Chapter 306

Ascendance (VII)

The pair that Quinn referred to never stepped foot into the valley--instead, they remained outside, appearing cloaked. The solitary reason why even Cain was aware of them was that he picked up on their arrival long before they cloaked their presence, allowing him to search for the tiny motes of Mana.

Though strange, he didn’t question it much, instead merrily chatting away with Quinn, with even Lear waking up from his stupor, joining on the occasion with a quip or two.

Some few hours later, in the heat of a discussion in regards to the best kind of spice for the red meat, the earth shook and quaked, with the valley seemingly bending like a reflection in a fragmented mirror for a moment. By the time things calmed down, the dark cloud had been unwound and unsheathed, revealing a very normal-looking vortex... framed by bends of steel and some other, strange, ebony-black metal.

A sigil of a eyeless raven rested above the vortex that was planted upon dirt like a gate. The light within swirled and ran in loose circle, appearing both inviting as well as revolting. Cain got a strange sensation in his heart upon looking at it, unlike any other time he’d seen a gateway. It was... different, of that he was certain.

“... as I thought,” Quinn mumbled. “It’s a Divine Gate.”

“... what’s a Divine Gate?” Cain asked innocently, prompting Quinn to look at him strangely before sighing and replying. She had to repeatedly remind herself that his man hadn’t been in this world even for a year yet.

“Nobody’s... quite certain,” she said somewhat tentatively. “Rumors have it that they are remnants of Primordial Battlegrounds, where Divine were being slaughtered like pigs, their resentment building horrors and treasures alike abound. Others, yet, believe they are Tombs turned trials, meant to breed a new generation of Divines. All that we are truly certain of, is that they’re usually beyond difficult... and twice as deadly. But even I haven’t ever heard of a one bearing a sigil before.”

“...” Cain stared keenly at the gate for a moment, sighing inwardly. His ignorance was still quite astounding, he realized. Back on Earth, he truly often felt like the most knowing lad, and that got to his head. He’d forgotten that his knowledge in regards to Towers was repeatedly challenged and beaten down--because he only ever heard the third-party recounts of things, and rarely ever experienced them himself.

That countenance of knowing had been completely shattered by coming to this world where even the people leagues weaker than him were far more keenly knowledgeable of things. He, for instance, genuinely never even heard of different kinds of gates--to him, they were all just portals to different places. And yet, from the sounds of it, they were variants--such as the Divine Gate.

The pause was momentary before people began pouring in like swarms. Despite the ‘beyond deadly’ appraisal the gate got from Quinn, it seemed that the rewards stemming from it were far too tempting.

“Herd stays a herd,” Quinn commented. “Most will be lucky to come out alive. It happens every time a high-tier gate appears. Weak think their luck will turn and, overnight, they’ll ascend to realms beyond measure. Instead, what always ends up happening... is that the realm is bound with corpses.”

“Eh, dreams are a powerful thing,” Cain commented. “And a rudimentary flaw of every thinking thing. Ever heard the saying, ‘carp dreams of becoming a dragon just as a man dreams of becoming a hero?’. There you have it, psyche of everyone here perfectly summarized.”

“Guys,” Lear suddenly interjected. “I... I think I will sit this one out. If I go in, I’ll either die or force the two of you to keep a watch over me. My... my pride, I’m afraid, won’t let me become a burden.”

“... admirable,” Quinn commented.

“I promised you Ascendance, Lear,” Cain, however, was not buying it. “And this is it.”

“H-huh?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he cracked a smile. “I’m sure you can swallow your shallow pride in lieu of obtaining your dream.” noticing Quinn’s frown, Cain turned toward her and smiled even wider. “You’re still underestimating me, learned woman. Unless a Dragon shows up in there, we’re good to go. And even if one shows up, believe it or not, I have a fairly solid and friendly track record with the lot. For one reason or another, even the Dragons seem taken in by my indisputable charms.”

“Ah, yes, the Dragons--the things that had gone extinct before your world was birthed, most likely,” Quinn rolled her eyes and sighed, but relented. It wouldn’t be on her, anyway, should something happen.

“What? A man can’t talk with the dead occasionally?” Cain played along as his encounters with the Dragons and their remnants were truly... unique, suffice to say.

“Yes, yes, of course. Shall we?”

“Well, everyone else is,” Cain shrugged, putting away everything. “May as well. I’m keenly curios as to what we’ll find in there.”

Lear, seemingly under a strange spell of Cain’s voice and his promises, followed. Every fiber of his being--with the exception of one--was telling him that he was walking into his doom. And yet, his heart... his heart was telling him to listen to the man he’d barely just met and to follow him into the unknown darkness. He knew it was insanity, and yet insane he became.

The trio wasn’t in a hurry like much of the valley that had already all but emptied, casually walking up to the gate and inspecting it further. It was some fifteen feet tall and half as wide, truly towering, yet what was beyond strange about it... is that it didn’t leak any Mana. In fact, it seemed to have no imprint beyond the visual one--no sound, no smell, no energy... nothing.

Though Quinn seemed to have expected it, it was a new experience for both Lear and Cain--especially the latter. He’d never thought that something like this was even possible before coming to this world. Alas... it was his own hubris that counted the stars before the sky cleared up of smog.

Taking a deep breath, the trio, one by one, walked through. Even Te’gha peaked his tiny head from the inventory with curiosity, observing the gate for a moment before withdrawing.

Even crossing the vortex was different than any other--Cain wasn’t tossed about violently, there were no spatial storms he had to combat, no colors bending into a cylinder, creating breathtaking sights. There was only darkness, silence, and stillness, as though he was trapped inside a dream that never ends. The journey lasted just long enough for some paranoia to manifest, for a bit of claustrophobia to emerge, but not long enough for them to take root in one’s psyche.

Cain opened his eyes at the sounds of the drifting ocean and the clattering of seagull-like sounds. He realized he was standing on a beach, sand beneath his feet soft and ash-colored. He was facing the massive ocean with no end, the waters gently swaying forward, creating babe-sized waves that rolled up just next to his feet before drifting back.

In the far distance, a golden rue of the star spilled over the ocean’s waters, creating a picturesque scenery. It was beautiful, as though the sea had swallowed the sky and broached it closer to the eyes that beheld.

His gawking was interrupted by a soft exclamation; glancing to his left, he saw that Quinn wasn’t facing an ocean but further inland. Following her gaze, Cain looked back and saw that the beach blended into a massive cliff that ran the entire beach’s length, left to right. However, it was what was beyond that caught his attention.

In the far distance, sharing the canvas with the skyline, was a structure of metal, shaped like a triangle cut down the center, with only one side remaining. It pierced the clouds and the sky in its height, and was not alone in the achievement--it was surrounded by other constructs of shapes ever stranger. There was a half-circle stacked on top of other half-circles, bent inwardly through one another. There were cubes stacked on the edges of other cubes, shaved off the corners, cut here and there like paper buildings.

The skyline was dominated by silhouettes of things one would see in a story set in the future beyond. And yet, even from this far away, and even while hidden by the shadows cast by the sunrise, it was evident that those behemoths, the angels of the sky, were rotted and were falling apart. Many were clearly missing parts, and it was likely through pure magic that they were still stitched together somewhat, afloat.

Just then, beyond the silhouettes of the buildings, the group saw something else--a silhouette of a coiling thing, of a unfathomable thing, of a massive thing, momentarily heaving up into the sky before falling back down.

“... wow, that looks like something worth killing,” Cain mumbled, not realizing that everyone from the valley was on the beach, and that everyone could hear him. Thousands of eyes drifted toward him in wonder, annoyance, awe, appreciation, envy, anger, and a range of other emotions. Realizing that he had spoken to them all, he coughed awkwardly for a moment... but decided to double down. “What? I mean, that thing’s gotta have some big-ass rewards, right?”

“Yeah, that’s not the part we’re questioning,” Quinn said with a faint smile. “All else aside, it truly is a Divine Gate. Architecture of the Makers is unmistakable.”

“... though I do enjoy attention,” Cain said. “Even I’m a bit uncomfortable with the current levels.”

“A bit? There are thousands judging you, and you’re a bit uncomfortable? Wow.” Quinn commented.

“You’re right, this is nothing. My plan is for the entire universe to be sucking me off every chance they get. That’ll be millions of souls hollering my name. This is nothing compared to that.”

“... a broken brain is nothing compared to you,” Quinn said. “Let’s go, before you unite them all into killing your stupid ass.”