33. Finally made it. Not as it appears.

Silver and her group escaped pyre city, leaving destruction and flames behind. Traveling forth to the city uninterrupted through the reminder of the night and the early lights of morning, the group all passed out, the soft snoring a comforting sound to the only energetic soul. Silver wide awake,her thoughts filled with her inner world, and the future possibilities. 'How much running do I have to do? How much do I have to fight and bleed for my right to exist?' Silver thinks, tired already even though only a few days have passed, she can already feel the strain of it all, nearly dying and having not even gotten to her destination. She pushes on, the thrusters whining from the continuous strain, but she doesn't care, knowing nothing that breaks will be broken long. From time to time, she can see beautiful glimpses of water and open pasture between the trees. Managing to push on most of the day before her eyes catch glimpses of people, or more their disturbance in the mana she can see. With this, silver frowns, eventually opting to make some traps, silver starts spawning her turrets amidst choke areas, and sporadically throughout the path behind her, even in the middle of the trail, leaving them to defend and slow down her pursuers. 'You may be fast to get scouts out apollo...but you still underestimate the craftiness of a cornered fox...' She thinks with a smirk. Leaving her turrets behind, like traps waiting, she navigates the massive forest almost as if she had been raised in it, the maps and information she has gathered for years being more than a maps worth. Hours pass after she had ditched the first signs of scouts to her turrets, the sun is setting and the crew long awakened now, the girls have picked up on watching the scenerary while her parents and the rest are playing cards, though the give a side eye to silver, as if worried she will vanish if they didn't check. Having managed to drag pyre city down, and most of the hunters diverted there in search for their bounty, And only apollo's scouts after her, their journey is smooth, no breaks, no stops, their journey is finally nearing their end, salvation within reach now.

In the clouds, many gods are watching, having witnessed all the happenings, and one particular god, wearing a half mask, only her lower face visible and her icy cold eyes, wearing a particularly smug smirk. "It seems some gods grow poorer and I a bit richer." She speaks her voice cold and ruthless, if silver heard it, she would be reminded of when she had lost her arm, the voice in the darkness. Some gods grumble about their losses but they keep their word, sending their better items over, one at a time, some of the others, like the got of shepherds, having also won the bet they made on Silver. "A tough fighter, a good candidate...maybe a new change?" A few gods comment nodding with the wisdom of a thousand lifetimes. They all watch, more engrossed in this struggle than before, a particular god, with nine tails, and a mischievous smile on her face, flutters between gods speaking softly. "Perhaps I could sponsor the cursed child? She seems quite cunning. I would like to add her to my collection of followers." Only for the others to object, too many wanting the cursed child as a follower to let any one of the gods to sponsor her yet. "Happy, Fine! But wasn't most bets supposed to be to support her? When do you intend to let her receive any of these gifts?" The fox tailed god asks, changing the subject as swiftly as her mood. "The cold ruthless beauty, speaks, her voice holding a sort of finality. "She is already on her way to a hefty gift, does she need more now?" Implying the ruined city was always meant to fall in Silver's hands. "Are you so confident she can take it though? We witnessed its rise, we watched as the civilization created the trials, are you so confident at her strength she can take it now?" A voice, filled with quiet compassion asks, his skin golden, eyes blazing pools of fire, much like two suns, and a throne of molten rock. "Whether she can take it or not is up to her, but it is still a gift, now....watch...it's just getting interesting." And old man surrounded by many books, of all sorts of languages, and spell books floating all around himself, his throne, a stack of floating books. At this, all eyes return to Silver, having traveled nonstop since leaving pyre city, finally gets glimpses of the 'ruined' city, tablets, and towers scattered amidst the trees, long covered and buried in vines, moss and in general reclaimed by the wildlife, some even having large bird nests on top. Nearly an hour of these small glimpses of unnatural shapes, when the few scant city walls can be seen, inside, small buildings scattered here and there can be seen, and one massive building, spiraling in elegant patterns.The result looking like an elegant mage tower. 'Finally...we have arrived...step one success, now the battle turns to war.' Silver contemplates, looking around, at first, all that is seen is a desolate, ruined city, and that's what the rest of the group are thinking, their faces somber. But Silver, with her eyes aglow with mana, sees a different story, she sees fissures of mana all throughout the city, albeit, smaller than the smallest fissure a person has given off, but it tells her a story, to look into. A city that's dead, not ruined. "We're here...now what?" The older swordswoman asks, having already made up her mind that the city will not be saveable, at least in her eyes. "Now?well, I say we explore that tower...and go from there." Only to receive disappointed sighs, everyone's hopes had been on a defendable point, a place to live in piece and all they found was a nearly wide open city, few buildings, and not a single salvageable thing to help them. But they follow her wordlessly, not wanting to be the one shattering her hope, the city, much larger than it appears even though they could see to the center easily, the travel to it taking more than two hours. The sun, setting behind the tower, making the few still visible glass windows to sparkle, giving an apocalyptic beauty to the scenery, all the while, silver cant help but smile. Her eyes darting all over the building, detecting fissures all throughout the building, though not drawing mana in, the voids she can see are massive, dwarfing that of apollo's fissure. Turning to the group, Silver speaks up, drawing their attention. "I know what you all most be thinking, that this city is ruined, desolate, that hope is lost...this city is far from ruined...simply dead, devoid of life, but I can still see a chance, there is hope, and this place, its far from what it appears. All I ask is for you to trust in me, and give me some faith, today...its the marking of the end of a long, dangerous journey and now, it is the beginning of our new home, our new hope. Here we will make our stand, here I will earn my right to exist. And here, we all shall grow, so I ask...believe in me, if only for today..." Silver turns walking up the dozen or so steps to the base of the tower, a massive double door, guarded by two ancient statues, though they look like machines, or robots, humanoid in appearance. Looking them over as they approach the door, silver notices that both machines have tiny voids in the center of the upper chest, where the sternum would be on other humanoids, small crystal structures can be seen, though overgrown, surrounded in vines and metallic tubs of some kind. After a few moments of admiring the group proceed to the massive doors, Micah taking point, gets ready to fight the old corroded hinges, expecting it to be hard to open. Despite his expectations the doors open, only creaking loudly from disuse as they swing relatively easily open, revealing an open foray, and a single staircase, leading to the top of the tower. Inside many more statues, though most are truly just statues only the two closest to the door have tiny voids in Silver's eyes. She walks in as if she owns this place already, stepping forward. The group scramble to stop Silver, expecting traps to spring up or something, considering that most people died exploring this place, per Silver's own words.Only for nothing to happen. "Didn't....didn't you say that most people died exploring this place?" The young shield bearer stutters out. "I did, but not from just traps, though there's a few, most reported some sort of trail that claimed the most lives." With that, silver ascends the first of many steps, to the top of the tower, humming a tune the whole way. The group follows after a moments hesitation, having shared a similar look amongst the group.