When Zane came back, he was pleasantly surprised to find himself mobbed by fellow Rhinos.
It was, as mobbing went, a pretty chill one. A herd of Rhinos came through and treated him to horn-bumps and licks.
Mook came up to him, focused hard for a moment. Then he managed to speak.
"Yay," said Mook.
The Rhino did a little hop.
"Thanks, guys," said Zane. He was still feeling all warm in the wake of the fight. He looked around. It seemed like most of the camp was here. Made sense—it was about dinner-time.
There weren't any feeding bowls out, though.
The Barbarian Sage sauntered up and gave him a hearty slap on the back. "Good work out there, lad. Looked right up your alley!"
He nodded. "I had a good time."
Sometimes he liked figuring his enemy out. But sometimes he was just in the mood for a good old-fashioned slugging. It'd been a while since he'd really had to work in a fight—at least when it came to raw strength. It was a nice change of pace.
"I remember when I was 'bout your age, rampaging around these Plains," said the Sage fondly. He sighed, watching the winds flatten the golden grasses. "Still looks about the same around these parts."
Then he inspected himself, and laughed. "Can't say the same for me, eh? Where'd all these damned white hairs come from? Bah! Anywho—you came back just in time, lad."
The Rhinos were still standing around patiently, like they were waiting for something.
"What's going on?"
"The herd's about to go on stampede!" said the Sage. He had on a big old grin. "It's the big graze—happens once a season."
Zane blinked at him.
"You'll see," said the Sage. "Here—this ought to tide you over."
He tossed Zane a Heaven B-grade breastplate made out of something called 'Imperial Gold.' He'd been feeling pretty hungry after that bout—he got it down in a dozen bites. He felt like he could put down another ten.
He was getting pretty close to maxing out the first form of his Asura Titan's Body.
"That's the last I've got," said the Sage. "Not to worry, though—you'll get a lot better, and soon. Just you wait."
He seemed in an unusually good mood, even for the Barbarian Sage.
At Zane's quizzical look— "Say, lad—d'you know why they are called the Titan Rhinos?" said the Sage.
He shook his head.
"You're about to find out."
***
Soon nearly all the Rhinos were milling in the center of camp. Only the very old Rhinos like the Chief and Shaman stayed back. Leading the herd were the Elders, with Ronk at their head.
They trundled along at a measured pace, not in any particular hurry, as was the Rhinos' style. The journey took them all through the night, crossing vast tracts of Plains. Nothing dared disturb them; not even the bravest of beasts dared get in the way of a herd of Titan Rhino. They had vast tracts of the Plains all to themselves. The winds drifted slowly about, and the sky was a deep-violet bowl streaking every so often with shooting stars.
It ws quite a pleasant few hours for Zane.
Soon, though, he felt a colossal weight in the far, far distance.
A line of dark silver emerged on the horizon, a distant plateau.
"That's where we're headed," said Zane. Somehow he was sure of it. Something in his Bloodline pointed toward it, the way a magnet might point to the North Pole.
"That's right," said the Sage. "That right there's the Undying Cliffs of Tor, lad. You could say it's the true origin of the Titan Rhinos."
A more melancholy mood had come over the Sage—not quite as boisterous as usual. He seemed rather wistful.
"Legend has it that ages ago, there was some kind of Galaxy-wide apocalypse that damn near ended the Desolate Wilderness. Some flood of molten steel swept on through, and a whole race of Titans got caught in the middle of it. I'm talking true giants—nothing like anything that'd be around today," said the Sage. "That's what's up ahead."
"That's all steel?"
"Not just any steel," said the Sage. "That right there's the biggest deposit of Transcendent Grade treasure in the whole damned Dragonspire Galaxy."
Zane felt a little further, and sure enough—even from all the way out here, he could feel the way everything seemed to curve around those Cliffs in the Astral Plane. Energy there worked like weight in the real world. That thing had gravity.
"It could only've formed back then," said the Sage. "Back 'round the dawn of the Galaxy, when everything was still coming together."
The Cliffs wore a subtle icy-blue sheen from the Everfrost, far above. As they drew closer the darkness seemed to melt away, and those they started gaining more and more definition, looming larger and larger.
"Most of it's still there, since damn near the dawn of time," said the Sage. "Impossible to mine, that stuff—though many an Empyrean's tried. It takes a hell of a force to break off even a chunk of the stuff! For a while folks thought it was impossible."
They'd come close enough now that Zane could see it wasn't really a cliff. It was a tsunami—a wave towering the likes of which Zane had never seen, a wave frozen right on the verge of breaking. A raging sea drawn from prehistoric times, and held still—a snapshot in time, extended forever.
But even more striking was what lay within.
Fingers broke the waves, each as big as a pillar, clawing out. Massive heads howled and roared, half-buried. The detail was incredible, like statues—you could see the angles in the crinkling of the eyes.
"The bodies themselves, they're gone now," said the Sage. "But the metal froze cooled 'round them, so there they are, lad. There they are, for all eternity."
Zane could feel it too—the mood that was affecting the Sage. There was something special about this place, something that made you want to stand there, and look a while, and let the sight of it sear all the way into you. It was hard to put a finger on it.
Now the whole thing was coming into relief, this natural statue, this great monument, and the overwhelming feeling Zane got from it was fury. The fury of the waves, of the giants within, clawing and howling, fighting, refusing to go under. Fists shook at the heavens. An immortal defiance.
"I remember the first time I saw 'em, as a lad," sighed the Sage. "Never really knew how big the universe could be, 'till that moment. What it meant to be strong. Those Giants were strong as hells—damn near the strongest things in the Galaxy today, if they'd lived! Thought back then, that was what I wanted to be."
He chuckled. "Funny thing, though. Come back a few hundred thousand years later, and that's not the thing that gets me now. They were strong, true—but there's always something stronger, a flood for every giant. Strength's a road with no end, I tell you. Funny thing—that's what makes it worth pursuing! Bah…You know what strikes me now?"
Zane shook his head.
"It's the looks on their faces, lad," said the Sage. "Not a coward among 'em. It's seeing the flood coming, and swinging anyway. That's strength for you."
He grinned. "What else could a man want out of a life, eh?"
Zane nodded.
The Barbarian Sage was quite moved by things like this, he thought. He was a rather romantic old fellow. It hit Zane too, though not quite as deeply. If it came to it, he fully intended on going out swinging.
Only if he had his way it wouldn't come to that.
When he looked out at it all, he didn't want to be as strong as those giants, deep in his heart.
He wanted to be stronger. So strong he could hold back any flood that threatened him or his friends.
It wasn't a conscious thought in that moment—more a feeling. What he took from the fury of the Cliffs.
Together they—and the rest of the Rhinos—stared out silence. It was as though they'd all made a pilgrimage here.
"This was made before the Titan Rhinos came into the world," said the Barbarian Sage after a while. "There was an explosion to end all explosions! The last Chaos Cycle had just ended, just come into this one—that was before everything got stable, see. Before the Heavens were formed, and the System kicked in with it. Some folks got real strong back then…"
The Sage shrugged. "'Course—these things go in Cycles. Who knows? Might be, a time like that'll come round again."
Only when they were almost underneath the thing could Zane appreciate the full scale of it. It just went on and on wherever he looked. He might as well have been gazing at a jagged silver sky.
"Quite a sight, ain't it?" said the Sage.
Zane nodded.
"No asteroids here, lad. It's one of the if you totally solid structures and all the Desolate Wilds… special place, this is. Right. I'm off to take my spot, you just fall in. Fall in, and enjoy it."
Before Zane could ask, the Sage had strolled off, hands behind his head, staring at the Cliffs all the while, alone with his thoughts.
The Rhinos, meanwhile, were shuffling up in loose rows—going by power level, making the vague shape of a spearhead, with the strongest at the front. Zane wasn't far from the tip of it—he got nudged over right next to Mook and one of the Horn Elders.
At the head of it all stood Ronk. The big Rhino gave a snort and unleashed his domain.
A dense, dark-silver weight descended over the world. The rest of the Rhinos unleashed their powers too. The weight of it staggered the chunks they stood on, and for a moment Zane thought it might bring them out of orbit.
Ronk pawed once, raised his horn, and let out a mighty bellow.
"Titan Rhinos of the Plains of the Ancients," rumbled Ronk. "Here is where the first Rhino Ancestor proved his strength, and claimed the powers of Titans."
He stomped slowly on, big horn raised high with pride. "It was once said that breaking the Undying Cliffs was impossible. As impossible as breaking off a chunk of Heaven. Then the first Titan Rhino showed these Plains the meaning of strength."
Rhinos swished tails all around.
"It is time for us to do the same. To show what it means to be a Titan Rhinoceros."
Every horn raised at that—and began to darken. Gravity welled around them, making a herd of cosmic battering rams, and Zane recognized the signs of the Annihilation Charge. Dozens of them, lined up in a row, pawing and rumbling. Ready to go.
Even the Rhinos without Sacred Bones were loading up smashing Skills.
By now Zane had a pretty good hunch what he was meant to do.
He took out his Chains and started loading his hammers with Heavenly Solar Flare.
Off to the side, the referee Rhino got out that warn horn again, took a deep breath—and blew.
OOOOOOO…..
The sound rumbled through the Plains—not the loudest blast but very deep—something they felt in their hearts.
Then, as one, the Rhinos began to charge.