I Can See Evolution Paths

The corpse puppets had finally stopped moving, their bodies scattered across the frozen river, torn apart once the group cut the black threads controlling them. Nobody spoke for several seconds.

Then Athena turned to Arthur. "All right. Spill it."

He blinked. "Spill what?"

"Don’t do that," Mithra said, arms crossed.

"Do what?"

"Pretend you don’t know what we’re talking about."

Melo hopped from Mithra’s shoulder onto Arthur’s, tails brushing across his face. "You’re getting too mysterious lately." He laughed and tried to push them off. "Wait, wait, fine, I’ll tell you," while Eden giggled overhead and Luna pressed a hand over her mouth to stop from laughing outright. Even Star tilted itself sideways, apparently curious.

Athena narrowed her eyes. "Then explain why you looked almost happy when we realized Rokkaku was ahead of us."

He glanced down the corridor. "Because if he’s really following the same path we are, there’s a good chance he does something useful for us."

"Useful?" Vedas raised an eyebrow.

"Remember the Fire Mirror. Before the memory, the Guardian fight."

"That battle was difficult," Vedas said, expression sobering.

"Exactly. And after we beat it, we walked into that chamber and got hit with the memory."

Athy’s eyes narrowed. "You think Rokkaku goes through the same thing?"

"I’m guessing he does."

Athena caught up fast. "And if he reaches the Mirror before us—"

"He’ll probably be too caught up in the memory to notice much else."

"Distracted," Mithra said, eyes widening slightly.

"Or fully trapped in it."

"Which makes him vulnerable," Melo said, ears perking up.

"That’s the idea."

Kong smacked a fist into his palm. "Then we hit him!"

"Kong, you really only have one solution," Sun laughed.

"It works," Kong said proudly, flexing.

"It does," Arthur admitted, but Athena wasn’t laughing along. "You’re assuming the Mirror affects him the way it affected us."

"I am."

"And that he won’t notice us coming."

"I am."

"And that the memory doesn’t end up making him stronger."

He paused. "That one’s possible too."

She stared at him. "You’re very confident for someone who just listed three ways this could fail."

"That’s because I’m not relying on it," he said, and Mithra smiled. "There it is."

"What?"

"That answer. You’ve already got a second plan."

"If it doesn’t work, we fight him the normal way."

"Then why not just do that from the start?" Vedas asked.

"Because if we can make the fight easier, why wouldn’t we?"

Vedas thought it over. "That’s reasonable."

"You two are getting dangerously similar," Sun said.

"I’m more concerned that his idea actually makes sense," Mithra said, shaking her head, and Melo flicked a tail against Arthur’s cheek. "You’re still reckless."

"Thank you."

"That wasn’t a compliment."

He grinned anyway, and Athy sighed. "At least we know what we’re doing now."

Luna was looking down the dark passage. "There’s something else. We should keep moving."

"Right," Arthur said, and the group pushed deeper into the ruins.

The passage began to change as they went, the stone underfoot growing smoother and darker, faint traces of blue light tracing the walls. Arthur assumed it was another magic formation at first. Then he heard it. Water, a deep rumble echoing somewhere ahead.

Sun stopped. "Do you hear that?"

"Water?" Kong asked, tilting his head.

"It’s getting louder," Vedas said, and they kept moving until the corridor finally opened into a massive cavern and every one of them stopped dead.

"Whoa," Arthur said.

An underground ocean stretched out ahead, so wide the far side vanished into darkness, dark blue water filling the cavern wall to wall, surface almost perfectly still. Massive stone pillars rose out of it and disappeared somewhere above. But that wasn’t what held Arthur’s attention. Something moved under the surface.

"There are structures down there," Athena said, stepping closer.

The water was strangely clear, and as their eyes adjusted, shapes started resolving beneath them: buildings, roads, collapsed bridges, huge stone towers, an entire ancient settlement resting on the ocean floor.

Luna stared down at it, stunned. "My ancestors never mentioned this."

"Maybe they never got this far," Arthur offered.

"No." She shook her head slowly. "They couldn’t have."

"This isn’t a natural formation," Athena said, studying the ruins.

"Are those houses?" Sun asked.

"Some of them." Her expression only grew more serious. "But these are enormous."

Far below, a massive staircase disappeared into darkness, statues of creatures Arthur had never seen flanking it on either side.

"There’s an entire city down there," Mithra said, crouching near the edge.

"You think people lived there?" Melo’s tails swayed behind her.

"Probably," Luna whispered.

"You recognize anything?" Arthur asked her.

She shook her head. "No. But..." Her eyes settled on one of the distant towers. "The architecture feels familiar."

"Familiar how?" Athena asked.

"I don’t know. It feels like something my grandfather described, but he never mentioned a city under the water."

"That makes it even more interesting," Arthur said, looking back at the ruins.

Mithra caught the look on his face. "You’re already thinking about going down there, aren’t you?"

"Maybe."

"No," Athena said immediately.

"You didn’t even let me finish."

"I know you."

"She’s got you there," Sun laughed, and Arthur sighed. "Fine. We don’t need to dive into an ancient underwater city."

"Why?" Kong asked, clearly disappointed.

"Because we don’t know what’s down there."

"That is why we should look," Kong said, pointing at the water, and Arthur stared at him for a second. "...That’s actually a good argument."

"Please don’t encourage him," Athena said.

Arthur pulled out the compass and the needle swung immediately, pointing straight across the ocean.

"So the path continues," he said, frowning.

"There’s no land," Luna said, looking out over the water.

"Then we’ll cross it."

"Swimming?" Kong asked.

"No."

"Why?"

"I’m wearing armor," Arthur said, "and we don’t know what’s living in there," Sun added.

He turned to Vedas. "Can you barrier us?"

"I can make it mobile."

"And Magic Burst gets us moving."

"We’ve done this before," Vedas said, smiling.

"We really have started solving every problem with the same two abilities," Athena said, arms crossed.

"If it works, it’s not a bad strategy."

"That’s exactly what someone says right before it stops working," Mithra laughed.

"Don’t curse us."

"She has a point," Melo giggled, and Vedas stepped toward the water. "Ready?"

"Let’s go."

Golden mana spread out around them, sealing the group inside a translucent barrier, and Sun raised Long. "Again?"

"Again."

The staff released a burst of mana and the barrier shot forward across the water, everyone inside jolting with it. Kong pressed himself flat against the wall of it. "Fast!"

"Better than swimming," Sun grinned, while Athy flew loops inside the sphere, watching the depths below. "There are more structures."

Arthur looked down. She was right, and the further they went, the clearer the water got, ruins resolving in more and more detail beneath them. An enormous stone road passed underneath, then another, then a third, buildings lining both sides, some collapsed completely, others strangely intact, massive statues standing guard along the roads, one shaped like a six-winged beast, another a humanoid figure holding something that looked like a mirror.

Arthur’s expression changed. "Stop."

Vedas cut the propulsion immediately, the barrier slowing to a crawl, and everyone looked down at once.

"That statue," Arthur said, pointing, and Athena followed his finger to a gigantic stone figure beneath the surface, its face damaged but one hand intact, holding a circular object.

A mirror.

Luna’s face went pale. "That..."

"You recognize it?" Arthur asked.

"No." She shook her head. "But I’ve seen that symbol before. In the records my grandfather kept."

Athena leaned in fast. "Where?"

Luna pointed at the circular shape in the statue’s hand.

Arthur’s eyes narrowed. "So the Mirrors aren’t just inside the mountain."

"They might have been part of something much larger," Athena said, looking out over the submerged city, and nobody said anything for a while after that. Arthur stared down at the ruins beneath them, and suddenly the Everglades felt a lot older than any of them had imagined. And a lot bigger.

...

They kept going, and the ruins only got stranger the deeper they traveled, some buildings large enough to rival castles, others built around strange circular chambers, long bridges stretching between towers, most of them collapsed. A few roads even continued beneath the ocean floor before vanishing into tunnels.

"How big was this place?" Sun asked, staring down in disbelief.

"We don’t know," Athena admitted.

"You’re enjoying this," Mithra said to Arthur, and he didn’t bother denying it. "A little."

"You nearly got killed by a river."

"And now we’re exploring an ancient city underwater."

"When you say it like that, your life sounds ridiculous," she laughed.

"It usually is," he grinned, and Eden laughed with him while even Luna cracked a smile, the tension that had followed them since Rokkaku’s trail finally easing. For a moment they were just explorers again.

Then Star bounced hard against the barrier.

"What is it?" Arthur asked, and the slime pointed itself downward, a faint blue glow visible somewhere beneath them. His eyes widened. "Something’s down there."

Star shot straight through the barrier before anyone could stop it.

"Star!" Arthur lunged after it, but the slime had already vanished into the dark water. Everyone froze.

"Did Star just—" Sun started.

"Yes," Athena sighed. "Of course it did."

"Star is going exploring!" Kong said, delighted, and Arthur watched the water for a few tense seconds until something blue shot back up and Star bounced through the barrier again, a glowing crystal clutched against it. Arthur caught the slime, the crystal pulsing deep blue in his hand.

Star bounced proudly.

He looked at it, then smiled. "You’re useful," and Star immediately started wiggling with enthusiasm.

"I think you just made it very happy," Mithra laughed.

Arthur held the crystal up for Athena. "Mana Crystal."

"Useful?"

"Very."

He looked back at Star, who bounced again, and nodded. "Good job." Star wiggled even harder.

"Star found treasure!" Kong shouted.

"Maybe we should let Star lead," Sun said, and Arthur glanced down at the tiny slime puffing itself up with pride. "Honestly... that might not be a terrible idea."

...

They kept moving across the ocean, the compass still pointing forward, but something had shifted. The dark water beneath them wasn’t fully dark anymore, faint points of blue light scattered through the depths at first, then more, dozens, then hundreds, the ancient city slowly waking beneath them. Buildings emerged out of the black. Statues lit up one by one. Roads glowed to life in sequence, the entire submerged city stirring at once.

Nobody said anything. Arthur slowly lowered his spear.

"What is happening?" Athena breathed, staring through the barrier.

Luna had gone pale. "I don’t know."

Mithra moved closer to Arthur’s side. "Arthur..."

"I see it," he said.

More light spread through the water, the ruins beneath them coming fully into view, and for the first time they could see exactly how enormous the ancient city really was.

It stretched farther than any of them could see.

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