Kyran listened to the announcement, smiling. The timing was perfect, and better yet, Fire no longer had to do anything, which meant that they would complete the mission on easy mode, and they alone would reap the benefits. Although, they were still fire elementals, so maybe it wouldn't be that easy.
But before all that, he had to kill the thing in front of him.
It was massive, maybe around 20 feet tall, and only slightly reminiscent of its former insectoid nature. It was on fire, and through the thick haze he could only vaguely make out the chitinous scales, multifaceted eyes and a mouth tipped with mandibles.
It thrust out with a lance it made out if fire, the heat scorching the ground. Kyran dodged and then jumped and kicked it behind the knee, staggering it. It tried to grab him, so he dodged out of the way and punted the hand into the ground, which rose up to swallow it. The creature didn't even notice, as the lance came back around for a second try. He took control of the fire, and it washed across him, harmlessly.
He decided to end the fight, so he just sucked away all the heat from that side of the room, and into his Reality. He had grown adept at accessing it. Still, he wouldn't be unleashing hordes of creatures anytime soon. The room quickly became ice-cold, and he could see the flow of heat that rushed to replace it. He could see the frost visibly grow on his skin, and it tickled.
Kyran inspected the creature, and saw that it was dead, but didn't reduce in heat at all. It was strange. Maybe he would ask Fire about it after this. He took a seat and got comfortable.
"Alright Asuras, you heard the man. Let's move!" He shouted from the top of the thing's corpse. It was no longer burning, but the dead flesh was still scalding hot, and he had to constantly renew the slight bubble of Aether reinforcing him that separated him and the flesh.
His voice echoed through the tunnels, and would eventually reach them, so he had some time to kill.
'Hey Vess. What exactly are the Elder Host?'
A page popped up. [The easiest way to explain is that each one is the consciousness of every Aether type that exists. They also exist in a hive mind, while retaining a sense of individuality. Kinda like you]
' Exactly like me. It's a really powerful spell to have so early in my journey.' Kyran thought back.
[You're right. It is. Just be grateful and stop yapping. Besides, you'll not be able to use this much power whenever you want. Your reserves aren't unlimited.]
'I wouldn't know, seeing as I don't know how much I have. Any way to fix that?'
[I could make my Pages display more information in a game format. So you'll have stats and stuff, as well as rarity ratings and Path levels.]
'We're fused aren't we? Then why the hell did you decide to tell me just now?'
[Forget about all that, here you go.]
[Aether Capacity: 2500 Points]
[Reality Aether Capacity: Inaccessible]
[Stamina: 250,000 Points]
[Body Stats:]
[Strength(STR): 500]
[Vitality(VIT): 600]
[Agility(AGL): 500]
[Endurance(END): 600]
[Constitution(CON): 600]
[Mind Stats:]
[Perception(PER): 550]
[Intelligence(INT): 600]
[Charisma(CHR): 550]
[Willpower(WIL): 550]
[Lucidity(LCD): 600]
[Soul Stats:]
[Aether Manipulation(AM): 9500]
[Luck: 500]
[Instinct(INS): 600]
[Presence(PRE): 550]
[????]
[????]
[????]
[For reference: Average Class1, First Deviation: Stats Avg: 10]
[For more reference: 1 Aether pt.= 10 cubic meters of spacetime that's full to the brim with it, 1 Stamina pt.= 5000 Kilocalories of energy stored up as Aether and usable and accessible at any point in time.]
[Note: Those Aether and Stamina Point references are scaled up for you. Another person would probably have 1 Aether Point as 1 cubic meters or 1 Stamina Point as 5 Kilocalories.]
[Average Human: 0.5. They have no points, they're random.]
[Well those are your stats, enjoy.]
'If those points are to be trusted, then I can run at a dead sprint for around.... a million days. That's scary.'
[Oh, didn't know already?]
'Oh, shut up. How exactly are things blurred out?'
[Neither of us are strong enough to comprehend them, so they will probably sort themselves out once we cross that threshold.]
'Alright. So from what I can see, my stats are balanced enough. My Mind and Soul Stats average higher than my Body Stats. My highest stat by far is my Aether Manipulation, while my lowest are Luck, Agility, and Strength. I can work with that. What about my spell rarities?'
[[Burst] is Common, while [Sovereign of The Elder Host] doesn't have one.]
'Alright. Makes sense too.'
Before they could continue their conversation, the rest of the squad showed up. They had all linked up at some point and were now all here together.
Kyran jumped down from his vantage point and smiled at them. They had all racked up an impressive kill count, working together seamlessly to take down their foes. He was excluded, obviously, and was flying solo since they had no tactics factoring in his skillset.
"Okay people. Nice to see you all strong and kicking." He then bent light around him until it made a 3D map of the tunnels, which were being updated live, courtesy of some helpful runes, "On this map, the brighter an area is, the more Aether it contains. You can also see th pathways of brightness that show its flow."
The pathways were shown to be drawing Aether from everywhere. But the lion's share of it came from two points, and the Aether that didn't still passed through that region before going to the middle of the entire thing, where Kyran assumed Fire was.
"Our mission here is to prevent the transmission, which means we need to interrupt the Aether flow to the center. It won't be as easy as just destroying the pathways though. The entire planet is conducive, meaning that whatever's attracting Aether to the center would just do it by a different route if we destroy the old one." He said. "But I noticed something, that being-"
"That no matter where it comes from, it's routed towards those two nodes, which then redirect everything towards the center. So to destroy the Aether flow, the nodes got to go." Zari finished for . him
Cedric, who, with the rest of the squad, grew to like Kyran after the battle, said "With all that information, what are our orders, Cap?"
He thought for a second, then said, "We don't have enough time to go to eac of them one by one. There are other places that are primed to become the routers if those two are destroyed. We need to destroy both the nodes, and the center, so I'll split us up into three teams. Oh, and before I forget, lemme just sync the runes to the channel so you can see where you're going." He did so and continued. "That timer you see is just how long we have left, based on the intensity and rate of flow. We have half an hour. Alright, team 1 would be Jason, Vin, Grasyon. You're to go and destroy Router 1. Team 2 would be Vera, Zari, Cedric. You are going to destroy Router 2. Last team is Raven and I. We're going to the core. When you guys are done with your marks, send a message and get down there as fast as you can in case something bad happens. That's it, I think. Good luck everyone, and stay safe." Kyran said. They all jokingly saluted, and he returned the gesture, before they all went their separate ways.