The rest of the journey is pretty uneventful. As Aria said, the very tip of the tower in the far distance was soon in sight, even from the ground, and it rapidly gained on us as we made progress.

I also levelled up to Level 3 shortly after we had calmed down and resumed our journey. This was to be anticipated considering the power of the target I managed to subdue through my luck this time being much higher than the Tree Pygmy. It also now seems pretty clear that the process of gaining a new level only occurs when things are calm and battle is over. To be honest, that’s fine, since I don’t I have the leisure of sitting around and browsing my skill trees from the safety of a pause menu. I’ll ponder about my next move when we camp next, probably at the tower itself, given the progress so far.

What I didn't anticipate, though, was the change in surroundings. Though it actually happened gradually if one paid attention, it almost seemed sudden to me, how the ground became dry and the trees petrified.

Being a bit dense; I stopped in my tracks with my mouth working like a fish.

"Is something wrong, Elijah?" Aria asked concernedly.

"Oh... no... I guess not. But it really just hit me how the forest has suddenly died here."

"Typical Elijah. Um...I bet you didn't notice how quiet it is either, hehe." Kiku snarks.

No, she's right. The abundant noises of birds and the rustling of leaves are gone. Just the crunching of Kiku's greaves on the dry earth. Shows just what kind of a city kid I was.

"Well, if you really want a surprise, you'll find it over the ridge." Aria grins menacingly.

I get the feeling she is trying something... but I’ll bite. I continue to walk up the slope with Aria next to me, following in Kiku's footprints (and totally not observing her toned derriere in those nice spats in the process), and cross the apex of the hill.

Woah.

Did you apply an appropriate Reanu Sleeves voice to that? Please do.

Somewhat like the previous crater where we fought the Crawler, but much larger and more irregularly shaped, there is a rise to a lip in the earth, and then a drop, but in the centre, there is a fissure that falls into an unknown, impenetrable abyss.

Next to that is finally a proper view of the tower itself which we could previously only peek, a soaring ten-storied affair with a narrow conical feeling, made of some intimidating black stone.

But the real standout feature is the fact that the central fissure is actually shooting out strokes of lightning, which arc across the ground and into one of several lightning rods planted around. It’s like one of those plasma-ball things transplanted into a terrain feature. Incredible.

A peal of thunder reaches our location a few seconds after. It's fairly quiet, but from here to the fissure must still be a few miles. The view of the lightning from here is truly impressive.

"That... yeah. You're right. That’s pretty amazing." I smile and ruffle Aria's hair as an almost unconscious reaction.

"Whu-whu-what are you doing!" She exclaims, leaping backward like a startled cat. I notice Kiku regains her O RLY face from earlier.

"Hmm... sorry. I always used to do that to my little sisters when they showed me something they thought was impressive. I did it without thinking." I muse, putting my hand on my chin.

"Oh... you wot? You had sisters Elijah?" Kiku enquires with a head tilt.

"Right. I was the eldest brother. Neither of them were as cute as you two, though." I answer with a straight face. Absolutely true.

"You silly twat." Rowdy Kiku exclaims as she blushes.

"Nngnnh... that actually explains some things though." Blushing Aria also adds, nodding to herself. Presumably she is recalling the dream incident.

"Um... you wot? Hnn... like Kako? Nnnn... Yes, I guess it's a similar feeling." Kiku ponders, picking up on Aria’s stream of thought.

"Oh? I guess big siblings give off a universal feeling, no matter the world. Well, you can call me Nii, or Onii-chan, like my sisters, if you like, ladies." I jest.

Though my sisters never called me Nii or Onii-chan. Most often it was 'bro' at the best of times, or just 'oi, you!' as standard. I was British after all and there isn't that far-eastern concept of respect for ones elders very much in the west. I was purely channelling my anime otaku side to say that. Anime imoutos are much more kawaii than real life ones.

Kiku looks troubled and is fidgeting again, and Aria is giving a 'no way' expression whilst crossing her arms in front of her face. I smirk in resignation and begin to turn away when...

"Um... if you say so, Nii."

Kiku drops a bomb. Oh brother.