Reaching Salvation: Post-Acer Part 2

Heidi blinked, a bit surprised, before patting the wolf on the head. "Good wolf," she praised happily. She did like dogs a lot...

"Bit fragile, this," Tom replied, laying a hand on the bear's head. It glowed briefly, and Nathan felt any sort of lingering Flow control he had over the earth beast be pushed out as Tom took over his natural element, firming it up.

"Nice job at the same time. Handy Flow, that."

The wolf wagged its tail before letting out a brief bark before crouching right down so that Heidi could get onto it.

Nathan meanwhile had leapt onto the Lion with a smirk. Feeling his control on the bear go he nodded. Tom's bear was massive, like a Polar Bear but about four times as big.

"When you're already, we'll leave."

Tom lifted himself onto the bear's back with his Flow, before making a comfortable saddle-seat since it was such a big bear.

"I could get used to this," Tom replied.

"These beasts have a habit of being extremely loyal. If you earn their trust then they're yours." He said to both adults.

"Good t'know, good t'know," Tom said, scanning his beast approvingly. The bear could come in handy alright.

Heidi nodded absentmindedly to Nathan, seating herself on the wolf. "Yeah...I bet he...she'd be good at helping to protect Simon..." she mused.

"Alright. Let's go." Nathan said, spurring the lion to take off at a run.

"Ah...follow after Nathan?" Heidi told the wolf a bit apprehensively. There were no reigns...how was she supposed to get it to start like a horse if there weren't any reigns? On that matter, how was she supposed to get it to stop?

Tom's bear began moving, keeping pace with Heidi.

The wolf nodded to Heidi before taking off after Nathan.

"So, where exactly are we going again? You did say details on the way," Heidi asked, wrapping her hands around the wolf's fur so she didn't fall off.

"There was more than one Acer Tournament." Nathan answered. "We'll be going to one of the other sets of ruins."

"More than one?" Heidi groaned. "Great, just great."

Many miles away, a lone figure ran through the barren wasteland, trying to escape the ones who were pursuing them. They had been running for most of the day, and the sun was beginning to set, but they could not stop now. If they stopped, they would catch him/her...

And if they caught him/her...they would use him/her to hurt more people...

"How'd you figure out there was more than one? How many are there, anyway?" Heidi asked after a moment.

"Shima told me about the five tournaments first." Nathan explained. "And then I found out more from his files." He added, choosing to keep the map a secret. Can't mention the flow yet either...

"But why does it matter? The Big Five are all dead and gone," Heidi questioned. "Sure there might've been other tournaments, but that just means there's more people like us, right?"

"Wrong." Nathan answered. "These guys are like us only they've been completely manipulated by the Big Five into doing their bidding... almost like their own personal army." He explained. "Also... I wouldn't be so sure about the Big Five all being gone. Sure, you guys managed to kill Vanthus whilst I with the odd help from Eithne, Tom and Oliver, killed Thadius, Anya, Arcebus and Shima... But did anyone actually see Lillian die?"

"I have no facts at the moment, but I think that she may not be as dead as we think..."

"Lillian...great. Are the armies taking orders from her, if she's still alive? Y'think they would've dispersed if they had no leaders..." Heidi sighed. Out of all the adults who'd been in and out of running the tournament, she had to say that Lillian was the one she disliked the most, due to Flow.

"Even if she's dead... what happens if she managed to get a message back to their army?" Nathan asked rhetorically. "We all know they were looking for people to take over as the New Big Five... what's to say they didn't find them? In which case, surely she'd want revenge on both of our respective groups?"

He continued riding.

"Again this is all speculation... but think about it, four additional tournaments worth of people that could have been a lot bigger than our, with every single person who was in it, gunning for us? We could be facing odds of up to a hundred to one."

"If they're looking for people to take over as the new Big Five, couldn't one of us simply infiltrate like that? I might be a little too young to pull off the Big Five, but someone like Joey, who was older in the tournament, could infiltrate...

"And if they're all looking for us, y'think they would've found us already...I mean, most of us are in one big village. You'd be able to find us via Flow alone."

"By that logic we should have found them," Tom pointed out, joining in for the first time.

"Judging by Shima's notes the originally planned to pick five of us as their successors. Obviously that failed when we started killing them..." Nathan responded. "Meaning they had to opt elsewhere. There are two reasons why they haven't attacked yet. The first is because they've been getting themselves stronger all whilst gathering information on us."

"Secondly, it's because I've been fighting off any and every scouting patrol that I sense coming to close to our mini country that fits into the world." Hearing Tom's comment he smirked. "Shima's notes also mentioned that a Super Continent was formed during the storm, bigger than Africa and Europe combined from back before the storm. We only occupy a small amount of land, the other towers are all split apart in a pentagon.

"Did I ever come into contact with these? Becuase if I didn't, I could be the one to infiltrate. I'm powerful enough, and probably old enough," Tom replied, thinking. A megacontinent. Today was revelation after revelation.