TS4: Chapter 52 (Patreon)

With a hardly suppressed growl, Ascendant Quilla stepped forward, but the warrior next to him grabbed his shoulder. It was clear from the way that the ninth ranked warrior was staring at Thorn that he understood just how much of a threat the Titan was. Stepping in to fill the awkward silence, the commander coughed, gathering everyone’s attention.

"Ah, Ascendant Thorn," he said, his smile incredibly wide. "How wonderful to see you."

The last time Thorn had seen him, the commander seemed to be riddled with insecurity, and he had hardly dared say a word edgewise to the two Ascendants, but now he was practically bursting with excitement and confidence, and Thorn knew exactly why. He had managed to secure the lion's share of the reward for the Temple of Man. With a chuckle, Thorn tossed his token to the commander.

"All the points in there are yours," he said.

"We only agreed to half," the commander replied, as he fumbled to catch the token.

"Well, I'm leaving, so I don't need them anymore," Thorn said, waving his hand. "I've already distributed the others to the rest of the team, so you get what's left, plus my share. All told, it comes out to about 60% of the points."

Beyond excited, the commander stared at the token as if it was his ticket to a better life, which it very well might have been. In return, he handed a piece of paper to Thorn.

"The Temple has agreed, based on your exemplary work, to promote you to Ascendant," he said. "Congratulations."

"Why, thank you. Well, it's been nice meeting all of you, and I'm sure I'll be seeing you around."

It was clear that both Ascendant Lesior and the furious Ascendant Quilla had words they wanted to say, but Thorn wasn't interested in hearing them, and with a wave, he vanished from the tent, leaving the fuming Ascendants behind.

It took but a moment for Thorn to join the others at the exit to the ruins, and once there, he said his goodbyes to Stello.

"Come to Intra Mundum," he said to Stello, "and the steward will give you passage to Verdant, where we live. It'd be wonderful to have you there."

"Thank you," Stello replied, bowing deeply. "I think I will. This trip has afforded me considerable insight into my blade, and it would be nice to have somewhere quiet to meditate and practice it. I can feel myself approaching the barrier of the tenth tier."

"Well, you're welcome anytime," Thorn said, shaking Stello's hand.

The dimensional gate opened up, and Thorn and the others stepped through. Feeling the familiar tug of dimensional travel, Thorn blinked and found himself in Verdant once again. The air felt lighter, the mana less dense, and as he drew a breath, Thorn was glad to be back. He had just started to extend his mental sense when the clouds above him swirled and a massive hand formed. With deceptive slowness it reached down and scooped him up even as more clouds surged together to form a beautiful face. Staring up at the gigantic cloud formation that looked exactly like Velin, Thorn laughed and allowed himself to be carried through the sky.

“Welcome back, my love,” the wind whispered as it whipped around him.

“You’ve gotten stronger,” he replied, speaking to the whole world.

Velin had grown tremendously in the time Thorn had been away, and the closer he got to the Cathedral of the World Tree, the more clearly he felt the change. The World Tree’s aura had spread across the land, integrating with the entire world, and with it, Velin’s aura could be felt too. Thorn had been a bit worried that the power of the World Tree’s seed would overwhelm Velin as it grew stronger, but to his surprise, the opposite appeared to have happened. Carrying him through the air on a giant hand made of clouds, Velin smiled down at him, soon depositing him at the entrance to the cathedral.

“Halt! This area is off limits!”

One of the elven guards stepped forward, holding out his spear to stop Thorn, but Thorn simply flashed a smile and vanished right in front of his eyes. Reappearing inside the massive cathedral, he saw Velin sitting under the World Tree, a group of elves gathered around her. One of them noticed her gaze toward the center of the room and turned, jumping when he saw Thorn.

“Hey, what are you—?”

Before his question could be finished, the World Tree’s branches reached down and swept the elves away, practically throwing them through the windows. Gracefully, Velin rose to her feet and in the next moment she was in Thorn’s arms. It wasn’t until the next day that anyone saw them, and by that time, news of Thorn’s return had spread widely. Apart from Empress Athena, however, the only people who got to see Thorn were the members of his team who had been training like crazy for the last ten months in the Cataclysm’s Labyrinth.

The attacks against Cloudstone City were still going strong, and though there had been some unfortunate casualties, the mass majority of the players had been leveling explosively. It was an almost ludicrous situation, and the average tier in the city was now five. There were even people pushing into the eighth tier already, which had created some problems for Athena until Velin had stepped in and reminded them of what real strength was. Now that Thorn was back, he volunteered to go visit the troublemakers, but Athena just laughed and told him not to worry about it.

“I’d be a pretty poor empress if I couldn’t handle them myself,” she said. “Besides, I’m not that far off from the eighth tier myself.”

“Oh, speaking of, I’ve got something for you,” Thorn said. “Here, natural treasures. I’ve got water natural treasures that you can use to increase either your own or other people’s elemental affinities. That will also increase the speed at which you raise your tier.”

Stunned at the sight of a giant chest full of natural treasures, each something rarely seen in the endless worlds, Athena could only laugh and take them into her dimensional ring.

“Thank you, Thorn. I sure lucked out getting you as a nephew.”

“Always happy to help. You’re my favorite aunt after all,” Thorn replied, giving her a hug.

They were currently in the Soaring Palace, standing in one of the large private training grounds in the palace itself. The island had undergone a considerable change since Thorn had last seen it, and was continuing to change even now as more of the facilities were relocated into the city below. The palace was largely reserved for Athena, though now that Thorn was back, she seemed eager to turn it back over to him. After agreeing to help her build a palace down in Cloudstone City, Thorn said goodbye and turned to the group that had been waiting for him.

Mina, Corvo, Alph, Oberlin, and Velin were standing nearby, talking quietly together, all the while shooting furtive glances at him. It was even more obvious that they were talking about him because they stopped as soon as he looked over. Walking across the training ground, Thorn examined each of them in turn. Velin appeared to have breached the eighth tier, and looked to be close to the ninth. Her power was guaranteed to grow into the tenth tier and it was likely, at the rate she was improving, that she would step into it before Thorn did.

Alph appeared to be in a strange pseudo-ninth tier, as if he had gotten stuck halfway in the transition between the eighth and ninth tiers. According to how he explained it, his intellect was in the tenth tier, but his physical stats were in the fifth tier, causing him a world of problems. He assured Thorn, however, that it would only be a matter of time before he found the ingredients he needed to fix the problem. At first, Thorn had been skeptical, but then he saw Alph pull ingredients for making potions out of thin air, forming them from pure mana after only seeing that particular plant once, and realized that Alph might actually know what he was talking about.

Oberlin, Corvo, and Mina were a much more interesting case. Mina had the highest strength and was about to break into the eighth tier, despite having a double absolute affinity, which made growing in strength much harder. The reason for her incredible speed of advancement seemed to be the particular mix of magic she knew. Her arcane affinity gave her the ability to develop spells at a savant level, while her absolute water affinity gave her an element to improve. If she had just possessed the arcane affinity or just a water affinity, she would have grown much more slowly, but when they combined, the result was that she was literally able to drag her strength higher with her own power.

Corvo, on the other hand, who only had an arcane affinity, was in the sixth tier. His affinity gave him the ability to develop his magic just like Mina could, but arcane spells didn’t increase his strength like learning spells of another element would, so he was much slower. He had a minor affinity for wind, however, thanks to his connection with Huginn, so Thorn was planning on stuffing Corvo full of wind attributed natural treasures until he could use the same trick that Mina was using, just with arcane and wind.

Last, but certainly not least, Oberlin was only in the fifth tier. That might have posed a problem, except that he had four absolutely terrifying crystal spider beasts in the eighth tier, a dozen in the sixth and seventh tiers, and close to a hundred that were fifth tier and lower. Furthermore, the primary crystal spider who controlled all the others appeared to have transformed into a god beast and was also in the eighth tier. He was still using that creepy crystal flute that he had gotten in the Abyssal Lands, and it seemed to be growing stronger as it was exposed to the upper world’s mana. The reason that Oberlin wasn’t leveling as fast as everyone else was that his fractured soul caused any strength he gained to be split up and sent to his spider minions, allowing them to grow at an increased rate.

“I thought this was our chance to level up,” Mina said, her voice grumpy as she stared at Thorn.

Shrugging, he summoned his staff from his dimensional ring with a wave.

“I can’t help it that opportunities to improve present themselves wherever I go,” Thorn said. “But I have to say, all of you have done a really impressive job leveling. How far through the labyrinths have you gotten?”

“We’ve gotten to the boss on each floor,” Corvo replied. “Though we haven’t killed them.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“Waiting for you,” Oberlin said, flashing a grin. “The bosses are likely too much for us right now, so we thought we’d give them a try when you got back.”

“Yeah, we tried one of them out. Shore Breaker? At least ninth tier, maybe even higher.” Mina said, her expression easing. “But with you, we should have a good chance.”

“Before that, we need to run them a couple more times,” Velin said. “Mina is still in her high growth phase, and once Corvo’s wind affinity gets stronger, I think he’ll get to the next tier pretty quickly. As for Oberlin, he can practically solo all the labyrinths by himself but the experience density isn’t as high, so I was thinking about assigning him to the battlefield outside Cloudstone City. He will be able to farm a lot better against the elementals there.”

“What about Alph?” Thorn asked, looking at the Alchemist who was staring off into space.

Hearing his name, Alph looked around and saw Thorn, his eyes lighting up.

“Oh, hey, Thorn! When did you get back? Hey, I had an idea for an improvement for the fertilizer that is being used on the farms. Want to see it?”

“Say no,” Mina whispered, “it turns the plants carnivorous.”

Swallowing, Thorn patted Alph on the shoulder.

“Maybe later, Alph. We’re going to get some practice in right now. I’m excited to see how all of you have grown.”

“Oooh, we’re fighting? I’ve got some potions to try out,” Alph said, reaching for the potions in his bandoleer.

“And I want to see if you are really as strong as you look,” Mina added, a wand and a double bladed dagger appearing in her hands.

“Is this one on one or all together?” Thorn asked, his gaze raking over his friends.

“Depends,” Velin responded with a cool smile, “do you want me to fight?”

“Sounds to me like you want to,” Thorn replied with a smile. “Why don’t you all come together?”

“Are you sure?” Oberlin asked, scratching the back of his head. “That doesn’t seem fair to you.”

Corvo let out a sigh and took a step back, drawing his thin blade and shaking out the feather coat he wore.

“He’ll still probably wipe the floor with us,” the elf said, “he’s got four maxed affinities and enough strength to be in the tenth tier.”

Deflating after hearing Corvo’s words, Mina could only stare at Thorn and shake her head, causing him to laugh.

“Don’t worry, you all will catch up soon enough. Tell you what, I won’t use my affinities directly, but will just use my martial arts and spells.”

“Then I won’t use the strength of the World Tree,” Velin said.

With the basic rules agreed upon, Thorn walked over to the other side of the training yard and lifted his staff. Across from him, everyone else gathered up and discussed their plan in low voices. Thorn could easily have heard what they were saying with his mental sense, but in the spirit of fun, he didn’t listen in. Once they were ready, he summoned his blade and snapped his fingers, causing three ancient runes to appear around him. For some reason, a faint nervousness rose in his chest as he faced his friends for this good-natured spar, and there was a nagging impression in the back of his mind that he was missing something.

It only took him a moment to figure out what it was he had missed when the fight started. Mina and Corvo opened up the fight, each launching a ranged attack at him that he easily blocked with a mana shield, and when Oberlin’s spiders leapt toward him, he was able to dodge away. Things were going well until he suddenly heard a loud laugh and his heart jumped into his throat.

“New and improved!” Alph yelled, hurling a round, orange thing at Thorn. “Get spiced!”

END