Ascent of a Dragon

Sploosh! "Hey guys! I think I found a way down!" Lyly and Goldy raise their heads from whatever game they were playing with a bunch of rocks and moss bundles. "Really? This isn't like the last time right?" "No, definitely. I travelled the whole route and poked my head through to the next floor. It's not another dead end this time." "It better not be! It's scary down there!" "It'll be fine. I only got attacked the one time, every other time I just scared everything off." "The fact you got attacked at all is what worries me! This is totally setting up goal posts!" "You mean flags?" "Oh, is it flags? Wonder how I got that wrong."

As they argue, Aleph ushers her companions onto her back, preparing to make the dive. "Goldy, how long can you hold an air bubble?" "A quarter of a rest?" "I don't know how long that is... Oh well, there's air pockets on the way so we should be fine." "Your sheer confidence is... worrying." Standing upon the precipice of the platform, Aleph gives Goldy time to prepare a large bubble, grasping the air and pulling it into a small vortex around them. She leaps, plunging into the waters below and swiftly swimming her way down the pillar.

Having spent the past few days swimming, she's now gotten much better. A thin layer of water clings to her, held in place by Aether to all but eliminate drag while she also grasps the water around the film to act as additional, more dynamic, fins to propel herself down. Light gives way to pitch black, their immediate surroundings lit only by the soft glow they each emit. Aleph traverses the ocean floor, following a straight line to their destination while Goldy keeps up his dance of air, and Lyly puffs her fur to scan for any approaching sources of Mana.

In the distance, the water begins to glow, lit by the occasional bright rock or patch of glowing green moss, gently swaying under the currents as tiny fish nestle their way through them. The frequency of the lights steadily pick up, growing into a vibrant coral reef. Eels split their form into dozens of fabric-like fins and wrap around the base of glowing corals, while a dizzying diversity of fish weave between the rocks and through the grass-like moss coating the floor. As the trio approach, each creature disappears into crevasses or camouflages among their surroundings before resuming their liveliness as they pass by.

"Does everything glow here? Looks cool as hell, but also feels like someone ran out of ideas and decided to just make everything glowy." "I find this very much inspiring!" "Wait until you guys see the next part! It's even cooler!" Aleph swims through a tunnel winding down. The walls slowly lose their glow, steadily transitioning into an intricate pattern of fractal rock formations. Small sea snakes weave through the grooves, causing the wall to almost pulsate and appear alive. "Cool right?" "I can't see a thing... It's too dark." "Nor I." "Huh... Didn't think about that. I forget most people mainly use their eyes." "You don't?" "I've been using Ae'othas as my primary sense for a while now." "Oh right, that uthur sense thing you can do. Maybe I should learn something similar?" "I don't see why not. Should be easier to do with Mana."

Swimming into an offshoot of the tunnel Aleph leads them to an air pocket filled with a series of tiny holes. "One of the pit-stops. We can rest and restock on air here." Goldy halts his motions, taking the opportunity to rest his arms. "Say, how strong have you gotten now? You mentioned there was a lot of oothoo down here, but I don't recall seeing you eat anything except what we caught on the surface." "Well I no longer need to eat to extract Aether which is nice. I can just pull it straight off in a few minutes." "So does this mean we won't be seeing you do that unhinged thing where you consume ten times your body weight every time we hunt? That's a bonus." "Pretty much."

"What about that thing you saw? The one really far down?" "The weirdly dense Aether? It's still there. Barely moved actually. If anything it's more clear now that I've cleared most of the Aether in the area." "Is that why you took so long? You were eating the whole time?" "Hey, you're the one always saying to take my time. And this makes me stronger too, so we're way safer." "... Point taken." Goldy stands, stretching his arms before turning to face Aleph. "I am rested. How much deeper do we go?" "We're about a third of the way there. Shouldn't be too bad, and most of it is this tunnel going straight down anyway." "I see. Then I am prepared to go the full route without rest." "Sure. Gets us there faster."

They dive once again, resuming the straight drop below. The tunnel begins to expand, stretching into a wide cavernous drop as the fractal walls give way to large spiralling grooves. "This place is even cooler... but it's also dark. The walls were covered in a ton of Aether. It took me five trips to get it all." "At least you didn't eat the walls..." "Are the walls not alive? This Aether clings to life, yes?" "Maybe, but I haven't seen it move at all. Some types of rock also hold Aether really well though so it's probably just that."

The straight descent is slow, even in spite of how fast Aleph can swim now. The cavern walls grow, the rocky surface oscillating between more natural rock formations and the steadily thickening spiral pattern. All the while Goldy and Lyly sit surrounded by total darkness, unable to see anything beyond the small air bubble coating them. Silence permeates their descent, only broken by the occasional splashes and shifting air as they swim.

Aleph pauses, focusing her senses on the environment. The walls appear to shift, the stone silently sliding against itself without so much as a ripple forming, and from a direction with no translatable name... "Brace!" Goldy tightens his grip on the air, pulling the bubble in tight as Aleph darts to the side. Crack! The water bursts, a powerful shock-wave bearing against Aleph before immediately imploding and pulling her back, all the while the bubble around them threatening to burst under the pressure of the blast. The trio turn to face the source of the explosion, hidden behind the dark veil of the aquatic abyss. And the abyss opens its eyes.

Food

Like a beast out of hiding, the void bares its fangs, lit by the dull glow of six enormous white eyes before completely vanishing. "What was that?!" Lyly yells as Aleph surges downward, her limbs cutting through the water, coated in a swirling maelstrom of violet. "I don't know! It wasn't here last time!" "Why is it here now?!" Thoom! Aleph redirects, another explosion forming from where she was about to swim. Her body is thrown by the currents, the bubble of air being held on her back nearly bursting from the strain while Lyly is tossed around, barely hanging onto her by a thread. "It clearly wants to eat us!" "Did you see the size of that thing?! What sustenance is it supposed to get from us?! We're tiny!"

The depths turn silent, darkness consuming the world once again as everything returns to an eerie tranquillity. Where is it? I can't feel it at a- The world closes in, walls forming from nowhere around the trio as another explosion rocks the outside. Just ahead lies an exit, a jagged crevasse rapidly closing before them as a rush of water pulls them back. Straining every muscle in her body Aleph swims up, planting her feet on the hard, fleshy ceiling. Firing a pulse of Aether through her limbs she shoots off, leaving behind a small crack in the surface as she rockets through the narrow gap leading out. Once again, the figure behind them vanishes, leaving behind nothing but an implosion of water.

Around the trio the walls of the cavern begin to close in, winding together in a tight knot to crush their prey. "Stop what you're doing and hold on tight!" "Bu-" "Now!" Taking a deep breath, Goldy releases the air, allowing it to burst into a plume of ascending bubbles while he grasps hold of Aleph's back, holding on to Lyly as well. This will be tricky to do, but there's no real choice. Okay, focus... breathe...? Fight! The ocean turns violet, Aether grasping a wide dome around the trio. Redefine friction. They fall, Aleph flapping her wings to push herself down and swiftly accelerating beyond what would normally be the speed of sound as the sphere of violet holds close.

Water simply brushes by them, soaked in the glow of Aether as it provides no resistance to their descent. Another shock-wave bursts from behind, yet this time it passes by harmlessly, leaving the trio untouched as they thread the needle through the rapidly closing exit. A wave of force slams upon them, almost crushing them as the violet glow dissipates and drag returns. Winding through the tunnels, Aleph squeezes her way into a tight nook and surfaces into a small air pocket.

The trio catch their breaths, Goldy spitting out water while Lyly lays upside-down in a daze. "What was that thing? What did you just do? Why is the world still the wrong way around?" Slumping to the ground, Aleph flicks Lyly upright and stills her racing heart. "I don't know... It shouldn't be able to do that. I don't know how something can have an anchor without a heart..." "You're using words, but with no context." Lyly prods Aleph in frustration. "I don't know the proper Englin for it. Not that it matters anyway. I doubt it can follow us between layers." "You sure?" "It's aquatic. You tell me." "How do we know it's not amphibious?" "..." "..."

"Hinya." Goldy beckons, his breathing now stable, albeit a bit raspy. Aleph turns to meet him, clearly happy with the change in topic. "Hm?" "What manner of skill was that? The water... vanished from touch." Aleph narrows her eyes, tilting her head as she recalls her actions. "I... Huh. I wasn't really paying attention. I kind-of just changed something about the water, but I can't remember what exactly." "Could you do it again?" She shakes her head. "I wouldn't want to. That stunt cost me half my Aether. I don't regret my choice, and I still have more than when we first got to the ocean, but still. That's a big blow." "Hey wait, didn't you say Aether never gets used up?" "Not if I pull it back out of whatever I infuse it into. In this case it was too precise, and we were moving way too fast. My mind simply couldn't keep up."

The trio sit in silence for a while, resting their bodies and minds until Aleph stands. "We should probably go. This tunnel leads to the next layer I'm pretty sure." Lyly hops atop her perch and Goldy begins to walk beside them "If it doesn't, we're digging our way down. I'm not going back up there. Why did that thing attack us anyway? Doesn't seem worth the effort for something so big to hunt us." "Do you guys have a lot of Mana? I know in some worlds old creatures live purely off Mana instead of normal food." "Ho'mah has much Mana. More than the void eyed beast." "You think? I figured it was about the same." "That's probably why then." "Can you not see Mana? At all?" "Can you see Aether?" "Touché."

As they traverse the tunnel, water begins to trickle in, forming a small river below them. Over time the river grows, water pouring in from dozens of side channels as the tunnel widens into a small cavern and opens out in the wall of the next layer. Rivers and waterfalls stream from above, coating the horizon with rapid movement. Dark-red stone surrounds them, cradling the streams in a chaotic mess of ravines and crevasses. Something seems off... Aleph's eyes skip over their surroundings, remaining locked on a single point of swirling Aether in the distance.

Aleph steps forward, spreading her wings to glide. "Hey, what are you looking at?" "Goldy, hop on. You guys remember that really dense Aether I mentioned?" Goldy pulls himself onto her back, laying forward to cling. "Come on, we just got out of a close call! Can't we rest first?" "I understand that, but I don't know how long it will stay. I haven't seen another Aether user since... I don't actually recall ever seeing one. This could answer questions I have about why there are none. Why there's so little Aether. I need to go." Lyly holds for a moment, considering Aleph's words. "Fine..." She responds, clinging to the dragon's horns.

With a leap, Aleph soars over the network of rivers and canyons, warm and humid winds and the scent of damp stone brushing by the trio as they glide. Why is it spinning like that? She swerves around a pillar, flapping her wings to maintain height as she circles the mega-structure. Why is it focused into a single point? She lands, her claws scraping into the hard stone below. Goldy hops off again as they approach a distant waterfall. Everything about this seems so... inefficient.

They near the waterfall, a wide torrent of water cascading down with tremendous force before flowing smoothly between a series of sharp boulders and outward to a fast-flowing river. Nestled within the centre of the waterfall, a figure stands. An oppressive yet unfocused Aura billows forth, green eyes bearing themselves through the rapids. The figure steps forth.