Elevation of Mana Chapter 201 To the Final Battle

Plains rose to form small hills, empty and burnt to the ground, those rose quickly towards the volcanic mountains, the old beds from lava-flows clear from high above. Well, at least it seemed like a short time from where we were. Perspective showed me things in almost real time as we moved, but the people on the ground undoubtedly had a different view of things.

Chien and I were, separate, apart, and we grew more so by the day. It wasn't that we held ourselves above our fellows, more that since we spent little time on the ground we didn't have the same view of things. They were seeing one angle, while we were seeing an entirely different one, and both were getting rather frustrated with the other.

Every time either of us went down to talk with Rolan, Neera, or anyone else people made quips, complained about how we weren't getting there, about how nothing was being done. The ground based individuals mostly resented that the enemy seemed gone, held together only by the Ancients.

For our part we weren't much better to them. They were so slow, and so frustratingly short sighted. I could see the trails of destruction from above, track them. Sure, it might not look like much from the ground but from a sky-side view it was obvious where we needed to go. Our enemy wasn't exactly subtle, and I knew we had trackers among us who could've pointed the trails out, so why didn't they?

I had a feeling it was all going to come to a head sooner or later, and we needed to finish before that happened. If our party broke we might not have the men to do what needed doing, and who knew what the outcome would be. No, I wanted to speed ahead and find answers, but we needed to stay together.

It was almost too soon that we reached the base of the mountains proper, or at least that was what I thought as I looked back upon it later. Finding a way up and over was easy enough with me looking down from above, pointing to the gentlest slopes and nearest navigable valleys. Nobody with us knew this area well enough to e of help.

That wasn't surprising, since as far as I knew the villages beyond the range were gone. There'd been reports of a few survivors, but most of them, most of the people I'd met as we passed through? They were no more, burnt to ash and soot by the monsters who now roamed the land. My memory hurt me here, as I could still see them in my mind as if they were before me, smiling and laughing, even though all were now gone or fled so far as they could.

One good part of all this was that the sky was blessedly clear. There were no clouds, and the volcanoes that now rose up around us let off little in the way of smoke or ash. They were quiet, placid, waiting. Even the places where it was clear rivers of lava flowed from time to time looked still and solid from up here. The reports from below confirmed it. None of these had released anything in some time, perhaps since this disaster started.

More questions rose to my mind. Were these creatures somehow sucking the energy from the volcanicly active region? Or was it the reverse, that while growing they fed into it, making what was normally a calm land into something wild and burning. Would our attack on them change things? Or did it even matter, since we had to do what we had to do?

A small blessing found us and soon I saw it. Painted at the very edge of my vision a line of pale blue. Upon finding the ocean I began to piece together memories, images, trying to pinpoint our place in the area. It was hard, trying to view things from the opposite side and above, but after consulting with Chien a bit we agreed. We were still a bit far south from where we should be. The trails here were harder to follow than they had been, the ground long destroyed and covered in them from one end to the other. So we took our conclusion and began to steer the hunting party northwards.

That night we saw it, we all saw it. It wasn't because the balloon was higher, or because I made some magical telescope, or anything like that. No, the reason was simple; the air glowed. It was all but impossible to tell how high the fires were, or how hot they burned, but they were burning. Every one of us saw the direction we were headed, all of us could see the light reflecting upwards, scattering like light pollution of untold levels across the night sky.

The light got brighter and brighter, but never closer, peaking around midnight. After that it began to fade, slowly retreating into the horizon from whence it had come. I had a feeling, deep, deep in my bones, that we'd just seen the last of their little murder orgies. Whatever it was was done, and now we needed to end it, right now, before anything else could go wrong.

By Rolan's command we left at dawn, the army moving out in a tight and fast formation. Overhead I prepared every weapon I had, every trick I could pull out. This would be the moment, the day that we won or lost. No need to hold back anything either way.

“Are we ready boss?” Chien asked, sounding nervous.

“As ready as we can be, now, let me know when we can see them.”

“The lava still isn't going, but there here,” he said after not much longer, hands gripping the wheel.

Before us the volcano rose to the sky, the land around it cold and dead. Parts of it still glowed a bit, residual head from what had happened the night before. The patches of hot rock were contained though, small enough to easily avoid.

A brief look told me that the beasts had divided in two, one to one side of the volcano, the other to the other, then gone about killing one another. While I couldn't be sure my guess was male and female there, all to leave only two of their kind, the two strongest. These two were near the peak now and... well doing what animals did.

The female seemed no different to me than any other of her kind, though to survive this she must have been strong. Mounting her though was my old friend. It seemed the white dino had conquered all his fellow and was now claiming his prize. He would father the next generation, one that would harry our race again in another thousand years if we didn't do something about it.

I planned to do something about it.