Alex and Claire didn’t bother heading far to rest. Instead, they just made their way over to a small seating area just a few minutes away from the entrance of the Arena. It was amidst what seemed to be some manner of garden. There weren’t actually any plants within it, but someone had — likely quite meticulously — shaped fluffy clouds along the length of golden strands in a very good imitation of foliage around the chairs and tables.
The chairs were made up of the very same materials. There were around ten of them, scattered about the fake plants, and roughly half already had someone relaxing within them. It wasn’t hard to tell why. Alex sank and Claire found a pair of open seats and sank into them.
They were impossibly comfortable. The soft cloudy material compressed beneath Alex’s weight, hardening just enough to provide support and retain its shape beneath him. It seemed to emanate a faint warmth. Something about it was almost soothing.
“Whoa,” Claire muttered as she let herself get comfortable. “I’d pay a few good Credits to get something like this back in Mirrorwane.”
“Me too,” Alex said, looking up to the sky as he let his posture degrade into that of a shrimp. He wasn’t sure if the Empty Court somehow controlled the weather as well, but it was perfect. Just warm and comfortable enough to coax him towards sleep when he stopped moving. “This is the stuff. If we didn’t have a million things we needed to do back in 274-50, I wouldn’t mind staying here for months.”
“Me neither,” Claire admitted. “But I don’t think there’s going to be much for us to return to if we stay here beyond today. The world isn’t going to wait around for us.”
Alex sighed. He pushed himself into a slightly better position. “Goddamn Outworlders. What’s wrong with just sitting around to smell the roses sometimes?”
“Are you really the one asking me that?” Claire asked. “Did that dragon hit your head hard enough to knock things back into place?”
Alex snorted. “No. I was just running my mouth. To be honest, I’d probably get bored here well before a month. As fun as the Arena is, there’s only so much we can get from it if we aren’t also getting stronger between uses.”
“Speaking of which…” Claire let her neck roll over the back of her chair so she could look at him without having to lift her head from the fluffy chair. “Two hours is cutting it close, but it might be enough to meditate. And I think the Empty Court is probably a pretty safe place to do it. You haven’t spent any of the power we’ve gathered recently. There should be a pretty good amount of it, right?”
Alex nodded. “Yeah. I was actually about to suggest the same. Well, after I sat here a bit longer. These chairs are way too damn comfortable for their own good. They might be dangerous.”
“They might be,” Claire agreed with a small grin. “But I’m going to try and squeeze some meditation in before our fight. As long as we move quickly, I think we should be able to squeeze an advancement or two in before our fight with Evelyn. And given that we’re betting one of our Denari on this…”
“Yeah,” Alex said. “We can’t afford to lose.”
They didn’t need to say anything else. Both of them closed their eyes.
And, a moment later, Alex’s mind was deep within his soul.
He stood upon the now-familiar dark lake before his massive marble basin. Blue light shone through the fingers of the gargantuan hand looming over it, illuminating swathes of the water like a not-so-distant sun. Around him rose three full marble pillars bearing his soul gems as well as a few feet of a new one, spaced between two of the others. Two more pillars lurked just beneath the water, in wait of more strength. Alex could already see the rough circle that they would form around his circle once all of the pillars had completely risen.
And then, sitting at the back of his soul, bound by white chains as he always was, sat Berith.
“You’re getting closer,” the Demon said in a jovial, raising a hand slightly. The chain binding it ground taut, but Alex didn’t miss the faint cracks building in one of the links. “I wonder how much farther you’ll have to go before I am free.”
“I suppose we’ll find out, won’t we?” Alex asked as he started up the stairs of his basin toward the cloud of churning magical mist far overhead. He cast a glance over his shoulder. “Though you don’t seem to be considering the possibility that I get strong enough to kill you before you escape.”
Berith’s laughter rolled through his soul. “You’re welcome to try. The day you’re anywhere near strong enough to truly hurt me will come well after I am already free. But I encourage you to give it your best shot. It might be amusing.”
Knowing Berith, that would probably just somehow damage the bindings or something. I think I’m good… at least until I don’t have a better option.
Alex reached the top of his stairs and walked over to the edge of his basin, sitting down and letting his legs dangle over the edge. He craned his neck back to stare up at the huge cloud of magical power. There really was a lot of it. It had been too long since he’d last had a chance to meditate.
Best get started. Don’t have all that much time.
He drew in a deep breath, steadying himself as he let it out slowly.
Then he started to meditate.
Drop by drop, power materialized from the mist, raining down into the basin below. Alex remained focused. He didn’t let himself get distracted by the sheer number of drops that started to rain down, nor did he pay any attention to the levels of the magical water quickly rising beneath him.
He kept meditating until every single drop from the huge orb of mist above had been condensed into his basin. Only then did he pull himself from his meditation to take a look at the fruits of his labor.
Alex’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
The water had nearly filled the massive basin entirely. He wasn’t sure exactly how much strength it actually represented since of how much power every consecutive level needed… but he knew that it was still quite the significant boost. It was definitely quite a few levels, even at the Adept stage.
But he didn’t have any Units right now. There was no way for him to get a new ability quite yet — which meant the most optimal way he could spend the power he’d just gathered was to reinforce his soul. Alex gathered his focus again. He was pretty sure he still had time. Claire would have shaken him awake if he didn’t.
Then he leaned forward. A tendril of water extended up from the basin in accordance to his will. It rose to his mouth, and he drank.
Freezing energy raced through his body in a heartbeat. His back went stiff and his hands clenched into fists as the ice-cold magic coursed through him, but Alex kept drinking.
Waves crashed beneath him. They beat against the walls of the basin as power flooded his soul, drawing the pillars up from the depths of the darkness. Fingers of frost tightened around his heart and ran across his back as the water levels in the basin dropped rapidly.
More and more power filled Alex, worming deep into his being. The intensity of the waves pounding against his basin was enough to make it feel like the entire world were trembling. And, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a glint in the sky.
Then one of the stars dropped from its place in the vast darkness overhead.
Pressure bore down on Alex almost immediately. It pressed into his chest and squeezed his eyes, growing stronger as the lone star plummeted down from the sky and hurtled toward him and his basin in a streak of screaming white light.
His Vision had activated.
It had been a while since he’d gathered enough power to knock one of the stars from the sky, but the increasing amount of pressure driving down on him as it grew closer didn’t really give him time to admire the amount of strength he’d gathered.
Alex drew deep on his strength.
The great marble hand overhead rumbled. Its fingers bent, then opened once more. It extended upward, reaching up for the star as it came hurtling down on a mission to pulverize his entire soul into ash. Blood dripped from Alex’s palms as his fingernails dug into them. Waves crashed against his basin even harder. Ironically, if it hadn’t been for the pressure pinning him to the ground, he might have been knocked from his perch.
Alex extended his senses to the Singularity Core, drawing on every scrap of power within his soul and pumping it into the outstretched marble hand. He bared his teeth. The star came closer still, its light practically blinding him as it seared into everything that wasn’t covered by the shadow of the fingers above.
He braced.
And then, with a deafening crash, the star slammed down.
A huge shockwave tore through Alex’s soul. His ears popped. Sound evaporated. The entire world went quiet in an instant. But that did nothing to stop the enormous waves that rippled out in every direction, rising up nearly as tall as the marble hand itself.
Water smashed into Alex. It swept him from his spot on the basin, but he managed to catch onto the lip as he slipped over the edge, swinging there from one hand.
And then the waves quieted.
Alex remained there for a moment, just clutching the edge of the basin and fighting to catch his breath. The pressure from the star was gone. He’d caught it.
A grin pulled across his lips. Then Alex pulled himself back up onto the edge of the basin. All the water within it had been completely drained away. He could feel its power within him — and within the fourth mote of light now shimmering upon the palm of the marble hand above him.
He took a moment just to catch his breath. His gaze turned down to his soul beneath him. He blinked in surprise.
Wow. That really was a lot of power, wasn’t it?
The pillar that had been only a few feet out of the water before he’d started meditating had risen all the way to the same height as the original three — and it wasn’t alone. Both of the other pillars that had been hiding beneath the waters of his lake had fully risen as well.
The six of them stood perfectly distanced from one another, ready to bear the weight of whatever came next. He couldn’t quite make out what else was trying to emerge from the lake’s depths, but there was definitely another shimmer of distant marble deep within the water.
Alex flexed his fingers. His body had gotten even stronger. His magical energy reserves had grown considerably, as had his Qi. There was nearly two times as much Qi within the centermost part of his soul as there had been before he’d started meditating.
Goddamn. That was… significant. Is this really how fast everyone else grows? Or is it my Vision giving me an advantage? I haven’t even left the Adept stage yet. Even if these are only body and soul enhancements… this is just as significant as body tempering.
Alex rolled his neck, shifting from foot to foot as he let his mind re-familiarize itself with his strengthened body.
There was only one way to know for sure how significant the changes were…
And that was to put them to the test.
I sure hope Evelyn wasn’t counting on Claire and I being as strong as we were at the end of the fight she last saw. Because, if she is, I think she might be about to get a very nasty surprise.