Ultimately, Rakna returned to the Forefront Plateau, on his own this time. He reappeared inside the now rather unpopulated place and looked up.
"Candy Road…" He smiled in amusement. "What an awe-inspiring name, little sister. Truly."
He checked his surroundings, noticing that some Locals and Hosts had already begun to install a few types of infrastructure inside the Plateau. Half were likely personal initiatives, and the rest, Azheim's suggestions.
"Hi! You're that famous pup, right?"
A chirpy voice sounded and Rakna felt something land on his shoulder. He had naturally allowed it to happen, sensing no harmful intent, and he angled his eyes down to look at a girl the size of his hand.
She had translucent wings, wearing a strangely modern outfit composed of a skirt and a sweater, and was swinging her legs without a care in the world. She had long blonde hair and green eyes.
If bigger, she would most probably look like a respectable and mature lady.
"A… fairy?"
"Yep~" She bobbed her head. "The super rare kind! It's sad, right? I'm the only fairy around," she pouted her lower lip. "Stupid System. I know we're rare, but it should try harder."
Rakna's eyes widened, recalling who she may be.
"Excuse me, you are…?"
"Oh, Terelia; that's my name!"
Eye of Symphony instantly identified her with that information. She was a Host too, ranked quite high, despite impressions, at the 17th spot. Terelia, The Shepherd, is a fairy known not for having a royal title or a guild but for being one of the oldest Hosts.
The System is stringent on Hosts' lifespans and actively seizes the life expectancy that matches their level. Most die of old age before reaching a millennium. Otherwise, if they're part of a long-lived race, they tend to enter the Eonian Plateau after reaching an 'Immortal Enlightenment', per the System's terms.
Terelia was one of the few still remaining on the main Plateaus. As a matter of fact, there wasn't any Host currently active that was above two thousand years of age.
Of course, this fairy wasn't famous just because she was old. She is known to roam and take in all sorts of students under her wing. Whether it be Locals, Hosts, or Wilden; she finds them at their worst and teaches them to stand on their own.
For example, Gretta – ranked 44th and captain of Friedhof – and Haschwalt Sakritt – ranked 12th and the leader of Silver Sacrament – were once both picked up by her in their childhood.
Frankly, Rakna was a bit anxious to have her sit on his shoulder.
"Are you going up right now?" Terelia inquired harmlessly.
"Yes."
"Hm. I went up there earlier. It's nothing impressive. It does make me crave candies though."
Rakna sweatdropped.
"But... I do have some unrelated advice for you," the fairy jumped and started hovering, glittering dust falling from her wings. Her expression changed and her eyes truly began to reflect her years of experience. "I've heard a lot about you, pup. How are you doing nowadays?"
"Um… fine?" The therian replied hesitantly, not grasping the intent of the question.
"Hm. Did you know that fairies can see into the future?"
"What…?"
"Well, it's not the kind you're thinking about though," she quickly added. "Long story short, when we look at someone, we feel a certain amount of… let's call it tingles," she defaulted. "And based on it, we appraise their future."
Terelia hopped on her own fairy dust, gliding around. "You see, there's a 'normal amount' that is best for living organisms to have. And we fairies love to 'fix' the irregular cases. We even find our love through it; a fairy can instantly tell apart their soul mate thanks to that sense."
"…are you saying there's something wrong with mine?"
"You make me feel very tingly," she said almost too seriously.
"…that's a weird way to put it."
"I'm sure it is," she smiled impishly. "Sadly for you, you're not my soul mate."
"I never hoped for it."
"However, I can't sense anything from you at times," she resumed. "It's like you're a vibrator, and then you suddenly become a noodle. And you keep switching between the two."
"…please stop."
"Stop what?" She feigned ignorance. "Case in point; do you have any idea what not causing any fairy tingles means for someone?
"…no."
"They're going to die very soon," she answered curtly. "But I'm not here to warn you. Considering the hyperactive side of the tingles, you probably have an ultra-complicated future, to the point it managed to loop back around to the present somehow."
Rakna was silent; she had gotten it on the nose.
"My advice is more of an encouragement," the fairy beamed. "You are going to do big things. And it's my personal duty to tell you this; don't be afraid and go forward. You're going to succeed."
"…"
Terelia chuckled at his speechless state and flew to his back to push him. "Now, pup, to the moon you go! We might never see each other again, so I'll say this now: I wish you a good life!"
Before Rakna could ask why she would make that claim, when he looked over his shoulder, she had already disappeared. For a moment, he was unmoving. An unknown part of his instincts was flaring up.
"…well, thanks, at least."
He muttered and spread his wings. Silver light ran down the feathers and a second later, he was hundreds of meters deep into the Candy Road.
Rakna observed the colors passing by as they mixed into one. While the gateways to the Plateaus were being registered in slow motion by Eye of Symphony, he simultaneously dodged eccentric obstacles such as bubbles, wooden trunks, floating cubes of pure steel, or long stripes of rainbow cloth.
All sections of the tunnel seemed to be themed and designed in accordance with their respective sets of 5 Plateaus. But at the speed he was going, Rakna barely spent a second in each.
'400, 410, 420…' He counted in his mind and finally began to feel a push back. It wasn't quite like gravity, but like ropes slowly being attached to him. Rather than pressed down, it felt like he was required to pull the weight of the Plateaus he had flown past.
'500, 505…' After reaching the middle point and leaving behind the golden and blue design of Old Eden, he finally transformed to maintain his speed. 'The metaphysical stability is growing fast, but still not on the level of the Celestial Plateau.'
Rakna narrowed his eyes, and the lenses of his pupils shifted slightly, a cue for his attributes to optimize themselves. Instead of slowing down, he accelerated. And it was then that the obstacles stopped being static.
Some artlessly fell with the power of a thousand points of mana, others sprouted from the walls in an attempt to impale him, and the rest continuously chased him and exploded.
Yet, the werewolf did not even blink. Without him doing anything, Pronos intervened and forced everything in their way to slow down, whilst accelerating his master in parallel. As for the rest of the issues, the hydra merely looked at them and they turned to stone, destroyed by Rakna with a flick of his hand clad in rupture.
'750...' Only when he crossed another big milestone did he finally show visible struggle. While he could redistribute his attributes at will and Pronos could take care of distractions, the Road was demanding on all attributes. If he forsook speed, he at least needed a good amount in endurance, strength, and dexterity.
Though, that would be a consideration for later since he had reached his destination. He speared his arm into the wall of the 755th Plateau's gateway. The surroundings were mainly vegetal, with small alleviations. As for the entrance, it was a spherical portal floating in the center.
Pronos cried out curiously.
"Mhm. That's our stop, we'll go up later," Rakna said. "It won't even be that hard," he smiled as he jumped toward the miniature sun-like entrance. "I haven't even used any magic yet."
* * *
❮ ◈ ❯
You have entered the 755th Plateau, Sun Call.
Your Title, ForefrontRunner, has been updated.
❮ ◈ ❯
Rakna landed on a particularly slanting ground, in a small forestry illuminated by a soft orangish hue. Reverting into a therian, he straightened himself and looked around.
Without thinking too much of it, he started walking toward the end of this forest and the closer he got, the rockier the soil felt, with considerably less tree roots.
Eventually, when the view up and down the terrain's slanted ground was open, Rakna paused in his steps to admire it. As a matter of fact, this entire Plateau was a mountain in and of itself.
The way down seemed to go on endlessly with several layers of clouds. The way up was another thing entirely. Although it was stupidly far away, the top of this colossal mountain could be seen through the clouds, and basically encrusted into it… was a sun.
A sun several times bigger than the one in Rakna's world. Not only was it massive and somehow part of the mountain top as if it were a volcano's product, but it also had two distinct halves; one yellow and the other orange.
The latter shone upon where Rakna was, and the former faced the other side, from which he was close enough to see the border.
Lastly…
"It's moving," the therian muttered as CrossSight analyzed the sun. To be exact, it was rotating around its y-axis. Looking away from the scenery, Rakna huffed and extended his hand, using his newest title-given privilege.
"[Open – 0755,]" he recited and a flat curtain of pale blue light appeared. The center undulated with a white gradient and within seconds, someone came out of it.
"Aah… so, you really did reach it," Higure breathed in and out as soon as she stepped out. With a melancholic gaze, she looked up at the two-faced sun.
"Obviously. Did you think a silly tunnel could hold me back?" Rakna snorted.
At the same time, a second person came out of the Portal. Ceresta slowly walked out with a small twinkle in her eyes and a curious expression. The doll-like beauty looked around like a cat, every detail scrutinized.
"So, this is Sun Call…" She whispered. "I was aware of what it looked like, but…"
"It's always better in person, isn't it?" Rakna smiled. When he left his territory, Ceresta had been meditating outside. And when she asked if she could come along, he had no reason to refuse.
She enthusiastically nodded her head at his words.
Higure glanced at her and smiled bitterly. "Yes… I agree," she uttered and wordlessly wandered off. Ceresta looked at her back, noticing something wrong thanks to her growing awareness, but before she could say anything, Rakna stopped her by patting her shoulder.
The therian shook his head and led her to follow the lioness.
"…Sun Call has two predominant races," Higure began to speak without looking behind her. Her tone reminded Rakna of when they met. "The Dusk Lions, and the Dawn Tigers. Both generally live on opposite sides of the Sun Peak, which you can see has two sides. Rather than focusing on the logic of their colors, it's faster to say that each has its own unique power."
She didn't stop walking as she explained. "The Dusk has a 'low field' and produces a warm light that is close to the ground. The Dawn is brighter but has a 'high field' that illuminates the sky and clouds more. Hence, on this side, we live in a warmer air where light illuminates the clouds from below while on the other, the land is murkier and their clouds floodlit from above."
"But… the Peak also rotates," she added and stopped at the edge of a cliff. As they looked at the vast meadow beyond, the three of them spotted a pride of lions resting in the tall grass. Most had deep black fur and red eyes. But some had the end of their ears and legs covered in dark orange fur; others had fading stripes on their entire body.
They were, without saying, Dusk Lions. And all of them, without exception, had sensed them the moment that they arrived on the Plateau. Although they seemed too lazy to bother, Rakna could tell they were keeping an eye out for them.
A few cubs did look up at them though. But it was on an impulse; to look at Higure who bore the smell of their race yet was different. It aroused their curiosity.
"Periodically, the areas shift," as if the sight did not matter, Higure continued. "A full rotation is ten days. Within that period, it is not unusual for Lions and Tigers to meet at the border to fight. Maybe it's genetics; but we have a near-inescapable desire to battle each other."
She turned away from the lions and headed somewhere else. "Usually, it was in good sport. But it could get messy," she added and began to gather dimensional energy at her feet. "Let's go."
"Where are we going?" Ceresta asked first.
"To where I died."