Inevitable Ascension

Chapter 21 - An Infinite Price

The Western Sea disappeared as Violina collided with a warm, sunlit hillside and tumbled down its grassy slope. Narrowly dodging a tree, she came to a halt in a flowerbed, the water from the now closed portal rushing past her. She took a deep breath, not for need of air, but to vent her tension. One sun shined brightly through clear skies, illuminating a gorgeous paradisiacal land.

Violina turned to Lux who also came to a stop nearby. "The bracer and the Second Sun! They—"

"Hold that thought!" Lux turned and quickly began climbing back up the lush hillside. "I realize the magnitude of our situation and all, but I just can't resist!"

Violina sighed and waited patiently as Lux rolled down the hill once more, cheering all the way down.

"My goodness!" exclaimed Lux as she attempted to shake off her dizziness. "Add 'giant hill' to our list of must-have lair items!"

"Noted." Violina longed for the day when her list of priorities would contain nothing but frivolously joyful activities. "Anyway, I think I know the source of the rifts! When my bracer comes within a certain distance of a part of the Second Sun, they open!"

"Interesting theory," said Lux, attempting to brush lilac petals off of her coat. "That would explain how the portal in the Pillar of God took us near the escape pod of that Adam guy, but what about the rifts in the field or in the pit?"

"There must've been pieces of it near those places. Think about it! They've probably just been buried over the ages." Violina held up her wrist. "Just like this artifact was when they dug it up and put it in the museum!"

Lux nodded as if to process Violina's reasoning. "So do you think it's true then? What Enoch said about Adam and the Fall of Man?"

Violina tried to remember everything he had said. "Let's see, Adam was the first man and he fell from the sky with God and the key to eternal happiness getting buried beneath the ice and sea. Yeah, I'd say there's a 99.9, repeating of course, percent chance that the legend stemmed from what we just witnessed."

Lux placed her hands on her hips and took a good look around at the picturesque scenery. "Well, this place sure seems nice enough."

"Indeed. Let's get out of this valley and see what we are dealing with this time."

The girls made their way alongside the mountains, following a trickling stream and admiring the abundance of aspen trees until at last they could see unobstructed across the landscape to the Western Sea. The sight was breathtaking. Hundreds of mile-high waterfalls poured through the air and into the sea with stunning grandeur. Most astonishing however, was the familiar structure towering out of the sea through the midst of the falls—the Pillar of God. It ascended into the sky where a city of radiant amethyst, glass and onyx extended from its summit like tree branches. Stopping in their tracks, the girls could only stare as the sunlight refracted through the glass and cast brilliant rays to the world below.