I Can See Evolution Paths

The darkness around Arthur gradually began to fade, replaced by the familiar light of the cavern.

Someone was standing in front of him.

"Vedas?"

Vedas looked at him with a puzzled expression. "You disappeared for a moment."

Arthur blinked and looked around.

They were back inside the Steaming Cavern.

Eden was flying overhead, while Athena, Athy, Luna, Sun, Kong, and the others remained gathered around the cavern.

His gaze immediately found Luna.

She was fine.

Completely unharmed.

Arthur stared at her for a moment longer than he meant to.

Athena noticed. "Are you alright?"

Arthur nodded slowly. "Yeah."

He looked back toward the cavern.

The Fire Mirror was still floating above the platform, exactly where it had been before. Nothing appeared to have changed. And yet Arthur couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened.

The group began leaving the cavern.

They had only gone a short distance when Arthur began noticing small things that didn’t quite fit.

Vedas moved differently.

His equipment looked more refined than Arthur remembered, and when a Beast suddenly emerged from the trees, Vedas dealt with it so easily that Arthur barely had time to react.

The Beast should have given them some trouble.

Instead, Vedas defeated it almost casually.

Arthur slowed down.

"When did you get that strong?"

Vedas glanced back at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Your strength."

Vedas smiled. "We’ve been training."

Arthur considered that.

They had spent a long time in the Everglades. It wasn’t impossible that Vedas had simply improved while Arthur wasn’t paying attention.

Then Eden demonstrated an ability Arthur didn’t remember seeing before.

He turned toward her. "When did you learn that?"

Eden tilted her head. "Learn what?"

She demonstrated it again, looking at him as though nothing about it was unusual.

"You’ve seen me do that before."

Arthur didn’t answer.

Maybe she was right.

He couldn’t remember.

The group eventually reached a massive clearing.

Arthur walked closer, slowly taking in the enormous map.

Every region of the Everglades had been marked.

The strange Beasts he’d encountered were identified. The source of the purple fog had been documented. The ruins had been explored, and the locations of the Mirrors were recorded in detail. Even the golden tree, which had once seemed like one of the greatest mysteries in the entire region, now had its history written beside it.

Arthur kept looking.

The more he read, the stranger it became.

There was an explanation for everything.

He should have been thrilled.

This was what he had always wanted. Every question he’d carried into the Everglades had finally been answered. And yet, after the initial excitement faded, Arthur found himself staring at the map without knowing what he wanted to look at next.

The Fire Mirror had given him exactly what he’d wished for.

Not wealth.

Not fame.

Not overwhelming strength.

Discovery.

And now there was nothing left to discover.

...

At first, Arthur enjoyed it.

He spent days exploring regions of the Everglades that had once been too dangerous to reach. New Beasts appeared everywhere, and he found evolution paths he’d never encountered before. Vedas continued growing stronger, Eden made discoveries of her own, and Athena uncovered ancient records that filled in pieces of the Everglades’ history.

Even Luna remained safe.

Eventually, they returned to Pathfinder Academy with more discoveries than the Evolution Archive had room to catalogue. Steven congratulated them personally, and the Academy treated their expedition as one of the most successful explorations in recent memory.

Arthur even went home and told Maria everything.

For once, there were no dangerous secrets he needed to keep from his mother. He could simply sit with her and talk about what he’d seen.

It was everything he had wanted.

Everyone was happy.

Nothing was missing.

And that was the problem.

Arthur eventually sat beneath a tree with Eden floating beside him and Vedas nearby. He looked across the peaceful world. For a moment Arthur didn’t think about the future. He didn’t think about the next mystery.

He simply smiled. "This is nice."

Eventually Arthur and Vedas were walking through the Everglades again. He looked toward the forest. "Where should we go next?"

Vedas looked confused. "Why?"

Arthur pointed deeper into the forest. "To explore."

Vedas smiled. "We’ve already explored it."

Arthur paused. "...All of it?"

"All of it."

Arthur looked toward the forest. Something about it suddenly felt empty.

Later, Eden flew beside him. Arthur looked at her. "Did you find anything interesting today?"

Eden shook her head. "No."

Arthur paused. "Nothing?"

Eden smiled. "There’s nothing left."

Arthur’s expression slowly changed.

Once Arthur noticed it, he began seeing the same quietness everywhere.

Athena’s notebook remained closed for days at a time. She no longer spent evenings trying to decipher ancient records because there were no mysteries left for her to investigate. Athy had stopped wandering off to examine unfamiliar Beasts, while Vedas seemed perfectly content to spend his days training without any new goal pushing him forward.

Even Eden, who had once been excited by every strange plant and unfamiliar creature, no longer had anything new to show him.

They had all gotten what they wanted.

There was nothing left for them to chase.

One afternoon, Arthur found himself walking beside Vedas through the forest.

"What do you want to do tomorrow?"

Vedas looked at him as though the question itself were strange. "Nothing, I suppose."

Arthur glanced at him. "Nothing?"

Vedas laughed. "We’ve already done everything. Now its the time to relax just like how we always talked about."

Arthur didn’t answer.

He looked toward the forest, then up at the sky. For the first time, the Everglades didn’t feel mysterious.

It felt finished.

A small smile appeared on his face. "That’s boring."

Everyone looked at him.

Arthur turned toward the unexplored horizon. "If we’ve already seen everything—" He gripped Dusk. "—what’s the point of exploring?"

The moment the words left his mouth, something changed.

A thin line appeared across the sky.

Arthur looked up.

At first he thought it was a cloud.

Then the line widened.

A second fracture spread across the blue above him, followed by another farther in the distance. The sound was faint at first, almost like glass beginning to break beneath pressure.

Around him, the forest began losing its shape.

Trees blurred at the edges. The ground beneath his feet flickered, and distant buildings seemed to dissolve into pale fragments of light.

Arthur turned toward Vedas.

"Vedas?"

Vedas reached for him.

"Arthur—"

His body disappeared before he could finish.

Eden vanished next.

Then Luna.

One after another, everything around Arthur began coming apart until the forest, the Academy, and the people he had spent so much time with were swallowed by the collapsing reality.

Arthur remained standing alone.

He looked around the collapsing reality. "This isn’t my world."

The Fire Mirror’s voice returned. "Why?"

"Because there’s nothing left to discover." He looked upwards. "I don’t want a world where I already know everything."

The final piece of reality shattered.

Arthur fell through darkness before crashing down into a different place.

Vedas was badly injured.

Eden was trapped.

Luna was surrounded.

The gigantic Beast from the earlier trial stood in the distance. Arthur immediately moved forward and then the voice spoke. "Choose."

Three paths opened before him.

On the first stood Vedas.

A voice echoed through the darkness. "Save him, and Luna will die."

The second path revealed Luna. "Save her, and Eden will die."

The final path revealed Eden. "Save her, and Vedas and Luna will die."

Arthur stared at the three paths.

None of them moved.

None of them needed to.

The choice was already clear.

The trial wanted him to decide who would be sacrificed.

Arthur drove Dusk into the ground.

The path beneath him fractured, and a wall rose between him and Vedas. He stared at it for a moment before climbing over it. The trial responded immediately as another barrier appeared in front of him but Arthur moved around it.

A second path opened.

He looked at both choices for a moment before striking the ground between them. The earth split apart, swallowing both paths and the trial changed again.

Arthur kept moving.

Every time reality presented him with a choice, he searched for the space between those choices. The trial continued changing around him, but Arthur refused to accept the rules it was trying to impose.

Finally the voice spoke. "You cannot save them all."

Arthur smiled. "I never said I couldn’t."

The trial froze.

Arthur raised Dusk. "I said I didn’t agree with your choices." He thrust forward.

Boooooom!

The entire reality shattered.

Everything became silent and Arthur stood alone in darkness.

The voice finally returned.

"The trial was never designed to find the strongest."

Arthur looked around the darkness. "Then what was it testing?"

"Whether you would accept the reality presented to you."

Arthur considered that.

"And I didn’t."

"You rejected it."

Arthur smiled slightly. "So I passed?"

The darkness remained silent for a moment. "No."

Arthur’s smile faded. "...No?"

"You did something the trial was never designed to measure."

Arthur’s curiosity immediately returned. "What do you mean?"

There was no answer. Instead the darkness around him began glowing gold. The Fire Mirror appeared before Arthur, its surface glowing brighter and brighter.

He watched as a strange golden light separated from the Mirror and moved toward him. Arthur instinctively reached out and the moment he touched it, everything went silent.

For the briefest instant, Arthur saw something he couldn’t explain.

The cavern seemed to bend around the Mirror. Its reflection multiplied across the darkness, as though the artifact existed in several places at once. The walls stretched, folded, and returned to normal before he could understand what he was seeing.

Arthur blinked.

Everything was normal again.

He stared at the Mirror. "What was that?"

The voice answered. "Fire Mirror Recognized."

Golden words appeared before him.

[Fire Mirror Fragment Acquired]

[Trial Complete]

Then another line appeared.

[New Ability: Reality Sight]

[Reality Sight]

[Effects: Allows Arthur to perceive abnormalities in reality, including illusions, spatial distortions, and false manifestations.]

At its current level it didn’t tell Arthur exactly what was real. It simply allowed him to recognize something was wrong.

Arthur studied the words. His eyes shone. "...Interesting."

The golden light suddenly became overwhelming.

Arthur’s vision turned completely white.

...

The golden light suddenly became overwhelming.

Arthur instinctively raised an arm to shield his eyes.

When he lowered it again, the illusion was gone.

The cavern stood around him exactly as it had before.

The glowing pool of mana remained beneath the platform. Ancient carvings covered the walls. Vedas, Eden, Luna, Athena, Athy, Sun, and Kong were all still there.

For several seconds, Arthur simply looked at them.

They were real.

This time, he knew the difference.

Vedas immediately stepped closer. "Arthur?"

Arthur blinked. "Hm?"

Vedas studied his face. "Are you alright?"

Arthur looked around. "Yeah. Why?"

Athena stepped closer as well, her expression slightly concerned. "You just froze."

Arthur frowned. "Froze?"

Athy nodded. "The moment you touched the Mirror, you stopped moving."

Eden flew closer to his face. "You weren’t even blinking!"

Arthur stared at her. "Really?"

Eden nodded vigorously. "Really!"

Luna looked relieved that he was responding normally. "We didn’t know what was happening."

Arthur scratched his cheek. "I don’t remember freezing."

Vedas sighed. "You were standing there completely still."

Arthur was about to explain when he suddenly felt something against his palm. He looked down. His expression changed. Something was resting in his hand.

The Fire Mirror.

Arthur stared at it. "...Huh?"

Everyone fell silent.

Athena’s eyes widened while Athy immediately looked toward the empty space where the Mirror had been floating. Mithra and Melo turned around to see the pedestal area was empty.

Luna looked back at Arthur’s hand as her expression froze. "...The Fire Mirror."

Eden flew closer. "Arthur, you have it!"

Vedas stared at the artifact. "When did you take that?"

Arthur looked at him. "I didn’t."

Athena’s expression became even more serious. "Then how did it get into your hand?"

Arthur slowly turned the Mirror over, studying its golden surface. He had no answer.

For several seconds everyone simply stared at it.

Then Arthur looked around at their faces. His confusion slowly turned into amusement. He laughed.

"Apparently... it chose me."

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