Legacy of the M'Zee Chapter 29

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Not a whole lot of writing this week. We went camping in Cheyenne to go to Cheyenne Frontier Days. Long drive there and back, longest we've done with the kids ever. Was hoping to get writing done while camping. That didn't happen. Still managed a few thousand words on Saturday and today. 

Thanks for all y'all's feedback and thoughts! Hopefully I'll be able to incorporate all of it and make the story better after the first draft is done. We're closing in on the ending. Enjoy!

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Nothing happened immediately, so we walked towards the far end of the pillar. The stone surface didn’t change until the pillar ended thirty meters away. Sia hopped twice, then huffed and leapt into the sky. Air and Fire Aether enveloped him, keeping him slowly drifting forward three meters above the ground.

“Poor ground bound Aiden, cannot fly yet,” Sia said, taunting me.

“Yet!” I yelled up to him. “I’d show you how close I am, but the room did NOT like me using that technique to walk on.”

“Sure,” he said, dragging out the u sound.

I just laughed, and then we reached the edge. As soon as my feet reached about half a meter from it, the fog that prevented sight from extending past the edge vanished.

“I see another pillar, and maybe a wall,” Sia said.

I squinted, “I can’t see it myself, but I’m sure your vision is better than mine. There aren’t any steps between here and there that I can see.”

“I cannot see any either. Hop on, I shall carry you across,” Sia told me. He enlarged to his fullest extent. He now had a ten meter wide wingspan, only slightly smaller than his previous maximum size.

“You grew! Awesome,” I said.

He moved to hover in front of me, and I jumped off the pillar onto his back. As soon as I hit, a surge of Aether wrapped around Sia and I. I was covered in a similar technique as the steps, with Sia becoming my gravitational attraction point. Sia, though, I had no idea what it did.

“What happened to you, Sia?” I asked.

“I do not know,” he answered. “Come, I will hurry.” We didn’t speed up until he flapped hard. “I am being restricted. I cannot move faster than this.” His voice was strained as he pushed against whatever the trial was doing.

“Hold on,” I shouted, “we’ve got incoming!” Three more Sky Bison, two dozen Blue-Tailed Hawks, and hundreds of other Beasts started to shoot towards us in the sky.

I felt a surge of Aether come from Sia, only for it to fizzle and be reabsorbed into his body. “The suppression is preventing me from attacking! I can only fly.”

“Then I’ll take care of them,” I said. I carefully stood to my feet, the shifting muscles under me making balance slightly precarious. Aether formed in front of me, and I built a simple Fireball. I then supercharged it, sending a massive amount of Aether into the structure. Just before I cast it towards a swarm of tiny birds, I destabilized the runes defining the ball.

It flashed outwards, then shimmered before the overcharged Aether overwhelmed the runes and it exploded. It had mostly passed the birds before it did, but it still managed to down a few. Those are only level one, maybe two, but there’s a ton and they’ll be here first, I thought then quickly made another.

I really messed with the runes this time, and the birds showed they didn’t have any intelligence. The ball exploded right in front of them, burning out at least thirty, leaving only a few still flying in the area. They had been blown around, though, and were now unable to correct their flight path to intercept Sia. Sia had started to turn, angling away from the Sky Bison that bellowed as they loaped at us, seemingly running on air.

Of course, that took us closer to the Blue-Tailed Hawks. Screeches sounded as they dove at us, a coating of Water Aether turning them into missiles rather than birds. I rapidly fired Lightning Blasts at them, but could only know out three before they got in range to attack. All of them opened their wings, still five meters away or so, and swooped up. The Aether missiles didn’t change direction, though. “Sia, turn left now!” I shouted mentally at him.

He banked, and I threw an Earth shield up, using the direction of the Dancing Northern Wind Technique. Ten missiles missed, and three were deflected by my technique, but six still landed. I deliberately took two, one to the chest and another with an extended arm, but the other four impacted. Sia shivered and cried out in pain as the fire in his feathers was extinguished.

“Sorry!” I told him, then threw another Lightning Blast at the retreating birds.

“I am tough enough to deal with a bunch of puny Water birds,” Sia said.

“Yeah, if you weren’t blocked you’d murder them,” I told him.

“The Bison approach,” he said. “The suppression does not affect my claws.” He turned towards the giant animals and screamed his hunting cry. One of the Beasts seemed to hesitate, its eyes growing bigger for a second before whatever was controlling them hardened its will.

The Bison formed spikes of Air Aether, extending out of their heads like giant fluffy unicorns. I channeled Aether, fully utilizing my enhanced capabilities from the tattoos to create two extremely thick blocks of Wood Aether, leaving them slightly porous. My quick shields were pierced by the horns, but I then flung them sideways, the flexibility of the Wood letting them accept the damage from the Bisons without breaking apart and dissipating.

The separation yanked the two closest Bison’s heads sideways, away from Sia. Sia took the opening immediately, turning sideways to rip one Bison’s throat out with his hooked beak while his talons ravaged the side of the other one. I sent a blast of Plasma, taking a bit of time to combine the Aether, into the last Bison, burning away its horn technique and one of its eyes before it could attack Sia.

Sia’s wings snapped down, and the two broken Beasts tumbled into the depths. The third bellowed and tried to turn towards us, but we’d already blown past where it was. Instead of reaching us, it instead scattered a flock of Lightning Sparrows that were flashing towards Sia and I.

Sia banked again, turning back towards the Sparrows, and I threw a dozen Water and Metal Aether Slashes after them, alternating Elements with each hand. “Above!” Sia warned.

I looked up to see the remaining Blue-Tailed Hawks diving down on us again. Aether flowed out of me to form a much larger shield, each time manipulating the technique teaching me a bit more about how to do so. I didn’t drop the connection this time, and my Aether drained into it as the Water Missiles impacted in a staggered fashion. I dropped to a knee, glad for the room’s technique that kept me on Sia even as he turned.

“Take my Aether,” Sia said. “I cannot use it anyway.” I felt him moving Aether to just below where my feet were.

I reached out and connected us, and a surge of Aether exploded into my meridians and into my center. At first, it was difficult to corral, but it very quickly fell under my control. Sia’s Aether was fiery, burning with his passion for life and desire to advance above all, but it merged into mine with barely any effort.

I channeled and directed it, a massive beam of Fire forming in front of my hands. I swept it across the turning Hawks, killing four and leaving two struggling to keep aloft. I spiraled it into another unstable Fireball and sent that into the barely recovered Lightning Sparrows, blasting them apart yet again. They’ll still catch up, I thought, looking at the flock as it circled around in a panic, but that’ll reduce the number we have to deal with again.

I turned and saw the Sky Bison approaching again, its face twisted in rage along the burn covering its left eye. It screamed in anger and agony, a twisting whirlpool of Aether forming over it. I felt a pressure, a feeling that the technique it was creating was beyond me.

“As if I would give up!” I screamed at it, channeling both mine and Sia’s Aether, creating a massive Pride of the Plasma Herald that blasted out just before a tornado formed over the Bison and shot towards us. My technique, the culmination of my gathering career and my Bond with Sia, shattered the tornado before burning through the Bison.

I blinked at the afterimage my technique made on my vision, then dropped to both knees. My center hurt, and I was running low on Aether. Sia was still feeding me some, but it was dribs and drabs compared to the hose when he had started. I glanced around. More Beasts were coming, but we were getting close to the last pillar. “I won’t give up,” I ground out, my gathering technique forming behind me. I held it, forming the runes that reached into my gathering meridians. An Aether Blast formed around my right hand, and I threw it out at the swarming Minnows that shot towards us.

They effortlessly dodged around it, with only one being slightly singed by the explosion. “Light,” I yelled out, frustrated as I formed another one, then a second, before shooting both off together. All of the fish couldn’t get out of the way this time, and they knew it. Two of them suddenly blazed forward, Lightning streaming out of their fins. They dove into the Blasts, triggering the detonation when they were too far away to hurt any more of the school.

“They’re all level four,” Sia said, worried, “Merge with me more. Let me show you how to use Flame Wave.”

“Merge with you?” I asked.

“Focus inside,” he said. “I’ll show you.”

I dropped to his back, slapping my hand blazing with Aether over my head to splat a Lightning Minnow as it blazed over us. Sia banked quickly, dodging a dozen more of the Beasts. He swiped at them, but didn’t hit anything, the tiny birds too quick for him without Aether enhancement.

My mind slipped into his Aether channels, and I found myself drifting outside of the massive ball of Fire that symbolized his Core. A tiny firebird flapped next to me, hovering in place effortlessly. “This,” Sia said, his voice clear and strong in this place. A stream of Aether moved around his projection, streams of Fire and Air merging before surging out in a tidal wave of Flame.

“Watch,” he repeated, then performed the same technique slower. There were no runes, no esoteric shapes that guided the Aether, just absolute control of the movement and combination of power.

“I can’t support that much Aether output fast enough,” I said.

“Use my meridians,” he answered. “This restriction is to make you learn, I think. Hurry.”

“Got it,” I gulped. My mind reached out to the Aether in his Core, and it responded. I moved it, streamers of Fire and Air, then on a whim I added tiny flickers of Lightning and miniscule flecks of Metal to the mix before bringing it to the end of his wings.

A jolt of pain in my lower back let me know I was out of time. I could sense where one of the Minnows had brained itself smashing into my armor, with another dozen heading straight for either Sia or me. A curtain of Aether appeared over my back as I sent it flowing out of both his wings and my body, a joint technique that formed a rolling cloud of death behind us. The flames exploded outward, engulfing all of the tiny birds and burning them out of the sky.

Several tried to form Lightning shields, but the Metal flecks enhanced the density of the flame such that it obliterated their protections to do the same to their tiny bodies. In a flash, we were clear of threats, at least for now.

Sia flapped onward, powering down the room towards the next pillar. It was set in the wall, the last location on our path towards the next challenge. We skimmed forward, flying through the last few kilometers of distance in only a minute or so. Sia was extremely fast when he didn't have to dodge Beasts after every flap of his wings.

“Congratulations,” Spirit said, only to be inundated with Fire. Sia’s restriction on using external Aether was dropped as soon as we crossed the plane of the pillar’s edge. “You have successfully completed the challenge. Your reward is this,” they held up a Knowledge Stone. “I have seen your memories, and your people are not as advanced in Bond cultivation as my own were.”

“Are we even your equal in anything?” I asked suddenly.

“Yes,” Spirit answered. “In many ways, you are more advanced Alchemically than we were. Your Formations are much more efficient than anything we ever did. The little bit of farming you have seen would have amazed my creator. We advanced in ways that your people did not, but I think it was only because we had been on this world for nearly a thousand years, rather than your people’s five hundred. The M’Zee were alone, with only the Harpies and the Lamia as opponents to drive us forward. You have allies, friends, and opponents, and have advanced significantly faster. I know your worry, your fears, but you have earned much. Win the legacy, combine my people’s knowledge with your own, and push your kingdom farther.”

“I will,” I said. “What’s on the stone?”

“A technique for cultivating with our Bond. You can only use it for a small amount of time, but it will forcibly synchronize your cultivations. Even with Siarcystycy’s reduction in power, he is still significantly stronger than you are at this time. By using the technique, you will reach the top of the Condensation realm, as you call it, faster than you would otherwise,” Spirit answered. “Its utility will decrease once you are matched, but you two will inevitably grow at different speeds. This will let you maintain parity.”

“Thank you,” I said, taking it.

“Absorb the knowledge, then share it with Siarcystcy,” Spirit said and vanished.

I stood and looked where they had been, lost in thought for a second. So they aren’t superior in every way, I thought. I don’t know if that is comforting or worrisome.

“Are you going to use the Stone?” Sia asked, jolting me out of my reverie.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” I said with a grin. I pressed the Stone to my forehead and sent a tiny surge of Aether into it. The return flow was massive, and it brought with it the knowledge of the Forcible Merging Technique. I was supposed to take chunks of Sia’s Aether and mingle them with pieces of mine until they were the same density. There were a dozen different flows to use to combine them, depending upon the Aether content, relative density, relative intensity, and who was doing the mixing. Sia would mirror my actions, at least the mixing of two portions of Aether, but the way he mixed was substantially different. We would then split our combinations in half, pushing them into my center and his Core, ensuring balance between us.

I explained it to him, communicating mind to mind letting me get the details of the technique to him simply and easily. “One run through the technique,” I said. “And then we should move on.”

“Yes,” Sia said. “And hope that we remain together.”

“Spirit did say my last challenge was the last solo one,” I told him. “So we should remain together.”

Sia snorted, a distinctly funny sound from a giant bird, but didn’t say anything. I dropped into my center, then moved my conscious view over to where I was leaning against Sia. I grabbed a large amount of Fire Aether, the technique being significantly simpler if I used only one Aether. It was less effective, but the Knowledge Stone had also informed me that improper combining could cause significant damage to one or both of us. Doing the technique wrong would most likely hurt me, as the weaker party in the pairing.

“You know,” I sent him. “Nothing in the technique seems to require a Bond. I bet I could use this with Jamila and Vaya.”

“Maybe,” Sia said. “You would have to trust them implicitly, though. This will create a connection between you that links your gathering capability. If you were to leave them, you would be injured. This will require us to use this technique every month or so, or our Aether will rebel against our control.”

“Really?!” I exclaimed, “I didn’t notice that.” I pulled the Stone out and reprocessed it. This time, I focused on consequences and requirements, rather than how to perform it. “Oh, yeah, every forty days. That’s not too bad, and there are ways around it, but yeah, that would suck. I’d have to disperse a significant chunk of my Aether if we weren’t able to. Light. You’re not allowed to die.”

“Yes, inconveniencing you is the main reason I cannot die,” Sia said, somehow making his mental voice sardonic. “Now focus. I’d rather not have to fix an internal hemorrhage.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I laughed, then reached out and pulled a similar amount of Fire Aether from Sia’s meridians. My projection meridian strained, suddenly overburdened, but I immediately began to combine the two blobs. I had to spiral them together, matching a vibration frequency from Sia’s Aether with my own. After a few minutes, the two streams of Aether sunk into each other. With a grunt, I moved half of the combined Aether back into Sia’s Core.

A blob of Aether twice the size of the one I was in control of moved through my gathering meridian at the top of my spine, and joined the Aether in my center with a thump I felt throughout my body. All of my Aether got denser, though only by a tiny bit. A similar reverberation flowed through me when the Aether I was holding joined my pool.

“Whoa,” I said, shivering from the sensations in my center. “That is intense. I moved quite a bit through the sub stage I’m in.”

“Sub stage?” Sia asked.

“Well, yeah. There’s a bunch of different densities I’m supposed to move through,” I said with a shrug. “So I can call them all sub stages, right?”

“Isn’t the goal to get as dense as you can?” Sia asked.

“Yes,” I said simply. “But eventually I’ll cause crystallization, so there is a limit. Unlike all the other parts of Condensation, finishing it doesn’t give me a way of leaping ahead of my peers. Each step I get denser is one they’ll have to do too, just because they have to reach Seed Core to advance anyway. I do want to temper with one or two more Elements before advancing, especially since I’m sure something will be different with my attempt to reach Seed Core. You know, since I already have one.”

“Should that not make it simpler?” Sia asked. “You humans have a weird way of advancing.”

“Well, I wasn’t born with a Core,” I grumbled.

“True, but you became sapient very quickly, instead of requiring a large amount of growth,” Sia said. “There is only one door. I will have to get smaller to cross it.”

“Hop on, my friend,” I said, patting my shoulder.

He shrieked, moving from his full size with a wingspan of nearly a dozen meters to the size of a large hawk. He landed on my shoulder, bopped my head affectionately, and then gestured his head at the door.

I shook mine, laughing at his antics, then walked towards the door. It opened while I approached, a deep blackness the only thing visible through it. “Onward, to victory!” I said, then leapt through the door.