"Atlantis..." Apple echoed Athelei's words.
"Exactly, Sir Apple..." Athelei said as he turned to the man beside him. "Thus, I have to ask you a question."
"A question?" Apple tilted his head, "What do you mean, young lad?"
Athelei did not speak just yet as he used the Tidal Tome and made a vague gesture. Following his movements, the surrounding waters dropped Lady Karire in front of Apple. The latter, by reflex, caught the unconscious body of his old friend.
"Where will you go?" Athelei asked with a playful smile.
"Where will I go? You mean with Kar?"
Athelei nodded, "Mhm. Will you accept the rebirth of Atlantis and live within its walls... Or will you flee from Avina?"
Apple heard the young child's words and many thoughts ran through his head. He recalled his little brother's words, as well as the confessions of those three small noble families. From what he knew, Atlantis was a cursed city abandoned by the heavens. The Exiled had wanted a place for themselves, and thus they searched for the Seed of Atlantis far and wide.
Apple did not want anything to do with the Exiled, much less with his little brother. His sharp eyes fell onto the child in front of him as he decided to share what he knew about what Atlantis was.
"I know about all that, Sir Apple." The man heard another swift reply, "But you must have heard that I am a Blessed, yes? I can feel something calling out to me. The rebirth of Atlantis is something that I must witness."
"I see..." Apple nodded slowly. After all, Athelei had healed his body and triggered his evolution while he slept. The boy even escaped from two Nightwalkers and a powerful Exiled with the mysterious book in his hands.
Apple had nothing else to say except for a simple farewell,
"Very well. Then, I wish you luck, young lad. May we meet again."
Athelei smiled, "We will meet again, Sir Apple."
Apple then watched as the young child used the small book in their dainty hands like a wand, summoning the surrounding waters. Those waters wrapped around his entire body, and even Karire who he had slung on his back.
He then heard the young boy cough lightly, "Please secure Lady Karire's head, Sir Apple. I'm going to send you to Sky Cross."
"Sky Cross?" Apple asked in confusion as he made sure his old friend would be safe.
"Yes, Sky Cross."
HUMMMMM!
Apple suddenly felt an immense power surge all around him as the maelstrom he had been standing in the middle of began to accelerate.
"Oh no—" Apple realised what the boy meant when he looked up. "Sky Cross? In the sky?!"
"Wait! Hold up!" Apple roared as he quickly moved Karire into his arms where he could protect her better.
"Haha~ Bye-bye, Sir Apple!" Athelei laughed as he waved his small hand at the panicking Apple.
"You cheeky brat—"
Without being able to finish his sentence, Apple was plunged into the maelstrom. Athelei was going to send the man flying in almost the same way he launched that female Exiled.
SPLASH!
And then, the two adults were gone. They had a flight to catch and were now flying in the air. Apple had flipped his body once just as he reached the peak of his trajectory. He then began to fall, but he soon noticed that he was quite far off course.
"This is only sensible for a Mystic Artifact's power," Apple grumbled as he used his raw physical strength to blast himself in the right direction.
Boom!
He broke the sound barrier with his legs and fists, readjusting his course until he saw Sky Cross safely below him.
Those of Sky Cross had already spotted him long ago, and they prepared a place for him and Karire to land safely. They hurriedly emptied out an area, taking away anything that might hurt or might get hurt.
Thus, Apple landed comfortably in the middle of a small square, supported by a few Mystic Patterns that slowed his fall.
"Mister Apple and Lady Karire of the Arthime household?" A voice sounded out as Apple regained his bearings.
It was spoken by a man with long white hair tied up in a bun, a finely trimmed beard of similar whites, as well as sparkling blue eyes. The man's facial features were rugged yet somehow elegant.
"...Headmaster Paliver Hare." Apple bowed his head slightly as he tried to assume a formal demeanour, "Is it possible for my old friend and I to stay here for a while?"
Paliver Hare simply smiled and slung his white longbow on his back, "Sky Cross welcomes you two. Might you be interested in being temporary teachers as well?"
.
.
.
Athelei watched as the last inches of the Lotus mountain sank into the waters.
WHOOM!
A humongous, earth-shaking force spread out as the pillar of light that had been shining into the sky suddenly exploded. It spread out to encompass the entire Lotus mountain, forcing all fighting to halt. Athelei witnessed the Exiled and the Banishers fleeing hurriedly, afraid to be within the influence of the expanding light.
"It seems like a few have died," Athelei noted down the diminished number of fighters still capable of fleeing. Three Banishers were left of the six; most of the Nightwalkers had self-detonated or refused to flee; and Amerie of Aren seemed to have disappeared, with only Lucien Ophlain making it out with a broken arm.
There were a few other Exiled, but those were people Athelei had yet to become familiar with. He used Inspect on every single one of them and jotted those details down in his mental library. It was all for future reference.
Nonetheless, no one had seemed to come out unscathed. Every escaping human had wounds aplenty or debilitating injuries, making Athelei wonder just how Lotus Weizhe had fended them all off.
'Trickery? Strategy? Sheer strength? Immense skill?' Athelei thought about a few possibilities as the pillar of light consumed him too.
The enraged beasts around him were still going crazy, but they could not approach the Seed of Atlantis or the Lotus mountain at all. They dove into the spreading light, without the same worries that the humans had.
CRACK!
One of the loudest sounds that Athelei had ever heard suddenly shook the earth. Following that, Athelei felt the ground move, a loud grinding sound buzzed in Athelei's ears as it did. It sounded like someone was pushing an entire mountain, and moving it someplace else.
'Wait...' Athelei thought about it a bit more as an idea came into his mind, 'Is the earth really moving deeper into the sea?'
Athelei's eyes gleamed in immense excitement.
The earth continued to shake as a portion of the continent was indeed bitten off and dragged, quite literally into the sea.
An hour passed as the waters untouched by the fully-spread pillar of light turned dim, given the depths of the waters they were now in. It was as if everywhere else that wasn't going to be Atlantis wasn't permitted to have light.
The waters inside Atlantis and inside the pillar of light became as clear as clean, country-side air. The beasts engulfed by the light—Ulthasiair included—suddenly became docile. They swam peacefully around the area as Avina's buildings morphed and changed.
New buildings sprang out of the seafloor while old ones descended into the sea. The Lotus mountain stood at the centre of the developing city, and a grand marble palace was being carved out on its slopes.
Symmetry and circles were the geometrical themes of Atlantis.
White marble, black basalt, and colourful corals were its materials of choice.
Domes, arches, and radial roads were sprouting everywhere, looking pristine and sparkling.
A bright white light suddenly sparked from the peak of the Lotus mountain, raining flower petals aplenty.
Athelei watched as those light petals fell onto the Undead Remnants that had been brought along for a ride. The various shapes of undead all squealed in terror, but they had nowhere to run. Their bodies of grey fog dissipated, leaving only their black crystals behind.
Athelei himself had to make sure not one speck of him was transformed into a grey fog, just in case he was annihilated in a similar manner. The lotus petals fell onto him, and he watched as his skin glowed, rejuvenated and cleansed of dirt.
Lantern-like jellyfish then spawned from the palace windows at the centre of the new city, bringing light to the entire area as the light pillar began to dissipate.
"Atlantis..." Athelei breathed in the magical waters and noticed that the residual consciousness of all the annihilated Undead Remnants seemed to have flocked to him after their deaths.
'What...?' Athelei was surprised when he felt something strange about these residual consciousnesses, 'Emotions?'
Athelei absorbed every single surviving wisp of incorporeal consciousness into him, and he confirmed the presence of an emotion. It was a desire to survive, to live, no matter what form they took.
'I see, then you will all exist as me from now on,' Athelei did not crush their sentience as he felt every single one of them willingly submit. Similar to how he himself had fed Irene with bits of his consciousness, he was able to absorb these numerous minds as they offered themselves up.
And that was when Athelei felt something click in place. Like an achievement was completed or a quest had been turned in.
Athelei's heart was moved as he glanced at a screen he had kept open since the start of the First of May.
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Orien (Hidden: Athelei, Inactive: Angel, Nikiri Mist, ... )
- Race: Human (1%), Starless (1%), Unnamed Mutation (98%)
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