Chapter 66: The White City
The road to the capital took four days. The System, true to its word, found ways to keep them busy.
The bond between Dominic and Florence settled into its new shape somewhere past the first waystation. She tested it the way she tested everything, thoroughly, without asking permission. Her combat sense pushed through with focused intent now rather than the passive bleed she’d been feeding him since the team phase, and Dominic felt the world sharpen in ways he hadn’t known he’d been missing.
"That’s new," he said, tracking the carriage driver’s heartbeat without meaning to.
"The bond leveled up." Florence was watching him with open curiosity. "I can push more through without forcing it."
"It doesn’t feel forced on my end either." He flexed his fingers, mapping the weight distribution of the horses, the wind speed, the pressure differentials. "It used to feel like borrowing. Now it just feels like mine."
Theresa looked up from the grimoire. "The more trust between you, the less resistance. You’re not giving more, it’s just getting through more cleanly."
"Nice. I like that," Florence said, and settled against Dominic’s shoulder like the matter was settled.
The rain came on the second day, drumming steady against the roof while Dominic worked through Frank’s notes on the Registry and Theresa wrestled with the grimoire’s stubborn script. She’d been at it for hours when she sat up straight enough that Wobbly startled awake.
"A fragment," she said, turning the book toward him. One finger traced a line of angular script he couldn’t read. "It references a structure built to contain. And mentions the weeping monster in detail."
"The corrupted one from floor ten?"
"I believe so. The description matches, it also spoke about a crystallized mana organ, dangerous enough that whoever wrote this thought it worth warning someone about." She closed the book, troubled. "The script fights back. It doesn’t want to be read."
"Take all the time you need."
"I intend to."
The crestback came out of the hills on the third afternoon.
It was massive, ridge-backed, hide plated in bone-white scales, eyes tracking the carriage with cold intelligence. The driver hauled the reins hard enough to send the horses screaming. Dominic was out the door before the carriage stopped.
The fight was not clean. Its hide turned aside his first three strikes without a scratch. Its tail nearly caught his ribs before Theresa’s shield snapped into place. Florence had to hammer the same joint again and again before the plating cracked. Lysandra darted through the gaps, drawing blood in thin dark lines. Wobbly wrapped around its rear leg and hardened, an anchor the beast dragged with visible effort.
And then Dominic reached deeper than he had since the finals. Both threads at once, Theresa’s amplification and Florence’s combat sense, flowing together instead of layering awkwardly. His body sidestepped a tail strike before he consciously registered it. His next blow found the cracked joint with Theresa’s full amplification behind it, and the blade bit deep.
The crestback screamed. It went down minutes later in a heap of dust and blood.
The System flared as the beast dissolved.
```
[Side Quest Complete: The Crestback]
[Reward: 150 GT Tokens]
[Hidden Bonus: First time fully harmonizing dual bond synchronization]
[Bonus Reward: 75 GT Tokens]
[Current GT Tokens: 1,350]
[Note: Now that’s more like it.]
```
The road changed on the fourth day. Traffic thickened, merchant caravans, noble carriages with liveried outriders, guild convoys flying banners Dominic didn’t recognize. People looked at the carriage. At him.
"That’s Kane. The Trial finalist."
"The C-rank? Doesn’t look like much."
Florence’s grin turned sharp. "Your reputation’s outrunning you."
The capital announced itself long before its gates.
Lysandra saw it first. She’d been watching the horizon since the road began to climb, and when the city finally broke through the morning haze, she made a sound Dominic had never heard from her before, a soft, involuntary intake of breath, like the air had been pulled from her lungs.
"It’s beautiful," she whispered.
It was. The city rose from the plains in tiers of white stone and silver filigree, each level stacked upon the next like a wedding cake carved from marble and moonlight. Bridges of translucent crystal arced between the upper spires, catching the sun and scattering it into rainbows that painted the clouds. The great wall was a monument, carved with reliefs depicting centuries of history, battles and coronations and the founding of the empire itself. At the city’s heart, a single tower rose so high its peak vanished into the sky, its surface inlaid with gold that glowed faintly even in daylight.
Floating gardens drifted between the districts, tethered by chains of enchanted silver, their greenery spilling over the edges in cascades of violet and emerald. Airships docked at the upper tiers, their sails furled, their hulls gleaming. Waterfalls fell from the middle districts to the lower, their flow redirected into canals that wound through the streets like veins of liquid light.
It wasn’t just a city. It was a statement. The capital of an empire that had stood for a thousand years and intended to stand for a thousand more.
Lysandra’s hands were pressed against the carriage window like a child’s. "How many people live here?"
"A little over a million," Dominic said. He’d known the number from Frank’s notes. It felt different seeing it.
"I didn’t know cities could be this big," she said quietly. "I didn’t know anything could be this big."
Florence leaned over to look, her shoulder pressing against Dominic’s as she craned for a view. "Huh. That’s more like it."
"That’s all you have to say?" Dominic asked.
"It’s pretty. I’ve seen prettier, but it’s pretty." She settled back into her seat. "The food better match the architecture."
Theresa glanced up from the grimoire just long enough to note the floating gardens. "The enchantment work on those is impressive. Self-sustaining too, anchored to multiple fail-safes. Whoever designed them was an artist as much as a mage." She stared a bit before returned to her reading without another word.
Dominic watched the city grow larger as the carriage rolled toward the gates. Caldmore was a frontier town built around a dungeon. This was the seat of an empire. The difference was visible in every spire, every bridge, every carefully cultivated garden floating above the streets.
The gates themselves were monumental, twin arches of white stone carved with sigils that predated the current dynasty, their surfaces worn smooth by centuries of passage. Guards in polished armor stood at attention, their spears inlaid with silver, their expressions professionally blank. They barely glanced at the carriage before waving it through.
And then they were inside.
The streets opened up around them, wide boulevards paved in pale stone, lined with trees whose leaves shimmered faintly with mana. Shops and cafes and guild halls pressed against each other, their signs written in scripts Dominic recognized and others he didn’t. The crowd was a river of silk and wool and polished leather, nobles and merchants and soldiers and servants all flowing together through the arteries of the city.
Lysandra was still staring, her earlier stillness replaced by something more active, her head turning, her eyes tracking, trying to absorb everything at once. "There’s a fountain," she said, pointing. "It’s floating. The water is floating."
"It’s enchanted," Theresa said without looking up. "A common display technique in wealthier districts. The water cycles through a closed loop most likely."
"It’s beautiful," Lysandra said again, quieter.
Then the air changed.
Dominic felt it through the bond first, a sudden sharpening, a tension that wasn’t his own. Florence had gone still beside him, her body coiled in a way he recognized from the moment before a fight. Her eyes were fixed on nothing, her head slightly tilted, like she was listening to something only she could hear.
Theresa set her book down. Deliberately. Her golden eyes met Florence’s across the carriage, and something passed between them that didn’t need words.
"What is it?" Dominic asked.
"Three people," Florence said quietly. "Two at the upper edge. One stronger."
"SS-rank," Theresa said. Her voice was calm, but her hands had stopped moving. "Maybe higher. They’re suppressing their presence. Normal people wouldn’t feel anything."
"But we’re not normal," Florence said. And she smiled.
The pressure came a moment later, not an attack, not even a threat. Just presence. Power pressing outward like heat from an open furnace, invisible but undeniable. Somewhere in the city, three people had noticed them. And they were making themselves known.
Florence let out a slow breath. Her own presence unfurled in response, not consciously, not aggressively, but instinctively, the way a hand comes up to block a blow. Dominic felt it through the bond like a wave of heat, controlled but unmistakable. Theresa’s followed a heartbeat later, quieter but no less potent, a deep and steady pressure that made the air feel heavier.
The street didn’t stop. The crowd kept moving. But somewhere, across the city, three people had just learned that they were no longer the only apex predators in the capital.
The moment passed. The pressure receded. Florence settled back against her seat with a satisfied sound. "Well. Now they know we’re here."
Theresa picked up her book. "They would have learned eventually."
"What was that?" Lysandra asked. Her voice was steady, but her hands were gripping the seat again. She hadn’t felt the power, she wasn’t at that level, but she’d felt the reaction. The sudden stillness. The shift in the air.
"The local authorities," Florence said. "Saying hello."
Dominic looked out the window at the glittering streets, the floating fountains, the crowds that had no idea what had just happened. The capital had noticed them after all.
The carriage rolled on, and the city swallowed them whole.
Dominic barely noticed the System notification flicker at the edge of his vision.
```
[New Region Detected: Capital City]
[System Notice: New opportunities detected]
[New quests available]
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