Ascension: Rune Evolution System

Frost wasn’t even sure who had spoken. It might have been him.

To put it simply, Linden was nothing like what he had expected.

Not even remotely.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Frost had still been imagining a fantasy city.

Perhaps enormous stone walls, castles, cobbled streets, merchants shouting from wooden stalls, people riding horses, and a few impossibly tall towers belonging to whatever powerful mages existed in this world.

Instead, what unfolded before him looked like someone had taken a futuristic science-fiction metropolis, thrown magic and fantasy into it, and decided that none of those things needed to make sense together.

Towering buildings dominated the skyline.

Not dozens.

Hundreds.

Some rose so high that Frost had to tilt his head back just to see their peaks, with several disappearing partially into the scattered clouds above.

Their designs were unlike anything he had ever seen on Earth.

Some were sleek metallic structures covered almost entirely in reflective glass, while others twisted unnaturally as they rose, their upper sections wider than their bases in ways that made Frost wonder how the hell they remained standing.

One distant tower was composed of several enormous rings stacked vertically around a narrow central structure, with each ring slowly rotating independently of the others.

Another had what looked like an entire forest growing halfway up its side.

And between all of them...

People.

So many fucking people.

The enormous plaza outside the transit station was absolutely packed.

Hundreds of thousands of people seemed to fill the streets and walkways stretching in every direction, flowing through the city in enormous streams.

Humans mixed freely among races Frost couldn’t even begin to identify. Pointed ears, horns, tails, unusual skin colours, enormous bodies, tiny bodies, scales, fur...

...Everywhere he looked, there was something new.

Frost’s head slowly turned from side to side.

’Where the hell am I even supposed to look?’

A faint humming sound passed overhead.

Frost instinctively looked up.

A woman casually floated past several metres above the ground.

Except she wasn’t flying.

She was standing on a small circular platform barely wider than her shoulders, her arms folded comfortably across her chest while the device carried her through the air.

Another person followed shortly afterward.

Then another.

Frost stared.

Small floating platforms were everywhere.

Some carried a single person, while larger ones transported entire groups. A few moved slowly above the crowds, while others travelled along invisible lanes much higher in the air.

And somehow, those weren’t even the strangest means of transportation.

A massive four-legged beast covered in dark blue scales lumbered along one of the nearby streets with several people seated comfortably across its broad back.

Behind it came something resembling an enormous featherless bird with six legs, pulling a sleek metallic carriage that hovered several centimetres above the ground.

Farther away, Frost could see several enormous winged creatures moving between the towering buildings.

’What the fuck...’

He didn’t even know what genre this world was supposed to be anymore.

His attention shifted upward again.

Huge screens were embedded into the sides of several buildings.

At least, Frost assumed they were screens.

One displayed a beautiful blue-skinned woman holding some sort of crystalline bottle, accompanied by unfamiliar writing that continuously shifted beside her.

Another showed a muscular, horned man swinging an enormous sword before the image changed into what looked suspiciously like an advertisement for the weapon itself.

A third screen was completely three-dimensional.

The image actually extended outward from the building, displaying a rotating golden object large enough to be seen from several streets away.

’Advertisements?’ Frost stared incredulously. ’They have fucking advertisements.’

His gaze moved again, and then he noticed the roads.

No.

Not roads.

Walkways.

”What the hell...?”

Massive pathways rose from the ground and wound around the buildings in enormous curves, splitting apart and reconnecting dozens of times as they climbed higher into the city.

They looked like someone had taken kilometres upon kilometres of spaghetti and wrapped them around the skyscrapers.

Except people were walking on them.

Thousands of people!

Some of the elevated pathways passed through buildings entirely, while others curved around their exteriors before continuing toward neighbouring towers.

Several crossed one another at different heights, creating layer upon layer of pedestrian traffic stretching hundreds of metres above the streets.

And there were no railings on some of them.

Frost’s eye twitched.

’Absolutely fucking not!’

After spending an hour on Aeolus’s back, he had developed a newfound appreciation for solid ground.

Beside him, Naomi slowly turned in a circle.

”This is...”

She didn’t finish, but everyone else was just as stunned as she was.

It was as though every impossible concept humanity had imagined in fantasy and science fiction had somehow been thrown together and allowed to develop naturally for thousands of years.

And judging by how casually everyone around them moved through it, none of this was considered remarkable.

A floating platform?

Normal.

A horned man walking beside an elf?

Normal.

A gigantic reptilian beast being ridden through the middle of a metropolitan city?

Apparently normal.

Frost looked toward Syrn.

She hadn’t even slowed down.

She walked through the plaza as though everything surrounding them was completely mundane, only stopping after several seconds when she realised that most of the group was no longer following her.

Syrn turned around.

Her eyes settled on the fifteen stunned young humans standing several metres behind.

”Are you coming?”