I Can See Evolution Paths

Chapter 26: Successor

Nobody moved.

Nobody celebrated.

Every person in the throne plaza was looking at the skeleton on the throne, and the skeleton was looking back with eyes that glowed with a gold that had nothing to do with reflection.

It watched them for a moment.

Then it spoke.

"Successor Candidate Found."

The words settled across the plaza like weight.

Arthur blinked. "Huh?"

"I never thought I would see a talking skeleton," Mithra muttered in surprise.

"It can talk!?" Athena’s eyes widened in disbelief.

A notebook appeared in her hands. Then, from somewhere within her bag, a second smaller notebook appeared, and Athy took it in both talons and opened it and produced a pen from somewhere Arthur chose not to think about too carefully.

Arthur stared at the owl. "That is still genuinely terrifying."

Neither Athena nor Athy acknowledged this.

"Still, you were from my vision."

Mithra paused. "You had another one?"

"When I touched the mural earlier." Arthur thought back to the two images: the skeleton on the throne in darkness, and then the figure in silver-black armor with the ten goblins kneeling. "I saw the skeleton first. Then someone wearing armor that looked like that." He gestured toward the throne. "I couldn’t see their face."

Athena stopped moving her pen. "The vision you saw at the mural is happening now."

"Seems like it."

The goblins had been listening to this exchange, and all of them stared in shock.

"He knew."

"He predicted it."

Gruk nodded slowly. "It all makes sense now."

Arthur looked around. "What does?"

Nobody answered.

The skeleton raised one finger and tapped it once against the arm of the throne. The sound that was produced was not loud, but it carried across the full width of the plaza and arrived in everyone’s chest before their ears registered it, and the whispers stopped immediately.

Its golden eyes moved across the assembled group and settled on the hunter who had spoken first.

"You."

The hunter stiffened.

"Would you follow this Goblin Warrior into hell?"

The hunter’s knee hit the stone before he had finished deciding. "Yes."

The skeleton’s gaze moved.

"And you?"

The second hunter knelt. "I would."

One by one it looked at each of them, and one by one the answer came back with the consistency of something that had been true for a while and was now simply being confirmed. Yes. We would. Our lives belong to the Chief. The words were different, but the direction was the same.

Then its gaze settled on Suri.

The young goblin straightened her spine and gripped her spear, and Arthur watched her make the specific decision not to look away.

"You."

Suri held the gaze.

"Would you follow him?"

Suri looked at Vedas.

Then back at the skeleton and didn’t hesitate for even a second. "Our Chief gives us the courage to face even our worst fear," she said.

The plaza went quiet in the way plazas went quiet when someone said the true version of a thing out loud.

Even Athena’s pen had stopped.

The skeleton looked at her for a moment. Then at the space between her and Vedas, the space that had been empty when the Chief was fighting and had been filled when the axe was coming down, and it seemed to find something there worth noting.

Finally its gaze moved to Gruk.

The old goblin was already smiling, the deep-wrinkled smile of someone who had come to the end of a very long road and found it worth the walking.

"Our people," Gruk said, quietly and without needing to raise his voice, "will find a new future with Vedas."

The skeleton was still for a moment and said. "Good answers."

The last answer had settled into the plaza.

"Can I ask something?" Arthur said. The golden eyes moved to him. "The Hobgoblins were a part of the trial, right? Was it always like that, or did you just add it?"

"It was only a recent addition and meant to be the final challenge."

Arthur tilted his head. "So things kept going wrong? Or you added it because the previous candidates were too weak."

The skeleton was quiet for a moment. "They were inadequate," it said finally.

Arthur nodded. "Yeah. So they were weak–"

"Inadequate," the skeleton said again.

"Right." Arthur nodded again. "How many?"

Silence.

Arthur waited.

More silence.

"A lot, huh," Arthur said.

The skeleton said nothing.

"And none of them made it." Arthur looked around at the ruins. At the empty plaza. At the bones scattered near the base of the throne that nobody had yet acknowledged. "You must have felt really embarrassed each time. They got your approval, only to end up dead and force you to start all over."

Gruk made a small sound.

The skeleton was still.

"I’m surprised you kept going. After the tenth one, I would have been too embarrassed to keep going." He looked at the ancient armor. At the throne that had clearly been occupied for a very long time. "I mean at that point, can you even say it was their fault and not yours? Like that’s a lot of waiting for one to succeed."

"Circumstances—"

"Oh." Arthur nodded. "So it wasn’t entirely your fault."

The skeleton visibly relaxed. Arthur continued.

"It was mostly your fault."

Silence.

Gruk stepped forward immediately. "M-Maybe things outside of their control came up!"

"But that’s worse," Arthur said.

"That’s not—"

"If they were strong, the unexpected things wouldn’t have stopped them." Arthur looked at Gruk reasonably. "Strong candidates deal with unexpected things. That’s part of it."

Gruk opened his mouth and closed it. The broad-shouldered hunter had covered his face with one hand. Another hunter was looking straight ahead at nothing.

"So," Arthur said, turning back to the skeleton, "you picked people who were weak and couldn’t handle what came up." He paused. "A lot of times."

The golden eyes had not changed. But something in the air around the throne had. "My choices... Lack some insights."

"Of course, or else you wouldn’t still be doing this. Which is why Vedas must be a relief for you."

The skeleton’s hand tightened.

"If it had gone on much longer," Arthur continued, "with nobody working out, all of this would have just been wasted."

He looked at the plaza, at the ruins, at everything that had been built and abandoned and waited. "Pretty embarrassing, actually," Arthur said. "For a king. If I were you, I would be too embarrassed to want to be remembered."

The plaza was completely silent.

Gruk was looking at the floor.

Suri had turned her face away and was covering her face as if she was trying to hide away. Mithra had both hands over her mouth while Athena was writing without looking up.

The skeleton’s golden eyes rested on Arthur.

"But," Arthur said, and his voice had shifted into something genuinely warm, "that’s not a problem now."

He looked at Vedas and smiled proudly. "You finally found him." He pointed at Vedas. "I’ve been telling everyone how amazing he is all day."

The skeleton closed its eyes. "...I suppose we will see."

Then it rose.

Everyone in the plaza adjusted to accommodate the new fact of how tall it was. The ancient armor covered it fully, and the golden light that had been leaking through the cracks between the plates intensified as it stood, and for one moment the throne plaza was lit as bright as midday.

It stretched one arm toward Vedas.

...

The light took everything.

Arthur raised his arm before he finished deciding to, and the gold pressed through it anyway, and then there was no plaza, no ruins, no anyone.

A battlefield.

Dark clouds so low they pressed against the tops of the broken terrain beneath them. Lightning in the clouds but not falling, moving laterally, illuminating the underside of the storm. Wind that carried the sound of thunder as a continuous thing rather than a series of events.

Vedas stood in the center of it. He was covered in a black-and-white armor with a silver-black spear. Across from him stood a wolf with lightning crawling across its black fur from shoulder to shoulder, and thunder arrived a step behind each movement.

Every step left sparks across the ground.

Its eyes glowed like lightning.

Vedas looked at it and did not move.

Behind him, a sphere of light floated at eye level, pulsing with the steady rhythm of something waiting.

A voice arrived through the storm, soft enough that it should not have been audible over the wind, but it was.

"Find me."

A pause.

"In the Ruins of Evolution."

The vision ended.

...

Arthur lowered his arm.

The plaza was quiet and gold-lit, and everyone was looking at the same place, which was the place where Vedas had been standing when the light took him.

The Goblin Commander stood quietly. He was taller now, reaching Arthur’s shoulder. Covered in dark silver armor from head to toe. He had a helmet that covered his face but not his glowing eyes. The shield on one arm grew to the size of a medium shield. The spear was sharper, and it looked like it was made out of steel this time. In addition, there was a black sword strapped behind him, ready to be drawn.

But more importantly.

His presence had changed.

Before, Vedas had felt like a talented warrior, but now.

He felt like a leader.

Arthur stared. "...Whoa." Then he smiled. "You actually look like a Commander."

[Evolution Complete: Goblin Commander]

Every Goblin froze.

One of the hunters said, very quietly. "...Chief?"

Gruk stepped forward.

The old goblin stood in front of the Goblin Commander for a moment, looking at him softly, and then he lowered his head.

"The Veridian tribe greets its Commander," he said.

The hunters went to their knees.

Suri was already there.

The word moved through them like a tide, spoken one after another, not as a chant but as individual confirmations, each person arriving at it separately.

One of the hunters suddenly lowered his head.

"Commander." His voice shook. "My son would’ve loved to see this."

"Commander." Another of the hunters trembled. "My daughter will be happy to know who I served."

"Commander." Another had tears rolling down her cheek. "I never thought I would see a being like you... But I’m so grateful."

Suri opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Then tears started falling. The young Goblin immediately tried wiping them away.

And failed.

Gruk patted Suro on her shoulder as he looked at the kneeling Goblins. At the Commander standing before him and then toward the distant sky.

His lips trembled. "You old fool..."

Nobody understood who he was speaking to.

But Gruk smiled. "You were right."

Tears gathered in the old Goblin’s eyes. "A True Commander really did return. And he saved all of us like you believed he would."

Vedas saw and heard all of this. For a moment, Vedas remembered hiding under the chair earlier in the day. The feeling of being inadequate and too weak to matter. And then all of the things he had to go through to reach this point.

A faint smile appeared as he realized something.

Arthur instantly felt it from Vedas: the pride, joy, ambition, and above all else, the confidence that he could no longer be laughed at or looked down upon.

[Synchronization Increased!]

[Synchronization: 44%]

Arthur could feel it. The connection felt clearer than ever before. As if Vedas was no longer simply his contracted beast. They were becoming something closer to true partners. His eyes shone before he quickly rushed over to Vedas and patted him on the back. And then once again, he saw a notification.

[Next Evolution:]

Goblin King

[Requirements]

[Establish a Tribe: 0/1]

Arthur stared and then grinned. "There you are." He pointed at the screen. "I knew you’d show up eventually."

Vedas blinked. "What?"

Arthur laughed. "Nothing." He looked at Vedas. "We’ve got another impossible thing to do."

Vedas’ face went pale.

Mithra laughed, and Athena sighed.

Melo climbed onto his helmet. She rubbed her head against it and then happily wagged all three tails. Arthur chuckled at this before circling around Vedas and knocking on the armor once. "I knew it."

Vedas blinked. "Knew what?"

Arthur pointed. "They’ll never laugh at you again."

"... Even if they do, I will crush them."

Arthur laughed. "Someone becoming violent. Way different than how you were before. All shy and embarrassed–"

"We don’t talk about the past!"

"Hahaha." Arthur then sighed. "Still, two evolutions in one day... That’s remarkable."

Vedas laughed, a short and uncertain sound. "I think that’s because of you."

Arthur shook his head. "No." He pointed, straightforwardly. "That one was yours. You chose to trust me and took that step."

The Goblin Commander looked at him. "... No matter what anyone says, you will always be the reason behind my growth."

Arthur paused before smiling. "Since when did you become so good at talking? Damn it, you’re only one day old."

Vedas laughed and said. "My partner forced me to grow up fast."

Athena did not look up, but her hands were shaking. Which was somehow more alarming than the notebook.

Mithra blinked and then blinked again. "Okay." She pointed at Vedas. "That’s actually really cool."

She stepped forward and gently patted Vedas’ head. "How do you feel?"

Vedas trembled at her touch before smiling. He looked at Suri, then the Goblin Hunters, then Gruk. Then finally at Melo, who had climbed back onto his shoulder and was regarding the new armor with the three-eyed assessment of something evaluating an upgrade to familiar territory.

"Stronger," he said. Then, after a moment: "But not alone."

"Good, but also pretty different from what you said before as Goblin Warrior," Mithra said in a teasing tone.

Vedas blushed before saying. "I was a bit immature back then... Right now, I feel I have multiple partners I can rely on and trust with my back."

Several of the hunters made sounds that were not words. Suri pressed one hand against her face. Gruk turned away and looked at something in the middle distance.

The skeleton on the throne had been watching all of it.

It spoke when the sound had settled. "Like I said before, defeating the Hobgoblin was a part of the trial. But only the first one."

Athena looked up from her notebook. "First?"

The golden eyes did not change their expression, but something in their quality shifted in the direction of confirmation.

"Commander is not the end." The skeleton’s golden eyes burned. "It is merely the first step toward becoming a King."

"Good." Arthur grinned. "Because stopping now would’ve been boring."