On the Shoulders of Titans (Arcane Ascension Book 2)

by Andrew Rowe

I hoped that since we were supposed to treat this scenario like a “real” expedition into the Unclaimed Lands, Teft would let that rule slide.

  Teft narrowed his eyes at me, which wasn’t a promising response. “As I recall, that sword is extremely dangerous. Cursed, they say. Am I to understand that you brought it with you?”

  I nodded. “Yes, sir. It’s packed away safe.” That was true, at least. It was in the Jaden Box.

  He drew in a breath, looking uneasy. “I am prepared to allow you to take Miss Cadence’s place and use the sword...under the condition that you will be extremely cautious with using it.”

  I bowed my head in thanks and relief. “Of course, sir.”

  “Good. I will be assigning someone to shadow your group and wait for you outside the temple. They will inform me if you fail to return within the designated time frame.”

  “Which is?” Marissa asked.

  “You will have three hours to enter the temple, rescue the other team, and return.”

  I felt my jaw tense. That wasn’t a lot of time to work with. “I have some questions, before we go.”

  “Of course you do.” Teft sounded exasperated, but I expected he was actually pleased. In spite of his dismissive demeanor, he appreciated planning. “Proceed.”

  “Do you have a map of the section that’s already been explored, or any other details?”

  Teft shook his head. “I do not.”

  I nodded, expecting that. “The three people who made it out. Can we talk to them?”

  That actually seemed to catch Teft off-guard, and he made the slightest hint of a smile. “Sadly, no. They’ve...already been sent back to Valia for medical treatment.”

  Meaning he hadn’t prepared any actors to play that part in this portion of the exercise. I think I might have earned some good will from asking, though.

  “Do you have any additional resources you could loan us to ensure our success? Healing potions, fire resistance equipment, maybe a return bell?”

  Teft paused to consider. “I’ll get you a return bell. We don’t have any of the rest of that on-hand, and it would take too long to prepare. You need to get moving as soon as you are prepared.”

  That was an acceptable result. “I believe that’s all I need, then.”

  “Very well. Those of you who are going to the temple, go prepare any supplies you plan to bring, and leave anything unnecessary behind with me. I’ll watch it while you’re gone, and you can make camp afterward. In the meantime, I’ll give Miss Cadence and Master Dalen their assignments.”

  We exchanged a few words with Sera and Jin, then headed to do that.

  I went inside the wagon, then opened the Jaden Box. “Retrieve: Selys-Lyann. Store: Transference Sword.”

  I didn’t want to carry two swords at the same time, it was just too cumbersome.

  It felt good to sheathe Selys-Lyann at my side again, although I admit I was a bit nervous about using it in a test again. In spite of suggesting it myself, I knew there were serious risks.

  After that, I checked through my gear, keeping only essential climbing supplies on me. I’d leave everything else with Teft, as he’d instructed. Storing everything in the Jaden Box would have been easy, but it would have also been suspicious. He probably knew I still had the box, but I wasn’t going to remind him if I could avoid it.

  We headed back to Teft after everyone had finished picking what they wanted to bring.

  I pulled Sera to the side for a moment before we left, though.

  “That was brave of you.”

  Sera looked away, ashamed. “Brave? To throw you into a dangerous situation, because I can’t handle it?”

  I shook my head. “In your place, I don’t think my pride would have let me turn the assignment down. You made the hard choice to say you weren’t in any condition to fight. That was the right call.” I hesitated, then added, “I...didn’t realize you’d gotten worse after the last test.”

  “I didn’t want to worry you.”

  “Well, you worried me now...but we’ll deal with it. Just be honest with me if it happens again, okay?”

  She frowned, then nodded. “Okay. We’ll talk about this more some other time. Stay safe, okay? Don’t do anything reckless.”

  “What, like bring a cursed sword into a school exam? That doesn’t sound like something I’d do.”

  Sera gave me a weak chuckle. “I mean it, though.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m always careful. What could possibly go wrong?”

  Chapter XVIII – Everything That Could Possibly Go Wrong

  We picked up a return bell from Teft. After that, he sent us on the path toward the Temple of Fire. A second-year student led the way, while another student followed us, presumably to keep an eye on how much time we were taking inside.

  Marissa was clearly nervous. “Mind givin’ me a bit more ‘bout this place? I’m not real familiar.”

  She was probably understating that. I doubted she’d even heard of the place before Teft had mentioned it. I would have been pretty nervous in her place, too.

  Patrick chimed in before I had a chance. He was bristling with excitement. “So, this is the place where they forged Soulbrand, one of the Six Sacred Swords. It’s really, really old. Like thousands of years.”

  “But what’re we up against? It just like another spire?”

  “It’s smaller,” I explained, “And you should expect most of the challenges to be fire themed.”

  “Or something related to fire, like metal or lava,” Patrick added. “Maybe even lightning.”

  Marissa frowned again. “Not sure how much I can do ‘bout that sort of thing.”

  “Aww, you’ll be fine.” Patrick nudged her. “You’ll just punch the lightning out or something. You’ve done that before!”

  She brightened a bit. “I suppose I have, haven’t I?”

  “Right before you punched that smug look clean off Rupert’s face!” Patrick laughed, then looked from side to side, likely checking to make sure Rupert wasn’t in hearing range. He wasn’t — we were already well outside of the settlement at that point.

  We walked a bit further in relative quiet before Marissa posed another question. “If these things are older than the spires, who made ‘em?”

  Patrick frowned. “I guess the goddess just made them earlier?”

  I shook my head. “Unlikely. The first sightings of Selys were only about four hundred years ago, right before the spires themselves appeared. The most common theory is that there were older gods here thousands of years ago, and that they left or died out.”

  “Tyrant must have gotten ‘em, rest their souls,” Marissa said solemnly.

  I was getting progressively less confident that the Tyrant in Gold had the kind of role in the world that Aspectists believed, but I didn’t want to get into an argument. “Maybe,” I replied, “The people of Sytennia believe they just went to sleep.”

  “Oh, I remember hearing a bit about that when we were kids. Mom and Dad said to forget about it, though.” Patrick looked down. “And my teachers always got upset when I asked about things like that. Told me that I should pray on it or read the scriptures. But the scriptures don’t talk about the elemental temples at all.”

  I felt a rare surge of anger and struggled to maintain a neutral expression. Shutting down children who had questions was the opposite of what a teacher should be doing.

  Before I could get into a rant, though, Marissa changed the line of discussion. “You know anything specific we should be keepin’ our eyes out for?”

  That was a reasonable thing to discuss, so I let my frustration burn away and refocused on the topic at hand. “There’ll probably be a single powerful monster just before the room with the crystal, similar to a spire guardian. I don’t know if the other group got that far, but if they did, we’re in for a serious fight. Most stories indicate that it’s a phoenix, but I’ve also heard that a dragon might be a possibility.”

  Marissa nodded. “A phoenix, eh? That might be tric
ky. Hard to keep them down for any length of time. That might be why Teft wanted us to bring ice magic. That’s real effective against them.” She seemed a little more comfortable now that we were talking about specific monsters.

  We continued discussing possible fire monsters we could run into, as well as other general strategies, until we reached our destination.

  There was no obvious “temple”. Instead, we reached the base of a mountainside — presumably the Vanreach Mountains — and found a tremendous metal doorway.

  The exterior of the door was carved with intricate artistry. They weren’t runes; more like pictographs for an unfamiliar language. I activated my attunement, but the doors didn’t glow. I could see a hint of light from beyond the doorway, however.

  “I’ll wait outside for three hours, then I’ll report your failure,” the student who’d been following us explained. I tried not to respond poorly to how certain he sounded that things would play out that way.

  I glanced to Marissa and Patrick. “You two ready to go?”

  They made noises of acknowledgement.

  I drew Selys-Lyann. “I’ll lead the way. Marissa, you’re on my left, so I don’t hit you by accident. Patrick, stay behind the two of us. I want you to be ready to reshape fire out of the way if we hit any traps.”

  We shifted into formation, then approached the door.

  The student who’d been leading us placed a metallic cube into a slot in the door, and I heard a click. Then I heard the grinding of gears, and the doors slid open.

  The light that I’d seen through the crack in the doorway intensified as the doors opened, but not purely from magic. The passageway led into a hallway lit with dozens of torches, making it almost blindingly bright.

  I passed Patrick the return bell. “You’d better hold onto this, since Marissa and I will need our hands free to fight.”

  He accepted the bell, then we headed inside.

  The initial hallway didn’t feel anything like a spire. It was just a well-lit cavern entrance, more reminiscent of what Marissa and I had encountered during her test.

  With that memory in mind, I watched the floor carefully as we advanced. I didn’t want to hit any more webs, or trip-wires, or any sort of deadly trap tiles.

  That meant, of course, that I wasn’t looking up.

  The first thing I noticed was a shadow thickening, then Marissa shoved me.

  I hit the wall just before a giant centipede hit the ground where I’d been standing. It was almost as big as I was and heavy enough to crack the ground on impact.

  Marissa punched it hard enough to hurl it backward.

  I heard a “click” as the centipede landed, then spears jetted out of the floor beneath it, impaling the creature.

  Oh, there’s the floor trap I’ve been looking for.

  The centipede struggled for a moment to break free from the spears, then Patrick blasted it with a bolt of lightning, and it fell still.

  “Thanks,” I offered Marissa.

  She smiled. “Gotta keep your feet light and your arms lighter.”

  I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but I nodded anyway.

  We proceeded a little more cautiously after that, checking both the floor and the ceiling.

  We had to hug the wall to get past the centipede, and getting that close to it was a little disgusting.

  Where do the test administrators even find monsters like this?

  Never mind, I don’t want to know.

  After that, the next thing we noticed wasn’t a trap, but the growing heat. Outside, we’d been at the border of a snow-tipped mountain range. It wasn’t snowing at our level of altitude, but it was still cold.

  Every few steps, this place was getting warmer. By the time we’d passed the centipede, it felt more like spring weather.

  Another dozen steps and it was summer.

  By the time the natural cavern walls started to give way to worked stone bricks, it felt like we were near a hearth.

  We reached another doorway, and then transitioned into something that looked more like I’d have initially expected. The next chamber was a square room of cut stone with a single central pillar. That pillar had a fist-sized red crystal in the center.

  There were torches in the corners of the room. Three out of the four were lit.

  There were three doorways: the entrance, one straight ahead, and one to our right. All of the doors were open.

  Near the pillar I saw a pair of lion-like monsters with fierce horns. I couldn’t identify them at a glance, but they looked formidable. They were, however, lying unmoving on the ground, covered in wounds.

  “The temple hasn’t completely reset,” I mused aloud. “The first team will have already solved some of these rooms. That’s going to make things a little easier, but since there were still dangers in the entry hall, it’s going to be tough to know which places are completely clear.”

  We moved cautiously into the chamber. Marissa kicked one of the lion-like monster bodies, just to be sure it was dead. It didn’t move. “Shouldn’t these have vanished if they’re dead?” She blinked. “Come to think of it, the centipede didn’t disappear, either.”

  “Temple monsters aren’t like spire ones,” Patrick explained. “I don’t think they turn into crystals.”

  “Huh. Wonder why that is.”

  I was curious, too, and I had theories...but this wasn’t the time for that discussion. “Patrick, I see an unlit torch, and my climber instincts are telling me that’s a problem. Can you handle that?”

  “If the other group didn’t light it, there might be a reason for that,” Marissa suggested. “Maybe they had to be lit in a certain order? The doors are already open. Lighting something might close them, or trigger a trap.”

  I frowned. I didn’t like leaving a torch unlit on a visceral level, but I agreed with her. “Okay. We’ll keep it in mind, but we’ll leave it as-is for now. Let’s check the right doorway.”

  I heard a whir as I approached the doorway. I jumped backward just in time to avoid getting smashed by a huge metallic sphere that swung out of the doorway.

  That’s...weirdly familiar.

  I’d nearly been crushed by a similar pendulum trap during my Judgment. Ah, memories.

  After backing away to a safe distance, I got a better look at the room beyond the doorway. There were several swinging spheres, similar to the room I’d seen in the spire, but this room had a notable difference.

  The room’s floor wasn’t stone. Instead, it was a metallic grate, divided into four sections. Periodically, jets of fire would blast upward from one of the sections to incinerate anything above them.

  My first thought was to try to find the runes to disable the traps, but I checked with my attunement, and I couldn’t see them from outside the room.

  There were two more pathways from that room. One was straight across from us, and the other was on the left side. The doorway across from us was open, but the one on the left was closed. The closed door was solid stone, which was a little strange. It also had a keyhole.

  There were a couple stone outcroppings right in front of each doorway. They looked large enough to stand on safely, but they’d be tough to reach.

  I remembered how Keras had handled the pendulum room in the spire. We didn’t have the same sword skills he did, but his solution was an easy one, and it would eliminate a good part of the danger.

  “Marissa, do you think you’d be able to cut through those spheres?”

  She frowned. “Haven’t had much luck with cutting metal. It’s tougher than stone. I could probably manage it if they were standin’ still, but it’d while. Can’t do it while they’re movin’ at that speed, wouldn’t get a clean cut. Maybe just the chains that’re holdin’ ‘em?”

  I considered that, then shook my head. “Too much of a risk that one of the spheres will fall on the grates. Those things don’t look like they can support too much weight, and it might break that part of the floor.”

  “That really a problem, t
hough? I think we could just hop across if the traps were gone.”

  I tried to judge the distance to the exits — it was probably about twenty feet. With my ring, I could make it easily. Patrick could levitate. Marissa could jump almost as far as I could, even without the ring.

  It was possible, but I still felt like it was a bad solution.

  “Let’s check the other room while we think.”

  We checked the other doorway from the entrance room.

  That room was more straightforward. The room was circular, with three piles of human-looking bones on the floor.

  Also, the bones were on fire.

  “Hope that isn’t the team we’re supposed to be rescuing,” Patrick remarked.

  Marissa shot him a shocked look, but I just laughed.

  “The door beyond it is open,” I pointed at the single door on the other side, “So they made it further. Those are probably some kind of animated bone monsters. Betting they’ll stand up when we get inside.”

  Marissa took on a contemplative look, then asked, “You boys ever do any bowling?”

  Two minutes later, we enacted the plan.

  As soon as the pendulum swung out of the doorway, Patrick pointed a hand at it. “Levitate.”

  The pendulum paused in its swing, then began to descend more slowly.

  This was expected — we knew it was probably too heavy for Patrick to hold it completely.

  I swung Selys-Lyann, projecting a wave of ice to hit the chain, freezing it solid.

  Marissa leapt from the ground, swinging a blade-aura from her hand and smashed the frozen chain.

  The pendulum slowly descended slowly to the floor.

  The three of us worked together to roll the sphere to the entrance to the other room.

  “Ready?”

  We lined it up.

  Patrick pointed again. “Levitate.” He couldn’t lift it completely, but that lowered the effective weight, making the sphere much easier to move.

  Marissa lowered herself, braced against the sphere, and then shoved.

  Crunch.

  The sphere crashed right into the first bone pile, mashing the skeleton to pulp.

  The three of us let out a combined cheer.