. I died. Not once. Twice now. That home I finally found? Burned to the fucking ground! And what else? It turns out there's fucking anti-dragon propaganda! AUGH!” I run my claws frustratedly across my face then go silent, breathing heavily. I take slow, deep breaths to calm myself. Then sigh.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Sorry. I've been keeping that bottled up for some time now.”

  “I could tell.” She says, her voice softer now. She rests a hand on the side of my neck. I turn to look up at her. There’s actual concern in her eyes. I don't know how to feel about it. I look away, slumping but not faltering.

  “Sorry for my… colorful language in front of the kids.” I say somewhat sheepishly.

  “I… can't say I approve of them hearing that.” She admits. “But I see where it's coming from. And I can't really blame you. Not fairly, anyway.”

  “Thanks…” I say, giving a small nod. The rest of the flight continues on in silence.

  <{0}>

  As they approached the colossal dome of which was the city's canopy, Phoebe felt trepidation and some nerves as it grew larger and larger in their vision.

  “Shouldn't we be going down to one of the entrances?” Phoebe asks as Abhor makes no move to dive down.

  “No, we don't need to.” Abhor says, shaking his head. Phoebe found herself feeling guilty over her attitude towards the dragon. She had realized something as they flew. The reason she was suspicious and cagey to him wasn't because of his affinities. No, it was because he was a dragon. Something so alien to her, that she had spent her life seeing as monstrous. She had distrusted him by default, without giving him a chance. Shameful, truly. She had been less cagey towards the wyvern, and he was trying to kill her for Pyronites sake.

  Then she noticed how close the canopy was becoming.

  “uh… why aren't we stopping?” She asks as the canopy becomes closer… and closer… and closer still.

  “As a resident, we can enter without going through the gate. The tree knows its residents.” Abhor explains as they get closer still. As they get closer she feels a spike of fear. was he going to slam her into the canopy to kill her? Was he really bad all along? What should she- oh. The canopy opened up, allowing them entrance, then closed behind them. She felt a newfound spike of shame at her attitude, but just slumped and shrugged it off, a hand on the shoulders of each of her children. She looked from side to side at the city below. It was utterly beautiful. Lush greenery grew from every building, offering a verdant landscape of unity between mans creation and natures beauty. The city was split into 3 rings outside the tree itself. The outermost was full of homes and temporary residences, not all bound to the earth but floating above the ground. The middle seemed full of medium quality restaurants, office buildings, and other such establishments. Medium being relative, however. The whole place was beautiful, pristine, and well cared for. The centermost ring, just outside of the trunk, with some even on top of the roots slightly emerging from the earth in locations, was what seemed to be the second ring, but better in every way. More opulent, with skyscrapers that had no right being as tall as they were.

  “I never took the time to just… look.” She says, glancing from place to place. One thing every ring had in common were the gardens. Miles long, with trees hundreds of meters tall, shrubbery with rainbow colors of flowers in every location.

  “Beautiful, yeah.” Abhor nods. “I spend the most time in the emerald path garden, closest to the tree. It has the best sandwich place ever.”

  “Maybe we should go some time then.” Phoebe says softly, pulling her gawking children close. Then Abhor tilts and flies upwards, to what she now notices as those strange spatial gates from before. “I remember those. How do you know which is which? They seem to scramble all the time.”

  “When I look for one, if I want to enter a specific place, I often will. It's a thing with the tree helping guide people where they want to go subconsciously by tinkering with the mana. Mana sight helps as well, but I understand that’s rarer than normal mana senses.”

  “I have strong mana senses, though no mana sight.” Phoebe admits as they approach a particular gateway. “Where are we going?”

  “Hopefully to meet up with Pyro. I plan to meet with Aftermath. wait…” He pauses short of the gate and turns to another one a distance away. “Maybe we should leave the kids in my room first. Gods are… apparently unpleasant to unprepared souls.”

  “You… want to just waltz up to a god?” Phoebe stares at him, wondering if there is something seriously wrong with him. Nobody just walks up to gods. That’s- that's suicide!

  “Ok…” was all she managed as he entered through another gateway, landing on wooden ground. He lowered himself down and the three riders all climbed off.

  Abhor walked forward, looking through the entrance chamber. Nobody seemed to be there.

  “It seems like Snowstorm's out.” Abhor says to himself before turning to them. “Are your kids ok to be left alone for a few hours?”

  “I… think it would be better if they had someone watching over them, if only to help if they needed it. I do not feel comfortable leaving them alone for an extended period of time.” Abhor nods.

  “I'll get someone, be right back.” He turns and hope out of the hole.

  <{0}>

  A while later he returned with a woman.

  “This is Ysolda, she should be able to look after them while we are meeting with Aftermath.”

  “Oh, they're just adorable.” she coos, crouching down in front of the two kids who both greet her.

  “Thank you.” Phoebe says to her politely, nodding her head.

  “Abhor's a good friend. I'm happy to help one of his friends. This is the first time he's ever actually asked a favor of me, so of course I'd help.” Ysolde says, smiling. “I'm Ysolde. You?”

  “Phoebe.” Phoebe introduces herself.

  “Let's head out.” Abhor says, gesturing with his head. Phoebe nods and climbs up to sit on his back. and with that, they leave.

  <{0}>

  Reaching Aftermath's quarters was pretty easy, all things considered. We kind of just, well, flew in. After landing inside, we found something we didn't really expect. A table with 4 chairs was set up. Aftermath sat in a seat, in his demiform. Pyro was there too, which was expected. What wasn’t expected was the presence of Snowstorm. there was another empty seat as well. Snowstorm was staring down at his tea, trying very hard not to glare at Pyro, and mostly failing.

  Phoebe climbs off my back, glancing from side to side before locking eyes with Pyro.

  ‘You made it out safe!’ Pyro shoots up from his chair and makes his way over to her. They both hug. I stare down at them for a moment before just smiling and making my way over to the others.

  Demishift

  I slide into a seat, my wings tucked to my sides and my arms on the armrests. I sigh.

  “That was a trip well made. Can't say the return was fun, though.”

  “You gave away the stone I gave you specifically for the purpose of getting back. No wonder it took so long.” Aftermath says, amused. Phoebe doubles over at hearing Aftermath's words, trembling and seeming about to spit blood. She stares up at Aftermath with shock and awe present in her expression.

  “Uh, Aftermath, could you tone it down please? She's not like me and Snowstorm.” I pause, noticing Pyro seemingly unaffected as well. “and now Pyro too, apparently. Why you?”

  ‘How would I know?’ Pyro shrugs helplessly.

  “I imagine you could piece it together, Abhor.” Aftermath says. I pause, my tail flicking listlessly side to side as I think.

  “Me and Snowstorm both are immune to suppression of tier. To know why Pyro is immune as well, we need to know what is similar about us. Firstly, both of us have soul cores. Soul cores don't suddenly cause immunity to suppression, though. Pyro?”

  ‘Yes, I have a soul core.’ Pyro nods, holding up his right hand to show a blood red stone in the shape of a claw.

  “And that's another point.” I say. “Soul cores are usually opal colored and shaped. Yet ours are as if carved from gems. That's not normal either. That's a similarity. Another thing is we both have essence statistics.”

  ‘I do as well.’ Pyro nods. Aftermath is leaning forward slightly, clearly amused by this. Pyro seems more interested than anything while Snowstorm seems to be on the verge of something.

  “Then there's the last bit.” I frown. “In the last loop, I met someone named Apash.” Aftermath pauses, then his eyes widen. “He lead me along into realizing something. What is a being that has essence, a soul core of a specific shape, and extreme amounts of karma?”

  “Oh, that’s easy.” Snowstorm says. “A Primordial go… holy fuck.”

  “You get it!” I say, sitting up in my seat. Phoebe looks about to split blood for a different reason this time as she stares at Pyro.

  “You're…”

  “Phoebe, here's a little fact I learned from Apash. probably from Aftermath too but my knowledge tends to mix together.” I say, leaning on my seat in her direction. “When a primordial dies, their minds are shunted into the void, along with other dead versions of themselves. Their souls, now empty but still connected to the previous god by karma, forms a new mind that is then reborn. That means a reborn primordial would have no idea what in the 9 hells they are. All they'll know is that they're different. They’ll find that they somehow know things they shouldn't. Likely make thousand year old references to things their last lives were interested in. They'll also be talented in anything their past lives mastered.” I grin as Pyro himself puts the pieces together. “Welcome to the godly funhouse, Pyro.” I wink. Snowstorm falls flat on his face. “Oh yeah, I haven't told you yet… Whoops.”