Chương 13: Arcoryx

It was a tiny bit rude that Ryland was a little distracted from Echoes of Stardust thanks to current ongoings." [Omniscience]." The spell sent his sight outside the train so that he could take in the hullaballoo and find out what was causing the slowdown. Hmm. Quite the commotion that. He decided to take care of it, since it appeared the mess kept growing worse every moment." [Unmaker's Sentence]." Realm 44's infamous mana-devouring crystals emerged from the cracks in reality that Ryland set all around the train.

The crystals spread out far and wide, growing through the crimson tide of Living Mana and easily swallowing it all up. His spell made the earth shake and the air shiver, the crystals' viridian sheen steadily overcoming the Incursion's ruddiness. There was probably a lot of screaming and screeching going on, but the sound was muted at best. He was just letting a lone eye through, nothing more. And that too only to keep an eye out and ensure the crystals didn't spread excessively far.

It wasn't long before things settled down.

"Those crystals," Viren said when he returned. The disbelieving look Ryland had seen so often was now shaded with suspicious resignation.

"That was you, wasn't it, sir?"

"The Ne'er-spawn?" Ryland said.

"Why yes. I'm surprised no one has come up with the same solution to the Living Mana problem yet, but at the same time, I'd be unsurprised if it was considered and then rejected."

"What do those things do? How are they eating the Living Mana?"

"The Ne'er-spawn eat mana. That's it. And oh, that includes anything even remotely associated with mana, including mages, manabeasts, Relics, and even Glyphs too. They are practically anathema to anything magic." Viren's eyes widened.

"Wait, if they're that destructive—""Not to worry. As you can see, I'm already sending them back." Even now, as the last of the Living Mana Incursion was consumed by the metallic crystals, Ryland was returning it all back to Realm 44 with his rifts. Fractures broke reality around them faster than they could eat the magic that caused them, and soon enough, they were all gone. Like they had never been here to begin with.

"Since this wasn't a populous land," Ryland said.

"And the Living Mana had neither significantly breached the train nor had been engaged directly by any defenders, I had free rein to use the Ne'er-spawn. Understandably, this measure would have been prohibitively difficult in most other scenarios." Viren shuddered a little bit.

"Right. I felt like getting close to those things would have gone really bad for me."

"Yes, most likely." Ryland waited for a while for the train to get going. Viren seemed to be in a ruminating mood, not ready to talk, though he figured the boy would pop up with questions sooner rather than later. Eventually, however, they still hadn't resumed motion. There was a little bit of time before Ryland would be preoccupied again, so he rang the bell that summoned the conductor. Colm appeared almost instantaneously.

"My lord, how may I be of assistance?"

"I hope there haven't been any serious casualties," Ryland said.

"None thankfully, my lord."

"Good. Would you mind telling me when we'll resume our journey?"

"Uh, we're finishing up repairs before we start, my lord. We're still not certain if the Incursion is truly gone or if it has simply taken on a new form…"

"It is mostly gone for the time being."

"I told you," Viren piped up, shooting the conductor a soft glare.

"They didn't want to believe me, but I told them it was gone for good. Thanks to you, sir."

"You… really did that?" Colm asked, eyes widening.

"The other lords are still debating what exactly caused the Incursion to be devoured like that, and a few were certain we were beset with an even worse problem, but it's all gone now. All of it just disappeared."

"I can assure you, the problem has been dealt with," Ryland said. While he sympathized with their consternation, and perhaps it was on him to assuage their general fears, he also didn't possess boundless patience.

"I can't speak for other Incursions down the line, but I am certain that we're all safe here. So, kindly make arrangements to continue the journey." Colm looked a little like Ryland had simultaneously lifted years' worth of burdens off his shoulders while also putting him under a deep-sea-trench's worth of pressure. But he picked up the note in Ryland's words anyway.

"We will see to it immediately, my lord. We apologize for the delay." Once Ryland had dismissed the apology, the conductor bowed deeply once and left. True to Colm's word, it didn't take a whole lot of time afterwards before the train resumed its journey. They were headed for the academy. [Achievement Recognized: Ascending Incursionist You have defeated a Mithril-ranked Living Mana Incursion despite being merely Silver-ranked. Reward: Rank up from Silver [50] to Silver [75]. Reward: 80 Glyph Prints. Achievement absorbed by Manasoul Archetype [???].] Ah. Now he was getting Glyph Prints as rewards rather than just Evolution Prints. Ryland had worked with both before, of course. They were a fundamental part of working with Glyphs in general, at least if the caster was in the business of getting more of them or evolving the ones they possessed. Perhaps, when the fancy struck him to try out a new Glyph, he'd now have an easier time of it. A very, very slight one.

Just eighty prints was about a twelfth of the amount he'd need if he wanted to create a Tier 20 Glyph from scratch.

"You saved us in the end, sir," Viren said after a little while.

"Against a Mithril-ranked Incursion." While the windows provided ample privacy, Ryland had no trouble sensing the other nobles outside. They had gathered together a long while back, and even after the train had got going again, they hadn't dispersed. Several times, he felt some of the subtlest magical probes he had ever experienced thrown his way, but they always recoiled as soon as they came close. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Oh, I don't know about saving." Ryland closed his eyes, returning them to where they had been on Realm 21 to watch more of Echoes of Stardust.

"I'm certain the train's passengers would have been able to successfully defend themselves."

"Then why did you interfere? Because the train was slowing down?" Ryland noted the use of interfere.

"Precisely."

"But… what about your show?" He twisted his head up from where he was lying on the bed. Poor boy seemed exhausted.

"Aren't you missing it even now? Or is it over?"

"Oh, no. Not at all. We're just in an intermission. They have rather lengthy advertisements, unfortunately. It's gotten rather obnoxious over the years, truth be told. I can recite, word for word, the exact procedure for magical soap that doesn't just clean you once but automatically cleans you up to six times afterwards whenever you get dirty." Viren stared at him. Then strange laughter bubbled out of him until he was clutching his stomach.

Tallow, who had returned to Viren when the boy had reappeared, meowed along with the laughter.

"You should get some rest," Ryland said.

"I'm about to resume my show."

"I will, sir. I…"

"Is something the matter?" Ryland wasn't in the habit of asking stupid questions because of course there was a lot that might have been the matter for Viren after the day he had gone through. But the boy wasn't the best at expressing himself, despite the frequent way his mouth ran away from him. That said, Ryland didn't want to pressure him.

"You were brave out there." Objectively, the other side of the coin was that he might as well have remained within their cabin for all the effect he'd had. But blunt and oblivious though Ryland usually was, he could still recognize when such a method of response would be needlessly callous. Most of the time, at least. It helped that Viren was a very self-aware individual.

"I don't know about brave," he said.

"Because what's the point of bravery when I'm not affecting anything? But that wasn't what I was about to ask." Ryland remained silent, letting Viren mull over his words.

"You're no hero, are you, sir?" he asked. Ryland was a little bit stumped because he hadn't been expecting that.

"Did I ever claim to be one?"

"No, you didn't." Viren was lying flat on the bed again, facing the distant ceiling. Maybe some would have considered that disrespectful, but he was being properly open for a change, and Ryland appreciated that.

"But everything you do is heroic. The way you've been saving people, the way you saved me and Tallow, it's all the stuff that heroes dream about."

"I sense there is a second but."

"There is. Because although you keep doing heroic stuff, every time I ask you anything, nothing you ever say is heroic. You don't act like a hero."

"Hmm, I see. I think. How exactly are these heroes of yours supposed to act?"

"I'm glad you asked, sir." He shot up to a sitting position, a book with a bright cover in his hand.

"This is The Legend of the Last Turnalians. It's a hero story, but I like to think of it as the beginner's guide to heroes." Ryland took the book, perusing it a bit. It wasn't unfamiliar to him.

"You rather like heroes, don't you?" Viren looked at Ryland critically.

"Yes." He plopped back onto bed.

"I do, sir." He froze.

"Oh, crap. I didn't make you late for your show, did I? Sorry, I lost track of time." Ryland smiled.

"I'll read your book a little later. Right now, I have a little bit of catching up to do. Do you want me to cast another Glyph of Tranquillity before you sleep?"

"I…" Viren bit his lip, then sighed.

"Yes, please. Thank you, sir."

"Don't mention it." Ryland did as he himself had suggested, though he cast a Glyph of Suppression on top of Tranquillity to both minimize its effects and its light. Otherwise, it would mess with Viren's sleep. Still, it'd help. After everything he had gone through, it was natural that Viren might experience some nightmares. The Glyph ought to help against that. There was no further conversation to be had as Ryland immersed himself in Echoes of Stardust.

This was a rather climactic episode near the end of a three-year long arc, so he was enjoying himself immensely. When he was done, he found Viren sleeping soundly with Tallow in his arms. They looked rather adorable together like that, and Ryland felt a strange surge of protectiveness. Hopefully, the boy had eaten before calling it a night. Their journey ended around dawn. It had thankfully been eventless.

Only two intervening stops, each lasting barely ten minutes or so, before they were off to their main destination of Arcoryx City. Ryland stepped out with a bleary-eyed Viren. Neither of them had any real baggage to speak of, unlike the mountainous hordes that their fellow first-class passengers were lugging along, so they left pretty quickly. Colm was bowing constantly until the train was lost from view entirely.

Just before entering the city proper, Ryland had taken a few minutes to once again review his own Inscriptions. It was the same issue as Sunstile. Just exacerbated. If Sunstile had a few alarms to indicate magical anomalies within its borders, Arcoryx was a veritable fortress and treasure vault rolled into one when it came to matters of security.

Someone like Ryland walking into Arcoryx willy-nilly was liable to make every single power in the city zero in on him like tiger fish spotting a carcass in a southern river. Ryland didn't blame them for it. Centuries of surviving against Incursions of Living Mana had made nearly every Realm wary of its effect. Just a few years ago, Ryland had passed through a hollowed-out city that had been too lax about its vigilance.

Living Mana had taken the shape of regular people, of apparent citizens who seemed to belong just like everyone else. They had integrated into the city, slowly building up their numbers, integrating into the settlement with no one the wiser. Until the Living Mana had revealed its true colours and destroyed it from the inside in one fell, fatal, and final swoop. Utterly insidious.

Instances like that made it eminently reasonable for the existence of paranoia-levels of caution most Vyrdians employed against Living Mana. Although, the state of Sunstile professed things weren't as intense any longer. Hmm. Of course, measures such as those made it a bit difficult for someone like Ryland to come and go wherever he wanted. That was, if he cared about evading the hundreds of eyes. Which he did, at the moment.

He was closer than ever to the next piece of himself on Vyrd, and he wanted to get close enough to determine if it was an imminent threat or not. Getting caught up with the local authorities wasn't a distraction he wanted to get embroiled in just then. Ryland didn't think there was any reason to worry. None of his senses were alarmed. He had received no word of anything odd happening in Arcoryx. But as another Glyph of Questing had confirmed, the next piece was definitely here.

So, before he deboarded the train, before the train entered the city perimeters, Ryland ensured he had lowered his magical defences some more and suppressed most of his Inscribed Glyphs. Almost all two-hundred-and-forty-one of them. That said, he was positive he had still triggered some alarms as he stepped onto the station platform. The magical probes that came his way were about a hundred degrees more sophisticated than the comparatively crude ones the nobles had used in the first-class carriage.

These ones didn't get rebuffed by his presence, especially since most of his Inscribed Glyphs were down. Casting a Glyph of Warning had confirmed his suspicion—he had been noted. But by whom was something only time would reveal. Viren seemed blissfully unaware of all that, though. He turned as soon as they had gotten off the train, rapidly rubbing the last remnants of sleep out of his eyes to stare at Ryland very resolutely.

"Sir, you're heading to the academy, right?"

"I am," Ryland said.

"How about we go together, unless you had business elsewhere first?" Virens seemed to deflate a little at Ryland taking the initiative before him, but then he straightened, his earlier resolute look returning. He seemed to be a lot more chipper this morning. Maybe that little spell to ward off any nightmares had helped.

"No, the only business I've got today is showing you around Arcoryx and getting you where you need to be, sir." Ryland smiled.

"That's rather nice of you."

"It's the least I can do. I know you've been here before, but things have probably changed a lot since then." Ryland's smile widened at that. Shrewd boy.

"So just tell me where you need to be and I'll take you right there. You can count on me!" With that, they headed off. Arcoryx was indeed tremendously different since Ryland had last visited centuries ago. It was still the City of Glass as it was famously known all over Vyrd, one of the brightest jewels of the nation of Androvia. But things had grown a lot more… modernized, was the best way Ryland could put it.

Before, the expensive magical glass had been reserved for the houses of rich nobles, the local residence of the royal family, and of course, for Arcoryx Academy itself. Now, it was a lot more prevalent. It was there in the towering apartment complexes that had replaced the teetering, multi-storey houses with sloped slate roofs, in the streetlamps lining every road—which were significantly wider than the streets Ryland was familiar with—and in the public art the administration had installed over the years.

Clearly, expanding Arcoryx Academy to the unparalleled institution where all the brightest young minds of the Accorded Realms gathered and grew up had benefited the city greatly.

"This tram heads straight to the academy, sir," Viren said, munching on his roll. Ryland had made sure to get breakfast soon after they had left the station. Growing lads needed food. He had gotten one too, but Tallow ate more of his than he did. He supposed growing kittens needed food too.

"Interesting," Ryland said when he had seen the trams." Interesting," he had repeated when the trams had taken a flyover to head straight to the Arcoryx Academy. It wasn't just the architecture itself. The very planning and layout of the city had advanced a great deal. And then they had arrived.

"Beautiful," Ryland murmured, staring at the familiar edifice of the academy. At where it had all begun for him.

"Now let's go see if we can meet the Headmaster."