I glance at the three.
"...The essence channels are severely damaged, but their shape is unmistakable. I repaired them myself once, after all, so I know every small detail of how Noctis had carved new enchantments into the older ones created by the Fire Hunters. It's his ship... our ship. There are many differences, but the core is the same."
I sigh
"If what I've been told about this river flowing from past to future then.... it is likely its a future version of the chain breaker."
Neph nods clearly mulling it over. Cassie frowns turning her head towards me. Sunny seems to get uncomfortable
"But why? Why would it be here"
Neph speaks up
"If that is correct, one of us went back to the real tomb after this nightmare."
We all go silent, a idea forming, that there's a older transcendent or possibility even higher ranked version of at least one of us in the tomb. Cassie clears her throat
"...I think I can repair the enchantments again. If you give me some time, the Chain Breaker will be able to fly once more."
The three go to have tea. I personally would rather help with the repairs. Its...its uncomfortable to be around them. Not just with the fact one of my echos seems to have a plan of her own but also because of that message my older self gave to me. That first old guy comes up to me. He seems to have a almost hopeful look in his eyes, is that what Changing Star gets all the time?
"Lord Heat Seeker, can you tell me about the outside world?"
I summon my noteboo
"How about i show you?"
He gets even more excited. I hold out the notebook and he takes it as fast as his old bones will let him. Soon a little group comes about all looking at the notebook. He shows off one page, probably noctis, or maybe of the city sky li-
"My lord what exactly is this"
I stare at my breakdown of a PTV. I crack up
"That is a personal transport vehicle. You see in the outside world we made many many technologies, some that need the awakened some that dont. What your looking at is me braking one down in my mind to create one myself"
He gets very very excited
"Really?!"
I nod making a ice PTV for the group to marvel over.
I tilt my head
"Hmm my summons? Flame of the divine is mostly my mobile war platform, its harder to hit something that moves after all. Spider queen helps deal with large hoards although I dont tend to like watching it fight. Cetus fights underwater foes. Finally... frozen singer fights those in the air."
He nods
"Okay okay.... so lord sunless told me about a volcano..."
I laugh
"Let me guess, he described it in a way that makes it sound terrifying?"
He nods
"Yes as a large rock that spits of melted rock!"
I shake my head
"Not quite the truth. It can do that but its very very rare. More importantly that rock can form the base for islands, or make land better for growing crops. There's even these things called hot springs, pockets of water that stay nice and warm all the time. A volcano may be scary in theory but it really is not that scary"
He holds on every word happily.
"Oh... and what about that... horse he has? He said he fed it but it smashed the thing with its foot!"
I shake my head
"He gave it something like a soul shard. He calls giving his summons things like that feeding them"
Its finally time to go sunny speaks with a almost wistful tone
"Is it time?"
Cassie turns her head slightly towards him
"It's time. Let's go."
I sigh. We go to the dock, i some what recognize quite a few faces, like the guy who's been following me around... I remember when sunny was that age, he wasn't quite like him. Cassie steps onto the ship, those guards do not follow
"My people..."
Cassie waits for a moment
"I have to apologize! Usually, I would have taken you all to the House of Parting to celebrate and enjoy a delicious feast. Sadly... the Lower House is no more, and so, I have no food to offer."
Many whisper among themselves looking up at her. Someone gets bold and yells up
"It's alright, my Lady! Feed us when you return!"
She doesn't move for a bit almost seeming to prepare herself
"...Still, today is not a day for sadness. It is a day for celebration. This journey I am leaving on is not my last. Instead, it is the beginning of a new era... a better era. An era of grace and freedom."
Many cry out in happiness. I step forward reaching into my satchel and I throw out three things. A sword, a shield and a halberd then I turn away from them all. There's a chance i may never see them again, even if i do not die.
I sit on my bed slowly condensing a crystal of ice. Then adding more then condensing it yet again. If I'm right then we will need some extra planning to get rid of the first seeker. My head snaps up and I expand my heat sense. Nothing. Weird.... it appears time is being messed with. I look down at the small shard of ice and I put it away. I walk up to the deck.
"It's like Nephis said, her power has to have a limit. Say she can alter the path of one arrow... then, hit her with two. If she can alter the path of a hundred arrows, hit her with a hundred and one."
I raise an eyebrow. Cassie turns her head noticing me
"The sybil seems to manipulate the future. Neph said her idea, what about you?"
I shrug
"Thats simple, make a attack that you can not dodge no matter what you do. My or nephs aspects can work well for such a thing."
Sunny nods then sighs
"So, the brute force approach... I hate it."
I stretch. Sunny looks at me with a confused look
"Why do you do that?"
I look up with a deep frown
"For one helps me warm up. Two not everyone is a freak of nature thats inhumanity flexible. Its very freaky."
He snickers then does a split like its easy
"Freaky. Freaky creature."
He laughs pretty hard as he gets up.
"Oh maybe I am, but your mostly just inflexible"
I scowl
"No i am not"
He points to my feet
"Okay. Touch your toes then."
I huff
"Fine"
I bend down, then I stop near my feet. I rise up embarrassed
"Good enough."
We finally get to the temple of the sybil. I hold my ice shards. At least I'm full on essence and all that just in case. Sunny and cassie talk a little after neph burns some vines. I lean over to her.
"So... like maybe you could help me train? I'm skill and all that, but I'm a little over reliant on my aspect."
She glances over at me then nods
"I dont see why not. Sword training right?"
I nod
"Yeah. When we get kai I'll continue learning how to shoot a bow"
She blinks a few times very confused
"Kai's teaching you to shoot a bow?"
Cassie turns her head
"Stop"
I grip my halberd tighter
"What is it?"
She doesn't speak for a few seconds then calmly speaks
"Its the drowned"
We all summon our echos. I even summon singer. I swear to the dead gods I hear a very quiet gasp from her, like something is very odd. I look back and she's floating calmly. I swear she gasped. I would ask why she would lie about it but still.
"Dont even think about it!"
I laugh a little at fiend and sunny antics
"Think about it"
Sunny elbows me in the side. I put my hands up
"Sorry"
We are about to enter when I put my hand up. I make a link to sunny
"Tell nephis, their all in that room, they have a larger horror with them and its a seeming trap"
He nods i then link to cassie
"large horror, large group all hidden in that room"
Cassie nods slightly
"Understood. Be careful"
I huff silently of course I'll be okay. We enter and sure as hell a large corrupted is in there and soon the whole group pops their ugly heads out. Foolishly their all in the water. So I freeze it, I don't kill anything but their all used to fighting on ice and our enemies are not.
It quickly ends up more like a damn slapstick comedy for me as I try to slide around, it would appear that the sybil can make me fall by messing with the future. Fortunately for me I'm skilled enough to not get hit, but not to hit or even touch anything with my halberd. Funnily enough making just going crazy seems to work a lot better. I hear a loud crunch to my left and
[Your ice shard is evolving]
Oh come on cetus not now! Apparently it had killed a demon with a bite to the head and that caused it to evolve. Not a good time though. I duck under a fast swipe by a demon and I grab its hand, finally! Oh shit. I barely freeze it in time to not die. I then throw its frozen body at another, it explodes into a rain of shards of ice. Suddenly I can be... lethal once again. I reach forward grabbing a string of ice and I pull it killing 3 demons and a devil by taking their heads off. If i had tried before it would have gone wrong I am sure.
I send quite a few of my army to collect shards, I keep the rest to help find what we are looking for.
"Let's wait for all the shard business until we are on the damn boat you greedy fool"
Sunnys head snaps towards me
"I'm not greedy! I just like credits and soul shards"
I sigh
"Lets get going as I said we can deal with the shard later."
After the myth of creation that I get sunny to note down in my notebook, with promises of soul shards of course, we finally get to the room with all the slates. I lean to sunny
"Hey. Hey does the great memory of all time, the mimic, have any space?"
He doesn't even react to it. Cassie and Neph give me some weird looks but still. He nods
"Yeah."
I clap
"well then let's just shove everything in there and look through it later"
They all look at me then all look away
"What did you not think of that?"
As im shoving slates into the mimic i perk up at a remark from cassie
"A slight wind is coming from the cracks. I think there is another room behind that wall."
I look at sunny.
"You should send a shadow in. Unless you want me to break down the wall"
He quickly gets up with a nervous chuckle.
"Good catch. There is indeed a hidden space there."
I push past him
"Well? Let's find the hidden way to open it. Or break the wall down."
Sunny quietly mutters as neph walks over
"Its probably broken"
I look at the wall then I make a ice hammer and I break the wall down.
"Easy!"