I Can See Evolution Paths

The staircase continued farther down than Arthur had expected. At first it had seemed like an ordinary descent into an underground chamber.

But after several minutes the walls began changing, smooth stone giving way to enormous blocks carved with patterns almost impossible to see beneath the layers of dust and roots.

Athena slowed first. "Wait."

Everyone stopped.

"What is it?" Arthur turned around.

She raised her lantern and pointed toward the wall. "There."

A faint carving stretched across the stone, a flower, though not carved like an ordinary one, its roots extending downward into the stone while its petals spread outward in a pattern resembling wings, several smaller symbols scattered around it, some geometric, others almost organic.

Athy flew closer. "That’s similar to the symbols we saw above."

"Very similar," Athena nodded slowly.

Luna stepped beside them, staring at the carving. "I’ve seen that flower before."

Everyone looked at her. "Where?"

"In my grandfather’s records." She touched the edge of the carving without quite making contact. "He never explained what it meant. I thought it was just part of the old guardian symbols."

"Maybe it wasn’t," Arthur said.

"You think everything down here is going to turn into another giant mystery, don’t you?" Sun asked, arms folded.

"I hope so."

"That wasn’t a joke."

"I know."

"Of course you do," Sun sighed.

Kong pointed down the staircase. "Big."

Arthur followed his finger. The darkness below had changed. There was light, not the golden glow of the Mirror, not the blue light of the forest above, but a faint, pale radiance rising from somewhere beneath them, as though something enormous down there was reflecting a distant moon.

"We’re close," Athena said, her expression sharpening.

"To what?" Mithra asked.

"I don’t know."

Arthur started walking immediately.

"Arthur, I said I don’t know."

"Exactly."

She closed her eyes for a moment. "I really shouldn’t tell you things are unknown."

"You’ve said that before," Athy giggled.

"And he still does this."

"Come on," Arthur called over his shoulder. "We’re almost there."

"I have learned not to question his reasoning," Vedas said, following with his spear resting against his shoulder.

"You have?" Sun looked at him.

"No."

"Good."

The staircase finally ended, and Arthur stepped onto a massive stone platform. Then he stopped, and for several seconds said nothing at all.

Everyone behind him reached the bottom one after another, and then they saw it too.

Nobody spoke.

Beneath the forest was a city. Not a small ruin, not a buried settlement. A city, an enormous civilization stretched through the cavern ahead of them, disappearing into darkness so deep that even Athena’s light couldn’t reveal where it ended.

Towering buildings stood on both sides of massive streets. Bridges connected structures high above them. Broken towers rose toward the cavern ceiling, their surfaces covered in roots and ancient vines.

Some buildings looked almost human. Others did not. There were structures shaped like enormous flowers, their stone petals forming halls and chambers, buildings that resembled animals with curved backs and enormous carved heads forming entrances, and structures that were harder to describe at all, spiraling limbs, layered shells, strange geometric bodies, shapes that seemed to combine several different kinds of life into one form.

And everywhere, statues. Hundreds. Thousands. They stood along the streets, inside ruined buildings, on bridges, beside fountains, around plazas, and beneath enormous roots. Humans. Flowers. Animals. Beasts. Strange creatures Arthur had never seen before, some alone, some in groups, some enormous, others small enough to fit in his hands.

"Wow..." Eden floated forward slowly, eyes sparkling. "There are so many."

"This was here the entire time?" Vedas stared at the city.

"We walked above this," Mithra said, turning slowly in place.

Sun’s mouth hung open. "There’s a whole city underneath us."

Kong pointed toward one of the enormous animal statues. "Big animal."

"That’s what you’re focusing on?"

Kong nodded.

"Fair enough," Sun sighed.

Athena hadn’t moved, her eyes darting rapidly from statue to statue. "This..."

Athy landed on her shoulder. "What?"

She didn’t answer right away, slowly raising her notebook instead. "This isn’t simply architecture."

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked.

"Look at the statues."

"We are."

"No." She shook her head. "Really look at them."

Everyone went quiet.

She pointed toward a group of human statues standing around a massive flower. "The poses are too specific."

"What?" Mithra frowned.

"They aren’t posed like decorations. Look at their hands."

Everyone looked. The human figures were reaching toward the flower, one holding something resembling a tool, another kneeling, a third pointing toward something in the distance.

Athena moved farther down the street. "Then look at these." Another group, this time several strange beasts surrounding a group of humans. "They’re arranged almost like a scene."

"So they’re telling a story?" Arthur asked, walking closer.

"Maybe."

Luna looked around slowly. "There are too many."

"What?"

"If these were decorations, why would there be this many?" She pointed toward the distant streets. "They’re everywhere."

Athena’s expression shifted. "You’re right." She looked around again, seeing it differently now. "If the city was built around them," she approached another statue, "then perhaps they weren’t decorations at all."

"What else could they be?" Athy tilted her head.

"Records."

The word settled over the group.

"Records?" Arthur repeated.

"Think about it," Athena said. "If they couldn’t preserve information through written language, they could preserve it through images."

"So the entire city is a history book?" Sun scratched his cheek.

"Possibly."

"That’s amazing," Arthur said, eyes brightening.

"Don’t touch anything yet," she said, pointing at him immediately.

"...I wasn’t going to."

She just stared at him. He stared back. Mithra covered her mouth, Sun snorted, Athy giggled, and Vedas looked away.

"Fine," Arthur sighed, and walked toward the nearest statue instead. Everyone followed.

The first group showed humans standing around a large four-legged creature with a long, curved horn.

"I don’t recognize it," Luna said, staring.

"Neither do I," Athena admitted.

The creature’s body was covered in layered armor, almost like overlapping plates of stone, and beside it stood several smaller statues carrying what looked like baskets.

"They were gathering something," Arthur said, pointing.

"Plants?" Sun leaned closer.

"Maybe."

Athena moved to another statue. "This one shows the same creature," standing beside a flower this time, its horn touching the petals.

"They’re interacting," Arthur said, frowning.

"And there’s another one," Mithra called from the next statue, the same creature again, now with several humans standing behind it.

"They’re following it," Athy said, wide-eyed.

Arthur looked down the long street. Dozens of similar scenes stretched ahead. "They recorded events."

"That’s what I think," Athena nodded.

The group moved through the city more slowly after that, every statue another piece of the puzzle. Arthur found a scene of strange winged creatures flying above a flower-shaped building. Mithra found a group of beasts crossing what appeared to be an ancient river. Sun found a massive animal carrying several smaller creatures on its back. Kong discovered a huge stone-bodied beast standing protectively over what looked like a group of children.

He stared at it for several seconds. "Strong."

"Yeah. That one looks strong," Sun smiled, and Kong nodded approvingly.

"This one is pretty!" Eden called from another statue, a tall creature covered in long, flowing petals standing among several humans.

"That doesn’t look like a Beast I’ve ever seen," Arthur said.

Athena was already writing. "Neither have I."

"They’re all different," Luna said, looking over another group.

"Humans, animals, flowers," Arthur nodded, then paused at one with a bizarre body made of overlapping rings and limbs, "and things I don’t even know how to describe."

"Sounds like this place," Mithra smiled.

"Exactly," Arthur laughed.

They continued deeper, and the city grew stranger the further they went. Some streets were completely buried beneath roots, while others remained almost perfectly preserved. Massive flowers had grown through buildings without destroying them, tree roots wrapping around statues but never crushing them, as though the forest had grown around the city rather than over it.

Arthur suddenly stopped, his attention caught by a statue standing beside the road, a strange beast with a long, narrow body, six legs, and enormous ears curving backward like fins, its body covered in layered scales.

He stared at it. Something about it felt familiar, not because he’d seen the creature before, but because something inside himself was reacting to it, a pull he couldn’t quite explain. He walked closer without thinking.

"Arthur?" Athena noticed.

He didn’t answer. He reached out. His fingers touched the statue.

A notification appeared.

[Evolution Path Discovered!]

[Species: Duneveil Stalker]

[Duneveil Stalker]

[Mirage Prowler]

[Sunset Phantom]

A new path.

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