by Aaron Oster
8
Morgan drifted out of the sky, alighting softly on the ground before the tunnel leading out of the Beast Zone. Lumia descended as well, her body shrinking until she landed upon his shoulder, no larger than an average housecat. In this form, all of her features were softened, her scales appearing more like leather than the hard diamond-like appearance he was used to.
Likewise, her wings, teeth, and claws had all shrunk as well, to the point where she probably couldn’t hurt a fly and would have a difficult time taking to the air. Her eyes were rounded and much larger, giving her an extremely cute appearance. In all honesty, Morgan much preferred her larger forms. Had Sarah been around, he knew she’d be absolutely in love with this one.
“What’s the world like on the outside?” Lumia asked as he stepped into the shade of the tunnel.
Her voice was far lighter now, sounding almost childlike. It was a stark difference to the massive and powerful creature Morgan knew her to be. Still, it made travel far easier, and for that alone, he was grateful she’d found this form.
“I can honestly say that I don’t know,” Morgan replied. “It’s been so long since I’ve been out there, and I’m sure it has changed. Besides, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.”
Lumia fidgeted on his shoulder, and Morgan felt her small claws digging into the cloth there. Though small, they were still sharp enough to damage the cloth, so he sincerely hoped she’d be careful. Light filtered through from the opposite side of the cave and the scent of pine flowed towards him.
He hadn’t smelled it in quite some time, as the Beast Zone he’d been in had lacked this particular tree. He found the scent pleasant and familiar, and was brought back to his time running from City Four with Sarah, back when he’d first discovered his abilities. Things were so much simpler then, the world seeming so large and full of wonder.
Of course, he hadn’t really felt much back then, so enjoying the sights wasn’t something he’d really done. Still, he found himself filled with an odd sense of nostalgia as they neared the tunnel exit.
“That smells really nice,” Lumia said in a dreamy voice, her nose high in the air and her eyes closed.
The light in the tunnel grew brighter, the breeze grew stronger, and the scents of the outside world increased. Finally, Morgan stepped from the open tunnel mouth and back into the Five Kingdoms.
“Oh, wow!” Lumia said, voice filled with wonder as she looked around the forest glade in which they found themselves.
Tall pines reached into the sky around them, their leafy evergreen branches tipped with the first signs of new growth. The ground was a bit soggy underfoot, littered with dead pine needles and small lumps of stone. Behind them rose a tall mound of dirt, the mouth of the tunnel they’d just exited still wide open.
Morgan opened his Aura Sense, trying to get a feel for their location and checking for wildlife to assure they wouldn’t be attacked the second he took off. He could sense several auras, a mix of reds and blues, but none of them close by. Still, he couldn’t discern where he actually was. He knew there were no trees like this in either the East, West, or South Kingdoms, so by process of elimination, he was either in the North or Central Kingdom.
Lifting up off the ground, Morgan slowly climbed into the air. Pine branches brushed against him as he rose, scraping against his robes and leaving their scent with him before he broke the canopy nearly eighty feet above the ground. Still, he kept rising, knowing that his best vantage would be at his maximum height.
He continued rising, the landscape stretching farther and farther out as he went. Lumia was shifting about constantly now, her head swiveling from side to side as she tried to take everything in all at once. Morgan could understand the sentiment. New sights, scents, and experiences were always exciting. At least, they had been back when he’d been with Sarah. Still, Lumia’s enthusiasm reminded him of her, even if only a little.
Morgan only stopped when he felt the barrier, that invisible line where his skill would not allow him to cross. Even so. four-hundred and fifty feet was plenty high enough. He rotated slowly in place, taking in the surrounding landscape. Pine forests stretched for miles in all directions. Even though his height gave him an impressive 25-mile view, he could spot no end to the forest from here.
“Hang on,” Morgan warned.
Feeling Lumia’s claws tighten, he used Gravity Tear. The world warped around them, and had they both not already been used to the sensation, they’d likely have vomited immediately. Morgan stopped just a couple of seconds after he started, the speed immediately dropping off as they exited the strange space of fast travel and entered back into Somerset.
All he saw was forest, so Morgan once again used his skill. It took a further fourteen short jumps to spot signs of civilization, which made Morgan realize just how deep into the forest this Beast Zone had been.
“How do you think we ended up way in there?” he wondered aloud as he flew towards the distant city.
“Don’t ask me,” Lumia replied with a shrug.
Her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be enjoying the feeling of the wind flowing over her scales. Morgan wondered if the location of Beast Zones had something to do with where the old keys had ended up and, if so, whether Gold had moved the key here before it had happened.
As he flew, Morgan noted several beasts wandering below. They weren’t as powerful as he thought they’d be, given the state of the world and how chaotic it was supposed to be. Everything seemed to be fine as far as he could tell. Sure, there’d be more powerful beasts now, but people could grow their power in proportion.
If anything, the world was likely far better off without a meddling god around to constantly mess things up. It was because of the gods that this entire mess had happened in the first place, and now they were facing yet another war, all because of something that had happened a long time ago and been covered up by Samuel.
That asshole’s mistakes are still haunting us all from the grave, Morgan thought bitterly. He wondered where they’d all be now if the world had been left to its own devices and the gods hadn’t interfered
He wouldn’t exist, the Pinnacle Kings would never have existed either, and there never would have been a cap placed on power. When someone awakened their power, it would also be all at once, which meant that hard work and training wouldn’t be required. Still, as many downsides as Morgan could see, the world seemed to be functioning just fine without Samuel’s interference.
Something Order had told him came back to him then, about how the universe must always be in balance. If everything was always balanced, then no matter which way the scales tipped, they would always return to an equilibrium given enough time. War would inevitably be followed by peace, just as the past two years had shown. Despite his rigorous training, the world had moved on without him.
People had to rebuild, go back home, and start anew. Crops needed to be grown, goods produced, and defenses rebuilt. With the numbers of wandering beasts being higher, walls had to be constructed, even in the most remote locations. Still, the world wasn’t as overrun as one might expect. Sure, there were more beasts, but that meant that more could be hunted and killed for their cores, meat, and materials some provided.
Morgan was brought out of his musings as they drew closer to the city, and Lumia leaned forward to get a better view. It was only once he saw the vast sprawling buildings that Morgan finally knew where they were.
“Looks like we were in the Central Kingdom all along,” he said, looking down at the rebuilt academy.
Stretching his Aura Sense to the maximum, he could indeed feel the thousands of gathered supers and mages dotting the area below. Figures, so small from up here they appeared to be nothing more than ants, moved about the sprawling campus. They were all rushing about, going to classes, meals, shopping, or heading to fight in a ranked match.
He was astonished at how similar it looked to the old academy before it had been razed by the war with Edmund, the deceased King of the No
rth. Morgan felt another pang in his chest, a pain that could not be escaped, as he watched the bustle of the crowds below.
This was where he and Sarah had come for safety after fleeing the wrath of her father, Lord Simon. This was where they’d first learned to hone their skills, where they’d first met Gold, whom they’d believed to be nothing more than a particularly sadistic teacher. This was the first place that had really felt like home. So many of his memories had been made here, both good and bad.
Morgan felt tears budding at the corners of his eyes, even as a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. He could see the beach where Sarah had dragged him and remembered how she’d looked in her swimsuit as she tried to get him to notice her. He remembered his complete ineptitude at doing so, and the fun they’d had despite that.
“Morgan, are you okay?” Lumia asked, startling him from his thoughts.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he lied, swiping at his eyes.
No matter how far he suppressed his emotions, he refused to completely snuff them out as he had when he’d first received the skill. As long as he could feel something, triggers like this would set him off if he became careless.
“You don’t have to lie to me, you know,” Lumia scolded. “I am not a human, so it’s almost pointless.”
Morgan let out a short bark of laughter before turning in the air.
“This is the first place that felt like home. It was where Sarah and I started our journey. It makes me both sad and happy to see it again.”
Lumia was silent as Morgan activated his Gravity Tear, entering into the strange space once again. When they exited just a few minutes later, they were far from the lush greenery of the Central Kingdom. The Ruined City stood before them now, the shifting sands of the West Kingdom flowing far below.
They hovered there for several long moments before Lumia broke the silence.
“You don’t have to go in, you know,” she said quietly. “I can just…”
“No,” Morgan replied, his voice catching ever so slightly. “I purposely did this so I’d have to face her. I owe her that much after not visiting for so long.”
Lumia nodded, moving a bit closer and nudging one of her wings against his cheek. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. Morgan understood the sentiment all the same. He wasn’t alone, and as long as Lumia was around, he never had to be.
9
Katherine sat in her office, eyes closed, and fingertips pressed to her temples. It took a lot to give a super with her abilities a headache, but the guests who’d been here for the past couple of weeks had managed to give her just that. If she were being more accurate, it would be just one guest in particular, but by this point, she was just blaming the lot of them.
To top it all off, she’d been receiving strange reports over the last few days, reports that troubled her greatly. There were sightings of strange creatures that would vanish as soon as they were seen. Ghosts were flitting around in the darkness and stealing livestock from nearby farms. Grain and horses were vanishing without a trace, and the most troubling of all was the sighting of a powerful Pinnacle Beast wandering between the destroyed City Fourteen and Pinnaclefall.
This week, in a word, had been total bullshit.
“When it rains, it pours,” Bell said, entering her office without so much as a knock.
As her aide, she was privy to all the goings-on in the Kingdom, including their current and alarming predicaments. She was also responsible for bringing Katherine all the bad news that no one else had the courage to voice.
“What is it now?” Katherine demanded, practically glaring at the woman as she set another stack of papers on her desk.
“The city of Garrison Blue was attacked by a swarm of flying beasts last night. There were no casualties and only minimal injuries.”
“But?” Katherine asked.
There was always a ‘but’ in these situations.
“But the city did sustain some pretty hefty property damage. Mainly to the interior. I won’t go over a whole list, but the damages amount to roughly forty platinum.”
“That much?! What the hell did they destroy?” Katherine exclaimed.
Forty platinum was the equivalent of forty-thousand gold. For reference, the average worker only made between twelve to fifteen gold a year.
“Um…everything,” Bell admitted.
Katherine let out a loud groan. Garrison Blue had only just been rebuilt last year. The city had been named for the battalion who’d sacrificed themselves to hold a breach in the walls during the battle with Octagon’s army. They’d all been killed, but their bravery had cemented them into the ranks of legends, and the city had been named in their honor.
Coincidentally, Garrison Blue was also where most of their forces were currently training, which meant that although there had been substantial property damage, she owed the lives of all the civilians to their swift actions. However, the fact that the soldiers were there also meant that the new Garrison Blue, the supposed elites of her forces, had been stationed there as well.
“How much of the property damage was caused by the beasts themselves?” Katherine asked.
“Um…maybe a couple-hundred golds’ worth,” Bell replied.
“And the rest?” Katherine asked resignedly.
“Garrison Blue, Your Majesty.”
Katherine blew out a long breath, leaning her head back and staring up at the ceiling as she fought to remain calm. Garrison Blue had been trouble since day one. They were overly destructive, careless of property damage, and insubordinate to the point of treason. If they weren’t so effective, she’d have had them all killed years ago, but by now, she had a special fund set aside just for them.
“Take it out of the fund,” she said, sitting up. “And get a message to Nathan that I expect to see him here in no less than twenty-four hours.”
“I don’t know if he’ll…” Bell began, but the death-glare she received from Katherine cut her sentence off. “I’ll inform him of his summons,” she quickly said, then scurried out of the room, leaving Katherine with an even larger headache than before.
“This throne will be the death of me,” she muttered, leaning over to begin reading the damage reports.
By the time she got halfway down the list, she simply stopped, dropping the papers in disgust. Nathan and his crew of misfits had really outdone themselves this time. She now very much regretted allowing them to carry the name of the heroes who’d held the line. Before long, people would stop associating the name of Garrison Blue with heroism and begin associating it with gross negligence and destruction of property.
There was another knock at the door, and Katherine ground her teeth together in annoyance. She had no patience to hear any more bad news. So, she did the responsible thing and ignored it. The knock came again, louder and more urgent this time. Katherine stuck her fingers in her ears. It didn’t help as the rapping of knuckles turned into the pounding of a fist, striking with the force of hammer blows.
By this point, Katherine had one of two choices. She could either sit here and hope they’d leave, or open the door and kill the person disturbing her peace. Katherine went with option B. Rising from her desk, Katherine breezed towards the door, already preparing a nimbus of crackling power in her left hand. She would open the door, disintegrate the asshole trying to knock it down, then go take a well-needed nap.
Katherine wrenched the door open so violently that it was torn clean off its hinges, revealing a small man who was in the process of pulling his arm back to deliver another blow to the now destroyed door.
“What do you need?” Katherine asked, startling the man so badly he fell to his backside.
The fact that a crackling nimbus of energy sparked in her open palm probably didn’t help, and as the man’s eyes widened even further, Katherine wondered if he was about to wet himself. Thankfully, he didn’t. Getting that out of the carpets would have been a pain.
“Spit it out!” she demanded, causing the man to jump once
again.
“M-m-message just came in from the s-scout in the W-W-West,” the man stuttered, extending a shaking hand, which was closed around a small scroll.
Katherine’s foul mood fled immediately, and she snatched the proffered scroll, already tearing the seal and ignoring the messenger as he scampered away. Her eyes quickly flicked across the scroll, the message short and to the point. For the first time since he’d vanished, Katherine felt a massive weight lift from her shoulders.
She dashed to her desk, practically ripping the top drawer from its bearing, and slung it around her neck. Morgan was in the Ruined City right now, and she needed to get in touch with him.
***
Morgan drifted down slowly, his eyes fixed on a single spot next to the tallest spire in the Ruined City. Even from up here, he could see her. She looked exactly the same as she had on that fateful day when he’d entombed her here. Her body remained frozen in the clear glass, her eyes closed and expression serene.
He touched down lightly next to Sarah’s grave, falling to his knees and placing his hands on the clear glass above her body. She was beautiful, her red hair fanning out around her face, her pretty nose and pink lips standing out on her lightly tanned skin. Her body was just as he remembered it, curvy, lithe, and perfect in every way. Well, every way except the one that mattered the most.
His Aura Sense was wide open, yet her body was an empty void, lacking the vibrant blue core which had marked her as living. Tears dripped from his cheeks, pattering against the glass surface and collecting there in small pools. The pain he felt was immense, so much so that all he wanted to do was curl up in a ball and scream his grief for all the world to hear.
He’d once heard that time heals all wounds, yet this one felt as fresh as the day it had been dealt. To lose someone like Sarah, someone whose mere existence gave him joy, purpose, and happiness, was more than anyone could reasonably be asked to bear. Yet he had to. So long as he kept fighting, there was a chance he’d see her bright emerald eyes open once more. He might hear the sound of her laugh, feel the warmth of her embrace.
