The mountain was closer to a tower than a mountain. It was dangerously steep and narrow. They spotted something near the base—two Doomies laid dead in the middle of a rock field. The rocks had minimal damage with not much of the Doomie’s tracks on it. The fight must have ended quickly.

Kara bent a knee over one of them. She pushed the corpse up, until it was sitting down like an egg with its neck laid back over it, revealing the underneath of its beak. It was a lighter bronze color.

Nico crouched on the other end, studying the torso first. It had three small slits that arrows typically make. There weren’t any signs that an arrow was taken out. “Long bow. High penetrating Life Arrows.” There were three other bruises that were much larger, at a few inches each, and barely circular. “Different skill. Looks like the flesh penetrated, then blasted. Explosive Life Arrow or something. Same attacker. One of them is a main Enhancer with a secondary Transmutation. Their third skill is probably some type of utility. At least Rank III.”

There was a type of wound Nico had never seen before—it was small, round, and half an inch sized. The attack pierced both ends, and there were around 4 of them. Blood had crusted around the wounds. “Lots of bleeding. Cause of death probably.” He stuck his finger in, scraping off the blood to get a good look on the scales. They were abnormally smooth, as if whatever was used met no resistance. Even for monsters, the Doomie’s metal scales were on the higher end in terms of defense. “There are 4 of them, so it can’t be a Charge attack. I can’t think of any skill that can do this at this Rank, so it might be an Augmenter.” He paused. “It’s an Augmenter. Offensive based.”

One side of its body was dented in a wide area. “At least one shield bearer. Large and heavy.” There wasn’t any other damage on its torso. Nico stood up and inspected its beak. It was slightly dented and had black paint on it. There wasn’t any blood. It didn’t seem to have inflicted any damage back.

“When did it die?” Kara asked.

“I don’t know.” He hadn’t learned forensics.

“Around twenty minutes,” Luna said.

Before Nico could ask her how she figured that out, Kara spoke. “How much time will it take for them to reach the summit?”

“Depends on the slowest member. I would say that they have two defensive frontlines, maybe a support, and two ranged attackers. An hour? But since they probably heard, or maybe seen our fiasco, they might have figured out that you’re coming for them. So maybe 40 minutes.” Any faster and they would have to fight the Boss fatigued.

Kara stood up. She began the hike up, not looking particularly hurried. The angle was steep but she didn’t seem to have any trouble with it.

Nico took the first step. His feet slipped on the dust and rust covering the bronze and he lurched forward, almost smashing his face against the ground. Luna had caught him by the hips, but had stepped in such a rush she ended up slipping too. She fell on top of him, her head smashing against the back of his. It flattened his nose, saving him from the smell.

Wordlessly, Luna got to her feet and helped Nico up. She looked at him with a serious look. “Nil, can we pretend that did not happen?”

“What are you talking about?” he said, as Luna’s eyes followed the blood dripping from his nose and down his lips.

She reached for his face. Nico’s body tightened on reflex, then relaxed. She pinched his nose, stopping the bleeding as she maintained eye contact. After a few seconds, the bleeding stopped. She lowered her hand, nodding at him. “We are good.”

“We’re great,” he said. “And left behind.” He motioned up. “Shall we?”

“We shall,” she said, placing her hand against her chest and bowing slightly. He saw her smile as she walked by.

Sniffing, he walked behind her, this time carefully and slowly. More than once he felt himself tipping back.

The air got hotter and the sun harder as they climbed. They gained altitude quickly, setting them dozens of levels above ground level. The skies were clear, giving them view of the landscape, whose symmetrical beauty truly came out from this vantage point. Beyond the brown-orange Bronze Field was the Moon’s Swamp. The way the trees leaned against each other created a wave like pattern straight out of a painting.

Where the Deep traveled, however, was an orange. A few mountains had risen. Behind it and slightly to the left the white walls of the 3rd City rose above.

Not good. The Deep was almost in between them and the 3rd City. They’ll have to move around it if they wanted to return home.

The Locust began to vibrate. After releasing hot steam everywhere, the words Nico had been waiting for began to form in front of him.

The Locust has finished evolving.

Harvest/Siphoning Time: 2 seconds> 1 second.

Life Range: 6 Meters>8 meters

Heat storage: 5>7

You have gained access to skill Bone Skewer.

You have gained access to the function Boss Reprocessing.

“Awesome, the Locust is a two-star now,” Nico said. He shared with them what it did, then turned towards Luna. “I have 7 heat storage now, too. Do you know how much Heat your skill makes?”

“I won’t be able to use it during the day for more than a split second,” Luna said. “At night, based on how much of the moon is out, I can do around two seconds per Heat.”

That’s more than enough. “How long does it take to naturally cool off?”

“Around twenty seconds. If I transmute it into light around 5 seconds, though that might defeat the purpose.”

“It depends,” Nico said. “We can use it to manage agro—agro refers to how a monster decides who to attack.”

While Nico explained to Luna how it would work, Kara stopped by an odd disfigurement in the ground. Nico walked over, brushing it off with his hands. A few square meters were melted. It was somewhat soft. “Can we get the lady of fire to confirm whether this was a fire attack?”

“The lady of fire confirms that this melted piece of ground in the middle of an area known to have thermal powered monsters, was indeed made from a fire attack. The fire is likely orange in this case.”

“Oh boy, thought it would be black. Heard many bad stories about that one.”

“And you know what, Nil,” Luna said, folding her arm and holding her chin with one hand. She gave him a hard, thinking look. “Considering we’ve only seen human tracks, I would say that this attack was made from an air-born creature.”

Nico gasped. “Impossible.”

“I’m afraid not. And it’s likely…this way!” she exclaimed, pointing towards the sky.

“Think it had wings?” Nico whispered.

“At least two,” Luna whispered back.

“Three would have been better.”

“Terrible balance—what about four?”

“Four is cursed. Five is perfect—two on each side, and one on the butt.”

“Six is the devil’s.”

“And Seven is heaven’s,” Nico said softly. A moment of quiet went by. He thought it was rather nice. When Kara began walking, so did they.

“I disagree,” Luna said. “The devil owns that number too.”

“Really? For a priestess, I thought you would be in the other camp. Why?”

“Because the devil owns everything in this hell,” Luna said. She leaned forward suddenly, smiling wide in excitement. “Want to bet?”

“My brother taught me not to gamble,” he said.

“That’s a good lesson,” she said.

“By wasting a weeks’ worth wage buying lottery tickets over,” Nico said bitterly. Jarl will be scratching those tickets until the day he dies. “I could have done just fine with a Nico, please don’t do that, it’s very stupid and sad.”

Luna smiled. She made herself stop, but her lips kept shaking. After two failed attempts she gave up and smiled with all her teeth showing. She covered her mouth with a fist, though her smile was far too large to be hid behind it. He thought he saw tears in her eyes. She swallowed her laughter, though some of it came out in her voice. “L-Lottery?”

“You don’t have a lottery in the 5th City?” Nico said, raising his eyebrows.

“No,” she said, coughing. “We do not.”

Nico wondered how he describe such a stupid concept to her. “Thousands of people pay a small amount of Energy to a single person. That person takes a small portion of what everyone gave them and gives it to one person.”

“What do you think the point of that is?” she asked.

“I read somewhere, or heard it, I can’t even tell anymore, that a lottery is cheap hope for the poor. So, if they’re miserable, they can hang on to the small hope that this lottery will fix everything.”

“Isn’t cheap better than expensive?” she asked, genuinely. “Hope helps people live happier, to try to do things, because they think it might work. Isn’t that worth the small cost they paid for it?”

Huh. Nico never heard it phrased like that. He thought about it—Hope was important to survival. Why bother try anything if you thought it didn’t work? But whether it was real or fake hope, Nico couldn’t think of a difference. He’ll need to witness actual hope to realize it. “This one might be in the realm of false than fake. It makes people content with the way things are, substitutes action that can possibly bring change with fake action that will not. It’s even worse than not having hope, because then even if there is hope, this one is cheaper and easier. I’m sure you can see why the Houses like those type of services.”

“Profit,” she said quietly. “So you see it as a way to lull people into submissiveness? Do this useless thing, this easy thing, so it would excuse you from doing the harder things?” She nodded. “Different names, same things. According to the modern beliefs of the Suns, it is our divine duty to cleanse the world of the evil monsters, and nothing else.”

“And…and you don’t believe that?” That seemed inherently contrary to what her entire beliefs were based off of.

“The Suns are supposed to worship life, in the earth, in the wilds, and in us. It’s why we worship the sun, the greatest life giver.” She turned towards him. “But it is easier to destroy than to create, to consume than to save. We’ve abandoned compassion so that we may become better killers. Our neighbors are no longer neighbors, our friends are no longer part of our families. With no bounds to keep us together, we are weak and divided. Rather than the common voice, the loudest voices are leading, and what the loudest and most powerful want tends to be more things for them. The Suns are Suns in name only. It is not what we used to be—and now with the 4th Fall terrorizing everyone, everything has just gotten that much worst.”

“Is that why you’re here, instead of out there,” Nico said, gesturing towards the city.

“It is,” Luna said. “I’m afraid I have very little power to do…anything, really.”

“You can complain,” Nico said. “You can always complain.”

“For that I need someone to listen,” she said, laughing loudly. It wasn’t the joyful type. She looked down, her voice lowering until it was a whisper. “I do understand the attractiveness of a lottery.” She turned up the sun, staring at it unblinkingly. “Isn’t She beautiful?”

Nico stared too. It hurt his eyes, but it didn’t hurt him. “What do you see?”

“I see heat, and I see the way heat surrounds objects.”

“That’s…pretty limiting.” There were ways to change their bodies. They weren’t common, and not cheap in the slightest, but there were ways. He didn’t know enough about her cult to make those assumptions. “Since when?”

“I can’t recall what the world truly looks like, if that’s your question,” she said, laughing again. “I suppose it is unavoidable, for me as a priestess, to see the world differently.”

Nico heard a screech, followed by a shaking of the mountain. Above them fire gushed out of the apex, covering the sun they were looking at.

“I guess we’re here,” Nico said. He wondered for a bit whether Luna realized what they were going to do. Probably doesn’t matter even if she did.

Kara was sitting at the top facing them. Nico walked past her and poked his head above. Flying in the sky was a metal two-meter flaming bird. Like the ostrich, it had metal scales instead of feathers and human shaped legs. Its beak was long and flat. It beat its wide wings with immense power, causing hot wind to fan the summit.

The summit was perfectly flat and around 30 meters wide. In its center rose a giant tree with branches that pointed towards the sky like shriveled spears. Five Rankers fought around it. A short haired woman in a dark suit ran up the narrow strips, the branches wavering under her weight with each step. Bright yellow arrows formed in her hand. She slid to a stop, aiming ahead of the phoenix.

Her arrow left glittering yellow path as it flew towards the phoenix. It exploded inside the Phoenix’s wings, causing the flame covering it to disperse slightly. Beneath it the metal was a dark-bronze color.

The Phoenix dove around the tree, opening its mouth and releasing a torrent of flame.

The two frontlines were both shield users. One had an axe, the other a hammer. They had identically shaved heads. Twins, from the looks of it.

Behind them stood a single tall man with long flowing black hair. He had a large flat shield as tall as him with holes poked throughout. In his right arm he held a tube that was connected to the shield. He stepped in front of the twins to block the flames with his shield. They struck it, then were sucked into the holes. The Ranker released the fire above them.

The last Ranker had a bowl of black hair and wore dark dimmed goggles. In his hands was a meter long silver barrel with a scope on top. It had a flat, cleanly cut blue crystal attached to the bottom. It charged for a few seconds, vibrating erratically.

A blue tracer instantly pierced the sky. A thunder like rupture came after a delay. A light breeze nudged a few hairs on Nico’s sweaty forehead. He pushed them aside, breathing in the smell of burnt crystal dust. The Phoenix screeched as it bled from is chest. A trail of its blood fell to the summit.

A Kinetic Rifle? Now that’s a combat-focused Augmenter. It was too abstract and complex to be interesting, so Nico hadn’t bothered to learn about it in detail, but he knew it had to do with a spring like mechanism. One of the compartments increases the pressure, and once released, all of that pressure, otherwise known as Kinetic Energy, would go in a single direction—up the narrow barrel.

There was no dodging it, and there was no blocking it. The only way is to be faster than the wielder can aim it. It was a Boss-killing machine.

“They look higher than Rank III,” he whispered. His sight was locked on to the bowl cut Ranker. He fired in 3 second intervals. “How are you going to do this?”

Kara didn’t answer for a while. It was an odd place to pause at. He wasn’t sure whether she was trying to conceal her true thoughts, or whether she really only did come to a decision before them. “I’ll Howl,” she said. “I’ll need to Charge for two minutes until I can kill the phoenix.”

“That will attract the Deep and the Iron House,” Nico said. “Though…I guess we’ll need it to escape the entrapment they’ll make.” Nico saw the pieces falling together now. Since the mountains were above Deep level, even if it comes, they’ll be above it. There won’t be able to go down, but the plan might be to use the sword to fly back towards Gaia.

“Kara,” Luna said. “There are two Rats, Hammer and Jack. They’re quite famous among the 3rd City. We need to do more than kill them and the Boss, otherwise your feat today will be spun as nothing more than a cowardly act.”

“Why do I care how this is spun?” Kara asked.

“Because you’ve become a legend. The Screamer, The Nightmare, The Grim Reaper…The Daughter Of the Deep. Rumors travel fast in the cities. People have heard of a person that controls the Deep, and that used it to deal a great blow to the Iron House, and that can fight unlike any other, but that is also merciful enough to not murder.

You have an opportunity to become more than just a great fighter—you can become a great symbol. It’ll open paths and possibilities physical power cannot in hunting the Deep”

Oh yeah, a better world and stuff. Luna did say she wanted all of that. He supposed to achieve that, Kara did need to become a public figure. That would allow them influence. In the world of Rankers, influence counted just as much as an axe in hand. It always came down to the boring politics.

But legends, stories, and rumors were hard to control. They change based on whose ear heard it and which mouth passed it. He understood why Luna wanted that ability, but he couldn’t understand how she planned on using it.

“Are you the one that spread these rumors?” Kara asked.

“Yes,” Luna said.

“So—wait what?” Nico spurted. Luna answered with such immediacy and confidence he almost missed the fact she tried to manipulate them.

“I made statements,” she explained. “Of a spirit who controls the Deep, that will be the harbinger of doom to the cities that do evil. They would rid the world of monsters, and bring peace to the weakest of us, and especially to the strongest.”

“When were you going to mention that you did this?” Nico asked.

“Not for a while,” Luna answered. “It would have detracted from the main argument and put me in suspicion.”

“You’re right on both parts,” Nico said. “You made that entire plan from scratch, on the spot, immediately after hearing about Kara through the Iron House’s communications?”

“I did,” Luna said. “Though it would be dishonest to say I formulated that plan myself. How the Deep could be used is a popular topic in theoretical sociology and political science in the 5th City. Given the knowledge I had, I would argue that the actions I took had a clear basis to them. That being said, I do understand how terribly convenient this all sounds, especially when considering the skill I have and my motivation.”

It does, doesn’t it? And that was before she tried to pull a fast one on them. What a headache. Luna could be working with Devi, but it’s also possible she struck a deal with her too. The issue was that Luna’s defense against her being Devi’s agent was the reason he was suspicious of her. It felt like she mentioned her actions being predictable almost as if she was fully aware there was an unknown entity pulling their strings.

So how did Luna figure any of that? They barely told her anything. She must be hiding something.

I need to know who Kara truly is. That’ll help show how Kara and Devi are connected. Through that he might be able to find the connection between Devi and Luna, if there was one.

“10 seconds,” Kara said.

“You are one of the few people that can do this,” Luna said, for once her smooth voice taking on a harsh, oaky tone. “You can change the course of history starting here, Kara, you can bring about a world where we no longer have to sacrifice our children for luxury and power.”

Nico made the health shells. He handed one to Kara and extended the other to Luna.

The seconds went by and she made no intention to grab it. “What are you doing?” he asked

“I’m thinking whether I should put down the boot here,” Luna said. “We need witnesses. Those twins must survive, otherwise it’ll fall apart here.”

“I advise against using your boots in anyway,” he said, wondering how insane this insane woman was. “If you want to convince Kara, then keep using your words.”

“I need her as she needs me.”

“Right, but she has the advantage of not giving a fuck, and you obviously do.”

Kara stepped onto the summit.

“Now or—”

“Then we need to make her care,” Luna said, grabbing the shell and the Locust. “Or the trajectory of humanity’s future will be in Gaia’s hands.”

The world went black. It lost its weight, smell, and its sound. The only thing Nico felt was the mountain vibrating on his feet. He chuckled, realizing that he was standing on the tip of the world’s largest vibrator.