I Can See Evolution Paths

The compass remained pointed straight down. Nobody moved for several seconds. Arthur stared at it, and Luna slowly lowered her hand. "The Mirror is beneath us."

"How far?" Athena asked, looking around the buried settlement.

"I don’t know."

Arthur looked at the ground, the answer seeming obvious now. The ancient settlement wasn’t the destination. It was only another layer.

Sun rubbed his forehead. "Of course it is."

Mithra giggled. "You sound surprised."

"I’m not surprised." He pointed at Arthur. "I’m disappointed."

"That doesn’t make sense," Arthur smiled.

"It makes perfect sense."

They searched the area around the courtyard, the compass continuing to point downward no matter where Luna stood, until Athena finally discovered something beneath an old garden. The roots had grown around a circular stone platform, no stairs, no door, just a massive stone disc covered in ancient symbols.

Arthur stepped onto it. Nothing happened.

Athena examined the carvings. "This might have been an elevator."

Sun stared. "An elevator?"

"Not like the ones we use now." She pointed toward several grooves along the platform. "It appears to have been some kind of descending mechanism."

Arthur crouched, the markings around the platform resembling the directional symbols they’d found throughout the settlement. He brushed away some dirt. "There’s a symbol here."

Luna leaned over. "That’s an Endou symbol."

"What does it mean?" Athena’s eyes sharpened.

Luna studied it. "Descent."

"Convenient," Arthur smiled.

Sun sighed. "Please don’t say you’re going to activate it."

He stood. "I’m going to activate it."

"I knew it."

He placed his hand against the center of the platform, and for a moment nothing happened. Then his King Mark pulsed, golden light spreading across the stone.

RUMBLE.

The platform began to descend, and everyone braced themselves immediately as the ancient mechanism moved surprisingly smoothly. The garden disappeared above them, then the settlement, then the entire buried district, and they descended deeper into darkness.

Athena stared upward. "That mechanism hasn’t been used in thousands of years."

Sun looked at Arthur. "Apparently it was waiting for you."

"Maybe it likes me," he shrugged.

"Don’t encourage the ancient machinery."

The descent continued, the air growing colder, then warmer, a faint blue glow appearing beneath them. Arthur looked down. "What is that?"

The glow grew brighter, and they were approaching something enormous. The platform finally stopped, and the group stepped off.

Arthur took one step forward, then stopped, his mouth opening slightly. For once, he didn’t immediately say anything. There was nothing to say.

Beyond the platform stretched an underground city. Not ruins. A city. An enormous one, massive towers rising from the darkness, their upper sections disappearing into the vast cavern ceiling. Bridges connected buildings across enormous gaps. Blue and violet crystals grew from the walls and illuminated entire streets. An underground river flowed beneath the city, its surface reflecting the crystal light. Gigantic roots descended from above, twisting around towers and bridges before disappearing into the earth. Far below, abandoned plazas stretched across the cavern floor, ancient machinery standing frozen in place, some structures resembling enormous engines, others strange platforms or towers whose purpose was impossible to determine. And at the far end of the cavern stood an enormous stone gate, so large that even from this distance it looked like the entrance to a fortress built for giants.

Arthur simply stared. Athena stood beside him, saying nothing either. Then, quietly, "This isn’t another district." She looked across the ruins. "It’s another city."

Luna’s eyes widened. "There was another city down here?"

Athena shook her head slowly, her voice almost a whisper. "I don’t know. How could something this large exist beneath the first city?"

Sun stepped beside them, his expression unusually serious. "Apparently, whoever built this place really liked digging."

Arthur finally spoke. "How deep does this place go?"

Sun immediately looked at him. "Why would you ask that?"

He pointed toward the enormous city. "Because apparently there’s another city underneath the first one."

Sun stared at him. "Exactly. That’s why you shouldn’t ask how deep it goes."

Mithra laughed, and even Vedas smiled faintly. Kong, meanwhile, was staring at the enormous towers, and pointed. Arthur followed his finger. "You want to go there?"

Kong nodded.

"Of course you do," Arthur smiled.

The group began descending the massive staircase leading into the city, and the closer they got, the more details they discovered. The buildings weren’t merely larger versions of those above. They were different, the streets wider, the towers taller, the bridges built across enormous vertical spaces, some structures carved directly into the cavern walls, others appearing to have been constructed around giant crystal formations.

Athena walked toward one of the crystals and held her hand close without touching it. "Mana."

"That’s what powers the light?" Arthur asked.

"Possibly." She examined the surrounding machinery. "Or perhaps it powered the city."

Sun glanced at the enormous crystal. "You’re saying they used these things as fuel?"

"That’s one possibility."

Arthur looked toward the ancient machinery. "If that’s true, this civilization was much more advanced than we thought."

"Much more," Athena nodded.

They continued, and an abandoned plaza opened before them, at its center an enormous circular structure that looked almost like a machine, several stone rings surrounding a central platform. The rings had stopped moving long ago, but faint traces of energy still flickered between them.

Arthur approached, and his King Mark warmed. He stopped. Again. That sensation, the same reaction it had shown near the mural, and near Halburn’s memories.

He lowered his hand. Nobody seemed to notice. He looked toward the rest of the city. The reaction wasn’t coming from the machine. It was coming from somewhere deeper.

"Arthur?" He looked back. Athena was watching him. "You’re staring at the city."

"Just thinking," he smiled.

"About?"

"How much more there is."

She followed his gaze. "Yes." She sounded almost amused. "That seems to be a recurring problem with you."

He laughed, and they moved farther into the city. Then Luna stopped. "Look." She pointed toward the roots.

At first Arthur saw only enormous tangled roots, but then he noticed their direction. Every major root was moving toward the same area, emerging from the walls, crossing buildings, wrapping around bridges, and disappearing into the ground in the same general direction.

Athena followed them with her eyes. "They’re converging."

"Toward the same place," Arthur nodded.

Luna checked the compass. The needle pointed exactly where the roots were going. "The Earth Mirror."

He looked toward the deepest part of the city. "So the roots know where it is."

"Or they grew because of it," Athena said.

He considered that. Either possibility was interesting.

They continued along the route, the city growing stranger the farther they went, the towers larger, the crystals brighter, the ancient machinery more numerous, and eventually they reached the edge of a massive chasm. A bridge stretched across it, broken halfway through, another section of the city disappearing into darkness beyond it.

Arthur looked across. Something moved. He froze. "Did you see that?"

Everyone stopped.

"Where?" Athena looked toward the opposite side.

He pointed. Far between the ruined towers, something enormous shifted, at first looking like one of the buildings moving, then the silhouette passed behind a tower. The tower was enormous. The thing behind it was larger. Much larger. A long shadow crossed the crystal-lit ruins, something massive moving between the buildings.

Kong’s fur stood on end. Vedas tightened his grip on his spear. Mithra’s eyes narrowed. Sun quietly drew his weapon. Luna stepped closer to Athena. "What is that?"

Athena shook her head. "I don’t know."

The silhouette disappeared. Everyone waited. Nothing. Then a distant rumble echoed through the city, the crystals trembling, dust falling from the towers.

Arthur stared into the darkness. "Whatever it is..." He paused. "...it’s still here."

Vedas looked at him. "Then we should avoid it until we understand what we’re dealing with."

Arthur nodded. For once, he didn’t argue.

They continued along the edge of the chasm, the road eventually descending again, the roots growing thicker, the crystals brighter, the air beginning to hum. Arthur could feel something, a familiar sensation, his King Mark warming against his skin. Then—

Pulse.

Golden light leaked between his fingers. He stopped, and everyone looked back.

"What happened?" Luna asked.

He looked down at his hand. The Mark was glowing, not brightly, just enough to illuminate his palm.

Athena noticed immediately. "It reacted again."

"Yeah," he said, closing his hand.

"To what?"

He looked ahead. He didn’t know, or at least didn’t know why, but he could feel it. Something was nearby, something connected to the Mirrors, and his King Mark recognized it. He didn’t tell them that.

Instead he looked toward the distant roots. "Let’s keep going."

The group continued, the enormous stone gate they’d seen from the entrance gradually coming into view, far larger than they’d initially realized, ancient symbols covering its surface, five circular markings carved across the center.

Arthur’s eyes narrowed. Five. The same number as the Mirrors.

But before they could reach it, a faint golden glow appeared beneath the city, not coming from the crystals, not coming from the machinery. It came from somewhere far below.

Arthur stopped, his King Mark pulsing again, and he stared toward the light. For the first time since entering the second city, he smiled.

"That’s it."

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