Lotus Weizhe still held the Seed of Atlantis in his hand. The pillar of light that once blasted out from it had now completed its mission and disappeared back into nonexistence. The marble egg itself had shrunk, looking like it would make for a wonderful amulet.
He knelt in utmost relief as he breathed in the mysterious waters around him.
There he was, resting at the highest point of the reborn city of Atlantis, soaked in sweat, seawater, and blood. He was also battered, injured and bruised, yet still alive. The disbelief of success and survival was encroaching upon him as his eyes grew wet and he gasped for breath.
"I did it..." Weizhe laughed as tears of joy flowed from his eyes. "I did it!"
"Avina... The great seaside city of Avina is no more..." He couldn't help but say as his eyes scanned the beautiful city of circles before him.
One city had been destroyed for another to rise.
Hummmmmm!
The moment those words left Weizhe's lips, a low reverberation suddenly shook the entire city of Atlantis. Every living human that had been dragged into the depths of the sea, whether it was a random person or a member of the Lotus family, felt an uncanny breeze caress their skin. It was a breeze one that occurred with moving air, but the world around them was all water.
Such a feeling brought them a chill.
Their guts lurched as they felt their chests constrict in discomfort as if the water pressure was finally getting to them. There was a chill in their bones as cold sweat suddenly dripped from their skin despite the waters around them.
Lotus Weizhe felt an immense nervousness as if the heavens were cursing him. He almost regretted speaking those words of his.
But as he braced himself for another tragedy... only silence descended.
The world continued to move, the beasts continued to swim around in curiosity, and the waters continued to ripple. The low reverberation that rang seeming like it came from his words never returned.
Weizhe gripped the Seed of Atlantis in his hand tighter as he warily glanced around.
"Weird..." He whispered to no one but himself.
.
.
.
"Avina... The great seaside city of Avina is no more..."
Athelei heard Lotus Weizhe's voice despite the great distance between them. It was loud, and it was clear. It seemed to ring only in his ear. It was a mesmerising sound as if Weizhe had sung a lullaby to lull him to sleep and not a sentence of a victor's realisation.
With those words, Athelei felt a powerful force calling him, urging him towards it.
It was a familiar force he once felt before; mysterious yet so incredibly entrancing.
And just like before, he closed his eyes, cut off his senses, and paradoxically felt the world that never ceased moving. To him, the world turned grey, and Athelei could somehow still see despite his closed eyes. He looked around the dulled colours of Atlantis as his gaze was attracted by a black wisp.
A wisp, a splotch, a stain,
It was one he had once yearned for yet could not reach.
And so, his footsteps carried him forward.
It carried him through the white streets and past the beasts that drifted here and there.
The black wisp lay behind many obstructions and yet Athelei could see it so clearly. No wall disturbed his gaze, and no living being perturbed his march towards it. He continued to walk and walk until he arrived at a familiar spring.
"This..." Athelei muttered, "This is the Enchanted Spring I once saw in Avina's central castle..."
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Enchanted Spring
- "To my descendants, I leave this ever-flowing source of life in your hands. May Aniva Fortress forever remain unbreakable."
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"Why is it still here?" Athelei watched as the spring suddenly wither as he approached. The waters were flowing with it had somehow turned into nothing but sand, as everything around it turned incorporeal and ghastly.
The final remnant of Avina and something even older was fading into the annals of history.
Atop the disappearing Enchanted Spring though, was the black wisp that Athelei dreamed to once again experience.
After a moment of hesitation, Athelei reached out as he did in the past. Something inside him was telling him that things would turn out differently this time.
The world around Athelei seemed to slow down as his small fingers approached the black wisp.
Images flickered to life into Athelei's mind. It was a timeline that depicted history.
From it, he witnessed the destruction of a grand fortress that once stood strong and tall. It was a fortress that used the mountains and hills around it as its own walls. But all of its defences had crumbled beneath a horde of monstrosities that brought havoc to all that stood in its way.
From the ruins, however, came settlements atop the hills. Four noble crests appeared on these settlements as the low grounds received hundreds of residents with every passing week.
Athelei watched as the first harbours were constructed and the first ships set sail from those humble docks. The buildings began to grow in numbers, rapidly and swiftly. With every setting sun, there might be a new wooden shack, a new hut, or a newly ploughed farm.
The city kept growing and growing as an Adventurer's Guild and a cathedral was erected around a large square. A castle also was erected where the original fortress once housed its centre.
Soon, Athelei was able to recognize more and more landmarks as they popped up like mushrooms after a rainy day.
But just as he recognized the Arthime territory and the other noble territories, a huge blast sent a large portion of the massive harbour's into the sky as a shower of debris.
The Nightwalkers made their first attack.
Then tragedies swiftly followed. There were the floods, the undead, and then the destruction of the Thiroe castle.
Athelei glimpsed sights he had been unable to witness himself. He saw Lady Karire, Sir Xiu, and Apple battling the beasts of the sea. He witnessed Lotus Weizhe's hardships and anxiety as he defended the east from the undead.
He saw a lonely ship of black, sailing majestically on a foggy sea and watched as the One-eyed Harbinger he once met in an alleyway went and killed his way into it. The insignia of the Illum Spiritualists had been glowing brightly in the images given to him.
Athelei now understood why the Nightwalkers were absent during the week before the execution. The Exiled had made a move on them, but unfortunately for the Exiled, the Banishers discovered their schemes.
On top of that, he saw Apple surrounded by bodies and guts. A face that shared a few characteristics with him flashed for a moment, depicting the face of an Exiled who was highly wanted by Illyas.
'Apple's little brother...'
The images then depicted two more noble territories that were razed to the ground, the torture and interrogation of three family heads, and then finally, a huge bonfire appeared before Athelei's eyes. The moment when Athelei handed Lotus Weizhe the Seed of Atlantis had appeared as well.
Then, there was a huge pillar of light as the remnants of Avina sunk into the sea. The sight of Sky Cross taking off into the sky and drifting away wasn't forgotten.
And then, there was nothing. When the Lotus mountain had fully descended, the images faded into nonexistence.
Athelei woke up, nervously glancing at the black wisp.
'Please don't disappear!' He desperately called out in his mind as he watched the wisp dance around his fingers. He waited in dread, thinking the wisp was going to disappear once more... but the wisp continued to dance.
Athelei inhaled sharply, and his fingers trembled. He cupped his hands around the wisp, and he felt a deep cold within its core.
Following the urging of his instincts, Athelei turned his entire body into a grey fog. His skin, his eyes, his hair, and everything else turned into a fog that resembled him. It wasn't faceless like the Nightwalkers, and even influenced the clothes he wore and the items he had brought with him. The fog gripped every physical object in his ownership like a magnet attracting metal.
Hummmmmmmm!
A soft and low reverberation shook the black wisp in Athelei's hand as he brought the black wisp within himself.
It was then that he felt a humongous change occur within him.
He felt a mysterious energy course throughout his fog-body, supplying his entire being with vitality.
Fwoosh!
Athelei unconsciously spread his wings in bliss while he felt those images become a part of him. He could feel the birth, the rise, the fall, and then finally, the end of a city. He felt the end of Avina.
His grey body suddenly spawned a blotch of black within its grey fog. It was a mark.
A stain.
It looked like thick, black ink was dripped onto his chest, lingering where his heart would be if he became a fleshy being. The mysterious energy that coursed through his body flowed like blood from this splotch, pulsing and churning rhythmically around his entire body.
Athelei then realised why he found everything so familiar.
"Evolution..." He muttered in pure excitement, "This is an evolution, without a doubt."