?In hindsight, the collapse of Shen''s Domain of Limitless Denial was inevitable from the moment he formed a True Self. The domain had been born from his experiences and feelings when denying his reality. As soon as it came to be, it affected his self-perception without his notice, despite him being a True Path Walker. Yet, a True Self was all of him in one place, and having a True Self was to know himself even more intimately than a True Path Walker.
A domain that denied oneself was possible for other people but not for someone with a True Self.
It was already a miracle that his Domain of Limitless Denial could coexist with his Truth of Limits, even keep it glued with everything else in his True Path. In fact, Shen suddenly realized that True Boundlessness and his Will of Absolute Power had worked together to make that possible, too.
Alas, his Truth of Limits and his Will of Absolute Power couldn''t coexist without a domain holding them together. Acknowledging his Absolute Power was limited by his mind only made things less unstable; Absolute Power was still anathema to Having Limits.
A True Self was exceptional. The proof was that his True Self only slowly started unraveling, even without the required domain to keep it together. But it was only a matter of time. Too little time.
Shen had mere minutes before he died.
He considered using his Aural Realm in his late-domain''s place but quickly discarded the idea. His Aural Realm was not him but a way of increasing Reality''s hold in an area. The Axioms and Laws from his Path had a say in the Aural Realm, but pushing Reality''s Laws, unfiltered, directly into his True Self sounded as bad as doing that to his soul¡ªand his soul was also part of his True Self.
So, Shen decided to be humble for once and ask how opposing ideals could coexist in his True Self.
He wouldn''t ask anyone in the Alliance. It was an organization with too many discordant voices that suffered similar issues as his True Self. Rather, he would ask the largest organization of all, which encompassed all voices that existed and have ever existed.
Shen reached toward Reality and pulled.
It had been three years since he last cultivated his Laws, and now he was once more reaching toward the cosmos. This time, not to grow stronger through an understanding of individual parts of the whole, but to grow possible like the Axioms of Water and Fire that coexisted despite being opposites.
A tentative answer came to him as soon as he touched beyond: Concepts.
Axioms were made of Laws that could coexist through Concepts. The differences between Water and Fire were primordial and irreconcilable¡ªbut only if you simplified them into monoliths. Laws and, more importantly, Concepts made it possible for them to coexist.
The way his Absolute Power accepted it was Limited by his mind was more or less like it. But he needed more. He needed his Will, Truth, and True Boundlessness to further dialogue with each other.
Shen sighed, realizing he had reached for the underlying Laws of existence to merely conclude that he could improve the results of the Will-Path Merging.
To be fair, Shen would''ve been incapable of improving anything back when he underwent the ritual. He hadn''t known himself well enough before having a True Self. But after three years of True Self, and after his domain disappeared, he knew himself perfectly.
He could connect everything he was with everything else in a way no generic ritual could ever hope for. Probably. He just needed to see precisely how Reality accomplished it.
Shen felt the Laws of Reality and acted as he would if he sought to improve his Path''s Laws. He slowly checked his guesses and theories, matching them against Reality. Very slowly. He wanted to gain time in that place to closely observe each of his Laws and see their Concepts.
How did each Law interact with each other? Why? What was missing that he couldn''t see because he could only feel his own Laws?
Most fundamental of all, what were Concepts?
Liya had defined them as contracts. That was conceptually true, but as he connected with the cosmos and looked deep, they felt more like... Feelers? Infinite fellers came from each of his Laws and touched the others.
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Or rather, tentacles feeling and constraining each other and their Laws.
That should be the true form of Reality¡ªcountless Laws in a tangled mess that ultimately reached an equilibrium of sorts.
If one saw S-rank entities and their allies as Axioms and Laws, the Alliance wouldn''t be much different from that, a tangled mess that restricted each other to create a united-ish mass. You had to be willing to sacrifice the individuals, though, who were akin to Concepts. Shen hated that about the Alliance.
He also concluded Reality''s way of doing things wouldn''t work for him. His True Self was already a bunch of tight-fitting wires in a way, but each of its three "corners" repulsed the other too vigorously. Even True Boundlessness didn''t want to be there.
Using Reality as a reference, Shen only had three "Axioms" in his True Self: Will, Truth, and a Law. That was it. In Reality, all Axioms limited each other, but if it were just Fire, Water, and a third other, they would probably just destroy themselves and Reality with it. Shen wasn''t Reality and couldn''t add "buffer Axioms" to his True Path.
There was no answer for him in the grand Axioms of Reality. The issue remained the same: Shen needed a domain.
Developing a domain wasn''t something one could do just because he wanted to. Moreover, Shen''s anger had burned true but was gone. The despair for his impending demise wasn''t that great. He was nowhere as emotionally focused as he had been when he formed his previous domain.
If those were the only things he had going for him, Shen would die. However, he had had the foresight to broaden his Path in more than one way in his last breakthrough.
Shen had forced him to be more aware of emotions and, more importantly, to reach the Ethereal Harmonization realm without a fight.
He was no longer a hot-blooded, inexperienced man. The way he had held himself in the free-for-all was proof. He didn''t need to be in battle to grow stronger. By breaking through to the Ethereal Harmonization realm in peace, he had given himself more robust foundations upon which to build his Path. And that very foundation, which didn''t seem that important until now, was the reason he wouldn''t die today.
To cultivate was like building a structure that needed solid foundations or a plant growing over its roots. If the base was lacking, the height and growth would be limited.
Shen could develop a domain today because if not for his previous one already being there, everything he had done and the way he had grown would naturally lead him to form a domain. His Domain of Limitless Denial had, paradoxically, even denied him that.
Noticing how Reality''s solution was imperfect to his True Self was the final trigger to naturally develop a domain.
Long ago, Shen had considered which Laws related to overcoming challenges could be part of his Path. He had discarded the idea. He still didn''t believe that would make sense, but at the core of overcoming challenges was a simpler truth much more in tune with him, which he had realized even back then.
He liked overcoming challenges because he liked to improve.
His entire story, ever since waking up, was about improving. His life before the Alliance was about seeking a way to improve himself to survive.
That was one of the reasons True Boundlessness was his first Law. It was one of the reasons he felt so close to it and it was so special to him. He wasn''t just a Path Walker; he deeply cared for his Path more than others might. Even now, he was in this conundrum because he couldn''t accept a fundamentally wrong Path. He also had to improve it.
A domain related to self-improvement would also prevent him from ever having a similar identity struggle. If he weren''t perfect when he reached the end of his Path, he only had to work on himself until he did become perfect. If he had Limits, he only had to improve himself until they encompassed more. If Reality couldn''t conform to his vision, he only had to use his Absolute Power to force it to improve.
That ideal so perfectly reflected all he was that he could pour all his emotions into it without trouble. A domain was to expand one''s Path beyond oneself through metaphysical energy. Emotions were a trigger and gave the domain form and purpose. All his emotions and beliefs agreed with the domain that took form when he faced himself and the world and found both wanting.
Shen''s drive was to improve that which was imperfect, and his Domain of Infinite Improvement heeded his call.
Limitless Denial had been about refusing a Reality that didn''t conform to his wishes. Infinite Improvement was about forcing anything to conform to his vision. It was the final evidence of how his latest breakthrough had changed him. Not everything was an obstacle to be destroyed or refused. Some things only needed to be fixed or improved.
Infinite Improvement filled his body and soul, yet not. Shen felt the domain right in his grasp, yet he never reached for it. Not because he couldn''t use it but because he would die if he did. His soul would explode. He instinctively knew Infinite Improvement was a more powerful domain than his previous one¡ªand this was the first time he was made aware that domains could differ in power.
So, instead of killing himself, Shen only used his almost-domain in his True Self and glued everything together.
His True Self became one again. Better, too. Not quite as rigid as before. Shen''s beliefs were more cemented than those of other people at his level but no longer immutable. Already, his almost-domain helped, and it had not even been fully brought to bear yet.
He smiled as he improved himself and kept at it.
He was still connected to Reality, and it was time to improve his comprehension of his Laws. He had had many ideas in these past three years. Now was an excellent time to grow one step stronger, as he predicted a lot of fights to come.
Shen pushed his ideas and theories toward Reality, syncing his Path to that imperfect thing that he would one day make better.
? ?
336. Aura-Material Suppression
Taeral Miavalur''s superiors had estimated what the Hopeless Wanderer hoped to achieve with the lockdown he had been denied, and the most likely reason was to hunt for fugitives while using the ensuing chaos to detect hidden players and later deal with them. Likewise, he was likely to use his Exemplary Brigade to make things even more chaotic and force the secret forces to move.
Though Taeral hadn''t been originally deployed to Samir to spy on First Lieutenant Shen, he had been told to analyze him if he got the chance and didn''t interfere with his primary mission. Accepting the standing offer to switch Brigades for money and fight for the Resistance was done swiftly. No one should suspect anything, least of all a newcomer like Shen.
Taeral was glad he had come to look at the soon-to-be newest SpecOps Vindicator.
? ?
| Shen (C) ¡ª First Lieutenant ¡ª 7th Exemplary Brigade Commander
| Raising Star
| Race: Human (Earth) | Drow
| Clearances: Leadership 2, Elite Combat 3 (UNK), Advanced Anti-Void Tactics 2 (UNK), Domain Secrets 2 (UNK)
| Temporary Clearances: Leadership 3 (partial)
| Active Clearance Proposals: BLOCKED BY SPECOPS CANDIDACY
| Dropped Clearance Proposals: [INSUFICIENT AUTHORITY]
| Commendations: 247 (23)
| Demerits: 12 (0)
| Current Deployment Location: Samir
| - - -
| HP: 6,000/6,000 | Stamina: 2,998 / 3,000 | Qi: 99%
| Strength C- | Agility C- | Resistance C-
| Laws: 7 | Mastered: 0
| Domain: Related to Denial
| Combat Ability: C 7- (8-)
? ?
The Calamity had made it easier for strong Guardians to rake up Commendations, but the human was still a work of art. So much so that he had only been informed of 23 of his 247 Commendations and didn''t know the true level of the clearances he had received before he attracted SpecOps interest in Elite Combat Training, thus blocking him from more. His ignorance would ensure he didn''t become too arrogant.
Elite Combat 3, Advanced Anti-Void Tactics 2, and Domain Secrets 2 were the maximum clearance levels available for C-ranks in those subjects. Each already included techniques a C-rank would only use in the distant future if they ever reached B-rank.
The fact that Taeral couldn''t see the dropped clearance proposals evidenced that the boy had likely already had many active recommendations when SpecOps blocked it. Anyone in SpecOps was a finely crafted tool with a specific purpose. There was no reason to let the boy wander aimlessly. Moreover, some clearances required expensive investments, like elite combat training, and investing in SpecOps operatives was usually considered a waste.
Listeners like Taeral lived long, but he was an exception. Vindicators were like falling stars, burning bright but shortly¡ªironic, considering Shen''s Racial Title.
Shen had also not been informed about his 12 Demerits to prevent his performance from dropping. They were minor and might become a leash. No one wanted that, especially considering he would eventually receive the final punishment after joining SpecOps.
Taeral was one of the three people who stepped aside as long as Shen appeared. As much as his assignment could see his traitor status erased if it happened for such a minor offense while undercover, becoming a traitor would allow Shen to attack him. That would be counterproductive.
Then, he watched with fake fear as Shen killed everyone in his way.
Deep down, he had to admit he was impressed. The Recognition Interface revealed Shen''s baseline combat ability had been evaluated at the lower end of tier 7. He also had a special ability that allowed him to barely reach tier 8. Low tier 7 was technically correct, but while a mid tier 7 could defeat Shen, no one at low tier 7 should be able to resist what Taeral was witnessing.
If Shen wielded mana instead, he would have been able to improve his stats already. He certainly could reach baseline tier 8 with C+ stats. Then, he would be beyond SpecOps'' grasp. Such people were too important to waste.
But that was neither here nor there. Taeral analyzed the boy and concluded he could become a good Vindicator, though Taeral believed he could be better employed as a Destroyer. Such people lived even shorter than Vindicators, though, so maybe Taeral''s superiors simply meant to use Shen a little more before he inevitably faded.
Shen reached the end of the enemy line, killing the Brigade Commander, and then just stopped.
Taeral frowned. That was ineffective. Worse, he felt something break inside the boy¡ªhe didn''t know what, but Listeners knew to trust their instincts. As if to add insult to injury, Shen decided now of all times was a good moment to improve his Path. He reached for Reality and started growing stronger at a languid pace.
Over 50 C-ranks lay dead on the floor, and the survivors were frozen in fear after the display. Most were too weak to notice the stupid C-rank trying to grow stronger while surrounded by enemies, but six felt it. They hesitated for longer than Taeral expected, almost five seconds, before deciding they wouldn''t have another chance like this.
Three ran away, and three chose to attack.
They were too late.
In those seconds, something had clicked anew inside Shen. Taeral recognized it for what it was: a new domain had been born. In hindsight, the thing that broke earlier should''ve been Shen''s previous domain.
People swapping domains were extremely rare but not unheard of. Doing so at C-rank, though? Now, that made Taeral afraid.
His report would make it crystal clear how Shen had to become a Destroyer. He couldn''t be given the chance to survive long enough to learn how SpecOps had blocked his development. If he reached peak B-rank with that talent and came to seek revenge... Worse, if he got to A-rank... He would die in the end, but he could kill a lot of people before then if he timed things right.
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Taeral didn''t move as Laws materialized inside Shen''s aura and pinned the rebellious C-ranks down.
First Lieutenant Shen never even moved.
? ?
? ?
Shen hadn''t thought twice about connecting with Reality once his domain shattered because doing anything, including running to safety, would have hastened his True Self''s deterioration. First, he had to survive his internal turmoil. Then, he could worry about external threats.
A lot had gone through Shen''s mind after he killed the traitor, but everything afterward happened almost instantly.
So, when the six C-ranks tried to do something, he activated his Aura-Material Suppression. One-yard-thick high-pressure water jets surrounded the fools, pinning them in place. At first, they all stopped out of surprise, but three¡ªone runner and two attackers¡ªconcluded it was a bluff and resumed moving.
That''s when they met lightning and spears.
Shen''s Aura-Material Suppression was the final form of the simple technique he had used against Uya. Unlike when he faced her, his honed willpower and ability allowed him to impart all his Laws into the materialization of any other with less than a tenth of his focus.
Each water drop could be only Stream or something more.
They could take the shape and power of Shaft and Gentle Breeze¡ªwhich looked like steam¡ªto keep the enemy suppressed.
They could become Killing Weapon¡ªa spear-shaped drop¡ªExtremity¡ªan atomic-sized needle¡ªand Conductivity¡ªShen used actual lightning for this¡ªto attack them.
They could become Truly Boundless¡ªtaking random shapes¡ªwith a unique perspective: the water''s expansion was being limited by the foe''s body; thus, True Boundlessness pushed hard against it.
One of those three people was simultaneously so weak and stupid that they died with only that. When they realized their subpar armor and skin were disintegrating, they had no time to stop and were quite literally grounded to death.
The other two stopped in time and accepted their fate as prisoners, just like the other three who hadn''t tested the waters and learned from the other Guardians'' mistakes. Well, they were cautious at first, at least. However, one decided to analyze his cage with a bit of mana.
Shen wouldn''t have that. His qi struck against the single mana particle, which the Guardian returned to his body on time. He would''ve tried to kill the offender if their minds had connected.
The Aura-Material Suppression could kill anyone with C defense, whether from armor, the resistance stat, mana, qi, or all of them. C+ defense could resist it, but the target would also need C strength to push against the materialized Laws going against them. None of those with the qualifications dared to try, increasing their chance of survival.
These people had already been branded traitors by not getting out of his way quickly enough. They had only sidestepped after he killed the first perpetrator. Whether he would execute them after trial remained to be seen, but until then, they were imprisoned betrayers. Resistance would lead to summary death.
Shen had made his peace with his previous misgivings about his situation. He would one day break the machine he was a cog in, but to do that, he needed to survive. Survival meant a certain amount of obedience. He would ignore all the rules he deemed unfair that he could ignore without dying, but he had no qualms about following the ones he agreed with.
He would die if he believed in a cause enough to justify outright betrayal, but it didn''t mean he had to be accepting of all traitors. An unknown traitor''s motivation might be just, but Shen would only exchange his life for theirs¡ªas in letting them live and thus betraying the military¡ªif he decided the cause was worth dying for. That was very unlikely to happen.
As simple as his solution sounded, such adaptability that bordered on moral ambiguity was hard for most people from C-rank onwards to have unless their Path was about schemes and ploys. It was even more challenging for someone with a True Self, if not outright impossible. That went to show how his Domain of Infinite Improvement had broadened his horizons. In fact, the domain was almost too close to True Boundlessness but was different enough to encompass his Will of Absolute Power and his Truth of Limits without conflicts.
Really, the more Shen thought of it, the more perfect the domain felt for him!
The trouble in the corridor barely took his focus away from improving his Laws. He had been paranoid when he cultivated in the Void Farm, and his mind had been so pressured that he lost awareness of his surroundings while improving, but he was safe and aware enough here. At worst, he would be forced to stop evolving his Path for now and finish the job later.
Actually, he could stop now, but he simply... didn''t feel like it.
What use was Absolute Power if he was always using it for others, always pursuing goals not his own, always delaying his own matters for a supposedly greater good he didn''t even fully believe in?
Shen had started improving, so he might as well push until he at least finished testing the things he was absolutely sure were part of each Law.
He firmly grabbed the threads that connected him to the cosmos and added to them; each was a Law. He waved his knowledge into thin, ethereal strings that he placed on top of each thread. One by one, he set the strings down, and they were filled with the Law-thread they surrounded, becoming part of the whole, proving he had made the right assumptions about what the Law was.
The string-layered thread was obviously thicker closer to him and extended beyond sight. The thicker part was the part of the Law that he had mastered.
By the time Shen finished testing his most certain assumptions against Reality, only one string had been filled with his soul instead of a Law. That happened because the guesses he used to make the string weren''t part of the Law. It was as if he was trying to add to a Law, but his soul was just too weak to support such an addition to the fabric of Reality. Thus, the string gave as if he overextended a muscle that couldn''t hold any more weight, almost like snapping but not quite. His soul wasn''t directly damaged, but it hurt and stretched it.
The backlash made him slightly dizzy, and his soul was mostly alright.
Shen opened his eyes and stopped there instead of testing his other guesses. Using his Path exclusively to benefit others didn''t sit well with him, but what use was Absolute Power if he didn''t live long enough to use it? He had a mission to accomplish, and dereliction of duty while deployed was a grave offense. In an Exemplary Brigade, it might be grounds for execution. He had pushed things enough.
His soul had been only barely pressured and stretched by this session. He could improve his mastery over his Laws again in a month.
Although the process had been brief and the progress minor relative to Shen''s last session, he was satisfied. It was hard to evaluate his mastery over his Laws, but he was confident he would reach one-fourth of the way to mastering them in his next attempt. And that was assuming it only improved half as much as he did in the Void Farm.
Sure, improving became harder the closer to mastering a Law a Guardian was, but he still felt proud of his progress in the early stages.
At long last, he looked at his forty-four prisoners. Or rather, forty-one. He turned to three of them. "You three who didn''t interfere, you''re free to go. Everyone else, follow me. I''ll kill any who resist, but I promise a fair trial if you don''t."
His orders were to investigate, find, and judge every fugitive in Samir with the full force of the law. He was to be merciless to any who harbored them. Any who resisted should be given no quarters.
Well, Shen had just concluded that he wouldn''t follow orders and rules he disagreed with. While the Acting General had the authority to demand a purge considering the circumstances, people harboring fugitives were usually not executed outright if found in usual cases.
On the other hand, Shen did agree with the rule that anyone who willingly got in the way of a deployed troop was betraying the military, which ensured the Alliance could keep existing. Or at least that this Sector could keep going for a while longer. He couldn''t withstand the idea that anyone would dabble in politics when so much was at stake.
The issue was that he didn''t know if his orders were just. These people were harboring fugitives, not convicts. In a way, Long Hei was asking Shen to blindly believe his good intentions. Shen refused to do that after the way the lockdown had happened.
Shen would determine if the fugitives were traitors first. Then, he would decide if the ones harboring them deserved to die. They probably did because they had tried to hinder someone deployed to find those fugitives, but he wanted to make sure there wasn''t some grander conspiracy here.
He was stretching his orders a little but felt he was acting in enough good faith. He was also touching on things that might come to bite him later, but this was his Path. After talking for so long about being honorable but acting like a mindless dog, it was finally time to behave as he believed he should.
Shen wouldn''t hesitate to execute these people if they deserved it, but it would be with as much fairness as he could give them.
337. Discretionary Power
Shen honestly wasn''t sure what he would do in those people''s place.
If he acted rebelliously and was captured, would he fight to the end or accept his insurgency had failed and his Path was cut short? Would he temporarily submit while seeking a way out or look down on such a possibility? Would he rather die with a spear in his hands or preserve a shred of honor in submitting to a stronger foe?
After mentioning a trial, his forty-one prisoners turned into thirty-six. They had still hoped he might be corrupt and offer them an alternative. Still, Shen saw a kind of honor in how they chose to face an overwhelming enemy to the bitter end. He honored them with a swift death and even left their corpses mostly intact so their family and friends could do with it as they would.
Shen didn''t know what other crimes they had committed besides standing in his way, and maybe they thought he would kill them for it, but he didn''t feel bad about executing them. It had been their choice not to trust him, even if their perception might''ve been skewed by previous circumstances in Samir. He wasn''t willing to do more for people who had tried to hinder someone who was deployed.
Dealing with the fugitives, on the other hand, would require him to exercise a more nuanced judgment¡ªstarting with whether to trust the Guardian System itself.
In the Alliance, the worst criminals still had access to the system. The Guardian System only recorded their illegal actions and didn''t act directly, like throwing death rays on top of anyone''s head¡ªas it had done against Void Spawn in the tutorial. The system was meant as the Big Brother of Earth''s politic-philosophical fiction, not as a direct intervening force. An automatic Bounty was only generated if someone''s crimes exceeded a threshold, partly to avoid mistakes. Bounties that demanded someone''s death had to be approved by someone higher in the hierarchy. Every death was later investigated, even when dealing with traitors.
In the military, there were no Bounties and no crime threshold. A Guardian''s every misdeed was recorded, and their superior got a notification and was supposed to deal with it. When it came to treason, anyone the system marked as such could be killed on sight. It was up to someone''s goodwill to capture them instead, but it came with a risk; exploiting the ability to capture a betrayer to prolong their lives was harshly punished. One of the reasons was that the time and other resources spent dealing with prisoners could be better spent protecting the Alliance from more significant threats.
In other words, the Guardian System had much more discretionary power on the front lines; the circumstances required it.
Shen had researched the subject but found no instance of the system abusing its authority. Sure, the system could ensure all witnesses were also killed, but he tended to believe that if it would ever twist the truth, it would do so for something more important than getting rid of weaklings. The System Administrator was an S-rank. She could act directly if she wanted an entire Corps gone. It was doubtful whether another S-rank would care about it unless she annihilated too many Corps or their closest descendants were involved. No one would bat an eye if she killed a few C-ranks or D-ranks just because she felt like it¡ªand that was assuming such weak people could even make her care about their lives or deaths.
Though there was an argument to be made that other S-ranks would also ignore her manipulating the Guardian System, Shen disagreed with it. The system''s reach was too vast. A single abuse in one place suggested the Admin had changed her perspective and approach. If he were an S-rank, he would never allow it. If such corruption took root, the entire Alliance would crumble because it depended too much on the system and its impartial truth.
So, as Shen opened the corridor''s bedroom doors and found the fugitives, he didn''t doubt their criminal records, which he could access because he had been tasked with judging them. Most bedrooms were empty except for six, each covered by magic runes that formed a B-tier enchantment to keep the system out. The magic broke when he opened the door without following some specific procedures, allowing the system to finally locate those people.
He found not twenty but thirty-six fugitives. Either the Major hadn''t known about the extra people, or he had only revealed enough to ensure Shen would head here.
Shen directly killed ten people as soon as he read their files.
These Guardians had been categorized as fugitives instead of MIA for a reason. The system or their superiors believed them to have done evil before disappearing, but the lack of witnesses or some circumstantial evidence pointing otherwise created some doubts. Still, unlike missing people, fugitives were almost always traitors kept from the label by a technicality.
For instance, one of them was not branded a traitor only because he was considered not to have the connections or resources to deal with the aftermath of a systemic betrayal. It might look like a silly detail, but only a complete imbecile would commit the mistakes he had on purpose, which together amounted to treason, and then disappear unless they were sure they could get away with it. Their superiors claimed he was smarter than that. There had been a chance of his innocence if he had been found anywhere but in a mobile fortress.
Even here, Shen might have to consider his innocence if he didn''t feel so calm when Shen opened the door, only to panic as soon as he got a notification of being reconnected to the system. He had expected himself to be safe from the system''s prying eyes. Even if these people had picked him up by chance, he had accepted getting away with his misdeeds. Thus, he was a de facto traitor.
Shen''s spear cut his brain and heart in a single swing.
A few others were proven guilty just by being alive. They had been marked as fugitives instead of MIA because their previous actions suggested a scheme but weren''t enough to brand them traitors. However, the mere fact that they didn''t seek the military but a way to bypass the system proved they had a guilty conscience.
Shen''s logic was similar to the too-smart guy: they might''ve survived if they didn''t look calm and at peace before the system found them.
Lastly, a trio who shared a single bedroom was proven guilty by being found partaking in each other when Shen opened the door. There was no sign of abuse or unwillingness in any of them despite them having fought against each other and become "sworn enemies" months before they disappeared. After that, coincidently, each ended together with the enemies of the other, and dozens died before they disappeared.
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Well, they might have simply made peace with each other afterward, but that wouldn''t explain why their enemies died at each other hands. Now, here they were, alive and enjoying life. It was too much of a coincidence.
Thirteen others, including a few D-ranks, tried to attack him or flee. Shen cut the nine attackers down and captured the ones who attempted escape. The system told them they were fugitives and had to surrender themselves to the nearest Guardian. Anything else was considered proof of treason. Still, he would decide on whether the escapees were traitors himself. He had the authority. Although statistically unlikely, they might just be afraid of a place that had been corrupt for so long.
Of the 17 survivors, twelve were C-ranks and five D-ranks. Together with the previous thirty-six C-ranks Shen had captured, he had fifty-three prisoners.
"I''ll tell you the same as I told your would-be protectors," Shen declared after grouping everyone together. "You are to follow me. I''ll kill any who resist, but I promise a fair trial if you don''t." He waited a moment before adding, "If you have information about other fugitives, you can say so now, and it''ll make things easier for you in your trial."
He released the people under his Aura-Material Suppression to let them speak freely. One of them tried to run again and got killed. Another two tried to use what they hoped would be a long and distracting fight to flee and were similarly put down.
After Shen had said his piece, he was done being merciful. Trying to escape now was enough proof of treason for him.
"I''m the bastard child of¡ª" a stunningly beautiful female C-rank high elf started saying.
Unfortunately for her, the only factor keeping her from being branded a traitor was whether she knew who her B-rank mother was and was willing to use it. Only that connection, nothing else, could make her disappear after a possible betrayal. Her words sealed her fate.
Shen used the opportunity to keep future annoyances to a minimum.
"Trying to flex your political clout won''t work," he said. "I don''t know if you got the message when you reconnected with the system, but Samir is on lockdown. I was ordered by the Acting General himself to capture and judge fugitives with the full weight of the law. If I let you go because of your background, I will be killed for treason. Even if executing you means upsetting your backing forces, that only means choosing whether I get killed now at the Acting General''s hands or later by your forces." He smirked. "As you, of all people, must understand that every extra second of life means an extra second of possibilities. I''ll not choose certain death now over merely almost certain death in the future." His smile died. "That said, you''ll be allowed to defend yourself with whichever words you like during your trial. I suggest not trying anything like this, but if you must, wait until the right time."
He added the last couple of sentences to avoid other kinds of trouble. If he let them think he was some merciless tyrant who disregarded rules in the General''s name, he would be going against the primary purpose of an Exemplary Brigade. According to the rules, speaking was not an offense that would see these people executed. The girl had been killed for her circumstances, not her isolated words.
One thing was using a slight misdirection to keep them from sprouting bullshit; another was letting people believe an outright wrong assumption that would border on psychological torture as they were led like cattle to what they believed to be a nightmare.
A few people got the underlying meaning of his words and talked to each other, but none tried to speak to him again. Sadly, that included no one telling him where to find other fugitives.
Shen put corpses and their possessions in his Inventory and led the survivors away.
? ?
? ?
Hukzun had fulfilled Shen''s command and set up a base of operations outside the mobile fortress. His Battalion stood in a defensive perimeter around a massive tent they had set up. There were no separate rooms inside the tent, only a vast empty area, but it was only meant to deflect prying eyes, nothing else.
Inside, Shen found an injured Blue Sky, but at least her Battalion was unscathed. More telling, Vinamour''s entire Battalion was missing instead of locking the fortress down.
Still, the worst part was the missing Luthdel and Rayna. Neither had reported anything, either. That left him without a C-rank helper and in an informational darkness, which meant operational inefficiency. He couldn''t contact them first because if an enemy was blocking the system from getting to them, said enemy might also have a way to detect Shen''s message, which would let them know he had noticed something was wrong.
"Blue Sky, report," Shen said as he entered the tent.
The lansier had lost three hair strands. Her presence here meant the ego-serpents had been destroyed, or her instincts would keep her protecting them as new lansiers grew up. She was also lacking half her left arm and her tongue.
She made the air tremble with mana to reply, "Commander, Captain Ryul Qira intercepted me when I was returning from the Investigation Department with the fugitives list. Our orders were to back off if ordered by a B-rank, not to let them directly interfere with our internal operations. I refused to surrender the list, and he took it from my hand." She raised her stump. "He also said I didn''t need so many minds if they were so stupid." That explained the missing egos in the hivemind.
She was taking her loss well, considering how big of a deal it was for a lansier to lose her three minds. Captain Qira had been ridiculously cruel. When a lansier lost a mind, their bodies focused solely on regaining it, which could take years. In the meanwhile, their bodies didn''t heal any non-critical injury. A missing limb wasn''t considered critical. She could circumvent that with the help of a special item or B-rank healer, but it was costly¡ªif she could even find one during the Calamity.
"I''m sorry for your loss," Shen said. Blue Sky had just lost three people who were very close to her. "Have you reported it to the General?"
"Yes, Commander, but I received no response."
"Any news on Vinamour?" Shen asked. Neither Blue Sky nor Hunzuk had any.
As Blue Sky had said, they had been told to move away if a B-rank blocked them. That meant protecting fugitives or placing obstacles in their way, not taking things away from them. Direct interference was something else, and even the General had likely not expected it. For a B-rank to dare to act so overbearingly, they obviously believed the General wouldn''t react out of camaraderie or fear¡ªor that the information would never get to him.
The lack of acknowledgment after Blue Sky''s report meant that either the General had decided not to help the Exemplary Brigade or the Captain had blocked the system message. The first made no sense to Shen because there were easier ways of killing that bunch of weaklings like them than bringing them here to despair at the hands of a B-rank. He bet Ryul''s actions were a warning not to try too hard while seeking fugitives, and he had blocked the message to show he had real power. Vinamour''s absence also pointed at that.
From the little Shen knew of politics, his actions made sense. Shen could interpret it as Ryul hindering the investigation and step away. Neither side had to do more than what they already had; it was a win-win situation.
But from what Shen knew of war, Ryul was just waiting for the opportunity to get rid of the entire Exemplary Brigade.
A B-rank had attacked Shen''s Brigade, which had no way to defend itself without the General''s assistance. They were isolated in an unknown territory. Moreover, Shen had just left the mobile fortress, and he knew just enough to understand the system coverage was a little weaker here than the inside.
He was at the mercy of someone who had already attacked his people, and the longer he waited to act, the greater the other party''s advantage would become.
So, he said, "I declare Captain Ryul Qira a traitor."
If the system didn''t get the message, it would show he was already cut from critical parts of it, and death would be a matter of time. The traitor report subsystem was of a higher priority and more challenging to affect than the message system.
If the system got it, it would show that Ryul''s power over the system wasn''t as big as he wanted Shen to believe.
Whatever the case, the only way to survive was through the General. Shen really hoped Long Hei''s scheme, whatever it was, didn''t involve the Exemplary Brigade dying as pathetically as this.
338. The Face of Perfection
"Do you know why I walk the Path of Sincerity?" a whisper said from behind.
Ryul turned back quickly, swinging his graceful mythril sword without hesitation. He was almost grateful for the invader to let him know of their presence before attacking, for it let him activate his artifacts that added two invisible defensive layers on top of his golden and silvery plate armor. He had just returned to his room and been considering taking a bath, but the invader, although skilled in infiltration, was clearly a stupid novice too eager for glory.
His sword found only empty air. He almost cut the tapestry on the wall depicting the Tree of Life but stopped himself in time.
Ryul looked around but found no one. He mentally kicked himself for furnishing his bedroom. He knew it was a safety hazard, but he hadn''t been able to stop himself after he started navigating dangerous waters. If his life were to be short, at least it should be fulfilling while it lasted. Now, his luxury might be his demise, for the invader might be under the massive central bed or inside the long, finely crafted wooden wardrobe enchanted to be bigger on the inside. They had undoubtedly abused the furniture previously, which explained how he had failed to notice them when he came in.
Then again, the furniture would give the invader a sensation of security, and the big objects were relatively far from the door. Ryul could use it. A stupid Guardian would search for the intruder, but Ryul released his domain to pretend he would do it, then just turned back to the door and decided to run, already opening his mouth to cry an alarm.
There was no door in his room anymore, and his domain never left his body.
"To hone myself," the whisper said behind him.
This time, when he turned, he saw a drow sitting on the bed. Not just any drow, either, but the most gorgeous one he had ever seen, enough to rival the most beautiful of high elves. That said a lot coming from him, considering he believed high elves to be better than every other race in every way conceivable.
Ryul''s desire rose so fast and hard that he had to bend down and throw up bile.
"From the very first day I started walking a Path," the drow said with a sexy, hoarse voice, "I decided my Path would be the opposite of the power I was well-versed in and sought to improve; anathema to my deepest and most hidden self."
Ryul''s lust reached a new high when he heard the voice. Such raw perfection! That was all he wanted!
Suddenly, truth slapped him in the face. Memories were unlocked, and his self was reanalyzed. An image came to mind, the memory of the first time he saw the Queen of Spring and Autumn.
He realized he had been doing all this simply because he desired the Queen, and the only way to possess her solely for himself was by taking her down from her throne.
"My very existence is to spite the powers that be," the drow continued, "and I started with spiting my own self. If I can''t do that, how can I fight established old monsters? The united logic of my race, too, is to contrast against every other culture out there. There are no extremes of individualism or collectivism, only a complex web of belonging and self-sacrifice that perseveres despite all odds and can be simplified in one sentence: we are drow. Even I was surprised when my people resisted the Dreamer''s ploy without assistance¡ªpartially, just to spite the Dreamer and the Alliance that allowed the Dreamer''s scheme."
Ryul looked at the invader with bloodshot eyes. His body was overheating from the overwhelming lust that he had kept bottled for so long. Not for the drow before her, but for the very memory of the Queen.
He had forced herself to suppress it long ago. Now, he was forced to face his innermost self. It didn''t help that the one time he sought an alternative to his passion, he was denied again. He had acted against his orders and taken Taeral into the Resistance, and the damn woman had turned out to like girls too.
Ryul cried as his long, unrequited love turned into physical pain.
The drow stood up and approached. Her dark clothes were tight but left a lot for imagination. Ryul could only imagine the Queen underneath. It was impossible for the Queen to manifest here, but his desires were shaping his perception of reality.
"I survived because I lucked out in developing a domain when my true beliefs and my Path were clashing so hard that I was almost killing myself," she said. "That this is the ultimate purpose of a domain: to dominate subjects. Yet, aren''t we our Path? Isn''t a domain our Path expanded into the world? How can my Path dominate itself to include things my Path disagrees with?" She chuckled. "Few remember the ruler of a true domain lies somewhere deeper. Few notice that we are not our Paths, Wills, or beliefs but our hearts. We are the core of our existence that makes choices. We''re defined and made unique by the decisions we make."
"What..." Ryul arched with difficulty. "...do you want?"
The drow smiled, but he saw the Queen standing scantily dressed before him.
"My point is that I find great pleasure in the ironies of existence," the Queen said with a melodious voice that made the hair of his entire body stand on their ends. "I''m not an irony but a statement, yet such things feel close to me. Someone increased Shen''s monitoring priority to A-tier to hurt him, but it allowed him to use the system despite your B-tier meddling. The lizard boy didn''t interfere with you because he knew I would like seeing it, and he was right. Knowing Shen has the Queen''s favor makes it even more delectable."
Ryul kneeled and drolled as he stared at the face of perfection.
"Now," she said, and he adored her every word, "your extreme and unresolved obsession will be your downfall. Cultivators call such things heart demons for a reason. It molds your Path into something you should not be, twists you, and leads to ultimate doom."
She stepped closer, standing before him in all her glory. His body trembled.
"Your Path will crumble because it''s defined by external influence and unfulfilled desire. There''s no ambition, only self-loathing and self-deprecation. Your Path cannot resist the cold honesty of its feeble falsity. It''s feeble and useless, leading nowhere but the past, which was awful and miserable to begin with. The Path I walk to hone myself will be your destruction, and seeing an enemy fall to what makes me stronger is the irony that brings me happiness above all else. That I shall be rewarded for doing it by the very system that punished me minutes ago makes it taste even better. With a monologue to boost!" The Queen smiled, and the world became better. "My soul still aches, and staying awake is a struggle, but I had to be here for this. I owe the lizard boy for waking me up for this. It''s the little things that make eternity worth it."
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"It''s my pleasure to fall before your Realization, my Queen," he said with utmost devotion.
The Queen snickered. "Weren''t you listening? I spite on the powers that be. If they say True Path Walkers are stronger, I create, survive, and reach greatness with a Reverse Path. By the same token, if they declare a pure Path to cause the death of the ego, I merge my ego with purity and become something more. And if they demand a Realization to reach A-rank, I do it without one and force them to recognize me as A-rank, for they have no alternative."
Ryuk couldn''t understand it, but he didn''t need to. He was barely listening. He was morphing into something else. Lesser, but better. Truer. Freer. Happier.
She continued, "I don''t need a Realization to deal with someone who built their Path on a sense of inferiority. You also lucked out with your domain, or your Path would''ve unraveled earlier. But your domain was built on the same shallow foundations that define the rest of your mediocrity. It''s already gone, for you can''t dominate yourself with so much doubt and demeaning, and everything else is following. May the castle you built on quicksand crumble, for it should never have grown this high to begin with."
Ryul found blissful love and nirvana in the illusion of a meeting he had never had and attention he had never received. The harsh truth of his worthless existence was thrown on his face, and he couldn''t be happier, for he had been noticed and analyzed by his Queen.
She was correct in everything. As always. He was nothing. Thus, he should cease to be.
His Path unraveled, and he with it.
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? ?
Shen got two notifications as soon as he denounced the Captain.
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| Report received
| Report accepted ¡ª Ryul Qira (B) has been deemed a traitor
? ?
Things had gone considerably smoother than Shen had expected. Had he overthought things? Ryul''s actions were in a gray area between politics and raw power, so it made sense that Shen had seen too much into the Captain''s actions.
Still, the easiness left a bitter taste in his mouth. His best guess was that Ryul was simply an idiot who had overestimated himself. Yet, even such an idiot could become B-rank and had crippled Shen''s Battalion Commander!
"I want to apply for restitution for Battalion Commander Blue Sky," he said. "She was injured in the line of duty by a superior officer committing treason. The military must pay for the crime of placing such a person in such a high position. She must be healed, at the very least."
That demand was politically much less sensible than reporting the Captain because he was saying someone even higher in the chain of command was either an accomplice or incompetent. However, it was perfectly acceptable and even expected of an Exemplary Brigade. The same status that forced Shen not to continue improving his Laws minutes ago now worked for his benefit.
? ?
| Compensation has already been delivered to Second Lieutenant Blue Sky. A token to call a B-rank healer was included
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Shen raised an eyebrow at that. That was pleasing. Whoever had gotten his earlier report had already made things right.
Yet, Blue Sky hadn''t used any token to call anyone yet.
He turned to the lansier. "Battalion Commander Blue Sky, may I remind you that you''re expected to maintain peak condition at all times, including physical readiness?"
Sixty-two pairs of eyes looked pained when they met his. "To heal my arm before my community is flourishing would be a dishonor to the ones I lost, Commander."
Shen hadn''t been told lansiers also suffered from such a psychological barrier on top of their physiological one that kept them from healing minor injuries. It made sense, though. He nodded. "If you believe making yourself vulnerable and more susceptible to losing even more of your minds is more honorable than eating it up and protecting those who remain, so be it. I''ll allow your claim of cultural relevance to overrule the demand for your readiness."
That was all he would say on the matter. He didn''t know enough to make a more informed decision, nor could he empathize with a literal walking hivemind. Her argument was sound enough for him to let her lack an arm for the remainder of their current assignment. The military rules included such exceptions, though at the discretion of the individual''s superior.
She nodded gratefully, all but ignoring his argument, "Thank you, Commander."
Shen nodded back and said, "Blue Sky, Hukzun, which one of you feels better suited to gather information? Consider your subordinates in the answer and know that whichever Battalion remains will replace Vinamour in locking the fortress down while I hold this place and pass judgment on the prisoners."
The two Second Lieutenants glanced at each other before Hukzun stepped ahead. "I''ll lock the fortress down, Commander." He immediately organized his troops to do so.
Blue Sky smiled weakly. "I wish I didn''t have to go back there, but I am more qualified despite what my recent failure suggests."
Shen knew she was better suited for it but wanted to give her a way out if Hukzun was up to it. He had also been testing if they had gotten closer to each other while he was away. Such small tests bordered on pettiness but were necessary while he got to know them better.
"Very well. I don''t agree with the rule that you must call me Commander or First Lieutenant at all times, but we''re an Exemplary Brigade. Don''t repeat that mistake. Find Luthdel, Rayna, and Vinamour as soon as possible, in that order of importance."
Luthdel was more likely to do something stupid, so he was the priority. Shen needed a helper more than a Battalion Commander with anger issues, so Rayna was second.
"Yes, Commander," Blue Sky said and also organized her people to return to the fortress.
Finally, Shen turned to his forty-nine prisoners. They were all high elves. Shen didn''t think many were innocent, considering their race had so much clout in Samir.
"The fugitives will go first," He said and looked at a random guy. "Iolas Quikalyn, step ahead and wait a moment." He reread the D-rank''s file and pointed out, "You sold twenty-seven pieces of defective C-tier equipment that crumbled at the wrong time and caused the death of thirteen D-ranks and one C-rank. You then disappeared. Do you plead guilty, or will you enlighten me about a very interesting conspiracy?"
Iolas being safe and sound in the bedroom was evidence of his ill intentions, but only circumstantial, without other circumstances to justify his immediate execution. The same was true for most of the imprisoned fugitives. In Iolas''s case, he could claim that he had no choice but to hide after he was schemed against by someone with too much power in Samir. It was improbable but possible. Thus, Shen decided to give him a fair trial.
The high elf hesitated momentarily before asking, "First Lieutenant, I take it your denounce against Captain Ryul Qira was accepted?"
Ah, so the Captain was a key figure in this mess, and Iolas was hoping for the Captain''s protection.
"Yes," Shen replied, then said to the system, "I ask for the current status of Ryul Qira to be displayed in this trial."
The system agreed that Ryul''s status was relevant and revealing it would assist with the trial. A message window appeared in the air, visible to everyone.
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|
Ryul Qira (B)
Status: Deceased
Cause: Executed for treason
|
Well, that was a surprise. Ryul was even more of an idiot than Shen had thought if he hadn''t an escape route planned and got himself killed so quickly.
Really, any random weakling seemed to be able to scheme in Samir just because they were high elves.
Said weakling was evidently very important to many of these people. Half the fugitives and five Guardians who had harbored them felt mixed levels of sadness and hopelessness when they read the message. A few even fell to their knees, some started crying, and at least six despaired.
"The Resistance..." a C-rank muttered, then just died.
He killed himself by willing himself to die. Any Path Walker could do so from D-rank onwards.
The waters of corruption in Samir clearly ran deep, but Shen really wasn''t interested in knowing more. Those weren''t his orders. He was just glad someone high up in the hierarchy wasn''t involved.
Multiple others followed the first one to give up on life. They would be remembered as traitors if they waited for the trial and were executed. Dying as fugitives, even captured ones, some of whom the system had already deemed traitors, let their loved ones remember them more kindly. It was a small mercy allowed by the Alliance.
After the mass suicide, twenty-one Guardians remained. Twelve were C-ranks who had been branded traitors for staying in Shen''s way and could only hope for the best in the trial. It was probably just wishful thinking, but Shen didn''t blame them. Most people would do the same in their place.
He was more interested in the nine fugitives who chose to stay. None of them had been branded as traitors by the system.
"Lixiss Glynrel," he picked another random individual. "You''re next."
339. I Failed
In the end, Shen deemed everyone guilty of treason.
Most lied or tried to use their background to intimidate him, but it was easy to ascertain the truth after being ordered to judge these people. He just needed to make queries to the system, and he got answers.
As much as he wanted not to convict the ones who had tried to stop him, system recordings showed they were involved in other illegal activities that would see them executed. Or rather, there was an unlawful lack of such recordings when they were in places where illegal activities were later discovered to have happened. The mere circumstantial evidence wouldn''t be enough to execute them, but the nature of some crimes sealed their fate for him.
It was particularly hard for Shen to execute a woman who sobbed and begged for mercy, but "fortunately," there was no question about the treason she had committed after he asked a few questions. She had caused two colleagues to die by running away during a fight against Void Spawn because she had been scared. It was easy to sympathize with her because she had been conscripted, but she had willingly left her unit to die out of selfishness. Moreover, all evidence suggested that her permanence in the line would ensure no one even got injured.
After three years of Calamity, such cowards were as rare on the front lines as phoenix feathers, but that wasn''t to say they never appeared. When they did, it usually came from those who had just ranked up and were unsure of their power. The woman had reached D-rank ours before she faced the first Void Spawn as a Sergeant.
At least executing her without hesitation ensured no one else tried the same thing.
Shen finished passing judgment in less than half an hour. Meanwhile, Hukzun''s people constantly brought Guardians to wait for Shen to finish. They were those who wanted to get into the fortress but didn''t dare to break in. Their forthrightness wasn''t a surprise; locking the fortress down was done officially, though not to the point of activating the fortress'' defenses, and everyone received a notification when they tried to enter or leave. It was expected that every Guardian would obey the lockdown.
Rather, the two reports he got of people ignoring the lockdown were the surprising ones. One D-rank died when he was intercepted by Hukzun''s people, and a C-rank managed to flee, both fugitives. That said, the latter wasn''t much better than the dead D-rank. An attack from Hukzun''s people broke whatever means he used to avoid the system, which recognized him and branded him a traitor for ignoring the barricade.
Shen left the tent and met the few hundred people waiting for him. They were more curious than upset. Novelty was often welcome in the front lines, except when it came in the form of a Void assault.
"I''m First Lieutenant Shen, in charge of the 7th Exemplary Brigade," he said. "I''m currently clearing this mobile fortress of fugitives. I''ll be done in a few days at the latest. Then, I''ll hunt fugitives elsewhere. Military law will be respected in every trial I sit. I was told Samir''s regular troops were also ordered to find fugitives. Why are you here?"
It made sense that some troops had to hold the line in multiple places instead of being sent to look for fugitives, but these scattered people didn''t match that. Units moved as one, while these people had come alone or in small groups.
Almost all of them watched dumbfounded as two C-ranks suddenly tried to run away, and three others tried to attack Shen.
He held them down with his Aura-Material Suppression and executed them. The ones who tried to flee also became traitors by running away while being questioned. They knew that. They chose to bet their lives on being faster than he could deal with.
Shen hated being used as a mindless cog in the machine. He would rather put them through a trial if it wasn''t a terrible tactical decision. Others would see his leniency as something to exploit, and he had to awe these people not to cause trouble at the first opportunity, even if well-intended. Their numbers would only increase.
Shen had also considered questioning his prisoners to understand their causes, but after seeing how much could be done with the system, even with missing records, he decided against it. It would be a waste of time, and he was in a competition. Moreover, if Long Hei wanted to unveil the truth, he could just find someone with some mastery over the Axioms of Time to look at the past and figure things out. If the dragon didn''t find it necessary, Shen also wasn''t interested.
Or, to put it another way, whatever the Resistance he heard mentioned was about, it was above his pay grade. Shen would kill traitors, and that would be it. He only asked if they knew where other fugitives were, but no one had spilled the beans yet.
Five people had panicked when asked why they were around, but most of the remaining people explained they simply hadn''t been deployed, which was a perfectly sensible answer. The military never deployed every troop it had. Some were also doing minor missions that involved getting into the fortress. None had priority over Shen''s lockdown.
Shen told them to wait until he was done to get in, and they accepted it¡ªthough B-ranks, of course, could enter or leave the fortress at will.
Another half-hour later, Blue Sky returned with a fugitive list. He hadn''t asked her to do it, but it was a welcome boon. Shen could get that list through the system but wanted to see which people the Investigation Department would hide, which was likely the reason the Captain had intercepted it before.
He compared both and found about one hundred of the 5,000 fugitives in Samir were missing from the Investigation Department''s list. None had been found by him yet. He took note of that.
"Thank you, Second Lieutenant," Shen told Blue Sky. "I admit I''m troubled by the lack of people accompanying you." He had asked her to bring key figures with her, not a list of names.
She reported, "Sorry, Commander! Lieutenant Luthdel was last seen going to Samir Subnode 16. Lieutenant Rayna was last seen going to Samir Subnode 3. Second Lieutenant Vinamour and his Battalion are being held prisoner for disregarding Captain Ryul Qira''s orders to belay the orders to lock the fortress down."
So, whoever had ensured Blue Sky got a quick compensation after the Captain was deemed a traitor hadn''t cared to do Shen''s job for him. It was up to him to free his people if they were wrongly accused.
Shen had learned that while the Guardian System could automate many things for the military for a low cost, the powers-that-be forbid it. Although it allowed corruption to more easily seep in, the military didn''t want to become overly reliant on the system. It also didn''t want the warriors there to lose the ability to interact and socialize with each other to get things done or the skills to deal with bureaucracy. As much as they were treated as weapons, they were supposed to return to civilian society eventually.
That said, Shen was supposed to have received a notification when one of his Battalions was detained, especially for disregarding a Captain who wasn''t even in their chain of command. The system hadn''t informed Shen, and the Detention Department had accepted the barely legal imprisonment. So, it seemed Ryul Qira had had more power than Shen estimated by how easily he had been executed.
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But the Captain was dead. Unless another B-rank took his place, there was no difficulty in righting any wrongings committed by Ryul.
Shen sent a message to the Detention Department informing them that Captain Ryul Qira had been branded a traitor and executed. He also told them that Vinamour''s Battalion was acting under his orders, and his Brigade had been deployed by someone higher up in the hierarchy than the late Captain, the Acting General himself.
The reply was almost instantaneous.
? ?
| Samir''s Detention Department: We have reviewed your petition and released the prisoners.
? ?
Vinamour appeared in the tent within minutes. He hadn''t been injured but was more upset than ever. Shen had never seen anyone that angry.
"Anything to report, Second Lieutenant?"
"I failed to execute your orders, Commander," he replied, shame mixing with his fury.
"Hukzun had better luck locking the fortress down, so he''ll keep at it. I want you to empty this mobile fortress of every Guardian. Inform everyone that after they leave, we''ll comb through every inch that isn''t for B-ranks or above."
Strictly speaking, people''s quarters in the fortress weren''t theirs. They weren''t supposed to keep anything private in the rooms when they weren''t using them. The system offered a kind of bank at a high price for those with more than they could bring in their spatial treasures or Inventory.
Still, private property was private property. Shen''s people couldn''t just break into people''s rooms and steal everything inside. It would likely happen, and dealing with it would be a headache, but it was an issue for future-Shen to deal with.
He had long concluded that he couldn''t accomplish his mission if he didn''t clean his "house" first. After cleaning this mobile fortress, which was linked to Samir-7, he would leave its own people locking it down and do the same to the other fortresses. Only then would he head to the Subnodes.
Then, these fortresses would become a trap for those who did the obvious: hide fugitives inside using their B-rank status. After all, the fortresses had already been declared "clean" and were the safest place for fugitives, even those in the Subnodes. Whether the trap would work would only depend on whether Long Hei would care to spring it.
The military in each Node had around fifteen to thirty million Guardians from C to E-rank divided among three Corps, each with nine Brigades. In other words, there were 27 Brigades overall, and a few fortresses were always lacking people. Also, only very rarely did two Brigades share a fortress. It was mostly trainee E-ranks and F-ranks who filled the fortresses that lacked a stationed Brigade.
Samir-7 had already lost the head of its single Brigade and almost all its C-ranks, so there was only minor trouble forcing everyone else to leave. Vinamour was strong enough to negotiate with any rebel C-rank. His fists were a great argument.
In total, there were a little over one and a half million people on the outside when Shen ordered Vinamour and Blue Sky to comb through the fortress. He only gave his people two warnings, "If the system fails to record any of your actions while you''re searching for fugitives, I''ll automatically consider you the primary suspect of anything that happens in the meanwhile, be it theft or murder. I''ll be the only one to judge any fugitives unless the system flags them as traitors when they are discovered. Go."
Honestly, one of the primary things that made Shen suspicious of the higher-ups in the military was that what he had just said wasn''t a rule. Cutting off the system was surprisingly a greater offense in the civilian Alliance than in the military. Entering a place without system coverage against one''s will was possible but unlikely, and investigating matters wouldn''t be too difficult. Unless it happened too much, of course, but then, there would be a massive issue in the fortress that had to be quickly dealt with.
The reason why there was no rule against it was simple and straightforward: it was in A-ranks and B-ranks'' best interests that they could disable the system now and then. C-ranks couldn''t block the system it without a domain or B-rank item, which they could only use without triggering an alarm if a B-rank or higher in the military had their back. Instead of blocking investigations about such people, it was much better for no one to ever start asking questions to begin with.
Vinamour and Blue Sky took only one day to check Samir-7. They were told by Major Anhril Far?n not to investigate seven places and informed the Acting General. Shen also sent Long Hei a message as redundancy to make it more likely for him to get the news. Hindering the investigation didn''t necessarily mean Anhril was harboring fugitives, though. He might simply not want them to uncover a secret hidden in an area that they supposedly were free to check.
Elsewhere, they found a whopping 44 fugitives, half of whom became traitors when the system detected them. Shen deemed the other half guilty of treason after their trials.
None survived, and all their items and corpses were collected by him to be later delivered to the Investigation Department. He would just wait to see if he couldn''t give them directly to the General first. Even if he couldn''t, the latter he gave it to the Investigation Department, the more likely it was for them to have lost a safety network that allowed them to be corrupt with little worry.
"It looks like my people are more efficient than I thought," Shen told the huge mass of people camping outside his tent. "Samir-7 is now as clean of fugitives as I can make it. Two of my Guardians, both Sergeants, disappeared from the system''s vigilance while checking the same room. Three Lieutenants later headed them and discovered an anti-system enchantment. We have not taken the enchantment down, but the room was reported. The system worked everywhere else and didn''t flag any illegal action, so I declare my Brigade not guilty of any future accusation of wrongdoings. We closed all doors we opened, and if they have an owner, their locks were automatically engaged."
He paused, waiting for complaints or questions, but there were none. Shen had killed a few other C-ranks who tried to force their way into Samir-7 throughout the day. On top of how his trials went, these people understood what kind of person he was. There was no reason to doubt his claims or try to gain any form of political advantage right now.
Shen nodded. Now, he would see how many of them were just pretending not to have anything to hide. Vinamour and Blue Sky''s Battalions had already slowly surrounded them.
He said, "Samir-7 will remain in lockdown even after I leave. I''m conscripting everyone''s help to denounce any illegal entry or exit. You may form a line and enter now. Everyone will be required to undergo an B-tier system check to¡ª"
Over a hundred people tried to flee as soon as he mentioned the check but were intercepted and killed.
Shen had understood throughout the day that the genuinely powerful C-ranks were all deployed away from Samir-7, including the ones hunting for fugitives. There were over 5,000 fugitives in Samir, with unproven sightings of 4,000 in the Subnodes in the past six months. The involved Brigades had gone there to compete.
The General had mentioned nothing about it, but that had to be his arrangement. He had predicted that the Exemplary Brigade would do the playbook move and secure its retreat before advancing. That was the best strategy for Shen also because even if they hunted down fewer people in the end¡ªwhich was unlikely¡ªthey would have done the arguably more important job of cleaning the house while others sought glory. The Exemplary Brigade would slap the locals in the face one way or the other.
"As I was saying," Shen told the survivors, "form a line. You''ll be allowed to enter after a B-tier system check."
Said check was something similar to what the system had done when Shen returned from the Void. It was only B-tier but set up so only A-tier means could block it. It was more powerful than whatever automatic check was made when people got in the fortress, but also considerably more expensive and rarely done.
Well, even if someone blocked Shen from doing it, the threat of being forced had already revealed some moles. He would be satisfied enough. But no one did, and he got no notification about wasting resources.
It took another day for everyone to get in. Thirty others tried to flee when they realized there was no alternative but were killed. The only C-rank who did forced Vinamour to fight for a while and ultimately ask one of his helpers for assistance but was still put down.
All in all, those were two productive days. Now that the Brigade people had gained some experience, they would also be much faster in the other fortresses. He estimated they would be done with all 33 within fifteen to twenty days unless something happened...
...and something did happen five days later.
Samir-1 to 5 were cleared without issue. Shen was in his tent judging a fugitive they had found in Samir-6, the 233rd they had found in all seven fortresses, when two Brigades suddenly teleported around him, surrounding him from all sides.
Luthdel had been captured and beaten by a Brigade Commander, and Rayna stood beside the other. Both Commanders were drow. At last, Shen had found them in Samir.
Sadly, from the way they were treating Luthdel and looking at him, it didn''t seem they didn''t reciprocate the happiness he felt at seeing them.
340. Tribunal of Peers
? "Wait," Shen commanded and left the tent.
Everyone was looking at everyone with their Law Vision, and they could talk at a distance, but some things had to be resolved in person. Once outside, he checked Luthdel. He was tied by a simple rope, kneeling on the ground, looking devoid of the will to fight. His unhelmet face was bloodied, but his injuries had already healed. He was healthy enough.
Satisfied, Shen looked at what the Recognition Interface displayed above Luthdel''s head.
? ?
| Luthdel Elafir (C) ¡ª Lieutenant
| Race: High Elf
| Clearances: Leadership 2
| Active Clearance Proposals: Second-in-Command Specialist [Pending Captain-level Approval], Berserker [Pending Captain-level Approval]
| Dropped Clearance Proposals: Overall Tactical Analysis [UNFITTING PERSONALITY]
| Commendations: 5
| Demerits: 2
| NOTICE: Planning to attack First Sergeant Marzia Martino, unknown depth of planned injuries. Recommended immediate action.
? ?
Shen ignored almost everything and focused on the yellow-colored notice at the end. Although positioned at the bottom, it was closest to Luthdel''s head and, thus, more likely to be seen, especially considering its color. That explained why he had been captured.
The way everyone had arrived also told Shen many things.
First, Luthdel had accomplished the mission Shen had given him¡ªto a point. He had found out Martino was somehow related to his brother''s death. How much Luthdel had learned would determine what Shen would do. Shen still hoped not to be wrong about the guy, that Luthdel wouldn''t attack Martino if he knew the whole truth.
Second, Rayna had also succeeded in her primary mission: protecting Martino. Luthdel had only planned an attack, so Marzia Martino was still alive.
Third, and almost more importantly than everything else, the drow in Samir were all outcasts.
Drow culture was brutal but also straightforward and uniform. Rayna displayed emotions now and then, which was a failure on her part. Only at B-rank were they allowed the personal freedom to feel. The two C-ranks, looking upset at Shen, were not trying to control their feelings or hide them. That was a first.
They were the first outcasts Shen found, and he was more curious about them than anything he had seen to date. What exactly did they disagree with regarding drow culture? How had they cut their ties with the Triarchy? How were they doing? Had their views changed after they found their freedom? Shen wanted to know everything.
Alas, they were unlikely to tell him for one simple reason. "I am drow," he said.
"You are drow," Rayna agreed.
That set him and the outcasts worlds apart. Theoretically, he was supposed to capture them and return them to Shar''Talon for re-indoctrination. He wouldn''t do that, of course, not even if they were outside the military, but they didn''t know it and would never believe him anyway. Even if they thought he might be genuine, there was no reason to risk it. It was much safer just not to interact with him beyond the strictly necessary.
As for why he was sure all drow in Samir were outcasts, it was statistically impossible for the drow from Shar''Talon to be around, yet the only two drow whom Shen had found to date to be these two C-ranks. After cleaning six mobile fortresses, he hadn''t even heard about any other drow. There was no drow from Shar''Talon around except Rayna and maybe Darla.
Speaking of which, the fourth thing he learned with the circumstances was that Liya and the Triarchy had lied to him.
Shen had been told all drow C-ranks and weaker would come to Samir. Liya had confirmed it. When he asked Liya about it, she guaranteed the drow had contacted Martino, and they were working together. Alas, they weren''t around.
That led him to the fifth point: Martino had also lied to him.
Shen hadn''t exchanged many messages with her, but she had said the drow were helping her and humanity. Considering how she had been almost raped, but now these drow were helping her and were upset about Luthdel, a high elf, planning shit, she hadn''t been in contact with any drow before now. At least not these ones, who, as far as he could tell, were the only ones in Samir.
Finally, sixth, Rayna probably knew all about it. She had been surprised by seeing Darla, likely another drow from Shar''Talon. He would have to talk to Rayna when he had the time.
Shen glanced over the surrounding people, but his eyes couldn''t locate Martino among the masses. Over a million people were there, and his Law Vision could only pierce so much flesh before everything became a mess. His passive Law senses could''ve located Martino if he had ever felt her before, but that wasn''t the case. His aura could also find her, but considering the tension in the Brigade Commanders'' faces, that might spark the wrong¡ª
One of the fugitives tried to sneak out. A D-rank. Shen used Gentle Breeze to behead him, then slice his vital organs.
Anyway, if he deployed his aura, it might spark the wrong reaction from the Commanders, even if it wasn''t technically an attack.
? ?
| Maryon (C) ¡ª First Lieutenant
| Commander of the 173rd Mana Brigade
? ?
| Nucio (C) ¡ª First Lieutenant
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| Commander of the 175th Mana Brigade
? ?
The two drow Commanders were males. They wore a similar outfit, black and silver plate armor. One carried a massive sword on his back, similar in size to Luthdel''s¡ªwhich was missing¡ªand the other''s gauntlet was covered with spikes. Both had three mastered Laws each.
Shen waited for them to say something, but they seemed happy with staring him down. So, he nodded and offered, "Thanks for capturing my helper before he did something even stupider. I''ll bring the full force of the law upon him."
Strictly speaking, planning an attack was not a grave offense. Everyone was a Guardian, and their very minds had been modified for extra aggressiveness. Shen, too, often wondered how amazing it was to destroy the entire Alliance. Sure, actual planning, as the system had detected, meant Luthdel had made notes, told someone, purchased tools, or made moves toward accomplishing his goals. Yet, it was still not attempted murder.
They were an Exemplary Brigade, so he would be punished as if it were a severe offense, but it wouldn''t be that bad for the high elf. Shen grabbed Luthdel with his Gentle¡ª
Another Law cut his Gentle Breeze off.
Shen''s high willpower didn''t matter if he invested only a little of it when using his Laws, which he usually did. So, it was simple to cut him off. Yet, it was also a direct attack.
He looked back at Maryon. He had long, black, curly hair in multiple braids that met together into a thicker one. His eyes displayed mockery. And yet, he still kept his silence.
Shen could do a whole lot of things here. To be honest, the pettiness made him dissatisfied, to say the least. Yet, he didn''t attack. That''s not what the most exemplary of soldiers was supposed to do.
He stated, "Luthdel is part of my Brigade, which has been deployed. He did wrong and will be tried. Further interference with the 7th Exemplary Brigade''s internal affairs will be considered a direct challenge to its undergoing mission and, thus, treason."
A female voice said from the crowd, "Not if we were given the same mission and deem you to be unable to keep your subordinates under control, thus interfering with our unit''s effectiveness."
Shen smiled sourly as he recognized the voice as belonging to Martino. He didn''t have to be a genius to conclude she was a Justicar. That was the most likely answer to why she was interfering with the Exemplary Brigade. Even if she were pissed with Luthdel, it would be in her best interests to side with Shen here instead of her impromptu saviors¡ªwho had been in Samir yet did nothing to save her before now.
"Is that what this is about?" Shen asked the two Commanders. "You want to waste my time with a Tribunal of Peers?"
The fastest way to resolve such an impasse would be to ask a B-rank, but only if said B-rank was in both parties'' chain of command or accepted by both as a neutral party. That wouldn''t work here because the Exemplary Brigade hadn''t been attached to any Corps. That left the Tribunal of Peers, where Brigade Commanders decided things among themselves. There were all sorts of rules to determine who was right or wrong, but even the slightest offense might take up to two weeks to solve if one of the parties wasn''t interested in reaching an agreement.
Shen couldn''t waste that time; he was in a competition.
"A Tribunal sounds good," Maryon said with a voice that could only be described as a slimy douchebag''s.
? ?
| You''ve been invited by First Lieutenant Maryon (C) to solve your differences in a Tribunal of Peers
? ?
Shen smiled. "I refuse. I have taken note of Lieutenant Luthdel''s health. From now on, his well-being is your responsibility until one of our Brigades is no longer deployed, and there is no longer a conflict of interest."
Frankly, although that would leave Shen a little weaker, it also solved his most significant issue. Luthdel had come mainly so Shen could babysit the guy. Now, he had just pushed the hot potato into someone else''s hands.
Then, his smile turned into a smirk. He said, "Also, I can appoint someone of my race to witness everything happening to him, and I choose Marzia Martino."
If the little ploy worked, Martino and Luthdel would be forced to interact and solve their issues. Or they wouldn''t solve anything¡ªwhich would mean Shen had his answer about ending his friendship with Luthdel. Yet, even if it didn''t work, it would force them to deliver Luthdel to him.
"You can''t pick her," Maryon replied. "You just said you''re drow."
"So are you," Shen countered without worry. "And I''m also human."
Shen wasn''t stupid enough to engage a drow lawyer in the minutiae of any set of rules. They knew how to find and exploit loopholes and push the boundaries beyond what anyone else could. Even your average drow was better at that than a trained commoner lawyer.
Yet, things were straightforward enough in the military, especially in this case. He had been deployed as a drow, but he could ask for someone of his "secondary" race to watch over Luthdel because those two people belonged to his deployment race.
? ?
| Invitation rescinded
? ?
Shen snorted and grabbed Luthdel again. No one cut his Law off this time. He deposited the high elf in the tent.
He then turned to Nucio, beside whom Rayna stood.
Nucio was Martino''s Brigade Commander. That explained why Rayna was there but not why another Brigade had captured Luthdel. The latter, and their coming together, was a show of force.
Shen said, "Is Lieutenant Rayna also kept captive?"
"Yes," Nucio replied. His voice was hoarse, and he spoke quickly and harshly. "I don''t like spies, child. She''s lucky she''s drow. Mentally slaved as you all, but still drow. She''ll live."
Shen looked silently for a few seconds, unsure if he had heard right. Then, still looking at Nucio, he slightly tilted his head to where he had heard Martino''s voice previously. "Are you sure you''ll let him say that, Justicar Martino?"
Justicars couldn''t be identified, and Shen had no reason to oust her like this. It officially marked her as having failed her assignment, and he had nothing against her despite her previous little play. But if he had to exchange her well-being for the fight that was about to happen, he would. Revealing the truth forced her to say anything as a last act of justice¡ªat least if she had these people''s best interests at heart.
The two drow frowned, and Martino said nothing. Shen then understood that she wanted these Commanders to be held in a Tribunal of Peers or get killed. She had been willing to sacrifice her special identity for that.
Shen frowned. That was a far cry from the manipulative and scheming Martino he had met on Earth. Then, he sighed. It was good to see she had evolved. To a point. The only thing worse than being a cog in the machine was being a burrowed knife used by someone much weaker than him.
He would give her the benefit of the doubt because it seemed she had gone through a lot in Samir.
Shen said, "Now I know how at least you became an outcast, Commander Nucio. Too direct and straightforward to be controlled with half-truths. Sadly, you said the wrong thing. You accused Lieutenant Rayna of being a spy from a competing unit deployed on a similar mission. Such action is forbidden and usually a severe offense, but this isn''t a usual situation. She belongs to an Exemplary Brigade. For us, that is not merely severe; that''s treason.
"As she''s my direct subordinate and was acting under my orders to find Sergeant Martino, you''re accusing me of treason, too. I declare that to be a lie. I also declare you to be willingly and knowingly trying to hinder my mission''s progress. You went as far as declaring me a traitor to accomplish that, and slander that may cause death is treason in itself.
"That can only be solved in one way. You have ten seconds to admit your wrongdoings as an honest mistake and surrender yourself before I declare you a traitor for trying to get me killed. I was directly deployed by the Acting General, so unless you can appeal to him, the system will determine who''s telling the truth. We both know who the system will pick. You''re ten seconds away from execution."
Shen took a step back and took his spear from his ring. "7th Exemplary Brigade, prepare for battle!" he yelled. "First Lieutenant Nucio, submit or die!"
He was slightly pushing the envelope there, but not enough to cross any lines. He could''ve just forgiven the guy for his ignorance, but those drow intentions were obvious. The moment they made a mistake, Shen had to use it against them. That would serve as a warning to any other asshole who also wanted to delay him.
Shen also refused to believe a C-rank Brigade Commander would be too stupid to realize how serious things were. Only an actual traitor or someone willing to die for an agenda would¡ª
Nucio swung a spiked fist at Rayna while Maryon grabbed the sword on his back and ran at Shen.
Shen smiled and released his aura.
The past days had been pretty dull. It was past time for some fun.
341. Filled With Water
?Taeral Miavalur had forged a reason to visit every mobile fortress First Lieutenant Shen locked down. He never disguised himself. Shen had given him a look but accepted the simple fact that people would keep watch over him. Taeral bet the lieutenant believed him to be a Justicar.
He had placed his primary mission on hold because he concluded better analyzing Shen took priority. The observations in the past days confirmed he was right. It also confirmed that the boy was too smart to be allowed to live long after joining SpecOps. They had hindered his growth by preventing him from getting multiple clearances, and he would figure it out and seek revenge. He knew how to unveil the truth based on little evidence as long as he was provided the right tools¡ªwhich he would be given in SpecOps. He was also too upright to let go of his grievances. After joining SpecOps, he would be on borrowed time and most certainly decide to go out with a bang if given time to learn how they had ensured he didn''t grow too strong.
Taeral didn''t know which clearances had been blocked for Shen, but after what he had seen, he could think of at least two that would ensure his baseline fighting ability would become tier 8, even with his C- stats and lack of a mastered Law. And at tier 8, he would be beyond SpecOps''s grasp.
Shen wasn''t a hazard just because of his individual strength, either. As his military history showed, he was also an effective leader. His EQ was on the lower end, but he had just enough of it not to be resented as a cold-hearted Commander. He might convince other people to assist in his crusade for revenge.
The captured high elf was evidence enough. Shen didn''t have access to as much data in the Recognition Interface as Taeral, who knew Luthdel Elafir had been manipulated to seek "revenge" on the girl his brother wanted to abuse. More importantly, Taeral knew Elafir had given up on his plans as soon as he learned Sergeant Marzia Martino was the Human Maiden. He had stopped for Shen, who, despite being aloof, had gained total loyalty from one of the sons of the Queen of Spring and Autumn.
Therefore, either SpecOps ensured Shen died quickly or compensated him, which would be stupid. No matter what job Shen was given, he would die. Taeral himself could feel his end approaching on his every mission, and his job was one of the safest. It only lost to becoming one of the B-rank bosses, but no C-rank survived long enough in SpecOps to rank up. Not a single one. Investing in Shen would be a waste of resources.
The way Shen dealt with the two drow regarding Elafir right now was further evidence of his resourcefulness. The exchange had been quick and sounded simple, and that was the issue. Shen had analyzed all military rules, predicted counter-arguments for everything else he could''ve attempted, and evoked the specific laws that would see him triumph over the drow no matter what they chose.
Then, the way he left them no way out showed his ruthlessness. They would only submit or fight right now; there was no alternative, no time to plan. Taeral could guess how the drow would try to hinder him in other ways, but Shen didn''t leave them that option.
That concluded Taeral''s investigation, and he wrote his report down while witnessing once more how powerful Shen was.
Maryon had an upper tier 7 combat ability. Nucio had a low tier 8. Two of their Lieutenant assistants were mid tier 7. They all had experience battling together and should be capable of crushing any other low tier 8 like Shen, even one with elite combat training.
Yet, the opposite happened.
Rayna had been on edge ever since she arrived, and as soon as Shen ordered her to prepare for battle, she started using her mana to raise a defense. When Maryon sneak attacked her, she was ready.
That was more her merit than Shen''s, to be sure, but he had done well in expecting the drow to submit yet preparing for the worse. Taeral had seen many Guardians fall because they were too sure they were right in their estimates, and the other party would be too stupid to act against what the Guardians perceived as their foes'' best interests.
The next instant, Shen''s aura covered every C-rank around him, plus any D-rank in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Then, Taeral finally witnessed the special skill that allowed him to temporarily reach low tier 8.
Taeral felt the Laws of Reality twist and bend in ways that reminded him of a domain, yet was different. Even breathing became harder because his Laws were being suppressed, and he was his Path. It also felt like he was pushing against something and failing, though he couldn''t tell what was really happening.
By now, Rayna had retreated half a step while surrounding herself with mana and pulling her whip from her Inventory. Maryon was also releasing his mana and chasing her. His two C-rank helpers and every single one of his 99 Battalion-level C-ranks were starting to move ahead.
The Battalions'' actions surprised Taeral. What had Maryon promised to get them to commit blatant treason in broad daylight?
Meanwhile, Nucio was halfway to Shen, though his fast speed had significantly decreased after Shen''s aura trick. He swung his massive sword to distract his foe while his mana was almost reaching Shen with his actual attack. Only his two assistants were moving toward Rayna to join the battle, and the C-ranks from his Battalions looked confused at each other.
That increased Taeral''s surprise. The weaker guy had convinced his subordinates, yet the stronger one hadn''t?
Part of his mind checked their files. He discovered that most of Nucio''s history before and during the Calamity was confidential even to him. SpecOps? Something else?
Except for Rayna, Shen''s subordinates were as slow to act as Nucio''s Lieutenants. The only C-rank nearby was Hukzun, standing beside the fortress''s door. He had just started coming this way.
Then, the world was filled with water.
Taeral wasn''t a fighter but had just enough experience to recognize the difficulty of using seven Laws together when materializing one''s elements inside one''s aura range. It was impossibly hard to do it to more than one target. Yet, Shen did it.
An absurdly fast water jet filled with seven Laws appeared between Shen and Nucio, pushing them apart. Another appeared between Rayna and Maryon. The same jets came from the skies, striking down against every enemy C-rank who had dared to move.
Almost every C-rank did the obvious: they tried to use their Laws to cut Shen''s hold off their surroundings. Whoever had mastered a Law had an edge at that. Yet, the only stream that disappeared was the one between Shen and Nucio. Shen''s willpower was enough to resist everyone else''s attempt.
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Sure enough, that was only because they had invested too little willpower in their first attempt to free themselves, but it was still impressive¡ªand, to many, lethal.
A single water drop above every C-rank took the shape of an electrified spear and cut down with all seven of Shen''s Laws. He timed it perfectly so everyone would get struck right after they failed to counter his Laws the first time. The minor backslash and surprise were enough to delay many Lieutenants'' reactions. They didn''t fill their bodies or surroundings with mana containing their Laws, and so they didn''t defend against that single water drop.
Seven Laws of Reality unified into an attack that failed to pierce over half the targets'' heads'' defenses. Forty-two micro-spears weren''t blocked by armor or defensive enchantments and struck a head. Thirty-three penetrated the skull and continued until they reached the heart.
Four C-ranks reacted after that and survived, but twenty-nine didn''t. The spear-shaped water drop opened the damn, and countless other water drops and tiny lightning bolts followed in its wake. They ravaged those people''s insides before they could do anything, turning them into minced, dead meat.
Meanwhile, Shen also thrust his spear against Nucio, who was still a dozen yards away. Qi left the tip, going against the drow, who didn''t protect himself. He couldn''t. The moment Shen''s qi touched the mana coming to attack him, he and Nucio engaged in a quick willpower battle. Overwhelmed, the drow quickly cut his losses and retracted his consciousness, but Shen''s attack had been so brutal that he was still dazed for a moment.
The sharp qi projectile broke through Nucio''s plate armor enchantment to pierce his head, where it exploded. That didn''t kill Nucio, but Shen followed with a swift and brutal vertical swing of his spear that cut the drow''s heart and armor in half.
The armor''s enchantment failed, and the wind itself turned Nucio into tiny meat cubes, marking the end of his life.
Rayna and Maryon were still being pushed away from each other. Maryon and his surviving C-ranks used their Laws again to cut off Shen''s Laws from around them. They failed again because Shen let go of the materialized elements just before their attempt. The exception was the water jet between Rayna and Maryon. Maryon failed again to cut it down with his Laws, revealing how much willpower Shen had invested in it¡ªand how stronger it was than Maryon''s second estimate.
Hukzun was still one-third of the way to the tent when Shen started running towards the enemy C-ranks.
Only then did Taeral notice that the qi blade that had pierced Nucio''s head hadn''t stopped. It was already a few feet away from Maryon, who also widened his eyes in realization and turned to face it. He raised his fists and met the qi strike head-on. The qi dissipated, but then...
...Shen was already upon him?!
Taeral also widened his eyes in shock. Usually, only desperate people or arrogant imbeciles turned themselves into the materialization of one of their elements to move in a fight. At C-rank, it was faster than almost any biological movement but left the Guardian too vulnerable. If anything went wrong at any moment, the fighter would suffer grievous injuries. As such, almost everyone disregarded the ability.
But it could be a deadly tool for those with absolute control over the battlefield.
Shen had just done it. He had turned himself into the wind and materialized behind Nucio. His spear struck the drow from below while Nucio was still defending against the qi blast. It cut through armor and flesh unhindered, and after the drow was split in two, he also became tiny cubes of dead meat.
Taeral glimpsed Shen''s smile before he dared to once more turn himself into the wind¡ªright after showing his foes he was willing to use the move. The boy''s face was filled with mockery and sheer glee. He loved extending his claws.
Every C-rank could follow Shen''s movement this time because, like Taeral, they expected it. Shen was also not using his aura to mess with physical senses, as he had certainly done a moment ago. Yet, Shen simply returned to his original position. Regardless, all C-ranks filled their surroundings with mana and traps in case that was an illusion and the boy was heading toward them.
It was no illusion. Shen materialized where he had been. His smile turned into one filled with unwillingness as he declared, "As the Commander of an Exemplary Brigade, I''m required to give you another chance to surrender now that your leaders have fallen. As the offended party, I cannot judge you. Instead, I''ll deliver you to the Detention Department. Surrender or die."
Only an idiot would keep fighting. Later, they might convince a judge that they had been misled by Maryon, but now, continued combat would have an obvious conclusion. After all, within moments, those people had lost their strongest fighters and a third of their numbers.
Shen''s fighting style wasn''t filled with flourishes or shining moves. He had attacked with total effectiveness, using the least amount of resources to bring the most damage to his foes. It didn''t even look like a fight between C-ranks because so little energy had been used. It seemed too easy, almost staged.
If Taeral didn''t have a good idea of how much willpower, training, and judgment was required to let anyone analyze and control the battlefield in real-time like that and decide on the best moves within split instants, he wouldn''t have believed his eyes.
Unfortunately for half the survivors, they shared his disbelief. Maybe they thought Shen was using some kind of illusion. Maybe their minds couldn''t accept what they had just seen. Whatever the case, they chose to attack.
The ensuing massacre was visually more impressive than the previous one. Attacks of all elements materialized, people used their weapons, the ground shook, and the air turned into plasma.
The C-ranks did their best, but it only served to crown Shen in the eyes of the onlookers.
He dodged what he could, cut down what he wanted, and escaped his foes with no wasted movement. He led them around for a few minutes, always escaping by the tiniest margin.
Then, suddenly, their attacks became weaker for no apparent reason.
Taeral then realized what his actions were pushing against: Shen''s willpower. Taeral was using his willpower to even stand there, breathing. Likewise, those people''s every move also consumed their willpower, and Shen''s will held firmly against them.
How astonishing could his willpower be to accomplish something like that against over sixty C-ranks?!
Whatever the answer to that might be, magic was about knowledge and willpower. As the latter decreased, so did people''s punching power. It also affected their reasoning and decision-making abilities. They made more mistakes. They timed their moves wrongly. Shen smiled again and exploited every opening.
A few minutes later, they were all dead.
Minutes ago, Taeral had thought he had seen enough, but he learned two new things in that fight. First, Shen''s fighting ability was not low tier 8 when using his special moves. It was at least mid tier 8. Second, his baseline fighting abilities were not low tier 7. The discernment Shen had displayed, his tactical analysis, and his effective willpower usage were enough to put him at a solid mid tier 7.
Shen was a single mastered Law away from baseline tier 8. While pulling him into SpecOps was technically legal, it actually went against what SpecOps believed in, no matter their underhanded methods. He was too good to be wasted in some absurdly difficult mission somewhere.
So, either he was a first-class talent, which would justify wasting such potential, or someone was moving against him. Taeral bet on first-class talent, meaning the mission Shen would be sent on was too important for the Alliance. It would also be a move against Reality itself, which had marked Shen to solve another issue, whichever it was.
Taeral had no business even suspecting such grand ploys. Reality itself resented those who acted against it, and only A-ranks or stronger could survive its ire. The knowledge placed a target on him.
He was a Listener. He believed in the cause he fought for. He believed in the Alliance. He was willing to die for it. But purposefully seeking a faster death was something else altogether.
Running away now would be illegal and cause Shen to attack him. So, instead, he turned his back on the corpses and erased all his memories of this battle.
Taeral frowned. He had no idea why he had just erased his memories, but he could interpret the hints. He was looking away from whatever had happened behind him, which he cut his metaphysical senses not to feel. Then, he sat down and closed his eyes and most physiological senses.
He would only move again when he was told to.
Hopefully, whatever he shouldn''t witness would''ve been cleaned by then, and he wouldn''t notice it even by mistake.
342. Shaming the Brigade
Shen kept the two Brigades inside his aura and in place until he also forced them through a B-tier system check and into Samir-6. And in the end, Maryon and Nucio had the last laugh. Leading over a million prisoners to the Detention Department with only six thousand troops was a logistical nightmare. The corridors were long, and the Detention Department was deep into the fortress. He wasted a whole day dealing with that, and he considered it a win.
Speaking of prisoners, he couldn''t talk to Martino, which was annoying. He had imprisoned her for being part of a competing Brigade that had attacked him. As the Commander of an Exemplary Brigade, anything he discussed with her before someone interrogated them would be improper.
After concluding his babysitting duty, Shen finally gave his people one hour of rest, the first opportunity since they started. He approached Luthdel and Rayna and created a privacy bubble around them with his Laws. No one outside could see or hear anything from the inside.
"You knew," the high elf sourly accused as soon as they were cut from the others.
Shen had asked Rayna to remove the rope constraining Luthdel, who elected to remain sitting on the floor. There was real betrayal in his eyes when he looked at Shen.
"I knew Martino was related to your bother''s execution," Shen confirmed and crouched to match Luthdel''s eye height. "But although I''m sorry for your loss, I''m glad your brother is gone." The elf flinched as if slapped. "You call me young master, and I accepted you to a certain extent, yet I also didn''t kill Martino for touching your family. What does all that tell you?"
The high elf would have screamed at Shen three years ago, but the front lines had helped him mature. Not enough to avoid being led astray¡ªor making stupid decisions, as Shen still hoped wasn''t the case¡ªbut enough to think things through when rebuked.
"You''re protecting her because she''s a friend," he couldn''t stop himself from saying, but then added, "or he did something wrong, and my cousin lied to me."
His words made Shen relax a little. He had been fooled. That was less terrible.
Shen nodded. "Precisely. I''m disappointed in you for not having personally checked your brother''s status. I taught you better than that. But I understand it, all things considered." Shen had shared some common sense with his friends and direct subordinates in the past years.
"Why did you tell me he was dead like that?" Luthdel asked after a long pause.
"It was an opportunity to showcase your growth to anyone looking. And I wanted you to deal with it alone. Alone-ish. With a very loose safety net."
The high elf frowned. "Why, though?"
"Some things can''t be said." Shen had been ordered not to reveal he would join SpecOps, but he could give tips. This should be enough. "How did your investigation end up with you captured?"
Luthdel wasn''t happy about having his question dismissed but answered, "I asked a cousin in the Investigation Department about it. He told me my brother fell in love with a woman, but she plotted against him to have him wrongly accused of treason. At the time, he was in a deployment and got killed before he could explain himself."
"Your cousin didn''t tell you Martino''s race or name?" Shen asked, surprised.
The high elf shook his head. "I got her location directly fed to my Interface. I knew the name of where she was and, if we were in the same place, in which direction and how far away she was. It disappeared a little after I was caught."
"Using the system against a Guardian is treason of the highest order. Is that why you''re not saying your cousin''s name?"
Luthdel nodded. "If he wasn''t caught yet..."
There was zero chance the cousin would survive after what he did. He had effectively killed himself to get Luthdel to die. More than that, everything and everyone the guy knew would be scrutinized to exhaustion. One didn''t simply abuse the system like that. That was the stuff of horror stories for every Guardian.
More interestingly, whoever was behind the guy had only risked it because Samir was on lockdown during a Calamity. In any other circumstance, an A-rank would already have appeared to check everything as soon as the puppetmaster gave the guy authority to use such a powerful system function. The hand behind the curtain had used the lockdown against Long Hei.
By now, Long Hei had already been told what was going on. The lack of a name only meant he had to check the list of Luthdel''s cousins in the Investigation Department to know who the man was. The important part was that it still required direct input, as the system didn''t connect such indirect clues unless someone asked. Long Hei was already investigating, but perhaps at his own pace, giving the cousin time to make a mistake that would reveal more about who was behind him.
However, if Luthdel said his cousin''s name, the system would inform the Acting General, who would need to act against the guy immediately. Traitors weren''t tolerated; they were investigated after being disposed of. It was an understandable loophole because traitors with so much power over the system were too dangerous to be given a chance to do something else. However, it allowed people to use kamikaze tactics under very specific circumstances.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"I''ll inform the Acting General," Shen said and sent the dragon a message through the system. He had to do it after what Luthdel told him. The high elf wouldn''t get punished for withholding information because no one had asked him to reveal it. "So, the Interface led you to Martino?"
The elf nodded. "I prepared a place and used my mother''s influence to get some people to invite her to get there. When she arrived, I saw her name and Racial Title. You mentioned Martino a few times before, the last time being when ordering Lieutenant Rayna to find her. I knew something was wrong."
Shen sighed. "Thank you for trusting me, Luthdel. You''re a good friend, and your loyalty is worthy of praise. We''re both glad you didn''t kill an innocent woman, right?"
Luthdel nodded again. "What really happened?"
"Your brother abused his power for years. In the last months, he got bold and took a liking to Martino. The Acting General killed him before he forced himself on her."
The elf''s frown returned. "Who told you that?" Then, he added, "Young master?"
"Acting General," Shen said, not adding any article.
The high elf did a good job pretending not to understand the hint, but his soul revealed the truth. Shen wasn''t supposed to let Luthdel know his mother had talked to Shen about him, or the Queen would have called her son to the meeting, too.
But Shen was already headed to SpecOps or some desperate escape likely to end in his death. He had considered the latter, though he currently felt he was more likely to survive suicide missions than desertion. Whatever the case, he was giving Luthdel his goodbye gifts, including helping the guy not get manipulated through his sense of loss and letting him know that his mother, while an overall cold woman from some things he had shared, still cared for him in her own way. After Shen left, she would be his most reliable backer.
He had also considered asking Luthdel to watch over humankind now and then, but after this fiasco, it was better for him to stay away. Luthdel had also become stable in the past years, but who knew what would happen after Shen got deployed somewhere the high elf couldn''t follow?
Luthdel said nothing for a while, then sighed. "I''m sorry for shaming the Brigade, Commander."
"You should be," Shen replied. "Unless everyone else is a moron, you lost any chance of getting the big prize. We''re currently on a mission, so I''ll postpone your punishment until we''re done." He then took Luthdel''s sword from one of Maryon''s spatial rings. The Detention Department had tried to get those items, but Shen "refused to depart with any evidence he found during his mission until his mission ended."
"Thanks," Luthdel replied.
Shen nodded, turned to Rayna, and asked a single question, "Will you tell me everything, or should I kill you for treason?"
She feigned confusion. She was very good at it, but not good enough. He had been trained by Liya and could see through Rayna. "What do you mean, Commander?"
"Lieutenant Rayna, if you force me to voice a formal complaint, this will only end one way. This is your last chance."
She said nothing for a moment, then started asking, "How did you find out I was¡ª"
He interrupted. "I''ll not allow you to try to infer how much to say. I''ll take your attempt to mean you chose not to cooperate. So be it, regretful as it''ll be for the drow to lose their Maiden." Not informing him about the lack of drow in Samir after he asked her to find them was a medium offense. In an Exemplary Brigade, things would get very ugly for her. "I want to denounce¡ª"
"Alright!" she barked. "Can we at least get rid of the bystander?" He looked at Luthdel.
"No. You''re colleagues, and we''re building camaraderie through sharing."
"This is about the drow," Rayna insisted.
"This is about the drow, Commander," Shen corrected, clarifying that this was military business first and drow business second.
His words also offered her a chance to keep some things for herself. He was only interested in information relevant to the matters at hand, not using his authority over her to force her to reveal all her secrets to him.
That small mercy seemed to surprise her. Of course, it would. When drow established their internal hierarchy, even those of the same rank were supposed to obey their superiors almost blindly.
Rayna softened a little and nodded. "Commander, when the Calamity started, all drow C-ranks and lower were supposed to come to Samir. Things changed at the last minute, and we were told to keep it a secret from everyone not in our Node." Shen noticed she didn''t state the Node''s name.
She continued, "A few B-ranks came with us to ensure the drow weren''t exploited. Drow Maidens candidates are trained in crafting by C-ranks and by B-ranks for decades after they are selected. Acting Colonel Darla trained me there, and I didn''t expect to see her here. After I was selected for the Exemplary Brigade, she told me there are twenty drow in Samir, one B-rank and nineteen C-ranks, all deserters from the Shar''Talon. I was to follow military rules instead of killing them on sight." She looked in the direction Shen had fought outside the tent. "Seventeen C-ranks, now."
So, she had kept quiet about it because the drow ordered her to. As drow himself, Shen wasn''t entitled to know more than what his superiors wanted him to. However, as he had clarified, this was the military, not Shar''Talon. She should''ve told him.
Frankly, Shen didn''t have a moral high ground. By giving her a chance to come clear, he was being less strict than he should have been in an Exemplary Brigade. He was setting a bad example, but losing a C-rank assistant would make things much more challenging than the punishment he might receive later.
He was more or less putting Darla''s teaching about paying the price to good use. Part of him wondered if she had planned all this but dismissed it as implausible.
"Is that all?" Shen asked.
Rayna hesitated a little, then said with a challenging face, "Yes, Commander."
"Alright. I''m not interested in whatever other things you want to keep for yourself," he stressed, and she relaxed a little. "But do not let something like this happen again. I will not be lenient the next time. Am I understood?"
"Yes, Commander!"
Rayna looked legitimately grateful at him not demanding more from her, and Shen wondered if this was the first time a drow superior allowed her to take a breather. That was possible. He didn''t know how much pressure Maiden candidates were put under, but he doubted it was a walk in the park.
"Well, it''s good to have you back, Lieutenants. Anything any of you want to add?"
Rayna looked sideways at Luthdel before saying, "Sergeant Marzia Martino asked me to send you a message, Commander."
Shen raised an eyebrow. "Oh. That sounds interesting. Go ahead, unless it''s about Luthdel."
Rayna shook her head. "It''s not, Commander. She asked me to tell you, quote, ''The dreamer''s lightning is coming, darkness approaches, trust no one.''"
It took Shen a second to understand, and then frowned and asked seriously, "Are you sure she said the Dreamer''s ''lightning,'' not light?"
"Positive, Commander," Rayna confirmed.
Shen remembered only one lightning the Dreamer had summoned in the tutorial.
Black lightning.
He immediately yelled the translated version of Martino''s message, "Full alert! Void invasion imminent! There are traitors among us!"
343. Alert!
?Shen bet that this invasion was why Long Hei went to such lengths to lock Samir and hunt fugitives down. Whatever the dragon''s plans were, he had hoped to keep things under wraps for a while. Martino had likely realized Long Hei wanted things to remain quiet, too, hence not raising the alarm herself.
But she failed to see that if even a D-rank could find out about the incoming attack, no matter how good of an investigator she might be, then things were so advanced that the traitors could allow themselves to be less secretive. The attack was imminent.
By raising the alarm, Shen was informing the Acting General that it was time to spring whatever trap he had laid.
If Martino had been fooled or lied to Shen, or if Rayna was lying, he would be very embarrassed. But he wouldn''t risk delaying such a critical warning to everyone.
? ?
? ?
Four red notifications appeared in the gigantic being''s mind despite his eyes being closed.
? ?
| Full alert called by First Lieutenant Shen of the 7th Exemplary Brigade
| Claim: "Void invasion imminent! There are traitors among us!"
| Inferred Original Source: Sergeant Specialist Marzia Martino, Justicar, Human
| Do you want to engage in the Emergency Defensive Protocols? If so, at which tier?
? ?
A massive black eye opened in the darkness, filled with shock. It turned to look at the drow in the corner. She was passing as B-rank and hadn''t received any notification, but he had no doubt she was paying attention to everything the boy did.
Darla was sitting in lotus position, meditating and healing her soul. She had brought an item that could quickly heal her but was unwilling to use it because of its value. At her current rate, it would take her a few dozen Standard years to return to peak state.
The punishment for what she had done was much more severe than almost anyone realized, beyond Long Hei''s wildest estimations. Even the cthulhu had revealed surprise through a slight shaking of its soul, and few things in life could make such an ancient A-rank from the Primordial Bridge surprised enough to display emotion before its prisoner.
Long Hei hadn''t understood why she would go to such lengths for the boy. Her "he is drow" speech was too ridiculous to believe in, despite her lack of signs of lying. But if her plan touched on the Void...
As expected, even while healing, she had been watching over Shen. She opened her eyes as soon as the dragon glanced her way, revealing as much surprise as Long Hei felt, then laughed with abandon.
"Sharyan''s ass!" she swore good-naturedly. "One of your Justicars did something actually useful, but instead of telling you and getting a dragon hoard''s worth of credit, pun intended, she trusted our boy more. I told you this ominous dark form makes you look bad. Too similar to a Void Spawn. Who would believe you have nothing to do with the incoming attack? You even let her get humiliated for months before doing anything! And I bet you didn''t tell her the pretentious yellowhead wanted to abuse her, and that''s the only reason you advanced your plans of killing him and many others, did you?"
The General didn''t waste time repeating that this was his original form, and he wouldn''t bow down to prejudice. "I did not," he replied, but before she could say anything, he asked, "Are you purposefully misleading me away from Lieutenant Shen''s claim? This sounds much worse than you said."
The Drow Potentate had a vast information network and had previously mentioned key figures assumed the Void was pulling its punches. It had attacked with force after the Calamity started, but it wasn''t as bad as it should have been.
It seemed they had been partially correct. The damn Void had been brewing something, and he just happened to stumble into it while minding his own business. However, if even a D-rank could smell something wrong where he couldn''t, there was a very powerful party blindsiding him in his own front line.
Long Hei wanted to release his Realization and cross some lines to find out who that was, and he would do it¡ªas long as it didn''t get in the way of Darla''s schemes. He wouldn''t sacrifice countless lives for the boy with his genes, but delaying a little wouldn''t change anything as long as he was willing to shield the fallback later, which he was.
"Nope, I''m not misleading you at all," Darla said sarcastically.
Sometimes, she spoke like that even when she meant her words. It was a mark of her feeling close to him and considering him as much of a friend as a baby could be to someone her age, at least according to her. Why she liked to make her almost-friends have to work to figure out the true meaning of her words was beyond him.
"This is not the time," he said firmly. "If it''s that big of a surprise for you, I''ll engage the S-tier Emergency Defense Protocols. It''ll affect your plans. At least the ones I know of."
"I won''t tell you to do anything one way or another," Darla replied, her words surprising him. She noticed and smiled. "I know how to pull my weight, Lizzy Boy, but I smell a Void Tide, and I won''t interfere with something that big."
Long Hei opened his other eye and looked at her. He moved his head quickly, and the entire fortress shook at the amount of Air and Space he displaced. "Is this a joke?"
He didn''t like fighting, but he would if she was lying to him about this. A Void Tide... He was new to the Alliance, but he had been briefed about how big such an event would be.
"I already said more than I should," Darla replied as her smile disappeared. "Hentai Boy can attest to it." She gestured at the side.
Only then did the General realize the cthulhu was in the room. Since when?! Had it heard his every conversation with Darla? Had it known about their plans?! Was it aware of her being A-rank, then?!
"Don''t look it up, either of you," the drow added. "Tentacle hentai, I mean. Humans are creative in all the wrong ways. Just take my word for how fitting the nickname is. I kept the memory just so I could use it one day. I''m forgetting it right now. Sick bastards."
A tiny part of Long Hei noticed she was making them more curious on purpose but didn''t dwell on it. He looked from the cthulhu to the drow and back a few times, wondering if they were partners in crime. He knew how challenging it was to infiltrate the Primordial Bridge, much less get it to look the other way. Having one of its members involved with a ploy involving the Void was unthinkable.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
But, damn, that was Darla.
In the end, he sighed and stood up. Cracks appeared throughout Mobile Fortress Samir-0 as its artificial Space failed to withstand his power. That was the smallest mobile fortress, not even manned, but also the strongest one. Even so, it was made to deal with external threats, not internal ones.
Long Hei smelled a plot, but also not. He hated even considering the implications of most schemes. He was also aware that he would be outplayed by the Drow Potentate. But it didn''t mean he was dumb. He put his mind to it and decided that while Darla did have an agenda for mentioning the Void Tide, it wasn''t part of her original plans. Otherwise, there would have been no reason to go to such lengths to lock Samir down.
In fact, the significance of a Void Tide went beyond activating S-tier Emergency Defense Protocols.
"I have received intel that suggests the Third Sector might be about to experience a Void Tide," he told the system while using his Realization to pierce through the Node and back into normal space. That way, the system''s hubs in both Samir and that universe would get the news. It would prevent any issues.
He was astonished that an S-rank instantly verified his claims, and he got three new red notifications.
? ?
| VOID TIDE ALERT!
| ALL SYSTEM FUNCTIONS ARE NOW FUNNELEDUNELLED TO PROTECT THE ALLIANCE!
| THE ALLIANCE''S NEUTRAL FORCES ASK THE ONES INVOLVED IN CALAMITY TO END IT QUICKLY AND ASSIST WITH WHAT MATTERS!
? ?
The System Administrator wasn''t asking the S-ranks to put the Calamity on hold. Instead, she finally admitted it could only end with one side as the winner. She just wanted them to be done with it, no matter who won or lost, so the remaining forces could help the entire Sector survive this Tide.
That was proof that she had checked, using whatever means at her disposal, and the Void Tide was real.
Long Hei noticed Darla''s soul tremble in fright and uncertainty. She might be misleading him, but he believed he had been correct. She had known the Tide was possible and made plans in case it happened but had hoped they wouldn''t be necessary.
Now, even she feared what the Tide would bring.
Then, he got eight yellow notifications.
? ?
| Samir''s Secret Containment Protocol partially disengaged
| External forces can now travel to Samir if authorized by an S-rank or Samir''s Commander
| Guardians can leave if approved by Samir''s Commander
? ?
Those three were straightforward. Long Hei would need people to come help or send people to help other front lines, so teleportation had to be allowed to an extent. However, he had the last word on deciding who came and went because no one wanted traitors and wild cards messing with things in a Void Tide.
Every front line would be the same, though, for them, it wouldn''t be their rules getting more strict.
? ?
| Every Guardian on the front lines is now under Collective B-tier Monitoring Priority
? ?
That one was slightly more complex. Collective B-tier Monitoring Priority meant that the system would optimize its resources to monitor individuals or groups it deemed more important. Such importance could come from being suspects or valuable Guardians.
That would make many, many schemes impossible. Hiding would also become almost impossible for a while and outright impossible once the system had already cleared most groups and started searching for missing individuals.
Traitors and some fugitives would rush to the Subnodes, making them much more dangerous and unstable, which the Void would take advantage of. Yet, not doing that would make it more likely to have those people among the Alliance''s fighters. It would be worse.
? ?
| The Bounty Subsystem is now active in every Node
| Henceforth, the System Administrator will personally check and double-cross references without manual input
? ?
Those two were a direct interference of the Admin on the front lines. Nonetheless, it was for the best. She would follow trails and investigate matters herself, using her S-rank mind and her Realization, which was directly connected to the system, to flash out bad actors. She should finish the backlog for all front lines within weeks to months, then she would keep track of everything in real-time.
The bad news was that, together with the previous notifications, that meant a period of chaos. The last two notifications made it even clearer.
? ?
| Automated Bounty Generation threshold decreased by 50%
| Execution Bounties can now be automatically generated if a Guardian''s Traitor Likelihood Coefficient is higher than 2.7 or their crimes are 1,000% above the current threshold for Automated Bounty Generation
? ?
The Guardian System would tolerate less bullshit and had become able to declare that people should be executed. Still, there was a big difference between that and an actual execution. The ones who got automated marks placed on their heads could turn themselves in and demand a civilian trial. It gave them a way out if they weren''t actual traitors.
People with influence, including some fugitives, would use it as a way out. But, again, it was the lesser evil. Having hidden actors quickly dealt with made all front lines much safer in a time of great crisis.
The Admin had gained a lot of authority. There was a question to be made about whether she would declare a fake Void Tide to have the Calamity finish quick or to become a tyrant. Still, everything was done according to Alliance law. A Void Tide seemed to be that terrible, enough to justify such measures.
And even if she abused her power, Long Hei could do nothing about it. That was for S-ranks to deal with. He could only hope he wouldn''t be targeted if she was actually up to something.
"A Void Tide," Darla said with an unusually low voice. "It''s been a while. Commander, with your leave, I''ll head to my quarters to fully focus on healing. I''ll be done in a few days. I humbly ask you not to reveal my true rank, but I promise I''ll reveal it in an emergency if that''s the only alternative. I''ll not allow my disguise to put lives in danger. But be aware that hiding me means other front lines might lack A-ranks and be weaker for that. You''ll have to pay a price to hide me, and I''ll pay a bigger one. If I have to reveal myself, I might also be deployed elsewhere."
Long Hei knew Darla had wove a web of favors, both organic and system ones, to be able to pass as B-rank anywhere. Few people below S-rank knew of her existence. Yet, unexpectedly, a Void Tide strained her web and risked snapping the whole thing.
What surprised the dragon the most was her willingness to obey his commands. To avoid problems, only an S-rank could replace a Node''s A-rank Commander once a Void Tide was detected. Still, she could get to any front line without an A-rank and get a lot of power. Even here, she could bully him into making concessions. She was that much more powerful than him.
He wasn''t sure if that meant she had deep schemes that required her to stay in Samir, if she was scared of a Void Tide and wanted to be in a place that already had two A-ranks, if she feared receiving a Bounty for strong-arming him, or if revealing her identity would bring problems she would rather avoid.
Whatever the case, her assistance would be invaluable. The Admin had been too quick to confirm whether a Void Tide was coming, the powers-that-be were willing to give her so much power during a Tide, and Darla was acting too somberly. Those things meant the reports he had received about a Void Tide didn''t do it justice, and he needed all the help he could get.
"Fine," he replied.
"Thank you, Commander," she said. She sounded genuine, too. A moment later, she teleported to one of the ten bedrooms that existed in Samir-0.
Long Hei turned to the cthulhu. "Shouldn''t you report her existence?"
Primordial Bridge Wardens rarely answered a prisoner, but this one did now. Its whispery replied a simple, "No."
The dragon expected more, but nothing came.
Well, time to work.
Long Hei had no hope Samir would withstand something that seemed so dangerous¡ªhe was Titled the Hopeless Wanderer for a reason¡ªbut he at least had experience fighting for lost causes. He would stay and do his best until the end.
He covered all of Samir in his Realization. The General wouldn''t save any Guardian who died at the hands of a traitor. The rules forbid him from doing so in a Void Tide because it would waste focus and strength, which he had to preserve to use against the Void.
But he decided to help just a little, which would give him a minor punishment if he survived this Tide.
He located and popped out all system-blocking enchantments, spells, rituals, items, and techniques he detected. The Admin certainly noticed it and, as thanks, gave Samir a slight priority. Bounties started appearing above countless Guardians'' heads faster than before.
Then, Long Hei removed all legal blockades to his Realization. He located nothing less than seven unidentified B-ranks hidden in Samir. He killed them all.
They were too weak to have blindsided him. Yet, at the edges of his senses, in the Voided Subnodes, he barely felt powerful presences. Their tendrils might''ve been used by those B-ranks to affect his perception.
But no longer would anything pass unnoticed. He would actively keep close watch over everything in that front line. The time of schemes was clearly over, and he looked as far into the Void as he could.
From them on, the Abyss and the Void stared at each other.
344. For Them
?The Immortal Emperor, meditating in a forest, frowned as he received a stream of red notifications.
? ?
| VOID TIDE ALERT!
| ALL SYSTEM FUNCTIONS ARE NOW FUNNELED TO PROTECT THE ALLIANCE!
| THE ALLIANCE''S NEUTRAL FORCES ASK THE ONES INVOLVED IN CALAMITY TO END IT QUICKLY AND ASSIST WITH WHAT MATTERS!
? ?
Those were bad enough, but they weren''t even the worst ones for him.
? ?
| Neutral A-ranks away from the front lines will now be forcibly assigned to a Node
| You''ve been assigned to Ushur
| You can choose whether to forcibly teleport your world''s Guardians to your Node
| Present yourself within 1 Standard day
? ?
Ushur was the Cultivator Association territory. Not officially, of course, as no Node belonged to no one. However, it was a common place they went to serve, and countless conscripts from the Association had been sent there.
That felt like a scheme to get rid of him and his people. When he checked and found Ushur was part of Cluster B of Universe 12, he became sure.
Carl had thoroughly investigated the Alliance. The information was likely incomplete, but it was the best he could get. Each Universe had 33 Nodes, and the Alliance had at least 33 Universes. That meant over 1,000 Nodes. Due to various factors, like losing some Nodes that were too hard to recover or not having an interest in contesting some Nodes unless needed, only about half of those Nodes were deployable. That was a little over five hundred.
Usually, there were around 24 A-ranks in the front lines at any given time. 14 were permanently there for whatever reason, and 10 A-ranks were always in rotation, be it serving their obligatory time in the military, raking up AP, hiding from civilian trouble, paying for a favor, scheming, or even helping out of goodwill.
In other words, in theory, each of the 24 A-ranks was responsible for almost 21 Nodes to cover everything. That, however, was impossible. Covering 9 Nodes was the best an A-rank could do. Most couldn''t cover more than 3. Therefore, the Alliance selected more important or dangerous Nodes in specific universes to have A-rank cover and let B-ranks defend the others. It wasn''t a significant danger because the Alliance had turned it into a highly precise science.
Nodes were inevitably lost as time passed, that was the nature of their war of attrition against the Void, but everything was more or less under control.
A Void Tide, from what the Grand Senator had learned, meant the Void would attack every single Node at once with a lot of force for an extended period of time. More Subnodes would get Voided, and Voided Nodes would decay more quickly, increasing the strain on high-rank fighters.
Hence, the reason why neutral A-ranks were forcibly conscripted to take control over a Node. The ones in the Calamity would also come after the Calamity was over.
Still, the Alliance did not have five hundred A-ranks. The best count he found was a little over one 190 pre-Calamity¡ªa number that, honestly, shocked him. The Alliance was so big and with so many things happening everywhere that it was hard to understand its actual size and locate all its undercurrents.
Even so, that was one A-rank for every 2 or 3 Nodes. So, Nodes had to be grouped together, and a group of Nodes was called a Cluster.
One Node acted as the headquarters, where an A-rank was stationed and could quickly defend the others. The other Nodes were also protected, but the A-rank intervention was slower in them because of limitations caused by how Reality protected its Nodes.
Universe 12, also known as Luminous Expense, had only five Clusters in standard times. That necessarily meant multiple Nodes were poorly or not protected by an A-rank despite being officially under their purview.
Now, there were very few neutral A-ranks, so, despite the conscription, the Cluster division hadn''t yet updated to accommodate for all A-ranks that would man the front lines once the Calamity was over.
The Emperor''s issues stemmed from the fact that 3 of the 8 Nodes that belonged to Cluster B already had an A-rank, and Ushur wasn''t the headquarters. That many A-ranks made sense because some universes were under more significant threat than others. When that happened, the A-rank stationed in the headquarters could demand the A-rank in a subordinate Node to attack or hold the line despite their personal take on what they should do. Some synchrony was required to protect the entire Cluster instead of a singular Node.
All 3 A-ranks already in Cluster B belonged to the Cultivator Association''s factions that had been waging war against the Republic before the Calamity forced wars to be put on hold.
The Emperor was being sent to ultimately be used as cannon fodder for the Cultivator Association, probably by an S-rank on their side, and there was nothing he could do about it.
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But he could save his people.
"Send a message to Long Hei," he said. "Prepare to accept the Republic in Samir. Do it for them, not for me. I''m being sent to a trap. I''ll send them to you as soon as I can."
Long Hei was one of the A-ranks who hadn''t learned about Clusters, either because he wasn''t trusted enough or didn''t have the connections to get proper clearances. The Emperor had also used some influence to keep it that way. Being ignorant about it was bad in some aspects, but it also meant that he couldn''t be ordered by the Cluster''s headquarters to do anything. That was Long Hei''s and Samir''s greatest defense right now. The dragon would probably be introduced to the knowledge in this Void Tide, but the later it happened, the better.
? ?
| Message sent
| Samir''s Commander (A): I can do that. For them.
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The Grand Senator sighed, relieved. He would be considerably weaker without his people because Karma demanded connections among living beings. He had already put the ones in the Republic under his influence but would have to ask his subordinates in Ushur to allow his Realization to "infect" them, and he had no doubt they would refuse.
But for all his faults, he had Realized Karma for the good of his people first. Even if he died, he would have accomplished something by having them survive.
"Teleport me to Ushur," he said. "Force my people to get there, too. But we all must arrive together."
He had to be able to send them away as soon as he got in charge of Ushur, which would happen when he arrived. If he got ordered by the Cluster Headquarters to immediately defend or attack when he stepped on Ushur, it would be a dereliction of duty, bordering on treason, to send his troops away.
While getting teleported to his trap, he started sending messages to prepare things for his eventual death¡ªor glorious survival.
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? ?
"I''m useless here!" Liya insisted. "Meanwhile, the Drow Maiden and another drow are alone in Samir! They need support!"
She had just learned about how she had been lied to about drow presence in Samir. It irked her. It was the part of being drow that made her consider leaving the Triarchy, despite all the support she got there.
The issue was that Shen belonged to them, and he wasn''t B-rank. No drow could leave before B-rank and not get hunted¡ªunless they permanently joined the military.
The three Autarchs were sitting in their small abode as usual. One of them shook his head. "You''re our link to Discontinuity," he said.
"You''re more important here than us three," a female added.
"You can go to Samir if you convince us to betray Disconuity and go with you," the third female finished.
Throughout the Calamity, the drow had managed to bring Shar''Talon to the war. It was a tool powerful enough to barely defend against an A-rank for a few moments, even without the Mists, and drow B-ranks had a greater efficiency in dealing with the things in there. It was also better for logistics to receive allied B-ranks there, as it was a world built for war. They had been paid a lot to share the secrets of their homeworld with their allies¡ªand already knew how to deny all that intelligence as soon as they left.
Liya spat, "You had told me I''m free, but now you''re forcing me to stay here?"
The male smiled sadly. "You came to ask for permission."
"You''re free," a female said.
"Free to choose where you belong."
"You chose us," the three concluded in unison.
Her Realization of Karmic Justice allowed her to either leave or stay. The choice was hers¡ªfor now.
The thread to Shen weakened the longer she subordinated herself to the drow for him. Meanwhile, her links with the Triarchy had long turned from her owing them to them owing her. She was their connection to Discontinuity''s camp and had gained them many benefits.
Shen''s thread wasn''t yet so feeble that she had to either be repaid by the drow or leave. She could remain here for a little longer. She just feared that if the Calamity didn''t end soon enough, she would have no choice but to leave Shen in the Triarchy''s claws.
"You''re making a bad decision," she warned. "I''m sure you''ll come to regret it."
Neither of them relied. Liya left without looking back.
? ?
? ?
"She''ll leave soon instead of killing us," the male Autarch said.
"That can''t be allowed," a female replied.
"We''ll hasten the plan."
"It might hurt her Realization. It''s related to justice. If she finds we manipulated her into killing us..."
"It''ll break or make her."
"She''s our best bet. If her Realization breaks, she''ll be replaced with the fallback plan. If she becomes stronger, she''ll lead the drow beyond what our old wisdom can offer."
They had had that discussion multiple times, trying to reach a different conclusion, but it always came to the same point.
"We''ll hasten the plan," a female repeated.
"We''ll hasten the plan," the others agreed.
One of the things the very first Triarchs had concluded and passed on was that it was very likely for the Triarchy to antagonize an outstanding B-rank. One with a significant likelihood of reaching the A-rank. If the B-rank left, it was unlikely for them to come back and care for the drow. Burned bridges weren''t easily mended.
Therefore, if an outstanding B-rank ever appeared but looked like they would leave, the Triarchy was to force the B-rank to take control over the drow. By whatever means necessary. Only that could tie the B-rank and the drow together in a sure way so that when the B-rank became A-rank, all drow would benefit.
The Triarchy would become a thing of the past after an A-rank appeared, anyway. The Triarchy disappearing at the right time, in the right way, would be the best for everyone.
That had been done in the past, though the B-ranks had failed to reach the A-rank. The memory was erased from the drow, and the failsafe ensured the Triarchy''s return. Now, it was those three''s turn to give Liya absolute power over their race.
Liya wouldn''t take control over the drow willingly. She didn''t want to be tied down. So, the Triarchy had decided that the best way to force her hand was by using her Realization against her. Soon enough, her sense of justice would force her to replace them.
On top of serving their purposes for the drow, that would also teach Liya an essential lesson about her Realization and how not to be manipulated through it¡ªor whether to accept the manipulation because it was for the greater good, for the justice she believed in, thus further cementing her belief in her Realization.
"Send a message to all B-ranks," a female said. "The Calamity is ending, and so is our chance to profit. Decrease your care for your safety. Attack more aggressively. We''ll obtain all benefits to be had in this war."
That was an order that contradicted their core beliefs. Benefits were secondary to the drow''s survival. It was also unfair to them, as the Triarchy had lowered how much of the obtained benefits it shared with the troops for a while. Having her find out she had been kept in the dark about Samir was only one of the many steps they had taken in the past year, after they decided she had a good chance of reaching A-rank.
Liya would have to act¡ªand until she did, they would keep making things worse for the drow.
The Autarchs looked at each other and sighed in unison.
Soon; she would come for them soon.
345. Bounty Targets
The three red notifications Shen got made him bittersweet. He wasn''t sure if he would rather be right or wrong about the impending Void attack.
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| VOID TIDE ALERT!
| ALL SYSTEM FUNCTIONS ARE NOW FUNNELED TO PROTECT THE ALLIANCE!
| THE ALLIANCE''S NEUTRAL FORCES ASK THE ONES INVOLVED IN CALAMITY TO END IT QUICKLY AND ASSIST WITH WHAT MATTERS!
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Those words confirmed Marzia had been correct. They also indicated Shen had been right in raising the alarm now. He had no idea what a Void Tide was, but things couldn''t be good if the entire system would be used to protect the Alliance from it, and the neutral forces thought they needed help from those fighting the S-rank war.
The following yellow notifications he got also pointed that way.
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| Samir''s Secret Containment Protocol partially disengaged
| External forces can now travel to Samir if authorized by an S-rank or Samir''s Commander
| Guardians can leave if approved by Samir''s Commander
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In other words, Samir might require external assistance.
After that, Shen got notifications about the Bounty Subsystem. Together with the others, there was only one conclusion to reach: as Alicia would say, shit was about to hit the fan.
But none of that prepared him for the extremely weird notification he received the next second.
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| All forces belonging to the Republic of Imperia will be forcibly teleported to Ushur-17 within 3 minutes
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Imperia?! Ushur? What the hell was the Immortal Emperor doing?!
"No!" he replied firmly. "I''m deployed as drow. I want to report someone abused their authority to change my deployed race and official superiors without my permission!"
The drow weren''t perfect. They had kept him in the dark about their deployment, but that''s how they did things. He felt safer in their "chain of command," so to say, than placed under the guy who had eradicated the Feng Clan, never got in touch, and now suddenly forcibly teleported him away.
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| Report sent
| Samir''s Commander (A): First Lieutenant Shen, I''ll forward your report if you insist, but I suggest you don''t. I can''t reveal much, but your report will hit a different target than you expect. It won''t do you any favors. I have enough authority to prevent your teleportation. I suggest you leave it at that.
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Shen didn''t trust Long Hei in this, no matter how relatively dependable the General had been until now. The dragon had been the Second Seat of the Eternal Empire. He and the Emperor should be together in whatever plot this was.
Yet, going against one''s Node Commander was never a good idea, much less during an event that seemed so dangerous as a Void Tide. Then again, the way Shen saw it, fearmongering to prevent his report might be just another layer of their plans.
His elite combat training had advised him that he could only take two paths when his opponent was overwhelmingly more powerful than him in every conceivable way: submit or bet everything they wouldn''t kill him if he defied them.
Long Hei had already said he would stop the teleportation. The report would upset him. So, the question was whether Shen felt it was worth risking the General''s for whatever he might gain.
It wasn''t.
The civilian Alliance was dealing with a Calamity, and a Void Tide was coming. He doubted anyone high up in the food chain would care about him. Even if someone had done things they shouldn''t, it evidently involved the Emperor and Long Hei, two A-ranks. And, if the dragon wasn''t lying, another mysterious force. At most, they would get a slap to their wrists and get upset at Shen.
Shen hated submitting. He really, really, really hated it. It went against his Will of Absolute Power.
However, his domain was Self Improvement. He had Limits. And he was Truly Boundless, including when deciding whether to be limited by his own self.
That last one was a big stretch, but at least his True Boundlessness didn''t get in the way of him bowing his head. His Truth and the influence his domain had on his True Self were enough to keep his pride¡ªor was it arrogance?¡ªfrom pushing him toward a clash against an A-rank.
He took a deep breath and let it go. "Cancel report," he said.
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| Report canceled
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Then, he changed the subject, "System, send an urgent message: The Seventh Exemplary Brigade is to assemble right here, right now. Intra-brigade Bounties will be solved exclusively with the target''s capture! Even if it''s an Execution Bounty! Do not test me on this!"
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Leaning on the system for a Brigade-wide message during a deployment was humiliating, but he had to do it. Shen''s priority now was to maintain order among his troops. Only the dumbest among them wouldn''t notice how a Void Tide was dangerous. He didn''t expect many people to panic in an Exemplary Brigade, but they might want to return home by any means necessary.
Or worse, they might lose all reason while hunting for Bounties in search of AP and wealth.
Strictly speaking, the Brigade should remain focused on its mission, but Shen wasn''t naive enough to think he could keep people from gaining free AP from Bounties. He could, however, organize everyone to hunt for Bounties together. Concisely. Safely.
He expected things to get hectic for at least a while and didn''t want to lose his troops needlessly.
He reread the Bounty notifications to double-check if he had missed anything or if his guess was as likely as he believed.
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| Automated Bounty Generation threshold decreased by 50%
| Execution Bounties can now be automatically generated if a Guardian''s Traitor Likelihood Coefficient is higher than 2.7 or their crimes are 1,000% above the current threshold for Automated Bounty Generation
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If Shen weren''t mistaken, the arrival of the Bounty Subsystem would change everything.
The Alliance evidently wanted to clear the front lines of anyone who might cause trouble when the fight against the Void Tide started. So, it was safe to assume the subsystem hadn''t come only to prevent future crimes. It had come to start a hunt for every rogue element in the military.
Shen guessed that meant looking into every Guardian''s military records, too. The system would analyze the punishments everyone had received, at least during the Calamity. Commanders who looked the other way instead of punishing a subordinate would have that recorded against them for Bounty purposes. Whoever received no punishment or a soft one when they should''ve been more heavily punished would also be noticed. If things were bad enough, Bounties would be generated on them.
In Samir, that meant a whole lot of people would become Bounty targets.
Bounties stopped being a thing in the military, but not because Bounties were illegal there. They simply weren''t visible or generated. In military rules, Bounties fell under the purview of system assistance, similar to when the system marked some as fugitives without manual input. One could pursue Bounties. It was optional, though.
However, that''s where its similarity to fugitives ended. Shen could capture any fugitive of any rank, but in the front lines, Bounty targets were like Void Spawn. A commander shouldn''t hunt marks of a lower rank. Every commander was supposed to let subordinates handle things of their level by themselves so they could grow up. Their AP opportunities were their own unless they couldn''t handle it.
Shen would be able to see even E-ranks with Bounties, but he was supposed to let E-ranks solve that. He could protect his people, but only if they didn''t have a Bounty on them and were about to get defeated. Helping anyone with a Bounty not get captured meant becoming an accomplice. Even Long Hei''s hands were as tied as Shen''s.
Even so, some Guardians would not protect innocent subordinates fighting a Bounty mark of the same rank but stronger than them. If the subordinate got heavily injured or died, it would justify the Guardian acting against a weaker Bounty mark and reaping the reward.
Not saving your subordinates was punishable, but determining intent and treason in such moments was complicated. Especially when people weren''t deployed. That meant a Commander couldn''t ask anyone to watch over anyone. A Guardian just had to time things right and appear at the opportune moment to gain AP.
It was almost impossible to prove they had delayed with ill intentions because they weren''t on a mission. Even reading their minds wouldn''t work, as they could change their memories. It wasn''t that hard, and only specialists could notice the tempering. The Alliance didn''t have enough resources to investigate every instance it happened; Shen was sure it would become eerily common.
Chaos was about to descend.
In some places, friends would turn against friends. In other places, criminals would group together. Factions would form.
A small part of Shen disliked that the Alliance was doing things this way instead of having a special rule of some kind to let Generals solve everything. But he had been in the military for too long and understood this was the last opportunity for people to hone themselves before the Void Tide arrived. Some innocent people might die, but it was for the greater good.
He idly wondered how many murders in the Alliance had been justified by the greater good. And yet, what alternative did they have in an endless war of survival?
His Will of Absolute Power shook in defiance in his True Self.
With enough power, he could solve that. With enough power, he could change everything.
But that was for the future. Now, he needed to weather the coming storm. At least he was deployed, so he had greater control of his people.
He opened the Bounty Window. As he had expected, there were countless Bounties, but the marks'' locations were vague. The system only revealed which fortress or subnode they were in. That was also part of the training, though he expected precise locations if the Void Tide got too close.
His most distant troops were surrounding the fortress, and everyone arrived quickly. Shen didn''t waste time. As soon as they formed ranks, he declared, "We have orders to hunt for fugitives. I have determined that there will be too much chaos in the foreseeable future. Therefore, we''ll work to make the chaos last as little as possible while pursuing our original goal.
"We have an advantage over everyone else: our units are small but powerful. We''ll play on that strength instead of doing what we have been doing. We will no longer lock mobile fortresses and check every nook and cranny. We''ll go in hard and fast, complete every Bounty we can, find every fugitive on the way, and leave for the next fortress. I''ll determine which fortress to target and when to go. Do not oppose me or try to pretend you didn''t get the order to leave.
"I see none of us has a Bounty on their heads yet." He silently thanked Long Hei for his selection. "If you get one, surrender to a colleague, and your life will be kept. You can try to convince everyone not to capture you, but don''t blame anyone for sticking a knife on your back. Bounties are optional on the front lines, but we''re still an Exemplary Brigade. There''s an argument to be made that we''re expected to pursue Bounties.
"I, for one, will only attack C-ranks with an Execution Bounty on them. You''re more valuable to me as subordinates than AP bags. As a cultivator, I need less AP than mana wielders.
"We''ll return to Samir-7 now, as we have already searched for fugitives there. It''ll be my gift to you and a training ground as we adapt to the new strategy. It''s the fortress with the strongest Guardians among the ones we cleared, so don''t let your hubris kill you.
"Battalions will hunt together. Whoever sees a Bounty target of the same rank will state its name. That will give them priority in trying to deal with the Bounty. If the target is lower than C-rank, the one who stated their name will attack, and their unit will stay nearby for support as the rest of the Battalion keeps hunting. One Guardian of a higher rank will accompany those who stay behind for extra protection. If they meet a stronger foe, they''ll retreat. If they complete the Bounty, they''ll regroup with the Battalion.
"I''m still the only one allowed to judge fugitives. If you find a fugitive, a C-rank must bring them to me. If the C-rank isn''t nearby, you must bring the fugitive to the closest one between the C-rank and me. Yes, it''ll take time, but as I just reminded you, that''s still our mission. If you ignore a fugitive, you''ll be marked as a traitor. It''s as simple as that. You never know if you''ll find a fugitive or a Bounty target, so you can only hope for the best.
"Any questions?"
"What about us?" Luthdel asked.
Shen smiled. "We''ll hunt, too, of course. I''ll go alone, you two will cover each other. I''ll be more worried about supervising everyone, though. If I find a Bounty target on the way, you can only blame yourselves."
There were no more questions, so he asked the system to teleport them to Samir-7, then let his hounds loose on the fortress.
346. Snitching
There were many Bounties in Samir. Samir-7 currently hosted over one and a half million Guardians. The Bounty Window showed over fifty thousand targets, and the number kept fluctuating as more Bounties were created and others disappeared, completed by someone.
Shen had expected things to become hectic, but this much.
Liya had once taught him that, unlike drow, many Guardians saw the system''s automated Bounty generation threshold as a form of credit. If they could commit some crimes without consequence, they considered not doing so plain stupid. It made logical sense, as one of the crimes they could commit was theft, so they could directly exchange some "crime credit" for resources.
It was similar to what Darla had said about paying the price, but also different in that such Guardians often acted out of petty greed, for small benefits, instead of for a cause or something significant. That''s why the Alliance was suddenly flushing such people out by lowering the threshold without warning. Ambition was required for growth, but if the Void Tide was as dire as it seemed, the Alliance would rather not leave petty criminals free to profit from the chaos.
Another argument to be made against such people was that the higher your rank, the higher your Bounty threshold. There was also a time factor in that older crimes counted less. So, if a C-rank kept close to the limit, they were much more dangerous than an E-rank. The new Bounty rules would ensure the shot-callers at the top were less likely to betray the Alliance in a critical moment.
Now that Shen thought about it, that cleansing revealed another facet of the last-minute training. The military would suddenly find targets among its numbers. Even those who attacked former colleagues for profit would realize others might do the same against them if given the order. Shen also expected many Bounty targets to be very forceful in their attempt to escape or convince others to protect them. So, everyone was being told to keep their guard up at all times.
The sense of base camaraderie painstakingly cultivated, at least in other Nodes, for so long would shatter. It would then stand on the frail pillars of knowledge that your remaining brothers and sisters in arms were somewhat upright, which was worse than the previous implicit trust. It would decrease operational efficiency, but if the Alliance thought the trade was worth it, it probably was.
Or maybe they just wanted people to kill each other for whatever reason, of course, though Shen had come to believe less and less that the Alliance was "evil" just because.
The only thing that he didn''t know was what would be done with these Bouty targets. When captured over Bounties, they were supposed to be judged by civilian judges. Paying fines was expected, so maybe the Alliance sought a last-time resource injection. Forced service in the civilian bureaucracy or the military sounded the opposite of what would be wanted. Would they be kept in jail until the Tide ended? Or did the powers-that-be have other plans for them?
Whatever the case, it was time for Shen to act.
He left the Bounty Window open and kept reading all available Bounties in quick succession while rushing through Samir-7''s corridors. One sneaky detail was that the Bounty Subsystem didn''t force itself upon the military''s Recognition Interface. So, unlike in the civilian Alliance, you couldn''t tell if someone had a Bounty on them just by inspecting them. On the other hand, whoever became a target was warned and given a chance to surrender willingly.
That meant not every target would be instantly found or attacked. It also allowed them to try to hide, flee, or convince or bribe others. The chaos would indeed last at least weeks, probably a couple of months.
Shen found many Bounty targets as he ran, all D-rank or lower, most looking scared and seeking a hiding place. As much as he would rather his people benefited from capturing them, he was more worried about hastening how quickly order would return to the front lines. He hadn''t lied about that. The faster this business concluded, the faster he could return to and accomplish his Brigade''s original mission.
So, instead of calling his Brigade to deal with those targets, he decided to snitch on them for whoever arrived first. He couldn''t attack Bounty targets of a lower rank, not even touch them, but he could leave signals for others to follow.
He said, "Buy a pen or marker with a lot of ink or similar resource used to write. The ink must be capable of staying on this fortress''s walls for at least half a minute." There was no point in it remaining longer, considering the targets were running. "And using it on the walls must not be against the rules."
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| Purchased: Any Equipment (C-) | -23,800,000
| Remaining AP: 647,818,374
| You cannot purchase anything else for 1 Standard day
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Shen had gotten a windfall of over a hundred million AP in his Expeditionary Training, but accumulating AP became a lot more challenging afterward. His current AP was much more than the vast majority of C-ranks had made in the past three years. He had only accumulated that much because he was strong enough and had lucked out here and there.
Serving the frontlines was lucrative, something people often resorted to, but raw AP numbers weren''t the only thing they were after. After serving for a non-consecutive total of 1 Standard year, or 12 Earth years, Guardians could unlock a system discount. To do so, they had to serve for at least another extra consecutive month. Those requirements were dismissed when conscripted as long as you got to a subrank better than Junior, a minor advantage of being forced to fight for the Alliance.
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The discount amount depended on military rank. As a First Lieutenant, Shen''s current discount was a whopping 30.5% on top of his Rising Star''s 10%. That was a lot. The Alliance knew how to give the carrot as much as it did the stick.
Maybe that discount was another reason to lower the Bounty threshold. The Alliance''s resources might get stretched during the Void Tide, and they didn''t want the "unworthy" to take advantage of it. In fact, Shen wondered if military Guardians with a Bounty on them could even take advantage of their discount. He had read no rule about it, but he also knew some rules were only known for those with the proper clearance.
At Shen''s purchase, a royal blue foot-long thumb-wide piece of rectangular chalk materialized in his hands. He inspected it.
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|
Royal Everblue Chalk (C-)
A unique tool used in some seasonal festivals of the Twrko race.
It''s not enchanted, but the alchemists that produce it weave special Laws and Concepts into the materials to make the marker entirely harmless. The chalk''s substance cannot cause damage to anyone or anything, no matter how frail. Any living organism can absorb it with no consequences.
Its special properties allow the material to stick even on surfaces enchanted against visual vandalism.
Special note: the military provides special dispensation for using Royal Everblue Chalks on its mobile fortresses'' walls. Their B-rank enchantments would also counter it, but they were modified to allow this chalk substance and a few others to stick. Any drawing or message will disappear within one Standard minute. You''ll be held accountable for any unlawful misuse of this tool.
|
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Shen quickly inscribed the Bounty targets'' names he found on the wall. That shouldn''t be considered a misuse.
He barely stopped running ahead as he did it. Everyone he saw and passed by suffered the same fate: being snitched on. The chalk didn''t decrease in size even after he wrote a thousand names on the walls, showing that it was a C- item for more than its ability to write on enchanted surfaces.
That was still a hefty investment of almost twenty-four million AP, but as he had told his people, he didn''t need that much AP. He was a cultivator.
Sure, he would eventually need to pay to increase his stats'' upper limit, but unlike mana wielders, he couldn''t rush with only AP. He wasn''t overly worried about it. He could pay to unlock C stats already, and he wasn''t sure whether he would live longer than that. The Void Tide was coming, and after it finished, he was still supposed to go to SpecOps. The dead couldn''t use AP, so he had no reason to save it.
The way Shen saw it, he was investing a little money to make chaos end quicker¡ªand thus, he might be saving a few lives.
It was one of his potentially last deeds in life.
He avoided thinking about his inevitable demise but was already preparing for it, just like he had done by assisting Luthdel.
He kept running at peak speed. He found his people multiple times and watched over them. They were often fighting, but his orders were being obeyed, and their safety was guaranteed. The people babysitting the ones of a lower rank were never happy, but such was life.
Whenever a target was captured, the Bounty became suspended. Attacking the one who caught them or stealing the mark was a big offense, just like saving the target.
All captured people were to be taken to the Detention Department, and the crowd was the thickest in its surroundings. There were those delivering the targets, those expecting funny business there and were prepared to profit by protecting the weak, perhaps those waiting for the right time to act, and even people negotiating for the Bounty marks. Buying a captured target to deliver it oneself was frowned upon but legal.
Besides snitching on people, the thing Shen did the most was save Guardians. When a Bounty target displayed unexpected power and turned the tides on the hunters, Shen blocked a heavy attack and pushed the target miles away. He didn''t want innocents to get injured, but he also didn''t want to give free money and AP to any weak Guardian stupid enough to let greed get the best of them.
The mobile fortress was massive, but he was C-rank. He could cover everything in less than an hour if he found no obstacle. That posed a small challenge for other C-ranks to bring him any fugitives, so Shen wasn''t surprised when they also humbled themselves to using the system to ask him where he was.
Shen had done it on purpose because he suspected the message about the system funneling resources to the front lines meant it would be more frequently used in the near future. He was making his C-ranks used to it.
Two hours later, they had only found two fugitives. Samir-7 had already been cleared, after all. Shen executed both.
Another hour later, at long last, he came across one of the twelve C-ranks with a Bounty on them in that fortress. And it wasn''t just any C-rank; it was a high elf with five mastered Laws.
Sinaht Bryqen was standing in the middle of an Assembly Point. Seven unconscious C-ranks were scattered around, five high elves, one drow, and one half-high-elf, half-drow. Most of them were unconscious, but a high elf, missing half a torso and all four limbs, remained conscious, lying against the wall. He widened his eyes in panic when he saw Shen enter the room.
"Run!" he screamed, got into a coughing fit, then continued, "C+ stats! Experienced fighter! Run!"
Shen nodded to the victim. "Thank you for your warning," he said and turned to the Bounty target. "This was well done."
Although one of Sinaht''s victims was heavily injured, he had kept the guy alive. Sinaht was using their lives as evidence that he wasn''t enough of a threat for a B-rank to deal with him. Protecting himself against attempted captures wasn''t illegal if he controlled himself. He wasn''t trying to escape because he was smart enough to know there was nowhere to hide, but he also wasn''t willing to surrender.
Instead, he wanted to prove no C-rank could take him down. Despite his Bounty, no B-rank would be able to touch him. He sought to keep his position through sheer power alone.
Shen''s Absolute Power shook in recognition of a wise tactic.
Sinaht Bryqen was over two meters tall and lithe. He had short silvery hair and gray eyes, and was clad in tight-fitting light blue leather B- armor inlaid with silver plates, an elegant design. He wielded a white and green B rapier and stood straight, looking proud, one hand behind his back.
He looked down on Shen and lightly gestured toward the injured elf who had just warned him. "I heard about you, human drow, and I respect your achievements for your power level. But you also heard the foe I just vanquished. I would rather not get entangled with this Exemplary Brigade business, but I''ll turn you into another unwilling guest if I must."
Shen smiled. The arrogance. The absolute certainty in himself. And the power to match.
He had heard a few times that there were coiling dragons and crouching dragons everywhere in the Alliance. People who hid their power or didn''t seek glory with the power they displayed. The Alliance spanned multiverses, and such people were dangerous surprises one might find when they least expected.
At long last, he had found one in his rank.
"Don''t worry," Shen said, pulling his spear from his ring. "I acknowledge you''ll not attack to kill me, so I''ll also control my power as I put you in your place."
The sentence had the effect he wanted. Sinaht became enraged at being disregarded by someone without a single mastered Law and C- stats. He left a standing afterimage as he used his C+ agility and a mastered Law of the Wind to rush toward Shen.
347. Not Braindead
Despite Shen''s words, he didn''t dare to take things slowly. He deployed his aura, his Aural Realm, and his Aura-Material Suppression. He also saturated the air with his qi, hoping Sinaht tried to engage in a willpower battle against him.
Sadly, Sinaht wasn''t lying when he said he had heard about Shen, and it evidently wasn''t just in passing. The elf kept his energy contained in his body.
Still, despite Sinaht''s careful nature, his willpower expenditure increased significantly. Within Shen''s Aural Realm, any Law that wasn''t the same as the ones in his Path was harder to use, and it was much worse for Laws from the Axioms of Spear, Wind, Lightning, Water, and whichever Axiom True Boundlessness came from. Sinaht''s five mastered Laws were one each from Wind, Water, and Earth, and two from the Sword. Two out of five added extra pressure on him.
Shen also went all-in on his Aura-Material Suppression. A water jet, Stream, became permanent between him and the elf, filled with lightning that battered his foe. Every other water drop was shaped like a Spear or gaseous¡ªWindy. Everything was filled with Killing Weapon, and the closer Sinaht got to Shen, the harder Shen''s True Boundlessness pushed against what it perceived as a limiter on his freedom of movement. It also further strengthened the Shaft in the small spears, which better withstood the contrary force caused by the approaching enemy.
On top of that, Lightning, Wind, and Water surrounded Sinaht, all filled with Conductivity and Killing Weapon. From now on, Shen would keep randomly increasing and decreasing how hard he pushed the elf in all directions to keep him on edge and force him to waste extra focus and effort to stay steady and use his moves.
Shen invested big chunks of his willpower in the Laws he applied to his surroundings to ensure Sinaht couldn''t overpower his control. It was essential in this battle. Losing his hold over Sinaht at any time could prove lethal.
The elf''s Wind Law wasn''t about speed but elusiveness. Shen partially denied that by making Reality itself produce physical elements around his foe. He always knew where Sinaht was. But even then, even with the high elf inside Shen''s aura, Shen still had to focus hard to spot the guy who seemed to be a harmless part of the surroundings.
Affecting other people''s minds like that, in a way one''s mind didn''t reject as an attempt invasion, could only be accomplished with mastered Laws or Realizations. Mastered Laws could only do it if the Path Walker actively willed so, which took willpower, and the result was evidently much weaker than even a Realization''s passive effect. It still could be a game-changer if not countered. Fortunately, the technique to defend against passive Realization effects also worked against mastered Laws. Shen filtered the feedback he got from Reality through his aura connection, and it became easier to spot Sinaht.
Or rather, it became less challenging. The guy still moved by using profound secrets of the Wind. Shen couldn''t filter that out any more than he could filter light out if he wanted to see. Sinaht was moving in ways that Shen''s mind simply couldn''t follow.
Sinaht was also fast, even if his Wind Law wasn''t about speed. He was around seven times as fast as Shen after being pressured by Shen''s opening salvo. On top of that, rapiers were weapons of speed, skill, and opportunity, and two of his mastered Laws were from the Sword, meaning he would move the weapon even faster than he could move. If the elf got close to Shen, Shen would lose; there was no way around that.
As for the other two Laws, from Water and Earth, Shen had to make half-guesses.
He wasn''t sure but felt the Water Law was similar to the Tides he had learned under Liya. Something about the inevitability of the currents that remained steady for time untold.
For now, Earth had yet to make an appearance beyond how well Sinaht dealt with the water jet going against him. Mere water couldn''t stop or push any C-rank, but he was stabler than expected¡ªthough not as sturdy as he should have been if his Earth Law was directly related to stability. Shen guessed it was a middle ground of Water''s inevitable continuity and stability. It was a way to surprise a foe with a firmer, stronger rapier strike on top of the expected high speed.
Shen liked Sinaht''s Path immensely. It wasn''t fancy and didn''t deal with more mystical Axioms, like Annihilation or even Darkness. The elf sought the most straightforward Laws to accomplish his goals.
Sinaht felt solid and lethal...
...which meant defeating him would be that much harder.
Sinaht kept approaching quickly despite Shen''s setup. A close-range battle was inevitable, but Shen had to control how close his enemy got. Shen was outmatched in stats, Laws, and probably experience, too. Hopefully, although younger than Sinaht, Shen had learned things better and faster and gone through experiences that better prepared him for what was coming.
In other words, this fight would show how valuable his training under Liya, his elite combat training, his learning ability, and even his talent were¡ªand how well he could bring all that to bear when it mattered.
Even so, possible superior skills would only let Shen remain in the fight longer. Any mistake, and he would lose. Sinaht, on the other hand, had to do the wrong thing at the wrong time, maybe multiple times, and Shen had to take advantage of it over and over again.
Shen''s smile widened as he started moving back to give him the slightest assistance to react to Sinaht''s attacks at the right time...
...and the high elf didn''t follow.
As soon as Shen stepped back, the elf stopped moving. He then started slowly returning to the middle of the room.
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Shen''s smile faltered, then widened; at long last, a foe that was not braindead!
Sinaht had the high ground here because Shen wanted to capture the elf, while the elf would rather not fight Shen. Sure, Sinaht was taking a risk, as Shen might just wait for more people to arrive, but Shen had gone rusty after years unchallenged. He had just shown how much he was enjoying it, and even his earlier taunt¡ªthe effect of which had been short-lived¡ªhad revealed his self-confidence. Unless he had lied, the elf could confidently assume Shen would rather fight one-on-one.
Shen was on a timer as much as Sinaht. His elements would take weeks to months to grind the elf''s B- armor down. He had to attack before someone else came to claim the Bounty, not to mention he was still a Brigade Commander with other responsibilities. He couldn''t waste time there.
Shen''s initiative had been swiftly and efficiently denied¡ªand that''s why he was smiling.
If Sinaht was half as bright as Shen gave him credit for, he would still test Shen a little. But it wouldn''t last long because the high elf was also on a timer. Maybe a few exchanges.
Then, the genuine fun would start, and it would be like good old times.
Although Shen used his aura and externally applied his Laws, his primary weapon was himself. The actual vessel of his Path was his True Self, which was limited to his body until he could deploy his domain.
Stats mattered; he couldn''t deny Reality and its rules. How mastered a Law was mattered; it limited his power. But a collision of Paths was much more than a mere comparison of numbers.
If Sinaht had a domain, Shen would be crushed. Without it, Shen had a chance, and his Path had been about overcoming odds ever since he sought a solution to his damaged soul back in his childhood.
It had been so, so long since Shen had the opportunity to fight head-on!
He wasn''t stupid enough to not try to solve his battles from a distance just to have fun, but now that some long-distance tools were useless¡ªfor instance, Sinaht wouldn''t fall for the mind trick he had used against Vinamour¡ªand others were countered, the battle could only go one way.
Shen''s True Self trembled in excitement as he rushed against Sinaht for what promised to be a visceral fight¡ªuntil one of his tricks caused his victory or defeat.
With no alternative, Shen rushed toward Sinaht. The elf wouldn''t let Shen have it easy and also rushed at Shen. The opposing vectors added to Sinaht''s speed advantage, demanding even more skill from Shen.
Shen thrust his spear to stop the elf from getting too close. Sinaht used a Wind-based footwork ability that made him be in three places at once, side by side. Not look like he was in three places; he was actually ignoring some spacetime rules with his mastered Law of the Wind.
Thanks to his training, Shen knew that, when used defensively, Sinaht''s move was meant to confuse an inexperienced or unskilled opponent. It made Sinaht more vulnerable, as any injury to any of his "three" selves¡ªthough they were technically one in three places¡ªwould hurt him. The elf was not, however, changing his original position. He could do that, but there would be some signs that were currently absent. So, he just wanted Shen to modify his attack to target "another Sinaht." Sinaht would then cancel the ability, and Shen would find himself in a terrible position.
Shen took that move to mean the elf considered him a menace. Even in their first clash, Sinaht was already trying to gain an edge through more than stats and Law¡ªor testing how Shen reacted to it.
The cultivator kept his spear locked on the original target, and Sinaht canceled the ability while sidestepping. Shen turned his trust to the side and into a slight swing, and Sinaht, despite his higher speed, was forced to step back.
Shen could only deny Sinaht''s significant speed advantage because he was paying total attention to every microscopic detail in Sinaht''s body, soul, and surroundings. Shen started reacting as soon as the elf did anything.
Sinaht tried to circle around Shen, who had no trouble rotating. The elf tried to approach again, but Shen kept thrusting and keeping him at bay.
After a few similar exchanges, Sinaht stepped back and raised snorted. "You cannot defeat me like this."
His voice was unworried, and his body was relaxed, but his soul was just a tad too tight. He was waiting for Shen to reply, thus getting slightly distracted, to launch a sneak attack.
Shen chose to spring the trap and hopefully profit. He opened his mouth, and Sinaht acted before Shen released any sound.
The elf became invisible and moved twice as fast as before. On top of that, his presence vanished. Even Shen''s aura had trouble locating him. Without Reality keeping the water jet between them, Shen might react too slowly to remain on his feet, much less profit.
Sinaht moved until he was diagonally behind Shen and approached¡ªonly to be met with a diagonal swing of Shen''s spear, which started as soon as the elf moved. As if raising in answer to the elf''s mocking, this swing was aimed to deal damage. Shen''s had a speed disadvantage, but in some instances, he could use the elf''s speed against him. The faster Sinaht came, the less time he had to react to Shen''s strikes.
The attempt didn''t work, as Shen knew it wouldn''t. The elf dodged, then tried to keep coming diagonally. Shen was already stepping back and to the side, and still moving his spear. Conductivity assisted him the most, and Sinaht ended up retreating once more.
When he stopped this time, there was almost some respect in his eyes.
Sinaht said, "I concede you can force me to fight seriously, but I cannot guarantee your survival if I do. Your death would weigh down on me; the Bounty on me might turn into an Execution. Isn''t it unfair for you to force me to become a worse criminal for your personal entertainment?"
There were no signs of a sneak attack this time, but Shen was still cautious as he replied, "Isn''t it unfair of you to ask me to walk away for your benefit, which would be a criminal offense of my own?"
You could ignore a Bounty target, but negotiating with them to let them go was a minor offense. The Alliance didn''t want people to use the Bounty Subsystem to locate and blackmail targets.
Sinaht smiled from the corner of his lip. "Take it as a threat, not a request for my own good. It''s shameful but not illegal to fear for your life."
"Cut the crap," Shen replied. "You can surrender now or kill me and get killed by a B-rank. If you can kill me, of course. The way I see it, you''ll be the one beginning for mercy soon enough."
The elf shook his head, ignoring the taunt. "I can kill you and surrender immediately after, before I''m killed by a B-rank. If I''m to get captured, I shall at least put down the worm who forces me to such a position. A worse punishment means little to me, and it shouldn''t even be that bad, as I''m still acting in self-defense and shall have some leeway. You have much more to lose than I do."
Shen nodded. "You have a point, but I''m an Exemplary Brigade Commander, and I''m deployed. I can either fight you alone or keep an eye on you as I wait for assistance to arrive. Anything else would be unacceptable, as an Exemplary Brigade is held to high standards."
He couldn''t actually say the words, but his meaning was evident: Sinaht was to take it as a gift that Shen was willing to fight alone and potentially get defeated before he requested assistance. That was the most he could do.
Whether either of them would end up with a fatal injury because of an intense fight was up to luck and how far they were willing to go.
Sinaht sighed. "So be it."
Then, the mana in his body exploded, and he disappeared. Shen''s elements also ceased. The high elf was hiding so well that even Reality could no longer find him.
Sinaht was done testing Shen, and his gloves were finally off.
348. The Obvious
When it came to Laws, Reality was an entangled mess of different Axioms that defined everything. They looked like infinite tentacles perfectly locked together in a perpetual tug of war with no space in between, but only because Shen''s senses were limited. Someone who mastered a Law and looked deep enough could find the seams between Laws and hide from all Axioms.
Whenever Shen willed his elements into existence, the Laws of Reality were the ones who bent to his will to produce water and lightning out of nowhere, so Sinaht''s move countered it.
Liya had never taught Shen about it, but elite combat training insisted the technique was a last resort for three reasons.
First, it could easily be lethal for oneself. It required prohibitive levels of willpower and energy. If any lacked, you died. Even if you survived, you would be, at the very least, very tired.
Peak C-ranks theoretically had enough will to use the ability for a while, but if they messed up while invisible, they died. Being beyond the grasp of the Laws of Reality meant your very self was defined by your Path and nothing else, which required energy and your Will to keep existing.
Mana was virtually infinite in the Alliance, so Sanaht had that covered¡ªuntil he didn''t. Being beyond the grasp of the Axioms also meant being beyond the system''s reach. He couldn''t recover mana, only use whichever reserves he had. If he mismanaged it and his mana pool emptied, he would lack the fuel to keep himself existing beyond all Law.
Shen had plenty of ways to overwhelm an inferior but tricky foe, but Sanaht clearly didn''t. Shen could see how the elf could reason this "special" ability could define annoying fights quickly. Even if Sinaht became a little tired afterward, as long as his foe was defeated, he would have extra time to rest before someone else arrived. He didn''t want to be ganged up on.
Shen had no particular skill to deal with that. That was an insurmountable gap between someone with a mastered Law and anyone below. Yet, the second weakness that ability had was that Sinaht couldn''t feel or see anything while in the emptiness between Laws. He had excluded himself from the realm of Laws, so to speak. He could move because he was still bound to the Aspects of Space and Time and the Expression of Change, but that was it.
So, Shen didn''t need any unique method. He just stepped ahead and waited a dozen yards ahead. He turned, spear at ready, and waited.
Almost anyone ignorant about the Intra-Seam Step technique would either freeze in caution and erect useless defenses that Sinaht could bypass or try to flee. The elf had expected Shen to be no different.
Shen had just prepared himself when Sinaht reappeared between where Shen had been and was now.
Sinaht was mid-attack, standing sideways with his legs bent, his rapier extended before him. He had used a skill that only activated when he returned to Reality, and it felt his prodding. A twelve-yard-wide beam of pure Laws shot from his sword, ignoring spacetime as it instantly covered everything from Shen''s previous position to the room''s exit and the beyond.
The power of the mastered Laws was concentrated in a way Shen had only seen in elite combat training before. Sinaht had woven all pieces of his Path together and demanded they altered Reality. It was like Shen''s long-distance Law blades and his materialization of the elements¡ªonly much stronger.
Shen had invested a lot of willpower to keep his Lawful hold over the entire room, but Sinaht overwhelmed Shen with the sheer weight of his Path. Five mastered Laws and another big chunk of his willpower were enough to deny Shen''s hold.
The rebound caused Shen a mild headache, but that was nothing compared to what Reality itself suffered. The Mastered Path Beam broke even Reality''s harmless Laws in its way. Spacetime became weird inside, cause and effect behaving erratically. It also cleared all air, light, and, interestingly, mana and qi.
Sinaht removed Shen''s hold and energy from the environment, then formed a thick mana beam inside the Path Beam.
The Pioneer Tutorial had taught B-ranks could ignore soul defense, but it wasn''t strictly correct. What was actually needed was a kind of enlightenment that could only be obtained after mastering at least one of your Path''s Laws. Only geniuses could accomplish it at C-rank, but it became trivial after reaching B-rank and obtaining a vaster mind, hence the teaching.
Sinaht was such a genius. His mana beam could pierce Shen''s defenses and body, ignoring his soul''s innate defense. It was also like a self-contained projectile, disconnected from his mind, and would not force a willpower battle. Despite that, he had only dared to use it after ensuring Shen''s qi wasn''t on the way.
What a careful bastard! And a brutal one, to boot. There was no surviving that. If Shen were there, he would die.
Still, as fast as Sinaht acted, his moves since he returned to Lawful Reality were mechanical. For instance, he was doing what he had planned and couldn''t adapt to not feeling Shen before him. The Intra-Seam Step''s third weakness was the tiny gap between returning and making sense of one''s surroundings.
That was enough for Shen to close the few yards of distance between them and thrust his spear before the high elf noticed.
His spear pierced the invisible B- defenses of the armor on the elf''s nape, his skull, and half an inch into his brain. Only then did Sinaht react¡ªand was slightly delayed by the Water, Lightning, and Wind reappearing around him, trying to lock him in place. The delay was enough for the spearhead to find another couple of inches of brain matter before Sinaht stepped away at maximum speed, moving ahead from his perspective, beyond Shen''s reach.
Shen tsked. Sinaht hadn''t been using any mana in his head, so Shen couldn''t force a willpower battle.
The cultivator tried to follow, but the brain injury wasn''t enough to affect the elf''s reasoning ability to the point he stumbled. He ran fast. Shen followed, but Sinaht literally ran in circles around the room, and the cultivator could only follow without ever approaching his foe. Meanwhile, Sinaht got a pill from his spatial ring and popped it into his mouth. His brain started healing absurdly quickly.
Still, that had been one costly mistake. Sinaht had spent quite a bit of willpower. It would limit his options henceforth. Then again, it was just one mistake. Shen needed the elf to mess up more.
After Sinaht''s brain was whole again, while his skull quickly regenerated, he stopped running and turned to Shen. He was furious. There was also a lot of caution in his eye¡ªand a bit of fear.
Sinaht concluded his once highly regarded tricks wouldn''t work against Shen. There was no convenient shortcut to take. Thus, he changed his approach to a more straightforward one. He used so much mana inside his body and rapier that he lit up like a sun to Shen''s senses. His Path''s Laws also rotated quickly within himself, getting tighter to each other and stronger for it.
Shen spread his qi and Laws all over the room again and remade the water jet between him and the high elf. Even then, Sinaht''s speed had just doubled, and he was fifteen times as fast as Shen.
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As if that wasn''t enough, Sinaht added long-range mana attacks to the fight, the kind that didn''t cause a will-battle. Those were a genuine danger if they struck, but Shen still had his aura and total control over the battlefield with his Laws and qi. It took some effort to redirect and deflect incoming attacks, but he managed. Still, for all his willpower, doing everything he was doing at once meant he was working at 75% capability. Considering how massive his will was, it went to show how fighting a peak C-rank with mastered Laws was a big challenge.
The elf wasn''t stupid, so after countless frustrated attempts to finish Shen, he realized he was fated to lose. Even breathing in the Aural Realm took extra effort; he had invested too much willpower, and it kept decreasing. He had to act before his waning mind caused him to make a mistake.
That''s when he genuinely went all-out. He invested massive amounts of mana into mind-disconnected long-range attacks that made curves and homed on Shen¡ªsomething he saw for the first time. Dozens were formed every nanosecond, filling the air with mana projectiles. Not every shot was aimed at Shen, allowing Sinaht to save some focus. Shen''s mind, on the other hand, had to work on overdrive to analyze everything and remain safe.
That alone pushed him to 82% of his capacity. The attacks were too dangerous; if he messed up just once, it might snowball into his death.
Sinaht still wasn''t done. He also started using mystical abilities that defied reason. He moved faster than fast sometimes, appearing beyond where he should. Shen knew the technique and could read when his foe would use it, so he could prepare adequately to counter it.
Next, the high elf started roaring. The roar was a special attack that disrupted all non-physical energy in the surroundings and even affected Shen''s control over the surrounding Laws. It was also the first time Shen saw it, and he couldn''t even begin to imagine how it worked. It should be meant for B-ranks, as it took a toll on Sinhat''s body. His lungs and throat became a gore mess every three times he used it¡ªand he healed with more pills, then kept going.
The roars forced Shen to exert his will and focus on controlling his qi and Laws. He also had to have a plan B in case his Laws failed to deflect his foe at the wrong time. His mind usage jumped to 93% capacity. At that point, he was forced to make some micro assumptions and tiny logical leaps because analyzing everything happening around him was impossible. It required raw processing power, and his True Self, qi, and willpower weren''t enough to compensate for his limited agility and mind.
And yet, he persevered. No attack got to him. Sinaht was kept at bay.
Sinaht''s soul became frantic at that point. Shen''s water jets, lightning, and random pushes kept annoying him. The elements kept trying to grind his defenses to dust. Shen''s spear kept getting in the way; thrusts and swings were always at the right place at the right time. There was no way to approach unharmed.
So, eventually, the high elf did the obvious: he took a minor hit to deliver a lethal strike against Shen.
He hid his intentions well, partly because of his already uncontrolled feelings, which might''ve been deliberate. His soul trembled just like it had been doing when, suddenly, instead of dodging a thrust, he only slightly changed his body''s vector at the last moment but kept approaching Shen.
Shen always attacked with all his strength. So, his spearhead pierced Sinaht''s B- armor on the side of his belly.
An instant later, the still-coming elf''s rapier touched his cultivator robe over the heart.
Sinaht was smart enough to remove all mana from his body as soon as his rapier connected to his target. Once more, Shen couldn''t force a willpower battle. He could, however, guess what was coming. Another Path Beam or worse.
The move wasn''t a great show of skill, but it was a perfect display of judgment, even with Sinaht''s mental exhaustion. Shen shouldn''t be able to dodge that.
Unfortunately, Shen didn''t need to. Sinaht, either for lack of experience, foresight, or tiredness, had made himself vulnerable to the little trick Shen had used to delay Vinamour. Shen hadn''t been ready to use it when his spear first pierced the elf''s s unprotected brain, but he was ready this time. He hadn''t tried to dodge the incoming attack because he had been sure he could force a willpower battle if he found mana or use this trick if he didn''t.
Shen''s qi trembled at the right frequency, imbued with the proper knowledge of how qi and Reality interacted, indirectly affecting the environmental qi¡ªand Sinaht''s mind.
Sinaht''s mind froze for a split instant, and so did his body.
Shen would like to capture the guy alive for the skill he had shown, which could help against the Void. Alas, Shen had no means to imprison Sinaht. The Bounty target had declared he would rather kill Shen than get captured by a weaker C-rank. There was no telling whether he would accept this victory as proof of Shen''s superiority, and the latter might not get another opportunity like this.
His spear kept going, piercing the elf''s heart and brain, electrocuting everything on the way.
The peak C-rank was instantly turned into a gory mess. Even as its flesh bits flew away, Shen cut them into cubes with his Laws...
...and was stopped by a golden shield when he struck a life-saving treasure.
Shen kept cutting the unprotected bits of flesh as he rushed at the golden sphere surrounding the high elf''s left arm. It was regenerating quickly, already having formed a shoulder and half a chest, when Shen struck the shield with everything he had.
Extremity, Conductivity, and True Boundlessness flared on the tip of his spear, which was filled with qi and pushed with the full might of his True Self and his best thrusting technique.
Cracks appeared like a spiderweb, but the shield held¡ªfor a moment. Shen pulled his arm and struck twice more. The sphere shattered and released a huge explosion, but while powerful, it was meant to distract, not kill. The arm and chest were flying away amid the fire and chaos, only to be stopped by water jets from all sides.
What remained of Sinaht was locked in place, and Shen would''ve allowed him to live if he just surrendered. But he didn''t. Instead, the healing speed doubled, and as soon as a heart formed, the body was filled with mana and broke through the elemental cage.
Perhaps it was an instinct because the high elf couldn''t reason properly without a brain. Maybe he really thought he could escape for whatever reason.
Shen thought it was a bit of both. If Shen hesitated just a little, the regenerating body, which was getting faster every instant, might''ve escaped. But a fully reasoning Sinaht wouldn''t have bet on Shen hesitating. He was smarter than that.
Unfortunately for him, life was a string of choices, and some people made the wrong ones. Some gained second chances. Others didn''t.
Shen couldn''t let Sinaht fully heal after having tried to kill him. He wasn''t so arrogant or stupid. Who knew which tricks even a weakened Sinaht could pull off?
His spear skewered the newly formed heart and cut everything else. Shen then went further, creating half-inch cubes instead of his usual three-inch ones.
Sinaht would die here.
That proved the right decision once again. When the tip of the high elf''s little finger was cut down, there was a small implosion, and then Shen got a system notification.
? ?
| Bounty complete: Capture Sinaht Bryqen (C)
| Rewards (withheld): +15,000 AP; +1,000,000 SC
| Your rewards will be withheld until the Kill Investigation concludes
? ?
Shen had expected the investigation to be disregarded in the front lines, but he had been wrong on that. So, the Alliance didn''t want Guardians to die needlessly. It was further evidence that they were clearing the house for legitimate reasons instead of just encouraging mass slaughter.
Whatever the case, Shen had won.
He smiled. That had been fun. A little dangerous, but such was life on the front lines.
He checked the battlefield. The fortress was enchanted not to get flooded, and all the water on the ground magically disappeared whenever it reached over a foot of depth. Even the unconscious C-ranks wouldn''t drown, and they were wet but well. Sinaht''s remains were soaked.
Shen ignored Sinaht''s remains and collected the equipment. That B- armor, which blessedly was automatically repairing itself, the rapier, and everything else would be his. This was a Bounty, not military business. As long as he was cleared as having justification to kill the elf, anything the target had on them belonged to whoever captured them.
The Alliance understood it would be stupid to have someone go against another Guardian and then return the criminals'' items to their family or friends. It would only finance the revenge against the one who risked their lives for the Alliance. It would also greatly decrease the interest in completing such Bounties.
With that done, he grabbed the C-ranks with his Laws. Sinaht had left Law fragments within those people, so they didn''t heal, and even the conscious guy hadn''t dared to remove the Law while the high elf was alive and around.
He was still not working on that. His eyes were wide open, and he was in a daze, incapable of believing Sinaht was dead. Shen half-suspected he had been in on it with the elf, screaming about how powerful Sinaht was to scare bounty hunters beyond the unconscious Guardians. Still, there was no reason to pursue it without a military order or Bounty.
He didn''t react when Shen grabbed him and rushed to the Healing Ward.
349. The Forges
The Healing Ward was a special place in every mobile fortress. It occupied a relatively small area compared to the whole fort but still had a few hundred rooms and could accommodate thousands of Guardians.
It was manned by the rare people whose Paths were related to healing, plus those with Life Laws who chose to learn how to use their Paths that way. They became Specialists who didn''t receive any AP for it and rarely, if ever, fought Void Spawn. At least their wages got a significant boost, and the techniques they learned were valued by established civilian forces. A good healer could easily find a strong backing.
Healing any Guardian was straightforward: you only had to remove anything preventing the system''s HP regeneration from working. Up to D-rank, Law fragments were the main culprit. However, things became trickier from the moment B-rank Guardians or B-tier phenomena got involved.
B-tier meant things that bypassed or ignored one''s passive soul protections. Law fragments did that but were still considered a C-rank injury because any C-rank could deal with them. Souls defended against both energy and non-mastered Laws, but if your body got injured, your soul stopped covering that specific place. Foreign Law fragments could then be attached. Shen had suffered from it before and was D-rank, incapable of combating the Law fragments himself.
Currently, he could help the people he had brought, but they had fought a C-rank with mastered Laws, meaning their souls might''ve gotten injured and automatically healed. The healers in the Ward would analyze their souls and help them deal with the consequences if needed. If that was the case, it would also be recorded on their files, and they would be closely monitored for a time to ensure their personalities hadn''t changed drastically.
Any Brigade Commander was supposed to check their subordinates'' souls during and after every deployment. Shen knew each of his subordinates'' souls and could compare the before and after. It wasn''t as precise as a healer using system records, but it was good enough for most purposes. Any injury that went by unnoticed was too minor and unlikely to cause serious issues. Even so, every Brigade had to be rechecked by the Healing Ward every nine deployments. The ideal would be for it to happen after every deployment, but it was time-consuming, and the military always lacked healers.
The place was divided into five main sections: triage room, regular post-deployment check-up area, quick-fix rooms¡ªyes, that was the official name¡ªlong-term care, and everything else.
The triage room was at the entrance. Patients made a line, and a few healers asked what they had and did a quick check. Emergencies could evidently skip the line.
The post-deployment check-up area was meant for what its name implied. The big room could take tens of thousands of people, who stood in ranks while healers went from one person to another. The military claimed they didn''t ask the system to do it automatically to train people in those functions and not get too dependent on the system.
The quick-fix rooms were a few dozen small rooms close to the entrance where a healer waited for you. Once there, they quickly diagnosed you, fixed your issue, and you left. Shen understood that modern Earth medicine would call it a clinic.
The long-term care rooms contained meditation pads that made patients float while they underwent prolonged treatment. They and everything else, which included support rooms, equipment, and research areas, were strictly off-limits. Only patients and Healing Ward personnel could get in.
Those off-limits places presented an obvious hiding place. Shen wasn''t surprised to find dozens of groups watching over the corridors leading to the Healing Ward. He also went past three different battles in the general region where the Ward was.
Shen went past the sentries with no trouble. No one waited inside the Ward proper because it was against the rules.
The triage room only had a few dozen patients. Although Guardians were currently fighting throughout the fortress, those affected by Law fragments or B-tier conditions were few and far between. The people in the line were all D-ranks or lower who happened to be at the wrong time and place and got infected with fragments.
Two bored-looking D-rank healers checked whoever got to the first place in the line. They should ask questions, but the Law fragments were so evident that they just pointed the D-ranks to a corridor leading to the quick-fix rooms. An E-rank was waiting at the first crossroads and telling Guardians when to head to one way or another, when a healer in one of the rooms finished treating someone.
A Guardian left just as Shen entered the Ward. He was missing an arm, but it was already regrowing.
Shen unceremoniously dropped the seven people he had brought with him on the ground, filled his throat and lungs with qi, and shouted, "I''m First Lieutenant Shen of the Seventh Exemplary Brigade. My current mission is to look for fugitives. This gives me the right to access the Healing Ward. Whoever hinders my path will be deemed a traitor!"
He didn''t really want to trouble the healers during such busy times, and he was sure they must''ve received the visit from someone else looking for fugitives not long ago. However, since he was already there, he would make things inconvenient for the healers for a few moments to give them a more extended period of peace later. Word would go around that people were constantly checking the Healing Ward, which would make anyone with bad intentions think twice about trying to hide there.
The people in the queue looked surprisedly at him. The power of his shout was enough to make their bodies tremble almost harmfully. The healers didn''t do anything beyond one of them sighing. It proved that they were used to people doing what Shen had done.
The next instant, Shen took the Royal Everblue Chalk from his spatial ring and wrote a name on the ceiling. One of the D-ranks there had a Bounty on them, a recent one that had appeared a few minutes ago¡ªShen was still constantly checking the Bounty Window. The guy had likely expected it to appear and came to the Ward early in the hopes of getting long-term treatment. Healers could report such people but not act against them while they were under their care.
Unfortunately for that guy, he had injured himself and was yet to be officially admitted. The other people in the room immediately turned to him to get his Bounty for themselves. They could get treatment later, but this might be their only opportunity to gain some AP.
Shen ignored the fight he had caused and went to the post-deployment check-up area. The vast room was empty. He still scoured it to ensure no one had used a low-effort hiding technique that could only work from afar. It was indeed clear.
Next were the quick-fix rooms. He found another Bounty target there. The elf had a few Law fragments in his right hand; whoever he had paid or convinced to put the fragments there hadn''t been willing to do more than that. He was trembling not because of the pain but because he knew what awaited him when the quick fix was over. When Shen entered the room, he was trying to convince a visibly exhausted drow D-rank to send him to a long-term treatment room.
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Even a D-rank could remove Law fragments with the right tool, and the female drow held one such item. The C- artifact was a long silver needle connected to a transparent crystal, both parts covered by glowing golden enchantment runes. The crystal was filled with a dark mist that, to Shen''s Law vision, was evidently Law fragments that had been collected and contained by the device.
The drow was surprised when her small room''s door opened, then afraid. Clearly, every drow exile in Samir knew about Shen. He ignored her, wrote the guy''s name on the door, and closed it as he left the room.
Shen then scoured the restricted area. He found thirteen Bounty targets in the long-term rooms. Two other targets were healers hiding alone in a research room and a staff resting area. There were even three fugitives under a hastily erected system-blocking magic formation on the corner of a storage area for broken magic artifacts, which were transported elsewhere every few years.
He tried and executed the three on the spot.
He wrote the names of the people in restricted areas both on the door to their rooms and, after he left, on the floor before the Healing Ward. They wouldn''t escape.
Seeing the broken artifacts reminded Shen of the Crafting Expertise Department next. Most things used in the military came from the system or were forged in the civilian Alliance. The front lines were meant to fight, not craft. Still, some people were always ready to produce something needed in an emergency, others trained how to deploy some advanced war machines if they were needed, yet more constantly checked and did maintenance on multiple enchantments throughout the fortress, a few were available for checking on Guardians'' personal items for a price, many used their time off to hone their skills, and so on.
The Crafting Expertise Department was also called The Forges. Deep into The Forges were some deposits for the items owned by the military. They were often inspected by B-ranks and protected by all manner of enchantments, which were also constantly checked by crafters. The closer you got to the deposits, the more restricted access became. The fact that Shen''s Brigade had cleared the mobile fortresses of all people, including crafters, showed how high their authority was. After all, the Acting General himself had said only B-ranks could stop them from checking any place.
The Forges''s deposits were also a blatant hiding spot, though getting there required a lot of courage and connections. One room in there had been blocked by a B-rank the last time the Seventh combed everything. If Shen was lucky, the Captain wouldn''t be here right now.
Testing a B-rank''s patience was somewhat risky, but Shen felt it should be safe enough, considering the chaos happening everywhere.
As its nickname implied, The Forges'' first and primary room was an enormous place with hundreds of anvils and furnaces, separated from the rest of the world by transparent domes. There were private rooms, but those cubicles were free.
The room also had countless tables, most covered with enchanted items, parts, or books. A minority of tables had alchemical equipment. A few hundred people were present, all working, all ignoring whoever came or went, except for an approaching E-rank.
Shen raised his hand to stop the attendant and repeated his warning with a yell, "I''m First Lieutenant Shen of the Seventh Exemplary Brigade. My current mission is to look for fugitives. This gives me the right to access every place in the Crafting Expertise Department. Whoever hinders my path will be deemed a traitor!"
Most people still ignored him. A minority turned to look at the newcomer. After a few moments of panicked stillness, five blacksmiths and two alchemists immediately tried to flee.
One alchemist was C-rank and fast, but only at early C-rank. Shen smiled happily as he flashed from his position to grab the guy by the neck while surrounding him with qi.
Lieutenant Specialist Aimer Genmenor had been concocting something that took a lot of his focus and mental energy. The high-elf''s willpower was spent and he wasn''t used to fighting. When he used his mana against Shen''s qi, the resulting psychic clash made him faint at once.
Shen kept the guy held by the neck and enveloped by qi to avoid surprises as he checked The Forges. He was astonished to find seventeen Bounty targets working in plain sight, either building something to rake up Commendations or bribe hunters. When he wrote their names on the floor, no one moved to capture them. The Guardians in that place were used to minding their own business.
Shen also checked all internal sites in The Forges. He eventually arrived, unchallenged, at a golden vault that a B-rank had previously stopped his Brigade from checking.
"I''m First Lieutenant Shen, and I have the authority to check this safe''s contents," he declared to the huge door.
The safe was heavily enchanted. He felt some enchantments scanning his body and soul, then sending some mana pulses and getting others in return. They were checking for his identity and clearance.
Mana pulses kept coming and going for a few minutes, plenty of time for the B-rank to stop Shen if they wanted. No one came. Then, the thick door slowly opened by itself.
Shen found nothing less than a hundred and sixteen fugitives inside.
The B-rank who had protected them was screwed by that alone. It was enough to conclude the Captain was either captured already or fleeing for their lives. But things were even worse than they looked at first sight.
The vault was big enough for a few thousand people to stand side by side. It was supposed to store Void-related items that shouldn''t get near anyone without the proper knowledge and protections. The artifacts should also be further locked in special cases even there.
There was one unprotected item in there with the Guardians.
All fugitives were high elves bound to the walls by thick, magic chains on their wrists and ankles. An enormous black cauldron was in the center of the room. The feeling of wrongness coming from the iron object explained that they all looked at Shen with hope and glee as the door opened.
Shen immediately yelled, "Treason detected! Possible Void research! Unwilling Guardians used as materials!" Then, he turned tail and fled from that place as fast as he could.
The unprotected cauldron was terrible news. This was way above Shen''s pay grade. He felt bad for the victims, but entering the vault to save them would be suicide for him. Another B-rank, or maybe even Long Hei, would have to come and deal with that.
Speaking of B-ranks, the traitor Captain might have escaped or gotten killed¡ªor he might have merely gotten delayed and be coming for Shen.
While running, Shen erected as many defenses as he could. He extended his aura as far as possible, which he had been unwilling to do before as it might affect the crafters. Yelling had been bad enough. He also used all focus and willpower he could muster to surround himself with seven-yard-long water jets aimed away from him, filled with his Path. Lastly, he covered everything up to a hundred yards from him with his Laws, investing almost no willpower in that because if a B-rank¡ª
He had barely covered his surroundings with his Laws when a stronger will countered his.
The rebound was almost unnoticeable. Shen did notice, however, that the external influence that had just countered his Law control on the edges of his senses was approaching fast. His aura couldn''t detect it, and only the instant feedback he received from having his Laws overwhelmed let him notice it in real time. He knew exactly what was approaching.
A domain.
There was no one to report it to or beg for help from because he couldn''t speak even a syllable before he would get struck. Even thinking that such an attempt would be useless was all he could do. He could think fast, but the domain was much faster and already a few yards away when he reached that conclusion. His water jets were ignored and cut through as if they weren''t there.
Then, the domain touched his soul...
...and disappeared.
Or rather, Shen had disappeared. Someone had instantly teleported him away. He was standing back in the vault. An instant later, its door closed with a loud bang.
In the ensuing darkness, the Void Energy inside the cauldron suddenly morphed. It was no longer Void Energy, but also not qi or mana. It felt similar to the phase-space energy made of Law fragments that Shen had found when breaking through to the Ethereal Harmonization realm but different. Empty and longing, somehow.
Thirsty.
The transformed energy took the form of a pale white mist as it spilled from the cauldron''s mouth and into the ground, expanding towards the people chained to the walls¡ªand Shen, who had appeared between the cursed artifact and the victims.
Most interestingly, the crafter he had captured was no longer with him. Any traitor who had captured fugitives for their wicked plans and sent Shen to his death would have no reason not to add yet another victim to it. As luck would have it, it seemed someone wanted to get rid of him for capturing the wrong Bounty target, not because he had stumbled upon the Void''s plans.
As Alicia would''ve said, "Fucking bullshit."
350. It Worked
The white mist expanded slowly but constantly. After falling to the ground like liquid, some started rising and filling the air, while the rest kept moving outwards.
Shen couldn''t feel his Laws or see Laws in any place covered by the substance. Although he had not mastered any Laws and his senses were limited, he was confident that the fog wasn''t blocking his senses as much as consuming the Laws in the space it occupied. The thing felt overwhelmingly thirsty. Just looking at it made him feel like it wanted to consume him.
The gas also blocked his aura. He attempted to push his aura''s boundaries or do something against the mist where his aura touched it, but nothing happened. Any attack just disappeared.
After a moment of shock, a C-rank prisoner yelled in panic, "Open the door! You can''t stop it! Open the door! Get some help!"
Shen ignored him. There was no reason to believe a B-rank could stop it, either. The vault''s inner protections were A-tier, meaning at least an A-rank was needed to counter it. Long Hei was the only A-rank in Samir, as far as Shen knew. If the dragon hadn''t come when Shen reported the Void experiment, he was either occupied or didn''t care. How many Guardians would be consumed by the mist if it escaped?
Liya had told Shen not to throw his life away for the Alliance, but he couldn''t condemn countless others just to save himself. And that was assuming he could even leave. Other than stating his authority and hoping the door''s enchantments would automatically open, there was nothing he could do.
Then again, there was a catch. The Void Energy inside the caldron had been just Void Energy when the door was open. Maybe the mist could only exist in a sealed area?
"Will opening the door make the mist retreat?" he asked.
"Yes!" the same C-rank replied.
"No," a D-rank countered.
"Yes!" a few shouted in despair.
"No!" others insisted.
"They are possessed by the Void!" the advocators of opening the door accused.
Shen allowed the discussion to continue for a few moments. The people who wanted him to open the door were desperate, and the opposition was apathetic. Both parties seemed to believe in what they said, which complicated things. He could feel nothing wrong with anyone, so maybe the Void did have spies among the fugitives. The question was: which side was assisting the Void?
He raised his hand for silence and asked, "What does the mist do when it touches you?"
Everyone tried talking simultaneously, and although he could pick separate sentences, it would be counterproductive. He needed to see both who spoke and how their words affected others. He raised his hand again and pointed at the first C-rank. "You first."
"It consumes our Path," the high elf informed. "It sucks on our Laws and hijacks our Paths'' connections to Reality. Then it keeps on sucking. But it can''t touch all Reality. I think it''s because it acts based on instinct and would absorb too much and explode. When the door opens, it hides in the caldron and changes back into whatever it originally was."
Shen nodded and turned to the first naysayer. "Your turn."
The guy shook his head. "I lose connection with my Path when the fog touches me. It''s painful, but I remain conscious. I saw the door open plenty of times without the fog retreating. The one who put us here always used a shining statue of a turtle to push the fig back from the door. Without the statue, the fog might spill out of this place. Where are we?"
"He''s lying!" he C-rank yelled. He was growing frantic in his chains. "Liar! Traitor! Traitor!"
Shen still couldn''t discern any lie. The mist could have caused illusions, too. But something was strange in the D-rank''s report.
"This place''s protective enchantments don''t work on the door area when it''s open?" Shen asked. That was too stupid a design flaw to believe for a vault meant to hold Void artifacts.
The Sergeant shrugged. "The statue acts before the mist can get close to the door. I''m only saying it as I see it."
The gas was now halfway to Shen. He frowned and decided on a simple test. "Everyone, when I snap my fingers, I want everyone to tell me who put you here. Do it at the same time." He raised his hand and snapped it.
Whoever said a name stated a different one. Most said they didn''t know who captured them.
It was evident that he couldn''t trust anyone''s report. The fog affected their perception. That also explained why the system, which was still connected to and even healing them, didn''t seem to care about the Void thing. It should be unable to detect the gas, and when the Void Energy was in the caldron, it should believe the Energy was contained. Moreover, it likely could analyze these people''s minds and determine it couldn''t trust their reports.
The very fact that the system was there was already strange. Shen had been told by his people that the system was blocked in this vault, and a B-rank had stopped them from opening the door. Had he been lied to by his subordinates? Or had things changed with the Void Tide?
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Whatever the case, there were three things he could attempt¡ªbut only after preparing.
Shen hadn''t taken his spear out when running from a possible B-rank because he didn''t want to appear aggressive, but the situation had passed that point. He took three spears from his ring. He held one and left two floating nearby. Who knew whether the trap would lock space?
He then repeated the measures he had used outside. He surrounded himself with water jets and took control of everything in the room with his Laws. For now, he wouldn''t touch the mist with them because interacting with the Void was not wise.
His first attempt would be a series of reports, starting with, "I want to report I was kidnapped and placed in this vault against my will by a B-rank who saved Bounty target Lieutenant Specialist Aimer Genmenor."
There was no response. So, while some of the system''s functions worked in the safe, some were blocked. With this new piece of evidence, Shen suspected that it was by design. The Alliance didn''t want people in a place with Void artifacts to send messages because who knows whether they had been contaminated somehow? Not to mention, the mere existence of this caldron should be confidential.
The second thing he tried was to use a different function. "I''m deployed and have the right to teleport everywhere for free. Teleport me to Samir-1."
Nothing happened. He had expected teleportation not to work after the previous failure, but he still had to try.
Finally, the last attempt was a simple report directly to the system, "Void attack! The Void Energy has morphed and is attacking me!"
A report of a Void attack was the system subfunction with the highest priority Shen could access. False reports were crimes of a tall order, often punished by being thrown at a rift for thousands of years. In the military, it was an even worse offense.
Yet, there was still no response. The system would heal him if he got injured and send qi or mana to those who used it, but that was it. He also tried¡ªand failed¡ªeven to open system windows.
That also matched the Recognition Interface not being around. It had worked when he opened the door, though.
Those tests made him decide to try to open the safe''s door. Reporting what was happening here and how the system''s rules were being used against the Alliance was more important than the lives that might be lost if the mist escaped. It might be the hint those above him needed to find similar schemes elsewhere.
Opening the door was such an obvious move that it might be a trap. It made Shen distrust the C-rank and the forty people supporting him. But it was still safer than interacting with the strange mist to see what it did.
"I''m First Lieutenant Shen, and I have the authority to check this safe''s contents," he declared to the massive door. "I have already checked. I want to leave."
Shen felt mana leaving the door''s enchantments¡ªand stopping. Something was blocking the enchantments from confirming his identity and clearance.
That happened three times, and then a failsafe was activated. Red and golden hidden runes appeared on the vault''s metal walls, shining sinisterly in the darkness. An invisible layer of mana rose from the walls, floor, and ceiling, pushing everything in the way. Each mana layer was so heavily concentrated that it could rival the power of a domain¡ªor even triumph over it. There was so much mana burning in that safe that Shen couldn''t wrap his mind around it.
The mana layer became one foot thick. The fugitives'' chains, which had been magically connected to the walls, fell to the ground. They were relatively free now, though whoever had imprisoned them knew about this safe''s function, as shown by how each manacle was also chained to each other. They were freed from the wall, but their movements were still limited.
The new barriers didn''t hurt on touch, but they did something even worse: they cut the remaining system functions in that place. Not a single bit of qi or mana could be recovered. No health point could be regenerated. They were completely shut off.
"It worked," the C-rank said disbelievingly. "It really worked."
"Master was right," the opposing D-rank said. "His elite training made him predictable."
Suddenly, the chains in everyone''s hands and feet faded into nothingness. Shen felt Void Energy inside everyone for a split instant, and then, they all turned into moving black smoke. Void Spawn were made of black liquid, and these new beings were similar but not the same. Evidently, someone was researching a new life form.
These... Voided Guardians? They could talk, reason, and deceive. They could mimic Paths and pass up as Guardians. The thought that people Shen knew might be like them was terrifying. Then again, that this farce was still necessary suggested the research wasn''t perfected. He bet these creatures required unique circumstances to exist. Even if some were out there, they couldn''t be widespread.
Unless, of course, this was a ruse, just old research meant to lower the guard of the Alliance if they found it.
Still, the most troubling aspect was that his senses had been duped from the beginning. When he first saw the fugitives, he detected nothing wrong. He also hadn''t felt the bit of Void Energy inside them until they willingly revealed it. Nor had the system, it seemed. Based on that alone, the research was an outstanding success, suggesting it was meant to assist the Void, not the Alliance.
The silver lining was that Shen estimated that the vault''s mana barrier was stronger than B-tier, so, A-tier. That meant these Voided Guardians needed to cut the A-tier-priority subsystems in that place so as not to be detected. The system probably could catch them if it used enough resources for an A-tier check, and after the Void Tide was declared, all resources had been diverted to the front lines. Someone would counter the Voided Guardians'' camouflage soon enough. Fortunately, the civilian Alliance was safer because S-ranks and A-ranks were paying attention to their Calamity.
Or was it?
On the one hand, Shen felt Long Hei had to know about this, considering he had been preparing to spring a trap on the traitors in Samir. Him knowing meant other A-ranks knew, which meant S-ranks knew.
On the other hand, what if... What if the dragon had been blindsided¡ªor in on it? What if Martino''s warning had been a surprise? What if the Void wanted the system resources to be concentrated on the front lines to do something in the civilian Alliance, using these Voided Guardians?
Countless snowballs of possibilities filled Shen''s thoughts for a few moments. Then, he shook his head. This was too big, and he was too small and weak to change anything. If he could think of these possibilities, so could people stronger and smarter than him.
It was the fate of the weak to depend on the strong sometimes, and this situation fit that.
The Alliance wasn''t the important thing here. Eventually, this safe should be reopened, and the truth would be found. The question was: would he survive until then?
Shen regretted not having tested the mist earlier because his enemies wouldn''t give him a chance now. The Voided Guardians shot at him. Nothing was more dangerous than a foe he knew nothing about, and both the attackers and the fog fitted that category.
He sighed and rushed against the closest Voided Guardian. Who knows? Maybe this would be fun.
351. A Strange Experience
Similar to what happened to the fog, Reality''s Laws and Shen''s aura couldn''t occupy the same space as the Voided Guardians. That meant his Aura-Material Suppression was useless here. Indeed, as he approached the first enemy, the water jets around him never pushed against his foe. The water ceased to exist right before touching them because, like C-rank Void Warriors, their existence rejected Laws, including the ones used to manifest the water. Likewise, Shen couldn''t form a continuous jet between himself and any creature because Reality couldn''t link with them.
He used his Aural Realm and was pleased when it partially worked, just like it did to Void Warriors. On the one hand, his aura overlapped with the creatures, forcing his Path''s Laws into occupying the same space as them. On the other hand, he felt no willpower striking against him, so he wasn''t suppressing his enemies. Furthermore, even inside his aura, they were still immune to anything he tried to do without using energy.
Shen didn''t know how his Path could superimpose with Void Warriors without killing them. He still needed to use Law-enhanced qi to damage C-rank Void Spawn. His Aura-Material Suppression still didn''t work, either. His Aural Realm was a mysterious ability.
The good news was that it would serve as a scouting tool. Any inch of space in which his Path''s Laws overlapped with a Voided Guardian felt unique and tainted, like having a weird taste in his mouth. His aura gave him a lot more precision in detecting his foes than the gaps they formed in his normal aura and Law senses.
The familiar results when using his abilities gave Shen confidence. He could fight them. Probably. As long as defeating them didn''t require mastered Laws.
What didn''t give him confidence was that the white fog also blocked his Aural Realm. He did not want to touch that thing. Even testing it with mind-disconnected qi projectiles would have to wait until he was done with the Voided Guardians and could take it slow¡ªunless he had no alternative.
The fog scared him; there was no other way to phrase it. The Voided Guardians felt similar to Void Spawn, albeit both less and more solid somehow. The fog felt like something that could consume Shen upon the slightest touch.
The one hundred and sixteen Voided Guardians had started as high elves, but they quickly changed after they became fog. When Shen approached, the one he attacked first stopped moving. Its legs grew thicker, and its entire upper body became sharp spikes that elongated quickly toward him.
His spear, filled with qi and his Path, touched his foe for the first time. There was no impact. The spearhead cut through the black smoke as if it were genuine smoke. The cut-off gas dissipated into nothingness.
Shen''s weapon kept going and cut other spikes. He was on high alert and watched closely what happened to each "limb" after his spear cut them. Unsurprisingly, his enemy used the most obvious trick any experienced fighter would expect in this situation.
Shen cut a spike, but not entirely; a tiny line was left untouched. The Voided Guardian made it look like it was dissipating, but as Shen approached, the gas retook a pointy shape and moved toward him faster than the other spikes.
So, Shen also used the most straightforward trick to deal with an enemy like that. He held his spear''s shaft with both hands and rotated it like a fan. The sharp spearhead wasn''t needed to destroy the spikes. Even before he reached his foe''s body, his attacks crossed the damage threshold that killed the creature.
As its body dissipated, however, an invisible sliver smaller than a nanometer shot toward the white mist. Shen wouldn''t have felt it without his Aural Realm. He brought his spear upon it, and the thing imploded.
Shen had never seen a Void Emissary but had learned about them. When one appeared, it consumed all nearby Void Spawn not linked to it, strengthened them, and respawned them as its Cohort. Shen had feared the caldron or its mist might have multiple special functions, including one like that. The fog felt thirsty, so it was expected to consume things¡ªand not only those coming from Reality.
If Voided Guardians could also respawn after being absorbed, this would be an impossible battle without his Aural Realm.
But Shen did have the Aural Realm. The moment he destroyed the escaping speck, the white mist throbbed like a heart, and a ripple spread throughout the vault. Even the mana layers surrounding the room shone brighter as if paying a high cost to resist that.
As soon as the ripple came into existence, Shen''s senses let him know there was more to it than the mere shaking of matter. It felt similar to how Sinaht had used his Wind to move faster than fast. It evidenced the mist did things that only those with mastered Laws should be capable of.
Shen could only defend himself and hope for the best. He surrounded himself with qi, water jets, and a hold over the Laws around him again. On top of that, a quick analysis of the ripple allowed him to detect precisely how it trembled, and he forced his True Self to shake at the directly opposite frequency.
The outcome was a strange experience. The frequency made his Law vision change. His mind expanded, and he saw something he couldn''t comprehend. The Law fragments in sight became impossibly "deeper," for lack of a better unit of measurement.
He avoided looking at himself to prevent confusion and self-doubt about his existence. Yet, the glimpse at the corner of his eyes showed his True Self was much "deeper" than the Voided Guardians. He was like an impossibly "long" cuboid, while they were thin squares. That should have implications he wasn''t remotely ready to start contemplating.
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Shen realized he was seeing through the "walls" of phasespace, into the fourth spatial dimension.
One of the walls, however, blocked his sight. Or rather, eight¡ªno, ten, no twenty¡ªinfinitely "deep" blue walls of pure mana surrounded everything. While the space in the vault was vastly more extensive than Shen could usually see, it was blocked in every direction, no matter how many dimensions were involved. The ripple was stopped whenever it reached any of those walls.
The weird part was that the caldron and the mist felt even "deeper" than the mana barriers. In fact, they superimposed in multiple places, yet Shen was still sure the mana was blocking the caldron and fog. That and the high number of walls suggested that he was seeing more than four spatial dimensions, but his mind could only make an effort at making sense of so many things¡ªif he could even call that "making sense" of it.
As the ripple moved, all Law fragments collapsed into themselves and ceased to be for a split instant before returning to existence. That worried Shen, but he could do nothing except what he had already done. The ripple bypassed his defenses, which looked as "thin" as the Voided Guardians, and came at him from a direction he couldn''t comprehend.
When it touched him, who was vibrating at an opposing frequency, it normalized his mind. Once more, he saw only the regular three-dimensional space around him.
Yet, the ripple''s "depth" wasn''t the only unique part of it. Phasespace wasn''t enough to explain how Sinaht could move faster than fast. The high elf hadn''t disappeared from standard space, so he hadn''t stepped "sideways" and then returned.
Something beyond Shen''s understanding struck against his True Self like a hammer smiting a stone. His mind froze from the impact. His True Self was stretched like a rubber ball, its limits tested. A little more, and his entire being would''ve shattered.
But he ultimately held.
Shen was sure that the soul of anyone without a mastered Law to counter that attack or a True Self to withstand it would''ve at least been heavily damaged. Even then, he wondered if C-ranks would know how to counter it. He doubted Sinaht did.
The most worrisome part was that the attack looked like a mere instinctive "scream" of anger or a backhanded slap at someone who dared to act against the fog. It should be much more potent than that. Shen became even more resolute about not touching the thing until he killed the Voided Guardians.
Speaking of them, the ripple froze them in place just like it had done for Shen, but longer. That was a rare respite for him; his True Self was really a wonder. He swiftly started killing the ones nearby, getting rid of seven before they broke from their daze.
Those seven creatures'' final sliver of existence also remained frozen when they died. Shen destroyed them, too. The mist throbbed for each of them but didn''t "scream" again. It had learned that it would only help Shen.
However, the fog''s expansion speed doubled. It came at a cost; dozens of tiny cracks started appearing every instant in the cauldron. Unfortunately, quick math told Shen that over half the object would still be in a perfect state when the mist filled the entire room.
The other one hundred and eight creatures resumed their rush against Shen. He noticed with interest that the ones on the opposite side of the room avoided the fog, too. Returning to it would probably at least temporarily unmake them, as Void Emissaries did to Void Spawn. The Voided Guardians had enough self-awareness not to want to do it until after they were defeated and needed a way to survive.
Some creatures were growing larger, and others smaller. The next one Shen faced turned its arms into a sword and shield. It was unwieldy, but unlike the spikes, the shield held against a direct attack. A three-inch hole appeared in it, but Shen''s spear was stopped.
Shen could try multiple workarounds, but many cost too much qi. He had enough to kill the Voided Guardians if most of them worked, but he still worried about the mist. He would rather keep some energy in reserve.
So, he went with the simplest way to bypass that defense: he sidestepped the creature and struck its back. It wasn''t fast enough to follow him and soft in the back. His spear pierced deep, and he widened the hole with rotating qi. His enemy died, and he quickly destroyed the escaping sliver.
The fog pulsated, and the next Voided Guardian was upon Shen.
These creatures were like Void Spawn that had just stepped into Reality. They were growing and learning. That was excellent news; it gave the Alliance some time to react after a Voided Guardian revealed itself by morphing.
Shen killed twenty before they started presenting a challenge. Their speed increased gradually, eventually reaching between C and C+ agility. Their entire bodies also hardened, surpassing C+ resistance. They likely had to prioritize their growth direction and had chosen a more robust defense.
Yet, the uniform stat growth between individuals was unlike that of Void Spawn. Every single Voided Guardian became as resistant and quick as the other. Unfortunately, they shared Void Spawn''s learning ability; everyone was learning together how to be a better fighter.
Shen''s elite combat training and experience were enough to let his spear continuously pierce and kill over half the creatures. Eventually, however, only thirty-six remained, and they didn''t die as easily.
Every Voided Guardian was now as fast and resistant as a peak C-rank. They weren''t as strong as Sinaht, but close enough. They had grown into specialized groups of three, and each group covered for the other. A group had better defenses, another better attacks, yet another had tentacles to hinder Shen''s movement, and so on. Shen was surrounded, two creatures from each group constantly attacking him while the third waited in reserve. If needed, an injured creature swapped places with the replacement.
That had been way too fast. Void Spawn took longer to learn to fight so well. Shen''s previous joy at Voided Guardians not keeping their Guardian knowledge when they turned was crushed.
What were these things'' limits? Could they learn more? Could they eventually learn how to use Reality itself against its dwellers?
Impossible, right?
Right?!
Just as Shen thought it, one of the goblin-sized creatures, wielding two daggers of black fog, shone brightly. The Laws of Light around it twisted and bent. That felt absolutely evil to Shen, even worse than Void Energy. That should not happen. Ever.
An instant later, the creature exploded.
Shen didn''t even have the time to feel relief at the failure before all of them twisted some of the Laws of Reality surrounding them. The damn things bypassed his Aural Realm, too; there was no willpower involved in what they were doing. At least none that Reality could identify and force to face Shen.
Most of them exploded soon after.
Nine of them didn''t.
Shen suddenly found himself facing Void creatures that could wield the power of Laws.
352. Boundaries
One Voided Guardian had long become a literal needle, a form Shen had never encountered among Void Spawn. It was one inch long and, now, surrounded by the Axioms of Lightning. Shen still couldn''t understand how it could control a Law without a will opposing his Aural Realm, but he could only deal with it.
Its Laws made it as fast as, well, lightning, forcing Shen to pay even more attention to the enemies surrounding him. But it had gained more than mere speed. Shen recognized traces of his Law of Conductivity in it. It moved through the Path of least resistance now and then. And when his spearhead struck against it, there was a powerful explosion, as if a humongous electrical discharge happened in a split second.
The discharge also pushed Shen''s weapon away. The resulting shockwave damaged the tiny Voided Guardian''s tip but didn''t kill it. It retreated to let the others take its place in attacking Shen.
Another creature was a long, thin snake. Shen had been fighting a mass of tentacles moments ago, and while they annoyed him with strikes from everywhere trying to constrict his movements, they were easier to deal with than this variant. The snake had all strength, speed, and resistance concentrated on its head. And now, it harnessed the power of the Axioms of the Mace.
When Shen''s spear hit it head-on, his spearhead shattered. The snake kept coming. Shen dodged, took one of his two floating spears from the air, and swung it at the creature''s body. His spearhead was deflected as if plastic hitting metal. The power and techniques he had been using until now were no longer enough to deal with the creatures.
What he felt in that second attack made no sense. It was as if the Laws of the Mace were inside the Voided Guardian. That should be impossible. How could that creature repel Laws yet be them?
Then again, the Void was known for loving paradoxes.
Shen stepped back from the snake for now and faced his third enemy, one of the goblins with daggers. Maybe fearing the Axioms of Light that had killed the other goblin, this one used Darkness. Without Shen''s Aural Realm, he would be incapable of locating it. Even with that advantage, he saw his spear suddenly miss the creature. The Voided Guardian had just teleported a few inches to the side.
Well, not actually teleported. Its movement was so eccentric that Shen couldn''t follow it. It had been in two places at once, yet not; Shen had seen two things, yet his mind only accepted one.
It was achievable only with a B-tier technique, and that raised alarms for Shen; that creature couldn''t be allowed to progress further.
He invested a tenth of his qi into his fastest attack. His energy moved according to the universe''s secrets in a simple yet effective military technique that could only be used against the Alliace''s enemies. That alone pushed his swing into a speed he couldn''t achieve any other way, and then, Conductivity, Extremity, and True Boundlessness added to it.
His arm''s bones cracked, and its muscles were almost torn apart. His spear moved in a wide arc. The spearhead found three false shadows before hitting the true enemy, which Shen couldn''t even see, only feel with his Aural Realm.
He immediately focused on the edge of his weapon''s blade to become impossibly sharp and was rewarded for it. It found solid resistance, but it was cut apart. The enemy still resisted his attack, but not enough.
Once the spear was inside his foe, Shen shook and twisted it. He cut diagonally in one way, then another. He also burned more qi to enlarge the attack inside the creature.
It blew up into smoke, and he swiftly killed the escaping sliver.
15% of his qi was gone just like that. On top of the 5% he had used until now, 80% remained for another eight enemies.
Killing the snake forced him into a dangerous place. A Voided Guardian was behind him.
It was a weird one, shaped like a limbless turtle that moved vertically. Usually, it defended others and bumped against Shen to force him out of position. However, it now harnessed the power of the Axioms of Space and was the first to use a Law outside its body.
Space was locked around Shen. He couldn''t move. Impossibly, that ability had ignored his own control over all Laws around him. It overlapped with his Laws, dismissing his claim of superiority in the area. He couldn''t even feel it with his Law senses; only his Aural Realm let him barely feel the Laws of Space barely touching the edges of aura.
Perhaps that was only possible because he was dealing with the Axioms of Space. Its Laws occupied a place that he had never felt before. The Laws of Space superimposed on his in a kind of "deeper" space that felt similar to the fourth dimension he had seen when opposing the ripple but was not quite there yet.
The best way to describe it was like a drawing on paper. Adding any kind of weight to a two-dimensional drawing meant reaching three dimensions. Therefore, the drawing''s ink''s "height," as insignificant as it might be, was theoretically not part of the two dimensions in the picture. Yet, that was precisely what the Voided Guardian was doing. It used a theoretically inexistent "depth" in the third dimension to force two different things to occupy the same three-dimensional space simultaneously¡ªwithout reaching a fourth dimension.
At least Shen''s Aural Realm let him barely feel the Laws of Space on top of his own. Feeling them allowed him to target them. He willed that place to become his, too. His Laws filled it, and his willpower forced itself on the region, demanding ownership and expelling any foreign influence.
For the first time in his life, Shen''s willpower faced a Void creature''s will¡ªand he lost miserably.
There was not even a fight. When Shen faced the Voided Guardian''s willpower, he wasn''t actually facing it. He wasn''t even facing the scary fog.
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He was facing the Void Overmind.
Whenever two opposing will-controlled Laws competed for the same space, it should only end with the weaker side losing and suffering a mental rebound. That was not what happened. For a split instant, Shen''s vision was filled with utter nothingness, an all-encompassing, desolate lack of everything. His heart stopped beating in terror, and his mind almost popped like a balloon.
Then, Reality descended.
The Void Overmind existed at the edges of Reality. It had no place so deep into a Node. The mana barrier might be keeping the system at bay; the Void Spawn might be beyond the reach of Reality''s Laws, making Shen''s Aura-Material Suppression useless; but this was about Will.
Axioms existed somewhere between Reality''s Aspects and Expressions; it was acceptable for Axioms not to locate existences that repelled them, like C-tier Void Warriors. The Aspect of Will, however, was a higher piece of the puzzle that made everything. Every individual''s Will was linked to Reality''s overarching Will to exist. And when Shen''s tiny Will faced the Void Overmind, the Will of Reality itself located the Void Overmind deep into its domain.
Shen wasn''t sure what happened next. His mind couldn''t comprehend or register it. He only knew that one moment he was staring at the Void and about to die as his mind and True Self would explode from the pressure. The next moment, he was back in the vault, and the turtle was gone.
He knew a mere instant had passed because everything was as it had been a moment ago, with the Voided Guardians and fog still moving in his direction. Yet, the creature hadn''t faded into smoke or left a sliver of existence behind to escape; it had disappeared. The fog didn''t throb in anger at its destruction. Shen felt no lingering pain or consequence of almost being crushed like an ant.
Hells, Shen couldn''t even locate any sign of the Voided Guardian ever existing.
It was almost like it had been an illusion, but he believed Reality had just erased the thing from history. That creature had never been or would ever be. Reality didn''t seem to care about Void Spawn, Void Energy, the fog, or the Voided Guardians, but it wouldn''t allow that thing to have ever tainted it.
Could Reality do that at any time? If so, why didn''t it? Was direct intervention costly, so Reality was unwilling to pay unless something crossed its bottom line?
What were even the constraints to Reality''s actions? Did it need to spend energy? Energy was just the Expression of Space and Will; Reality would certainly not be limited by it, right?
Whatever the case, those were things to consider later.
Even if the turtle had been an illusion, the Void had shown more than it should. It had revealed to Shen that his three-dimensional existence had a little more depth than he had ever imagined. After feeling that place once, he could still locate it and, more importantly, adapt his Aural Realm to also cover it.
It came as noo surprise when his willpower-fueled aura only went so far before stopping. He reached the limits of three-dimensional space and lacked the strength to push further.
Now that he felt everything with his Path, he understood his paper and ink example was both right and wrong. He was still kind of dealing with three dimensions but with a part of it usually beyond his perception. It was like a blurry edge right before the fourth dimension. His mind was three-dimensional and so limited to the "regular" three dimensions unless he knew where to look. He suspected that only people with the Axioms of Space in their Path would ever feel there was a boundary just there, at least before mastering a Law.
Yes, mastering a Law. That, he realized, was the "big trick" one could understand after mastering a Law. The trick that became so easy after reaching B-rank and having your mind expanded.
B-ranks bypassed one''s soul defense because they attacked souls sideways, from the boundaries of the fourth spatial dimension.
It was like someone drawing a square on a piece of paper and believing themselves safe from attack from all directions. Then, an enemy came from the three-dimensional world and ignored the square''s boundaries, attacking it straight in the middle.
When he had been seeing the four dimensions, Shen''s True Self had looked "deeper" than the Voided Guardians. Yet, he wasn''t exempt from attacks bypassing his soul defenses. His True Self also didn''t occupy that blurry boundary. It was still three-dimensional and susceptible to attacks from beyond.
Merely knowing the border existed wasn''t enough for just anyone to even feel it. Not at C-rank. Shen was confident that mastering a Law connected one with it in an intrinsic manner. Laws were not limited to the three dimensions, and so, a Guardian who mastered a Law "unlocked" the ability to locate the boundary. They only needed to try to feel their Law beyond its three-dimensional existence. It should be easy for anyone who didn''t let preconceptions limit their perspective.
Then again, such preconceived notions should be very hard to ignore after one was as far into their Path as the peak of C-rank. Reaching B-rank likely made it so undeniable that only a few would keep ignoring it for a while.
Neither the Voided Guardian nor Shen had located the boundary the usual way. The turtle had accomplished it because of the Axioms of Space. Shen had cheated with his Aural Realm.
His Aural Realm only existed because he had an aura, his aura was stronger than average, he had developed a domain and understood some things about it, and he had enough willpower thanks to his True Self. It was an ability beyond most C-rank Guardians. His passive Law sense alone couldn''t detect how he had been locked in space. He, and any other C-rank without mastered Laws, wouldn''t have felt the superimposed Laws. Thus, he would''ve assumed to be facing a B-rank Void Spawn that could ignore his soul defenses.
The scary part was that the turtle had ignored his soul defenses. Luckily, it had used it just to lock him in place. An attack would''ve been the end of him. It hadn''t attacked because it was used to its specialized function in group combat: defense and movement control. If any other of the Voided Guardians held the Axioms of Space instead...
Luck was part of walking a Path, but Shen had never felt as lucky as now.
And that''s when he realized something that made his eyes widen. His first-class talent wasn''t involved in saving him. His solid foundations had been what let him survive here.
Something was lacking in him. Something that he had always felt in a life-and-death situation but assumed to be his resoluteness pushing him forward. Something he had felt even in the Void Incubator, outside Reality. Something that he could only pinpoint because of his True Self and how impossible it was to find it missing there¡ªso impossible he hadn''t noticed it until now.
His talent was gone.
Looking back, he could specify the moment it had disappeared: when the mana barrier cut the system off.
Why? What had one''s talent to do with this place? Was talent removal or suppression a generic fail-safe when people came in contact with Void artifacts and their identity couldn''t be validated? Was it something unique to this artifact? It was the only thing in the vault, after all.
Regardless of the answer, it didn''t matter. For the first time in his life, Shen didn''t have a special cheat for life-threatening situations. It filled him with a mix of dread and elation.
This was on him. Only on him. All of him. He would survive or fail based on his own ability and no external assistance of any kind¡ªbeyond what he had received to become who he currently was.
Shen''s True Self beat once, like a heart that had just found life and purpose in existing as itself, by itself, for itself.
He had never felt so alive.
He smiled widely and attacked his next foe.
353. Assistance
Knowing the trick around souls didn''t matter against Void Spawn, which rejected Laws regardless of where they came from. Regrettably, Voided Guardians were no different.
Shen had killed the goblin, and Reality had erased the turtle from existence. The dart was still recovering, and the snake was coming at him. That left five other enemies, and two of them simultaneously attacked from afar.
One of them was a massive raven. Even before the Law attacks, it was too big to move in the vault and remained perched on a corner, throwing sharp feathers from its massive wings against Shen. Long-range attack was a rare ability among Void creatures but not unheard of.
Now, the black smoke feathers moved astoundingly faster than before, surrounded by the Axioms of Wind. The Laws of Wind removed the air resistance ahead and propelled the feather from behind.
The other creature was a formless mass of black fog the size of Shen''s fist. It usually moved around him, waiting for an opportunity to strike. It had yet to attack from afar, but it now threw projectiles made of the Laws of Light at him.
Sadly for them, as soon as the Laws left their bodies, they ceased to be. Shen had Law Superiority in the room. It didn''t work immediately around the Voided Guardians because their Voided existence still had a repulsion effect there, but anywhere else was fair game.
Supposedly, their Laws should face Shen''s for supremacy over the same region¡ªwithout a willpower battle¡ªbut he didn''t meet the Void Overmind again. He was both glad and disappointed at that; obviously, he didn''t want to risk death, but having Reality dispose of Voided Guardians for him would be very convenient.
His own Path always triumphed against the Voided Guardians'' Laws, so he suffered no rebound, but his willpower was spent little by little at every Law-fueled creation that left his enemies and disappeared when touching his Laws. That was new¡ªand worrying. Not every C-rank had as much willpower as him. These Voided Guardians, after becoming capable of wielding Laws, could become terrifying foes in large numbers.
Shen had yet another critical report to make.
Regardless, he still had to deal with the raven''s feathers. Fortunately, the pieces of the Voided Guardian that left its main body lacked its Axiom, so they were only as fast as before. He could dodge and deflect them.
While those two failed to damage him, the snake and two other creatures were attempting close combat. Shen still avoided the snake because he wished to prioritize his qi expenditure on the right foes. He ended up facing a three-legged creature with seven arms.
Each arm could grow longer or shorter at a moment''s notice, wielding a complex web of strings. It and its web, which was part of its body, contained the Axioms of the Whip. Evidently, there was a pattern to which Axioms each Voided Guardian reached for. It might not perfectly match them, but it was never too different from the core of their purpose.
The creature immediately tried to surround Shen with its web. Its seven arms stretched above him, and its strings were pushed down. He swung his spear at the web, but the Laws of the Whip added elasticity to it. His spearhead''s Extremity, which was supposedly absurdly sharp and capable of finding the path of least resistance, harmlessly rebounded from the string as if it was made of rubber.
That was a huge problem. It was understandable for the Axioms of the Mace to resist his spear, but the Whip?
That alone was enough for Shen to change his approach. Testing every Voided Guardian to decide which to kill first made no sense. The damn creatures were growing too fast. By the time he determined which was the most dangerous, even the weakest one might have already surpassed it.
He had to go all out and kill every Voided Guardian before they mastered their damn Laws.
The next victim would be the one trying to capture him. He activated the same technique he had used against the goblin. One word defined it: arm speed. He then used another method to push his spearhead''s blades into the materialization of another idea: sharpness. His Path and qi compressed the blade from the outside, and his Extremity and True Boundlessness pushed into an infinitesimally thin blade from the inside. It moved with perfect Conductivity into the closest web thread and cut through¡ªbut with some resistance.
Shen didn''t stop. He used another technique for leg speed and rushed to the creature''s side. Countless swings cut its body into pieces and then finished its escaping sliver.
He continued. The snake was coming at him, and he cut it down from head to tail. He destroyed the sliver and moved on. The shapeless blob was coming at him after failing its long-range attack and was the next victim, swiftly followed by the giant bird. Even now, it still rained feathers on him, and dodging and deflecting them was a needless distraction.
Three remained: the dart and the two he had yet to face. As for his qi, he had less than thirty percent. The math was clear: he would fail to kill all creatures before running out of energy.
Shen tried to reach the dart because it was already injured, but unlike the others, it was running from him. Another Voided Guardian intercepted him, a human-sized bear.
It wielded the Axioms of Earth yet was still almost as fast as Shen at his peak movement speed. The Voided Guardians stats also hadn''t stopped improving. They were now past the C-rank threshold, headed into B- territory.
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Shen''s spear struck against the bear''s descending paw and pierced only a few inches before stopping. His saving grace was that although its movement speed was fast, it had something to do with touching the ground¡ªthe Earth, so to speak. Individually, its limbs were slower. So, he swung his spear against its paw and body until it, too, faded.
No other Void Spawn intercepted him before he finally struck the needle down.
At long last, only one enemy remained, but Shen had less than five percent of qi to deal with it.
The final Voided Guardian maintained the form of a high elf. It had stood still throughout the battle, watching from the side, floating one step ahead of the encroaching white mist.
It wielded the Axioms of Time.
Shen had never faced an enemy with a Law of Time in their Path. Time was an even rarer Axiom to comprehend than Space, but its uses were limited before mastering a Law. That Voided Guardian was the weakest of the bunch, though it had been left for last only because it remained as far from the battlefield as possible in the safe.
Shen didn''t have the qi or the body to reach the creature before he ran out. He was forced to deactivate his techniques and use another one percent of qi to heal himself. Only four percent remained.
He approached the Voided Guardian at peak non-qi-fueled speed. His stats and Path were enough to move at hypersonic levels. And yet, that wasn''t enough to prevent disaster.
Shen moved one step, and the creature gained an extra Law, Lightning. He moved another, and it gained Earth. It received the insights of each dead creature in the opposite order of their demise. Wind followed, then Light, Mace, Whip, and Darkness.
Shen took another three steps, and the Voided Guardian spoke. "Eight, not nine." It used Stangue, its speech sluggish, its voice deep but almost innocent like a child. "Wrong. Enough."
Then, it morphed. Until now, the Laws inside it hadn''t mixed with each other. Suddenly, every one of the eight Axioms interwove into something that could only be called a Path.
A Void creature had a Path with eight Axioms that could be used as any Law from those Axioms.
Shen immediately yelled that information. Even if he died, the Alliance had to become aware of that. He didn''t care about many people, but Alicia, Sai, Luthdel, and Liya were part of the Alliance. They would also suffer if these Voided Guardians walked freely¡ªespecially if they could grow even stronger.
"Voided Guardians made of black fog!" he shouted. "They can speak and reason! They can use Laws and form a Path!"
He went as far as using an entire percent of his qi so his screams could be as loud as possible. The mana walls didn''t seem to even acknowledge it, though. It made sense. They had risen after he tried to tell the vault he had the authority to leave. The mana barrier was also in place to prevent him from interfering with the safe''s enchantments. All sound was blocked.
Shen suddenly didn''t feel as glad about being cut from his talent. He had never felt so lonely before.
The creature wasn''t done speaking. "Assistance," it demanded, and the world heeded its call.
Time reversed. The seven slivers Shen had destroyed returned to existence. Right after, time was twisted. Infinite possibilities came and went in a split instant until all slivers grew into perfect copies of the high elf. And Shen meant perfect. They all had the same Path with the same eight Axioms.
Reversing time cost ridiculous amounts of energy and willpower. Destilating possibilities was even more challenging. Only peak B-ranks would have enough resources to accomplish what that Voided Guardian had just done. The Void was really cheating with those creatures that could use Laws without being beholden to the rules everyone else had to obey.
Shen couldn''t feel the Laws of Time superimpose on his aura as it affected space under his control. He was surprised but not shocked. In hindsight, it was obvious that if one could move sideways through space to ignore spatial constraints, so could one move in a unique way through time to bypass some limitations.
There were only two issues with his inability to feel it. First, he couldn''t try to fight it and have Reality kill that creature for him. Second, he feared the trick could bypass his innate soul defense. He guessed he would find out in this fight.
He was still running toward the Voided Guardian. He was only a dozen yards away from it and wanted to attempt to use his last three percent of qi to attack it.
Yet, the Voided Guardian was still not done. "Mana," it said, and mana came to exist in the room.
There was so much that it almost drowned Shen''s senses. He now had to focus on pinpointing the creatures'' location. Fighting like that would be a mess.
More importantly, such control over an Expression of Reality was unimaginable! It had created Energy at will! That, more than anything, was terrifying!
Still, he hoped. Would it also create qi out of nothing? That would be convenient.
It didn''t. Instead, it said, "No. Energy benefits Reality. We consume." It raised its hand and closed it in a fist. "Entropy."
The mana barrier shook violently and shone brightly. It felt weaker but held. Shen''s aura didn''t. It ceased to be because no Law or Concept existed around him any longer. The recently created mana also disappeared.
There was no air, no up or down. His Law sense and Law vision detected nothing beyond the Laws inside himself and his items. Even the caldron kept existing in a way devoid of energy and Law, yet still not Void.
He was in a world with only the Aspects of Space, Time, and Will, and the Expressions of Change, Energy, and Sapience. Nothing else was allowed, especially Axioms, and even the Energy outside physical objects was unmade. The caldron had allowed itself to be changed.
Entropy tried to destroy Shen''s very existence. His True Self trembled but ultimately continued existing, and so did his equipment. The creature wasn''t strong enough to unmake anything anchored in physical matter.
Yet, it was still not done. "Mix. Uniqueness."
Once again, countless possibilities in the river of Time were explored in a split instant. The creatures'' Paths were reorganized. Each one ended up with a single core Axiom, each different from the others, and the others became secondary.
Finally, at long last, the first creature pointed at Shen and declared, "Death."
That''s when Shen laughed.
He was in a space devoid of "environmental" Laws of Reality. In other words, nothing could corrupt his soul if he injured it.
It had been a long time since he last used a domain, and he was dying to know how much better being C-rank and having his willpower would make it. Three percent of his max qi meant he couldn''t push his domain outside his body, but he didn''t think he could do that even if he wanted, anyway. The Voided Guardian''s entropy would likely consume everything. That much qi was enough to cover his body and spear. That would suffice.
Shen willed it, and his Domain of Infinite Improvement came to bear for the first time, filling his entire True Self with Absolute Power and pushing his Limits with True Boundlessness on steroids.
354. Surrounded by Nothingness
Liya had limited how much information she shared with Shen about domains. She had been constrained by military rules on what she could reveal. As she had stated, a domain was technically a Path pushed out of your body with Energy, but it was also much more.
A domain was a Path condensed into a single-minded desire, driven by emotions and willpower, then fueled with Energy to affect Reality. Shen''s will was absolute inside his domain¡ªunless opposed by something strong enough.
Now, he decreed himself to embody Infinite Improvement, and it became his new Reality.
Part of his Improvement happened instantly. Power flooded his body and flowed through his veins. All his yet-unattained potential was achieved.
Every single part of Shen was pushed to his unrealized limits.
Shaft directly boosted his resistance stat, and Extremity pushed Shen''s agility. Both crossed the C- threshold and made strides in the C level, stopping midway to C+. No Law directly acted on his strength, which also improved, but less than the others. It stopped shortly after reaching C.
Still, regardless of the stat, he instantly acclimatized to them. His mind was part of the whole with his True Self, but without his domain, there would be some tests involved. Instead, he could immediately use the full power of his stats.
Extremity wasn''t only involved in his agility boost. It pushed everything to its extreme. If domains had a core Law, Extremity would be his, even more than True Boundlessness. The latter was the lack of boundaries, while Extremity acknowledged limits but sought for them to be the most extreme representation possible.
That wasn''t to say True Boundlessness didn''t help. It had been critical in the establishment of the domain. However, in the domain itself, it was more effective in loosening boundaries. It allowed him to push further than without it.
Killing Weapon aimed to turn Shen into the perfect killing machine. Its most significant impact was on his intellect. He instinctively analyzed his previous clashes, determined optimal attacks¡ªalso assisted by Conductivity¡ªand improved his killing techniques to fit his situation and his stats.
Gentle Breeze assisted in subtly evolving everything so the improvements could happen together without bumps. The Law was crucial in a way it had never been before. His Laws wanted different things, like Extremity wanting everything to immediately reach its peak and Shaft desiring permanence and hindering his growth. Gentle Breeze acted as a bridge, a calming influence, a glue that maintained union, ensuring everyone moved together. Without it, Shen would need to use qi to keep his True Self from immediately shattering from the diametrically opposing influences, and he had no energy to spare.
His last Law, Stream, brought the idea of continuity. Shen would keep improving. As long as his domain was in place, it wouldn''t stop.
That''s also where his Will of Absolute Power and his True Boundlessness came into play as one of the three cornerstones of his True Self. His Truth of Limits had to be pushed, and both worked together under the influence of his domain. Still, his domain, especially Shaft and Gentle Breeze, ensured the clash wasn''t damaging to him. His limits were pushed to the Extreme, not destroyed or made to cease to be.
Shen had never felt his Path was as perfect as he did now.
His every Law was involved in his domain. His goal of Improvement was the overarching drive behind every boost. Everything worked together to accomplish it and not cause any damage.
Still, Shen''s goal was Infinite Improvement.
He had just received a significant boost to his power, but the continued improvement henceforth was what made it an actual domain rather than a random self-boosting technique. Shen''s domain, his control over the part of Reality that was himself, conformed to his goal, regardless of what the Axiom of Reality regulating existence might desire.
Only his Laws limited his growth. Without greater mastery of them, his domain couldn''t push him further. And so, his mastery started to improve.
It was painfully slow yet astoundingly fast. Every second meant a three percent increase in how much he had mastered each of his seven Laws.
It was bizarre. Shen was not connected with Reality as he usually needed to be to improve his understanding. Yet, he progressively started knowing more about his every Law, tiny little bits here and there that swiftly added up.
Some things he suddenly knew were contrary to his guesses about his Laws. That made his domain a cheat. There was no other way to describe it.
Paradoxically, it was also an enormous danger. Mastering a Law was one of the easiest ways to improve one''s willpower. Waiting, deciding when and how much to push, dealing with one''s weakness in certain situations, and feeling the weight of the encroaching end of one''s lifespan was a process that helped even Shen. Forgoing that would be worse for him in the long run.
Deploying his domain before he mastered all his Laws was the same as sacrificing his potential growth for immediate power. The longer he kept it, the more it would cripple his future. In fact, if he mastered his Laws like that, he doubted he would have the willpower to break through in his cultivation. Ultimately, it would slow him down instead of helping.
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Shen laughed at that. He risked his future because his Domain of Infinite Improvement was too good. He was paying the price of his own hubris.
As his Laws improved, so did his stats and insights about killing enemies¡ªand so did the pressure on his soul.
The most significant revelation of this moment was that the military had lied to him. He could use his domain before reaching peak C-rank stats. The domain impacted his soul like a bomb that never stopped exploding. Yet, his True Self withstood it. He guessed it was a matter of clearance; his True Self wasn''t part of the curriculum of elite combat training or domain secrets. Shen had no way of safely testing his limits and was forced to believe what others told him.
Then again, his soul was still too weak. His True Self, the whole that also contained his soul, was trembling violently. The weight and pressure were unimaginable. Shen estimated he had five seconds before it cracked and half a minute before it shattered beyond repair.
That, too, was ironic. The domain that kept his True Self whole threatened to destroy it.
Outside him, the world was a vacuum of everything. It had no atoms in the air for sound to propagate, and the Voided Guardian had been floating above the ground when it spoke, so Shen shouldn''t be able to hear anything. The same held true for its visibility. The Void creatures released no light, and in the absence of all Laws, the night vision that the Alliance had provided its Guardians didn''t work.
Yet, the Voided Guardians'' words weren''t mere sound. They were a statement of the Void upon that enclosed section of Reality. All would hear its declaration, for it willed it so. Likewise, the Voided Guardian desired that Shen see it pointing at him as it declared his death, and Reality, for some reason, bowed to its will.
Both things evidenced that the thing''s ego was growing. It desired to be heard and seen, for its foe to cower in fear. Point in case, the next moment, Shen no longer saw or heard anything, which would cause a weak-willed individual to panic. All of Shen''s senses were muted, and his aura was locked into his body. He was surrounded by nothingness. Not the Void, which was devoid of even Time and Space, but the absence of all matter and Laws. The only exception was the ground he felt under his feet, the mana barrier, but even that, he could only feel physically. His mana sense no longer perceived anything.
Nevertheless, he never stopped smiling; his Domain of Infinite Improvement felt too marvelous.
His most significant issue was lacking any way to detect his enemies. He had enough qi to surround himself with it, but as he expected, the moment he pushed a single particle out of his body, entropy tried to make it disappear. All things ended; time was the ultimate destroyer. Energy was the Expression of Space and Time, and just as it came to be, so could it fade away. The qi out of his body was subjected to millions of years in an instant. Shen used his will to resist it, but his willpower was expended at a breakneck pace¡ª
No, it didn''t.
Entropy attempted to consume his willpower, as the Laws wielded by the Voided Guardians did when clashing against his Aural Realm, but Shen''s domain resisted it. That''s when he understood, astonished, that this entropy was actually a domain! That even explained why the creature had an ego; without one, without emotions, it couldn''t deploy a domain.
Shen knew there was a meta-battlefield when domains interposed on each other, but he found none. Instead, his will ignored the Voided Guardian''s. The creature''s domain was more robust than the average Law but weaker than an actual domain. For instance, a domain should be able to ignore his soul defenses¡ª
Shen''s eyes widened. Another realization made him stupefied. The domain was not affecting his body. He suddenly didn''t think the reason was that it was a lesser form of a domain¡ªwhich it was. No, the answer was more preposterous.
The Space-wielding turtle he had killed had instantly mastered its Law. That''s why it had bypassed his soul and why everyone insisted that mastered Laws were needed for that. Merely knowing the trick would likely not be enough for Shen, though he was confident it would suffice to protect against attempts to bypass his soul defense.
This Time-wielding one, instead of mastering its Law, had instead instantly developed a domain. Both the Axioms of Time and Space were somehow connected to the very Aspects of Reality, and the creatures that touched on them had received special boosts.
That gave him a better chance to survive and rekindled his hope.
More importantly, finding a lesser type of domain gave him an idea. He was out of qi, but just like he had used his willpower to enhance his aura, so would he use willpower alone to wield his domain outside his body. Technically, that was impossible. Domains required Energy; his domain secrets'' clearance let him know that much. But what if he formed some in-between, like his Aural Realm?
His Aural Realm was a way of making his aura more of a domain. Now, he would turn his domain into more of an aura.
Shen connected his domain to his aura and sort of mixed both. He felt like only someone with an aura like his could accomplish it. Then, he pushed the resulting aura-domain-yet-none into the world with sheer willpower.
The room came to his senses.
Shen could feel every nook of it except the areas occupied by the caldron, the fog, and the Voided Guardians. His... Domain Realm? Aural Domain? Mixed Realm? True Self Realm?
His True Realm pushed his Path into the world like an aura. It wasn''t a full domain, so it didn''t counter the Domain of Entropy but interposed with it. Entropy did cause the Laws he forced into existence in that space to age and cease, but a Law was a rule, and Shen didn''t need to waste any Energy to "share" it from his Path with his surroundings. Still, he continuously felt the end of all things in his True Realm as he constantly refreshed it. It was one of the weirdest sensations ever.
Those advantages were significant, but Shen still had to deal with an enormous disadvantage: his lack of qi. He didn''t have the energy to use his best techniques. He supposed a domain tactic or another might work with his True Realm, but he could still only hope that the stat improvements, enhanced killing ability, and maybe those domain tricks would suffice.
In other circumstances, he might win if he kept the fight going. But these Voided Guardians also improved quickly, the fog was still expanding, and, more importantly, Shen only had five seconds before his True Self cracked. While he was currently in a place without Laws to infect his soul, the Domain of Entropy would cease with his foe''s demise.
Previously, he had considered the risk but wanted to perfectly time killing the Voided Guardian while deactivating his domain. Theoretically, his soul would heal quickly. He had been willing to take a gamble because it was the only way to survive a little longer. Now, though, there might be no need to, and he would do his best not to take the risk.
So, he had five seconds and no qi.
Shen felt his foes approaching in his True Realm.
It was time to see how big of a deal his Domain was.
? ?
355. Simple and Wrong
Shen''s True Realm fixed another issue on top of letting him sense his enemies: movement. In a place devoid of Laws, there was no propulsion, no gravity, nothing. His muscles worked, and he could move his limbs, but without Law or qi to push him through space, there was no force of physics to accomplish it.
Well, there was friction with the mana barrier on the ground. The barrier resisted the Domain of Entropy, and so did Shen''s martial arts slippers. But that wasn''t enough without gravity or momentum.
The Aspects of Space and Time alone would be enough to ensure two things couldn''t occupy the same space at the same time. Likewise, the Expression of Energy¡ªand thus, matter¡ªwas present there, even though every form of it met with its end through entropy. Shen''s spear would hurt his foes as it pierced them.
The critical part was that while the absence of the Axioms didn''t define how movement happened, movement did exist through the Expression of Change. Without it, everyone there would be incapable of moving.
Even then, how to accomplish it depended on Shen''s Path and will. He willed himself to move, and his True Realm pushed him toward the closest enemy.
Theoretically, he could move faster than light in this place, as no Laws of Light or any other were around to prevent that. Yet, Shen was his Path, and his Path contained Laws. Every Law was also its every Concept, including the ones that interacted with any absent Axioms. The speed of his spear, for instance, was irrelevant without the Axioms of Space and Time. And so, its speed was as it should be if those Axioms were there. His Path''s Laws couldn''t evolve into something new like the Laws of Reality itself just because the opposing Laws that formed their Concepts were missing. They limited themselves to what should be there.
Shen''s body was also his stats, which came with set expectations of how he interacted with Reality. He could only be as fast as his agility and techniques allowed.
His enemies were, however, the embodiment of the rejection of Energy. They had no actual mass, nothing akin to stats, no intrinsic expectation on how to interact with matter, or the lack thereof, beyond how much they repelled the constraints imposed on them. They weren''t bound to the same rules as Shen. Even their Path didn''t limit itself as his did because, of course, the Void wouldn''t play by the rules.
And yet, they didn''t teleport to him or kill him with a speed he couldn''t even begin to perceive. Everything from the moment Entropy was used happened instantaneously, yet there had been a tiny window of opportunity for the creature to teleport to him and attack him before he deployed his True Realm. A window the Voided Guardians didn''t take. The "leader''s" ego had allowed it to deploy a domain, but its arrogance¡ªor inexperience¡ªhad just saved Shen.
Now, he was no longer behold to its mercy.
His Path was upon the vault through his True Realm, and the very Laws the creatures wielded had to interact with his Laws, even if only superficially, as his True Realm couldn''t superimpose on them. The Laws they wielded also came from Reality. They shared Concepts, and thus, the creatures were limited. Shen''s True Realm indirectly pulled some laws of physics into the safe, thus making that battle possible.
Every Voided Guardian had a core Law in their Paths. Shen decided to identify them by their core Laws. The closest enemy was also the strongest and the one Shen wanted to kill the most: Voided Time.
The creatures were still evolving, and he didn''t want to deal with a Voided Guardian that had mastered a Law of Time. The damned creatures weren''t limited by using Energy or willpower to swing their Laws around, and that made them absurdly scary.
Shen was moving towards Voided Time but was intercepted by Voided Lightning and Voided Light.
That was a mistake.
Voided Lightning turned into its core element and rushed to stand before Shen. The lightning bolt was strangely made of black fog as its body but moved like electricity. Becoming a manifestation of an element made a Guardian vulnerable, and Shen doubted it would be different for the creature.
He swung his spear, which was too slow to cut the bolt¡ª
It was not too slow.
Shen was confused for a moment. He knew his attack should be slower than materialized Lightning¡ªbut simultaneously, he was sure he was sufficiently fast. He had C agility and limited qi, so almost everything he knew insisted he couldn''t cut the bolt¡ªbut a domain wasn''t omnipotent against anyone below B-rank for multiple reasons.
His was the Domain of Infinite Improvement. His techniques had been perfected to improve them in a way that made sense to him. Otherwise, if he died knowing expensive qi abilities he couldn''t use, it wouldn''t be a real improvement, would it?
Shen had no qi, and his domain¡ªhis Path, Laws, feelings, body, soul, True Self¡ªcould instinctively determine that his techniques should be improved to be more cost-effective. He had become a qi-less Killing Weapon.
A conservative estimate put his qi-less versions of his techniques at one-quarter the effectiveness of his qi-fueled ones. With his improved stats, he was faster than he had been with his best qi abilities.
That was incredible, as much of a cheat as automatically mastering his Laws. Sure, it did fit with his Will of Absolute Power and his True Boundlessness. Still, his Truth of Limits demanded its toll. The price he had to pay made him feel cheated instead.
His domain already robbed him of the opportunity to improve his willpower by mastering his Laws, and now, also by preventing him from experiencing the hard work to enhance skills. He knew how to use the techniques that had just popped into his mind, but not why they were that good. After he deactivated his domain, any understanding from checking his abilities wouldn''t improve his willpower because he was only studying something already done. He wouldn''t even have a sense of accomplishment in learning something new.
To make matters worse, he would be incapable of having insights that might push him in the wrong direction; he had already reached the final destination. That was not a good thing. His creativity and analytical skills would be crippled. It might even prevent him from understanding and seeing why his enemies did what they did.
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A single misstep, and he would grow dependent on his domain, too. Even now, part of him wondered why he cared about those issues. If he activated his domain at every opportunity, he would swiftly master his Laws. Then, he could keep it active forever, always growing stronger. Eventually, he would reach unlimited power. It was that simple.
Simple and wrong.
His most significant advantage was his willpower, and eventually, he would reach a point where individuals of the same level as him would have similar or higher willpower. That, of course, assuming his domain was as effective after he mastered his Laws as it was now, which he doubted. Even so, then what? A battle between domains required willpower. How did he hope to survive?
He argued he could always hone his willpower later if needed, but his mind could still tell him¡ªfor now¡ªthat he was only fooling himself into becoming a useless addict. Even thinking of a battle between domains was wishful thinking. Having a domain meant any tribulation would be much stronger than for someone without it. Without his willpower, he would fail the tribulation awaiting him to master his Laws. There was no cheating the Heavens.
Like a falling star, he would shine bright but briefly. Fitting, considering his Racial Title. His Domain of Infinite Improvement was the worst poison he could''ve put into his True Self.
It was also a distracting poison. Part of Shen had already grown addicted and tried to convince the rest of the allure of using his domain to grow stronger whenever he could. The part of him close to his Will of Absolute Power loved the idea of fast power growth, no matter how it was achieved. The Truth of Limits, often so problematic, became the greatest ally of his basic survival. Absolute Power insisted there was no defense against, well, absolute power; that he only believed he would be limited by his lack of willpower because he had been a fool to make the Truth of Limits a cornerstone of his True Self, to begin with.
Honestly, that was a great argument. Indeed, he couldn''t consider a world without his Limits. It was impossible.
What if...?
The potential validity of his claims against himself only made things worse for him. This wasn''t a mere battle against novel Void creatures with a ridiculous growth rate; it was also an inner battle. Shen''s True Self worked against itself.
And then, the Void joined the discussion.
''The Truth of Limits is right,'' he thought¡ªwithout having ever thought that.
Shen immediately recognized the intrusive thought brought by the Void. Shen was virtually immune against that thanks to his True Self, but the strain on his True Self evidently decreased his defenses, and the Void had found an opening.
His True Self flared against the invasion it couldn''t perceive. The part of him closely linked to his Will of Absolute Power pointed out how enough strength would prevent that. His supposedly great willpower was already useless; why insist it was necessary. Also, the Void was on Limits'' side. Could he trust that Truth?
Shen knew the Void didn''t lie. Ever. So, he could use that to rest at ease with his conclusion of not using his domain to grow.
And yet, this was a new form of invasion; the Void wasn''t telling him to kill himself. The pattern was broken. What if the Void could also lie now? What if insisting on not using his domain was a way to die faster¡ªthus achieving the Void''s goal?
''That is a valid worry,'' the Void whispered in his mind with his voice.
The Void was arguing against itself. That was not unheard of, yet Shen couldn''t stop wondering if that was a lie. This manipulation was too sophisticated, and he could do nothing to push the thoughts away. The one thing his domain didn''t improve was his mind.
Shen screamed in frustrated rage as his spear moved fast and cut the lighting bolt in half.
Moving as the manifestation of an element had indeed made the Voided Guardian as vulnerable as a Guardian would be. It was defenseless and easier to destroy. Shen cut it down in half, and it lost its form, becoming a formless black gas that swiftly faded away. There was no sliver of existence trying to escape this time around, though if it was because of their Path or because they had been "revived" through Time was anyone''s guess until Shen killed Voided Time.
One down, seven to go.
Shen couldn''t stop his invasive thoughts, so he would take his frustration on these creatures.
''Killing them will also decrease the Void''s influence on me,'' he considered¡ªand couldn''t tell if it was an invasive thought, which had all kinds of worrisome implications.
Voided Light was also coming as a manifested element. Shen wasn''t fast enough to cut the stream of photons after attacking the lightning bolt. Instead, he continued his ongoing swing into a diagonal one aimed not at the creature but where it should return to its form if it wanted to block his path to Voided Time.
His spear got in place a split instant before Voided Light did. It became a high elf made of black fog, only to be split open from waist to head before it could even fully form. Taking form also made it as vulnerable as Guardian would be, and Shen''s spear found no resistance. The creature tried to move back as soon as it reformed, but Shen''s momentum as he got sideways and rotated his body fast was marginally faster than it could move from a full stop to a dodging speed. It couldn''t escape him.
He cut it from shoulder to leg in a crooked X, and it dissipated into nothingness.
''Two down, six to go,'' he thought. ''My domain is an outstanding tool. I shouldn''t discard it.''
Such a simple and undeniable truth. Yet, he was not considering discarding his domain. He was only worried that using it would lead to dependence, addiction, weakness, and death. Even suggesting discarding his domain was a possibility served no one, least of all Shen himself. The Void was trying to bring his mind into disarray.
Shen howled in fury and headed toward Voided Time.
Domains were fueled and willpower was affected by emotions. His wrath descended on everything in his domain¡ªand, consequently, his True Realm¡ªlike a raging dragon. Shen was still using his Domain of Infinite Improvement, and so his True Realm was improved.
The Voided Guardians had been moving to get to him, but suddenly, the world resisted them.
Shen felt as if seven suns touched the iceberg, which was his willpower. His "improved" True Realm could now affect Voided Guardians similarly to how his Aural Realm could hinder actual Guardians. However, it wasn''t related to Laws. It became a matter of opposing wills trying to impose their desires upon Reality, and Shen''s willpower could not resist the Void.
That improvement was impressive and closely linked to willpower. He had lost a lot of potential growth just them. His domain had cheated him again.
Shen seethed in absolute fury at having to fight himself.
Reality didn''t destroy the Voided Guardians when their Will met his this time. The Void''s "psychic suns" hadn''t crossed Reality''s bottom line.
But it had crossed Shen''s bottom line.
Why care about his willpower, which was much less helpful in fights against Guardians than raw power would be? Why care about something that was also proving useless against the Void? His mind was melting at the slightest touch! That was pathetic!
Supposedly, his greatest strength was his willpower. But was it? In fact, his willpower worked against him, for he had just convinced himself that it might be useless for anything¡ªexcept persuade himself.
So, Shen would make a simple test. Every part of himself accepted it would convince them one way or another. The result would determine if he would use his domain as a shortcut¡ªif he survived this place, of course¡ªor take the long road in the future.
Instead of deactivating that function of his True Self so his willpower wouldn''t melt against the suns, Shen roared uncontrollably and faced the challenge. He enveloped one of the shining stars of sheer inferno burning his mind with his willpower and applied pressure.
Over a fifth of his willpower was spent before it grabbed its target. To his senses, it felt like a mortal clenching a burning metal sphere with bare hands. It hurt, and Shen''s mental "hand" evaporated as it pushed. His "fingers" disintegrated upon contact, yet he kept going until only the skin on the back of his fingers remained.
And then, something gave.
The sun blinked out of existence, and Voided Time exploded like a crushed egg.
356. A Marvelous Tool
Unlike the other "high elves," Voided Time released a sliver of its existence upon death. It was too close to the mist, and Shen couldn''t reach it in time. Fortunately, there was no need for him to move.
He also crushed the sliver with his mind, and unlike its complete form, it presented almost no resistance.
Shen had just killed something with willpower alone. That was outstanding. He could explain how powerful that made him feel.
Yet, it had cost him a third of his willpower on top of any previous expenditure, totaling half of his willpower being gone. That brought three inconveniences.
First, he felt like a mortal who hadn''t slept well for a few days in a row. He needed to focus more to achieve the same things as he could at his peak. And focusing harder, of course, increased his willpower consumption.
Second, a lower willpower meant an inferior defense against the Void''s mind invasion. The voices would be more frequent, and resisting their allure would take more out of him.
In fact, it had already started.
''Willpower is undeniably relevant,'' he thought with the Void.
The part of him closer to Absolute Power had already agreed to use the experiment''s results and shut up, but he hated to hear the Void say those words. It was like rubbing salt in the wound.
That part of him didn''t insist willpower was less important than raw power, but he was honestly unsure how long he could hold himself. Probably not for long. He still felt his mastery over his Laws increasing, and consequently, his stats were constantly improving. It was intoxicating.
Third, his True Self was everything he was, including his willpower. His maximum willpower was more critical to the structure of his fundamental existence than how much of it remained, but the missing willpower still affected him. Less willpower impacted how well he could resist the weight and pressure of his True Realm on his soul.
His previous five seconds of active domain usage before injuring his soul had just turned into three seconds. Not even one second had passed since the start of the battle, but it was something to keep in mind.
''Three enemies down,'' he thought. ''I can kill the remaining five in time.''
He couldn''t tell if the thought came from him or the Void, but he was getting used to it. If he didn''t validate his ideas, that might become a danger, but for now, he could still quickly assess that there was nothing wrong with the things he thought.
Anyway, his True Realm was exceptional. It was almost like a willpower-based domain. It was incredible to think he had such a weapon now available. Whenever his domain was active, his fighting ability would be peak tier 9 despite not having C+ stats or a mastered Law.
An actual domain outside his body would take anyone''s fighting ability beyond tier 10, but he discovered that wasn''t happening to him. On top of forcing all things to end, the Voided Guardian''s domain had also repelled Reality much like its existence did. Now, the Domain of Entropy was gone, and Reality''s Axioms had returned.
Shen tried to push a qi particle out of his body but struck a metaphysical wall. Reality resisted him. Back at D-rank, using his domain within himself had caused both physical and soul injuries. Now, the physical injuries were no longer an issue, but even keeping his domain to his body would eventually harm his soul¡ªand pushing it out would immediately crack his soul.
He was oh-so-very curious about properly using his domain! But that would still have to wait until he mastered his Laws.
''And I would master them faster if I used my domain to accomplish it, five seconds at a time,'' he thought.
Shen recognized the thought had come from the Void, but it now supported the part of himself that wanted a shortcut to Absolute Power. The Void was creating chaos in his mind.
''Maybe dying would be easier than dealing with this mental mess,'' he thought.
That was the first "genuine" Void thought as of yet; the Void always pushed a Guardian into dying. Shen was so relieved that he allowed himself to counter-argue instead of ignoring it. It should be easy and ease how much willpower he used to outright resist it.
Sure, there would be no worries after death. It would be easier. But he didn''t want to die, so that was out of the question. The mere will to keep living sufficed for him.
That should stop him, but he had made a mistake. That alone was enough for that annoying part of himself not to hold back from arguing again.
After all, he had another easy way out. One that was exactly what he wanted. He had formed his domain precisely because he wished to improve. And at the peak of self-improvement was the Absolute Power he so desired.
''So, why deny myself?'' he¡ªor the Void, or both¡ªthought.
That question sent a ripple through his entire True Self. It was an absolutely perfect argument. Wasn''t he denying his own self by not using the domain he had created to pursue a goal that he still believed in?
''Later,'' he decided, using all his willpower to quiet himself. ''I''ll decide later. After I survive. After I deactivate my domain.''
''Why later?'' he asked himself.
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He struggled to find an answer that would satisfy him, but he did find one. ''Because my True Realm is a brand new tool, which I never examined. I developed it by mingling my domain with my willpower and, thus, my mind. My domain might be affecting me in ways I can''t pinpoint until I deactivate it. My True Self should rule over my domain, not the other way around.''
That was enough to silence all parts of himself until the end of this battle, but the Void wasn''t done causing chaos. It thought, using his mind, ''That makes perfect sense, and I should accept it.''
Shen had once heard the expression ''mindfuck'' on Earth, and this definitely fitted the definition.
All those arguments happened in a split instant. Voided Time had just died. The mist didn''t like it. It beat again and released another ripple like the first one.
Shen didn''t need to counter it this time; his domain was enough to deny its influence on his body. As long as no domain or Realization was used, domains were absolute, even against the ripple that had seemed like a B- or A-rank ability. Of course, it had a cost, but it was greatly diminished compared to anything else, almost irrelevant. Domains were a marvelous tool.
Even so, Shen didn''t have the energy required to foot the bill. Thus, he paid with willpower instead of qi. His True Realm was that awesome. He spent another ten percent of his maximum willpower to resist the ripple. Now, only forty percent remained.
He hoped the remaining creatures would be put out of commission for a few moments, like last time. Alas, that wasn''t to be. They were as unaffected by the ripple as he.
Instead of rushing at Shen, the five remaining creatures had taken a moment to group up and get used to their new existence. Each had Earth, Wind, Darkness, Whip, or Mace as their core Law. It defined them more than the other Laws in their Paths.
Voided Earth''s black fog body turned more solid and moved slower than usual. Its body also condensed, becoming half the size of the typical high elf. Not that the creature itself moved more slowly. It was still faster than Shen had been without his domain, though slower than him at his current peak.
Voided Wind was the opposite. Its black fog grew sparser and moved faster. It grew twice as tall as a high elf.
Voided Darkness''s fog became, well, darker. Its body became lithe and "transparent" to most of Shen''s senses, except his True Realm. Its presence felt ethereal.
Voided Whip became an actual whip, though a strange one. It was like three whips tied together on the extreme, but each had multiple thongs, each thong with numerous falls. It was almost like a web being wielded both individually and collectively by each of the previous three creatures.
Lastly, Voided Mace became even more solid than Voided Earth. It grew fifty percent taller and became buffier. A mace grew from one of its hands and a tower shield on the other.
A small round shield also appeared on the other Voided Guardians'' free hands.
Their battle plan was obvious. Voided Mace rushed at Shen while the others would keep a distance. The giant shield was meant to hinder him, and the small ones to delay him if he attacked them. All the while, Voided Whip would attack and try to control him.
Voided Whip was the most annoying part of their plan, and Shen wouldn''t let things go their way. He quickly developed and employed a simple but hopefully effective scheme.
He rushed at the closest non-Mace foe and swung his spear with limited strength, probing the creature. Voided Wind raised its small shield. Shen''s spearhead struck and found considerable resistance but still bit an inch into the defensive apparatus.
Immediately after, Shen used the improved version of one of the first techniques he had employed after waking up in the Alliance. He Backstepped. The goal was to get behind his enemy and attack it from there.
Though the enemy was slower than him, it could still turn its body fast enough to keep facing him. At the same time, it brandished its whip his way. Seven falls came at him, each from a different direction. Simultaneously, multiple thongs and falls came from above and behind. Voided Whip was already trying to block him in every direction.
If the whip was the average weapon, he would dodge or deflect. It wasn''t, though. Instead, this attack was his goal.
Unlike when a Guardian turned into the manifestation of a Law, that''s not what Voided Whip was doing. Its body had "physically," for the lack of a better word, taken that form. It was too long and spread, and if Shen faced it as if it were a weapon, blocking or deflecting, his strikes would cause only minor damage. Even if he cut a few falls and thongs here and there, it wouldn''t severely harm Voided Whip.
So, he had intended to attract more of its body to him. The earlier in the battle that happened, the better, or else the creature might notice the weakness of its form. Hence Shen''s small scheme.
He stopped attacking Voided Wind and used his peak speed to swing his spear at every part of Voided Whip coming his way.
He had never been so fast or his spear so sharp. That was genuine Extremity and Conductivity. His movements had never been so ethereal, so Gentle like a Breeze, yet simultaneously Stream-lined. He had never held a Weapon filled with so much Killing. When his spearhead struck the thong, his Shaft firmly withstood the resulting shock.
That was True Boundlessness.
Voided Whip''s body was as resistant as the small shield in Voided Wind''s hand. Yet, Shen hadn''t used all his power against the shield. Now, his spear cut the first thong, the second, and all subsequent ones.
Like a shredder, he instantly cut every part of the whip nearby; like a hurricane, he twisted and destroyed it with abandon.
The creature dissipated without leaving a sliver behind. Shen took advantage of his momentum to also strike against¡ªand through¡ªVoided Wind''s shield and body before the creatures could adapt to his peak power. Voided Wind became three separate parts and also dissipated into nothingness¡ª
It cheated death.
It was fading, but abruptly, it shifted. It returned to the exact place and form it had had and occupied an instant ago. The Laws of Time had just shone bright and reversed its destruction.
Shen had expected such shenanigans since he first felt a Law of Time. He hadn''t stopped cutting, and the creature faded again after becoming only two separate parts. Its restoration had taken a toll despite its cheat-like existence. It didn''t cheat death the second time around.
Unfortunately, the Voided Guardians still learned quickly. Suddenly, they all moved faster than before, blinking out of spacetime and back instantaneously. One had learned to reverse time; now, the others could easily infer how to speed time up.
Voided Mace blinked into existence before Shen and Voided Earth appeared at his back. Voided Darkness disappeared even from his True Realm''s senses.
Shen guessed Voided Darkness had just mastered the Laws of Darkness and could use tricks beyond his understanding. Shen was glad he had already killed Voided Time and Voided Light because he did not want to deal with those mastered Laws.
The next instant, his proud happiness was gone. Shen felt four sharp "nothings" pierce through the invisible protections around his head, then into his skull. Voided Darkness was suddenly beside him, now with four long arms, all of which wielding a dagger.
The creature hadn''t cared about its Axioms of Mace. On top of instantly mastering a Law, it had learned from him how to use its enemies'' expectations against them.
And yet, through the pain and danger, Shen smiled.
Now, he would get what Sinaht had failed to deliver. His enemies were, relatively speaking, his equals. He had no extra cards to pull; his domain was the best he could do. He would triumph or fall while facing foes as good as he was at his absolute best.
''Just like the good old times,'' he thought and didn''t care if it came from the Void; he wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment.
357. Final Foe
The daggers were already cutting deep into Shen''s brain. Considering the system was blocked and wouldn''t heal him, that was a worse injury than one might think. The Axioms had returned to the vault, but Energy hadn''t magically appeared inside. There was no qi for Shen to absorb and use to heal himself. He had brought healing crystals in his spatial ring and Inventory, but unsurprisingly, the mana barrier blocked both from working.
So, he couldn''t heal, and the brain injury would lower his performance for the remainder of the fight. He could only fight at around 90% of his peak. The fight had become even more challenging than expected.
Shen could do nothing on that front, so he reacted by ignoring the wound and counter-attacking Voided Darkness with a swing of his spear. Unsurprisingly, the creature disappeared before his weapon reached it.
Even as his attack continued, he rushed toward Voided Earth. Voided Darkness had already mastered a Law, and he''d rather kill the ones who had yet to take that step before anything else. He didn''t feel like trying to find Voided Darkness with two enemies positioned to take advantage of his distracted mind.
Voided Earth and Voided Mace had been running at him, but they backtracked the moment Voided Darkness appeared. They had anticipated Shen''s move and knew time worked in their favor.
Shen ran toward Voided Earth with all the speed he could muster. Although both had roughly the same speed now that they used Time to move faster and Shen was injured, he still managed to close the gap. The room was only so big. He reached the creature, which had developed a mace on its empty weapon hand. Its small shield was also growing into a tower shield, but as with Void Spawn, Voided Guardians took much longer to adapt their forms after taking one than to adopt their initial one.
He Backstepped dozens of times in a row, changing his destination hundreds of times. He was taking advantage of the creatures'' relatively underdeveloped thinking ability. It worked. His chaotic movements and constant attempt to appear all around it confused his foe. Eventually, he appeared behind it, where he delivered the best thrust he could.
His spearhead struck true, and even the Laws of Reality on its way were cut into fragments. The blade found considerably more resistance in Voided Earth''s "skin" than it had against Voided Wind''s shield, but Shen had thought of that when he thrust his spear. The very tip of his weapon concentrated all his power in a single Extreme point, adding to its piercingness at the cost of a smaller area of effect. That was enough to make up for the enhanced defense.
His weapon pierced the creature''s nape and dug deep into its head before moving down. It was easier to slash the creature after its external shell was perforated, even though it looked made of the same foggy substance on the inside and the outside. He Backstepped again after cutting it into two vertical halves, appearing beside it to cut it into six cubes.
His Backstep saved him from another sneak attack. Voided Darkness had timed its attack right after Voided Darkness was cut into two. It already understood psychology enough to predict possible bloodlust and try to use it against him.
After that, Shen kept attacking, but his every strike was elongated, also reaching for the place Voided Earth had just been in. As expected, as it became a seventh cube and started dissipating, the Laws of Time flared. It appeared with a whole body where it had been a moment ago.
Shen cut it again, using the same tactics. This time, Voided Darkness was prepared. It waited for him to start attacking again after Backstepping to strike. Shen had also predicted that and started stopping his attacks mid-swing. Still, there were only so many times he could get lucky.
Eventually, three things happened at the same time.
First, Voided Earth died.
Second, Voided Mace reached him and swung its weapon at him.
Third, Voided Darkness found an opening, and its four daggers pierced his neck and chest.
To be honest, Shen could''ve avoided Voided Darkness slashes, but Voided Mace''s swing made him change his mind. The attack was too powerful. Just as Shen''s strike had cut the very Laws of Reality into Law Fragments, the mace in the creature''s hand shattered every Law in the way. And it did that a lot better than Shen''s spear had. The Laws in a wide area around it broke down so thoroughly that Reality behaved weirdly.
When the Domain of Entropy had pushed the Axioms away, individual Laws indirectly enforced some Concepts of Reality into place. The rules of physics were mostly respected. Now, however, Laws were shattered. Enforcing any Concept became a tall order. The creature''s weapon seemed to teleport both forward and back; gravity pushed it in all kinds of weird angles at unexpected pull strength; and Shen''s senses couldn''t understand what was happening there.
That hindered the creature as much as it did Shen. Its attack took much longer to reach him. But that still made him decide killing it was worth getting injured again. The thing was, what if it mastered that ability?
So, he held his position and attacked the incoming mace as the daggers pierced his body.
Targeting the enemy weapon was arrogant of him, as the mace was evidently more potent than his spear. But Shen felt this was needed. He refused to accept his True Self could be inferior to some fake Path formed by a random Void creature less than half a minute ago.
He concentrated all his power on the tip of his spear again. Metal met solid fog. In the shattered Laws of Reality, a spark turned into a massive explosion of light, and a small black hole was formed in that vault for a split moment.
Shen won because of the most basic of experiences¡ªand the most advanced of comprehensions.
These creatures could "master" Laws quickly, but it wasn''t true mastery. Guardians had to wholly understand the intricacies of his Laws, while the Voided Guardians seemed to just become better at using theirs. There was no comprehension involved, only them becoming better at swinging their Laws like weapons.
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Voided Mace didn''t behave as if it knew its weapon''s characteristics. Shen noticed it at that mace swing. It contained a lot of power and sufficient technique to keep the weapon steady, but it was unrefined. Breaking the Laws on the way was a waste of strength, adding needless drag to the attack. That it negatively affected the swing was evidence of it being an unwanted effect.
That was the trigger for Shen''s sudden shift in perspective.
When all the power of Extremity, supported by Shaft, strengthened by True Boundlessness, sped by Conductivity, steadied by Steam, and kept slightly unpredictable by Gentle Breeze, drove his Killing Weapon, it was an entire True Self fueled by a domain that struck against that single Axiom of the Mace.
Everything Shen was met a Mace that was not.
The mace gave.
That was the meta-battlefield of domains. Shen couldn''t push his domain out of his body, but everything in his body and spear belonged to him. Everything in his domain was under his supreme will, and he had just decreed that any alien existence in his domain was to be destroyed. When two things attempted to occupy the same space at the same time, Reality defined what pushed what based on its rules. But inside Shen''s domain, his will was absolute.
In that single instant of what-ifs when the weapons met, when the clash''s result was still undefined, when two different Paths sought to occupy the same place, they overlapped in the potential of the realization of their desire. That was enough. Shen''s spear cut through the mace so easily that he got out of balance momentarily.
Shen finished cutting the creature and knew it wouldn''t be able to rewind time and reform. He had destroyed it on a fundamental level. He had unmade its Path, its very existence, in a way. Even if that only happened where his spear went through, it was enough for that already impossible existence to become "too impossible" to continue.
Meanwhile, Voided Darkness had struck his body a dozen times, its daggers leaving and entering it quickly. It cut his two legs off, but he found he could keep them "attached," albeit disconnected, through his domain.
At first, Shen controlled his domain so as not to affect the creature. Only when he killed Voided Mace did he finally will the blades in his body to be unmade, then swung his weapon against the creature.
He missed. Voided Darkness reacted as soon as its daggers were gone. He still cut into its face, but that was all.
It disappeared before Shen could pursue it. He focused on his surroundings and found it this time. It was in that same place the Voided Guardian with mastered Space had used, the boundary between the third and fourth spatial dimensions, but hidden in there, ethereal, hard to grasp.
Shen swung his spear to the right and killed his invisible, final foe¡ªif you didn''t count the white mist.
The smoke had already covered over half the vault and beat like a heart again. Then, once more. It kept beating too fast for the commoner eye to ever perceive, but it felt slow for Shen''s current senses.
The ripples came and went, and nothing changed. Still, the fog persisted. It seemed angry on top of thirsty, almost raging, incapable of holding still after Shen got rid of the Voided Guardians.
He would''ve liked to send a qi particle against it, but that option had been taken from him by Reality''s Axioms. While his domain remained active, every qi particle he used had to contain his domain. He couldn''t push it out of himself without injuring his soul. Furthermore, his soul was already stressed. If he deactivated his domain, he would be unable to use it again for at least a few hours.
Even if that weren''t the case, deactivating his domain meant letting the qi he was using on it dissipate. Shen wouldn''t have enough qi to reactivate his domain later.
Shen had to pick one of two options: touch the mist with his spear or wait for rescue.
The answer was obvious. Waiting was theoretically safer in a mobile fortress but depended on people Shen didn''t trust. Where were they, by the way? It would also leave him without his domain, so he would be much weaker later if he decided to move against the mist at the last moment.
He stepped closer to the fog and touched it with his spear¡ª
A black sphere filled his vision. No, not a sphere. An eye. An enormous eye bigger than life itself. It stood there, staring at him. It had no iris. It had no form, either. It had nothing.
It was nothing.
The Eye of the Void.
''I''m a Herald,'' Shen''s own voice said in his mind. ''I can''t be a Seer.''
The words confirmed this thing had created the Voided Guardians¡ªactually called Seers¡ªby corrupting actual Guardians. The name Seer also pointed at their primary goal: infiltration.
Shen had never even heard of the Eye before. In fact, its existence made no sense according to everything he knew of the Void. The Void Overmind should be the sole existence that merged nothingness and Will. This was new, except perhaps to those with much higher clearances than him.
The image disappeared as suddenly as it had come, and Shen found himself back in the vault. The mist was still there and still expanding. He felt nothing in its contact with the thing.
He willed his domain to destroy it, and it worked. However, the next instant, the fog opened around him. Shen ignored it for now and approached the cauldron.
The big black iron thing was filled with micro-cracks. The mist had already proven ineffective against Shen but hadn''t slowed down. It still strained the cauldron, and he suspected the goal was to weaken the mana barrier, not convert Shen.
He touched the cauldron with his spear¡ª
The Eye was back.
''I''m a Herald,'' Shen thought again. ''I destroy in the name of the Void. Even when my target is the Void itself.''
Then, he was back. At least the thoughts he had just experienced fitted what he knew of the Void. The Void didn''t care. As long as something ceased to exist, it was satisfied, even if it was its own self. Every existence born from the Void shared the same single-minded goal.
Arthur tried to cut the cauldron down without his domain''s meta-perspective and failed. The thing was harder than anything he had ever encountered. He suspected it was at least A-tier.
He used his meta-perspective next, but it still failed. Or rather, it demanded his qi to work. Against things at such a high level, even enforcing his will inside his domain consumed resources.
Shen now had to decide whether to trust his Void Herald identity to keep him safe after the mist filled the whole vault or take a smaller gamble. He obviously went with the latter.
He positioned himself beside the cauldron, pulled his spear back, and concentrated. He focused his all on his next swing. It would be a slash instead of a thrust because he aimed at causing as much damage as possible.
It took him a few moments to reach the perfect state of mind, and then he attacked.
Shen used all his power in the attack while simultaneously willing his domain to burn the very qi keeping it active as fuel to destroy the cauldron. There was a single instant of not having enough qi to sustain his domain while using qi to help it work against the A-tier metal. It was so short-lived that even Shen thought he might''ve imagined it.
But it worked.
His strike was so fast that, despite the small paradox he caused, he managed to cleanly cut the artifact from one side to the other, right in the middle of it. His spear shattered the next moment¡ªand so did his entire body.
His domain was gone, and it hadn''t just pressured his soul. His body couldn''t withstand it, either. Almost every muscle was torn apart by the stress, every bone broken, every tendon ruptured. His mind fared no better. His True Self was everything he was, and it almost broke on the rebound of using his domain for less than three seconds.
Shen saw the white mist freeze, then release a last pulse, a ripple stronger than any other. Even as it released it, it was already dissipating. He had managed to destroy the cauldron, which was also turning into fog and fading into nothingness.
The ripple reached him, and Shen had not a single ounce of qi to protect himself this time. He still made his body vibrate in the opposite frequency, but the ripple was much stronger than before.
There was overwhelming pain and then utter darkness.
Shen''s last thought as he fainted was that he welcomed a little rest at long last.
358. The Collective
? ?
"It took you two seconds to locate a security breach and investigate, General," said the B-rank in beautifully crafted green and golden armor.
Luttus Vailus was wearing a high elven shell, but they were actually a levisnic, or light parasite, a being of pure light that invaded others. The species was allowed in the Alliance because its members could only possess dead bodies until B-rank, and swapping bodies made them lose a rank. It was also easy to tell someone had been replaced, as their souls and Paths were their own, and they didn''t steal memories. Even then, most races were cautious of them, if not outright aggressive.
Their most unpleasant trait wasn''t their existence but their closest allies, the deathwalkers. No one liked deathwalkers; they would have gone extinct if they weren''t so good at providing certain services. Or so Long Hei had been told by a complaining dragon a year ago.
The abyssal dragon had come to the A-tier vault as soon as he received the warning of it malfunctioning. It was supposed to send regular signals to the system''s attached information center but had remained silent for one second. Long Hei had been away from the Node, and for security reasons, not even a Node Commander could instantly teleport to a mobile fortress if they were out of the Node itself, even if in a subordinate Subnode. The gains of such a policy justified the risks, but as with anything, it could be exploited.
The SpecOps Senior Officer before Long Hei would know how and when to do that.
"A barely acceptable response time, General," Luttus continued. "Within regulations, certainly. But the three-second regulation is too lax for such trying times."
The unannounced existence of a high-level SpecOps operative in Long Hei''s Node angered even him, and he was a wanderer. His Title, Hopeless Wanderer, borrowed from the definition used among dragons, not the other way around. Unlike his peers, he didn''t hold dominion over a territory and became highly jealous and protective of it. Still, some instincts were so essential to some races that even A-ranks who rejected them were still affected depending on the circumstances. Luttus''s nonchalance at trespassing, plus daring to critique Long Hei, ruffed his scales all the wrong ways.
His Realization passively turned his surroundings into a dark place devoid of all hope. The B-rank pretended not to care. Long Hei still took satisfaction in feeling the levisnic panic under the fa?ade of calm they displayed.
He could respect someone who was so terrified and still kept composure. That was life as a dragon in a pack. However, he disliked how Luttus presented their following words as if they were a concession instead of a tribute to appease the A-rank.
"Come, General," they said. "I''ll let you see why the boy must die."
Long Hei''s displeasure increased. The only "boy" he could think of that he would care about in Samir was Shen. He quickly checked the boy''s position in the system, and he had last been seen in the vault before it lost contact with the authorization directory. He would still be there unless he could bypass a peak A-rank barrier¡ªwell, as A-rank as something could be without a Realization. Shen couldn''t.
One thing his quick check didn''t reveal, however, was what that vault was used for. The system had only known it had a bunch of imprisoned C and D-ranks, most of them fugitives. The safe wasn''t labeled as anything other than "A-tier Hazard," but considering SpecOps''s presence, it either belonged to them or someone they had been investigating.
Long Hei hated how dangerous it would certainly be for Shen, but he didn''t act. Why would he? Shen''s situation had been hopeless from the beginning. Plotting with Darla was already a long shot.
He had checked the rules of the Void Tide. SpecOps still couldn''t claim Shen unless there was an emergency near the boy, and even then, he had to be indirectly led to them. Long Hei suspected there would be many such occurrences coincidentally happening around him now that a B-rank from SpecOps was micromanaging things.
The dragon felt more tired than anything.
He sighed and looked at the screen that appeared midair before Luttus. A place labeled A-tier Hazard was off-limits to most, if not all, of the system''s functions to prevent contamination. Still, there were ways around it with the right authority. Long Hei had no clearance to get a visual feed from inside that vault. It was another reason not to kill the B-rank. He wanted to know what was happening.
The feed''s screen had multiple semitransparent layers on top of each other, revealing different data the system collected. That allowed the viewer to know everything happening on every level, from energy to Law to the meta-battlefield.
"What are those things?" Long Hei asked at once. "I take it they were the Guardians supposedly inside?"
"Yes, General. Those are Void Agents. See the Void Miasma?" The dragon guessed Luttus meant the white mist that could only be seen with visual feed. No other system function could analyze it. "It''ll invade their mind on contact, but instead of suicide thoughts, as the Void usually does, it''ll offer them a way out. They only need to accept, and they''ll keep their bodies until they willingly give up on it to survive. Controlling them is done through good old blackmail, not anything on their minds. If they give up on their bodies, they turn into those things. Not that these Guardians had any choice. The fugitives would be executed by any Guardian who captured them, and the others wouldn''t take any chances."
Long Hei frowned. "They betrayed Reality for a chance to live a little longer?"
"Some would claim it''s for the off-chance of living forever, General. When Void Agents enter this liberated state, becoming fog creatures, they are momentarily weak but quickly gain power and sapience. After they grow enough, the Guardians'' old minds are mixed with the creature''s new one. There''s a clash for supremacy. We have yet to see any living mind not be absorbed, but most of us would trust our future to withstand the process if we see no alternative but to submit. Or, at least, we would use that as an excuse to betray Reality. Not to mention, the fugitives were never paragons of virtue, to begin with."
"And there are Void Agents out there? Mingling with Guardians? Are there any in Samir? Outside the vault, I mean."
"Yes, General. We''ve allowed them to get into some key positions to see what they are after. They''ll be destroyed at the right time."
The dragon''s frown deepened. There were invisible traitors among his subordinates? And even A-ranks couldn''t locate them? "How can you detect them?"
"More often than not, good old investigation, General: changes of habits, sudden bouts of ambition, signs of escaping something or agreeing to blackmail. Void Agents can only go unnoticed by B-tier subsystems and anyone without a Realization. Even A-ranks need to either invade people''s souls or know what to look for with their passive Realization senses. That said, most of the system''s A-tier scans can detect the Void Ovum inside a sleeping Agent, as we call their undercover state.
"SpecOps has been closely monitoring the situation and has thirteen fail-safes in place in case we mess up. The first is that at the first sign of anyone other than us finding out about Void Agents in an unforeseen situation, we''ll teach every A-rank in the Alliance what to look for, and you''ll instantly locate and kill every Agent within your Realization range. It''s not complicated. In fact, if you felt them in this liberated state, you''d be able to feel the wrongness in their sleeping state, too."
"I cannot accept that," Long Hei replied at once. "I want the method." He was a wanderer and didn''t recognize Samir as an actual dominion of his, but even he would never accept being kept in the dark on this.
"I''ll deliver it after¡ª"
"Now," he demanded.
The mobile fortress trembled under the power of his command, and the chain around his soul came into view. The cthulhu holding the other end also appeared. Long Hei was on probation and would not survive actually destroying the fortress.
Still, he would not be killed for demanding the truth from Luttus, even if he employed unsavory methods to pry it from the creature''s mind. The Alliance was on high alert because of a Void Tide. A Node Commandeer would be forgiven for forcibly acquiring intel to deal with the Void in their Node, no matter from whom. The danger would be SpecOps retaliation, not any legal trouble.
Luttus swallowed, took a small info cube from their Inventory, and offered it to Long Hei. The thing only had the feeling of the fog creature and how it would feel in a sleeping state. The Void used a place that didn''t exist in Reality to hide, but they could create it because yes. That''s how the Void operated sometimes. Now that he knew where to look, doing so would be as simple as the levisnic had claimed.
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There was a brief uncomfortable silence¡ªat least for Luttus¡ªafter that, but Long Hei soon broke it. "They grow faster than the average Void Spawn. It might be an issue." He didn''t like what he was seeing.
"Their power only grows quickly until they reach the original host''s rank limits, General. In this case, peak C-rank with mastered Laws. Then, they develop sapience."
"How is the caldron related to everything else?"
The item hadn''t been in the system report Long Hei got. Evidently, he didn''t have enough clearance to know about it. He''d be damned if he allowed this levisnic to leave without revealing the truth to him, though. Especially if this scheme costs Shen''s life and the cauldron remained.
Luttus didn''t immediately reply but eventually correctly assessed it was treading on thin ice. "The cauldron is the result of an experiment gone wrong, General, though its developers tried to use it for a different purpose after researching its potential. Long ago, the Collective attempted to find a way to trick the system into labeling their infiltrators as weak Void Spawn entering the Alliance from its physical boundaries instead of a Breach¡ª"
"Why would they want that?" Long Hei interrupted.
"Void Spawn aren''t as dangerous when alone at the fringes of our territory and far from a Tear, General. The system categorizes it as a lesser threat and doesn''t employ drastic measures to deal with it, as it does when a Void Spawn is found in an inhabited place or close to one. That would give the Collective extra time to prod the system for weaknesses and maybe fool it using other means only viable after they are in."
"So the Collective is a non-Void enemy of the Alliance," the dragon inferred.
The Eternal Empire had existed out of the Alliance and made contact with other civilizations, including the dragons, but the multiverse was literally infinite. He knew the Alliance had enemies, but not who all of them were. From the way Luttus mentioned the Collective, it should be a powerful foe that almost anyone who mattered knew about.
"Yes, General. The Anti-Imperialist Collective. I can''t reveal more than that without getting punished. You lack the clearance."
The levisnic had the sense to sound pledging at that. They were saying they feared whatever minor punishment they would get for breaching clearance protocols more than they feared Long Hei''s reaction to being kept from information.
Luckily for them, Long Hei had long learned to operate on a need-to-know basis back when he trusted his former sworn brother. He didn''t mind not knowing about things unrelated to him. Why did he even care about this Collective unless they came for him? If they did come, he would just kill them all. And maybe visit SpecOps to demand information.
"Continue," the dragon commanded.
Luttus nodded in thanks. "General, the Collective''s experiment failed when their people were turned, just like ours. It was shut down and forgotten until a few hundred years ago. Their recently ascended Admiral wanted something to make herself look good and checked their backlog of failed experiments for an idea. He found out about the Void Agents and decided to give up on a few infiltrators to see what would happen if our Guardians were corrupted. The cauldron is a portable dissemination device they developed to move the Void Miasma around."
On the screen, Shen had just killed a creature when another tried to control a Law and exploded. Seeing Void Spawn trying to use Laws was wrong.
"What is that?" Long Hei asked.
"General, I told you they''ll reach peak C-rank with mastered Laws," the levisnic replied. "I didn''t mean it as relative levels of power. Sapience also means a mind partially disconnected from the Void Overmind. Or, in this case, the Void¡ª You have no clearance for that, and I would die if I revealed it to you." He paused, and when Long Hei kept silent, he continued, "Their Sapience will also allow them to form a Path, and then, a domain."
"A Path?"
That shocked Long Hei. Void Spawn wielding Laws was impossible. Forming Paths was unimaginable. Having a domain made the least sense of all.
"Things aren''t as dire as they might seem, General," Luttus replied. "Not every liberated Agent survives contact with a Law. The survival rate is around seven percent." Even as he said that, most of the creatures died, and only nine survived. They all had a Law. "Those who do survive will invariably develop sentience, then a Path, and so on. Domains might appear randomly, but it''ll take them a few hours to learn to use their Path instead of swinging their Laws around like idiots¡ª"
The levisnic stopped talking when they noticed Reality had just ravaged their mind. The dragon himself resisted it, but the Space-wielding Void Agent had just been erased from existence. Long Hei should be the only one to recall it. Maybe Shen; Reality was a bit fickle in that area.
Long Hei recalled the screen showing Shen''s mind touching the creature''s through his Aural Realm. Whatever happened then, Reality hadn''t liked it. Long Hei would have to research what could cause that.
The biggest issue here was that, suddenly, Samir Node was weaker. The way the powers-that-be tamed universes made any direct intervention from Reality cost dearly. Even now, he felt a few healthy Subnodes giving in to the Void''s influence as Tears appeared in them.
The dragon could tell Luttus had no idea what had happened. Their domain barely allowed them to acknowledge the knowledge gap in their mind after data was removed, but not the cause. They had not expected whatever had happened in there.
At least, not precisely that.
"It happened sooner than I expected," they said after a moment. "The boy did it again, General. Something theoretically possible, yet a statistical improbability, happened around him: Reality intervened on something. He''s an unstable variable. Does the Faux Title ''Chaosbringer'' mean anything to you?"
"No."
"You''ve lived out of the Alliance before we reached your planet, and I estimate you were part of the Dragon Den before. So, General, you understand how Reality can be without a powerful existence acting as a safety net. And yet, Reality doesn''t like being controlled. It gives birth to Chaosbringers now and then. There have been two of them in the Third Sector''s history, always naturally born first-class talents¡ª Oh, I got a notification. You also have no clearance to know about different types of talents. I''ll pay the price if you command because I know this is important to you, but my bosses won''t be happy."
"Spea¡ª" Long Hei started replying, but the screen sensors went haywire.
A red sentence appeared on a few of them: "Exclusive Infernal Ability Detected: Absolute Horizon."
"That, too," Luttus said, visibly relieved. He had been waiting for that before Shen did whatever he did with his Aural Realm. "The boy will die one way or another, General. Chaosbringers are killed as soon as they reach B-rank because they can''t be allowed to live. Even the one who stopped anything after he changed some low-tier rules was like a pebble thrown on a pond. It caused ripples that affected the entire Alliance and its form of continued existence. Every Chaosbringer is a threat, even if they are often well-intended. Their talent is... involved in that. It makes them survive threats they shouldn''t, and it affects everything. Regardless, Shen reaching B-rank was never a possibility. We knew he would die as soon as he showed an embryonic form of the Absolute Horizon in elite combat training. We made a deal with the Infernals. We''ll use his talent to solve a few issues until his talent fails him. This is the first such issue."
Long Hei knew nothing about that infernal ability and queried the system. As expected, the answer was vague. It was a unique domain-like ability the infernals claimed to be too dangerous outside their hands. As a mythical race, they had the right to impose such a veto.
Considering what Long Hei had seen and heard, especially a moment later, when Shen killed the Time-wielding domain-holder Void Agent with sheer willpower, the Absolute Horizon was a lesser domain that used willpower instead of energy. Inside it, one''s will would be absolute. In his opinion, it was a bit too aggrandizing a name, but most mythical races believed anything linked to them should be like that.
And honestly, he could imagine the danger of such an ability being widespread¡ªat least for the Alliance. The Alliance needed bodies to perpetuate its existence, populate Sectors, fight Void Spawn, and so on. It had a set rate of growth to maintain that. The Three-Concept Path Directive was meant to accomplish it, even though it often made many people possess lower willpower than they might have if they had pursued their maximum potential with more Laws in their Path.
If everyone knew willpower could be that useful, that auras could be so important, and that domains could be used without energy consumption, how many people would invest their time honing their willpower instead of advancing through the ranks? Long Hei suspected the thing Shen had become¡ªhe recalled Darla mentioning a True Self, supposedly lost to time¡ªand its secrecy was also related to the infernal''s ability. If everyone tried to shore off their foundations too much at the earlier stages, the Alliance would sooner or later lack high-rank Guardians.
There was even an argument to be made about Shen''s embryonic Absolute Horizon¡ªhis Aural Realm¡ªforcing Reality to act a moment ago when it touched the Void Agent''s mind. The ability did have the potential of causing great harm to the Alliance as a whole. Already, a Node had suffered for it. Arguably.
Still, it was obviously also a form of control. Every mythical race had the means to ensure an A-rank would appear among them even if all else went wrong. In the dragons'' case, it was related to their genes¡ªand being told the secret was what made Long Hei become a wanderer. Not everything the mythical races controlled was related to such secrets, but maybe the Absolute Horizon was related to the infernals'' methods.
Long Hei smiled, and everything touched by his Realization stilled as if existence was holding its breath. Neither dragon gene nor any other mythical race secret was enough to, by themselves, allow anyone to reach A-rank. There were processes behind using those advantages appropriately.
But what about two of them?
How would they interact with each other?
And what could an A-rank with both things do?
An alien feeling that Long Hei had long buried threatened to spark in the depths of the abyss of his existence. The very Demi-Primordial Chains holding his soul shook under the pressure of the possibility. The Hopeless Wanderer had chosen to give up on his future when he lost his hope, but what if the feeling was born anew inside him?
The feeling was still not enough for him to decide to save Shen if he died in the vault. He knew Luttus was hiding things from him, misdirecting here and there. His very presence here, for once, suggested Shen hadn''t indirectly entered the vault. Other subtle signs showed he was directly involved with this vault; he might even be a traitor. Shen might be dying for nothing.
That was just the way of things; why should Long Hei care?
Still, he was... engaged. It had been a long time since he dared to cheer for an outcome as impossible as it was. Even getting involved in Darla''s schemes was just an effortless attempt¡ªand it merely assisted an escape instead of solving anything. He only really cared about protecting the Alliance nowadays.
Long Hei wouldn''t allow hope to be born anew until he saw more. But at long last, he was willing to entertain the possibility of reclaiming his future.
And if not Shen...
"Tell me about Chaosbringers," he commanded the levisnic. "I''ll discuss compensation with SpecOps later."
These Chaosbringers sounded very much like something he would like to see appear in this forsaken corner of the multiverse¡ªand to something else he had heard about so long ago. Something the Immortal Emperor knew Shen to be.
359. Silent Brother
A female voice pierced the absolute silence of the Void. "The levisnic just sent word. The human-drow survived and got rid of the Void Miasma Container."
An androgynous voice snorted. "I told you that would happen. You insist he''s just a first-class talent. You weren''t in elite combat training with us. I trained him; I know his potential."
"But," the female continued, "Luttus Vailus accomplished a positive first contact with the Hopeless Wanderer. They believe the dragon might be willing to join us if we present our cause in the right light."
An ancient old voice replied, "The Hopeless Wanderer is too weak to matter. And unstable."
A timid-sounding child said, "He''s easily controllable and disposable. Samir is a useful front-line. We can use it and the chaos of the Void Tide to reinstate some projects."
The androgynous voice disagreed, "That''ll reveal the levisnic''s betrayal. We got word of SpecOps and the Primordial Bridge meeting at least a few times during the Calami¡ª"
The voice owner disappeared from the Void, popping back into Reality. His sudden disappearance caused discomfort in the others, who all immediately left their meeting point and returned to Reality.
The Silent Brother was the first to leave, and he wasn''t surprised to find himself surrounded by Demi-Primordial Chains wielded by a cthulhu. His fortress was gone, replaced by the star-system-sized body of the self-important octopus. The creature itself also surrounded him, although, for all its size, its presence was less threatening than the chains.
Their Realizations clashed passively, their Paths vying for control over the region, but none had yet attacked.
"Will you come willingly?" its whispery voice asked. "We would rather not lose any A-rank in a Void Tide. You could pay for many of your sins by assisting us."
He considered it. He would likely manage to escape if he fought, but leaving the Alliance would be a shame. Even if his life''s work had just been destroyed, he had learned to enjoy the place more than the damn Collective. Those people were idiots for not joining the Alliance.
He tilted his head, answering the question. His meaning was conveyed through his Realization. He would consider giving up if his hunter explained how it had found them.
The cthulhu also tilted its massive head in answer. Space broke, and Tears into the Void appeared. They immediately closed by the thing''s sheer will. It didn''t use its Realization, only¡ª
The Silent Brother widened his eyes at that. That was the infernals'' Absolute Horizon! But she wasn''t an infernal¡ª
Understanding struck him. So that was it. These damn millions-of-years-old creatures plotted as well as the inferior ranks believed every A-rank could plot. The reach of their every tentacle was more extensive than anyone could guess.
They had prepared the human-drow and thrown him in the river long before the Perpetual Faction started fishing for the one they believed to be a minor fish instead of bait.
It started with the Dreamer''s death. The Republic of Imperia had acted behind the scenes, while the drow and high elves had acted overtly to dispose of their Faction''s very useful puppet. That the Dreamer had already betrayed them was irrelevant.
Their Faction knew better than to get revenge anytime soon because they knew the Bridge would keep a watch over those three powers. However, targeting small people here and there would cause no issues. Such targets were too far disconnected from them. The most obvious of them was the human-drow. The three powers were interested in him, and their Faction would link him to the Void Miasma Container and cause an investigation against the three races. He would also die in the process, in the military, a show of power against the three powers.
They had investigated and knew for a fact that no one that mattered was near the boy at that moment or paying close attention. The Void Tide they knew was coming would ensure that.
The Queen of Spring and Autumn was in La''sing. Imperia''s Grand Senator was mid-teleportation. The weird B-rank drow, Darla, was injured and recovering. The Drow Triarchy was fighting the Calamity, which would take a few extra weeks to settle, at the very least. The Hopeless Wanderer wouldn''t stop the attempt because of its personality. The cthulhu near the dragon was forbidden from interfering unless it detected an S-tier threat. The A-tier Monitoring Priority would record Luttus acting in SpecOps''s interest, nothing else.
But the Bridge had prepared long ago. The day the former Drow Maiden Realized her Path, ranked up, and killed the Orc Rising Star, the Bridge''s hunting dogs, the cthulhus, got to her and read her mind. They followed the lead of her memories to the boy because he might be connected with the Hopeless Wanderer, whom they were pursuing back then.
Then, they read his mind and, as an "apology," gave him a Realization Impartation.
That increased the boy''s willpower, who already had a Triple-Layered Aura and a first-class talent. The Silent Brother didn''t know if the Queen of Spring and Autumn was also in on it when she used the Baptism of Self on him, but it was likely a happy "coincidence" the Bridge expected to happen because of her son''s friendship with the boy. However, they were probably involved in placing the boy coincidently under a B-rank that could add to the Baptism and give the boy a True Self.
The factors required to produce an Absolute Horizon were in place. It happened. It attracted the ire of the infernals.
The Perpetual Faction approached the infernals to make a deal and connections. The Faction would get legally rid of the boy, and the infernals wouldn''t need to dirty their hands.
That''s when the Primordial Bridge found the Faction; they had planned for that from the beginning.
Well, "finding" was a bit of a big word. Everyone knew who they were and what they stood for. But only by being at the right place, at the right time, could anyone link them to anything illegal and start investigating. They were A-rank, after all. That deal with the infernals caused them to illegally interfere with SpecOps. From there, looking into their past and figuring out their sins was a piece of cake for A-ranks with control over Time, like these hunting dogs.
A simple Realization Impartation back then had cascaded into the Faction''s demise.
The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
In fact, what surprised the Silent Brother the most was how quick everything happened. A-ranks'' schemes were measured in at least hundreds of years. Everything had to be in place for that plan to work. The cthulhus had already had other ongoing plans but knew precisely when to steer them to use the boy against the Perpetual Faction.
Even then, that was a bit too much of a coincidence. Noticing and using a boy who was D-rank at the time? Impossible without privileged information.
He tilted his head again, asking if anyone had betrayed them.
"Put the chains, and I''ll answer you," the female voice replied.
The Silent Brother complied. If the Bridge had planned that far and thoroughly, they likely knew how to trap him if he attempted to escape. Spending a few hundred thousand years in forced labor was better than the millions of years he would be sentenced to¡ªand not survive as long¡ªif he resisted and was captured.
Feeling the lock in his soul was horrible, but he would survive.
"The Starseizing Tower has secret rules," the cthulhu replied as it started decreasing in size. "They never help anyone who only seeks them after trying to groom their competition. They sold you as soon as the Dreamer died, and you considered purchasing their services."
That shocked him. The Starseizing Tower was known for never betraying its clients. It also claimed not to fear anything or anyone. Yet it did fear competition and sold anyone who tried to create one for them?
He stared at the creature, asking if it was a lie.
"You wouldn''t understand," the creature replied. It was almost the height of the Silent Brother already. "You look at Time as just another Axiom, but it''s also an Expression of Reality. That changes things."
He frowned. The cthulhu had misspoken. Time was an Aspect, not an Expression.
It understood his confusion but chuckled in answer. It was a horrifying sound that formed nightmarish creatures in the shadows of Space. They weren''t real until the Void reached from beyond and absorbed them, giving them a Will to destroy at the fringes of Reality. Then, they started existing just beyond the veil, preparing to consume all that was. They were still connected to the cthulhu; still under its control.
The Silent Brother''s eyes widened in shock. That was treason! Had the cthulhus betrayed the Bridge? That sounded impossible.
The alternative was...
The Primordial Purge was coming. Not in the future, as the Perpetual Faction expected, but soon. Already, the Bridge was deploying forces for when the time came. Even as they helped one side in the Calamity, they already expected that not to be enough to appease the Primordials. This very Void Tide might have been provoked by them after they noticed the Calamity was getting nowhere.
After a moment of astonishment, the Silent Brother relaxed and smiled. So he would fight with the Bridge against at least some of his old enemies. That didn''t sound so bad.
The creature twisted spacetime to open a portal, leading the Silent Brother away.
? ?
? ?
Shen opened his eyes and found himself still in the vault. The mana barrier was gone, and so was almost everything else. Only the chains that had once been attached to the walls remained on the ground.
He grunted as he stood up. It felt like his soul had been mowed, crushed, ground into dust, pushed into a too-small container, and then glued together with the spit of derision of Void Spawn. His soul''s trouble withstanding his domain was just part of it; the unnatural progression of his Path and stats also caused issues. And that ripple couldn''t have helped, though at least he saw nothing wrong with his True Self.
His equipment had fared worse. He was naked, and his armor and spears were gone. So was his spatial ring.
"I lost my equipment in the line of duty," he informed the system. The mana barrier was gone, so it had returned. "I request someone help me recover the contents of my spatial ring." Whatever got destroyed during deployment was on him, but he would get a discount at having a B-rank help him recover the items inside the ring.
? ?
| Request sent. Estimated Response Time: 3 days
? ?
Samir was in chaos, so it would be a while since anyone cared for such a small business.
Next, he went for some discomfort release. His stats were suppressed to C-. He had to buy authorization from the system for them to reach C.
He went further, though. "Upgrade strength, agility, and resistance to C+," he requested.
As a cultivator, he wouldn''t improve his stats to C+; he would only buy permission from the system not to have them blocked in the future. He had to cultivate on his own. He had planned to wait until any stat required an upgrade before purchasing the permission, but his domain made it a bad idea. He might use his domain, reach C+ stats in a place with the system, and be blocked. Even if he quickly purchased an upgrade, the slight delay in a fight might cause his demise.
? ?
| Purchased: Strength Up (C) | -6,092,800 AP
| Purchased: Agility Up (C) | -6,092,800 AP
| Purchased: Resistance Up (C) | -6,092,800 AP
| Purchased: Strength Up (C+ [Potential]) | -12,185,600 AP
| Purchased: Agility Up (C+ [Potential]) | -12,185,600 AP
| Purchased: Resistance Up (C+ [Potential]) | -12,185,600 AP
| Total cost: -54,835,200 AP
| Remaining AP: 292,983,174
? ?
His True Self relaxed a little when the blockade on his stats disappeared, but he still felt like shit.
The bad part was the absolute lack of notifications. He hadn''t gained any AP for his trouble. The worst part was all the potential willpower gain he had lost. At least he was alive.
He checked the system''s clock. He had been unconscious for a few hours. There were no messages or notifications about anything on the outside, and his Brigade should be going crazy at having to hold on to fugitives, so the vault door was still blocking some of the system''s functions.
"I want to make a report," he said, then reported everything that had happened there.
Shen didn''t hide a single thing. He didn''t know which knowledge was valuable or what might upset whoever had thrown him in that place, so he might anger someone. Still, that was only a possibility. Hiding critical information about the Void, on the other hand, would be a horrible idea. The Void Tide made the Alliance less tolerant, and he belonged to an Exemplary Brigade. He wouldn''t survive if anyone ever investigated the matter.
? ?
| Report received
? ?
Surprisingly, he merely got that confirmation notification when he was done. Were the cauldron and mist that irrelevant?
He sighed. As expected, the higher-ups already knew about it. He was just a sand grain in the desert, ignorant of the bigger picture, moving in whichever direction the wind blew. But if he had tried to hide his contact with the Void...
Shen spent a few extra minutes double-checking himself and his gains. His True Realm couldn''t be deployed without using his domain, and he wouldn''t be able to use it again for a couple of days. His soul needed to recover from the stress. Even then, he would only be able to use it for a second. A full recovery, for the ability to use it for five seconds, would take at least a few weeks.
Still, he was much stronger than before. And for all the potential gains his domain had taken from him, he had lucked out in not having qi during the fight. All his combat abilities were upgraded to be better without qi than they had been when he used them with qi, but that was it. Now, he could improve their qi-fueled version by himself. It was a thin silver lining considering everything he had lost, but he would take what he could.
He could also investigate how his stats were connected to his cultivation. He had improved in ways he didn''t understand. The very Laws of Reality, under his domain''s control, had changed him without good old cultivation, which he hadn''t thought possible without the system''s mana or his qi. Researching it might let him learn something more useful than merely cultivating for a long time and the small willpower improvement it would give him.
Shen took a spare C+ cultivator robe, footwear, and spear from his Inventory. He left it there just in case he ever lost his ring. He would need to recover the ring''s contents, though.
That should be it. He had been gone for too long. It was time to see what had happened to the world outside while he took a nap.
"I''m First Lieutenant Shen, and I have the authority to check this safe''s contents," he declared to the massive door. "I have already checked. I want to leave."
Unlike last time, the mana pulses released by the door''s enchantments went far away and returned. A few seconds later, the massive thing started opening up.
Just in case, Shen rushed out of it as soon as the opening was large enough for him to pass through.
360. Return Command
? ?The Forges were about the same as Shen had left them, with crafters doing their thing regardless of whatever happened in the rest of the mobile fortress. The glaring exception was the absence of Lieutenant Specialist Aimer Genmenor.
Shen had previously guessed the B-rank had thrown him in the vault to protect the C-rank, not because he had found the experiment. The evidence supported the theory. He might be mistaken, but there was no point second-guessing how comprehensive his contextual knowledge was. He would continue with the belief that the asshole, whoever they had been, hadn''t been in on the Void business.
As soon as he stepped out, the system bombarded him with belayed notifications. Almost every one of them was a message asking where he was and pointing out they had fugitives for him to pass judgment upon. His absence was deemed critical around five minutes after the first C-rank failed to contact him, and less than a minute later, Rayna took over.
? ?
| You have temporarily lost command of the 7th Exemplary Brigade
| The 7th Exemplary Brigade is now under Staff Lieutenant Rayna''s command
? ?
Shen had never stated which of his helpers should replace him if he disappeared or was considered unfit for duty, but she was the obvious pick. She was stronger than Luthdel and not a high elf in a place teeming with people from that race. Drow and high elves were allies, but she was still the best pick.
After she took over, he almost exclusively got messages from her, with the odd one here and there from Alicia and Luthdel, both very worried about him. Sai sent him only one message, and Martino a few asking to meet with him.
? ?
| Acting Commander Rayna (C): Commander, I have taken control of the Brigade and will continue to enact your orders. I''ll keep the fugitives locked up and waiting for you. I''ll wait for you for half a day before convening with all C-ranks to discuss the Brigade''s future.
| Acting Commander Rayna (C): Fugitive Aithlin Sylren, D-rank, found.
| Acting Commander Rayna (C): Fugitive Ruven Caitris, C-rank, found.
| Acting Commander Rayna (C): Fugitive Kushvar, D-rank, found.
| Acting Commander Rayna (C): Fugitive Nesterin Ilibalar, D-rank, found.
? ?
Rayna kept Shen informed of what was happening without going into much detail. She could always give him the full report later if he returned. Moreover, he was missing, possibly compromised, and she wouldn''t want to leak critical information before she knew why.
Before doing anything about that, Shen said, "I was pushed into a vault containing a Void tool by a B-rank. I request access to the local recordings to identify the perpetrator."
? ?
| Report sent
| Request denied
? ?
After the underwhelming response from his earlier report, he expected such an answer. Shen had a tiny hope that the vault had been blocking the system from saying anything, but that wasn''t the case. He would try again after he was far from this place, but he was sure it also wouldn''t work.
Whoever had almost killed him had friends in high places.
That was pretty weird considering the zero-tolerance policy in the Void Tide, but no matter how dire the situation, those with enough power or the right connections would always have a way around the rules.
"Send a message to Lieutenant Rayna: I''m back. Send me your coordinates."
They would need to meet in person so she could assess whether he was fit for duty after disappearing. In theory, if the system wasn''t worried about him, she also shouldn''t be, but the military wouldn''t trust the system with such things. Rayna even had the right not to return command to him, in which case he would need to find his superior and hope they intervened. Shen would rather not take something so pathetic for the General to deal with.
? ?
| Acting Commander Rayna (C): Samir-7''s entrance
? ?
Her reply was still straight to the point, not saying anything she shouldn''t. It was a textbook interaction with a commander who returned after a while.
Shen rushed there. On the way, instead of absolute chaos, he encountered organized tension. His predictions about what would happen had been spot on. The weak and poorly connected Bounty targets were gone. The remaining ones were protected by peers or superiors who, while forbidden from directly interfering, were willing to break the rules to protect their people or promised payback later.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
There would still be some shakeups here and there as adversaries or enemies grouped to deal with those people. New Bounties were also still appearing, and it might affect everything. But order had mostly returned.
Multiple times, Shen went through checkpoints. People wanted to stop him so they could review the currently small Bounty list, looking for his name. He dealt with them all the same way.
He yelled, "I''m deployed! Get out of the way!"
Everyone immediately complied. The recent mayhem had taught them some lessons about not tempting fate by breaking any rules.
The entire Exemplary Brigade was waiting for Shen by the fortress''s entrance. They had formed ranks. Rayna, in front of everyone, lorded over the captured fugitives, all unconscious on the ground. The two C-ranks were kept in commoner garments and locked by expensive B- chains that prevented them from garnering energy or using their Path outside themselves. They might break the things if they wanted, but it would be treason and cause their unarmored and weaponless selves to be immediately put down.
The 7th Brigade''s haul hadn''t been as bountiful as the one Shen almost got at the vault. There were only a little over thirty fugitives there. Still a good number, all things considered.
Shen ignored them at first and approached Rayna. "Acting Commander Rayna," he addressed as he should. "I request you relinquish command back to me."
Everyone was looking at Shen. The Brigade''s C-ranks analyzed him using whichever tools they had. Rayna made system queries, and all used their senses.
"First Lieutenant Shen, before anything else, go through a B-tier identity check," Rayna replied after a few moments, pointing at the fortress''s entrance.
He nodded and did as told. The system went through his True Self as soon as he walked through the threshold, coming from the outside. He felt like he could block it with his domain if he wanted.
The scan was painless. Mana watched over him and poked a few places in his body, mind, and soul. He then returned to Rayna.
She immediately said, "I return command to First Lieutenant Shen."
? ?
| You''re now commanding the 7th Exemplary Brigade
? ?
"Thank you," Shen replied.
Finally, he looked at Luthdel, Alicia, and Sai and nodded. The first two were very relieved at seeing him alive and well. Sai also was, but it was less emotional. For him, it was a practical matter; it was better for him for Shen to be alive.
He had kept himself from interacting with them as a "deposed" Commander because it would look bad on them if he were deemed compromised. Considering the B-rank who had thrown him at the vault, that had always been a possibility, regardless of the truth. They shouldn''t even send him messages, but it wasn''t exactly against the rules; it was only poor decision-making. It could hurt them and no one else, as Rayna had access to all messages they had sent him in that period. They could''ve been branded traitors if they said something other than asking him where and how he was.
Rayna also relaxed slightly after she relinquished command to him. "Glad to have you back, Commander."
Shen nodded. "Glad to be back. I see none of us got a Bounty on their heads," he said, glancing at his subordinates. "Acting General Long Hei did a good job selecting us."
"Indeed, Commander," Rayna replied.
He noticed five people missing and checked the Brigade''s logs. They were dead. Two E-ranks and three D-ranks had passed in mere hours.
Speaking of which, now that Shen had his authority back, he checked Samir-7''s Guardian populace.
Eighteen percent of Samir''s Guardians were either dead or in jail.
Such a percentage was crazy to Shen. It was close to one in five people dying! Sure, people liked to use whatever resources they had available, including any illegal deeds'' quota, but to think that many people had walked that close to the line...
He checked the list of recently completed C-rank Bounties and lower, which he only had access to because this was the military and he was a Brigade Commander. A quick scan revealed over one-third of the casualties were in jail or dead because they tried to protect those they cared about. The little episode back in La''sing after the expeditionary training, where the girl got upset her brother was killed, showed people could act with little to no self-preservation, and this was no different. After years of fighting the Void on the front lines, plenty of Guardians had saved each others'' lives and grown close. Also, debts needed to be repaid. Promises needed to be kept. Plans for the future, which depended on the interested parties being free, needed to be preserved.
Many non-guilty Guardians had also died seeking Bounties. The Brigade had gotten it easy. That, too, showed their quality, not only in strength but also in knowing when to engage or retreat. His orders should also have assisted them so they wouldn''t be caught alone.
However, either his orders were insufficient, or they disobeyed him. And if the dead had disobeyed him, so had, potentially, whoever was supposed to stay around to protect him.
"Explain to me how we lost five people," he commanded Rayna.
She did. Shen felt bittersweet by the fact that, indeed, four people had disregarded his orders and died because of it. The fifth had just gotten greedy and reached further than she should have.
"...and the four were under Battalion Commander Vinamour," she concluded her report.
Shen waited a moment, but she had indeed finished. He raised an eyebrow at that. "Didn''t you investigate the matter?"
"No, Commander. I postponed it until the meeting later in case you didn''t return."
It had been a safe move. Rayna didn''t want to mess with someone stronger than her unless she had no alternative. She also would rather not pass judgment that Shen might disagree with. Lastly, her life might depend on Vinamour one day, so there was no reason to get at odds with him for something she didn''t need to touch if Shen returned.
"Very well," Shen replied and turned to Vinamour, who stood a dozen yards behind her. "Explain."
The guy had been ready for the demand. He looked firmly into Shen''s eyes and said, "I''ll postpone any comment until the end of the current mission, Commander."
It was a smart move. If Shen thought Vinamour had messed up badly, he could demand the guy to answer now. It was a potential time sink, though, not to mention Shen might need to punish Vinamour in a way that made him temporarily unfit for duty. Debriefing him after they dealt with the fugitives was better for the mission. All things considered, five deaths was an acceptable rate.
Yet, 80% of the deaths had been from the same Battalion Commander. That suggested a systemic failure that might cause much worse casualties in actual battle. Shen refused to continue without fixing that, which required him to investigate the matter.
"You have until the end of the fugitives'' trials to think of what you''ll say," Shen replied, much to the guy''s surprise. He was going beyond the call of duty of even an Exemplary Brigade.
Shen turned to the first chained C-rank and checked his system records. He was a traitor; no need to waste time with questions. He executed the high elf with a spear strike and checked the next fugitive.
361. Ill Change
Vinamour was furious at what Shen was doing to him.
Any of his subordinates could tell the Brigade Commander what had happened, and it would be bad for Vinamour, but Shen hadn''t gone for them. Instead, the human gave the fanmv time to think of a lie. Then, Shen would investigate and use it against Vinamour. It was a trap.
Vinamour had learned to accept the Commander was stronger than him, but this? This was too much. He was being played. After wasting hours of the opportunity to hunt for Bounties, Shen returned like nothing had happened and humiliated him so?
No. Vinamour could swallow many things. Not this.
"Send a message to my forefather: I''m done with this. Take me away."
? ?
| Message sent
? ?
Most people looked surprised at him, but Shen had the gall to ignore him while still checking some irrelevant fugitive''s records. Another time sink, that trial business. He should just kill them all. The fanmv were a righteous race, but even Vinamour could tell those people were guilty at a glance.
Anyway, Vinamour would make the guy pay for the continued disrespect later¡ªor so he believed until he received a reply not from his forefather but his brother.
? ?
| Anamour (B): Are you stupid? We''re dealing with a Void Tide! It''s bigger than the damn Calamity! Forefather is too busy to deal with anything not crucial for our race''s survival. Grandfather is still upset at your last waste of our political leverage to take you out of the Grand Avaron Tournament because a servant refused you. Not to mention how many favors he called and the resources he used to put you there in the first place. He declined to talk to me even after I said this situation would likely lead to your death. Yes, little brother. I lied for you. You owe me one, even if it didn''t work. You''re on your own for now. Behave, and you''ll be fine as long as you don''t commit treason or anger the Node Commander.
? ?
Vinamour''s mind failed to comprehend what he had just read. It made no sense. What waste of political clout? They were a quasi-mythical race! Whatever the forefather said, everyone else should just shut up and obey! And if grandfather merely mentioned it to the forefather, the forefather would help.
How dare his grandfather do that to Vinamour?!
After everything his father had done to his grandfather! Vinamour was an orphan because his father had died to protect his grandfather! The ungrateful traitor! Where was the righteousness the old fossil had insisted was part of fanmv identity?! To leave your own grandson to die was vile!
His Path made his body tremble in resentment and fury, but he kept it contained in himself.
It took him a long time to calm down. He was alone. Cut from his race.
Unacceptable.
He would change that his own way.
He said, "I want to report Brigade Commander Shen for plotting with the Void."
If it was true, Shen would die. Otherwise, Vinamour would be jailed for a false accusation while deployed. A fatal mistake to most, but not to him.
The military preached equality¡ªan absurdity in itself, as not all races were created equal¡ªbut as a direct descendant of an S-rank, Vinamour would only be judged by an A-rank after his forefather was notified. His grandfather would act then. Losing a grandson as a traitor on the front lines? Even if the man was willing to spit on his son''s sacrifice, he would never allow the fanmv to be connected to such a thing if he could avoid it.
? ?
| Report sent
? ?
The white-texted notification was followed by four red ones.
? ?
| Your accusation was found to be false
| False accusations of treason during a deployment are considered treason
| YOU HAVE BEEN BRANDED A TRAITOR
| SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY OR DIE
? ?
Vinamour was slightly surprised at how quick he got an answer. Evidently, Samir''s Acting General was paying attention. It made sense, of course. The report had come from Vinamour. The dragon would be stupid not to keep an eye on him after humiliating him by placing him below Shen. There was only so much offense anyone was willing to give a fanmv, even a dragon.
That proved they were already enough to be considered a mythical race; even A-rank dragons gave a C-rank like him face.
Shock spread through everyone''s faces and souls. Vinamour smirked. It was always interesting when the inferior races recognized they stood in the presence of someone above them.
Shen was asking something to a high-elven D-rank and stopped midsentence. He slowly turned his head to Vinamour and didn''t hide his surprise.
"I invoke the Right to Imprisonment," Vinamour said. He should''ve said it earlier to be safer, but he wanted to look at the Brigade Commander''s eyes as he realized how small he was. "Take me to the Detention Department," he commanded.
He got yellow notifications next.
? ?
| S-Tier Right to Imprisonment Invoked
| An S-Tier Extinction Event is currently underway in the Multiverse Alliance
| Right to Imprisonment is currently limited to B-ranks and higher
| Right to Imprisonment has been replaced with Right to First-Offense Severity Decrease for C-ranks
| You are no longer branded a traitor
| You have committed a grave offense
? ?
Vinamour''s smirk froze on his face. No. That wasn''t right. That wasn''t possible.
"Send a message to my forefather: I messed up. I beg forgiveness. Save me. I''ll change."
? ?
| Message sent
? ?
Whether he would change or not was irrelevant. He needed a way out now. He could appease his family later.
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The seconds tickled. Shen and everyone just looked at him. They had become surprised when he stopped being a traitor, which was impossible for their pathetic existence, but he wasn''t in the mood to bathe in the glory.
No one answered.
No one.
"Send a message to Anamour: Find me a way out, and I''ll become your slave. I swear on my name."
? ?
| Message sent
? ?
Time passed slowly again. When he thought no one would answer, he got a reply.
? ?
| Anamour (B): I''m sorry, brother. I really am. I talked to you about it multiple times, but you were so lost in your resentment... I even warned you in my last message about the Void Tide being significant. Why couldn''t you listen? Was it my fault? Should I have become the father we lost? I suppose so. Die with honor, brother. I''ll avenge you after the Void Tide is over.
? ?
Vinamour had to read the text thousands of times to understand what it said. He... What... How...
Die?
"This is a shame," Shen said and had the gall to sound sad. "I had high hopes for you, Vinamour. I hoped you were a scheming man¡ªthat your arrogance was a persona. I hoped you were someone who bullied the weak but feared the strong. I hoped you were a coward. But you''re just a spoiled guy."
Vinamour was too astonished to feel angry at being looked down upon.
"Tell me what happened, Second Lieutenant," Shen continued. "Why did the four Guardians under you die? Tell me it wasn''t the consequence of your direct actions. If true, I''ll pay the price to have you expelled instead of executed. In my recent absence, I understood this Void Tide may have more hidden dangers than I expected. I would rather you stay alive to protect someone than get a better prize for being a genuinely exemplary Commander."
Shen was still looking down on¡ª
Oh. Oh! Vinamour smiled as his body relaxed. He could read the subtext. Shen was afraid of the fanmv, as he should be. He just needed Vinamour to give him an excuse to let him survive.
"It wasn''t the consequence of my direct actions," he lied.
Shen raised an eyebrow at that. "Everything I know about the fanmv, body language, soul analysis, and Path instinctual movement tells me you''re lying, but I''ll give you the benefit of the doubt." He turned to one of Vinamour''s Lieutenants. "Second Lieutenant Marakoo, why did the four people in your Battalion die?"
Vinamour snorted. Of course, she would lie. The Brigade Commander had just shown he was on Vinamour''s side.
"I want to remind you that lying about what led to deaths during deployment is treason," Shen suddenly added. "Unlike Second Lieutenant Vinamour, who we just discovered can cease being a traitor for reasons unknown, I don''t think you should bet your life on also being capable of invoking the Right to Imprisonment."
Vinamour never stopped smiling. Shen wanted to keep appearances. No problem.
"Battalion Commander Vinamour told us we could act alone if we wanted," Marakoo said.
Well, it looked like Marakoo would be executed for "lying" during the investigation to try to get promoted. He was next in line, after all.
"System, show me Vinamour saying that if you have it on record," Shen said.
Vinamour started doubting. Shen was pretending too well. Was¡ª
He never saw Shen move. He never saw the spear cut him in four parts. He did feel it cut him into cubes, though.
Then, nothing.
? ?
? ?
"That was unpleasant," Shen said after killing the fanmv.
As Shen had told the guy, he had hoped for the best. Vinamour''s military record was terrific, explaining why he had been chosen to join the Exemplary Brigade despite his personality.
However, before coming to Samir, he had been in a Node where everyone worshiped the ground he walked on. Of course, it wasn''t stated in his file, but he got Commendations for minor things and didn''t have a single Demerit. Considering the guy''s character, that was impossible unless people made things easier for him. He also had no special clearances, showing people pushed the boundaries for him but never crossed any lines¡ªand that he wasn''t as impressive as his Commendations suggested.
His superiors let him do whatever he wanted. His Path had cemented around the belief that people should bow to his whims. He could accept nothing else, especially not being placed under a C-rank who opposed him.
Shen''s existence was anathema to Vinamour''s Path, which sealed his fate.
"Rayna, please collect and deliver his things to the Investigation Department."
The Investigation Department would have to check the man''s items before returning them to his family. Anyone who was executed was investigated. Shen could withhold the items until he was no longer deployed like he had done to the drow items, but he would rather not.
The guy had ceased being a traitor, after all. Shen had received a notification saying one of his subordinates was a traitor, then another saying it was no longer the case. He hadn''t known that was possible. Considering Vinamour had thought his forefather could save him, having an S-rank in your race evidently gave you a lot of pull. Shen had no reason to upset the fanmv race further by delaying the delivery of Vinamour''s possessions to them.
"Second Lieutenant Marakoo will be the Battalion Commander now," he said, then sighed and added, "I don''t care who you are or where you came from. As the Commander of an Exemplary Brigade, turning a blind eye to any offense that should be punishable by death would cause my demise instead, except in very few situations, like the report about my association with the Void. As it was related to me, I could forgive him to a point. I was willing to because he only acted stupidly instead of genuinely attacking me. Anything else won''t be tolerated. Don''t mistake my desire to fight the Void with weakness.
"What killed Vinamour was that he opposed my orders and lied in the investigation. In an Exemplary Brigade, those offenses are punishable by death. That''s why he was executed. Learn from his mistakes. I would rather not have to deal with such things again."
Vinamour''s death showed how absolute power was the answer to every problem¡ªbut only after it was achieved. You had to follow the rules until there was no one stronger than you.
Shen''s Truth of Limits was crucial for his survival in multiple ways. He was glad he had picked that Truth.
The realization was sad, though. Once more, someone with the right connections had ignored the rules¡ªVinamour had even stopped being a traitor! Once again, Shen felt how little he mattered.
He finished judging the fugitives and was waiting for Rayna to return from the Investigation Department when he got two yellow notifications.
? ?
| The Memory-Locking Team has arrived in Samir
| The 7th Exemplary Brigade is to stay in place until the team locks every Brigade member''s memories
? ?
Shen frowned. The lockdown message long ago had said the Memory-Locking Team would arrive in three days, but many more had passed. It had also expressed their business would take three to six months. It made sense because the message even said the team had S-tier authority regardless of the individual''s ranks. They should be weak and take a while to do what they needed to¡ª
His line of thought was interrupted when a presence manifested.
Shen''s True Self shook. He was seeing something but couldn''t tell what. His mind refused to register the S-rank who was not keeping low in¡ª
It was gone. Shen took a long breath and checked his True Self. Sure enough, some of his memories were blocked. He hadn''t even felt it happen. As far as he could tell, the bubbles were made of no Energy. They were just there, preventing his mind from accessing that knowledge.
Shen felt he could destroy the bubble with his domain, as it felt a bit fragile. However, the system or the S-rank who placed it there¡ªor both¡ªwould not be pleased. He wasn''t suicidal enough to piss off an S-rank. There was no surviving that.
That was genuine absolute power.
It was also very well done. Shen resented being forced not to remember something, but it didn''t affect him in any way. He couldn''t notice any hiccup in his stream of memories. It was as if he had never learned whatever it was, whenever it had happened. He couldn''t even tell when it had occurred, or when he had gotten the message about the Memory-Locking Team, or anything about it.
More importantly, he had no side effects from exposure to an S-rank''s Realization. He knew that might happen. He was glad he was alright.
Then again, when he checked his Brigade, everyone had fared much worse. Everyone was unconscious. It showed how special his True Self was. Rayna wasn''t there, but he doubted the S-rank had forgotten about her.
The entire thing had taken less than a split instant. The means of S-ranks were unimaginable to him.
Shen wondered what an S-rank coming to Samir meant. Was this about the Void Tide? Was Samir compromised? Would Acting General Long Hei be replaced with an actual S-rank General?
He waited, and no one woke up even after half an hour. Their souls had been severely pressured by the S-rank''s presence. Not to the point they were harmed, but they needed the rest. The E-ranks had paradoxically fared better, undoubtedly because the S-rank had been gentler with them.
Nothing happened as he waited. There was no announcement about Samir having a new leader. No sudden power surges or emergency call to arms to fight against the Void.
What Shen did get after that long was an unexpected system message.
? ?
¡¸ Deployment Update
The 7th Exemplary Brigade''s mission has been changed.
New mission: Filter and Merge Imperia''s Troops
Every Guardian from the Republic of Imperia (A), ranging from B-rank to F-rank, will arrive in one Standard hour.
They have been teleporting ever since the Void Tide started.
Draw a plan to filter Bounty targets out with a minimal death rate and merge their troops with Samir''s current ones.
They are still being teleported. You can send them messages before they arrive. They can reply.
Total Troops: 993,413,790
Troops by Rank:
B: 654
C: 755,844
D: 611,684,952
E: 357,988,211
F: 22,984,129
Bounties by Rank:
B: 22
C: 31,223
D: 44,118
E: 2,472,355
F: 5,212¡¹
? ?
Shen stared at the window, asking himself if Long Hei had really just asked him to accommodate almost one billion fighting troops¡ªE-ranks and higher¡ªin the front line. Every Node was meant for less than a tenth of that, and Samir already had Guardians stationed in it.
And he had to convince B-ranks to turn themselves in? Diplomatically? Him?
"Shit."
362. Not Doable
The rest of the Brigade was as unenthusiastic about the mission update as Shen.
It was bad enough that they couldn''t hunt Bounty targets while babysitting newcomers, but more importantly, they were warriors, not bureaucrats. They knew how everything in the front lines worked from the "user" side, but Brigade Commanders¡ªreal ones¡ªand above were the ones who mixed martial business with paper pushing, not weak Guardians like them. None of them had any experience providing non-combative services, like assigning dorms or even investigating anything.
After telling them, he first took counsel with only Luthdel to see if he had any insights from belonging to an A-tier race.
"Are those numbers real?" The high elf asked with a frown.
His mood was still somber after the episode with the exiled drow. He also resented Shen for having talked to the Queen behind his back. Still, he kept things civil, another evidence of how much he had grown in those three years.
Luthdel''s question was in line with Shen''s concerns. Although Shen had no information about how many Guardians most races had, he knew all high elves at C-rank or lower had come to Samir. So had everyone from Earth. And still, they fit a single Node.
Humanity had had over seven billion people before the Alliance arrived, almost six billion being fifteen or older, the minimum age to join the Pioneer Tutorial. He didn''t know how many humans had died in the initial chaos, but he doubted it was more than half the populace. That was still three billion people. Let''s say only two-thirds had joined the tutorial. That still made it two billion Guardians.
Humanity had been weak when they arrived in Samir, sure, but if they could fit a Node...
Were most of them still weak, at F-rank, or were they dead?
Shen hadn''t cared to check. Martino should know. He should talk to her¡ªand maybe even volunteer her help, as she had experience with Guardian government and diplomacy, and he mostly trusted her. With this, at least. Under his supervision.
He also wasn''t sure precisely how F-ranks were trained in the military or what was required for them to gain AP to rank up and join the actual fight. The same held true for E-ranks who helped with minor things in the mobile fortress. His combat training hadn''t broached the subject.
So, first things first. "System, I''ll need information to accomplish my new mission. Maybe extra clearances. I must know exactly how just about everything is organized in the military, the number of people in Samir, and where they are. It would help if my Staff Lieutenants and Battalion Commanders were also aware of most, if not all, of it."
? ?
| Request sent
| Clearance received: Military Organizational Knowledge (Level 3)
| Item received: Primer on Military Organization (Level 3)
| Clearance received: Node Information Access: Samir (Level 5)
? ?
System primers had no physical form; he read them through system windows. The one he got appeared in midair. Shen noticed Luthdel''s and the Battalion Commanders'' eyes looking at something before them, showing they had also received at least notifications. He checked their clearances and saw they had gotten a level 2 one instead.
Shen read everything quickly. The document was enormous, easily the most extensive text he had ever laid his eyes upon. It took him five minutes to finish despite how fast he could read. It explained what those levels even were, as he hadn''t been aware clearances also had different levels like that. At least, not any other than leadership-related clearances.
The primer didn''t provide a list of clearances, but it revealed that most clearances had levels. Without a few specific clearances, you wouldn''t know about it.
He also used his new information access to check how many people were already in Samir. Twenty-four million fighters and two billion non-combatants, the latter mostly F-ranks. Imperia had a whole lot more than that. It was nuts.
The high elves also only had fifteen B-ranks. How could Imperia have almost seven hundred?!
If anything, that suggested cultivation was the superior path¡ªas long as you didn''t have to fight a war of existence and control the populace''s growth.
Rayna arrived while he was reading. Shen shared the new mission with her. She wasn''t amused.
"That explains the new clearance I got. Commander, I read the Primer on Military Organization. Our mission isn''t doable."
Her lower-level primer didn''t contain the specifics of how to organize things if there was a surplus of warriors during an emergency. He knew it because his primer labeled every piece of knowledge in it according to the clearance level needed to know it. It also let him know they could increase the number of Corps, Brigades, Battalions, and so on. Reserve troops were also a thing. There was only one problem.
"The biggest issue I see is accommodation," Shen replied.
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There was no getting an extra mobile fortress; they needed to use what they already had. Regulations demanded everyone be given a personal dorm, even if they didn''t use it every time. Or at all. Yet, the vacant bedrooms were only enough for another half a billion people.
Shen explained it, adding, "That leaves us with half a billion Guardians with nowhere to go."
He almost wished more people from Imperia had Bounties and could be imprisoned. There was no need to give them personal space. You could place everyone in a tuna can and call it a day. But Imperia had been assimilated by the Alliance shortly after Earth, and their Guardians hadn''t had the time to use their Bounty thresholds to seek opportunities. At least, most of them hadn''t thought it worth it yet.
"As I said, Commander," Rayna replied, "not doable."
"I can help with that, Commander," Luthdel said. "But you won''t like the solution."
"Yes?"
"Block half the incoming people''s teleportation," he suggested, almost unwillingly.
Shen frowned. That didn''t break any rules, as it was basically pushing the problem to someone else. Samir didn''t have the means to accommodate that many people, so Samir only had not to receive them and let the system deal with it.
However, those Guardians would be stuck in teleportation limbo until they were allowed to come. That couldn''t be pleasant. It would also waste the Alliance''s resources. Keeping people in perpetual teleportation couldn''t be cheap.
"Commander," Rayna interjected, "you said your orders mention minimal death rate. It seems to be related to the Bounty targets, but it might also be hinting at culling some individuals."
Shen shook his head. "Killing half the incoming Guardians doesn''t sound like a minimal death rate to me. Even if it did, the military can''t send anyone to certain death, even on a mission, unless it''s considered critical for the greater good, and I can only do so for my Brigade. The Node Commander would need to directly create missions to kill those people. If he intended on doing that, he wouldn''t have told us to find a solution."
Fabricating a false critical issue to kill people would also be treason, but Shen didn''t feel the need to mention it.
Luthdel had an idea but bit his lower lip for a moment before saying, "Commander, relocating the incoming people from Imperia would be against the spirit of the mission. But it says nothing about sending some Guardians already here to another Node, does it?"
That had been Shen''s first thought, but he guessed his mission''s purpose was to avoid doing that. Certainly, the Acting General had also thought of that but would rather not send the high elves to La''sing. Shen wasn''t sure how Samir''s lockdown worked with the Void Tide, but it would be, at least, a slap to the dragon''s face to send away the people he had gone to such lengths to lock down.
Lengths that Shen noticed he didn''t recall. He only knew they were extreme, as they had forced a memory lock on him as his Brigade.
On the other hand, if Shen was the one to suggest it, and the target was La''sing, it might make the Queen happy with him. Was Long Hei playing politics now? Did he want Shen and the Queen to develop a good relationship? Or perhaps did he simply not want to make it look like the relocation idea came from him because of other political considerations?
Shen sighed and asked his Battalion Commanders for input.
No one had any magic solution. The only new¡ªstupid¡ªsuggestion was ignoring the rule of giving every Guardian a personal room. It would be a minor offense if done to a few people, but doing it for half a billion Guardians would be considered a monumental logistics disruption. Considering they were an Exemplary Brigade and a big bad Void Tide was going on, everyone involved in that decision would be executed for treason.
Ultimately, he went with what felt the best for the Alliance as a whole. Keeping half a billion Guardians frozen during the Void Tide was a lousy strategic decision. Even if politics was involved in sending the elves away, that was the best thing to do.
In fact, they should all leave. That would assist with Samir''s cohesiveness, at the cost of a small window of time in which Samir would lack people used to it, especially Commanders and bureaucrats. That, in turn, might help expose a lot of corruption that might still be unnoticed¡ªat the cost of making it easier for Imperia''s potential corruption and factional struggles to take root.
Shen and the C-ranks formed a simple plan to assimilate the incoming Guardians. It wasn''t that hard. He still had to expand how many units Samir had, but no one was kept in reserve, which should be better to protect against the Void.
His main worry was how Earth and Imperia would mingle. He already expected the division between mana-wielders and cultivators to create a clash, but it might be even worse. As far as he knew, no one from Earth other than him knew the Eternal Empire had previously ruled Earth. But did people from Imperia remember it? And how would it affect their relationship?
As bad as that could be, he couldn''t justify sending Earth''s humans to La''sing, so they would have to deal with it.
He wrote the plan down and forwarded it to Long Hei, who replied with a single word.
? ?
| Samir''s Commander (A): Approved.
? ?
A few moments later, a few high elves close to Samir-7''s mobile fortress entrance started getting teleported away. They didn''t all go simultaneously to prevent not having the troops to deal with an emergency, but the dragon and the Queen had evidently already agreed to the transfer.
Unfortunately, there had been no updates to his mission status. He still needed to organize everyone when they arrived and find a way to imprison Bounty targets without widespread bloodshed.
"Keep making plans for the specifics of the logistics," Shen ordered. "I''ll hire help."
They had to decide who would go where. One thing he had just gotten access to was a rapport score between Guardians. Except for most B-ranks, these people had been deployed elsewhere, and there was animosity between people from the same units or chain of command that they could solve now. That was undoubtedly part of keeping death rates to a minimum, even if not explicit in his orders. Who knew what could happen after they arrived and realized their B-ranks could easily take over Samir?
Shen hadn''t even known a race could have that many B-ranks!
He had shared access to the rapport score with Luthdel, Rayna, and the Battalion Commanders, and they would make sure to decrease friction. At least as far as proper unit separation could accomplish. He would still need to deal with the Bounty targets and expected important people to make everything much more challenging than it needed to be.
In other words, it was time to talk to Martino.
"Rayna, come with me," Shen commanded.
The drow were known for being schemers. As their Maiden, Rayna should know one thing or two about tricking Bounty targets into giving up without a fight. She wasn''t a great fighter like Liya, so she had to focus more on crafting and maybe plotting than fighting. Or so he hoped.
He really wasn''t anticipating discussing anything with B-rank Bounty targets.
More importantly, he also resented Long Hei for that mission. Wasn''t the dragon the Second Seat of the Eternal Empire? Couldn''t he just send a message to the Eternal Emperor, or Grand Senator, or whatever he was called now, and deal with it? Why waste Shen''s time like that?
Shen sighed.
He reckoned he had been very lucky until now. What he was about to deal with were the usual woes of being an irrelevant cog in the military machine.
363. Rank Update
?Accepting the system was always watching had been challenging at first, to the point birth rates were lower on Earth compared to before, and that was considering Guardians procreated more easily. There was always the feeling that the system was watching when you were making out with someone. Marzia and most women she knew felt awkward about it, even the most outgoing ones, though some obviously had a thing for it.
About a year after the Rift War, everyone got more or less used to it. By then, Marzia had control of Earth, including having negotiated for the invaders to leave. That caused her a loss in the short term, but she believed it to be worth it in the long term.
Earth took the feeling of safety and abundance similarly to how Americans took their strong economy after World War II. People didn''t need to eat, Guardians required no sleep, and Earth was somewhat clean and safe. One in every five adult women became pregnant, Guardians foremost among them.
Newborns, they learned, didn''t have the same benefit of not needing food that the Alliance had gifted humans when it arrived. That caused some inconveniences, but magic made it easy to deal with. For one, conjured water ensured no one was ever thirsty. While any conjured element dissipated after being inside a Guardian for a few seconds, commoners'' biology had no such issue. Moreover, any random Guardian could build stuff faster and cheaper. Crops grew quickly and healthy. Diseases were swiftly treated.
That caused another problem: Guardians who settled and wanted to care for their families usually didn''t like fighting as much, despite the added aggressiveness from becoming a Guardian.
The old saying that soft cultures bred weak people was proven both right and wrong. Right, because as rifts kept appearing throughout the world, there was a half-year period when the Guardians who just wanted to live life without worry were killed like flies. Wrong, because the pushback was almost instantaneous. They understood they had to fight for their families. That risking their lives to grow stronger today was better than doing the bare minimum only to die tomorrow¡ªand their family with them.
Marzia had never seen such an outstanding argument for fatherly and motherly instincts. The Guardians started fighting like maddened wolves to protect their pack. For the next half-year, until everything stabilized again, Earth''s Guardians went through a quick growth period.
Still, the losses had been enormous after the tutorial. On top of the conflict between humans, many rifts had counter-invaded Earth after being left unattended for too long. The Alliance''s invaders also made it harder to deal with some rifts before they left.
So, when the Calamity arrived three years ago, only two billion remained on Earth. Of those, half a billion were commoners, including babies. The one-and-a-half billion Guardians were mostly F-ranks, one-tenth were E-ranks, and a few dozen were D-ranks.
Marzia kept following the numbers after they arrived on the front lines. Humans died a lot. The military taught them a lot, but they paid for it with blood.
Today, Earth had one hundred D-ranks in Samir, two hundred thousand E-ranks, and one hundred thousand F-ranks. La''sing had another five D-ranks. That was it. All that remained of the one-and-a-half billion Earth''s Guardians.
They had not been ready for the Alliance, and it was even worse on the front lines.
The military machine mowed through them with enormous efficiency. You either grew stronger or died. Only slow and stupid people remained at F-rank. Or cowards. Still, Earth would theoretically come out stronger for it; how true that was remained to be seen.
Marzia didn''t believe the price was worth it, but she tried not to think much about it. As with the system, it was just part of the life they learned to accept.
Not all was bad, though. One of the things Marzia immensely enjoyed in the military over old Earth was the prison. On Earth, people were known to get screwed in jail. In the Alliance''s military, you lived in a Big Brother dystopia. The Guardian System wasn''t only watching; it had the power to enforce its rules. Prisoners had considerably fewer rights than your average Guardian, somewhere midway between free citizens and rift dwellers.
So, despite being packed with a hundred people in a tiny white cube with not even space for every one of them to lie down on the ground, she didn''t feel threatened. Even looking wrong at another prisoner was punished with a wave of pain. She also found thoughts of attacking anyone ended with pain. As for actually attacking...
She saw it happen once. One high elf called another a traitor, started pulling his arm back to punch...
...and was disintegrated by a mana beam.
That had happened two days ago, and Marzia still thought she could see the afterimage of the beam so white that it felt like it had cut through something in Reality. It didn''t even look like an actual color. Maybe it hadn''t been. Maybe her brain had merely interpreted it as white because she couldn''t understand what she saw.
"I didn''t expect to find you here," a male voice broke the cell''s silence and cut through Marzia''s thoughts.
Earth''s Maiden turned to see one of the cube''s white walls had turned transparent, revealing the endless white corridor of cells in the Detention Department. They were all transparent from the outside and filled with people, but those in the cells could only see through the wall-sized door facing the corridor when their jailers allowed it.
Wearing a black cultivator robe, Shen stood in the corridor beside a drow in armor made of green scales with black runes.
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Marzia didn''t like Rayna. Whenever the drow looked at Marzia, it was as if she was seeing dirt on a house she had just cleaned. This time was no different.
Not that Shen was much better. He had that utilitarian way of looking at people that most C-ranks and even some D-rank Commanders on the front lines developed after a while. When looking at Marzia, he didn''t see her. He saw a Sergeant, a tool to fulfill a purpose, a cog in the machine. She reckoned that it was slightly softer than he looked at most others, including the drow¡ªmaybe that''s the source of her dislike for Marzia? Jealousy?¡ªbut not by much.
He was looking at her, so she replied with as much information as she should to let him understand why she was there. "First Lieutenant, I was made a Justicar before you arrived in Samir. I should investigate your Exemplary Brigade and stop any abuses. I should also outperform you. Instead, I assisted you in discovering the incoming Void Tide. Acting General Long Hei was very upset about it. He decided I should think about my mistakes for a couple of weeks."
Shen shook his head disapprovingly. "I don''t claim to know how any A-rank thinks, but I believe that is why he put you there. You gave me the information about the Void Tide because you genuinely thought I was the best person to give it to. However, even now, you''re saying what people want to hear instead of the cold truth¡ªor what you believe to be the truth.
"You think you''re here for your protection but assessed it would make the other prisoners upset and jealous, so you chose your words carefully and crafted a better-accepted story. You know that that personality trait would make people believe you informed me for personal gain, for politics. It placed you in danger, especially in the chaos of the Bounty targets.
"Yet, even knowing all that, you didn''t change. You believe the Acting General was endorsing your attitude by protecting you like your controlling father might''ve done in the past. You are wrong. You would not be punished if the Acting General just meant to protect you. That would be against military regulations. You''re reading too much politics in a straight-up punishment. You''re meant to rethink your ways."
Marzia smiled weakly. She had considered those points, of course, but she would''ve done things like the Acting General did to protect someone. It was much more straightforward and less costly than any alternative.
Guessing her thoughts here was easy, considering how every C-rank she met could tell when she was lying. Still, Shen had a C-rank mind to her D-rank but never displayed the skills required for diplomacy or even proper leadership. Marzia couldn''t believe he had developed them so quickly. Not enough to surpass her. She had ruled over Earth for years now, including dealing with alien invaders. She knew how people thought. Nothing she had ever seen suggested A-ranks were that different.
It irked her to hear him talk about the father he had killed, but it was good riddance, so whatever.
Shen sighed. "But your outlook on the world is part of your Path already, isn''t it? I suppose that is for the best. That is, after all, the reason I came. System, I''m conscripting Prisoner Marzia Martino as expert help for my current mission. Teleport her to me."
Marzia instantly turned into light motes and then materialized outside. The sudden shift of position made her dazed for a few moments.
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| Rank Update: Military Prisoner ¡ú Conditionally Released Sergeant
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The conscription didn''t surprise her. Of course, he had come here to use her like a tool. As she had assessed, he had become a military man through and through.
What surprised her was that her political expertise, which he said had gotten her punished, was needed for a military mission on the front lines¡ªright after he said she was reading too much in a straight-up punishment.
"You two are the only Maidens in Samir," Shen said. "Martino, can you think of any other person in this Node with political skills? Their rank doesn''t matter."
Unfortunately, Marzia could.
Usually, she would never say that bastard''s name. She knew little about him, but he had upset her too much. But this was no usual situation, and Shen wasn''t just anyone.
Marzia breathed politics, but she also knew the limits of mere words in a world where the strongest fist made the rules. She disliked several things Shen did, but accepting them and supporting him was humanity''s lifeline. Unlike him, she cared for their survival.
Even if helping him assisted people she hated, she had to do it. Not because of the military rules but because she couldn''t afford to upset humanity''s lifeline.
Marzia replied, "While deployed as a Justicar, I noticed a suspicious figure. He can smoothly navigate Samir, and I don''t think it''s just because he has some sort of special identity. He knows what to say and when to say it; he did it multiple times to go against me. Two examples: once, I told multiple Brigade Commanders that they could profit from following your footsteps. He always appeared and counter-argued the right way. Another time, he convinced my Battalion Commander to disobey a direct order during a deployment, which caused him to be executed for treason. Almost everyone almost died because the Battalion Commander made us explore a place too dangerous for us. Everyone survived, though."
"Controlled manipulation with no collateral damage," Shen assessed. "Textbook undercover operations to get rid of hazardous Guardians. Also called traitor-fugitive prevention ops."
Marzia had never heard about that, but it explained a few of the things she had seen. "It doesn''t explain why he helped your Brigade, Commander."
Shen shrugged. "Samir''s troops were never meant to win the competition against the Exemplary Brigade, but we couldn''t win without assistance. We are too few. That''s my guess, at least. I would also bet on a third party having their own goals."
What Marzia hated the most about the response was that she couldn''t tell how genuine Shen was. There were no signs of him either being truthful or lying. Her instincts told her he was hiding something, but experience told her not to trust instincts she couldn''t fully understand. You couldn''t trust even yourself when Laws were involved, and your Path only contained Concepts. Who knew how another Guardian''s Path warped Reality?
The second thing she hated the most was feeling used. She had been assigned to an impossible mission. But she dealt with that better; it was common in politics, and since arriving in Samir, she didn''t know what it meant to be on top.
"What is his name?" Shen asked.
"Lieutenant Specialist Taeral Miavalur, Commander."
Shen raised an eyebrow. "Oh? He was following us when we were cleaning the mobile fortresses. Intriguing. System, can I conscript Taeral Miavalur?" He paused. "Good. Teleport him to me."
Light flashed out, and the high elf that had been a thorn to Marzia''s side appeared in the corridor. He looked surprised at being suddenly moved and even more shocked at being near Shen.
"Welcome onboard, Lieutenant," Shen said with a predatory smile. "I was led to believe you can help me convince even B-ranks with a Bounty on their heads to willingly give themselves up to capture. Let''s get right to it. System, teleport us to this fortress'' entrance."
Marzia was astonished as the teleportation light enveloped her. Sure, she didn''t believe B-rank minds were that above hers. But to convince someone with that much power not to resist capture?
She smiled. Even if she failed, she would see that annoying guy do his best and learn from him.
That should be fun.
364. An Outsider
The four Guardians materialized before Samir-7''s mobile fortress. Shen''s Brigade was still there. He quickly summoned the C-ranks for a meeting and introduced the newcomers.
"This is the First Sergeant Marzia Martino, Human Maiden, Czarina of Earth. This is Lieutenant Specialist Taeral Miavalur. They will assist us in convincing Imperia''s Bounty targets to surrender instead of causing trouble."
Everyone looked at the two. Shen wasn''t sure who surprised them the most: the D-rank they had seen before or the new C-rank.
As Shen had told Marzia, he noticed Taeral when clearing the mobile fortresses of fugitives. The last time he saw the guy was when Shgen killed the drow who captured Luthdel, plus the C-ranks who attacked him. Back then, Taeral had witnessed everything Shen did but then cut himself to external stimuli. Evidently, he was looking into things but knew when not to pry too deeply.
Added to everything Martino had reported, the guy''s identity was clear: SpecOps.
Though Shen hadn''t lied to Martino, he had hid that detail from her. SpecOps wouldn''t get involved in helping an Exemplary Brigade except as a side job. He had no doubt another side job was watching over him. Taeral had appeared in every mobile fortress Shen had cleaned of fugitives. That didn''t explain why he had chosen to not see anything after Shen killed the drow, but it likely had to do with opposing orders.
Anyway, whatever Taeral''s primary goal was, it wasn''t helping Shen. Paradoxically, that''s the main reason Shen had called him. The high elf would do his best to quickly conclude his business with Shen so he could return to his actual mission. Shen was slightly surprised he could even conscript the man but guessed it had to do with keeping the elf''s undercover identity.
With green eyes, long golden hair, and a handsome face, the tall and well-toned Taeral would catch the attention of anyone anywhere¡ªexcept in a place filled with high elves. For a C-rank high elf, he had almost a forgettable face, which should come with the job. His unhelmeted silvery plate armor with green details was well-crafted enough to please most senses of aesthetics but pass somewhat unnoticed in Samir. It was just what one would expect of a random high-elven C-rank.
Shen explained his mission to Marzia and Taeral. The latter replied, "Commander, if it wouldn''t offend you, would you mind sharing the Deployment Update window with us all? The specific words used might give us a few hints, and the more eyes, the better."
Shen shared it with Taeral and everyone else.
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|
Deployment Update
The 7th Exemplary Brigade''s mission has been changed.
New mission: Filter and Merge Imperia''s Troops
Every Guardian from the Republic of Imperia (A), ranging from B-rank to F-rank, will arrive in one Standard hour.
They have been teleporting ever since the Void Tide started.
Draw a plan to filter Bounty targets out with a minimal death rate and merge their troops with Samir''s current ones.
They are still being teleported. You can send them messages before they arrive. They can reply.
Total Troops: 993,413,790
Troops by Rank:
B: 654
C: 755,844
D: 611,684,952
E: 357,988,211
F: 22,984,129
Bounties by Rank:
B: 22
C: 31,223
D: 44,118
E: 2,472,355
F: 5,212
|
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Instead of commenting on it, Taeral hit his forehead and said, "Where are my manners? Nice to meet you, Lieutenants and Sergeant. I''m a Lieutenant Specialist, and I specialize in battlefield tactics. I was surprised my name came out as a diplomacy expert of any kind..." He glanced at Martino from the corner of his eyes. "...but I''ll assist you to the best of my ability."
He was smooth enough that anyone with a neuron could see he had "gifted" them with the sharing of the window before introducing himself, so they would have a better first impression of him. It might look underhanded in any other situation, but considering he was here to convince B-ranks to surrender without bloodshed, that manner of introduction was perfect. As simple as the trick was¡ªif it could even be called that¡ªit showed he wasn''t clueless and really wanted to help, as he had already done it by stating that specific words mattered. Asking for more eyes to read it also showed he was a team player.
As if that wasn''t enough, by "scheming" so overtly, Taeral told them that he could be a bit manipulative and that they should keep their guards up. It was almost a professional courtesy one might expect from a swindler who took a liking to you. And in this case, that would also assist them in slightly shifting their perspective to think... diplomatically.
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Shen considered he might be reading too much into it, but he decided he wasn''t.
Every single gesture from Taeral was finely crafted for that impression. From the way his voice lowered or became a pitch higher here and there, to his posture, to his smile, to his over-the-top antics of hitting his forehead. His rank was also relevant, as the people who mattered were of his rank. If Martino had done that, it would have had a greater chance of offending the Lieutenants, who wouldn''t like a Sergeant trying to manipulate them, even for a good cause.
His actions were also a test. He didn''t hide that he was looking for signs of comprehension and acknowledgment on the C-ranks. Hukzun even nodded approvingly. Taeral was asserting his position.
Suddenly, everyone''s eyes turned to Shen, as a spear was materializing in his hand from his Inventory.
Then, he cut Taeral''s left arm off at the shoulder.
The high elf screamed in agony. Shen had vibrated his strike to cause as much pain and damage as possible. There was an instant of surprise in everyone as few, if any, even saw a blur. To most of them, Taeral unexpectedly screamed for no apparent reason.
The guy''s limb fell to the ground. Shen stepped on the hand and stuck his spear on the forearm.
Shen''s people had already seen him kill Vinamour and, while surprised by the attack, weren''t surprised that Shen could move that fast. Taeral kept screaming for a few seconds, holding his shoulder, then closed his mouth and grunted for a while.
Shen waited for him to calm down before saying, "Do remember we are currently deployed, Lieutenant Specialist, and you''re not part of this chain of command. Attempting to establish yourself in my Brigade as anything other than external assistance without my explicit approval is a grave offense. You don''t need anyone''s respect or acknowledgment but mine, and you already have it¡ªon my terms. I''ll consider your attempt to subvert my command a harmless trick you did for fun, out of habit, for not understanding your situation. But this is your only warning. Do you understand?"
Taeral didn''t hide the anger in his eyes, but the fear in his soul spoke louder. Shen didn''t understand why he was so afraid, but it didn''t matter.
"Yes, Commander," the high elf replied with gritted teeth.
"Good." Shen stored his spear and took his foot off the limb. "You can reattach your arm now."
He didn''t take pleasure in forcing the guy to submit, but if Taeral was as good with his words as Marzia had said, he was a time bomb. Shen had to curb the rot before it started spreading. He had to do it to protect his Brigade, not for himself. Who knew the means of a SpecOps agent who could convince a Battalion Commander to commit treason?
His punishment was light, considering causing chaos in the chain of command while deployed was a grave offense. If the high elf had been part of the Exemplary Brigade, he would''ve been executed for treason.
Taeral silently took his arm and placed it on his shoulder. A quick twist of mana, and it was as good as new. His armor also had a self-repair enchantment and was mending itself.
Shen said, "You two experts are to remember your place at all times¡ªand we are to also remember it." He stared at Hukzun. "He is an outsider. They both are. We''ll use their expertise and discard them later. Nothing else. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Commander," everyone replied in unison.
"Good." He turned to Taeral. "Continue helping us."
The guy clearly didn''t want to, but he endured his anger and fear and said, "Have you already contacted the incoming Guardians, Commander?"
Shen shook his head. "I wanted to know exactly what to say before I attempted anything."
"You did good," Marzia quickly interjected, as if afraid the people present would think she was useless. "But also not that good. Commander, you must assert your authority¡ªbecause you have it. Even over the B-ranks. Don''t let them think differently. This is the military."
Rayna snorted. "Sure. We know the C-ranks will love that because we Lieutenants would also love for a Sergeant to come and tell us to obey because a Captain put them in charge. Especially when they tell us we''re now condemned for doing something that should not have placed us in jail before we started teleporting¡ªbefore the Alliance changed the Bounty rules. I imagine we would be ecstatic about being placed in a cell right after teleporting for days without end."
Before anyone could continue that line of reasoning, Luthdel asked, "Commander, can''t the system directly teleport them to the Detention Department?"
"It can, but it won''t," Shen replied. "Everyone still has their equipment and, likely, the intention to resist. Prisoners are processed before entering jail for good reason." He gestured to Marzia. "She''s wearing E- black padded leather armor because that''s the best she''s allowed in the cell. All her other items are under custody to make it harder for her to flee. Her mana is also kept at the bare minimum, which the system can only do if a Guardian is labeled traitor, captured and processed, or surrender. Speaking of which, I can change that for a Conditionally Released Guardian. System, remove all her power blockades."
Mana rushed into Marzia''s body, and she took a deep breath of sheer relief. Her soul trembled in glee.
"Thanks," she said. "Commander."
"No problem. Technically, the system does have the power to suppress or kill Guardians, but it''s illegal except against prisoners or rift dwellers¡ªand only if they are in predetermined areas where said direct action is allowed. Capture or surrender is a must. The system won''t attack even traitors. The Alliance has us Guardians for that, and the military would be no different."
Luthdel nodded. "I see. Thanks, Commander."
Shen nodded back and turned to Rayna. "Irony has a place and time, and this isn''t it. Your counter-argument towards Martino''s words makes sense, but there''s no need to spit on our guest''s face. This is not the behavior of someone in an Exemplary Brigade. One Demerit."
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| Demerit given to Staff Lieutenant Rayna: Excessive Rudeness leading to Internal Disharmonyisarmony
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Rayna nodded. "Sorry, Commander." Her eyes weren''t apologetic, but she understood she had messed up and accepted the punishment.
Shen nodded back and turned to Taeral. "I answered your question. What now?"
"I believe both your helpers are correct, Commander," the high elf replied. "I seem to recall Staff Lieutenant Luthdel Elafir mentioning you were the big boss in La''sing and, I quote, ''Even the C-ranks from this corner of nowhere came knowing they had to obey him.'' I take it he meant Imperia?"
Taeral spoke more subdued now, even as he admitted to keeping tabs on what the Exemplary Brigade did and said. Luthdel flushed in embarrassment at being mentioned as spreading intelligence on Shen. The fact itself wasn''t a secret, but Shen had talked to him before about not revealing anything about anyone he didn''t need to, him foremost above all.
They would need to discuss it again later.
"Yes," Shen replied. "Imperia''s Grand Senator appointed me as Field Commander for a batch of Imperia''s troops dispatched to La''sing. Imperia''s laws compelled them to obey me. It didn''t prevent them from trying to overthrow me, but they did it within the rules."
Taeral smiled slightly. "We can use that, Commander."
"I don''t know if that also applies to Samir, though."
"We must try, Commander. As First Sergeant Marzia Martino said, you must establish your authority. Shower them with as many labels as possible, as long as they are even slightly relevant to them. But, yes, as Staff Lieutenant Rayna also pointed out, do it without appearing antagonistic... Unless they would like it better. Speaking of which, the military can''t offer bribes, so what do you know of Imperia''s culture? Would they react better to forcefulness or softness? Would they prefer you be direct or leave meanings in the subtext? Would they respond better to a call to collective patriotism or isolated heroism? Individual gain or peer-pressure-based honor? Would using the Grand Senator''s name force them to bow, or are they fractured into factions of similar power?"
When Taeral put it like that, things looked pretty simple. And yet, it was beyond Shen''s usual line of thought. He was already glad he had brought the guy.
He winked to Martino in thanks, and they all spent the next twenty Standard minutes determining the opening words he would send to Imperia.
Then, at long last, Shen contacted everyone who belonged to the new version of his old home.
365. It Would Fail
In the infinite whiteness of teleportation, Sun Weisheng received a message.
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| 7th Exemplary Brigade Commander (C): Hello, cultivators from the Republic of Imperia. I''m First Lieutenant Shen, currently stationed in Samir, your destination. Acting General Long Hei has asked me to take care of your arrival and assimilation with our troops. In case you''re wondering, yes, the General and I are both from Imperia, though I don''t know which position he occupied before he came to Samir. I was expelled with dishonor from a clan. I apologize someone like me is dealing with you, but it''s the General''s orders. That reminds me that Grand Senator Carl Jones assigned me as Field Commander for some of you who were previously assigned to La''sing. I''m unaware of whether that classification holds for Samir or even how much authority it gives me, but I''ll take anything. I''ll broach a delicate subject next.
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Weisheng would''ve sighed if he had a body while teleporting. The Brigade Commander''s opening message was passable but showed the disconnect with Imperia''s culture.
Both Shen and Weisheng were in the Ethereal Harmonization realm, but Shen, while the Weisheng was in the Confirming Stage. Or, in Alliance terms, Shen was a C-rank placed above a B-rank. In the Alliance''s military, that was only barely legal enough for A-ranks to throw C-ranks at problems they didn''t have a B-rank to solve. It might create the issues Shen was afraid of.
However, in Imperia, someone in the military obeyed whoever was in charge, even if they weren''t cultivators. One''s ability meant more than one''s power. There were honorable means to replace a leader who shouldn''t lead. No one would care if a C-rank was bossing B-ranks as long as the C-rank was the right person for the job.
As one of the thirty B-ranks who had served on the front lines these past three years, Weisheng had seen no signs of Imperia''s denizens forgetting the proper way of things. Their culture held firmly against the Alliance''s way of doing things because they believed Imperia had developed the best geopolitical and cultural structure to ever exist.
Seeing a former citizen so disconnected from them was a bit sad. High Senator Long Hei had left not long ago, headed somewhere Weisheng wasn''t privy to, but he knew Imperia. As the Alliance''s Acting General in charge of Samir, he would have seen Shen''s opening. He knew it was weak, at best. Yet, he allowed it to go through, showing how much he trusted the boy not to mess things up despite differences in perspective. It also revealed Long Hei, whom the Grand Senator had named Superior Commander right before the teleportation started, was either too busy or didn''t care enough about Imperia to accommodate them adequately.
In other words, Shen was the best they would have, and if anyone had a problem with it, they could just shut up and obey anyway.
Weisheng could think of a few High Senatorial families who would take offense to that, but the Grand Senator had prepared for it. Karma bound most B-ranks stronger than ever. The Grand Senator hadn''t said why the boy was important, but every B-rank had been told in no uncertain terms they were to obey him as the Field Commander¡ªunless the Superior Commander said otherwise or the orders were illegal in Alliance military law. Even now, Weisheng felt his debt to the Grand Senator demanding he listen to Shen. Anything else would affect his Path.
As if that wasn''t enough, Superior Commander Long Hei was there to oversee everything. Shen''s words were currently both the words of the Superior and Field Commanders. There was no going against it.
Shen continued after a few moments.
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| 7th Exemplary Brigade Commander (C): During my time in Imperia, honor was a core tenant of every cultivator''s life. I believe in it, and I hope everyone is the same. Therefore, I respectfully request every Bounty target to surrender as soon as you arrive.
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That was slightly better than the opening lines. More direct. Still, Shen was too afraid and a B-rank would undoubtedly replace him as Field Commander in a matter of minutes. Such weak will couldn''t be tolerated in such a post. At best, if Shen was a genius strategist, he would become a Tactical Auxiliary Commander.
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| 7th Exemplary Brigade Commander (C): That said, during my admittedly short life, I have come to learn respectful requests are rarely enough. Every Bounty target will, therefore, be assigned a unit filled with mostly people who dislike them, with a few allies around. I urge all of Imperia to keep the bloodshed to a minimum, but I remind you that dead Bounty targets are better than free ones. If you surrender and are killed, I promise your killer and everyone around who didn''t intervene will be killed for treason. If you don''t surrender and die in the ensuing attempt to capture you, I''ll mourn your passing.
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Oh. That was more interesting. The borderline taunt would make him lose his Field Commander status even faster, but he would at least not go down as a complete coward.
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| 7th Exemplary Brigade Commander (C): If you have a Bounty on you that demands your execution, I have used my authority to give you Dutiful Judgment of Valor. For the ignorant, that means you''ll be assigned missions under supervision. You''ll not be allowed to keep any equipment, but you''ll have the chance to gain enough Merit to offset your Bounty debt. It sounds bad, and it is. It''s the best you''ll get.
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Sun Weisheng didn''t have much to say about that. He could see the pros and cons of that small mercy.
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| 7th Exemplary Brigade Commander (C): I''ll send separate messages to every unit telling them who they''ll arrive with, each Guardian''s position, and what the Bounty target did.
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There was a longer pause, and Sun Weisheng analyzed the messages. It was interesting but too polite and too scheming. Weisheng supposed he could give a C-rank Field Commander a passing grade for that. Shen was doing what he could.
Unfortunately, it would fail.
Shen had called for honor, but honor would see Imperia protect itself against the Alliance''s Bounty Subsystem instead of fighting internally. Perhaps the ones who had committed terrible crimes would get captured or killed, but the general belief was that it was best to let criminals fight beside the factions that supported them and let it be their problem, even if it ended in betrayal. The overall sense of security from having more people fighting a common enemy, as long as those people weren''t too bad, came before most clan conflicts.
Instead of giving enemies a reason to attack each other, Shen was giving the clans a reason to negotiate hostage exchanges or safety. Bounties weren''t part of the military structure, so they could do that without disrespecting the spirit of the law.
Shen''s following message changed Weisheng''s assessment.
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| 7th Exemplary Brigade Commander (C): Yet, I still feel that might not be enough. So, I have a reminder and an order for you. From my previous messages, it''s evident that I was given the authority to reassemble your units. That means until they are officially created, you are all outside most chains of command. You''ll be Samir warriors under its Acting General and no one else. The Acting General made you my problem. You are technically beneath me until your units are formed, which I''ll decide upon. In other words, you officially belong to an Exemplary Brigade.
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Sun Weisheng could see where that was going and approved it.
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| 7th Exemplary Brigade Commander (C): Most of you don''t know what it means, but you only need to know one thing: disobedience is harshly punished. I''m directly commanding those with Bounty targets to surrender and everyone else to capture them with no bloodshed unless they resist. My Brigade is currently deployed. Going against my direct orders will be treason. I''ll then command traitors to be killed. If anyone disobeys then, it''ll also be treason. As a mere Lieutenant, I''ll have to ask Acting General Long Hei to deal with it for me.
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So that''s where Shen was going. His approach was much better when seen as a whole. He had appealed to their culture while placing himself as a half-outsider. Under the right light, you could call it as making himself a bridge between Imperia and the Alliance.
He had respected Imperia by appealing to their sense of honor but planned around it just the wrong way. It reinforced the sense of alienship. Yet, it didn''t matter. His last message was clear: Imperia''s cultivators were going to an Alliance''s Node. They would obey or be culled¡ªand by Imperia''s Superior Commander to boot.
Indirectly, Shen had also made Long Hei a bridge, and one that no one in Imperia could shake. One that allowed Shen to send those weak messages first. One that would likely help him kill traitors instead of removing the power from someone who some might argue was acting as a tyrant.
The chain of command was clear and vertical. The orders were direct and unambiguous. The commands were lawful both in Imperia and the Alliance''s military and came straight from the top. And Shen even had the Grand Senator''s support in a time of war¡ªwhen Carl Jones became the Supreme Commander and couldn''t be refused.
Imperia had a choice to make: submit or die.
Sun Weisheng approved of it, and his sister agreed, as shown in the message she sent him.
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| Sun Chunhua (B): The Xia Clan plan should be enough.
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He agreed with the statement. One of the things the Grand Senator had commanded was for Shen to keep his post as Field Commander unless he did something wrong. That order was less binding than the orders, almost unimportant, but still slightly strengthened by Karma. Even so, his weakness would''ve been enough reason until he showed he meant business.
Sun Weisheng had discussed with some Pro-Republic factions a way to let a C-rank boss them¡ªto a point¡ªand the only answer was attaching someone from the Xia Clan to Shen. They would teach him the ways of Imperia and advise him in most matters. There would be a line for Shen to walk between independence and obedience, a balance to strike, but it could be done.
And if he refused...
Well, that would be considered him doing something wrong. They would replace him as Field Commander.
He replied to his sister, telling her they were of a similar mind. The High Senatorial Clans exchanged countless messages in the following minutes. No one from Imperia ever answered Shen. They needed to show they would comply, but his forcefulness had lost him prestige and connections. In other words, he had strong backing now, but he''d better start thinking about the future.
Sun Weisheng supported Shen, but showing too much approval would weaken Weisheng''s own position. Even for a supporter of the Grand Senator, his clan and considerations about the future always came first.
Let it be a warm reminder to Shen about how Imperia''s clan inter-relationship worked.
Half an hour later, Weisheng got the list of the people in his unit and their arrival position. The Bounty target with him would be an old enemy. Weisheng would rather negotiate for benefits with the damn woman''s clan, but the orders were clearly against that. He would also rather not become a traitor.
Yet, Shen''s orders had been for everyone without a time limit. In the military, that meant not delaying, but a slight wait would be accepted to avoid casualties. The clans could still discuss some things to prevent unneeded humiliation.
More messages were exchanged, and Weisheng agreed to exchange his enemy for a stupid, far-removed descendant who had chosen to abuse the Bounty thresholds by stealing from his rivals during their war against the Cultivator Association. Everyone had wanted the collaboration points in that war, and not all played fair. Weisheng''s descendant had been on the lower end of power but still gotten some nice "prizes." Now Weisheng knew how that had happened.
That imbecile had lied to his clan. That couldn''t be allowed. Weisheng was tempted not to exchange the boy, but the humiliation of having an enemy clan capturing your people for the Alliance would be too big. He would solve it in-house after the Void Tide was over, as almost every clan would.
The teleportation finally ended, and Sun Weisheng materialized in Samir beside five B-ranks.
366. It Had Been So Long
?The Seventh Exemplary Brigade and its two guests stood atop a Samir-7''s mobile fortress. They watched almost a billion Guardians materialize outside the row of city-sized cubic forts.
Despite Shen''s power, he couldn''t see even a tenth of the total from where he stood. Yet, what he could see was enough to awe him. So many troops from a single place! So many B-ranks! So many cultivators!
And so many races!
Humans still dominated the Republic of Imperia, but he saw three-foot-tall fairies, young dragons up to fifty yards long, earthgans, sapient beasts of multiple species, and so on. About one-fifth of the cultivators before him were demi-humans¡ªmostly beast people¡ªand another fifth was entirely non-human.
Shen always found it weird how almost every race was an entity unto itself in the Alliance. Shen, for instance, was the Human Rising Star, not Earth''s Rising Star, because that''s the identity humanity there had taken for itself. Rayna, too, was the Drow Maiden. It made sense, but it didn''t feel right.
The Eternal Empire had been different, and the Republic followed its principles. Although Shen had mainly dealt with humans in the Eternal Empire, he liked seeing so many different races under one common banner¡ªnot geopolitical, but cultural. Even if there were some differences here and there in how some races did things, as there might be in different regions, they were indeed one people. United and strong. From what he had heard, they had faced the Cultivator Association together.
For the first time in a very long while, Shen saw his home.
Oh, he didn''t doubt no one there cared about him. He also felt no sense of familiarity with any individual. But this was the remainder of the Eternal Empire. This was the closest he would ever come to his culture and people.
Nevertheless, his heart also sank. There would be no Feng Clan among these cultivators, and the Immortal Emperor still owed him an explanation about that. Shen had gotten the information that the Feng Clan had sinned greatly against the Republic of Imperia and thus been exterminated by the Grand Senator like a pest. Shen couldn''t just accept that. He had to hear it from the man himself¡ªpreferably when Shen was strong enough to do something about any potential foul play.
Sure, on the one hand, he had been expelled, and there were few greater dishonors in the Eternal Empire. He couldn''t even state he had once belonged to them, for he was unworthy of saying their name. Still, on the other hand, he had grown up in the Feng Clan, and filial piety¡ªnot just to one''s parents but one''s ancestors in the clan¡ªwas a big part of his culture, too.
Shen was at home, but there was a big hole in its center.
He didn''t dwell on it. He had a job to do. He also had to be ready to report these people to the Acting General if they refused to follow orders. He had no delusions about being capable of dealing with them if they ignored him.
His anxiety increased when no one attacked no one after they arrived. Instead, they stayed still, looking around. The only good news was that the ones who looked at him didn''t attack, not even the B-ranks. A small mercy.
Most, if not all, B-ranks were also reading notifications, likely messages. They were discussing matters with each other.
Shen''s suspicions of incoming betrayal rose as the seconds passed.
The Republic of Imperia had nine hundred provinces, each with at least six cities, for a total of over sixty thousand Mayoral Clans. Each province also had a Senatorial Clan, so, nine hundred of them. And thirty-three High Senatorial Clans stood at the top. Suddenly, that political structure became visible in the skies.
Tens of thousands of C-ranks and about two hundred B-ranks took to the air. Thirty B-ranks flew above all, then nine hundred people in the second strata, including what remained of the B-ranks, then the remaining thousands of C-ranks.
As if that weren''t enough of a clue pointing at rebellion, everyone stood at attention. Shen had purposely placed people of different cultivation realms close to each other to make coordination harder, but the Republic was an entity unto itself. In their military, even commoners might boss over a B-rank. They were well-trained and moved in perfect sync without any rank prejudice. Everyone stepped up, back, or sideways almost in unison, creating evenly spaced lines and rows.
There was no clear hierarchy yet, no clearly defined separated units, at least not on the ground. Still, that looked a lot like an army preparing to receive orders for war.
Shen suspected an actual insurrection was about to happen.
He prepared his whole body to speak Stangue so the system would detect his report in time, even if some of his senses or speech were blocked. He even let go of his tight hold over his soul to allow the system to detect his brain waves and identify his thought patterns if needed.
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The Republic''s next move relaxed him while also making him frown.
Sworn enemies ignored each other despite being teleported together, most of them with Bounties on their heads. Instead, every B-rank Clan Leader¡ªas Shen supposed the flying people to be¡ªwent around capturing people of their own rank and clan. Then, the C-ranks did the same. If a clan only had B-ranks flying, new C-ranks took to the skies to capture their peers. Likewise, after they were done, D-ranks seized D-ranks. Lastly, E- and F-ranks ran in absolutely impressive coordination, grabbing people from their ranks and clans. Lastly, the Bounty targets who didn''t belong to any politically relevant clan were also captured by people of their clans. A select few clanless cultivators ran by themselves to the front of the crowd.
A little over two and a half million newcomers had Bounties on them, and soon, most were all floating before Shen. They formed pyramids and presented themselves before him.
No one resisted arrest.
Pride and defiance were in an approaching B-rank High Senator. The black-eyed man had long hair held in a ponytail and wore a highly enchanted red and blue robe with the Eternal Language''s character for "Sun" on his left chest. Obviously, he belonged to the Sun Clan. He, like every other B- and C-ranks, displayed no weapon. Still, Shen could tell one of his Path''s five Axioms came from the sword, as was the case for the vast majority of cultivators from the Republic.
? ?
| Sun Weisheng (B) ¡ª Captain (Unassigned)
| Republic of Imperia''s Rising Star
? ?
Although the man was technically under Shen, he didn''t legitimately belong to Shen''s chain of command. Therefore, while Shen could query the system for information directly related to his mission, especially about those people''s relationships, the military''s system interface still limited how much information Shen could get on them.
The cultivator clasped his fists before his body and very slightly bowed his head. "Sun Weisheng presenting himself as ordered, Commander. We have complied with your directives. Every Bounty target has surrendered, and we captured them with no bloodshed."
Shen had to control his soul again to not reveal his pleasure at the greeting. The Ethereal Harmonization realm cultivator had shown Shen the exact respect he would''ve been owed in the Eternal Empire.
It had been so long since he found someone who did things as they were supposed to be.
He clasped his own fists and returned the greeting, bowing slightly lower. In the military, Shen was hierarchically above the man, but Sun Weisheng was from a High Senatorial Clan, which Shen considered similar to a Seat of the Eternal Empire. Shen was an exile from a clan that had supposedly been extinct for treason. Only the lowest criminal would have a lower status than him. If not for his backing in the form of Long Hei¡ªand thus Shen indirectly representing the dragon¡ªhe would''ve had to bow. However, showing too much subservience here would humiliate the Acting General.
After the straightforward culture in the Alliance Military, such considerations felt a bit weird, but he liked it. It was politics but of a simple kind. You knew what you were supposed to do to whom and even how to avoid offending anyone. If they took offense at your doing things properly, they would be humiliating themselves. You knew what reactions to expect and what they meant. You even knew how to offend anyone to test the boundaries or to cause a war. Such a culture allowed for a more fluid hierarchy to be established than in the military while being transparent to everyone involved.
Shen then nodded, "Good job, Captain. Stand by. System, send a message to all newcomers: ''Welcome to Samir. You''ll be assimilated in instants.'' Then, proceed with the planned bureaucratic assignments."
Although Shen didn''t have access to the system subfunction that would allow him to give multiple orders to be executed simultaneously, he could prepare military orders ahead of time as a Brigade Commander. Now, he assigned everyone to the bureaucratic positions they were supposed to occupy. He had to. Not enough people remained in the Detention Department to process every prisoner.
Shen had also been prepared for people to capture others. No Bounty Hunter would be assigned any position until they delivered their prisoners.
? ?
| Bureaucratic assignments given
? ?
"Captain Sun Weisheng," Shen continued, "Please give the bureaucrats ten standard minutes to get in position and become familiarized with the place."
"Yes, Commander," the man replied. "Should we take this opportunity to chat?"
That question was almost against the rules. Shen was deployed, and, thus, technically, so was the man. A subordinate shouldn''t suggest wasting the leader''s time when it might distract both from their duties.
Still, the spirit of the law was to prevent issues in dangerous situations, and no problem was about to happen that he could detect. This place was relatively safe, and Imperia had behaved exemplarily until now. Shen could give them the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming a security breach.
"Very well," he replied.
"Can I go now, Commander?" Lieutenant Specialist Taeral Miavalur interjected before Weisheng could say anything.
His interruption wasn''t against the rules, which were brander for a guest specialist, but Shen still frowned as he turned to the man. The high elf had helped a lot but not hidden how keen he was to leave. It had already worried Shen, now more so than ever. Why did a SpecOps agent want to get away from this right now? Wasn''t this an excellent opportunity to acquire information about a future member of SpecOps, the Republic of Imperia, and their relationship with each other?
"Not until everyone from Imperia is assigned a position," Shen replied. He was half legitimately worried he might need the man''s expertise and half using it as an excuse to keep him around for as long as possible. He might yet learn something valuable about SpecOps from Miavalur.
The Lieutenant Specialist didn''t hide his unhappiness but nodded and kept quiet.
Sun Weisheng waited a few moments to see if anyone else would interrupt him. Meanwhile, every Imperian Guardian was getting to their position. The ones posted in the mobile fortress below Shen were moving physically, but all others requested a teleportation.
When the cultivator spoke, he went straight to the point, "Commander, as we''re waiting, would this be an acceptable moment to talk about internal Imperial military structure and your place in it?"
It didn''t take a genius to guess this was about Shen''s Field Commander position. Shen still didn''t know what it meant, but he had claimed it, so Imperia would at least want to clarify things with him.
He took it as an opportunity to learn more instead of the challenge he heard in the man''s voice. "That''s acceptable, Captain. What about it?"
Weisheng snapped his fingers, and a female C-rank approached from the ground.
367. Exactly What We Intended
?| Xia Liling (C) ¡ª Lieutenant (unassigned)
? ?
Xia Liling wore an elegant purple robe and looked twenty years old. She was a demi-human, half-feline. She had no tails or pointy nails, but the white of her eyes was green like a cat''s, and her black pupils could contract. Her long, dark blond hair, almost orange, was voluminous and full without being too wild. She smiled slightly, revealing two very slightly elongated canines.
Also telling of her ancestry was that when she took a few steps before getting into the air, Shen was mesmerized by her gait. It was a mix of premeditated litheness and predatorial confidence that Shen classified as "sexy Liya." Her elongated eyes, more akin to a feline than a modern Asian, drew an even more attractive figure. Her lips were an intense yet delicate red-pink.
Shen had never felt so attracted by anyone at first sight.
It wasn''t just her appearance. Sure, something about her blue cat eyes felt mysterious and made him want to stare deeper. Xia Liling''s curves were also the perfect Eternal Empire human beauty standard, on the brink of being big while maintaining delicacy. Still, she was as physically perfect as Rayna or as symmetrically beautiful as Liya.
No, it was her Path that sang the truest to him; they were perfectly compatible.
Xia Liling''s Path had six Laws split among four Axioms: three Laws of the Spear at the core, supported by Water, Wind, and Lightning. When the compatibility was added to her beauty and similar age, Shen''s hormones became agitated, trying to break free from his tight control on every part of himself.
It was even worse for him because of her emotions¡ªthe genuine ones, not what she displayed. She moved like a predator, sure of herself, and she knew her practiced body movements would attract many prospective partners. But she only did that out of extensive training and, almost certainly, clan fielty. Her heartbeat, soul, and Path spoke of being uncomfortable and forcing herself to move ahead. Although her three Laws of the Spear were about precision, Water, Wind, and Lightning were soft, gentle aspects of her Axioms. In fact, she had the same Law of the Gentle Breeze as he had. Xia Liling had all the traces of a sexy yet shy person.
The same instincts that had once wanted to conquer Liya told him Xia Liling should be his. Or rather, it went beyond. After he established his martial dominance, he wanted her by his side as an equal.
Xia Liling was fitting of him.
Shen froze momentarily, then allowed his feelings to arise¡ªbut not his desire. Instead, he didn''t hide his fury as he released his aura and looked irate at Sun Weisheng.
Xia Liling was too perfect for him. Although her actual personality, beyond some shyness, remained to be seen, everything he could see was just right. It was almost like she had been designed for him, and the Eternal Empire had a name for that: targeted grooming.
Targeted grooming meant growing someone to fit the specific tastes of an influential cultivator you wanted to appease. Molding anyone''s Path was repulsive and illegal, yet every decade or so, there was a scandal where it was revealed to have happened. Never in a significant clan, not after the Immortal Emperor killed every high-level member of the former Fifth Seat so long ago for it, but often close enough to the top.
Sun Weisheng''s following words made things even worse.
"The High Senatorial Clans worry about you being away from Imperia for too long, Commander. We hope you accept Xia Liling as a cultural advisor."
They wanted to control Shen through a prospective partner.
Shen had to assert enormous control over himself to speak through gritted teeth, "What is the meaning of her Path, Captain?"
Xia Liling became uncomfortable when she felt Shen''s aura, and her soul flinched at his words. It caused Shen to want to protect her. That was perfectly natural and instinctive.
It only made him even more upset at the attempted manipulation.
The man smiled pleasedly and replied without shame, "I believe this would be called providence, Commander. This is not, however, what you''re thinking." His smile disappeared, and his face became full of derision. "For starters, you haven''t been relevant long enough for anyone to prepare you a partner, even if anyone cared that much about appeasing a mere Field Commander, who''ll cease being relevant once the War Mobilization ends. She has been a C-rank for longer than you. She''s a prodigy, Commander¡ªwhich leads me to the most important matter: you''re not worthy of her. You, clanless exile, stand before the Xia Princess, Xia Liling, daughter of High Commander Xia Ya, the Xia Clan Matriarch. You sully her, her family, and her clan with your vile insinuation."
Her being at C-rank for longer than Shen proved there was no targeted grooming and should appease Shen, but even disregarding that, the scheme was too blatant, cunning, and disgusting.
The man had admitted to "providence" at Xia Liling being such an excellent match to Shen. So, Shen was supposed to feel attracted to her. The Eternal Empire''s culture would also make it better for him to follow through with their ploy, especially after he "sullied" their reputation with his insinuation. It would be a way of apologizing and had undoubtedly been premeditated. After he accepted her, their union would be forbidden, so not making a move on her would display his willpower as time passed, garnering him respect. If she ever made a move on him, and he didn''t succumb, he would be able to point fingers at the Xia Clan for the manipulation and use it as a stepping stone to rise a little in the social ladder. Shen should see it as an opportunity.
Yet, that was a part of the Eternal Empire''s politics he would not accept.
"Wrong, Captain," Shen replied coldly, placing his hands behind his back. "This is not the Republic of Imperia. You''re in Samir, and this is Multiverse Alliance''s military. You and Lieutenant Xia Liling stand before Brigade Commander Shen, not the other way around. I won''t abide for any of your pathetic ploys. You have one last chance to explain yourself before I order an investigation to be conducted upon you and the Xia Clan for scheming to manipulate someone not from your chain of command."
Frankly, it would''ve been better for Shen to wait for the girl''s first attempt to manipulate him before accusing them of anything. That would be indisputable evidence. Yet, a Void Tide was coming. For the greater good, he would give these people the benefit of the doubt¡ªfor now.
Sun Weisheng''s following words threw all of Shen''s goodwill through the window, "Why, Commander, that''s exactly what we intended, though manipulation is too strong a word for a little advising. You''re our Field Commander. We can offer help under the Alliance''s military internal culture rules." That kept him safe from any investigation. He continued, "And you can reject it. Which would allow us to fight you for the Field Commander position."
He spoke pleasantly, but his eyes didn''t hide how upset he was at Shen not following the script¡ªor the pain they promised if he kept pushing.
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Shen almost couldn''t believe what he heard. "That''s it? All this just to take the Field Commander position from me? It''s yours, Captain Sun Weisheng. Do with it as you will."
In most other situations, Shen would''ve fought to keep the position. Not because he cared about it but because it was his, and he wasn''t in the habit of being strong-armed out of anything that belonged to him. But fighting for it had another meaning: struggling to remain part of the Republic of Imperia. The position and their similar culture were the only things linking him to those people.
Yet, he decided he had no desire to be any part of that.
Shen''s earlier sense of belonging disappeared right then. If the Republic''s High Senatorial Clans were this scheming and, honestly, pathetic, Shen wanted nothing to do with them.
The moment he said the words and decided that in his heart, he felt a ripple go through everyone from Imperia, including himself. His domain had allowed him to feel the boundary between the third and fourth spatial dimensions, and though his senses didn''t maintain the same precision without his domain, he could still more or less feel hints of that space at the edge of his awareness. That''s where the ripple happened.
Shen didn''t know what that was, but something linked him to those people and reacted to his words. He felt tempted to activate his domain and study it with his True Realm but refrained from it. He couldn''t use his domain as a clutch whenever he found himself lacking, or he would grow dependent on it. Even an instant was enough for it to improve him, and he would lose opportunities to grow. He had to leave it for life-and-death situations.
He felt no different from before, so it shouldn''t be such a critical matter. Yet, he wouldn''t let his ignorance jeopardize his safety.
He used his hands behind his back to say, "I want to send a report to the Acting General. A metaphysical power I''m unaware of has touched me and everyone from Imperia. I''m unsure if this also falls under the internal culture exceptions in the rules. Please advise."
? ?
| Report sent
| Samir''s Commander (A): Don''t worry about that.
? ?
The quick response calmed Shen. It showed the dragon was aware of things. Even if the General might be lying, if an A-rank wanted that ripple to happen, Shen had no choice but to accept it. He would remain cautious but not worry too much about it until something pointed at it being worse than he currently believed it to be.
Instead, he was more worried about the nigh overwhelming sense of loss he felt. Suddenly, he had no place to call home anymore. Not Earth, not Tar''Shalon, nor the military.
There was an entire multiverse out there, yet he belonged nowhere.
Meanwhile, no C-rank cultivator from Imperia and lower seemed to notice the ripple, but the B-ranks did. They didn''t look surprised, though some revealed fear, and the ones belonging to the High Senatorial Clans, a hint of... It wasn''t quite fear. Anxiety, perhaps.
Sun Weisheng had the strongest reaction. It was as if Shen had physically slapped him. Shen doubted these people hadn''t considered the possibility of Shen giving up on his Field Commander position, but he guessed the ripple had been unexpected. The High Senatorial Clans quickly sent Sun Weisheng many messages, as his eyes moved quickly, reading notification after notification.
Shen wouldn''t give them time to adapt their plans. "Our talk is over," he declared. "Return to your position and await orders."
He had given Imperia the benefit of the doubt, but now he had to consider they might be a danger he had to be prepared to fight against. He couldn''t get distracted.
Xia Liling looked at Shen with pleading eyes. She wanted to speak with him before being dismissed. He wanted to listen to her¡ªat the very least, he was curious about her voice¡ªbut wouldn''t give her the chance. Not now. She could send him a message through her Brigade Commander after everyone was properly accommodated in Samir or directly in her free time.
Sun Weisheng opened and closed his mouth a few times. Shen could almost see the gears in his mind working quickly to find a solution. The seconds ticked, and when it was nearly long enough for him to be considered having disregarded the command to return to his position, he found nothing he could use. Instead, he decided to pay the price for disobeying the order to cease discussing non-critical matters.
"Commander, I''ll accept my punishment and ask your personal forgiveness, but I must say this: Imperia officially offers Xia Liling as a replacement for the C-rank your Brigade is missing."
Shen sighed. His anger at these ploys was already being replaced with tiredness. This was so... stupid. Why didn''t they focus on what mattered?
Alas, the man had lucked out. Despite not realizing it, he could say those words without getting punished. As these people were technically under him and deployed, they could offer one of them for promotion under "general acclamation," as Shen lacked critical personnel, considering he had so few C-ranks under him. That was regarded as critical communication. Shen wasn''t obligated to accept the one they suggested, but he had to listen to it.
As much as Shen wanted to just reject it and tell the man to leave again, the proper thing to do was to be forthcoming about some rules so the other party could make an informed decision¡ªand he was part of an Exemplary Brigade.
He said, "Lieutenant Xia Liling is not officially part of my Exemplary Brigade, and I can''t assign anyone to it. You must talk to Acting General Long Hei, not me."
The ripple happened again. This time, as Shen had a prior experience feeling it, he understood it should be a domain or Realization blanketing everyone. They were linked and reacted to whatever he did¡ªand possibly what they did.
If any domain affected him without his permission, it would be an attack and thus treason. So, it had to be a Realization.
Shen still knew little about Realizations but understood that some aspects of some forms of Realization affected everyone who got close to its source. The older and more powerful the Realization, the more likely it was to happen. Long distance was a factor that decreased the Realization''s influence, but the number of people affected by it close to each other strengthened it locally.
It wasn''t hard to guess the Immortal Emperor had a Realization that affected his entire people. That reminded Shen of his father''s words when the Immortal Emperor had been scrutinizing the Feng Clan: "The Immortal Emperor is Karma, incarnated and potentialized for good. He pays back grievances tenfold and repays all debts he owes a hundredfold. We did nothing wrong, and after he concludes so, we shall be repaid for every secret of ours he exposed."
That, in turn, explained why Shen had never heard of anyone using any Laws of Karma. He had thought it was real. He had been taught so and even repeated it to everyone in the Pioneer Tutorial. Now, the truth slapped him in the face: the Immortal Emperor had always been a B-rank with a Realization or, most likely, an A-rank. He hadn''t ranked up recently, as the news stated. He had always had the Realization of Karma or something similar.
Karma linked everyone from the Eternal Empire together¡ªand now the Republic of Imperia. There was an ethereal relation between people based on giving and taking, good and evil deeds, action and reaction.
From Sun Weisheng''s reaction and insistence, the Emperor had some sort of karmic debt to Shen. If Shen had to guess, it should be related to the poisoned gift the antidron had been and the Feng Clan''s demise.
When the High Senatorial Clans tried to blackmail Shen into accepting her or losing his Field Commander position, he gave it up. It was no different from it being strong-armed from him. It accrued even greater debt. The fact that it made him resent Imperia as a whole and want to distance himself from the Immortal Emperor likely also added to it.
Shen suspected something more was going on. If they could take the position from him, why scheme? Maybe the Immortal Emperor had ordered them not to just take it. So, when they technically extorted it from him, they also screwed up the orders they received from the origin of Karma itself.
That explained why Sun Weisheng was close to desperate for Shen to accept the girl. Part of the High Senatorial Clans'' ploy to control Shen included legitimately providing help in the form of Xia Liling''s assistance. It also explained her pleading eyes. She hadn''t felt the ripples but had been told at least part of what was happening and how important it was. The Grand Senator didn''t want to feel indebted to Shen and had asked his people to help him repay it. Instead, they had made things worse.
That explained so much about the Eternal Empire''s culture! About their honor and how it never fell into full political depravation like the Alliance did! When anyone messed up too badly, Karma pulled them back on track. To a point. Somehow. Evidently, no mind control was involved, as they could make mistakes. But it should be important enough if the High Senatorial Clans cared about it.
So, it should be affecting Shen. Yet, he felt nothing in his True Self. In other words, he had been poisoned by an alien Realization he couldn''t locate.
This was a life-and-death matter in his book.
Shen activated his Domain of Infinite Improvement¡ª
An invisible hand grasped his True Self and stopped him.
"It''s past time we discuss some matters, First Lieutenant Shen," thunder itself seemed to say from all directions, and then Shen was teleported away by a Realization.
? ?
368. From the Shadows
Shen appeared so far above the city-sized mobile fortresses that they looked like grains of sand. Before and further above him stood two A-ranks.
One was the expected Acting General, a dragon so huge Shen felt space twist to make him look smaller. Yet, every single scale of his was still at least ten times as wide as Shen was tall. Long Hei''s body was darker than black, his scales absorbing all light and senses that touched it, creating the illusion of a living hole. Still, some magic was afloat, as Shen could see the dragon for what it was.
The other A-rank was a cthulhu that appeared slightly taller than Shen. Spatial manipulation also kept it that size, but it evidently was better at it than the dragon. It held the golden chains that disappeared inside Long Hei''s abyssal body.
Shen had likely stared a little too much at the chain because the Acting General first gave him a lesson on a subject Shen had always been curious about but never found anyone willing to teach or any place with the information: the Abyss. Not that he had searched too hard. He wasn''t curious enough to waste resources to figure it out.
"You can find the Abyss in every single universe throughout the multiverse," the thunderous voice said, though the dragon didn''t move its massive jaw. The thunder was "quieter" than before but still shook Shen''s entire body and soul. Fortunately, Long Hei''s following words came from a deep male voice. A tired one. "It''s the very same Abyss, ignoring the Laws of Spacetime to exist in multiple places at once. Not different entrances; the Abyss itself is in each universe. Every abyssal creature can reach any universe they want by traversing the Abyss... As long as they survive it. If I told you what''s in there, you would die. I can protect my life if I break the Abyssal Taboo, but only an S-rank could also shield you. If you ever get the opportunity, ask an S-rank about it. For now, suffice to say that as far as I know, no non-Abyss-related C-rank has ever returned from the Abyss, so I don''t recommend visiting."
That didn''t explain why the chain was inside the dragon''s body. Long Hei wasn''t finished, though.
"Every abyssal being is unique in its own way. We abyssal dragons believe our trait to be the most interesting among the Abyss''s denizens. We are made of the Abyss itself. Each of our scales is a single-use treasure that allows us to instantly enter the Abyss no matter where we are. It can also be used to deny any attack up to A-rank. The scales regenerate slowly, one every thousand standard years, but they are still a cheat-like tool. Mostly. This little chain and similar S-rank relics can sadly prevent my ability from working." He gestured with his head to the cthulhu, and it looked like Reality shivered at the massive being''s simple movement. That explained why it was talking without moving its jaws. "The downside for my captors is that someone must hold the leash, but it''s not like the Primordial Bridge''s hunting dogs have anything more important to do."
Shen could think of at least one Calamity where an extra A-rank would be welcome, not to mention the incoming Void Tide, but he decided it wasn''t wise to expose that line of thought to two A-ranks.
"I see, General," he replied.
Long Hei sighed, and massive Tears appeared in Reality, revealing the Void beyond. It made Shen wonder whether the Void and the Abyss were related. Like the Abyss, the same nothingness was always out there, wasn''t it?
The dragon healed Space with his Realization and said, "Brigade Commander Shen, I brought you here to clarify a few things. First and foremost, you must not use your Absolute Horizon anywhere. Ever. Not unless you can kill all witnesses or get so far from the Alliance that pursuing you would require so much time and resources that even a mythical race would consider it too much of a hassle."
Shen frowned. What was the dragon even talking about? The only thing he knew that could be called Absolute Horizon and required him to activate his domain¡ªwhich Long Hei had stopped Shen from activating¡ªwould be his True Realm.
But why was he being forbidden from using it? Was it also a Taboo, capital T, like the Abyssal Taboo? Would it cause him to magically die somehow?
Long Hei continued, "Your aura-based Aural Realm is different enough from the domain-based Absolute Horizon..." That confirmed Shen''s suspicion; his True Realm was officially called an Absolute Horizon. "...that the infernals are willing to deal with it quietly. For now. Alas, they wouldn''t allow an open display of their racial move. And no, I can''t tell you more than that because it involves mythical races'' business. Even saying this much is already stretching the boundaries. Do not activate the Absolute Horizon. That''s an order. Not even to survive. It''s better to die than be made an example of when the infernals come for you. They know how to inflict non-lethal physical pain like no other."
Shen wasn''t surprised the General knew what had happened in the vault, but he was astonished that his True Realm was remarkable enough that a mythical race would kill him for it. He was also very upset they would dare to claim exclusivity for an ability that was evidently not related to their race.
"Is that legal, General?"
Long Hei sighed again, but this time, Spacetime "merely" shook; it formed no Tears. "Unfortunately, yes. The mythical races have many privileges. I wouldn''t say the infernals fear the backlash from overtly killing you, but they certainly don''t want to upset the powers behind you based on just your Aural Realm. That would change if you used the Absolute Horizon public. The ones who care about you would have to let it go."
Shen''s frown deepened. "Powers behind me, General?"
As far as Shen knew, only the drow would care a little if something happened to him. Perhaps the Immortal Emperor''s Karma would affect him if Shen, whom the man owed, got killed. That was it, far from enough to make a mythical race anxious.
"I wouldn''t upset them by disclosing their identities, but know that one of them, who was directly involved in sending you into that vault against my wishes, agreed to hide what happened there from the infernals. Together, we managed to convince the System Administrator to stop the system from forwarding your use of the Absolute Horizon to them. They are still unaware of your ability. Keep it that way. If not out of self-preservation, as gratitude for the work involved in keeping you alive."
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Shen assumed the System Administrator was also the S-rank who blocked his memories. She had visited Samir to discuss matters with Long Hei and the other power who backed Shen and took the opportunity to get some work done in the vicinity.
Or, more precisely, not the other power backing Shen but the other asshole manipulating Shen from the shadows.
Knowing his close call in the vault was by design, that he lost the opportunity to grow by himself without his domain, upset him as much as becoming aware that the System Administrator had touched him. He was still irate at her for what she had done to Liya. She was very high on his list of people to seek out and demand an apology when he was strong enough.
Shen suddenly felt considerably less agreeable towards Long Hei. He had always suspected that the dragon was doing shady things, but this confirmed it. After his recent episode with Imperia, he was even less tolerant about such things.
The dragon wasn''t done. "To be honest, after some recent events, I believe another of your backers would''ve protected you anyway. I didn''t know they were backing you, but they shook the Alliance by capturing some rather elusive big fish. Word of how they did it got out, and it involves using you as bait. Many would say they owe you for how they used you. They would have to at least offer you a way out of the consequences of their manipulation. If they didn''t, they would go against one of their core tenets, non-interference except in exceptional cases."
That was way too cryptic for Shen to understand... Until he felt a pull.
His very body seemed to be tugging at his mind towards the cthulhu. It felt natural, like a commoner''s brain randomly triggering a physical signal, but Shen''s True Self allowed him to know it was deliberate.
He had no idea what was happening, which scared the seven hells out of him.
He didn''t feel anything with his senses. There was no Realization at play that he could tell, so someone was doing it to him in an unknown way. His instinct was to use his Absolute Horizon to find the source of the feeling, but he would certainly not do it before the dragon after the recent command.
Shen put the matter for later consideration. He looked at what the signal was pointing instead. Most likely, that was Long Hei telling Shen the cthulhus, or the Primordial Brigade behind them, were the ones who had manipulated him and owed him.
The dragon had also claimed the manipulation put Shen on a crash course against the infernals, and it sort of made sense. Shen couldn''t have developed his Absolute Horizon without the Realization Impartation that boosted his willpower. Many other coincidences also happened to ensure his Absolute Horizon came to be, including the one that bothered Shen the most: being placed under Captain Abbav, who knew the supposedly incredibly secret Will-Path Merging Ritual.
Maybe they hadn''t been coincidences, after all.
Shen hid his anger toward the two manipulators before him deep within himself. Nothing good would come from antagonizing them.
Unfortunately, either his attempt to hide his feelings failed, or Long Hei could also use his strange body-manipulating ability to detect Shen''s emotions. The dragon said, "Don''t look at me like that. I have nothing but your best interests at heart. Even in the instances I don''t particularly care about your individual well-being, I would at most ignore you, not move against you in any way or form. The ploy to manipulate you into becoming the infernals'' enemy wasn''t known to me until recently, and I would''ve been against it if asked."
That was a lot of sophistry that said nothing useful. One of the things Liya had taught Shen, and he agreed with, was not to trust anyone who admitted to having manipulated you. If they did it once, they could easily do it again. Even if he and Liya had ever become a thing, he would always have kept that on the back of his mind.
That lack of trust in Long Hei made this dialogue almost impossible. Who knows? Maybe the dragon was lying about everything, and no one cared about a little C-rank in one corner of the incomprehensibly vast Multiverse Alliance.
Perhaps sensing Shen''s feelings, Long Hei sighed once more and added, "I suppose it''s time to reveal the big secret. The infernals aren''t the only mythical race who hunt anyone who touches on certain things they claim to be theirs. The dragons also hunt anyone with dragon genes. Dragon genes are special in some ways. Yet, we can share them if we follow some rules. I allowed humanity to be given my genes when the Grand Senator was attempting to heal your soul."
The last sentence struck Shen like a lightning bolt. He recalled his father telling him the Immortal Emperor had changed all of humanity when attempting something to heal Shen because changing only him would place a target on him. Shen could guess that a random dragon could hunt a single person who had been legally given dragon genes out of spite, but erasing an entire race would lead to more significant consequences.
So that''s how Long Hei could tug Shen''s body. Shen had the dragon''s genes inside himself, which could be used in unknown ways. Or maybe it was an undisclosed ability because the dragon''s body was made of¡ª
Then, Shen had to use all his willpower to keep himself from widening his eyes.
That''s why the dragon had started talking about the Abyss! Supposedly, no non-Abyss-related C-rank could survive the Abyss, but Shen was somehow related to it if he had an abyssal dragon''s genes, wasn''t he? He doubted that was enough to have any special Abyss-related abilities, but it might just give him a way out.
A way out in case he displayed the Absolute Horizon to survive and had to escape the Alliance. Or if he wanted to flee the death sentence that was SpecOps.
Wait a minute, SpecOps!
Long Hei had said a power backing Shen had been directly involved in sending him to the vault against Long Hei''s wishes. Shen''s report had caused no one to be punished as far as he knew. He had assumed that power that a Node''s Acting General couldn''t do anything about would be S-rank and could think of absolutely no S-rank that would be minimally interested in scheming against him. They could all just kill him and be done with it. If the infernals weren''t doing that because of the Aural Realm, either they had no S-ranks or were already entangled in enough messes to want to avoid another.
But SpecOps also had a lot of sway in the military. Shen didn''t know how much, precisely how they operated, or the high-rank rules related to SpecOps, but they might be able to mess with a future member before he was officially introduced.
Did Lieutenant Specialist Taeral Miavalur want to leave Shen''s presence because SpecOps had thrown him in the vault and the Lieutenant knew it and was afraid of Shen''s reaction if he found out? That sounded unlikely but possible. It depended on how SpecOps did things, Miavalur''s position in SpecOps, and how vast his information network was. That did not, however, explain why the high elf had turned his eyes away when Shen killed the drow. Miavalur''s anxiety was more likely related to that, but now Shen wondered if it was because of both.
The dragon hadn''t stopped talking, though he turned the conversation in another direction. "Imperia''s Grand Senator, a former dear friend, knows me too well. While I wouldn''t seek revenge for any murdered human, I also wouldn''t work against those with my genes if they are honorable enough. I''ll even try to help if it''s not too inconvenient for me, like the chat with the System Administrator when another force was assisting me. That said, consider keeping the infernals in the dark the second-last favor you''ll gain from me. The last one will be to let you decide whether to take Xia Liling into your Exemplary Brigade. I suggest you do."
Before Shen could consider the implications of those words, the dragon subverted all expectations about where this talk was going. "What do you know about how your father met your mother?" Long Hei asked. "And what do you recall about Imperia''s marriage customs and why they are like that?"
Wait, what?
369. Debauchery
"I was never told how my father and mother met, General," Shen replied after getting over his initial stupefaction. "As for your second question, from what I recall, legally, Imperia is relatively liberal in that two consenting adults cannot be stopped from marrying. But the customs differ slightly for cultivators.
"A cultivator''s partner has to be approved by their clan. Supposedly, it''s done for the protection of the interested parties. The clans scrutinize each other for schemes and guide each prospective partner through a maze of more complicated matters. For instance, who is leaving whose clan to join the other? Do they plan to have children? If their Paths aren''t compatible, are they aware of how that''ll impact their cultivation? Unless two clans have a bad history or one party is plotting something, even if a clan doesn''t want the union to consummate, there are usually no great obstacles beyond incessantly telling their member how bad of an idea the marriage is."
Shen paused, then added, "You mentioned Xia Liling. I''m honor-bound not to allow someone I might be legitimately interested in to marry someone as socially and financially destitute as me. However, should we develop genuine feelings for each other and I decide to dishonor her, the social gap wouldn''t make the Xia Clan stop me. They would, at most, demand guarantees from me. I can''t pay a dowry, so I would have to pay in installments. I have no clan, so I would likely be asked to join the Xia Clan as an Outer Guest¡ªnot because they care for me but because it would be humiliating for their supposed Princess, whatever that is, to marry a nobody. Even if I refused, they would insist and cause a fuss unless I accepted to have our children grow up in and be a part of the Xia Clan instead of clanless. It''s mostly about protecting one''s interest, honor, and stability."
The dragon said nothing for a moment, and Shen wondered if he had said something too outlandish.
Then, Long Hei sighed again¡ªquite a sigher, the General¡ªand said, "If that''s all, it reveals an expected gap in your knowledge. Before we address most of that, let''s start with your status. As far as I''m aware, Sun Weisheng isn''t a bad person per se, but he has his own beliefs, and stopping an upstart from upending the established forces is part of it. He''s a vocal supporter of the Republic, but only if it remains just the way it is. He dislikes change. For instance, despite the Feng Clan''s treason and ultimate destruction, he was known to have felt ambivalent about it. He feels glad the traitors were disposed of and upset that it caused waves of change throughout Imperia. He equally resents the war against the Cultivator Association and this conscription matter, both because of the lives lost and how it changed everything.
"All that is to say that he picked the most convenient truth to tell you. In the old Republic, from where you were born, your status would be low indeed. However, there were some moral changes over the millennia¡ªfor the better, if you ask me. In the current age, the reason why anyone is expelled from a clan matters more than the event itself. You, Lieutenant, were condemned for your father''s crimes, which is frowned upon. Your father''s crimes are real, and you benefitted from it, but you weren''t even a cultivator when that happened¡ªand little more than a sheltered boy to boot. On that alone, most would sympathize with you. At worst, they would see you with a degree of suspicion. Expelled clan members are still viewed poorly, but as I said, not fitting a clan isn''t the huge sin it used to be."
"You became a cultivator after being expelled, even if you were unaware of it then. In other words, your base start was as a wandering cultivator. Such people are still not highly regarded, but they are judged by their achievements, not matters beyond their control when they were a teen commoner. So, tell me, Shen. How are your achievements to date?"
Shen frowned as he thought about it. He could honestly think of none. Sure, he was strong and advanced faster than anyone he knew, but he hadn''t done anything noteworthy for the Republic itself.
"Lacking, I would say, General."
The dragon chuckled, and Shen spaced out for a moment. He barely felt Spacetime break right before his mind blanked out. Everything was the same when he returned to himself, and Long Hei kept talking as if nothing had happened.
"I suppose you''d be mostly correct, but you forget details matter in Imperial. Being strong is a statement in itself, and you are one of the strongest C-ranks I have ever met, Lieutenant. That alone isn''t enough to elevate you beyond even the most useless C-rank member of a Senatorial Clan, much less a High Senatorial one like the Xia Clan, but enough that they would only be able to frown at your possible union with Xia Liling. Yet, that isn''t where your actual value lies.
"So, let''s discuss the overarching culture of the Republic of Imperia.
"Imagine a world with an absolute leader who rewards good, punishes evil, and cares about the weak. He would want every individual to be well treated. However, that leader is also practical and understands that some leeway must be given to select individuals. He''s only one person, after all; he can''t run a nation alone." He paused. "Well, theoretically, he can, but it would take all his focus and time. He would live for others while no one would live for him. He would inevitably be surpassed and disposed of or become a paranoid tyrant who nipped individuals with great potential at the root.
"The least harming leeway he was willing to give was through a clear hierarchy with internal rules. The rules were stretched for those who met the responsibility required for their power and station. He also incentivized internal competition so everyone kept themselves in check for him. Abuses inevitably happened but were often quickly discovered and corrected. Regardless of how correct or wrong that leader was, it worked. Thus, Imperia''s clan culture was cemented in stone.
"That leader didn''t much like the clan culture, but it was a leftover from the past that he couldn''t get rid of. So, he used it for his own purposes. The clan''s internal competition also became a way to help people flourish. There can be no growth without strife; such is a rule of Reality. You''ll find it to be true anywhere. But more importantly to the matter at hand, he steered the clans into having as few Laws as possible. He had many reasons for that and claims it was for the greater good. We won''t get into its details.
"The Leader steered people towards having fewer Laws by making it clear how clans with fewer Laws rose, and the ones with mixed heritage fell. Imperia has a lot of duel tournaments partly because, in those, your Path''s internal harmony matters the most, and that''s better accomplished with a cultivation technique and technique heritage honed throughout the ages. In actual war? Look closely at the Guardians from Earth. They had to learn to fight with some versatility, and their Paths weren''t firm enough when the Calamity started. You''ll see how most of them have a Path similar to yours, more or less picking what they like instead of what they believe will provide them with the best advantages due to the techniques their clan has.
"Even you were affected by that leader''s plans. You grew up in the Feng Clan. You saw people fighting with the spear, and its best techniques were related to the spear, wind, and water. Therefore, you pulled those Axioms into your Path. The targeted grooming you accused the Xia Clan of is only possible because the Path we all walk has a lot to do with our environment.
"That reminds me: clans coddle their most esteemed members not because they are blind to the trouble it might bring but because they want to ensure the ones with the most potential will want to continue the clan''s Path lineage. Imagine the issues if someone with the Sword at their Path''s core became the Feng Clan''s leader and then birthed descendants also focusing on the Sword. The Clan would break apart sooner or later. That''s not targeted grooming because it doesn''t focus on pleasing any individual other than maybe one''s clan members'' expectations, but it''s still a form of grooming. Not an ill-intended one, but still.
"The most significant issue with that is that too much focus leads to stagnation. If everyone follows a similar Path, lives in the same society, and does the same things, everyone will eventually think equally. How can you have different insights from the ones recorded by your ancestors in their techniques if your life isn''t that different from theirs? Sure, there will inevitably be some differences, but progress will be slow at best.
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"That''s why cultivation is about both adventuring and meditation. You experience new things and transform your insights into gains for your Path.
"Eventually, you''ll reach your limits and seek other things to do other than cultivating. Or you''ll already be someone who wants to partake in the pleasures of the flesh before you reach that point. And so, we arrive at mating rituals in Imperia.
"A mere strong C-rank can remove any mutation caused by inbreeding in a fetus. Even you might be able to do it with some study, despite your Path having nothing to do with the Axioms of Life. However, inbreeding, as in marriage only inside one''s clan, brings that issue of narrow focus. Clans want their members to marry outsiders for their own good. The addition of controlled variety is excellent for everyone. At the very least, having an outsider come to your clan can cause enough of a change in the social dynamics to give new insights. Likewise, if your clan member leaves instead, the gap will make some people realize some things.
"It''s ironic if you think about it. Sun Weisheng wants to keep Imperia just the way it is¡ªbut Imperia is all about controlled progress.
"The key here is controlled progress. You mentioned the issue that might arise if people with Paths too different from each other mate. Explain it to me."
Shen nodded. "Intercourse makes souls connect somehow, and both parties'' Paths intermingle to a point. It kind of infects your Path. You can get parts of a Concept or Law not in your Path.."
Long Hei nodded only slightly this time. Reality shook, and Shen''s True Self trembled, but he kept his senses. The dragon healed Space with his Realization and continued talking.
"It''s more complicated than that, but you''re not too far off. That said, removing alien Concepts or Laws would help hone one''s willpower if you think about it. You could even use it to cement your beliefs and Path. You wouldn''t want to waste time with that if you were a weak mortal with a minimal lifespan or a poor cultivator, but if you have a strong clan backing you? You could literally live forever unless killed and slowly push yourself forward. Not if you had to prove yourself in tournaments, of course, but that''s not the matter now.
"More importantly, B-ranks can easily purge such subtle, non-targeted external influence from their Paths. Even you could do that if you wanted; your True Self would allow you to. Yet, carnal debauchery among cultivators is so frowned upon in Imperia that it''s almost illegal. Why?"
Shen shook his head. "I can only think of the usual complications about bloodline and clan stability, General. That, in turn, means national stability because clans are so influential. But I suppose that''s not what you''re getting at."
"There''s that too," Long Hei replied. "And another weak reason that piles up with what you said is vulnerability. When your soul touches someone else''s during mating, both parties become more vulnerable to each other. But it could be solved by taking only weak partners for your harem.
"Nevertheless, the actual real reason is related to why you have no idea of your true worth. You''re too young, but Imperia is filled with very old cultivators." The dragon sighed. "As one ages, passionate love becomes unnecessary. We can give ourselves much more physical pleasure than anyone can. At a single thought, you could make yourself have multiple orgasms every second of your existence until you die.
"Yet, we seek partners and marry.
"In part, we do so because of our social obligations. We need to continue our line for our clan''s greater good. For our ancestors. For ourselves; who wants their bloodline to die off? There''s also curiosity, I suppose. What does it feel like to care for progeny? To feel proud of your blood''s achievements? To see them grow?
"But mostly, it''s about loneliness. At a certain point, at least half of us recognize we almost need companionship. Friends are nice and all, but we want to share ourselves with someone who truly understands us. The Grand Senator, for instance, used to be my sworn brother, yet that ended. What we seek in marriage is something beyond that. Two people sharing some goals and the promise of facing eternity together. Even if both disagree with many things the other does, as long as the bottom lines aren''t crossed, they stand together. Sometimes, they forgive each other even when such lines are crossed multiple times.
"Explaining such things and expecting a marriage unto death is the main goal behind clans culturally meddling in their young members'' unions. No one wants a divorce if both parties aren''t bad for each other. The separation is terrible for everyone. So, when scrutinizing potential partners, booth parties'' personalities matter much less than ensuring both are fully aware of everything that union means. There are interminable sections of question and answer to account for countless possibilities they might face together. They come to know their partners better in a few weeks or months than they might''ve come to know in the years they have been courting each other before that.
"Nowadays, the young favored members of peak clans even live together for a year¡ªunder close watch to prevent some boundaries from being crossed. That ensures they do understand what it means to live with each other and be as one struggling together against the world. Society itself wants them to be ready to support them no matter what¡ªfor eternity.
"The expression "soulmate" that resisted until modern Earth means a lot to an old cultivator.
"You wouldn''t understand, of course. You''re too young. By how your feelings flared slightly when I mentioned your father, you also don''t understand why he did what he did against the Feng Clan. It was for you, yes, but it was mostly revenge for your mother. For the woman he would live together with for tens of thousands of years yet was taken from him so soon.
"I repeat, you wouldn''t understand.
"But there''s more. There''s also the matter of dual cultivation. Souls touch during mating, but you can open yourself more if you want. You can allow your soul and Path to intertwine with your partner''s. Before A-rank, there''s no protection against a sneak attack at such a moment unless the power gap is enormous. Even a D-rank could kill a C-rank while dual cultivating with them."
The dragon paused. "I suppose not you, with your True Self. But any weak C-rank could kill you. No cultivator benefits from dual cultivating with someone weaker, anyway.
"You also wouldn''t understand the exhilarating experience of shared trust and the bond it creates. You lower your defenses and have faith nothing will happen to you. Your lover''s life is in your hands, and it brings unimaginable joy to know they trust you so much. That... I can''t put it into words. It''s much more important than physical pleasure.
"I..." He sighed. "I repeat. You wouldn''t understand. But you see why you wouldn''t dual cultivate with more than very few people.
"As you can imagine, the more similar the mates'' Paths are, the more they gain. They progress together. But only if both people have different enough insights from different perspectives on the same Axioms. Therefore, inbreeding is unhelpful for Path progression. You''ll notice low-level clan members might marry internally, but the truly talented almost always marry outside unless critical internal political considerations must be taken into account.
"And in that setting, Brigade Commander Shen, you and Xia Liling are more than perfect for each other¡ªand you are priceless to the Xia Clan.
"You reached C-rank in less than two years, and your insights about your Path must be absolutely alien to her despite you sharing every Axiom of hers¡ªeven a Law! She is the Princess of the Xia Clan, a recent cultural title, only a thousand years old or so. The closest approximation you would know is the First Among Peers, but a Prince or Princess is much more than that. She has so much potential that the clan believes she''ll push them to greater heights. The Xia Clan would be ecstatic If you both could develop a relationship, even without dual cultivation. As long as she accepts you, you could reap untold benefits from them just for keeping a marriage of appearances and bedding her occasionally. Then, if both started trusting each other and dual cultivating? I can''t imagine anything better for them.
"Or for you.
"Love is a nice word we like to use, but it matters little when looking at cultivators aiming at eternity. You can make yourself physically and mentally love anyone you want; you have that control over yourself. What you should seek is a personality match and trustworthiness.
"I''m not suggesting you marry Xia Liling, Lieutenant. But I strongly recommend you get to know her and see if there''s a possibility. Don''t think of the short term; you''re both C-ranks, and the manner in which you met each other will sow some distrust. Even if something happened between you, it would take decades to reach the point of marriage, and that''s a quick estimation.
"But think of the future. Meet her. Talk to her. See if something more might flourish with time.
"Which brings me to the last topic: I was told you were once enamored with the former Drow Maiden. That union wouldn''t help your Path much, but I have nothing to say to it if you can trust her that much. If there''s any doubt in your mind, however, I suggest you meet other people with a more fitting Path until you''re surer.
"Unless you and Liya have established official courtship in secret, of course. I won''t pry."
Shen had learned a lot about the Eternal Empire and Imperia in a short time. He was waiting for Long Hei to say more, but the dragon was finished. That''s the reason he had called Shen over.
So, Shen had just gotten a lecture on matters of the heart by an A-rank dragon during a Void Tide.
That was not how he had expected his day to go.
370. Thank you, General
For Shen, although what the General had said about relationships was mostly engaging, it paled in importance against the tidbit about the Abyss. Shen had no idea where the Abyss was located in whichever universe Samir was, but he was confident he could find out.
Whether he could get there without getting killed for desertion was another matter altogether, and he heavily suspected the answer was no. Maybe the General had a spare scale somewhere and could sell it to Shen? Or perhaps Shen might be able to buy one elsewhere? He also wasn''t sure whether the unique teleportation would activate for him, but one could hope.
Other than that, the most interesting part was how the dragon supposedly wasn''t the Immortal Emperor''s sworn brother anymore. Long Hei, the Second Seat of the Immortal Empire, had been close with their ultimate ruler, but Shen hadn''t known it had been that close. Yet, something had happened. It explained why the dragon wasn''t keen on interacting with Imperia''s cultivators.
As for the main topic, romance... Shen cared little about it.
He would join SpecOps in less than five months if he survived the Void Tide. That was a death sentence. If he managed to escape, he would never be able to return to the Alliance. There was no way he could develop a romantic relationship with anyone.
Then again, Long Hei knew what awaited Shen. Why spend so much time talking about marriage? Did the General know something Shen didn''t about how a deserter might return to the Alliance? Or had that exposition on culture been a distraction so the cthulhu wouldn''t overthink why Long Hei had talked about the Abyss?
Shen found the latter to be more likely, yet Long Hei also insisted Shen couldn''t understand why a wife was important. There should be more to it than just misdirection.
Talking to Xia Liling might, in fact, be a good investment for the very distant future, as improbable as Shen felt it was to get anywhere.
"I see, General," Shen replied. "I''ll accept Lieutenant Xia Liling in my Brigade. Thank you for your care. Do you have any suggestion on which post to place her at?"
The enormous dragon smiled slightly again. "As a matter of fact, I do. The system recorded you preparing your high-elven friend for your eventual absence, and you''re supposed to punish him after the deployment ends. Is that correct?"
Instead of answering, Shen frowned. Something weird had happened. Or rather, something weird had not happened.
He asked, "General, why didn''t I feel anything happen between us when I accepted your suggestion? Are we not bound by Karma?"
He was overstepping by changing the subject. Unless Long Hei decided it was relevant for Shen''s current mission, it was a minor offense and, in an Exemplary Brigade, enough for him to get a few lashings.
Fortunately, although the dragon''s smile disappeared, he didn''t point fingers at Shen. "I didn''t want you to know, but I suppose you''re now dealing with Imperia, and it would make your life easier not to look over your shoulder at every moment. I visited you once after the Alliance arrived. I used the Grand Senator''s Realization Seed inside you to teleport to you and save you from the unfortunate matter with... She named herself Valentina?" He paused. "By your reaction, the Drow Maiden revealed it to you despite me telling her not to. And you just sealed her fate by letting me know."
Shen froze. The last sentence had been delivered so calmly that he doubted his ears at first. But the meaning was obvious: Liya would be killed for telling Shen the truth.
He opened his mouth to beg for Liya''s life, but the dragon beat him to it.
"It''s not me you have to convince, First Lieutenant. If I saw through you, so did the good little hunting dog beside me. And hunting dogs have owners, don''t they? Owners who won''t be happy when notified that their prey received assistance figuring out the identity they chose to hide. I can do that. New B-ranks can''t."
Shen kept his mouth wide open.
Then, his jaw dropped lower.
Did he understand it right?
Was Valentina related to the damn Primordials?!
Shen usually thought of the Primordials as he did S-ranks, untouchable, ethereal beings. However, they should be at least a little stronger by how they could simply sweep over the Alliance in a Purge whenever they wanted. If Valentina was related to them or, Heavens forbid, a Primordial herself, he would have his work cut out for him to get revenge on her.
When Liya said they shouldn''t investigate the girl¡ªbecause Long Hei had recommended so¡ªthat''s not what Shen had had in mind at all.
Shen turned to the cthulhu. The almost human-sized octopus was looking impassively at Shen. He opened his mouth to beg for Liya''s life, but before he could, it shook his head.
Long Hei explained, "He can''t talk to you. And I might have been a little hasty. Did Liya develop a Realization before telling you, correct?"
"Yes, General."
"Then, as far as I know, she is safe. I might be wrong, but you''d have to ask the Primordial Bridge to be sure, and they talk almost exclusively to their members. Nevertheless, I don''t recommend you go around joining them. SpecOps would be very displeased, and they already have a... story with the Bridge."
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Shen sighed in relief, knowing Liya was safe.
As for the Bridge... He had considered they might be a ticket out of SpecOps, but he hadn''t been sure. Now he knew.
Whether he would like to join an organization that was on Valentina''s side, however, was another matter altogether. He would rather brave the unknowns in the Abyss if he had a choice.
Talking to Long Hei was very enlightening. The A-rank knew a lot and wasn''t afraid of revealing it. Unless everything was a lie, he was genuinely helping Shen as he had claimed.
He continued, "As I was saying, I removed the Seed from you when I saved you. Everyone else from Imperia has it and is karmically affected by anyone else''s actions, regardless of whether such people have Seeds on them. However, we who don''t have it aren''t affected in any way besides feeling it touch us when near someone under the Grand Senator''s Realization area of influence. I won''t say more on the matter. One''s Realizations aren''t to be discussed openly like this."
Shen nodded. "Thank you, General. For helping me back then. And for answering my question."
"How about you answer mine, now? Are you preparing your friend for your departure?"
"That is correct, General."
"Then I have a suggestion. Staff Lieutenant Luthdel Elafir is marked to receive punishment for his mistakes after the Exemplary Brigade''s mission ends. I can give you the right to punish him mid-deployment with a demotion to Second Lieutenant. Make him take over Vinamour''s Battalion and take Lieutenant Xia Liling as a direct assistant."
Shen considered the idea and found it excellent. Partial punishment now would allow Luthdel to receive a milder punishment later. It would also let Shen see how the elf would lead units after their last talk. Moreover, it would give Shen the opportunity to get to know Xia Liling better without issues.
It would be like slaying three phoenixes with one ice arrow. Or rather, four. Long Hei had more to say about it.
The dragon continued, "It''ll be better for him than you might think. I understand his mother was... Struggling in the past few centuries. That partially caused most of the internal troubles you saw in Samir. Her Winter was harsh on the high elves. Your friend will benefit greatly from being surrounded by people with relatively high moral standards, as opposed to what I imagine his upbringing to have been and the mess he saw in Samir. I did a great job with the Seventh if I say so myself. Vinamour was an unfortunate incident."
Long Hei had just said he wouldn''t talk about the Immortal Emperor''s Realization. Now, he was discussing the Queen''s. Either he had just used it as an excuse before, or he knew Shen was aware of how the Queen''s Realization changed her from time to time.
Shen''s best guess was that the two A-ranks had discussed it or the Queen had done something to him.
"Did the Queen plant a Seed on me, General?" he asked.
The dragon chuckled. Space broke again. He fixed it again.
"That''s not how it works, but no. Realizations affect Reality in such a way..." He trailed off. "You''re not ready for this conversation." He sighed. "We''ve talked long enough. I have urgent matters to attend to. My last recommendation is that you stop antagonizing the B-ranks who''ll soon rule Samir in all but name. My attention will be elsewhere, and unless you cease making enemies, your life might depend on just how much they suspect me of being too far to save you in time. Not that I would; we''re done. But they don''t know that.
"For all of the military rules, no front line can stay clear of intrigue when overwhelmed by people of the same place¡ªleast of all during battle, and many of those are coming. They might use the chaos to kill you as soon as the system''s coverage falters or flee after they do they did. Stay Sharp."
The hint at the end couldn''t be more obvious. Shen could even somehow tell Long Hei had said "Sharp" with a capital "S." He wondered if it was related to his dragon genes.
In the end, unlike Shen''s previous assumption, the conversation''s main topic had not been his romantic life but ways to escape his fate. He could join the Primordial Bridge or wait for the Void Tide to fully arrive and try to slip through the gaps that would appear during battle. And by how Long Hei said Sharp, escaping during the chaos included cutting his way out of Samir.
That said, Shen was confident that Long Hei did want him to get to know Xia LIling. The dragon was cunning enough to reveal whatever he wanted in multiple ways. He had no reason to waste time explaining Imperia''s culture or why people married unless the information itself was also something he wanted to share with Shen.
Shen had never seen someone lay so many layers of meaning on a few informational sentences as the dragon had done.
Shen cupped his fists and bowed. "I will remember that, General. Thank you for your time."
Space twisted, and Shen found himself back above Samir-7''s mobile fortress. His sense of time went all over the place for a moment. Then, he understood less than a second had passed in there.
That had been long enough for Imperia to notice his absence. The thunderous voice just before he was taken by a Realization would also ensure everyone knew what had happened: the General had summoned Shen for a talk. Even that show had served a purpose: making it look like Shen was favored.
Shen decided he trusted Long Hei somewhat. The dragon had clearly gone to great lengths to assist him. However, the General had also been clear that this was his last favor to Shen.
So, Shen had just learned that a lot of people wanted a piece of him, and his unexpected closest A-rank ally no longer cared about protecting him from the shadows.
Wasn''t that just great?
"I''ll accept Imperia''s suggestion," Shen told Sun Weisheng as if nothing had happened. "Xia Liling will be field promoted to Staff Lieutenant and serve directly under me. Staff Lieutenant Luthdel Elafir will be demoted in advance to Second Lieutenant. Not a field demotion but an official demotion under the General''s orders. Luthdel will take over Second Lieutenant Marakoo''s Battalion. Thus, Lieutenant Marakoo''s field promotion is reverted."
Shen was about to rudely dismiss Sun Weisheng but took heed of Long Hei''s warning.
That didn''t bother him as much as it might have in another situation. After all, he had wanted to stop talking to Imperia''s representative because they might be a risk, and he wanted some extra time to react if he noticed anything wrong and report them if anything happened. Now, it was riskier not to listen to what they had to say. No one would come if he reported anything. The B-ranks would get to him no matter what.
So, he asked, "Is there any other urgent matter you want to discuss, Captain?"
He made sure not to sound too pleasant. These people would likely smell blood like sharks if he showed any openings.
However, there was no faking that his change of heart about Xia Liling had come from Long Hei. He might as well make it look like the dragon wanted to accommodate them but not too much¡ªand that Shen had a leash. That might help them feel closer to the General and complain to him about Shen before disposing of Shen.
That part Shen did hate. His True Self shook slightly as he acted against his principles and beliefs. The only reason he could even go forth with it was because Long Hei did hold his Shen. The A-rank General was above Shen, after all.
But that was it. If Sun Weisheng sensed a weakness and tried to take advantage of it, Shen would have to find how long he could last against a B-rank.
He didn''t have great hopes, but it was better than denying himself.
371. What is a Universe?
The Allseeing looked at the dragon and said, "The latest research confirms what we already know: you can''t hone another person''s willpower if you ''sneakily'' reveal information in a manner they are supposed to understand, regardless of how cryptic you make it sound."
The lizard snorted. Unlike what happened during his talk to the boy, she didn''t allow the move to tear Space apart.
"He wouldn''t trust me if I was too forthcoming and helpful," the abyssal dragon explained.
She couldn''t begin to understand why an A-rank would care about anyone trusting them. She could follow the logic but not get the need for external validation and goodwill from specks of atoms. Even an A-rank as weak as the dragon had lived too long to care about the feelings of people who came and went like dust in the wind.
Still, she didn''t pursue the topic. She had wasted enough time here. "You got what you wanted. Give me the truth."
The Hopeless Wanderer took his sweet time before asking, "Will you really let him live?"
"I said I would. That is enough for you. Don''t forget I can pry the information from your soul if you keep resisting me."
In fact, she would''ve already done so if it weren''t for the Primordial Bridge. They were highly protective of their prisoners, which was often the main reason anyone surrendered instead of fighting to the death. Although she wouldn''t be directly punished for meddling with one of their chained pets, she valued her good neighbor relationship with them¡ªto a point. If the Wanderer remained silent, the warden holding his chain would report the dragon had double-crossed her. That would smooth things out.
The lizard sighed again. "I always thought my former sworn brother valued me as much as I did him, but recent events proved otherwise. I don''t know whether the information I have is accurate or he lied to me."
She had lived for a long time but was getting impatient. Her entire self trembled. To be so close to the truth yet find it encased in the shadows of the Abyss was antagonistic to her Revealing Light. Finding out how long she had been fooled only made it worse.
Her Edict demanded answers, and she would have it today. She would be the judge of whether the "Immortal Emperor" had lied. That was her specialty.
"This is your last chance," she informed the creature who was tempting her to ravage through his soul. As an A-rank, he would likely not survive the experience. High-ranking beings were even more of an inseparable whole than Shen''s True Self made him. "Speak. Now."
He had the gall to sigh yet again, but he did speak at long last. "As far as I know, the Immortal Emperor doesn''t want to destroy the Alliance. But he knew the boy was special. SpecOps called it Chaosbringer, but the Emperor said Shen is an Unraveler."
She wanted to know the Immortal Emperor''s plans for the Alliance, not about Shen. Yet, her Edict let her know sharing knowledge with the dragon now would help her shed a brighter Light on the matter.
So, she said, "Chaosbringers, as their name suggests, always bring chaos to the Alliance. They upset all order in the most unpredictable and bloody way possible."
The lizard chuckled. "The Emperor didn''t tell me much, which made this Chaosbringing business so interesting to me when SpecOps mentioned it. But he did say Shen''s existence is like an antibody sent by Reality when its limited awareness lets it notice things are taking a turn for the worse. If the Alliance was the issue when the last Unraveler was born, that''s an Alliance problem, not Reality''s. Aren''t you the Alliance''s peak investigator? Investigate. See who your Chaosbringer killed¡ªand what they intended to do. I bet he would''ve brought many worse changes to the Alliance than the Chaosbringer did."
Before he suggested it, she had already checked everything pertaining to the only Chaosbringer to have ever accomplished something in the Alliance, at least after her Guardian System was implemented. She combed through the system''s logs, even breaking seals requested by S-ranks. Any requester still alive would get a notification about the breach because she had to make the Guardian System somewhat fair, but not enough that she had to ask permission instead of forgiveness.
It was still her system.
What she found made her look deeper¡ªat the Chaosbringers who were properly disposed of before they did too much. There was too little to be known about anything before the system, but the latest Chaosbringer had openly denounced a name right before they fell: Dusk Horizon. A name a pesky C-rank from a tiny corner of the multiverse had no business knowing. There were no records of how they had learned that name.
She looked even deeper.
She pushed mana reserves meant to combat the Void Tide into having her system assist her with widespread analysis. She linked her mind to it, putting the entire thing under heavy stress.
In the end, all signs pointed at a few signs of Dusk Horizon, under disguise and in a place where her system wasn''t present, having a meeting with a Primordial.
What remained of her survival instincts screamed at her to stop snooping, but she was Revealing Light.
She needed to continue.
A moment later, she saw other signs and concluded that Dusk Horizon had been commanded by the Primordials to hasten the Sector''s fall. Discontinuity had triggered it but was clean as far as she could tell. The system had barely detected a Deepphase Whisper sent by Discontinuity to Dusk Horizon mid-battle, saying he had returned to the Alliance because his eternal companion had died and his other friends insisted. The Allseeing had no doubt the Primordials had killed the companion for that specific reason. Discontinuity''s return had been planned for since the Primordials approached Dusk Horizon.
The System Administrator almost found it amusing how fitting the Title she had given Discontinuity ended up being: the End of All Things.
She kept following the clues and concluded other things. The timing of Discontinuity''s return roughly matched the latest Primordial Maiden''s Anointment. Supposedly, the Primordials hadn''t even had a Maiden back then. Yet, they had prepared for her ascension.
Evidently, a Primordial Purge wasn''t only a punishment tool.
The Primordials only called for one when the Alliance''s morals and ethics fell below a certain threshold, but it was also a celebration or rite of passage when a new Voice entered their Choir.
Alas, the System Administrator was missing puzzle pieces. Shen had failed to stop Dusk Horizon and could do nothing about the still-going Calamity. Even if Discontinuity indeed won, she doubted the Primordials wouldn''t call a Purge on the Alliance.
Had Reality messed up and sent the boy too late? The previous Chaosbringer had also failed to kill Dusk Horizon, after all. Maybe Reality was just bad at it.
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The truth came after he followed the tread of the law demanding every Chaosbringer be killed at B-rank. It hadn''t been created by an S-rank. It had been mandated by the Primordial Bridge.
The ploy unraveled before her: the last Chaosbringer and Shen hadn''t come to fight Dusk Horizon. They and Shen were Reality''s attempt to get rid of the Primordials behind the S-rank.
She turned her eyes to the cthulhu. If a SpecOps agent knew Shen was a Chaosbringer, so did the Bridges'' A-ranks hounds. When discussing it with the Hopeless Wanderer, the agent claimed Shen would die before reaching B-rank anyway because of his Absolute Horizon, and the Bridge had given Shen the exclusive ability.
They had set him up from the start; the Hopeless Wanderer''s attempt to save the boy wouldn''t matter.
Still, despite the cthulhus being good hunting dogs, that sounded excessive. What she knew of them suggested they were reluctant dogs, not that proactive.
"Why support your masters?" she asked.
She used her Edict of the Revealing Light to speak straight into the being''s mind with the very Laws of Light that Reality was made of. Meanwhile, the dragon was still rambling about how Unravelers were actually good for everyone.
She continued, "You fought them in the past. You claimed that tightly controlling the Choir of Voices was the same as putting the multiverse into a deep sleep-like trance. You called it the Nightmare of Eons. You were enslaved when you lost. Why assist your evil capturers with such ploys?"
The cthulhu looked deep into her eyes and replied, "Who said Reality can only deploy one Unraveler at a time?" Its voice was male and smooth.
She was the Allseeing; thus she had Titled herself. She who wielded the Revealing Light. So, it had been a very, very, very long time since she had last been surprised, much less shocked.
Yet, she couldn''t stop her astonishment this time.
So, they had controlled the Alliance''s records and findings where her system couldn''t see. They had made it look like Chaosbringers always appeared alone and after long periods of time. Who knew how many others they had found and got rid of to keep the fa?ade? Or even kept hidden and trained even now?
Shen was an unfortunate sacrifice for the greater good. The Primordial Maiden had found him, and he had survived her Whisper. She would come for him again, and he would die. So, they had hastened his death to make it look like they were protecting the Primordials. To create the illusion that no Chaosbringers would be around during this Purge.
The great question was, "Why let me know now?" she asked.
The cthulhu could''ve stopped the dragon from saying anything. He could''ve ordered her not to investigate. She would have anyway, which would mark her a traitor. He had only watched as she pursued the truth.
"The Usurpers will learn of our schemes and kill us," the cthulhu replied. "The dragons are on our side. This one is weak and ignorant, but his former friend isn''t. That is the answer you were seeking: the Immortal Emperor seeks to destroy the Alliance, as we do. We, as most races that survived the Choir War, will try again this time. We''ll win or be erased. Join us or die without ever having the chance to live free of the Void menace."
"There is no such thing," she replied. "The Void always comes."
"Nothingness comes to all that is, yet not as fast as it does to the Alliance. How many universes have you invaded with mostly pristine Nodes? How long did they last until the Void appeared?"
"That''s my point," she said unamusedly. "We''ve been Marked. The Void pursues us. Every S-rank knows that."
"No," the cthulhu replied. "There are no marks, not in the way you think of it. The Void doesn''t care. Strong Guardians struggle the most to understand that; the higher your rank, the more challenging it is to comprehend something can simply not be. You are the Revealing Light, part of the Axioms of Light that define existence through Reality; your existence almost cannot even think of not being, and it gives you bias.
"The Void doesn''t mind success, failure, or delay. It neither needs nor desires anything. It doesn''t even exist; how can the absence of everything mark or pursue targets?
"The Void Overmind is a subproduct of universes getting too close to their definitive end. It''s the intermingling of Reality with what it''s becoming: nothingness. Reality infects nothingness and gives birth to the Void menace as you know it. It''s a way to help everyone inside. You can fight against the Void that attacks you. You can escape it. Reality provides the strong with a warning of impending doom and a chance to flee. But why would Reality do it for healthy universes? For universes that haven''t crumbled so much? Why share the same Void Overmind with different universes?"
She wasn''t interested in being led around like a child. She had long passed her age of philosophical debates about the Void.
"Get to the point," she demanded.
"Ruin comes to all. Even if you slow a Node or Subnode''s crumbling, it cannot be stopped or reversed. You can only close Tears and delay the end; there is no fixing a Voided Subnode or Node. Nothing can fix them because they weren''t created to be eternal. Reality doesn''t want anything to exist forever, for whatever reason. As far as anyone knows, Reality itself is eternal, evidently, but not its individual universes. Universes are as subject to Change as everything else. They also cease to be after enough Time passes.
"That leads us to the question: what is a universe? What defines it? The Aspects and Expressions it''s made of. The Aspects and Expressions themselves are also conceptually eternal, but not when made manifest as a universe. Much like Nodes and Subnodes, they aren''t meant to exist forever. In fact, the Nodes and Subnodes are but a representation of all that exists in a set region of each universe, of that universe''s state of deterioration. If it''s crumbling, so is everything inside. It has reached the end of its purposed existence.
"What would happen if you swapped a half-destroyed Subnode with a brand new one from another universe? Corruption. Infection. Its short remaining existence would contaminate the new universe. Something similar happens when the Alliance hops into a new universe. That hastens the end because something it brings with it is meant to have long been destroyed. The universe''s pillars, its Nodes and Subnodes, suffer the extra strain of the new addition that should no longer exist."
The creature paused, and the System Administrator became even less amused. She genuinely hated being treated like a student. Alas, she couldn''t invade the mind of an A-rank of the Primordial Bridge without consequences.
So, she replied, "That proves my point. We''re marked, though, as you said, differently from how I thought. We''re made of Aspects and Expressions as anything else. Whenever we go, we make the universe fall faster. For all intents and purposes, the Void pursues us."
"Wrong. Universes are meant to end, but only after such a long time span that we might as well also see it as eternal. Trillions of Standard years. Quadrillions. Longer. Has any S-rank ever lived that long? Has any artifact the Alliance brought with it to a new universe existed for so long? Only one thing has been around for longer than the Alliance has. A gift. They call it the Primordial Gift."
She was surprised for the second time that day. "Mana."
"Precisely. The Alliance teaches every newcomer race that the Primordials are so strong they only fight the Void Spawn in deep phase space. You are entirely correct. They are so strong that they can stop their galaxy from eroding, thus unnaturally forcing the Primordial Galaxy to be eternal. However, even that strength can''t pierce too deep into phase space. The moment they enter any layer of phase space, it begins to crumble around them. The deepest ones are so unstable that the Void is immediately made manifest."
The Allseeing shook her head. "You''re contradicting yourself. Primordials don''t use mana. Has every Primordial lived longer than universes, enough to bring immediate entropy with them?"
"They bring something even worse than mana within them. Cultivators face tribulations, but mana-wielders don''t. The tribulations don''t simply not happen. They are redirected and harvested for purposes not wholly known to me beyond honing their Voices somehow. Tribulations are a higher-order existence than mana, and each Primordial has experienced the tribulations of at least a few universes where the Alliance has been.
"Some call the Alliance the Primordials'' garden, and the Bridge their guarding dogs. They have no idea how accurate that is. You''re all being cultivated like plants. The redirected tribulations are like picking the fruits you give. And once in a while, the owners come for a destructive stroll, the Purges.
"We believe that adding a Voice to the Choir comes at a cost, and it must be paid either in blood or by decreasing the people in the Primordial Galaxy for a period. Or both.
"Their ruse about Purging corruption serves to decrease resistance in those times, but not only from the Alliance. Every Unraveler we trained becomes single-mindedly focused on destroying the Primordials after they learn the truth. It cripples their Path in some ways but also makes them grow faster.
"We can''t invade the Primordial Galaxy and win if the Usurpers are all there; that''s how we lost last time. But they''ll be vulnerable out here. The strongest of our older generations have concluded this Purge will be our best shot for the next immeasurable amount of time. They have waited, and now they''ll act.
"So, tell me, Revealing Light: will you join us, or will you be a fugitive for your entire life, owned by those who see you as cabbage?"
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372. One Last Thing
"Thank you, Commander," Sun Weisheng said, visibly relieved. "I''m sure Xia Liling will be of great assistance to you."
Karma recorded the exchange¡ªor whatever the Realization did¡ªwhile the B-rank returned to the ranks without further ado, leaving Xia Liling behind.
"Welcome to the Seventh Exemplary Brigade, First Lieutenant," Shen told the girl.
She smiled slightly, her eyes shining. His decision made her happy enough, or at least that''s what she wanted him to think. Though Shen could find no sign of it being a performance, Long Hei had been right on that: it would be a very long while before he trusted Xia Liling, if ever.
"Thank you, Commander," she replied, cupping her hands before herself and giving him the standard Imperian cultivator greeting.
Hearing her speak for the first time was like lighting the fuse of hormones within him. Her voice was like silk to the ears. It wasn''t any more ethereal than most C-ranks could make their voices if they wanted, but it did sound pleasing. The added positive characteristic to everything she already was made him desire her even more.
Her smile also didn''t help. It might be small, but it was still beautiful. Even the simple and fundamental fact that she showed gratitude instead of taking his decision for granted made him approve more of her. He had no doubt she had been pampered enough that she might''ve acted otherwise.
Sure, she had all the apparent signs of knowing how to behave to appeal to potential suitors. However, her Path felt solid. Her every step felt genuine as they affected the Axioms of Space within everything in Reality. Reality accepted her as a whole entity, and she accepted her place in Reality.
She was a True Path Walker.
If her actions were against her core beliefs, she would injure herself by pretending otherwise. Unless, of course, her Path was all about scheming, but that was so unlikely it bordered on the impossible.
"Get in position," he commanded, and she obeyed at once.
Meanwhile, Shen could see most B-ranks furiously exchanging messages but guessed Imperia''s leadership would have to have a proper meeting to decide what to do after the recent events. He was safe, at least for now.
The ten minutes passed quickly, and Shen got a welcomed message.
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|
Deployment Update
The 7th Exemplary Brigade''s current mission, Filter and Merge Imperia''s Troops, has been completed.
Overall Rating: A+
Personal Rating: A+
Your active mission has reverted to Seek and Capture Fugitives.
|
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Although the system''s rating was subject to change after Shen''s superiors checked it¡ªor his single superior, in his case¡ªthat rarely happened. A quick check on the mission debrief and analysis parameters revealed he had lost a few points for the Acting General''s intervention. The system considered accepting Xia Liling as the optimal path to meet the mission''s requirements, especially to avoid bloodshed. It also strengthened the Exemplary Brigade, which was a plus.
An A+ rating was good enough for a mission he hadn''t been forewarned about and required him to leave his comfort zone.
Some of his people cheered when they got a similar message. Completing missions was good for their military career, but what excited them was hunting fugitives again. Most, if not all, were bound to have Bounties on their heads, and everyone wanted extra AP.
He shared their excitement. As far as he knew, no one else was hunting fugitives in Samir. That might change soon, but they would have a head start.
Clearing the mobile fortresses would waste time and needlessly create disorder in Imperia''s recently arrived ranks. Also, their Guardians were likely already checking every nook and cranny of their mobile fortresses. No one wanted to find unpleasant surprises at home when they least expected.
So, Shen told his Battalion Commanders, "We''ll teleport to Samir-18 in thirty seconds, C-rank Voided Subnode. TAB formation."
As any Node, Samir had 33 Subnodes. Seven were already irreversibly lost to the Void, leaving 26 to be fought for. Of those, over half were Voided, meaning the Void was contesting them. Samir-18 was one of those.
Samir-18 was also the most difficult Voided Subnode the Brigade had any chance of surviving. The strongest Void Spawn found there was C-rank, and it had already been at that rank for a while. It might rank up any time now.
Fugitives without connections were more likely to hide in places it was dangerous for the military to check. Moreover, the high-elven Brigades had already combed through the easier Subnodes. So, Shen would head to Subnodes in reverse order of how risky those places were for his Brigade. He would visit the other C-rank Voided Subnodes next, then the D-rank ones, and so on.
Standing in a Teleport-Assisted Breach formation was often unnecessary when entering a Voided Subnode because the military kept a stable presence in them all. However, Imperia''s Guardians had just replaced the high elves, and they were adapting to their new posts. Their response time would be slow if anything happened and Shen needed assistance.
Above Samir-7''s cubic fortress, Shen''s Battalion Commanders started giving orders to get everyone in position.
Shen turned to Martino. "Thank you for your assistance, Sergeant."
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"Anytime," she replied with a smile. "You''re humanity''s Rising Star, after all. We need you to survive."
He took note of how scared she sounded and didn''t blame her. Seeing over five hundred B-ranks and a billion troops appear out of nowhere was an anxiety-inducing reality check for a weak ruler. Regardless of how strong Earth''s Guardians had grown on the front lines, they had lost too many people.
Earth''s humanity was not ready for Alliance geopolitics.
They needed the 100-year protection period the Alliance gave them. Even then, they had to hope the progressive removal of said protections wouldn''t cause them to face something they weren''t prepared for much sooner than the final deadline. As far as anyone knew, Shen might be their only hope if anything they weren''t ready to deal with happened.
He felt a pang of guilt at not preparing them better for his eventual death or escape, but his hands were tied on the former, and he believed running away from certain death wouldn''t be an actual betrayal.
Shen waited a few seconds to see if Martino had anything more to say, but if she did, now wasn''t the time or place she wanted to speak. So, he nodded and stated, "Dismissed." Martino turned into light and was teleported away by the system back to her cell.
Shen turned to Miavalur next. "Thank you for your assistance, Lieutenant."
Shen''s troops had cheered when they completed their mission. Miavalur had relaxed. He didn''t hide that he wanted to leave as soon as possible.
"One last thing before you go," Shen said. "System, bring me a B+ force monolith."
The front lines had a few places to train troops. Training dummies were far and few between, as they were considered a waste of time. You''d better hone your skills against warriors fighting back. Yet, sometimes, you had to go all-out to test an ability, which might kill a peer. The Alliance''s solution was the force monolith.
A thirty-foot-tall, five-foot-wide obsidian obelisk materialized before Shen. At B+ rank, it could take anything he might throw at it. He had no chance of damaging it in the slightest and wouldn''t even be allowed to use it if it wasn''t for his special position as an Exemplary Brigade Commander.
"Lieutenant Specialist Taeral Miavalur, I command you to watch me with utmost attention for the next ten seconds. Use all your senses to get the best, most thorough understanding you can get about everything you witness me doing. I deem this critical for my current mission and warn you: disobedience will be considered treason."
His order was a blatant lie. Miavalur seeing him attack the monolith would change nothing for Shen''s mission to find fugitives. But Shen was putting Rayna''s lesson to good use: he would pay the price if it was ever investigated, leading him to get punished.
Shen hated politics, but SpecOps was messing with him. One day, he would be strong enough not to be affected by that annoying game. Today, he would use it against them.
Miavalur had looked away when Shen killed the drow. Shen didn''t know why but doubted it was to his benefit. Thus, he would ensure the high elf saw everything Shen had to show.
He took his spear from his ring and attacked the monolith with everything he had, minus his domain and its related abilities. He started using only his stats and qi-less techniques, then added qi techniques, deployed his Aural Realm, used his Aura-Material Suppression, and so on. He displayed all his best abilities against the obelisk in quick succession. He attacked from all sides, moving as if fighting someone. His spear clanged violently against the black stone nonstop.
The monolith was enchanted for durability and to prevent any weapon¡ªor fists¡ªfrom breaking when striking it. Shen''s abilities didn''t even scratch the B+ thing. When his spearhead struck, it felt like hitting solid stone but also soft in a way. The vibrations spreading through the weapon and his arms weren''t as violent as they should have been.
Still, the main reason he got the force monolith instead of punching empty air was its secondary function: power estimation. Each of the obelisk''s faces displayed a huge golden number as Shen attacked. It was a raw analysis of his strength on the power tier he had learned in elite combat training. It lacked the contextual analysis for a complete result, but that, and moving around the thing, was the best he could do to ensure the high elf saw as much as he could.
The numbers were in Stangue, but translated, his attacks started with a low tier 7 strength, then quickly rose to a mid 8¡ªeven before Shen started using qi. Qi pushed it to high 8, then barely crossed into low 9 as he used his most destructive techniques. Finally, utilizing everything he had, except anything domain-related, allowed his attacks to reach mid 9.
Shen had underestimated himself. He had thought he would need his Absolute Horizon to reach peak 9, but even if he kept the domain to his body, he would be able to get at least 10-, maybe a straight 10.
He felt strong.
Ten seconds later, he reined his aura in, ceased all his abilities, and stood still as he turned to Miavalur.
The high elf wasn''t restraining the fear in his soul. He did not want to have seen Shen''s strength. Evidently, he had to choose between "betraying" the Alliance by disobeying Shen and getting killed as a traitor or whatever punishment he might receive for whatever he saw that he would rather not. He might still erase his memory after Shen dismissed him, but that was partially why Shen gave a direct order. It had been logged by the system. There was no hiding that Miavalur had seen everything Shen had to offer except his domain and Absolute Horizon. There was also no misreporting it because the power monolith had made it clear how heavy Shen''s attacks were.
SpecOps was mysterious and had S-rank authority, but it wasn''t commanded by an S-rank. At least, not as far as it told everyone. Whatever Miavalur feared should not be legal, and SpecOps still had to follow the rules, even if they could skim many of them. So, Shen hoped they would have to go against the law to mess with him in this recorded and logged instance. Ideally, it would keep them from moving against him, but even if they decided to pay the price, he still sought to make it bite them in the ass later.
All that, of course, assuming he wasn''t reading too much into Miavalur''s previous actions. Maybe he had just been forbidden from analyzing Shen and would get a wrist slap for disobeying it. Who really knew how SpecOps operated?
"You''re dismissed, Lieutenant Specialist," Shen finally said with a slight smile.
Like Martino, the system also teleported him away instantly. That surprised Shen. The man hadn''t been in prison like the Human Maiden or requested a teleport. One of his superiors wanted his presence as soon as he was done with the Exemplary Brigade.
Well, Shen hoped they made good use of his fresh memory.
And if he had just pissed them off? That would be almost better than preventing them from plotting against him. They had nearly gotten him killed in the vault. He couldn''t care less about angering any SpecOps B-rank that might potentially come to slap him into oblivion for the disrespect. Or an A-rank. Being erased by someone one step away from the peak of existence, S-rank, would make him proud for at least one instant. Maybe.
At the very least, it would be more honorable than all this bullshit they were throwing at him.
Thirty seconds after he informed the Seventh Exemplary Brigade they would invade a Voided Subnode, they had positioned themselves in the TAB formation. It resembled a dome, with C-ranks on the outside protecting everyone inside. Unlike most other formations, there were no further layers inside, like D-ranks protecting E-ranks; everyone but C-ranks was packed together. This wasn''t about letting everyone fight. The C-ranks would be teleported first and defend the area. Only after it was safe would Shen worry about fair target distribution for his subordinates. Until then, it would be easier to protect a smaller area.
They were getting to a C-rank Voided Subnode. If the C-ranks couldn''t stop something, no D-ranks could, either. Their lives were on their superiors'' hands. They would only get in the way if they tried anything.
Shen took his position at the dome''s peak and requested of the system, "Teleport me and all my C-ranks to Samir-18, closest to the edge as possible."
He would bring his subordinates later if he didn''t die first. Even so, danger might appear only after the Sergeants and Corporals arrived, which was the reason for packing them together. They were literally expensive luggage until a few seconds after their teleportation was completed.
Shen turned into light and teleported away.
373. All Clear
Shen''s current mastery allowed him to feel his Path''s Laws up to 300 miles in ordinary Reality. His improvement in the vault had been incredible on that front, as with almost everything else.
Though he couldn''t assimilate and analyze everything he sensed, he could focus and get more information about something. If he visited pre-Alliance Earth the way he was now, when there were no protections against Law sense, he would be able to tell the activities people inside houses were engaged in.
Sadly, sensing things that way wasn''t precise. He could tell someone was eating if his Laws were amid the action, and they usually were, but not what was being said¡ªthough he was confident that would change as he further mastered his Path. It was like looking through a blurred window with clearer bits here and there. His five senses also didn''t reach that far except in an unobstructed straight line¡ªthough he was on the verge of being able to bend Light using his Path, allowing him to see further. He could use his Laws to affect anything within range, including attacking, but it was of limited use without a clear picture of what or who he sensed.
His aura changed that. It could cover as much ground as his Law senses, and he felt anything inside in detail if he focused. It didn''t just expand how detailed his Law sense became but also pushed his tact as a sort of sixth sense. His passive mana and qi senses also expanded to englobe everything within. Moreover, ever since he had started walking a True Path, his aura allowed him to react to incoming threats without conscious thought, making sneak attacks against him a challenge unless he trusted the offender to some degree¡ªor they were specialized in such techniques, evidently.
Shen had already noticed before that C-rank, especially mid-C-rank, was the threshold where a commoner would consider a cultivator an unmatched divine entity. He could quite literally command the wind and the seas with his Laws alone.
He couldn''t teleport people yet, but he would be able to after mastering his Laws. Likewise, though his destructive ability was impressive, it was still somewhat limited. Nevertheless, he would be able to destroy Earth''s moon at peak C-rank, even without his domain. It wouldn''t be easy, and definitely not in a single attack, but he would be able to do it. Destroying Earth would also be possible, but more of a splitting it up rather than the usual image anyone got of exploding planets. It would also take a while.
Alas, for all his power, stepping into a Voided Subnode felt like getting his senses pushed into a tiny bottle and carrying a heavy weight on his soul. The greater one''s Law range, the stronger the suppression, relatively speaking. Shen''s Laws'' reach was reduced to less than thirty miles. His willpower was okay for now, but he already got an uncomfortable pressure on the back of his mind, almost a migraine, yet not, which would only get stronger.
Furthermore, mana trickled slower into every non-cultivator Guardian in sight, as the Guardian System suffered the Void''s influence. Thankfully, that much slowness wasn''t enough to affect C-ranks, much less anyone weaker. At least, not this close to the Alliance''s Center of Operations in the Subnode. However, the connection with the system would erode as they got further away.
Those were just the consequences of getting into a Voided Subnode; special areas might occur randomly and make everything more complex.
Such limits were one of the things that made the war against the Void more problematic. Shen doubted the Alliance would struggle as much if its Guardians could freely deploy their entire power whenever they faced the Void Spawn.
Shen deployed his aura as soon as he materialized in the Voided Subnode, feeling everything he could, seeking potential hazards and scouting the region.
Every Subnode was unique in its ambiance, but they were all shaped as perfect spheres with exact spatial boundaries. They were slightly less wide than Earth''s distance to its moon. In the Alliance, that was considered 33 SCLU, Standard Cosmo Length Unit. It was no coincidence. 1 SCLU was defined as 1/33th of a Subnode''s width to keep with the 33 Nodes per universe, 33 Subnodes per Node theme. In Earth''s measures, it was around 200 thousand miles, give or take, or 320 thousand kilometers.
That was seldom a concern. Shen could go from one side to another in a couple of hours if running in a straight line. Unfortunately, Samir-18 had a Geometric style with two variations: Maze and Comprehensive.
Geometric Subnodes were filled with three-dimensional geometric shapes of all sizes. Maze Subnodes were challenging to traverse and rarely had unobstructed straight lines. Comprehensive Subnodes were wholly affected by the main style¡ªGeometric¡ªincluding changes to what one would consider the average Reality.
So, there was no ground or sky in Samir-18. Three-dimensional geometric shapes of all sizes, from as small as pebbles to as enormous as hundreds of skyscrapers, floated everywhere. Or rather, they looked floating but were static and couldn''t be moved. They were made of a bland gray metal-looking substance that felt like plastic and was more rigid than most B-rank materials. They stood at random distances from one another, from big groups touching each other to some standing tens of miles apart. The latter were rare, though; the Subnode was classified as a Maze for a reason. Shen couldn''t see further than a few miles.
There was no global up or down in Samir-18¡ªor even constant gravity. Some geometric bodies came with their own gravity, but there was no pattern. A pebble might have ten times Earth''s gravity, while an enormous box might have no gravitational pull. Obviously, as mass didn''t matter, it was no genuine gravity, which was also noticeable by how far the pulls went. It was also random. You might feel gravity a mile away from a shape or nothing a few feet away.
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That usually made navigating the place annoying and made Guardians more prone to mistakes during combat. That was doubly true because Void Spawn seemed unaffected by the shapes'' gravities.
The system hadn''t made things hard for the Seventh Exemplary Brigade. Shen''s C-ranks materialized atop a three-mile-wide triangular prism with its own gravity. It was less than a tenth of Earth''s gravity, but it still made it much easier for everyone to orient themselves.
The surroundings were mostly clear, too. There was nothing within five hundred yards of the prism. Things changed drastically after that range, though, as countless three-dimensional shapes were behaving like an insurmountable dome covering everything to Shen''s left. Cubes, prisms, hexahedrons, balls, and so on littered the region, ranging from leg-sized to skyscraper-sized, standing from a few inches to a few yards apart. Shen''s aura let him determine a few places he might go through if needed, but he wouldn''t want to fight in there, not to mention put his people in such a situation. He would avoid it if possible.
The area was less chaotic to his right. The structures'' sizes ranged from as wide as a mansion to a small neighborhood, floating from a few feet to a hundred yards apart. He would still rather not fight amid that, but it was the lesser evil.
Shen felt no Void Spawn or any Void surprises within ten miles. Not thirty, which was his nominal max range in that C-rank Voided Subnode, but ten. Each floating structure slightly affected how far his Laws reached, and it piled up.
Still, the place was safe within his senses. That was good enough for now.
"Report," he ordered.
Eleven C-ranks replied in unison, "All clear, Commander!"
Shen nodded pleasedly. Xia Liling had properly gotten her Battalion in position and knew how to report. He could stop paying extra attention to her and assume she would be as good as the other Battalion Commanders. It would allow him to focus more on other matters.
"Position yourselves," he commanded while doing so himself.
He flew a few dozen yards up. The rest of the Brigade would come soon, and being too close to them would make it more dangerous if any C-rank messed up. A greater distance from the weaker Guardians meant extra time for reaction, though if it was too much, they would become more vulnerable.
"System, bring the rest of my Brigade," he requested.
? ?
| Request received
| ETA: 3 minutes
? ?
The second notification surprised Shen. He was engaged in a mission given to him by the Acting General himself. The system had to be overloaded with matters with an even greater priority to put Shen''s people on standby.
It also had to be recent, considering all the teleportation Imperia had used in Samir with no delays. Shen himself had likely only come immediately because he was C-rank, unlike his absent subordinates, and maybe thanks to the B-rank teleportation priority he had purchased with a system favor.
Three standard minutes was little enough that he didn''t need to do anything different. He kept checking everything around, watching for any signs of Void Spawn. Nothing happened until light filled the prism''s face below him as the rest of his Brigade was teleported to the Subnode.
Then, they were still materializing when one of the worst things that could happen in a Comprehensive Geometric Maze Subnode happened:
Material Possession.
There were many discussions about whether the Void would progress faster or slower with less interference from the Alliance. Sometimes, The Void was just waiting for prey to push harder in a Voided Subnode. So, some asked themselves: what if there was no one there? Would the Void just... do nothing?
The answer was a solid "no."
Leaving any Subnodes unmanned revealed no shift in how fast a Subnode fell. The most widespread theory was that the Void advanced steadily in empty Subnodes but prepared some punches in places protected by the Alliance. Manned or not, it took the same amount of time for any Subnode to fall¡ªexcluding some factors, like B-ranks assisting with slowing down the erosion¡ªonly the Void''s methods differed. Supposedly, that happened because the Void also sought to maximize the damage it caused to the Alliance whenever it could.
Material Possession was precisely what its name suggested: the Void corrupted inanimate objects into becoming Void Spawn instead of living beings. That was theoretically impossible, but the Void didn''t let it stop it now and then. B-rank Voided Subnodes had weird shit, and Material Possession was one of the signs that a Subnode was less than one step away from advancing from C-rank to B-rank.
Suddenly, every geometric shape within Shen''s sensory range was compressed into an apple-sized ball of liquid darkness. The next moment, over half of them expanded into the weakest Void Spawn possible, Void Hatchlings.
"Defensive flying formation!" Shen commanded, and everyone got into a multi-layered sphere formation.
As soon as the last E-rank positioned themselves¡ªwhich required them to use mana to propel themselves¡ªhalf the remaining Void spheres turned into the second-weakest Void Spawn possible, Void Seedlings. Soon after came the Scouts and then, finally, the three-hundred-foot-tall Warriors.
There were hundreds of thousands of them, maybe millions. They were so many and so crowded that they couldn''t move properly.
Shen was worried not because of fighting power but time. The longer it took to exterminate the creatures, the more likely a Warrior was to reach B-rank. They would also learn to use their power better.
He had C-ranks with mastered Laws. They could kill B-rank Warriors. But how well, and how many? They were way too few.
Even then, the crisis would be more manageable if not for the massive amounts of nearby Void Spawn cutting off the system entirely. No more mana or stamina was coming from the system. The Brigade had to manage its resources well, which partially meant leaving weak Void Spawn for weak Guardians to kill. A single percent of mana used to exterminate weaklings might be the difference between victory and defeat later.
So, as usual, C-ranks would allow some Void Spawn through for D-ranks to kill, and the latter would let some for E-ranks to kill. They would also fight extra hard for the AP. It was good for everyone until the Warriors were dealt with.
The only good news was that Shen didn''t need the system for qi, and there was ample of the energy around. This was no Void Farm. This was regular Voided Subnode space, and the Void wasn''t interfering with qi yet. He could singlehandedly ensure his people''s safe as long as he only had to deal with C-rank Void Spawn.
Even then, after everyone got used to the battle rhythm, he would command a retreat. He wouldn''t take any chances, especially not in a Voided Subnode so close to ranking up.
The first creature approached, and the battle started.
374. Superstitious
The battle''s initial challenge was the lack of gravitational pull. Shen''s people were used to fighting on a plane. For whatever reason, most sapient living beings were terrestrial, which was even truer for bipeds. For them, even aerial combat came with the idea of a direction being up or down.
Genuine three-dimensional warfare, where everyone could freely navigate all three spatial dimensions and attack from anywhere, often required specialized training for anyone on D-rank or lower. C-ranks had an edge on the form of their Laws. Feeling Laws slowly changed their perspective to accept the world as more than a plane. Cultivators and mana wielders with mastered Laws had it even easier.
Fortunately, the default defensive flying formation decreased the severity of the issue by dividing the world into inside and outside their sphere. Shen used his aura to constantly let everyone feel a very slight pull coming from the center of their formation so everyone could orient themselves. The E-ranks stood closest to the middle, then came the D-ranks, then the C-ranks.
That made the beginning of the fight as easy as possible. Moreover, recently formed Void Spawn were slow and stupid. Even then, Shen didn''t order an attack in an attempt to leave. He needed to ensure his people could fight well as a group before anything else.
The first Void Spawn to attack was a Hatchling. They were basically useless but ridiculously numerous; there were at least a few hundreds of thousands of them. As soon as the first attacked, it opened the damn of potential death coming at the Brigade.
Material Possessions were dangerous, but they came with a silver lining: there was no recorded instance where a Void Spawn was formed with the wrong size during Material Possession. For a while, no one had to worry about whether a Void Spawn would be stronger or weaker than its size suggested. It streamlined the combat.
So, Shen ordered, "Rank-based infiltrator control! Preserve your mana! Cultivators, stay around eighty percent qi unless otherwise needed!"
The Void Spawn approached silently, and the area was still silent except for the people moving their weapons and equipment. Everyone heard him. Nevertheless, Rayna and Luthdel repeated the orders for the three Battalion Commanders to hear. The Battalions'' staff also repeated it for the D-rank Commanders, and so on.
Rank-based infiltrator control was a simple tactic. Everyone would kill anything of their rank and merely curb the number of weaker opponents as they passed. You weren''t meant to let things get crowded deeper in the defensive sphere. How many creatures you killed to accomplish that was up to your judgment, knowing your superior wouldn''t let abuses go unpunished.
Although simple, the tactic left a lot of room for mistakes, as any that depended on individual judgment. Shen wouldn''t have ordered it if he didn''t trust his Brigade''s abilities to a certain extent.
Void Spawn, from small to huge, approached and died as if facing a meat grinder. Physical attacks were almost exclusively used at first, but there was the eventual mana waste here and there. The D-ranks and E-ranks needed to use energy to position themselves, after all.
A few minutes later, Shen decided to test how well everyone could move together. He shouted, "POR-aware constant movement in ten seconds!" His words were repeated.
Ten seconds later, he started moving the pulling force created by his aura deeper into the Subnode at a languid speed. The very middle of the defensive sphere was the POR, or Point of Reference. Everyone was meant to keep the same distance from it as they currently did while it moved at a set speed. They were also supposed to stay sharp and stop if the POR stopped moving.
The C-ranks had no trouble with it. Half the D-ranks did. Almost every E-rank messed up at first.
Shen didn''t blame them. Moving without gravity was annoying. As importantly, the Void Spawn were beginning to do more than just throw themselves against the sharp edge of enemy weapons. Furthermore, almost everyone had to use energy to fight in zero gravity, and virtually no one had any practice. The E-ranks'' minds were also slower than the D-ranks'', so they didn''t get the gist as quickly.
Shen held back on commanding the C-ranks to be extra mindful of the weak Guardians'' situation to assess how well they did, and he was pleased with the result. Every C-rank noticed the internal hiccup and started killing more Void Spawn than before, slowing the flow into the defensive perimeter and giving the E-ranks a breather.
Shen kept his pull moving at the same speed but had to stop half a minute later. A tenth of the D-ranks and a third of the E-ranks were struggling way too much to adapt and lagging behind.
Stopping caused another issue. Some people kept moving briefly before noticing the POR had halted. It deformed the defensive line, putting some people closer to others while some got further away.
The Void Spawn used the opportunity to infiltrate the sphere in greater numbers.
Shen was about to intervene when Luthdel and Rayna looked at each other and exchanged a sign. Rayna then swiftly used her B- whip to protect the weak troops. The weapon slithered between foes and allies alike, targeting the strongest Void Spawn exploiting the formation''s gap. The whip struck like a sharp spear, killing as many as necessary to ensure the situation inside remained under control.
Her move was necessary but unfortunate. The Battalion-level C-ranks were meant to do that, not her. Evidently, while powerful, his Lieutenants weren''t perfect. At least it wasn''t as worrisome as if Shen were forced to act himself.
Shen bellowed, "Battalion Commanders, control and protect your subordinates better!"
He resumed moving a little later and was eventually forced to stop again. At least it took a few minutes this time. Unfortunately, the Void Spawn were getting to the point where they could deflect a few moves, countering the Guardians'' improvements on zero gravity movement.
The Brigade kept moving like that, constantly stopping, for almost twenty minutes. It was slow but better than staying still.
Alas, after three miles, Shen had to admit even the D-ranks weren''t likely to adapt to that battle style faster than the Void Spawn grew. To make matters worse, most E-ranks had already wasted over half their mana. They couldn''t continue like that.
"Rayna, deliver a distress signal!" he commanded.
The drow girl had donned her helmet. Her armor still blocked his Law Vision from seeing anything inside and his senses from feeling anything. Still, the almost imperceptible pause in her movement as she cut a Void Scout down revealed she wasn''t happy about the order. She wanted to stay and earn more AP.
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Shen also didn''t want his second strongest Guardian to leave, but she was the best pick. He had to choose between her or Luthdel, and her fighting ability was at low tier 7, as opposed to Luthdel''s peak tier 6. Her fighting style was also fluid, supported by the Axioms of Air, while Luthdel was a slow-ass combatant. She had a better chance of getting to a point where the system worked, sending a message, and surviving.
At least Shen had Xia Liling. She was at a solid mid tier 7, maybe peak tier 7. She more than made up for Vinamour''s demise, who had barely reached mid tier 7. Shen slowly shifted himself during the battle to defend the opposite side of the sphere from where Xia Liling was.
If anything, her addition proved Imperia''s goodwill, and Shen allowed his opinion of them to mellow a little.
"I''ll help you leave," Shen told Rayna. "Wait for it."
Shen kept overwatching everything within ten miles with his aura, seeking the perfect opportunity to create an opening for Rayna. There were Void Spawn everywhere, as far as he could feel. That was surprising, as Material Possessions seldom affected more than a dozen miles.
Luckily, not every creature was trying to reach the Brigade; the seemingly unsurmountable mass of pressed dark liquid bodies became less crowded after five miles. Even so, Shen sought the right moment when the creatures beyond five miles would be scarcest toward the Subnode''s center, where the Alliance''s Center of Operations was located, and Rayna had to run to.
It took him a few minutes to find the best moment, and then, he attacked.
Shen pushed almost half his qi into his body and spear to form the most potent long-range attack he knew. The technique was unnamed because it was nothing more than the union of everything he knew to accomplish the best thrust possible. His muscles were pumped, his movement was precise, and his spear was solid.
Shen thrust.
The Axioms of Reality gave way as his Path cut all Laws before his spear. An invisible line only as wide as his spearhead shot ahead. It behaved just like he used to do with his swings, splitting everything at a subatomic level. Mini-nuclear fissions happened as the air was cut, forming a trail of light and heat. Space distorted. During the split second that the cut-off Laws took to reassemble, any onlooker got glimpses into possible alternative Realities that could come to be if the Axioms interacted differently.
A few E-ranks looking that way fainted as they looked straight into high-level fantasy or even "mere" raw Laws mixing with each other. Their frail minds were overloaded with what they witnessed.
Unlike those weaklings, no Void Spawn was affected by the cut, as the attack lacked Energy. But they also didn''t stop it. The pure Law strike harmlessly went through them, but it wasn''t meant for them. It was merely paving the way for Shen''s actual attack, removing all resistance as a spear of pure qi, fueled by his Path, traveled ahead faster than he could move.
The Void Spawn couldn''t resist that.
The five-man-wide qi spear thrust ahead. Lightning burst in an explosion of light that blinded most D-ranks for a moment. The resulting blast shook the nearby Guardians, and Shen had to use his aura to protect them. Almost no one saw the spear, which was born and ceased to be in an instant. They only saw the resulting perfect tube of nothingness it left in its wake after they recovered from the bright flash. Most creatures on the way were obliterated, barely leaving any black smoke behind, while humongous holes appeared on the ones on the edges of Shen''s attack.
A clear pathway appeared, and Rayna immediately took advantage of it, rushing full speed ahead.
The Void Spawn''s reaction was the opposite of hers: they all halted their movements. Big shows of force affected the Void differently from how individual fights, even as a group, did. Over a second later, they reacted the way Shen knew they would, which was why he didn''t use such attacks to pave a clear way for his Brigade to leave.
They released a soul-scratching screech, and every Void Spawn within fifty miles would rush straight at Shen; there would be no escaping by themselves now.
The Void itself also affected every Guardian more than before. The pressure increased in his mind. A dozen E-ranks almost immediately made themselves faint when they felt they couldn''t resist the voices in their heads. They chose to depend on the protection of their peers rather than risk turning into Void Spawn.
The Void usually didn''t seem to care about being slow in consuming Reality, but it always took offense to highly effective counter-attacks. Shen had even learned of the fabled Void Emissary that might come if the Alliance counter-attacked in some specific ways. He wasn''t sure he could survive such a creature¡ª
Shen froze.
He wasn''t superstitious, but as soon as he thought of the Emissary, a black lightning bolt crossed the skies, going straight at Shen. He deflected it with his spear in the nick of time, but even his shock-dampening techniques didn''t stop him from getting a shaky arm from the force of the impact.
The lightning bolt traveled straight after that and soon struck a Void Scout. The creature exploded, and so did hundreds after it as the bolt continued. It eventually stopped at a fish-shaped Warrior.
The Warrior froze for a moment, then exploded into black smoke and lightning. A biped Void Spawn, half again as tall as Shen, uncurled in its place, surrounded by dark lightning.
A Void Emissary had arrived.
"Absolute defense!" Shen yelled urgently. "Now! Use whatever treasures you have to survive! Leave if you have the means!"
Every Void Spawn in sight turned into smoke, which rushed toward the recent arrival. There was so much smoke that Shen estimated the Material Possession to be around thirty miles wide. The Emissary absorbed everything.
Then, it instantly threw up precisely 9,999,999 black lightning bolts around the Brigade. Whenever the bolts stopped, a C-rank, goblin-sized Void Spawn was born.
The Emissary''s Cohort was deployed and ready for battle.
Shen yelled, "C-ranks, protect the weak! Retreat as well as you can! They''re here for me!" Then, he shot in a random direction, hoping his information on Emissaries was correct.
It had already been wrong in that the Emissary was not supposed to be there.
Supposedly, Emissaries only appeared if you broke some critical rules of engagement between Reality and Void. Shen hadn''t done it, not in Samir. His little attack was nowhere provocative enough for the Void to send an Emissary.
The explanation for his confusion came immediately in the form of a few red notifications.
? ?
| S-RANK WARNING: THE VOID TIDE HAS FLOODED SAMIR
| THE VOID WILL BEHAVE EXTRA ERRATICALLY UNTIL THE TIDE EBBS AWAY
| CEASE ALL OPERATIONS IN ALL SUBNODES
| PROTECT THE CLOSEST CENTER OF OPERATIONS UNLESS ORDERED OTHERWISE
? ?
Shen felt the Guardian System''s connection force itself through the Subnode and into him, push the message into him, and then leave. He had no time to reply or beg for help. He didn''t blame the system; S-rank notifications had to cost mana in levels he couldn''t imagine. The Alliance''s spending it like that only served to show how seriously they took the Void Tide and how threatening it was.
So, obviously, he had miscalculated badly.
By how no one seemed to do much about the Tide, he had thought it would take a while for anything relevant to happen. The higher-ups had even wasted time sending the high elves away from Samir and accepting Imperia! How could the Tide be here already?
Alas, he had been wrong, and no one had cared to say otherwise. Even the damn system had teleported him there without any warning. Why in the seven hells hadn''t the Acting General forbidden operations in the Subnodes before the Tide actually arrived?!
Wait, teleportation! That''s why the system had taken so long to bring the weak Guardians! The Void Tide had likely already arrived elsewhere, and the system was overloaded!
"Dammit," he swore.
A second later, his words to his Brigade were proven a lie. The recently arrived C-rank Void Spawn didn''t come only for him, as he had been told they would. They were supposed to only attack third parties if the latter purposefully got in the way or their primary target got too far.
Instead, at least half started flying toward Shen''s Brigade because of the Void Tide.
Shen had meant to lead the creatures away but changed directions. A Cohort was linked to its Emissary. Killing the Emissary would make another creature become an Emissary, and its Cohort would supposedly target him exclusively. Not even attacking a Cohort''s Void Spawn should make it change targets if the former Emissary''s killer was nearby. They would even break through Subnodes and invade regular Reality if the killer escaped, which was one of the things that made Emissaries a huge hazard.
Shen didn''t know if they would do what they should but hoped so. Certainly, the Void Tide wouldn''t change the creatures into less dangerous ones, right?
Heavens, he really hoped he hadn''t just killed his Brigade in one of the most stupid ways possible.
375. One Clear Way
Ten million enemies was a lot. Them being C-rank made it worse. As if that wasn''t enough, Cohorts weren''t born completely dumb like normal Void Spawn. Each creature had the collective experience from the ones previously absorbed by the Emissary.
Survival would be impossible if not for Shen being able to recover his qi.
Emissaries never appeared far from their target. In fact, this one had meant to manifest beside Shen, but he deflected the lightning bolt. That was the right decision to escape, but it made his current goal harder to achieve. To kill the Emissary, Shen had to go through the thousands of Void Spawn between them.
Shen didn''t have time to help his Brigade. Trying to keep the crowd of enemies from killing his people would be an exercise in futility. He might have attempted it if he knew reinforcements were on the way, but the latest S-rank order was to cease all operations and protect the Center of Operation. Even Rayna had to give up on the Brigade and get there, much less anyone who might come assist them.
So, even if Shen could hold for a while, it should be a matter of time before the Cohorts grew strong and smart enough to overwhelm him. And they would grow stronger. Shen couldn''t kill every one of them in time even if it wasn''t for a unique trait from Cohorts.
Shen killed the closest Void Spawn with a simple swing of his spear. The creatures were goblin-sized, so although harder to hit, each hit that struck their bodies caused more damage. In other words, as long as you hit them, they were easier to destroy.
That''s what happened. Shen moved too fast for the creature to react in time, bisecting it from head to toe. It dissipated into smoke.
Alas, the smoke rushed toward the Emissary, was absorbed, and then became a black lightning bolt thrown in a random direction and distance. It morphed into a new Void Spawn.
In a Cohort, only Emissaries didn''t regenerate when killed, but killing Emissaries put a target on you. Cohorts were dangerously annoying to deal with unless you were strong enough to kill them all at once. That was usually accomplished with a domain, but Shen couldn''t push his out of his body.
Still, he moved as fast as he could. His goal wasn''t to kill the Cohort but to get to the Emissary, so he dodged and passed by hundreds of Void Spawn before being eventually besieged by seventy who worked together to bar his way.
The first Void Spawn reached the first C-rank from his Brigade.
Shen felt tempted to use his domain to get to the Emissary faster but now wasn''t the time. Not yet. It would be his hidden card to get rid of the Emissary. Using it even a second before he reached the creature meant giving it a second to potentially adapt and except his domain-enhanced strike.
He merely used his full domain-less power. Mid tier 9 strength was unleashed upon his foes. They weren''t prepared.
Fortunately, he was faster and stronger than them. They were only as strong as the Void Spawn had been before being absorbed. His spear danced, and the blade sang of killing. He was like a hurricane of death, easily disposing of every creature surrounding him, dodging attacks as if they were too slow, and advancing despite the blockade.
It still took too long; every C-rank from his Brigade was engaged in battle by the time he had breached the siege.
Or rather, not every C-rank. Almost every one of them, and a third of the weaker Guardians, used life-saving treasures to try to leave the Voided Subnode. Those people had been handpicked, so half the treasures worked. Half the Brigade was gone. The success rate was greater among C-ranks. Only four remained, Luthdel and Xi Liling among them.
Xia Liling was a curious case. She had taken a metal token from her spatial ring but not crushed it. She fought with it on her hand despite probably knowing the longer she took to use it, the more likely it was for the Void to counter escape treasures.
Shen found it both stupid and endearing. If she was manipulating him, she knew what to do.
On a not so bright note, few C-ranks meant the Cohort had gotten to the D-ranks on the outermost layer of the defensive sphere. The Guardians didn''t survive first contact. The Void Spawn kept going.
Shen also continued ahead, going for the Emissary. He killed more Void Spawn, dodged more, and finally arrived at his target, which was also coming at him.
Void Emissaries always had the peak power allowed in a Voided Subnode. That Emissary was just one step below B-rank. If put in numbers, it would be at peak tier 10.
Kind of.
That estimation was only raw power output. The creature was fast, as it proved by becoming a blur and almost getting behind Shen. It was strong, as evidenced by swinging the enormous hammer it formed from its body against him, and space itself seemed to shatter under its weight. The lightning around it came at Shen, a constant attack that cut through the Laws of Reality and wholly denied the layer of qi superimposed on his spearhead.
Nevertheless, its intelligence was based on the Void Spawn it absorbed. It had limited tactical expertise. It was a little better than Shen''s people, but although elites, they weren''t as good as him. The Emissary would grow fast, but not fast enough to avoid being killed if Shen used everything he had.
Shen''s True Self shook with greed and excitement on facing such a wondrous foe. He would''ve loved to see how long he could last against it. He could benefit greatly from using the creature as a grinding stone for his Path and techniques.
But he didn''t waste time; he would sacrifice a part of his potential and future for the people endangered by his folly.
Shen activated Domain of Infinite Improvement and got an Absolute hold of everything up to the Horizon¡ªor, at least, up to 30 miles.
Suddenly, his Will felt the black lightning surrounding the Emissary move on the boundaries of the fourth spatial dimension, yet his every other sense only detected the bolts instantly turning into a perfect armor of constantly moving lightning around the creature. Shen''s Absolute Horizon could crush even Void Spawn¡ªat a high willpower cost¡ªbut not penetrate the armor. Emissaries were really no joking matter. If it had time to grow...
But it wouldn''t have it.
Even as it was swinging the hammer at Shen''s side, Shen was moving his spear, and his True Self was honed every single instant.
The last time he used his domain, he improved way too much in every possible way. Now, the gains were significantly less impressive. Shen had had a lot of space for growth back then, but most of his untapped potential had been spent. After he reached the best his current self could be, the improvement slowed down to a crawl.
Fortunately¡ªand sadly¡ªthere was still one clear way for him to improve: his qi techniques.
Shen was moving his spear to deflect the hammer strike, and every split instant, his muscles moved differently. If anyone took an energy picture of that moment, the image captured by light would fail to show the countless different ways Shen''s qi behaved. His technique evolved way too much almost at the same time. His Energy changed to better adapt to his body and soul and the secrets of the Axioms of Reality.
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His True Self pulsated, and Shen found out for the first time that using special symbols to harmonize with the secrets of Reality came with a cost. It was imperceptible most of the time, but when he did it way too many times at C-rank, it took a toll. His entire being shook at the impact of harmonizing that tiny corner of Reality, his body, with something grander than himself. It looked like a beating heart but felt like Reality was trying to bomb him out of existence.
Spacetime shook around him. Hundreds of Void Spawn were killed just like that. His Brigade would also be affected if not for Xia Liling. She used a mysterious counter-technique, and her spear cut through the metaphysical vibrations his body released before they could get to the Guardians.
Shen''s previous activation of his domain assisted in making his improvements even faster. His True Self was currently distorted, as his qi techniques weren''t up to par with everything else he was. Most of his domain''s gains piled up in that area and pushed him into excellence.
When Shen''s spearhead, filled with qi, struck against the hammer''s handle, Shen was the very best he could be.
His domain kept burning through his potential, but considerably slower now. Everything he was was now being improved at the same pace, together. His stats, techniques, Path, and even some understandings of Reality. The three seconds he had wouldn''t be enough to push his stats to peak C+, but he would be at least midway through.
His spear cut the hammer''s handle. The hammerhead dissipated into smoke as Shen''s blade kept going. The Emissary moved his body to avoid the incoming threat, and Shen redirected his strike midway through. Qi burned fiercely inside him.
In C-rank, there was peak tier 10 strength, and then there were externalized domains. Shen''s domain was still only inside himself. His perfected abilities still had no mastered Laws and only reached peak tier 9, on the boundary to low tier 10. But he had the experience and ability that the Emissary lacked¡ªfor now.
The creature''s lightning armor denied the qi blade coming out of Shen''s spear, but he continued cutting. Metal struck lightning and found as much resistance as an ice pick on ice. Shen''s True Self found the path of least resistance and applied way too much strength. The lightning gave.
His metal spearhead advanced until it met the Emissary''s peak C-rank resistance. The previous lightning defense was enough to keep Shen''s weapon from biting too deeply. His blade only got halfway through the creature''s torso, which it struck sideways, before stopping.
Then Shen willed the Emissary to cease existing.
Shen was his True Self and the source of his Absolute Horizon. The spear he wielded was an extension of himself. The lightning armor couldn''t stop him from touching the creature underneath.
His Will grasped against something much stronger and bigger than the Voided Guardians. It felt like a baby''s hand clenching a car-sized balloon. It seemed impossible to pop that thing upon first contact.
But Shen''s domain was active, and the most obvious answer came to him almost before he felt the creature''s existence resist him.
He shaped his mind outside his body, something he didn''t even understand to be impossible, or exactly how it worked. Without his domain, doing so would require a lot of trial and error. With it, it was instinctive. He also felt something else push him, and he recognized battling the Void made him improve faster. The source was strangely similar to how Long Hei had pulled at his body.
His hand became a metaphysical spear of sheer willpower, burning white hot from killing intent.
A car-sized balloon might have thick rubber walls, but not enough to resist Shen''s willpower attack. His mind got inside the creature and found only nothingness. He was like light in total darkness, heat in a place so barren it had never known anything but absolute coldness.
He pushed, and his Will exploded.
The Emissary blew up unlike any Void Spawn. Liquid darkness and lightning shot in every direction. Many lightning bolts struck Shen and pierced through his robe but stopped at his body. It could affect physical matter but wasn''t very good at it.
Then, Shen witnessed¡ªtruly saw it¡ªsomething for the very first time: the Void invading this mind.
It wasn''t on the boundary of the fourth dimension, but rather, in a thing he took a while to identify: a layer of Reality made of pure Will, holding everything that existed together. The Void mental attack felt to his Absolute Horizon like maggots moving under Reality''s Will''s skin and entering him unhindered. It tried to infect his True Self but was held at bay by not finding an opening to exploit. Nevertheless, the maggot-like things stood there, adding weight to his psyche, waiting for the slightest weakness in him to exploit.
Even as Shen noticed it, the mental glimpse under Reality''s hood started dissipating from his mind. He wasn''t meant to see that or keep knowing it after he was done seeing. The memory of what he was seeing refused to be formed. He would never know that thing existed after this moment was gone.
Was that a characteristic of the Void''s suicidal thoughts? Was it some hidden rule of Reality that no one should know that layer? Had Shen noticed it in his fight against the Voided Guardians, or was this new? He believed it was new. The Void Tide was affecting the Void and, maybe, also making it ignore sneakiness. Maybe his talent also mattered.
Regardless, the important question here was: was the ability to identify that layer the reason the Infernals didn''t want anyone else to use their Absolute Horizon?
Was it something... more?
Shen didn''t want to believe he could do what he attempted next, but he had to try. He moved his spear-shaped mind against the maggots and cut. There was no resistance. The thing was shredded and faded away from existence. A moment later, there was no pressure on his mind, and the memory of what he witnessed stuck firmly.
Absolute Horizons could deny the Void''s mind invasion¡ªand very easily at that.
Shen was frozen by the absurdity of the discovery. A lot of high-rank people also had to know it, yet no one cared enough to force Infernals to share the ability. Sure, as a non-infernal, he had risked his life to develop the True Self needed to use it, but still, how many lives could be saved with that knowledge?
The only other excuse that made sense was how resisting the Void helped hone willpower, but he doubted it was worth it¡ªunless the Alliance wanted the losses in the front lines to be kept at a certain range, and even the losses to assist in honing the survivors'' willpower.
The Alliance was a machine with a purpose, and for the first time, Shen realized Guardians weren''t just cogs, but also the fuel moving it forward. The output of strong Guardians on the other end was fertilized on the blood of the weak. And the weak also helped kill other weaklings when they turned into Void Spawn.
That crossed his bottom line.
Shen had always known the Alliance didn''t have everyone''s wellbeing in mind, but to purposefully hide a useful tool so those infernals'' status quo was maintained, and ensure the number of Guardians didn''t overflow, was unacceptable. To allow people to be corrupted by the Void like that... It was pure evil. They allowed Reality''s beings to become the enemy of all that was for their egoistical gains. For Shen, it was better to lose the war against the Void than to keep existing like that.
He hated the Primordials, but he doubted this was on the Primordials.
While he thought all that, the remaining lightning bolts that had left the dead Emissary changed directions after a while and coalesced on a single point. The next instant, it turned into a new Emissary.
Shen was tempted to lead it to Samir-18''s Center of Operations, but the weaklings there were just as guileless and innocent as he had been a moment ago. They didn''t deserve it; their leaders did. Shen wasn''t like the traitors of Reality who took pleasure in killing the people they pretended to protect.
He wouldn''t help destroy the Center of Operations... But he also couldn''t stand fighting for the Alliance anymore. He had to leave, and he had to do it now. He couldn''t keep waiting for a safer opportunity; his True Self demanded him to either attack the Alliance or leave.
The Cohort had stopped fighting when the Emissary died. Shen turned and looked at Alicia. She was still alive. Hopefully, she would continue like that. Hopefully, she wouldn''t fight against him when he returned to crush the Alliance.
He turned to Xia Liling next.
She was looking at him, and she knew. The moment she saw him, she knew he would leave. Their Paths resonated. She wanted to go too, but not now. Not yet. She wasn''t strong enough. But she understood him because she was living the same her entire life.
Her Path pulsated with encouragement, and he was grateful for it.
Shen turned away from his Brigade and prepared to desert the Alliance with a smile on his face.
Shen still didn''t know how he would escape, but he would do it¡ªor die trying.
If the Cohort had any say in it, he would die indeed. It was simply impossible for him to kill ten million Emissaries in three seconds. The Cohort would keep improving, but he would slow down to a crawl after his domain turned off.
It would also be impossible to dodge them, as every Void Spawn stopped attacking others and rushed at him as soon as the new Emissary formed. His plan had worked. The creatures would pursue him to the end of the Reality.
"Get to safety!" Shen yelled his last order to his Brigade and ran at full speed straight into the Subnode''s borders¡ªand the big unknown awaiting him beyond.
376. Lucky
Shen used all his speed to get to the Subnode''s boundaries. The Cohort''s momentary freeze allowed him to get halfway through them before he was forced to fight again.
He killed whoever intercepted him with wide swings of his spear. It was easy. Strength-wise, they were at low tier 7. After disposing of them, he did his utmost to keep running as fast as possible.
Shen did not want to kill another Emissary unless forced to. Alas, the creature was approaching him faster than any other Void Spawn.
Killing Emissaries came with more than a few issues. Being followed forever, or until he killed every Emissary, was only one of them. Another was that whenever an Emissary died, it was reborn brighter than before. The Void analyzed how the Emissary had died and improved the creature to survive similar threats. Considering Emissaries were born at peak tier 10 strength, there would be no killing them with brute force.
So, not only could Shen not kill ten million C-rank Void Spawn before they surpassed his fighting ability, but he also wouldn''t be able to kill more than a handful of Emissaries before they were prepared for all his tricks. He might get lucky with a few extra kills, but anything above half a dozen was wishful thinking. He would be facing the strongest C-rank Void Spawn possible¡ªmolded to defeat him.
Shen was almost at the outermost layer of enemies when the Emissary caught up.
The creature was now wielding a long sword, which was also covered with defensive black lightning. The weapon was more prolonged than Shen''s spear, and the Emissary itself was taller, with longer arms. It had invested in greater reach and a more robust defense.
Even if Shen cut the sword off like he had done to the hammer, the black lightning would take much of his momentum. He wouldn''t be able to penetrate the creature''s armor even if it didn''t try to dodge, which it likely would¡ªand be better at it. Although the weapon was technically part of its body, it was also somewhat separated from it, so cutting into it wouldn''t let him use his Absolute Horizon against the Emissary. There was no chance his previous manner of attack would work.
So, Shen didn''t even try it; instead, he made the world shake.
He pulled air from around them and threw it at the lightning, then used specific anti-electricity vibrations to make that air vibrate. The lightning could null metaphysical energy and even cut Space itself to a certain extent, but it wasn''t as good against matter. Every atom of air it undid was replaced with another, and the vibration touched it.
That black lightning wasn''t actual electricity but behaved similarly because the Void mixed with Reality and borrowed parts of it to spawn its creatures. Shen had been taught to counter the lightning with vibration in his elite combat training. The creature would adapt as soon as he did it, entirely throwing the Axioms of Lightning away somehow, but it would give him an opening.
Shen''s vibration caused the lightning to flicker out of existence for a split instant. He felt the Emissary in his Absolute Horizon and threw his Will at it, but not shaped as a spear. The creature had also adapted on that front. Its big balloon-like soul-ish form had become a condensed ball that felt like pure steel. Shen split his mental attack into two and crushed the ball between a hammer and an anvil.
The creature exploded again, and he took advantage of the Cohort''s pause to leave its enclosure and escape.
Shen soon found out that his estimation had been only slightly off: the Material Possession had covered a region sixty miles wide, not fifty. Everything in that enormous range was clear of any structures. Then came the maze of geometric volumes.
If pursued by regular foes, he might attempt to use the maze against them. However, the Cohort could feel his location no matter what he did. Moreover, he had to find the way ahead with his aura and wasn''t strong enough to cut the floating shapes, while the Void Spawn cheated.
The Emissary shared a lightning bolt with the vanguard chasing Shen. They used it to strike against every structure in their way. The geometric shapes blinked out of existence at the slightest touch, and the legion approached unhindered.
Things only got worse as time passed. A few seconds later, the Emissary overtook the Void Spawn closest to Shen. Its peak C-rank speed meant it was only a matter of time before it reached him.
Shen only had half a second of domain usage remaining and did the obvious: used it to kill the Emissary one last time.
He tried the vibrational trick again for good measure. The lightning wasn''t affected in the slightest. Moreover, the bolts had gotten even better at nullifying matter. No amount of air could ever touch it without being immediately undone. Likewise, when Shen used his Material Suppression against it, creating Law-enchanted Water to pin the Emissary down, it didn''t hinder the creature.
He had been told it wouldn''t work but had to try it anyway because he could do a few creative things with his Absolute Horizon if it succeeded. With that option taken from him, the strongest attack he could use against the Emissary was something new his domain-fueled mind had just thought to be possible¡ªand risky. This would be his last Absolute Horizon attack, so he would go all out.
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Shen sneaked his Will into that invisible layer of Reality and pushed it against the creature. He found no resistance traversing it or entering the Emissary, just as no living being could resist the invasive thoughts without an Absolute Horizon. He reached the Emissary¡ª
What felt like a sun-sized ball of crimson flames appeared on the edge of his Absolute Horizon. It was moving fast toward Shen. His True Self recoiled at the touch and burned.
The infernals had detected him piercing the veil of Reality''s Will and wouldn''t accept it.
He tried to pull back, but an irresistible force held his mind and Absolute Horizon in place. There was no resisting that power. It was at least A-rank, a Realization thrown against him from a distant corner of the multiverse, even ignoring the physical restrictions on Nodes and Subnodes. Absolute Horizons were evidently much more than Shen had guessed. His existence was one instant away from being consumed by the fires of hell¡ªor whenever infernals lived.
Shen would''ve died in any other situation, but he got lucky. The edge of his mind was inside the Emissary, and the ball of fire struck it first. The creature exploded as soon as the Realization entered it. The rebound threw Shen''s Will back into himself, and the backslash caused his Absolute Horizon to deactivate.
Thankfully, there was no follow-up attack. He couldn''t detect the sun with his Aural Realm. It seemed the infernals were watching but could only get to him before he could react if he sneaked his Will into that unique layer.
Shen kept running but deactivated his domain as it had run its course. His entire self hurt. He felt hot, as if he had swallowed smoke, and could tell something bad would happen the next time he used his domain. He''d be willing to bet the infernal had marked him somehow, maybe even sneaked its Realization into him, but he could do nothing about it now.
At least he was glad he had decided to grow as strong as possible with his domain instead of activating and deactivating it repeatedly. Activating it took a heavier toll on his True Self than keeping it active. He could''ve activated it for a split second only six times before he couldn''t anymore, and he wouldn''t have improved as much because his domain would''ve affected him for considerably less time.
Shen kept running without looking back, but his Aural Realm was still deployed. So, he was shocked when he felt the new Emissary form... then split into two.
He turned to look at it, and the two creatures were precisely the same. One rushed toward Shen, but the other shot its lightning bolts a few feet before itself. They formed a massive vertical line, which then spread into an oval Breach into a corner of the Alliance.
Shen felt Reality screech in pain, and the entire Voided Subnode trembled under heavy stress. Void Spawn weren''t supposed to be able to do that. It didn''t stop the Emissary.
The other side of the Breach was an endless landscape of fire. A living being floated above it, sitting cross-legged on empty air. The flames below kept trying to reach the infernal, but an invisible force prevented them from touching him.
The infernal was at least five times Shen''s height and so thin that his skin was stretched over his skeleton and skull. A crown of eight horns adorned his head, his three eyes were closed, and his four arms rested on his legs. Four fangs, two from his upper teeth and two from the jaw, protruded from his closed mouth. He wore no clothes, but thousands of silvery halos floated horizontally above him, reaching the black skies and beyond. Shen guessed they were needed for him to overwatch the Will layer of Reality.
Shen''s aura seeped into that place, and he recognized the creature upon touch. That''s the one who had attacked him.
By killing the Emissary with Shen, it had made itself half the Cohort''s target. That''s not how these things went, but the Void Tide made the Void volatile indeed.
Shen and the infernal were now facing something new and unique. No one could predict what would happen. The most likely result was for the infernal to step into the Voided Subnode through the Breach the Void had conveniently opened for him, kill Shen, step back, and kill the C-rank Cohort. Maybe it would even have worked if the infernal had acted quickly enough. Alas, he slowly opened his eyes, fixating his slitted irises upon Shen, and ignored the weak creatures.
That single gaze almost made Shen''s True Self shatter. He guessed the infernal was using the Will layer to attack him. He couldn''t detect it without his Absolute Horizon. The infernal could''ve killed Shen, but it evidently wanted to savor the moment.
Meanwhile, the Emissary stepped through the Breach.
The flames reached for it. They burned the black lightning as if they were nothing, then touched the Emissary. It exploded. Most of the resulting scattering lightning bolts explored the fiery hell and were also destroyed by the flames as they moved. But a few didn''t, and they formed into a new Emissary.
Reality shook harder. Cracks appeared all throughout the Voided Subnode. Shen and the second Emissary, coming at him, were frozen in place as Space didn''t behave normally. Time seemed to stand still.
Emissaries were limited by the Voided Subnode''s rank, but that one had formed in Reality itself. Even so, it should be linked to the Voided Subnode, but there was already an Emissary linked to the Subnode.
The Void Tide was indeed upon the Alliance.
The new Emissary to be born was nothing like usual. Half the Cohort became smoke and was sucked into it as it kept growing. In less than a second, it was fully formed and so tall Shen couldn''t perceive it entirely. His aura couldn''t even reach its waist.
Void Spawn were larger the stronger they were, and while Emissaries usually ignored the rule, it clearly wasn''t the case anymore.
The moment after it formed, the A-rank infernal showed absolute fear for a split instant. He started moving to escape, but it was too late. A shockwave Shen couldn''t perceive with his aura, but that visibly broke Spacetime, came from the Emissary. The "battle" was over as soon as the attack reached the infernal and the flames.
Everything on the landscape exploded. The Breach exploded with it. That was the only reason Shen cheated death again.
The Voided Subnode seemed to breathe, its cracks mending slowly. Whatever force had been holding Shen and the Cohort in place was gone. He started running again.
As much as Shen disapproved of the Alliance, he couldn''t help but hope the Emissary wouldn''t form five million Void Spawn on the other side. The creature was evidently at least A-rank, and Shen wasn''t sure the Alliance could resist five million A-rank Void Spawn.
And if it were S-rank...
Bittersweetness filled his body as he was both glad he had released such a foe in the infernals'' turf and worried about how many innocents would die before the unique Emissary was destroyed.
377. Lonely Void Spawn
It took the Emissary less than a minute to reach Shen again. He could still use his improved techniques after deactivating his domain, but he was only mid tier 9 at his best. The creature was peak tier 10 in raw power. It was faster and stronger than him, and its pursuit techniques were better than his escaping ones. There was nothing he could do to get far from it.
Well, he could try to cut some corners, but it was more likely to kill him than help. For instance, if he cut Spacetime to form a tunnel to traverse, he could keep teleporting away forever¡ªor until the Void Spawn caught him in an unexpected way. However, although he was stronger than Venamour, who had been able to do it, such teleportation was a matter of finesse and expertise, not raw power. He was guaranteed to mess up and die in three teleportations if he did it without mastered Laws¡ªand that if he lucked out in the first two.
Shen could only keep using his remaining few tricks to kill the Emissary and stay on the run until something changed or he died.
The Emissary approached, and the trick Shen chose this time was a simple one he had used a little before the Cohort arrived: he thrust his spear. He turned and used all his power to cut through photons and Space itself, and a truck-wide spear of qi shot ahead, piercing everything in its way. His seven Laws obliterated everything, clearing the Voided Subnode for miles on end and leaving not even dust behind. The sound of air rushing to fill the empty region was like thunder created by a god of anger.
The Emissary resisted¡ªat first.
Shen had already attacked the Void Spawn that became the Cohort with that, so the Emissary would be prepared. But it was still his best long-range strike. He did not want to get caught in close range if he could help it, so he had to make it work, and he knew just how to force the matter.
One of the reasons he had been using only single attacks to deal with the Emissary until now was to make it less likely to be prepared against the elementary tactic of repeated insistence.
Shen used all his agility to thrust his spear again and again, dozens, hundreds of times in milliseconds. He burned through all his qi and kept doing it. Every particle of energy he recovered was reinvested into the following attack. Most of the bones in his body broke, his blood vessels ruptured, and he cried blood when his left eye burst.
He was C-rank, and his body could take a beating, but not this. He was wielding the Laws of Reality, forcing himself to bear their weight repeatedly, without even the qi to properly support them. Reality''s Laws also didn''t like being cut by his strikes, and the rebound weighed on him. His body failed him.
Yet, it worked.
The Emissary didn''t try to dodge, and the repeated strikes hit it head-on. The black lightning nullified hundreds of Shen''s attacks, but eventually, one went through. At first, it was also resisted by the creature''s liquid skin, which was equivalent to peak C-rank with the best techniques. Ultimately, it also didn''t resist the continued barrage.
To be fair to the Emissary, Shen himself couldn''t have dodged the attack in time if he had taken the first hit. He struck too many times, too fast. There was only withstanding the attack or dying after getting caught in that.
The Emissary exploded, and Shen resumed running.
He recovered all his qi in a dozen seconds. After reaching the Ethereal Harmonization Realm, as long as the environment had qi, Shen would only lack it if he used everything too quickly.
With qi came the ability to heal himself, and his injuries closed up swiftly. He didn''t return to peak strength, though. He had expected the Emissary to die in less than half the attacks he had used, but its body was growing ridiculously resistant, too. After he started, he also had to either kill the creature or die trying because he had been unable to attempt anything else. Using double the attacks he planned took a toll; he needed proper rest to recover the last 10% of his power.
His existence was exhausted, especially after the infernal business with his domain and True Self.
Shen kept running, and the geometric shapes suddenly gave way to a clearing. A single Void Spawn, a foot taller than Shen, was floating in the middle. He smiled as he felt something on the edges of his Aural Realm: a Void Farm.
Hope filled him.
Shen could use his domain to escape into the Void through a Void Farm''s unique space. It would hurt him to activate his domain right now, but Void Spawn couldn''t exist in the Void, so the Emissary would dissolve if it followed him. Theoretically, at least. The Void Tide might''ve changed that, too, but it was willing to take his chances.
He approached the lonely Void Spawn...
...but nothing happened.
Shen could feel the Void Farm''s boundaries. He had trespassed into it. The creature looked at him. Yet, it didn''t react, and Shen''s surroundings didn''t change to see the crops.
Frowning, he approached the Void Spawn and cut it down¡ª
He didn''t. His spear went through it as if it was an illusion. It wasn''t; he could feel it with his every sense. It was as real as him. But the Void Tide was also real, and the Void had broken the bullshit meters.
Shen swore and kept running. He hated Void Tides already.
As he ran, he prepared his following trick. One of Liya''s. His every move created microscopic fissures in the air and space he ran through. He scattered qi in his wake, all trembling in different frequencies. The Emissary went through them without a worry, its lightning armor nullifying all adverse effects they might bring to him. Or so it believed.
This attack looked similar to the pure anti-lightning frequency on purpose, but it was about accumulating invisible damage over time, not denying an Axiom. If the lightning was part of the creature''s body or it wielded it as a Guardian did a weapon, it would notice the damage piling up. Any peak C-rank would. However, it was a Void Spawn, and the Alliance had long concluded that its lightning was a tool it controlled without any awareness of or caring about its state. It was no different from a commoner holding a plank without knowing whether it was rotten on the inside.
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Soon enough, the Emissary was upon Shen again.
He waited for the perfect moment, then reversed his Stream.
He had to use a lot of willpower to turn one of his Laws on its foot like that, reversing the natural Stream of Water itself as it ran through him and harmonized with the universe. His body suffered a painful rebound, but it worked. He instantly reversed his momentum as if he had been running toward the Emissary the whole time. The damage was worth it to surprise the creature.
The Void Spawn reacted quickly, stopping instantly a few feet from Shen, but that wasn''t fast enough. Not unless it had also reversed course, but it didn''t know how yet. It would know next time. For now, it could only ignore momentum enough to stop instantly.
Shen rammed it spear-first, but it dodged at the last second. It had learned not to underestimate his attacks.
He turned his trust into a horizontal swing while already Backstepping. As expected, the Emissary dodged again, but the pre-emptive Backstep allowed Shen to be positioned in the right place for the dodge to be useless. He would''ve failed to position himself without his momentum advantage, and Heavens know how bad the fight would become then.
Shen sent a shockwave with his entire body as his spear approached the creature and Backstepped again. The shockwave hit the black lightning just before his weapon did, triggering all the microdamage it had suffered. Lightning itself wouldn''t have accumulated damage like that, but the creature had just detached it from the Axioms of Lightning.
The bolts shattered like glass, and Shen''s spear was about to strike the Emissary when a third arm grew from its body, holding a black liquid shield as if it had been hiding inside.
Shen''s spear never touched that shield. He had Backstepped already, positioning himself atop the creature horizontally. His qi-enhanced blade cut it from head to toe, or so was his intent. It stopped midway through. The Emissary''s body was impossibly hard for anything in C-rank.
Shen only wasted a few moments cursing it for ignoring the rules, finished cutting it diagonally, and used his Material Suppression to slow it down as it tried to escape. It couldn''t ignore the water pinning it down without the lightning. Shen sliced it three more times.
The Emissary exploded again.
Shen ran once more.
He was fairly sure he could kill it one more time. There would be no tricks involved, only a direct battle, using his superior training and experience to compensate for the raw power gap. It might not work, though. And even if it did... Shen had nothing left to try the next time.
Death was coming.
Genuine panic made him a little better at running away, and he accelerated slightly. But it was too little, too late. There was only more maze before him and no safe harbor in sight. He didn''t think he would survive this one.
"General Long Hei, please help!" he yelled and was met with silence. He tried to locate his dragon genes and do anything with them, but nothing happened.
"Immortal Emperor, you owe me by Karma!" he screamed. No one replied.
No one was coming to save him.
Shen kept running, but his future looked bleaker each second.
? ?
? ?
She came like a golden bolt of pure Karmic Justice. He was in such great danger that her Realization felt it from another corner of the Alliance¡ªand compelled her to act.
Reality and Void gave way to her passage. She wouldn''t be denied. She owed it to him. She had come to repay the debt.
Nothing could stop her from saving the man who had once been the last push she needed to Realize her Path.
Until something did.
Liya didn''t even understand what happened until she was pushed back into her body in the darkness of space. A solar system was a few lightyears away. She could feel the flimsy barrier between regular Reality and Samir''s Node a few miles ahead, but a solid barrier stood before her in the form of a gorgeous drow.
? ?
| Darla (A) ¡ª 120,000 / 300,000 HP
| The Denier
? ?
A drow A-rank. Considering how many drow B-ranks had left the Triarchy over the ages, that existence didn''t surprise Liya. Her HP, however, did. Both in sheer numbers and how it wasn''t full.
Liya couldn''t see into the woman, not her Laws or soul. She looked like a commoner to her every sense¡ªat first. However, her soul was so injured that her Realization seemed to seep into the surroundings. It was like an invisible gas, twisting Reality in a way Liya had never seen before. She didn''t even have words to describe it. However, whatever was touched by that woman''s Realization became something else. Bent. Broken.
Denied, as her Title implied.
Liya hated the smile Darla gave. It was a smile with the kind of sincerity you would expect from someone biting into your face''s flesh and telling you it was for your own good. The memory alone made Liya repulsed, and the worst part was that she guessed the woman had done it on purpose. She knew Liya and how to evoke emotions in her. She had come prepared.
"Youngling Liya," Darla said with a voice that could make stars reach nirvana. Liya had to control her impulses, and she wasn''t into women. Even that truth of himself was also being denied, it seemed. "I wish I didn''t have to fight you with an injured soul, but Void Tides are known for crushing all plans except those crafted around it. And whoever knows a Void Tide is coming? Eons of preparation thrown away. Tsk."
She meant to fight. If it hadn''t been clear before, it was now obvious Darla was here to stop Liya from helping Shen.
That wouldn''t do.
"I won''t show mercy because you''re drow or injured," Liya replied, picking her spear from her spatial ring and sending her Realization against Darla.
"Oh, that''s not what I meant," Darla said with sneer. "I can''t control myself so well with my soul like this. You''re going to hurt."
She did.
As soon as Liya''s Realization touched the "gas" leaking from Darla''s soul, her own soul cried in agony. It was like touching an acid created to deny your very existence. Her essence was almost unmade, and she recoiled in pain, like a child who just learned fire burns.
Darla''s smile widened, sweet, but with something else... almost evil. "I would tell you I''m doing this for his own good, but you wouldn''t believe me, would you? No one would. Few understand the quintessential workings of Reality as I do, and I mean S-ranks, too." She sighed. "But this is also for your good. You must learn a few things about using your Realization in combat." She raised an eyebrow. "You also don''t believe that, do you?"
Liya didn''t reply. Shen was in danger; her Realization screamed so at her every passing moment. She had no time to waste with words.
She rushed ahead. She needed to physically touch the gas to learn if it would also hurt her. Then, she had to formulate a battle plan.
Darla''s smile became feral. "Ah! So purposeful! So strategic! Come, Youngling Liya. Show me you deserve to reach A-rank and stand by my side. It''s been so lonely at the top!"
Liya ignored the taunt and attacked.
? ?
? ?
| Carl Jones (A): LET ME TELEPORT THERE! MY REALIZATION WILL DESTROY ME IF I DON''T HELP HIM!
? ?
Long Hei never got the message. The System Administrator erased it without ever giving him a chance. He was blissfully unaware of anything happening to the boy in his own front line or to his former sworn brother so far away.
She didn''t know why the Denier¡ªwho had hacked her system to give herself a Title without her knowledge, and she needed to double-check¡ªhad just said she was doing it for Shen, but the Admin was doing it for freedom. The Chaosbringer needed to die for the cthulhus'' plan to work, and it was best for everyone if he fell by the Void''s hands.
But even if he survived the somehow...
She left a tiny speck of attention focusing on his desperate escape while taking care of more important matters elsewhere.
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378. Cleaved
Shen ran, but nothing happened. Reality didn''t help. Miracles didn''t spontaneously manifest.
He stopped running when the Emissary was nearby and turned to face it.
If Shen were facing a Guardian, he could try countless different things. The Emissary was different. By countering everything Shen had done until now, it was prepared for about everything he could throw at it except good old tactics in straight, close-range combat.
Alas, after he took so much effort to simply cut the Emissary down after removing its black lightning, he wasn''t as assured of his chances.
The Emissary also knew this might be the end. It didn''t immediately rush against him. It stopped and waited for the millions of Void Spawn following suit to surround them. Even if it died, it didn''t want to waste more time pursuing Shen again later.
"I''m a Void Harbinger," Shen said, trying what he could to survive. "I was appointed such before I had a falling out with the Alliance, but now it''s genuinely my enemy. The Primordials, too, if it matters to you. Let me go. I''ll assist you in bringing the Alliance down. You lose more than you win by killing tiny me before I can grow and kill some strong people."
He didn''t really expect an answer and got none. The Void Spawn watched him silently, still waiting for more creatures to surround him.
Shen sighed. As unlikely as it was, he had to try to finish it quickly and try to escape again. There was still some hope. Not really, but he wouldn''t just let himself get besieged.
He rushed toward the Emissary. It now had four arms and wielded four short swords. It had given up on the idea of keeping distance from Shen. It sought to overwhelm him with weapon numbers and superior speed. Its reach was still the same as Shen''s spear because of its longer arms.
He swung his weapon, and it met two lightning-covered blades. It was easily deflected.
Before Shen could do anything else, the Emissary had Backstepped.
The creature was much faster than him. He barely felt it move in his Aural Realm, and there was no time to dodge. Four blades came at his back. His cultivator robe was unmade at the slightest touch from the lightning. His skin resisted the bolts but not against the physical weapon underneath.
The short swords went all the way through his chest and cut him in a diagonal cross. His body was disassembled into four parts: arms, head, and body. Black lightning burned through the injured flesh much more easily than healthy matter, and a considerable chunk of him was disintegrated.
To an onlooker, Shen would seem like a humanoid puppet that couldn''t be assembled because the parts didn''t fit well.
Qi and Path held him together even as the weapons cut him open. The Emissary didn''t immediately follow up with a final strike, and Shen was thankful for it. He managed to move ahead and connect his body together. It was healing. Creating matter was costly and time-consuming, though. It would take him minutes, and the Emissary wasn''t being that merciful. He didn''t know why it was not attacking again, but he doubted it would stay like that for over a few seconds. It did exist just to kill him, after all.
He chided himself for the mistake. He had wanted to surprise the Emissary with a weak-ass attack to lower its expectations of him and force it to make a mistake, but it hadn''t worked. His trick with anti-Lightning vibrations and micro-tears hadn''t been exactly about striking weakly to make the creature look down on him, but it had been similar enough for the Emissary to be prepared against it.
He should''ve expected it. He had expected it. It hadn''t mattered. He also knew the Emissary could use any technique Shen had used against it before killing it. Still, he had wanted to play smart and leave something for the next time.
Shen didn''t want to believe what he knew without a shred of doubt: that there would be no next fight if he killed the Emissary now, only an execution.
He laughed self-derisively. He had grown to be so proud of himself. The episode in the vault had filled him with hubris. He valued himself too much to believe he could be so easily trounced.
His training had been clear: Emissaries would kill anyone of the same rank. There were no what-ifs, no ways out unless someone of a higher rank helped. But no one was coming. The Alliance''s S-rank command was to get to the Center of Operations. No one could disobey. It would be treason. It would mean death.
He laughed louder. He kept repeating the same inevitable reality to himself over and over as if that would bring a sudden revelation that would save him. As if he would develop a Realization like Liya had against the ogre.
He wouldn''t. He was almost sure Realizations required mastered Laws. He wouldn''t master any Laws anytime soon. He wasn''t even halfway through in any of them.
Shen shook his head and focused.
So this was it. His last real fight before the end.
The least he could do was win. Maybe someone who cared about him would look into this place''s past one day and remember him as a worthy warrior. That''s the best he could get at this point and would have to do.
The creature must''ve sensed the shift because it stopped waiting. Had that been its goal? Did it want to fight him at his best? Emissaries ceased to exist after they killed their target, so it made sense. It also wanted to savor the moment before its inevitable demise.
Such pathetic beings, the two of them, pitied against each other in a fight that didn''t ultimately matter for two forces that didn''t care about them.
Shen removed every stray thought from his mind and used everything he had to think of how to kill that Emissary.
He found one dumb possibility. As stupid as it was, it was the only thing with more than a fifteen percent working chance. Nothing else would work.
Stolen novel; please report.
He only needed to prepare a few things.
Shen took another spear from his spatial ring. He didn''t fight well with two of them, but he wasn''t terrible with it. Using something the Emissary wouldn''t expect was more important than his peak power. He needed time, and the Void Spawn was even less used to that fighting style than him. He also took another two spears and kept them floating for good measure.
The Emissary got to him in an instant, while he was still spreading his qi on his surroundings.
Shen held two spears together and used them as one. It was awkward and borderline stupid. He did it anyway because the Void Spawn wouldn''t understand it. The Emissary swung two swords at him, and he deflected with his spears. It was already mid-Backstep, and so was him. It still ended up on his side, two swords coming from his front and back and two trying to cleave him down.
Shen had expected to be in a similar position and was already moving. He Backstepped again. Simultaneously, he threw qi against the sword on his back, moved his floating spears to stop the one of his front, used one hand to block the swords on top, and thrust the other spear with the other hand.
The Emissary was also Backstepping. Both parties completed the movement. This time, the Void Spawn ended up behind Shen.
Shen''s thrust had never been to where the Emissary had been; he had moved the spear to his back. Sadly, only the butt of the weapon struck the Void Spawn. It had a qi-shaped blade but was still too weak to cut through the black lightning. The ferrule was easily deflected when it hit the bolts. At least it didn''t disintegrate.
Shen didn''t even have time to try to disengage. The Emissary was still attacking him like before. His floating spears couldn''t stop anything. Neither could his qi.
He was cleaved down and sideways.
The Emissary let him go again. Shen could barely use the opportunity because he could scarcely think. Very little remained of his heart and brain. He was deformed. His mind was affected. He would die in the next clash.
At least, that''s what would happen if not for his prior preparations. He had known he would get struck badly again and wouldn''t have time to prepare anything before this exchange. So, he had eaten up the damage to set up his plan. That''s all he could do.
The qi he had spread throughout the region had seeped deeply into the Voided Subnode. So had his Path with it. Shen could barely think, but he didn''t need to think to become one with those parts of himself.
Shen merged with the surroundings.
He didn''t turn into a physical manifestation of any element. That would make him even more vulnerable. Instead, he used the technique he had seen so many people use against him before. He blended with the seams of the Laws of Reality.
That required mastered Laws. He used it anyway. His mind almost shattered as he became something he couldn''t understand, and he would be out of any fight after he returned to himself¡ªif he returned to himself. That was a worry for the future. Now, he was something else.
He was the Gentle Breeze on the Wind and the Stream in the Water drops in the air. He was the Shaft of the Spears he had brought out, the Killing in the Weapons, the Extremity of their edges. Shen was Conductivity incarnate, Lightning blending with nothingness in the air, static made manifest. He was Truly Boundless.
He could no longer be seen by physical means. The Emissary still looked straight at him, at his essence, anyway. He had expected it.
Shen was facing a superior enemy. Too overwhelmingly superior. He had thought his tactics and experience might help one last time, but they couldn''t. The Emissary could deny everything he could throw at it. It was faster and more robust. But he had one thing it didn''t have.
Shen had a Path.
A domain was one''s Path fueled by one''s feelings and goals into a singular purpose, then pushed into Reality through sheer willpower. Shen couldn''t use his domain again without hurting his soul and changing irreparably. He would rather die than have to do so to survive against a Void Spawn. Who knew if the Void couldn''t even seep into him and change him into something terrible? It hadn''t happened that one time, but he wouldn''t play games with it.
His domain was theoretically the strongest thing he had, but it was still his Path. His essence. It held his True Self whole but was also his True Self. That was the core of everything he had. Of everything he was. Of his power and weakness. His all.
Shen''s willpower alone couldn''t crush the Emissary again, even if he had the Absolute Horizon to try. He didn''t need to try to know it. The metallic ball he had crushed last time would be much stronger this time.
He didn''t have the stats or techniques to counter its defenses or attack it head-on, either. Not after it could counter his best attacks.
Shen only had himself.
When people used this Law-seam-merging technique to disappear from his senses, they meant to sneak-attack him. But there was a dumber way to use the ability. It would be suicidal even against someone of a lower rank because their soul would protect them as it did any energy, but Void Spawn had no similar defenses. The black lightning might make up for it, or it might not. Shen was about to find out.
He rushed his essence toward the Emissary while compressing every particle of qi and his every Law into its position. Everything he was traveled at it. He had just spread himself, then compressed into that Void Spawn''s position.
He slammed his very existence against it.
Without his True Self, he would''ve been unmade as soon as his Path touched the lightning. With his True Self, everything he was came to occupy the same physical space as the Emissary.
Shen didn''t have the conceptual knowledge to explain precisely what happened right then. He was literally pushing Reality, himself, into a place already Voided of it. It was like an attack, but not exactly. He was reclaiming space for existence itself in the most fundamental ways possible: the Aspects of Will, Time, and Space, through him, forced the Expressions of Change, Energy, and Sapience to exist there. Forced existence to exist there, in a way.
His very essence touched the black lightning and screamed in absolute pain. He lost consciousness for a split instant, but then he was through. Then, he was inside the Void Spawn.
Reality and Void occupied the same space in a way neither was meant to. Existence and its absence reached quantum entanglement.
Shen felt to be in absolute nothingness. His mind blanked out multiple times as the Void tried to unmake him. He could physically sense the Void Spawn already growing stronger to prevent that attack. Every instant, it repulsed Reality much more effectively than before. It rejected his existence. It pushed him.
He willed himself to stay and declared that space to be his.
He felt the moment he would''ve failed. Then, that thing inside made him stronger against the Void one last time¡ªand broke. He felt it in all its glory, only long enough to understand it had never been meant to be strained like that. All of its power and potential were clenched, consumed, and popped to give him a final push before he lost all the advantages it always offered him when facing the Void.
The Void gave.
The Emissary exploded, and Shen came to be where it had just been. His mind recoiled in pain when he opened his eyes and saw the grey, lightless Voided Subnode. It took him a while to make sense of what he was seeing. He was glad when he did. He had feared he would be unable to think straight again.
He breathed haggardly and barely held his torn-up body together. He just stared at the skies, floating in nothingness with no willpower remaining to do anything else. Having that anti-Void part of himself destroyed felt like an aneurysm. He was lacking something crucial for his existence. It would take ages to heal if it ever did, and he didn''t have that long.
Heavens, he really hoped someone looked into the past and saw him do this move as a last act of defiance against the Void. It had felt like shit, but killing an Emissary like that? He thought it had looked damn cool. Stupid, but cool.
He smiled. Luthdel should like it, at least.
Shen wanted to flee again. He couldn''t. He didn''t even have the will to focus on healing.
He just stayed there looking at nothing for a while. Then, he looked down. At the newly formed Emissary standing a few dozen feet away from him.
Death had arrived.
379. All For Absolutely Naught
"Can you feel it?" Darla asked the dead Liya, whose head she held by the hair. "You can''t, of course. Too weak. Your senses are blinded by your perspective. Here, let me help. See Reality for what it truly is."
She denied the youngling''s senses to give her new ones. Liya couldn''t currently sense anything, but she would remember if she revived. It only depended on her Realization to progress rather than break, and she would return to life. The old ways of Realization Rupture, which Darla had hinted at in other parts of drow Path progress, were mostly forgotten, but as far as she was concerned, that was the only way forward. She wouldn''t let her people walk a lesser Path.
Anyway, Liya would remember seeing Reality gather. Metaphysical energy and ideas she couldn''t put into words revolved around Samir''s Node. A past so distant Liya hadn''t been born yet and the present mixed with the future to produce a singular moment long in the making. A vortex of coincidences and carefully manufactured moments filled Samir with momentum that shattered it beyond repair, yet few could notice it.
Most importantly of all, the visitors coming like moths to the flame couldn''t feel it; they had to give up their connection to Reality to rule absolute over it.
"Isn''t it marvelous?" Darla asked. "We like to think we understand how Reality works. The Alliance believes it more or less tamed its local Sentience through its Supremacies. Yet, which of us could see every trace of subtle connections and plan for something like this so long ago? A strike right now against their newest Voice... It''ll hurt them more than even they understand. The guests can feel the countless breadcrumbs all loosely connected to the boy and came to see him. Which random C-rank has so many S- and A-ranks linked to him? And so, they came to die, as the Heavens decreed so long ago. Our Supremacies could do nothing to change the purpose of this first-class talent, no matter how much they tried."
The guests stepped into Samir, and the Node shattered in the middle. It closed off firmly until the matters inside concluded one way or another. Not even S-ranks could infiltrate it or leave. Without special means, even looking inside was impossible.
Darla smiled, then felt something. She looked at Liya, frowned, and sighed. "He''s that important to you, huh?" She poked Liya''s face. "And I planned on initiating you on the mysteries of the flesh, too. What a shame. I suppose I pushed a little too hard, didn''t I? Injured souls are a bitch to control."
Denying her own influence on the youngling so Liya''s Realization didn''t get damaged beyond repair after her First Rebirth would be slightly challenging in most other situations, but the Void Tide let Darla pull a subtle string of coincidences with none the wise. She couldn''t do it more than a few times without the Void punishing her for her meddling, but while plans ceased to matter in a Void Tide, chaos came with its own advantages.
"Now, what was that little rainbow wolf called? Ah, yes. Send a message to Achr Vanuugandr: if your experiment with Shadows would benefit from the blood essence of the strongest orc to have ever lived, you''re about to run out of time to collect it."
That should be enough for the wolf to create a cognitive-blood-essence resonance through Reality for the cat to follow. To think Uk''Gaar''s blood essence would still be useful after so long. Destiny was a curious little thing.
Then, she paused. Recalling the name of a half-step S-rank who didn''t want to be remembered was more challenging. She had to Deny her own self to also Deny the cat''s power over her and recall the nebula war tiger''s name.
It had been so long since she glimpsed into that slice of Spacetime where Purrrkrrrr had stated she would be willing to take Shen as a disciple! She would''ve failed if the Primordial Rising Star, Yonolar, hadn''t been dying. The challenge had been high, and the reward seemingly none, but the information would pay off now¡ªif the boy survived, that is. Reality wasn''t kind when it collected all the interest for the talent it dispensed.
"Send a message to Purrrkrrrr: She didn''t fail her Audition, but she might fall soon. Achr Vanuugandr will let you watch through Reality''s blockade."
That should be it. Shen was drow, so she had gone a little beyond for him and Liya. Already, she smelled the Void approaching, trying to taint her. She would have to stay away from most matters for a while, at least until her soul healed, which would take months after she forced herself against Liya. What a powerful Realization her Karmic Balance was! If she managed to Elevate it...
Darla let go of Liya and set herself to watch the show.
She smiled when the boy started with a monologue. He was so bold, too, directly naming the guests he hated! It pushed them even more strongly towards him!
And to denounce Reality itself for his misery!
Ah, the hubris of the young.
She loved it.
? ?
? ?
Emissary and human looked at each other in silence for a while. Shen waited for death. It didn''t come.
He took the opportunity to leave a little speech for whoever looked into the past to see his demise. Why not? He would die anyway; nagging a little sounded right.
"They named me Rising Star," he said. "Empty words with empty meaning. I was given advantages in a children''s game, none of which could help me grow. Cultivation doesn''t care for the trinkets sold by the Alliance."
Just as he started talking, he understood the people he had always thought to like the sound of their voices too much. When facing the end of your existence, speaking wasn''t just a matter of arrogance. It was proof that you had lived up to that point. A hope that the echo of your words would continue after you passed. An attempt to stroke the inner fires of self-confidence; to tell yourself that you had mattered at least a little.
A last act of defiance against a Reality that had birthed you only to mercilessly chew you before you could accomplish your goals.
Sure, this wasn''t on Reality, but the Void, but his resentment didn''t care.
"Born a cripple. Given a chance¡ªan illusion. My father sacrificed so much for me. My former clan suffered so much because of me. People cared for me.
"All for naught.
"People suffered for me and will suffer after I''m gone. I, too, made countless suffer. Not by my own will, but my hands were the tool that quelled thousands of innocents. Fucking Primordials. My victims'' loved ones cried and had to accept their fate. I cried, but I had no choice but to obey. What can the weak ever do?
"It''s all for absolutely naught.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Is this life, then? Is this existence? The one you''re trying to destroy, oh Void almighty? What''s the damn point of existing like this? A fleeting passage through space and time, leaving so little behind, and even those traces will fade eventually. Who remembers the great heroes of the past? Or of the present, for that matter. What does it matter if I saved more humans than I killed? They, too, will come to pass one day. Humanity won''t be eternal. No one is.
"Why do you even care to consume everything? We''ll destroy our own selves in due time."
He was just monologuing now. He still didn''t expect an answer. He got one.
"You were right," a female voice said from above. One Shen hadn''t heard for a long time. One he dreaded the most.
Valentina.
He looked up to see two humanoids clad in armor that looked like a mirror, completely covering them. It was hard to see them on the Voided Subnode''s gray background. He could feel nothing inside the equipment. He couldn''t even feel they were there.
"About what?" the second person asked. Her voice was of an older woman. Mature without being ancient.
Shen didn''t recognize the language they spoke, but he understood every word with absolute clarity. It was as if Reality itself was speaking, like feeling the wind and knowing it was the wind or seeing light and knowing it was light. The language spoke true, and all in creation knew its meaning, even if they had never learned a single word or complex concept in any other language. Even animals would get it. Instinct would let one understand it as it lets one breathe and eat to survive.
"Someone saved the ant. And someone told it about my true identity. And now, they are trying to get the Void to clear the evidence." She paused. "Also, watching an ant recognize its insignificance is entertaining."
Anger boiled inside Shen. Anger he had never felt before. Fury consumed him, ignoring all his attempts to control his emotions. There was no keeping that contained. Not before her. Not being mocked by her.
Shen could barely think as he threw himself against Valentina. He activated his domain. There was no denying he would die, so he would do so on his own terms, even if he was twisted by his soul injuries.
If he got lucky, he would bring her down with him. He didn''t truly believe it would happen, but he had to try. And even if he failed, it was better to fall trying to kill her than by a random Void Spawn that would cease to exist right after killing him.
Shen moved.
The world twisted.
He was looking at the Emissary, and Void Spawn that had already positioned around him were just getting in position. He had been sent back in time.
"Slightly entertaining, indeed," Valentina said with a chuckle. "It even tried to kill itself to injure me!"
The second being shook its head. "You shouldn''t have touched it, Voice of the Choir. The Purge has yet to start. Rules are important. It''s what keeps us strong. What separates us from the ants."
Valentina looked at the older woman. "Are you calling me an ant for not following the rules?" Her voice was filled with the anger of pure fire. Muted, but there. Waiting to explode into a ball of flames.
"I wouldn''t dare, Voice of the Choir." She sounded slightly apologetic. "I was, however, sent to teach you the Score, including all its rules. I can''t teach if I must mind my words. Kill me if you find fault in me. Another just like me will be appointed to you."
Valentina humphed. "You''re just like Yonolar. He died."
"He did."
Shen tried to move instead of harmlessly watching the exchange. He couldn''t. An invisible force he couldn''t detect held him in place.
Valentina turned back to Shen. "So I can''t kill it?"
"You can do whatever you want, Voice of the Choir. That is the calling and right of your august position. But all action from one such as you comes with consequences. Preparing for the Purge includes marking those who personally sinned against you and letting them know. The despair of being found out before the Purge is part of the price they pay for their arrogance and the destruction of the Order we so painstakingly cultivate. Anything more than a warning is an attack. The first attack starts the Purge, and the Choir has already voted on when that will happen and who will throw the first punch. You''ll be punished if you force our hand before the time."
The woman spoke calmly, almost bored. Regardless, Valentina revealed a hint of fear in her voice as she replied, "I didn''t attack the ant."
"You touched it against its will. Yet, it indeed was no attack because you never touched it, did you? Not any longer. Not after you reversed time for it. The moment you touched it has not happened yet. A small loophole that will get you in trouble if you exploit more than a couple of times, but a loophole nonetheless."
Shen had something to say about that, but he couldn''t because he was being forced to stay still. He was still being attacked. Screw them for their lies.
Valentina asked, "What did you want me to do here if not kill the ant?"
"Follow the threads. Mark the culprits. Warn them of their impending doom. It helps uncover traitors. I heard whispers of the Primordial Bridge finally betraying us after so long, but the details are cloudy. This Purge will be unlike any other, and if you uncover something important, you''ll save lives."
Valentina sounded very confused as she replied, "I don''t care about saving ants."
"I''m talking about our people. This Purge will be resisted. The signs are there. There will be war, and some of us will fall."
Valentina didn''t reply anything for a few moments. "Are you lying?"
"I''m physically incapable of lying to a Voice of the Choir."
"We don''t die Purging corrupt ants."
"You can try to use your Voice to make it so. It won''t work. Reality still resists some commands. Not for long, and the ants can feel it. The Primordial Song is almost complete, and they grow desperate. Don''t underestimate desperate S-ranks. Our Voices will likely not fall, but our average warriors will pay the toll for everlasting glory, as we always have."
Valentina just stared silently at Shen for a while, then shook her head. "I still don''t believe it, but I''ll follow the Score. Ant, tell me who saved you from me and who revealed my real identity to you."
Shen, obviously, said nothing.
Then, Valentina spoke in that unique way of hers. The one that corrupted his entire self before.
"ANSWER ME SINCERELY."
The words hit his True Self like a battery cannon striking an egg. Shen thought he died. Maybe he did. However, he was remade anew and slightly different.
He was remade into a snitch.
"Long Hei saved me in the past and recently indirectly led me into guessing you were a Primordial."
The words left his mouth unbidden. He didn''t want to speak. He spoke anyway because it was the right thing to do. Reality demanded it of him. He was no more able to resist it than a dry leaf could resist a gale. He was pushed by forces much stronger than him.
"Who is Long Hei?"
"Samir''s Acting General, Second Seat of the Eternal Empire, A-rank abyssal dragon."
"A dragon?" Valentina looked at the older woman. "Did we know about the dragons opposing us yet?"
"We did, but this is the first abyssal dragon. Things will get thorny if the Abyss is involved. They never cared about Reality before. As far as I know, this is a betrayal no one is aware of. It''s probably an isolated action from a denizen of the Abyss, but it must be investigated." She paused. "This ant is abyssal, too, isn''t it? Barely, so I didn''t notice it before. But it''s there." She paused again and approached. "What is this¡ª"
Reality spoke, a gasp it had been holding ever since Shen was born. Ever since he had been created and molded just for this moment. Ever since he had been made a first-class talent. For the first time in his life, he knew why he had been made such.
THE RECKONING BEGINS.
Shen had been created to kill Valentina here and now.
Power unlimited rushed into Shen. His every cell and atom burst, and he was unmade into nothing but Energy. He became a humanoid made of pure light.
His mind expanded. He saw a world unlike any other. He didn''t see material physics or even the underpinning Laws of Reality. That was too shallow. He saw deeper. He peered into the Aspects and Expressions and knew he had been lied to. Time was no Aspect. Time was an Expression. Change was an Aspect.
The Aspects of Will, Space, and Change birthed the Expressions of Energy, Time, and Sentience.
That''s why people could affect Time so seemingly easily. He could see how some Aspects and Expressions were tied to the Axioms of similar names. The Axioms of Space felt so solid that tugging it a little should take everything. The Axioms of Time, not so much. That was the difference between Aspect and Expression.
And he saw the Axioms themselves. Their entirety. Mastered Laws were laid bare to him. His mind exploded, and he forgot things about himself. He had been made more by Reality but was still limited by his base power.
He couldn''t comprehend so much, and glancing at some secrets of Reality like that broke him down beyond repair. He would never be the same. It didn''t matter. He wouldn''t live through this.
Shen would die but didn''t care, for he was being given Absolute Power, which he had been born to wield. His purpose was fulfilled. His Will was met.
He was whole.
All that mattered now was to meet his personal goals the best he could before he inevitably burned out like a falling star.
He looked at Valentina and decided she would be the first to fall.
? ?
380. Cease to Be
Shen could see things he couldn''t describe and understand secrets he couldn''t make sense of. He knew of things and didn''t, was existences and wasn''t, could do stuff and couldn''t. He was power incarnate, yet he was limited by his previous self.
Most of what he saw, felt, and knew were beyond his reach, but his Path was his to command. Everything in it was. Everything was also pushed to the extreme limits his already crumbling True Self could barely withstand.
He extended his hand, and all Energy in the Voided Subnode came to him. They supported the Axioms of the Spear into materializing into a spear of pure qi, so condensed it became a crystal almost dense enough to form a black hole. Qi wasn''t meant to be kept in that state and kept turning into steam, like ice, which was pulled back into the weapon soon after.
He threw it at Valentina.
Shen had never specialized or cared for throwing motions. He had known some, but his Spear was meant for close combat.
Not anymore.
Now, his Spear was meant for whatever any Spear had ever been meant for. Everything a Spear was, anything it could do, was part of his current self. Killing Weapon, Shaft, and Extremity were attributes he could use at will as he controlled the entire Axioms of the Spear. They were only four of everything he used as he threw.
The other Axioms in his Path were also his to command, but he couldn''t add them to his weapon or attack right now. He could only do one at a time. Wielding the entirety of the Laws of one Axiom already took enough of a toll to crack his True Self.
His soul was damaged and should be infected, but Reality itself refused to contaminate him. It didn''t mind that he would be broken beyond salvation after this was over, but it wanted him to be well enough to act until he burned out.
Shen''s weapon didn''t move, yet it changed places. His spear didn''t cut Spacetime as much as it ignored it. That level of manipulation should be impossible even for A-ranks, according to what he had just learned of the rigidness of the Aspect of Space, but the Aspect itself embraced his weapon. Reality was on his side. It didn''t resist his moves.
The spear was meant to appear already inside Valentina.
It didn''t.
Two realities superimposed on each other, the one he and Reality itself meant to happen, with the weapon inside the Primordial, and another where her power or armor denied Reality''s Will. The latter won. Shen''s spear merely struck the armor faster than light.
The sound and shockwave caused by his weapon''s slight movement at such speed cracked Spacetime¡ªthe Axioms, not Aspect and Expression¡ªand formed... non-holes. There were holes, and the Void should be peering from the other side, but instead, Shen only glimpsed a secondary layer of pure Space¡ªthe Aspect. Reality was holding that Voided Subnode firmly. Not even the Void could interfere with what was happening there.
Shen was unaffected by the shockwave. It went through him harmlessly. The armor of the two Primordials also resisted the impact.
The Emissary fared both far better and worse. When Shen took all Energy from the Voided Subnode, the place became soft. It couldn''t sustain itself without Energy. It started imploding under the weight of Axioms that were breaking down, and every Void Spawn expanded in size, as existence itself didn''t repel them as strongly.
Then, crystalized qi moving at lightspeed released wisps of Energy also at lightspeed and a massive shockwave. It behaved like shrapnel and shredded all creatures nearby like paper. Even the black lightning surrounding the Emissary was torn apart.
The Emissary didn''t revive again because the entire Cohort had been obliterated at once, and the smoke had nowhere to go.
That was just the collateral damage from Shen''s attack. He was that strong now.
Shen''s actual target also suffered. Valentina''s mirror-like armor absorbed at least half the throw''s power, but it was pierced in the end. The spear went through, and Shen glimpsed a Primordial for the first time.
It felt even more marvelous than what he could see of Reality.
It was like witnessing the Origin of All and the Ultimate Finality simultaneously. Alpha and Omega made one, intertwined into a project with a scope he couldn''t even begin to guess. Nebulas of pure Will were bottled inside the purple-transparent energy being. The Wrath of the Heavens, pure Tribulation Lightning, had been tamed into a complex web of patterns that formed a structure beyond the three spatial dimensions. The Axioms of Reality were inside Valentina, but they existed more like suggestions and "filling" to the unique existence she had been hand-crafted to become.
And in the center of everything, pulsating like a spherical heart of pure golden Order, was power inexplicable. Overwhelming. Impossible. Everything she was came from and went through that sphere.
Shen didn''t know why he called it Order, but the name came to him, and he knew it to be the truth¡ªand at the same time, he came to know where his True Boundlessness came from.
Even until now, he had lacked the knowledge. Now, he knew True Boundlessness came from an anti-Axiom that only existed when someone pulled it into their Path. A quantum Axiom of sorts.
It came from Chaos.
He suddenly knew that Reality was Order, and Chaos was a demand from the Aspect of Change. An opposite that made it whole. Something that didn''t exist¡ª
No, it did exist.
Chaos was meant to coexist with Order; Reality demanded this strange duality in itself. He glimpsed Chaos in the layer of pure Space surrounding the Voided Subnode. Change and Will were meant to be everywhere, even in the Aspect of Space, as did the hints of Chaos that Change demanded.
And yet, Chaos was absent in the Voided Subnode. It was the Alliance that removed it and feared Chaos.
The moment Shen touched that truth, part of his mind was simply unmade. The Alliance still had that Voided Subnode under its command, even if it had been otherwise isolated. Shen had come in contact with a knowledge he shouldn''t, and a small part of Reality, which he now knew to be tamed, ripped the knowledge directly from his mind. He could''ve resisted with a Realization, but he had none. The nature of his newfound power was of a different, raw, brute kind.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
His focus returned to the battle at hand. His spear had pierced the armor and kept going. It cut through Valentina''s thin, energy-like membrane.
Then, it touched the thing inside her, her unique existence.
Qi was never meant to contest against something like that. His spear melted like snow touching the sun.
Yet, her innards were also never meant to be exposed to the elements or attacked.
It was fundamental physics that damaged her. The shockwave of an object moving at half the speed of light¡ªafter the armor slowed it down. It didn''t shred her like the Void Spawn, but half her chest bent inward and became a pulp. The structure inside her suffered a heavy strain but resisted. She had been injured, but her essence held firmly.
Shen willed qi to become Lightning¡ª
"CEASE TO BE," Valentina screamed, and the golden orb inside her exploded.
Golden light encompassed her entire being. It consumed the Wrath of the Heavens inside her and pushed outwards, beyond his body. Faster than instantly, it encompassed all of Reality and held everything in existence, demanding obedience to her command.
The multiverse twisted. The Axioms of Reality twisted and rotated and fought each other to accommodate a new absolute rule: Shen couldn''t exist. They were reshaped, for he had to stop being. Nothing else would be accepted.
This was to an attack what a gamemaster editing a character was to an NPC throwing a punch. That thing inside Valentina was the closest thing to the Absolute Power that was Shen''s Will. He hadn''t known it was possible.
He wanted it.
Even as his existence was unmade, he reached for it. The Axioms of Lightning were made manifest through the qi that had melted as it touched Valentina. They pushed hard into her, trying to go deep into her.
His qi never managed to get inside her. His Will was denied. He kept trying but ultimately gave up. The structure inside her could resist anything.
Half of Shen was gone when he turned his qi into pure True Boundlessness.
He had no reason to do so beyond the simple fact that Valentina''s inner structure was very well made. It made sense to try to unmake it. He didn''t think it would work because True Boundlessness was both an Axiom and not. He didn''t even know the name of the Axiom which it came from. Yet, he would try to remove all the boundaries that kept Valentina whole.
The moment that Axiom-that-was-not touched Valentina''s innards, something weird happened. The very Aspect of Change manifested almost physically through Shen''s qi and unique Axiom. Seeing Change directly was like seeing everything that could be in a single point of space. Like watching the entire existence of a galaxy, from birth to death, and every single manifestation it might have had over eons, all in a single instant.
His mind broke right then and there. Shards of consciousness watched as Change infiltrated Valentina''s existence and inflated her, focusing on removing boundaries.
Valentina became a balloon. The structure of her unique existence instantly grew to encompass the Voided Subnode. She became the Voided Subnode itself, an omnipotent God. For her to desire anything was for it to be made true in there.
Alas, her fundamental self was one of...
...Order?
The word came to what remained of Shen''s sapience and felt wrong, as if he was never meant to know it. As if he should not physically be able to know it. But Change was also inside Valentina, and some rules were behaving erratically.
Anyway, her fundamental self was one of Order, and Order demanded things to obey rules, which was why the Void, the absence of Reality¡ªand its Order¡ªcould ignore many of them. Change didn''t help her ignore the rules that went against her. One such rule was that she couldn''t have absolute power over all the creation inside her without fueling her power with Energy.
The Tribulation Lightning inside her, the bottled Will of the Heavens, the very structure that made her; everything was spent just to maintain her life. She had never been meant to exist that big and powerful. At least...
...not yet?
Valentina''s life burned away as the power inside her was consumed to maintain her existence. The golden sphere sucked everything greedily. The Voided Subnode itself shattered, and the sphere tried to consume pieces of it to sustain itself.
It only delayed the inevitable for an instant.
The other Primordial said something, but Shen never registered it. Her words also tried to reorganize Reality, but they were like... like the words Valentina used against Shen in the past. Weaker. Localized. Not near enough.
As a last act of desperation, the dwindling sphere inside Valentina reached for Shen.
That was an act that changed everything.
It grasped him, who had become pure Energy under Reality, and pulled heavily. It symphoned Reality itself through its connection to him. Alas, what remained of Shen was already half-unmade. If the golden Order orb wanted to keep consuming Reality through Shen, it needed to let him live a little longer.
And so, the command for him to cease to be was halted.
It was as if the cogs that made everything suddenly stopped moving. Reality cried as it fought itself twice in a row. This time, it had to make Shen''s existence possible.
The sphere itself, however, paid a hefty price for instinctively countering its own previous command. It needed to do so to keep using Shen as Energy, but paradoxically, it lacked the Energy to revert its last command. The thing directly shattered in the middle, and half of it dissipated into nothingness.
Even as it dissipated, however, it was also canibalized by the other half, used as more Energy.
It stabilized.
It became Shen''s True Boundlessness''s turn to lack the Energy to keep going. All the qi in the Voided Subnode now belonged to the golden orb. Whatever extra Energy Reality sent Shen was siphoned into the sphere. His attack faded, and Reality pulled the Aspect of Change back.
Valentina became normal-sized again.
If things had ended there, she would''ve survived.
However, what remained of Shen''s mind suddenly understood that Reality''s plans were never simple. He suddenly knew it had invested a lot of effort into guaranteeing Valentina would die today. He could almost see the series of coincidences after coincidences that shaped him into what he was and placed him right there. He could also see the countless other coincidences that didn''t come to pass and other things he could''ve become or places he could''ve gone to. Reality never pushed anyone into making any decisions, but it knew what would happen, and some "random" events here and there could have momentous consequences¡ªespecially because it also knew how likely anyone was to react to it. When Reality wanted something enough, it was almost impossible for one of the billions of scenarios it had prepared for its advantage not to pass.
Valentina''s existence was stable, but she still needed Energy to survive. The golden sphere¡ªthe Voice inside her¡ªwas still consuming Reality through Shen. Instinctively. It pulled...
...and touched something it shouldn''t.
It pulled from his connection to the Abyss.
The last trace of Shen''s mind imploded as the Primordials attacked the Abyss for the first time since an age so long past only accounts of legends about myths remained about it. That was enough for a cataclysm no one expected.
Treaties woven into the rules of all existence were broken.
Valentina tried to turn the Abyss into fuel to keep living. The Abyss had never given Energy to any non-Abyss denizens, but it could do so if it wanted. It had no Sentience, but the collective minds of its beings all unconsciously reached a conclusion on the same time as to whether they were willing to help her.
They weren''t.
Valentina pulled from the Abyss, and the Abyss pulled back.
Samir¡ªthe Node, with all Subnodes¡ªshattered as a Primordial Voice was pulled into and consumed by the Abyss for the first time ever. It was the youngest Voice the Primordials had, too, who had just joined the Choir and hadn''t been so well-bound by the Primordial Song. It was even weakened, cut in half. Vulnerable. Malleable.
Usable.
The Abyss kept pulling¡ª
Another distant Voice commanded Reality, then another. A Chorus of Seven Voices demanded an unbelievable Change, and it happened.
Reality realigned.
The Abyss could no longer pull anything belonging to the Primoridals into it. Ever.
But it took a toll. A heavy, unimaginable toll much beyond Shen''s fading mind''s ability to understand. One the Choir itself hadn''t expected.
As for Shen...
Reality itself wasn''t sure if he was meant to exist or not after the conflicting commands it received. But it didn''t matter. He had been unmade and consumed. His True Self was but dust fading into nothing.
Shen ceased to be.
? ?
381. Erased
The Grand Senator left his front line without permission, but his Realization wouldn''t be denied. It demanded action, and refusing it was to refuse himself¡ªto refuse to live.
He traveled too slowly for his tastes, but there was no alternative. The system refused to teleport him without authorization from Samir''s Acting General, and Long Hei ignored him.
Carl felt betrayed. He had previously lied to his old sworn brother, yes, but¡ª
His line of thought was interrupted by a pull so strong his body and soul hurt. Shen''s life was in such great danger that the Grand Senator felt it physically. He owed the boy too much. The karmic debt was too overwhelming.
If he let Shen die without doing anything...
Alas, he had no skill to move faster. His every step let him jump from galaxy to galaxy, but he was too far away. The Alliance''s universes were both superimposed and not; he needed to be in the right place to go from one universe to another. Well, not exactly; a few techniques could let him ignore that restriction, but they were slower than piercing the inter-universe veil at the proper locations.
So, he rushed. The first three universes passed by him in seconds. Sights that would take the breath of a mortal were ignored. He still needed another few seconds to travel through the remaining four universes to reach the Samir Node.
He hopped universes again and found a cthulhu waiting for him on the other side.
The Primordial Bridge had sent their hunting dog.
"Carl Jones," the creature bigger than a sun said, their deep voice as loud as an exploding star system, "you have committed treason by abandoning your post during a Void Tide. Surrender, and you''ll be allowed to pay the price of your hubris with servitude."
Treason?
It took him a while to realize that, yes, he had technically committed treason. His Realization pushed him so hard and desperately to save Shen that he hadn''t been thinking straight. It still did.
He also knew he could argue against it because he was compelled by his Realization, but a trial would be postponed until the end of the Void Tide. The Alliance would rather he serve as a slave and free him after the Void Tide if he survived than waste time with him. He had already left his post, after all. Forcing him to fight was better for everyone involved¡ªexcept him.
Although he was A-rank¡ªwhich allowed him not to get killed for such an indirect act of treason¡ªhe had no S-rank connections. At least, not any that would be willing to help him with this and expose their link in the process.
The Grand Senator replied, "I''ll surrender with one condition: let me save Human Rising Star Shen first. My Realization demands it. I''ll die otherwise."
"Dying is not so bad," the cthulhu replied. "Your Realization would benefit from it."
Such an absurd answer! Carl sighed. "So, we fight."
He would lose, but¡ª
The overwhelming pull in his Realization disappeared.
It was there one moment, then gone in the next. Shen''s presence seemed to have been erased. Every connection between Shen and the Grand Senator, the debt owed, everything disappeared in an instant.
He didn''t comprehend what had just happened. He couldn''t. It made no sense.
Even if Shen had died, Carl should''ve felt the consequences, not... not nothing.
But he did feel something right after. A weight. It was as if a wave of heaviness came and went through all Creation. It passed by him, almost crushing him, and kept going. A few suns exploded, blinking out in the distance. Their light was still visible, but the Grand Senator had just felt them get obliterated with his Realization.
Then, the universe became... lighter. Less restricting. It almost seemed to breathe in relief. Carl could move better somehow as if a hand with a firm grip over Reality had just let loose a little.
"There is no Human Rising Star Shen in all of Reality anymore," the cthulhu replied to Carl''s early request. "Surrender, and I shall explain it to you."
Getting captured by the Primordial Bridge was very high on the list of things the Grand Senator didn''t want to happen to him. Yet, he had no choice but to surrender¡ªfor now.
He just had to survive the Void Tide. Then, he could enact his plans in advance. There were even some preparations in case he was, in fact, captured. He wouldn''t destroy the Primordial Bridge once and for all because some pieces weren''t ready, but he would cripple it. Then, it would be up to the dragons to do their part, destroying whatever remained of it.
Learning what had just happened to Shen and his Realization was a big plus. He felt very lost right now, as he hadn''t felt in a very long time. As a "traitor," learning about that in other ways would be dangerous for everyone involved, so he would rather not do it that way.
This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Very well," he replied. "I surrender."
? ?
? ?
Purrrkrrrr found the little wolf the drow told her about.
She watched the human execute the Primordial through the cognitive-blood-essence resonance the canine had formed to find the boy. It was always a humble experience to see Reality use a first-class talent so effectively. Or rather, an uber-class talent, considering how the Alliance''s Supremacies had failed to tame the boy to their own purposes.
Seeing the former Primordial Maiden fall brought a smile to Purrrkrrrr''s face. The arrogant bitch deserved that and more. All Primordials were proud and aloft, but Sharendil had been needlessly demeaning and incapable of learning better. Sacrificing Yonolar for her was a grave mistake, but the idiot had willingly given his self-developed Voice for his people''s grand plan.
A plan that wouldn''t be completed anytime soon, not anymore.
Witnessing Reality get rearranged at a Voice''s command was even more humbling. So much power, so well crafted. Purrrkrrrr herself was a step away from a similar ability, but that step was as wide as the Abyss. She would get there eventually, but that day was long in the future yet.
The Abyss getting freed from the old treaties, then forcibly tamed, showed how Sharendil wasn''t an exception among the Primordials. They had grown too conceited after the last war. Purrrkrrrr reckoned single-handedly putting hundreds of races with S-ranks in their place did that to a species. They had gone too long without competition and lost touch with reality¡ªpun intended.
Purrrkrrrr felt when the Abyss struck back. Not directly, as it didn''t have the sentience for that. But the First Abyssal Dragon and the Extreme Yin Phoenix, two denizens of the Abyss, were "coincidentally" in a meeting when the Primordials curbed the Abyss power to ever take anything from the Primordials again.
The two beings acted in unison at the window of opportunity when the Primordials'' Voices rearranged Reality to affect them. They reached through Space and Change, touching the Primordials'' Voices back through the layer of Will holding all that existed together.
How could the Primordials have forgotten that imposing their Will upon Reality also meant opening their Will to a counter-attack? Or had they forgotten it? More likely, they had just believed they could resist anything.
They were mostly correct, but a crack appeared in their power...
Purrrkrrrr yawned. That was uninteresting. What mattered was that, in the end, the Primordials had lost half their power and were vulnerable to an attack¡ªthat never came.
The Void Tide was still going on. The Alliance would deal with that first. The Primordials'' enemies would also wait until the last second of vulnerability before launching their attack because time worked more in their favor than the Primordials''.
As for the boy...
Purrrkrrrr had liked the boy''s talent¡ªhis actual talent, not the Alliance''s definition¡ªin the past and would''ve taken him as a disciple in most other situations. Not this one. The wound was too fresh, and the Primordials would hunt her down for bringing him back to life, even if they had to further weaken themselves for it. They had just proved they had more pride than sense, and Purrrkrrrr would rather not die for a random human whom she had gotten slightly interested in the past.
Still, as thanks for getting rid of Sherendil, she threw up a bit of power in the boy''s way. Time reversed, and his fading essence was frozen in time.
She coughed blood essence as her Realization was injured to bring something back from such a momentous point in Time.
One Standard month. She had given Shen that long to get saved by someone else. Whether he had made strong enough friends or not was up to him.
Purrrkrrrr could already feel the Primordials'' angry glare, but what could she do? She was a cat. When she wanted to do something, she did it.
Life was as simple as that; it was mostly humanoids who liked to complicate things.
For good measure, she toppled a few stars out of place as she stepped through Spacetime back into her cozy corner of Reality. Everything about the boy was already forgotten.
? ?
? ?
Liya woke up in the most comfortable double bed she had ever laid on. The white sheets felt divine on her skin¡ªno other words could describe it. She was below an enormous tree, its leafless branches sprawling lazily for almost a mile, doing little to hide the grey skies above. The ground, filled with dead leaves, was soft as if from molten snow, and a cold breeze was blowing from the right.
"Finally awake," Darla said from nearby. "Spring is almost upon us, meaning you almost missed your opportunity to save the boy. Oh, and congratulations for cheating death for the first time. You''re now a First Severance Realizator. Or First Rebirth, depending on how poetic you''re feeling."
The dark elf was kneeling on the ground before a small table. The Queen of Spring and Autumn was kneeling on the other side, visibly pregnant, with a draggor standing beside her, a little to the left. They were drinking tea.
There was much for Liya to absorb in Darla''s few sentences, but she cared more about the beginning. "Where''s Shen?" She asked as she stood up.
Liya hated Darla. She also knew she couldn''t defeat the woman, especially because her soul had stopped leaking. She was healed. Liya had even less of a chance now than when Darla had been injured in their fight.
"Dead. Or maybe unmade would be a better word. A little plan of mine to save him didn''t go as planned, but I have a new one. Join us and start thinking about how to repay this delicious-looking high elf..." The draggor humphed unhappily, and the Queen of Spring and Autumn''s face twisted from the disrespect. "...for her help as I inform you how to save your boyfriend. If you want it, of course. Your Realization couldn''t care less about him anymore."
Liya frowned.
That woman always spoke as if she knew too much and struggled to make things easier for anyone else to understand. What Liya did get was that, indeed, she couldn''t find Shen in her Realization. It was almost as if he had never existed.
Darla calling him "unmade" gave Liya the chills.
"I do," Liya replied. "I want to save him."
Her Realization wasn''t all of her. She might not karmically owe Shen, but she recalled her debt. It was weird that her Realization could ignore her memories and feelings on the matter, but she would act true to herself, Realization or not.
"You sure do, which is why you survived your First Severance," Darla said with a smile. "So come, join us, and start thinking about how to pay enough to convince our high-elven friend here to get re-impregnated by orc blood essence this late in her current pregnancy, undergo accelerated carriage, and give birth in the Void of a destroyed Node in the middle of a Void Tide¡ªmaking the Primordials upset with her in the process. Tip: whatever you''re thinking of offering, multiply it by a thousandfold."?
After dropping that confusing bomb, Darla took a sip from her tea, closed her eyes, and raised her face to the skies with a pleasant smile on her face.
"Isn''t Spring the most marvelous season?" she said. "So much life born anew! I just love it."
382. Seed
Hundreds of high-elven and drow B-ranks stood by the edge of the Voided Corner of the universe, waiting for the call to move forward. A Node had been destroyed, and Reality had lost its hold over everything the Node had once supported. The Void had been quick to advance, destroying everything in its wake. Now, Space abruptly ended and gave in to the Void where countless galaxies once stood. That universe was permanently crippled beyond repair. The other Nodes were strained and it was only a matter of a few Standard years before everything was gone.
Everyone from C-rank and up in the now-extinct Samir Node had been teleported away in time. D-ranks and lower had been teleported in order of importance. Their rank obviously came first, then their service history, then their perceived loyalty to the Alliance, and finally, their background.
Countless lives were lost. The Republic of Imperia suffered its most terrible loss since its conception.
The gratitude the Queen of Spring and Autumn felt for Imperia''s Grand Senator and Long Hei for sending her race away just before disaster struck was part of the reason she accepted the deal she was offered. Another reason was the price Liya was willing to pay.
Yet, foremost among all reasons was her motherly love¡ªor so Darla claimed.
"The proud hot lady won''t tell you that..." Darla said through her Realization, which Liya had allowed to enter her body. Not that resisting it would have done her any good. "...but she''s thankful for the opportunity to send her child away. She''s afraid of the Void Tide and incoming war and wants a seed of her race¡ªand her own blood, of course¡ªfar away from the Alliance. It''s a shame we''ll need to kill the baby. And her, obviously. I don''t want a Titled A-rank with a vendetta on my tail."
Liya wouldn''t be able to control her shock without Darla''s Realization holding her firm. "What?!" she replied eventually, using her atoms to speak by moving them inside her body.
Darla looked at her as if she were an idiot. "Wait, did you mean it when you said you would become her servant for a hundred Standard years at B-rank and another hundred more after reaching A-rank? You''re a stupid little drow, aren''t you? We''re killing the baby, of course. Her Realization isn''t strong enough to birth the thing we''ll put inside her unless we steal the miracle of life from the legitimate fetus."
"I won''t allow that," Liya said firmly.
"You''d rather Shen die?" Darla asked.
"Yes," Liya confirmed without thinking twice.
Liya''s hands were tainted with the blood of her enemies, but killing an innocent baby and their mother to save someone else crossed a line. Stealing the "miracle of life" sounded bad, not to mention Liya had begged that mother for help.
Liya was drow. The drow understood the pain of betrayal better than most races. Darla would understand it if she were a true drow, but it seemed the Denier also denied her own essence.
Liya still didn''t know who Darla was, but she was twisted.
"Would you rather owe the boy for all eternity without ever being able to repay it?" Darla insisted. "You won''t be able to advance your Realization like that. Your Realization and your heart have been split by Shen''s erasal. You must go ahead with this to realign them."
"It''s also because of my Realization that I can''t accept such death!" Liya countered. She was Karmic Balance. Such a vile act was against everything she believed in.
Darla sighed. "So be it. Go ahead and cancel the ritual. It won''t work without the sacrifice." She removed her Realization from Liya.
Liya waited for a big reveal or magic solution that never came. Darla was serious. They either killed the Queen''s baby for Shen, or he would not come back to life.
She froze for a moment. She had already paid a lot to bring the Queen and all those B-ranks here during a Void Tide. Not going ahead with it almost felt like choosing to let Shen die.
Yet, Shen himself wouldn''t want to be born by killing the brother of his high-elven friend and his mother. Honoring his wishes would also lower her debt to him in her heart.
Liya wondered if Darla had handcrafted such a situation to help Liya after she refused to go on¡ªor if she believed Liya would accept such a thing for her Realization.
She turned to the Queen beside her and said, "Darla wants to kill your baby."
From the absolute surprise Liya felt in the A-rank drow, Liya guessed Darla had also miscalculated how much Liya hated her. Darla had stopped Liya from getting to Shen. Darla was manipulating not only the Queen but also Liya herself. This entire situation wouldn''t exist if Liya had gotten to Shen¡ªeven if she died in the process. Liya''s Realization, everything she believed in, had been denied at that moment, and it irked her.
Darla had also lied; she had said the matter in the Node would be good for Shen¡ªyet Shen was gone.
The Queen immediately teleported away while Liya screamed, "Kill the traitor!" and charged against Darla with the hundreds of B-ranks from Shar''Talon. They obeyed her command rather than the random A-rank. Darla was drow, but she wasn''t one of them.
The high elves also attacked Darla after an instant, obviously following an order sent by the Queen after leaving.
Liya felt goosebumps when she felt Darla''s surprise turn into pleasure.
"Oh, girl, what a pure Realization!" Darla said. "What a sense of justice! But can you feel it? The missing karmic debt from these people to Shen because he no longer exists? You can''t, can you? How about... now?"
Darla''s Realization reached the boundary between Reality and the Void¡ªand beyond. From nothingness, she pulled a "cable" of Void Energy. It evidently connected two points, and Darla was stretching it.
As soon as it manifested in Reality, every high elf was touched by the Void. There was no link extending from the cable to the elves. In one instant, they weren''t tainted by the Void. The next instant, they were.
Liya thought she glimpsed something about cause and effect, and its destruction, and its permanence through the impermanence of the Void, determining those people were to be tainted¡ª
She shook her head. Not the time for revelations.
Liya''s Realization-fueled attack failed to reach Darla, just as every domain and attack thrown by everyone else. The damn A-rank was that powerful. Liya had hoped otherwise.
Darla let go of the cable, which disappeared back into the Void. Her smile widened, and she said, "You are forgiven, youngling Liya. Contaminating these people eased the risks on me. Now, I can move freely without fear of being contaminated myself. It''s a shame for the boy, but that''s your choice to make. We''ll see each other again if you survive the Void Tide."
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She disappeared. She didn''t teleport away but just ceased to exist at that point in Spacetime. Liya had never seen something like that, and it helped showcase the difference between them.
She sighed as she turned to her people and the high elves; she had a diplomatic incident to solve.
As for Shen...
Her heart ached, but she was used to losing people. Still, her heart also eased. She knew she had made a choice he would approve of. She would keep honoring his memory.
"Goodbye, my almost love," she thought and got to business.
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"No," Long Hei replied.
Darla frowned. That was not the answer she was expecting. She hadn''t had the time to assess how the recent events had affected everyone, but her guesses, in this case, were way off.
"You''ll let him die?" she asked.
"Can''t you see I already paid the price for associating with him?" the lizard replied unhappily.
In the darkness of the Abyss, Darla looked at the abyssal dragon''s body. He was missing half his body. Being in the middle of a Node during its destruction was terrible for his health. Not even S-ranks could destroy Nodes¡ªnot alone, at least¡ªwhich reflected how much power had been present when Shen killed Sharendil.
The cthulhu holding the chains to the dragon''s soul had fared even worse, now no more than a head and a couple of tentacles. It had already been almost a whole Standard month, yet they had trouble healing.
"That''s not on him," Darla countered. "Reality and the Void did that to you, not Shen. He''s as much a victim as you. More, actually."
Long Hei didn''t even reply.
"One scale," Darla insisted. "It won''t matter to you. I can buy it."
The dragon closed its eyes and went back to sleep.
Darla considered her options. Taking the scale by force would be easy but set the Primordial Brigade against her. The dragon was their property, and they wouldn''t like it being damaged or pillaged.
She sighed and left. It was time for a much more complicated conversation.
Ah, the things she did for her people!
At least the gambit with Youngling Liya had already paid off. She really liked that little one. So much potential paired with the correct principles! As soon as Liya stepped into the A-rank, Darla would allow herself to risk her life attempting to elevate her Realization and reach S-rank. The drow would be in good hands with Liya if anything happened.
But that was for later. Now, the focus was saving Shen.
She''d be damned if she let the big bitch called Reality use and discard a drow like that and did nothing about it.
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"I accept," the Gardener said.
Darla''s eyes widened in surprise. She had not expected the old asshole to accept it so readily. "Did you understand my plan?"
The white-haired and long-bearded golden-skinned humanoid smiled. The S-rank wore a white E-rank robe and sat on a simple wooden stall in the cozy but not very stylish caf¨¦. His blue eyes were filled with enjoyment at her confusion. His warm smile radiated mature kindness.
Heavens, how Darla hated his existence! It was anathema to her! He was so sincere and his Realization so firm she couldn''t Deny its influence on her. She felt herself warming up to the guy!
He replied, "You a seed of the World Tree, of which there is only one every million Standard years, to consume the Undying Emissary and be corrupted by the Void, then use it as a catalyst to bring back a kid from the dead."
"Not the dead," Darla corrected. "He never died. The Undying Emissary wouldn''t be ''undying'' otherwise. It lives as long as Shen''s essence is frozen in time and existing." That was important. Bringing people back from the dead was much more complicated.
"Yes, I understand," the Gardener said, sipping his tea.
The Void Spawn that Shen had set loose on the infernals had wreaked havoc in the Fire Ocean before an S-rank bothered to intervene. The infernals had lost two of their three A-ranks just like that. The third had hidden away while the creature killed countless infernals.
It had been glorious.
That S-rank quickly discovered that mutated Emissary couldn''t be killed for good. No S-ranks knew why, as far as Darla could tell. They lacked the context.
Darla knew why. After the Emissary killed the first A-rank infernal, its target, it reverted to targetting Shen, the original target. But Shen was also impossible to kill in his current state. So, that Void Spawn just existed in a kind of limbo. An S-rank was holding it prisoner at all times.
There were, of course, ways to get rid of it. Expensive ones. No one was willing to pay it¡ªexcept, it seemed, the Gardener, who was known to treasure the World Tree and its seeds more than his life. The only thing he hated more was for the World Tree to be corrupted or linked to anything impure, like the Void or blood from dead beings.
Darla had come prepared to get attacked just for suggesting her deal.
"After using the seed to counter the Emissary''s existence and convert it into Void Energy, which will be absorbed by the seed," she continued, "I''ll feed the seed the kid''s blood essence from when he was D-rank. The rank gap to his last state of existence means I''ll also need to feed the seed a lot of orc blood to resonate with the drop of orc blood essence the kid had in his blood. It still won''t be enough unless the link between the consumed Emissary and the kid remains in the seed and reacts correctly to all that blood essence. You never know with the Void. The seed might be corrupted for no reason."
The Gardener nodded patiently. "That was clear the first time you explained it to me."
Darla kept going, "Then, I''ll use my Heretic Realization to Deny his erasal. If it works, the seed will be consumed to give birth to a mixed breed of orc, human, and tree. I''ll then Deny his existence so it looks like he was unmade again, hoping it will fool the Primordials. Half the seed''s essence will be used to help me with that. At the same time, I''ll remake him as a pure drow, cutting his physical ties with the past so he can''t be tracked that way. I''ll then bring him to you to deal with the aftermath that will happen in his True Self because his species changed. Then, I''ll leave. I can''t be connected to him. No one who met him can. I''ll Deny my own memories of saving him and let him live his life however it happens." She paused, then added, "He''ll be Void-Tainted from birth and remain a Void Harbinger."
The Gardener hated both Void-Tainted people and Void Harbingers. Yet, he nodded kindly and said, "You added no new information."
"Alright, I''ll bite. Why would you accept it? You didn''t even let me say how much I''m willing to pay."
He caressed his beard and looked at her briefly before saying, "What is the sole rule I enforce over everyone who comes to my World Tree?"
"No politics beyond expected in a small city," Darla replied.
He nodded. "I hate not only politics but also everything it represents. I researched this boy''s life as soon as you mentioned him. He was used by almost everyone he got in touch with. His father used him for his own feelings. His race used him for protection. A Primordial used him for hubris. Even his almost-lover manipulated him when they first met so he would grow stronger with drow methods¡ªall because someone made him drow without his knowledge. He had some genuine help, but a good chunk of it was tainted. The cthulhus'' Realization Impartation, the military''s gifts, your interference to ''help'' him when the little drow wanted to assist him." Darla showed surprise at that. "Yes, the system registered it. I think the Admin was nearby. In the end, Reality itself used him.
"And after all that, he was discarded.
"Even if he gets reborn, he''ll have no Reality-given talent. That makes no one interested in helping him for what he can give them. His almost lover, according to you, ''honored his memory'' by letting him die instead of killing someone for him. The dragon who gave him dragon genes without his knowledge or permission, which led to the Abyss-Primordial Brawl that every abyssal creature resents, is upset at the kid for almost causing the dragon''s death. And even you seek to use this opportunity to physically turn him into drow, then forget about him.
"I accepted your plan because the injustice he suffered repeatedly moved my heart.
"He''ll be reborn without any of the exceptional things he had before. No first-class talent, no dragon gene, no abyssal connection, not even his unique human unconscious anti-Void quirk because he''ll be drow. I''ll give him a fresh start unconnected to me. No one here will be interested in him for anything more than what he truly is.
"For the first time in his life, he''ll have the opportunity to live as normal a life as he can.
"I cherish it and want to give it to him. I also cherish the opportunity to pay heavily to give it to him¡ªwith one seed of my uniquely grown World Tree, no less. It''s a form of apotheosis for me. Helping such a creature, who even killed a Primordial yet is so wretched, will strengthen the core of my Realization and deepen my power.
"I help him, he helps me. We''re even. He can then live free."
Darla found no falsehoods in the Gardener''s explanation. She had hoped Shen''s pitifulness would move him, but she hadn''t thought it would be to that point. She blamed her lack of information on the enigmatic S-rank, who managed to stay apart from everything in the Alliance and still be a part of it.
She wasn''t even sure Shen would be safe-ish in the World Tree, as opposed to being desiccated and studied as soon as she was gone. He had gone through many almost unique experiences, and there should be something to gain by researching him.
"If you say so," Darla replied. "Can I have the seed now?"
"It''s already in your spatial ring," he replied. "Good luck." He sipped his tea.
Darla immediately rushed to the S-rank holding the Undying Emissary captive. The less time she spent with an S-tier item in her spatial ring, the better. If an S-rank felt it and stole it... She didn''t want to find out how the Gardener would deal with her.
383. Disgusting
A Realization held the Undying Emissary tightly. The S-rank responsible was in the same universe but nowhere near the creature. They had allowed Darla to get rid of it¡ªthough she hadn''t revealed how¡ªso she approached it.
The behemoth had been compressed into a fist-sized ball of liquid darkness floating above the Ocean of Fire. The hungry flames, usually so keen to burn anything on reach, couldn''t be found directly beneath the orb. They flew from an S-rank''s Realization like a barokus from a temorin.
They also didn''t approach Darla as she neared the prisoner. They couldn''t sense her. She had long Denied her presence for safety, and the B-rank flames couldn''t counter her Realization.
She got to the orb and took the seed of the World Tree from her Inventory.
A shockwave of pure Life spread from the acorn-sized golden seed as soon as it materialized, covering everything for thousands of miles. Life touched the air, and it became pure oxygen, the most common gas that supported the most average biological lifeforms. Life touched the scorched ground, and it became filled with the best nutrients to support plants. Just like that, it became at least a C-rank farming field, maybe B-rank. Life touched the flames, and they quieted; then, ninety percent of the Ocean of Flames was quenched, while the remaining ten percent became fire elementals closely linked to the Laws of Life.
Darla felt souls spontaneously materialize inside the newly born creatures; thus, a new species was born.
Such was the power of an S-rank item that hadn''t even been used yet.
The compressed Void Spawn fared only a little better. Most of its substance was dissipated by the enormous amounts of Life. The Axiom of Life was made manifest with too much potency in the seed. Life demanded continued existence, and the peak A-rank Emissary couldn''t suppress it.
Yet, its core remained. A tiny wisp of liquid darkness, trembling to resist the power of Life, was still there.
Darla threw the seed at it.
The S-rank keeping the Void Spawn captive felt the seed when it was made public, but they decided they would rather get rid of the pest under their watch than steal the seed. Darla breathed in relief when the S-rank''s Realization was retracted, and the seed touched the Void Spawn.
The resulting explosion shook everything, and the newly created species of fire elementals was annihilated. Darla used her Realization to resist the destruction. The seed released rainbow-colored light like a black hole''s event horizon, which grabbed the wisp of darkness that was trying to flee. The seed pulled, forcing what remained of the Emissary into itself.
The Seed of Life ate to sustain itself and grow into a tree¡ªand then black veins quickly grew from within.
Darla grabbed the thing with her Realization and got away from that place before the S-rank watching over it decided it wanted the corrupted seed for themselves.
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Stealing Shen''s blood essence from Shar''Talon''s Blood Trees was way too easy. Darla would have to talk to them about their defenses later.
The drops of blood disappeared inside the seed.
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The rainbow-colored big wolf¡ªDarla wondered if rainbows were fashionable nowadays¡ªcarefully pushed the five blood drops from the latest B-rank orc into the seed. That blood essence was an involuntary donation from the ninth B-rank Darla killed, its corpse long Denied, only its blood essence extracted. No evidence would remain of her killing them on the front lines. The grayness of the Voided Subnode was spotless.
Shen''s blood essence, already inside the seed, merged with the ninth orc''s blood. Only then did the Void Energy inside react. It consumed all the orc blood, destroying it for all manners and purposes. For any observer, nothing remained, and what Darla was attempting to do would lead nowhere.
Hopefully, the Void would ignore cause and effect and simple logic as Darla needed it to.
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Darla had kept three details from the Gardener.
First, she couldn''t Deny someone''s race when it was in their True Self unless she replaced it with something stronger. Second, she couldn''t prevent the Primordials from feeling Shen''s return unless she was intrinsically linked to the new existence. Her Realization alone wasn''t strong enough.
So, she pulled a drop of blood essence from her own body and threw it at the seed.
This step was almost as dangerous as leaving things to the Void and chance. An A-rank''s blood essence included principles of their Realization. Her blood attempted to Deny the seed and almost accomplished it, but the Void Energy in the seed consumed the blood drop in time.
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The resulting seed was an unstable thing. Half was a black liquid that kept taking different forms; the other half was a golden seed with pulsating black veins.
"Disgusting," the Queen of Spring and Autumn said as she appeared in the Void beside Shen''s frozen essence. Her latest plaything, the draggor, came with her.
"Indeed," Darla agreed and looked at the high-elven woman''s womb. It was pulsating with Life. Not as much as the uncorrupted seed, but enough that it was evident the child would be born anytime now. Winter was almost over. "Are you ready?"
"Do it," the Queen confirmed.
Darla threw the seed at Shen''s essence, which couldn''t be felt without a Realization. Despite feeling it, Darla couldn''t explain it. It was Shen''s Will and more, yet so much less. It almost didn''t exist. It was immaterial. A spark of his soul was inside, yet it wasn''t a true soul. It was something only S-ranks could manipulate.
The seed was an S-rank item, and it touched Shen''s essence.
Nothing happened.
Theoretically, the Queen''s presence was unnecessary. Darla had asked for it anyway, and the lack of reaction from the seed made her glad she did. More Life in the Void, especially Creation Life, would increase the odds of the Void Energy reacting to the blood essence in the seed. It would also help stabilize the creature that would be born from it¡ªwhich led to the main reason: the Queen had Baptized Shen''s Self, and their strong connection would ensure Shen was reborn, not anything else.
Also relevant was that the abundance of Life there would help mask Shen''s rebirth from the Primordials and everyone else. Darla was confident that wasn''t needed but would use anything she could.
Lastly, if Darla hadn''t promised to take the Queen''s child away from the Alliance¡ªor close enough; the World Tree was free of politics and included a relatively easy opportunity to actually leave the Alliance¡ªthe Queen wouldn''t have participated in the little play with Youngling Liya. But Darla needed to know if the girl''s heart was in the right place. Darla couldn''t leave the drow to her after Liya reached A-rank otherwise.
The third detail Darla had hidden from the Gardener was that Shen would have company when Liya delivered him.
A-ranks gave birth however they wanted. The Queen of Spring and Autumn went with Nature. She "laid" on nothingness, opened her legs, and her companion helped her deliver. Everything went without complications. The baby was born within seconds.
The moment the child was born, Spring started. The Queen''s Realization released a lot of Life, almost half as much as the seed had in the Ocean of Fire.
The seed blinked out of existence, and Darla filled the surroundings with her Realization. A moment later, the point the seed had disappeared into exploded, releasing corrupted Laws from an Axiom that mimicked twisted Life.
In its midst, a creature came to be out of nothingness.
It was a humanoid the size of a three-year-old, made of an unholy mix of flesh and plant. Its heart pumped blood into tree branches that weren''t meant to receive it and left its feeble body. Its head was a deformed mix of orc, human, and drow. Void Energy ran in its malformed limbs. Shen''s True Self was wrapped in the center, held firmly by Darla''s Realization, Denied permission to expand and become one with the vessel.
Darla Denied that body while also Denying Shen''s connection to anyone else. Then, she used her blood essence to produce a new body.
Shen was remade as a drow in his mid-twenties. He was tall, his body was well-toned, and his long white hair and eyes contrasted with his dark skin. Darla would be interested in taking a piece of him if he weren''t so young¡ªand he didn''t have her blood.
"I need to go," Darla told the Queen as soon as the process was over. Less than a second had passed, and she was already feeling the strains of keeping a True Self from its body.
The Queen held her baby in her arms, feeding her milk. She was an ugly yet cute little thing, the little high elf. Mother and father looked at her with boundless love.
"Lariel," the Queen said without taking her eyes off the girl. "She''ll be called Lariel."
"Not to be a heartless bitch," Darla replied, "but I really need to go. I can''t keep the True Self from integrating with the body for too long, and we need the Gardener to stop Shen from dying when he synchronizes with a strange body¡ªand gains a human soul in the process." Reality wouldn''t give him a drow-tuned soul just because Darla had changed his body.
"You shouldn''t have lied to the little one," the Queen replied, being an obnoxious bitch. "She has a good heart. She''ll never forgive you."
"Good thing I don''t care about a Youngling''s forgiveness," Darla replied. "Give me the baby or take her back to the Alliance. I''m leaving."
The Queen sighed, kissed Lariel''s forehead¡ªpainfully slowly¡ªgave the child to be kissed by the draggor, who also kissed her, then reluctantly offered it to Darla.
Darla enveloped the kid in her Realization and left with her and Shen.
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Darla was willing to do a lot for Shen because he was drow, and she wouldn''t let Reality mess with him like that. Yet, she wasn''t willing to risk another meeting with the Gardener, especially not after adding more blood essence into Shen than she had said and bringing a surprise.
She was pretty sure the ridiculously kind guy wouldn''t let the baby die, but that didn''t mean he wouldn''t kill Darla for bringing politics to his World Tree. The Gardener didn''t offer asylum to anyone, and that''s what the Queen''s baby represented.
So, Darla stopped in front of the two bronze colossi guarding the World Tree and left Shen and the baby there without a word. The two were surrounded by a cocoon of her Realization that would disintegrate in a few seconds.
Then, she immediately fled the hell away from there.
She was twenty universes away when the Gardener found the two people, grabbed her Realization through Spacetime, and would''ve killed her through it if she didn''t Deny herself and cut that part of her from her essence¡ªand almost from Reality itself. Without her Path''s high purity, that would''ve been impossible. But it worked. The Gardener would need to come to kill her personally, but he never left his World Tree.
A few hours later, she was confident he wouldn''t make an exception for her. She was relatively safe. She had paid a high price; the drop of blood essence had weakened Darla during a Void Tide, and hastening its replenishment would be expensive, but her plans had succeeded.
Now, for the final step.
She Denied herself all knowledge of what she had just done and went on with her life.
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Shen woke up with the worst headache of his life.
Yet, he was elated. Pain meant he was alive.
He had survived!
He embraced the pain like an old lover and opened his eyes to check what new adventures awaited him.
His eyes refused to obey. His soul burned in agony and sheer wrongness.
He fainted.
384. Multiple Reasons
Shen swung the ax one last time. The horizontal V cut on the tree''s trunk was deep enough. What remained could no longer support the tree. The thick, tall, mighty oak fell sideways.
He barely noticed the plant''s passage right by his shoulder or the shaking of the ground when it hit the floor. Instead, he was staring at his arms.
His dark blue arms.
And hands.
And body.
Shen had become drow and was struggling to come to terms with it. Humans and drow were very similar, and Shen''s physiology had been even closer. The entire drow race had undergone improvements over the years, which he had surpassed with the special liquid Liya had used on him.
And yet...
Those muscles were not his muscles. That skin elasticity was not his skin elasticity. That blood was not his blood.
His mind knew it; his True Self disagreed.
That gap between True Self and self-perception should be enough to kill him. Yet, here he was. Weak, but relatively well. Aware.
Alive.
He sighed deeply and raised his ax. He had logs to deliver.
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The Gardener was tending to his small garden beside a simple wooden hut in the middle of the endless forest. The man''s skin was golden, and his blue eyes were the gentlest Shen had ever seen. They were so warm as they stared at the seven little yellow flowers beside the seven white ones that Shen doubted it was genuine.
Just as he doubted the man cared as much for Shen as his eyes suggested when he looked up.
"Ah!" the Gardener said with a bright smile. His long white beard and simple black robe added to a visage of kindness.
Shen couldn''t accept any of it as real. No one could reach A-rank while maintaining that selflessness¡ªand any who became kind later would leave signs of their past that were absent in the man. And Shen was sure the Gardener was A-rank. He had to be. Shen''s senses were muddled, but he was confident he could feel the old guy''s Realization around him, not just a domain.
"The firewood has arrived," the man continued as he stood up, cleaning his dirty hands on his average-looking black robe. "How was it? Did swinging an ax help with getting used to your new body?"
Instead of answering, Shen asked, "How am I alive?"
The Gardener''s smile became even kinder, with a hint of pity. "Keep asking, and I might just answer you one day."
"Who saved me?" Shen asked.
The man shook his head. "That, I''m afraid, is a secret I''ll bring to the grave."
Always the same answers. Never any anger at being confronted. Only patient benevolence.
"It helped," Shen said with a sigh, dropping the logs he was carrying on the ground. They dissipated into light as if teleported away by the system¡ªexcept he couldn''t access the system, so it wasn''t around. "It won''t be enough. I feel like I''m wearing a stranger''s flesh suit on my soul."
"I''m almost done with my research," the Gardener said. "I was prepared to help a human, not a drow. That wasn''t in the agreement."
"Which agreement?" Shen asked and received only an amused smile in answer.
Shen knew the drow were involved with his survival¡ªthat much was self-evident. He also knew he should never, ever get in contact with them. That was the first thing the Gardener had told him.
"Your powerful enemies don''t know where you are¡ªdon''t say their names, don''t even think about it if you can help it. And don''t let them find you through your connections. It''ll only cause everyone involved to suffer their ire."
Shen didn''t doubt the man. Shen should be dead. He didn''t know if Valentina had died, but if so, the Primordials would be pissed. He would investigate when he had the chance.
For now, the irony of his situation wasn''t lost on him. By turning him drow, whoever had done that had ensured he couldn''t approach the drow ever again.
Isolated from everyone and everything he knew, Shen felt utterly alone. It was like waking up in a distant future. However, he had thought his people were around back then and had quickly distracted himself in the tutorial. Now, he was aware of his situation. It made everything worse.
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Shen was so lost in his thoughts that he didn''t feel the Gardener approach; he only felt the man''s warm and firm hands on his shoulder. "A few more weeks, I promise," the A-rank said. "They used the blood of a very special drow when saving you. Nullifying their power on your feeble body when it''s so linked to their blood is a greater challenge than expected. It''s not a matter of overwhelming the blood''s power but affecting it in a precise way, or you''ll die."
"Why are you helping me?" Shen asked for the thousandth time this past month.
He got the same answer for the thousandth time. "Why not?" the Gardener asked with a big smile.
Shen sighed. Anything he answered would be countered with a "that doesn''t matter to me." Using resources and time on someone he didn''t know didn''t matter to the Gardener. Risking the ire of the Primordials didn''t make him tremble. For all that Shen could tell, the Gardener legitimately was trying to help him with no ulterior motive.
"I''m a bit egoistical," the golden man said as he removed his hand and returned to his little garden. "Helping you will help me advance my power." He never admitted to having a Realization, but he gave enough hints, like this one. "Turn at least half the tree you fell into logs. Then we can work on your legs."
Shen asked, "Why do that if you''re doing some research that''ll fix me for good?"
"Multiple reasons. Seeing your True Self working helps me with the research. Giving you tasks helps you not get lost in self-pity." A hint of playfulness appeared in his eyes. "And your questions are too annoying. I''d rather focus on my research than answer them. Did you walk the ten kilometers I asked you to before felling a tree?"
Shen sighed, turned, and returned to the fallen tree ten kilometers away.
? ?
? ?
"He''s dying," an old lady said as she watched Shen run in circles around the clearing where the house and garden were.
She had the same golden skin as the Gardener and wore colorful loose pants and shirt. The two of them were sitting on stools, each made of half one of the logs Shen had brought. She didn''t lower her voice as she talked to the Gardener, allowing Shen to hear everything.
"It does seem so," the Gardener agreed calmly.
"I told you she''d screw you up," the lady replied. "That one was too pure, too blended with Reality. She''s being used by Reality without realizing it, and Reality was done with this boy. It wants him gone like trash."
Shen skipped a step and almost fell. Those words all but confirmed that Darla was involved with saving him. She was the person with the purest Path he knew, and he was drow now.
Was it her blood that he had inside him? But she was B-rank. How could her blood be too strong for an A-rank to deal with?
As for Reality using then discarding him...
The Gardener''s answer explained Shen''s feelings well. "We aren''t inside Reality; we are Reality," he said. "Our individual Wills are as much Reality''s Will as our own, for all comes from it, the same Will. The matter we are made of is Reality made manifest. The Space we occupy is the same Space that is Reality. And we are Change; as much as our body uses and discards cells at will, so does Reality. What use is there in resenting a body for using its cells?"
Shen hated Reality. Yet, Shen was part of Reality and wouldn''t destroy it. He could only accept he had been used and move on.
Maybe when he became Absolutely Powerful, though...
"Don''t you go philosophical on me, you old fog!" the lady replied. "You''re just playing nice for the boy. Boy, you''re dying, and Reality is a bitch. Your master also hates¡ª"
"That will be enough," the Gardener said. His voice was soft, almost a whisper. The woman widened her eyes and immediately shut up. So, there was some fire in the kind man''s heart. Or rather, that should be his true face. "Strong feelings will only hasten his decay, and the solution still eludes me. You know how I feel about anyone messing with those under my care."
Her eyes widened even more. "You make it sound as if you didn''t..."
"I did not. I shall not take him as a disciple. That is all you need to know."
? ?
? ?
Shen woke up all sweaty. He didn''t feel bad, but he knew something was wrong. The blood he was sweating was enough of a sign, as was how silent he had been this past two months¡ªand how even more silent he became as the weeks passed. Except for questions, he had little to say and didn''t much care about getting answers or not.
He was dying, and today might be it.
The small bed in the small cabin was comfortable but not overly so. He slowly stood up, his muscles aching as they hadn''t while he exercised. He left the building to find the Gardener carefully picking the last of the fourteen flowers he had carefully cultivated for the past months.
"They were for my grave all along, weren''t they?" Shen asked.
The Gardener smiled kindly. "The old Shen has to die for the new Shen to be born. How convenient that after the Baptism of Self and the Will-Path Merging Ritual comes the Baptism of Unmaking, isn''t it?" He chuckled. "I won''t offer to become your master because I don''t take rejections well, and you''re too distrustful to accept I''m what I show you. But let me tell you one of the greatest secrets I ever learned: it''s all in the details. Don''t believe what people or even Reality itself tell you about others or themselves. Or even what you tell yourself. Look at the little things. You were molded into something that was destined to die, yet if you survived, you also had the tools to keep living. The blood inside you made things considerably harder, but I got it. You were used, but no one owes you anything. You can start anew, unbound by any old schemes. Do so."
"Will I still be me after I''m... Unmade?" Shen asked.
"Yes and no. Think of it as being born anew into a new version of yourself. The entire process depends on you; I''ll have no influence over it at all. Whatever you become will be what you decide for yourself. And you can just give up and die at any time if you think it''s better than becoming something else."
Shen''s body was bleeding profusely by now.
His limbs were melting.
"Do it," he said¡ª
Shen woke up as he felt his body fall. It lasted a single moment. Then, he was submersed into pure water.
A Realization reached deep into him and separated every piece of his existence into tiny bits.
His consciousness floated over his body, but he saw only the individual parts of his True Self, the bits of essence that made him who he was. He could put them together however he wanted. He could get rid of anything he wanted.
Unmaking himself was a way of refining himself.
But his mind could also see the endless orange skies above the ocean of pure water where his body was, and tribulation clouds were gathering. He could remake himself, but that would offend the Heavens, and they were ready to demand a price for it.
He began.
? ?
385. Who Am I
"Who am I?"
That question had surrounded Shen''s Path from the very beginning. His identity was always at the core of his self. And now, as he looked at the untangled bits of his True Self that looked like specks of light filled with meaning he could garner at a glance, he had to change that.
He had to cease being human.
But was it worth it to change something so vital about himself to survive? Could that be considered living? Then again, walking a Path meant changing in some ways. Was changing his body really too much when it was just the vessel for his Will to be accomplished?
Shen didn''t decide at once. He kept glancing at the bits of his whole. To see his True Self laid so bare before him was... humbling. He was so small. So insignificant. Comparing this... soul dust to the strength he had felt and the truths he had glimpsed when fighting Valentina showed how absolutely far he was from absolute power.
By taking his time, he realized something interesting. He couldn''t make his drow identity part of himself. He could only remove his racial identity from his True Self.
This Baptism of Unmaking was about removing things. No matter what he removed, he would be temporarily weakened because part of himself would be lost, and his True Self was a comprehensive whole. Every part depended on every part. Removing anything meant restructuring everything.
It was a chance to change anything he disliked about himself. Refinement¡ªat a cost. Not to mention the Heavens above still awaited.
Shen didn''t know how much time he wondered about what to do. He was confident that he wouldn''t even be able to consider letting go of his humanity without this Baptism. Even the Baptism couldn''t make the decision easy, though.
He stared at his humanity. Why did he value it? Why was it so important?
By being human¡ªand with his old body¡ªhe had been living proof of the sacrifices his parents had made for him. His mother had died because of him. His father had sacrificed his honor and life for him. Giving up on his humanity felt like giving up on that. It was an enormous dishonor, a form of filial unpiety that would hurt him to do.
Yet, wouldn''t his death also dishonor his parents? What would they rather happen: for him to die for his human identity or to keep living as something else? A modern commoner might not understand how hard the question was. Blood and ancestry were a fundamental part of the Eternal Empire''s culture. Shen couldn''t know what his parents would truly have wanted.
That, however, led him to the next consideration: the Eternal Empire.
His human identity was closely linked to the Eternal Empire. Humanity itself had been modified with human genes so he could live. He and humankind had an inseparable connection. To let go of his identity was to spit on the DNA they had sacrificed for him.
Humanity had changed their identity a little for him, and now he was deciding whether to depart from them.
His sense of honor flared at the thought. He couldn''t do that. And yet... He could. He wasn''t bound by his True Self during this Baptism of Unmaking. His honor might make him irate or even suicidal after removing his humanity, but only after the Baptism.
Should he also ignore that part of himself now, though? He believed in it. Deeply. Still, his current sense of detachment made him struggle to see exactly why.
Shen realized this Baptism was also a test. He might Unmake his whole self if he weren''t careful¡ªif his True Self didn''t withstand the test of the Baptism.
As interesting as that was, the question remained: why was his humanity important?
It wasn''t.
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Not for him. Not personally. It was important because of how it was connected to the people he cared about and his past. He had already abandoned the Eternal Empire. Getting rid of his last connection to it felt right, even. As for his parents...
They weren''t around, were they?
Submerged in water, Shen''s body cried.
Ironically, now, unburdened by all the expectations of his True Self and the weight of his Path, while trying to decide whether to abandon his humanity, Shen found himself also submersed in raw, stupid human emotion. For he resented his parents for not being there for him.
His mother had had no choice; she had been murdered. But his father hadn''t. The man had chosen to deceive his son and be absent.
Shen would rather have died in his father''s warm embrace than have to decide whether to shed away his humanity to keep on living.
He cried for a few minutes, and then that feeling became distant. The more time he spent in that state, the more he became disconnected from his True Self. Evidently, if another half hour or so passed, he would be permanently gone, unable to return to the parts of himself that anchored his essence to his floating mind.
Maybe that detachment was the reason he managed to do what he did next. Maybe not. He would never know.
Shen willed his humanity to be removed from his True Self.
It felt like grabbing a rib with a plier and slowly pulling it out. His entire being screamed. And before he could overcome the sensation, the Heavens trembled, and golden lightning fell from the skies.
It hit not Shen''s remaining self but the speck he had just removed. It was instantly erased, and then tiny electric arcs kept traveling into him. They burned whenever they passed, and every memory Shen had ever had of being human was burned from him. Every part of his existence directly connected to that identity disappeared. A moment later, he couldn''t even recall the race''s name. Or rather, he couldn''t, but he couldn''t tell which of the races he recalled had been him.
He still recalled friends he had had, and they could identify his former race if he ever met them and convinced them he was him. However, any clue that might make him figure it out by himself disappeared.
And then, he forgot he had ever had another race¡ªtalking to those people would be really awkward in the future.
The pain was even worse as Heavenly Lightning coursed through his True Self. His mind was ravaged, and the Heavens weren''t kind. This wasn''t a Tribulation as he had feared, but the Heavens wouldn''t allow him any half-measures. If he decided to Unmake himself, they would ensure it was thorough.
He couldn''t start to guess why the Heavens would be involved, but it all but confirmed the Gardener was A-rank. His Realization still surrounded Shen, and no B-rank could possibly be involved in a ritual that was struck by Heavenly Lightning and just keep going.
After the lightning was done burning him, something shifted in his True Self. A heavy strain simply disappeared. Suddenly, Shen felt absurdly lighter. He didn''t recall what he had removed, but it had been important, and it felt right.
He was already safe, but he grabbed his Truth of Limit and threw it far away from him.
Shen had been deceived in the Ritual of Will-Merging. He hadn''t had the time to think, with a clear conscience, of what Truth to add to himself. His Truth had worked, but now, he could see it was quite poorly so. His Will was Absolute Power. It was never meant to be limited.
Golden lightning fell from the sky, and he forgot what Limit he had had.
There was an imbalance in his new True Self because it was meant for three counter-weights, but it didn''t last long. Shen didn''t remove his Law of True Boundlessness from himself, but he took away its position as a Core Belief of his True Self.
Golden lightning fell, and he forgot he had ever had a third concept holding his True Self together. Then, the second one.
Shen only knew his True Self with a single point of focus, his Will, was special, but not how.
His entire being was hurting by then. Three Heavenly lightning bolts was his limit¡ªand maybe another hidden test in the Baptism of Unmaking; one had to decide very carefully what to remove from oneself.
Still, Shen looked at his essence for a while. He analyzed everything. He saw things that could be improved by removing other things, but nothing major. Nothing that demanded him to redefine his identity.
So, he grabbed his True Self with his willpower and reassembled it the way it should be.
His Will was at the very core but also permeated everything. A thick shell of Honor surrounded it, though. It didn''t counter-balance his Will of Absolute Power, but it would filter it. Power for power''s sake felt wrong even to his detached mind. Power was dangerous if sought or gained the wrong way.
Then came almost everything else.
And thus, Shen was remade.
Red lightning fell from the skies. One, two, three¡ªthe same number of changes he had made.
As the first one struck, he forgot he had made any changes. As the second one struck, he forgot what a Baptism of Unmaking even was. As the third one struck, he forgot himself.
The next moment, a twenty-four-year-old male drow woke up naked in a wheat field.
He knew only three things: he was called Shen, he liked spears, and he had three years to figure out who he was, or the electricity he felt in his heart would kill him.
The next instant, he knew two new things: he was arrogant, and he would figure things out in a manner of weeks to months.
He stood up, saw smoke in the distance, and purposefully walked its way.
386. Great One
A soft wind blew on the wheat field and whispered to Shen. He closed his eyes and felt it on his skin. It caressed him gently, getting into his long white hair, enveloping his hairless limbs, and moving on.
Then, Shen was the Gentle Breeze.
He became one with it, losing himself in the freedom of becoming the Wind itself. He instinctively knew it was risky, but he didn''t mind much. He was the Gentle Breeze, and denying himself now felt wrong.
He rose above the wheat and joined the slow wind currents skies. He moved toward the smoke in the distance, soon overseeing the small town of no more than a few thousand inhabitants. The buildings were made of stone blocks, and the city was surrounded by a thick wall of the same material. The medieval look felt out of place, though Shen couldn''t pinpoint why.
Words and knowledge flowed through his mind every second, defining the world around him. Wheat, wind, stone, town. However, a blockade appeared as he tried to understand why a medieval town would be out of place. It had to do with something grander. Larger. Something he couldn''t even conceptualize but knew should matter.
He didn''t dwell on it. He blew away and soon reached the town. He flew over its tall walls and materialized in the middle of the city.
It was late morning, and every man was out in the fields surrounding the city. Everyone there was a drownoid with bronze skin, almost human but with a metallic sheen. They wore traditional robes and were all cultivators. Yet, none bore a single weapon.
The thought made Shen frown.
A weapon.
He missed feeling one in his hands, though he couldn''t recall ever holding one.
The clothes and architecture were also mismatched, and Shen could tell why that was the case. Cultivators seldom allowed themselves to dwell in ugly places. To pursue eternal life and boundless power was to sublimate oneself into a superior existence. A greater being was meant to exist in a greater place; their very presence should engrand their surroundings. That happened both spiritually and physically. Moreover, a long life was meant to be lived in a nice place, not in such a boorish town.
A cultivator might not care about how they presented themselves or materialistic matters, but they were not swine. Even a beggar by choice would beg in the shadows of grand constructions, not in the middle of some blocks of grey stone. To cultivate was also to experience the world through newer lens with one''s every breath, and there was nothing to experience in that place but a lack of creativity. It might give one perspective for a few days, but no cultivator would stay there more than necessary.
Shen transitioned from Gentle Breeze into drow in a public square. It was the waiting room outside a castle''s walls. The castle itself had a massive training ground where a few dozen female cultivators were training their martial arts. Any male in the city was a child, as the young and adults worked the fields.
The lack of old people told some tale, though Shen couldn''t fully grasp the implications.
A few females, also in cultivator robes, were walking around, doing various chores, and gasped when they saw Shen just appear in the plaza. One of them screamed. It attracted the attention of anyone within range...
...and the old one sleeping deep underground.
The training females came running from the castle grounds and shouted something at him. Shen ignored them. He stared down at the old one, awaiting their move.
He felt them as soon as they focused on him, and now his eyes could see beyond the material plane. He saw things in Concepts and Laws and felt feedback from Laws he couldn''t even name. The physical barriers meant little to him up to a vast range around him.
The old one trembled under his stare and turned into flames that ran through a series of holes until they materialized back into a physical body inside the castle. Then, they rushed toward Shen.
The lady was older than the city. Her bronze skin was dark and charred, evidence of both her two Concepts of Fire and age. Shen couldn''t name those people''s race but had noticed their skin became darker as they grew older. Her eyes were violet, her hair had fallen, and her lips were black.
She cupped her fits before herself and bowed deeply to Shen.
"(!*&@¡§#!@(*!(%!)@@," she said, and Shen didn''t understand a word.
Yet, her words, and maybe her gesture, made the surrounding people agitated. The martial artists who had been shouting angrily at him widened their eyes and also bowed low. The passerbies got to their knees, evidently being of a lower status than the fighters. Everyone was at least in the Meridian Clearing realm, and some kneelers were more powerful than the ones who had been training, yet not every cultivator was the same in that place.
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"Do you speak this language?" Shen replied in the most widespread language he knew, though he couldn''t name it. It was connected to that grand "thing" he couldn''t remember.
The old lady''s eyes widened, and she trembled slightly. She and everyone around immediately prostrated themselves around Shen.
"Great One," she said in the language he knew. "We small town has nothing to offer to Great One. Please spare us."
He started noticing her better. Not just her movements but also what they meant. Her soul trembled in fear, and her surface thoughts were laid bare to him. She would do almost anything to get him to leave the city without bloodshed.
The seven cultivation realms were Initiate, Meridian Clearing, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Fate Origin, Ethereal Harmonization, and Destiny Realization. The lady was at Core Formation, the fourth one. For her to become Fire itself in that realm was an outstanding achievement, but it spoke more of her techniques than her power or her understanding of the Laws of Reality. Shen, however, knew no such methods. Thus, she was lying. She did have something to offer him.
Yet Shen frowned, for he realized he would not take it from her by force.
That was also part of himself. She had done him no harm; thus, to harm her for personal gain would be against his beliefs. It would feel wrong.
Morality limited his actions.
"I''m interested in the technique you showed to move from your resting place," Shen replied. "Don''t worry, I won''t injure anyone who doesn''t give me a reason to." The woman''s soul trembled harder at his words. He didn''t fully understand why, but he felt it had something to do with how vague he had been. "I''m a believer in... private property and... responsible almost-free speech." The concepts were ingrained in him, part of his core of ethics. "And intent. I won''t steal what isn''t mine or take offense at innocent remarks from someone from a different culture¡ªas long as they''re indeed innocent."
She calmed slightly at that. She was still tense and doubted him, but there was hope in her heart. She used most of that hope to bark commands at the people around her, then held her breath as everyone got to their knees and left while still bowing toward him.
She was both sending them away for their safety and testing his boundaries.
Shen sighed. "I have no patience for ploys and schemes; that would offend me." The lady seemed ready to try to flee but held her position. "Are you willing to trade knowledge or not?"
The word "trade" calmed her more than anything until now. Shen was surprised when he understood why. Talk was cheap; actions spoke louder than words. He might claim not to be a thief, yet steal something under some guise all the same. The word "trade" might also be a guise, but it was unlikely because he was asking her whether she would engage in it or not.
Not that she would dare not to engage in it, obviously.
"We gift Great One technique," she replied. "Great One pay with bringing we niece to Halagaskar."
"Halagaskar?" Shen asked.
"Province capital, Great One. We honest, technique not impressive to Great One, but impressive to we lowly ones in near cities. Great One need not pay. We ask price because Great One demanded we give one."
Her broken speech was slightly annoying, as was the scheming. She evidently wanted him to leave the city and was risking her niece''s life to accomplish it.
Why she thought Shen would cease to be a threat after he left was a big mystery, but he decided to go with it. Getting somewhere bigger¡ªand, hopefully, less ugly¡ªshould help more with his journey of self-discovery than wasting time in this place with people who didn''t want him there.
It would be respectful to leave, and he found he liked that word and everything it stood for. Respect. They were showing him enough respect despite the little scheme. They didn''t know him, and it was natural for them to be distrustful. He would respect them in return.
"Very well," he agreed.
"Niece coming, Great One," she said, relieved. "Technique also."
It took the girl only a few minutes to arrive. She was a pretty one, all things considered, tall and thin, but with well-endowed mammaries and backside, unlike most women around. The old one had not picked that niece randomly. Drownoid races often valued big assets for their most instinctive meanings¡ªgood breeding prospects.
The young adult''s metallic bronze skin was eerie, though, as were her fully red eyes and green hair. She was not aesthetically pleasing to him.
The girl wore a white robe with red flowers and held a single scroll in her hands, which she presented to Shen while bowing. Her robe was loose, and the gesture showed a lot of her skin through the excessively wide opening on top.
"Niece not speak ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª," the old lady said. Shen didn''t hear the language''s name because the lightning in his heart acted up and deafened him momentarily. He would research¡ªand maybe get rid of¡ªit as soon as this exchange was over. "She slave if you want. Good breeder, Great One. Sacrifice, too. Good flesh and blood, young one, unmarred. If not want her, bring her Halagaskar. She know where go there."
The suggestion that Shen would own a sex slave was as bad as the fact that the lady thought he would sacrifice someone for who-knows-why. "Good flesh and blood"? What did that even mean?
The lack of old people in the city suddenly felt very eery. He also wondered if they expected something bad to happen to him if he took their offer and copulated with the girl.
He regretted making the deal to bring her elsewhere, but going back on it now would feel disrespectful.
"Does she know the way to Halagaskar?" he asked, ignoring the scroll still being presented to him.
"Yes, Great One."
"Good," he replied and took the scroll.
He opened it and was unsurprised when he didn''t understand the language. It was long, filled with drawings of a cultivator practicing martial moves and how they should circulate their qi internally. He doubted it would work for him, as his species was too different, but it looked interesting enough, and he might be able to develop something based on it. He had gotten it on a whim, anyway.
Shen grabbed the girl with his Gentle Breeze and moved both her and him high into the skies. "Point the way," he ordered.
The old lady had lied to him; her entire self had revealed it. The girl did know how to speak the language he was speaking. If she made things too hard for him by pretending to be dumb, he would just put her on the ground and leave. He wouldn''t be bound by respect toward someone acting in bad faith against him.
She only pretended not to understand once¡ªand maybe she really hadn''t heard him; she was distracted by the marvel of flight.
He pointed at a random direction and repeated, "Point the way." She pretended to be slightly confused, said a word in her language, and when he nodded, pointed to her right.
He flew that way.
387. Incomplete
They weren''t flying very fast, but it was still beyond what anyone would consider a Gentle Breeze. He recognized he could do so because he wasn''t bound by some limits as others might be. He was Truly Boundless, and it affected the Laws under his command.
He ignored the implications of lacking boundaries for now and focused on the electricity in his heart. That thing affected how he interacted with the world, and thus, it controlled him in a way. He tried to reach for it¡ª
He found pain. A pain that filled his every cell and threatened to break his mind. Pain from a higher order, from the very Heavens, demanding him to obey the rules or be killed.
He was to bend or be broken.
Shen was surprised to find he had to think about what to do¡ªat least as much as he could think as the pain overwhelmed his senses. His survival instincts didn''t automatically win. Bending didn''t come naturally to him.
Accepting a leash went against his core beliefs.
Thus, he chose to break.
He grabbed the lightning with his Will and tried to push it out of his body¡ª
His mind cracked, and he fainted.
? ?
? ?
Shen woke up. His mind hadn''t shattered into smithereens; lightning filled the crack it had caused. Evidently, the Heavens would keep him alive during this... tribulation?
Yes, he realized; he was undergoing a Heavenly Tribulation.
His mind was part of his soul; thus, he had to find a way to heal himself before the tribulation was over. He didn''t know if the Heavens would heal him after the tribulation, but he felt ill-disposed towards the Heavens right now. He didn''t know why, but he knew he shouldn''t leave his life to the Heavens'' whims.
The lightning perfectly filled the crack in his mind, so he should be thinking straight. Yes, he wasn''t. He was ever-so-slightly dazed, and a sweet smell filled his nose. He could see the world''s Laws through his closed eyelids and wasn''t surprised to find the bronze-skinned girl naked on top of him.
Her body shone like a beacon to his senses, qi circulating in a specific pattern that felt hungry to him. Her technique filled the air with Conceptual aphrodisiacs, something Shen was confident shouldn''t be possible. It was impressive. Concepts of different Laws came from her, all trying to pierce Shen''s... Path.
Yes, he had a Path.
The Concepts tried to pierce through the inexistent seams of his Path and get a grip on him. At the same time, her body released biological substances that should make the dead aroused. Unfortunately for her, Shen...
Shen walked a True Path.
His instincts wouldn''t go against him, and he wouldn''t bed an unknown woman, much less that one. That likely saved his life. He had seen nothing wrong inside her before, but now he glimpsed Void Energy in her uterus. Whatever the Void intended would not be beneficial for him.
He slapped her with the back of his hand, and her head exploded. She died, but it created another issue. Her blood dirtied his body.
Lightning was the solution. The Heavenly Lightning in his body whispered to him about purity, and fainting because of it had stirred something in him that he only noticed now. He had Lightning in his Path, too.
Shen willed the Conductivity of his body''s electrical currents to leave his body and burn everything above him into cinders.
Only ashes were left of the corpse.
He stood up and looked around. He had fallen from the skies just a few miles beyond the town''s outermost farmland, the plains that separated the farms from forested hills. No living being was in sight except insects and small animals.
The scroll he had been given was nowhere, but he could infer more ashes nearby were what remained of it. The girl had destroyed it while he was unconscious. So, the old lady hadn''t been willing to part with it. The girl would''ve found a way to get rid of it even if he hadn''t made himself faint.
Speaking of fainting, should he try to remove the Tribulation Lightning from his body again?
No. There were myths and legends of people who overcame the Heavens or turned tribulations into unexpected opportunities, but he wasn''t one of them. Shen knew he was arrogant, but he wasn''t confident in accomplishing that after failing once and already getting his mind injured. He needed to at least heal that damage before attempting anything else.
The leash had come to stay whether he liked it or not.
He looked at the dead girl''s ashes and considered revenge against the old lady for lying about the trade. Was she a greedy asshole who had failed to properly assess his power? Or had she been legitimately terrified of his power and made a mistake?
Ultimately, it didn''t matter; he had to cleanse this place of Void influence.
Shen found he hated the Void. It was a visceral feeling, entrenched deep into his most profound beliefs. He hated it more than he distrusted the Heavens. The Void meant to cease everything, including himself. That couldn''t be allowed.
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He turned in the city''s direction and Conducted himself towards it.
He ran as fast as his Lightning could make him. The air didn''t resist him, for he knew the path of least resistance to keep going. In but a few moments, he was back in the town.
The old lady was surrounded by about two hundred female cultivators in the castle. Another hundred were killing everyone else in the city.
She turned to look at Shen as he approached...
...and died as his hand became a Killing Weapon, bisecting her from head to waist.
Shen couldn''t see Void Energy in the other women, so he tried to feel it instead. He had to be able to expand his rulership over his surroundings; that was only natural for one as arrogant as him. He called for it, and his aura was deployed.
Whatever scheme the old lady had been concocting wasn''t simple. Shen felt Void Energy inside everyone, including the men and women being murdered. There was also what felt like an orb of pure nothingness deep underground, and he guessed this operation was a farm of sorts. The leading women were eating people, turning them into Void Energy, and pushing it into the orb.
Shen killed everyone with a twist of his will on his aura, then left.
Void Energy wasn''t something he could deal with. He would report it to someone else instead. As for pillaging the place? He would rather not be around as a potentially strong supervisor came to check on the town. The old lady called him "Great One," but he was still... C-rank.
C-rank?
There was little to no information about that classification in his mind. For instance, he had no idea who had created that classification or where it was used. He only knew C- and B-ranks represented the two stages of the Ethereal Harmonization Realm. Anything further blocked by Heavenly Lightning.
He could barely infer it was related to that big "thing" he also couldn''t recall, but that was it.
Anyway, he was still C-rank. B-ranks could easily kill him. Because...
Because he also hadn''t mastered any of his True Path''s Laws.
That irked him. Why hadn''t he mastered any Laws? He should be better than this. He would work on it as soon as he figured out how. Power called for him, and he felt like he should pursue it. Not at all costs¡ªas he had refused to steal from the old lady¡ªbut at least more vigorously than he was doing. He didn''t know how old he was but was confident his body was twenty-four. A twenty-four-year-old C-rank without a mastered Law sounded pathetic to him, though he also had no comparison parameters.
He felt incomplete in his weakness, and it sufficed for him to judge himself as lazy and pathetic.
He didn''t like to find out that about himself, but there was no denying who he was. He instinctively knew he could be stronger if he had focused on cultivating before he came here. He refused to believe he hadn''t had the opportunity to cultivate more¡ªnot if he had legitimately sought such opportunities. Instead, he had wasted time on other things¡ªthough, again, he couldn''t recall what.
Anyway, the weak, lazy, pathetic Shen was arrogant, but not enough to stay around. He rushed toward the opposite direction the girl had pointed, believing she had been more likely to point him at a trap than the actual province capital.
? ?
? ?
Killing suited Shen.
He had already felt so when killing those sapient beings, but it hadn''t felt as pleasant as killing the D-rank horned tiger-wolf-like beast that pounced on him. He looked at its dead body for a moment before pulling its horn with Gentle Breeze. He connected it to a long pole he removed from a nearby tree.
The moment he grabbed the makeshift spear, he knew of its Shaft and its Extremity as much as he knew about it being a Killing Weapon.
Almost as importantly, the connection he felt to the spear allowed him to remember qi could be used for more than feeling how strong people were. He had seen the girl do it, but it hadn''t felt personal enough. Just witnessing something wasn''t enough for him to remember who he was.
Qi was the underlying material of the physical realm; metaphysical matter made manifest. Shen willed his qi to enter the spear and make it a perfect whole, and it obeyed.
Horn and wood blended into a substance that was neither and didn''t exist. He could tell doing that weakened the weapon, but he didn''t care. His qi would surround and strengthen the spear if he used it; he only needed it to be a spear.
He searched and killed a few more beasts and realized the enjoyment had significantly decreased. It wasn''t killing that he liked, after all. It was triumphing over his foes. The stronger they were, the better. All these beasts were D-rank, and after killing the first one, the sense of accomplishment was greatly muted.
Killing for killing''s sake didn''t bring joy, but he also wasn''t averse to it. Killing innocent sapients would bother him. Killing irrational animals for fun was also starting to get uncomfortable, though not as much as when it came to sapients; he valued intelligent life more than unintelligent one. But killing, in itself, wasn''t an issue; the target was.
Shen took to the skies and checked his surroundings. There was no smoke anywhere, but the vast sea to the East called to him. He could learn something about himself there.
He returned to the ground¡ªas he would be an easy target if a pursuing B-rank searched for him¡ªand started jogging towards the sea.
? ?
? ?
Stream.
The word and Law came to his mind as soon as he stepped on the beach''s sand and witnessed the ebb and flow of the ocean. Or rather, when he saw the undercurrents below sea level, the Stream of Water occupied by countless fish as they went about their daily lives.
Figuring out the seventh¡ªand last¡ªof his Path''s Law sent a shudder through his body and soul. The world felt more solid. More real. He felt there, more connected, more anchored. His mind became less cloudy, his thoughts more focused.
He also recalled something. He had lived something like this once before with his Concepts. Dealing with Laws this time was ridiculously easier because of his True... Path?
No, his True Self.
Shen didn''t know what a True Self was, but it was better and more whole than a True Path. Truer, too. His True Self must''ve been why the girl hadn''t managed to infiltrate his Path and absorb him.
Alas, he also became aware that his Will was part of his True Self, and the next stage of this tribulation would only be complete after he figured out what his Will was.
Shen felt it had something to do with beating his opponents. He would have to find some to test his theory. That made finding civilization even more important¡ªas if reporting the Void Energy wasn''t already crucial.
He frowned at that thought. Although he hated the Void, he had focused more on himself instead of reporting the Void Energy. The potential consequences of delaying such a report hadn''t mattered as much as himself.
He didn''t like to find out how self-centered he was.
Shen sighed, took to the skies¡ªuncaring whether an enemy B-rank would see him, for reporting the Void was that important, now that he thought about it¡ªand flew at maximum speed in a random direction.
It took him but a moment to find a city that spanned dozens of miles to all directions.
Hundreds of cultivators flew around the city, but except for the occasional curious glance, none seemed to care much about him. The city''s ruler disagreed with that nonchalance, though. A mile before Shen crossed the city''s tall walls, six armored and armed C-ranks flew from the city walls to meet him, all wearing capes with the same coat of arms as a few flags visible throughout the city.
388. Desire For Violence
The first thing Pagarti noticed about the newcomer was his glassy eyes. They were white, like his long hair, and contrasted beautifully with his dark bluish skin. Yet, they weren''t entirely present. They lacked life like someone recently turned into a vampire: someone with an identity crisis who, thus, couldn''t center themselves and their Path into their new existence. The dark elf¡ªat least, Pargarti thought that was a dark elf; he had never seen one¡ªwas no vampire, but he was not fully there either.
Technically, he could be a vampire; an unknown technique shrouded his path. But his body felt fully alive to Pagarti''s senses and, more importantly, the city''s sensors. If a vampire could fool them, they would be considerably less overt about their approach. The city would be theirs in a matter of months.
The sensors couldn''t see the dark elf''s Path or soul, but they could detect his qi¡ªthus, his power¡ªand some minute traces that determined he was a Dominator at the Law Refining Realm. Up close, Pagarti could feel the signs of a Dominator.
The dark elf didn''t just float on the skies. He demanded the surrounding world bow to him by his mere presence. Even with his domain kept to his body, he felt different from the average Law Refining cultivator¡ªat least to those who knew what to look for, and any Defender in Talon City did.
A Dominator meant a risk to their Lord and, thus, danger to them all.
"Esteemed One," the unit leader said respectfully, cupping his hands before himself and bowing his head slightly to the dark elf. "I''m Univari, Vice-Captain of Talon City''s Defenders. Our Lord has invited you to his residence for a meeting."
The dark elf looked confused, then asked, using Stangue, "Do you speak this language?"
Hearing Stangue made everyone in the unit alarmed. They pulsated their qi in a specific pattern to warn those on the ground that an Outsider was upon them.
Usually, it was anyone''s guess what a visitor from the Alliance would bring, but the stories about them doing evil were considerably more numerous than any tales of good. Talon City had it even worse. Only a few years ago, their own Lord almost died at an Outsider''s hands. They had triumphed in the end, but not unscathed. They had yet to find a way to remove the previous Outsider''s Path from their body, thus preventing them from regrowing their lost arm. To this date, they were expecting retaliation from the fallen Outsider''s friends.
"We do speak it, Esteemed One," Univari said. "Did you recently arrive from the Alliance?"
The elf''s eyes lost all shine when the Alliance was mentioned. It almost looked like he had died for a moment. Light returned to his eyes as soon as Univari ceased saying "Alliance."
Pagarti wasn''t the only one to notice the signs of mind control, and it almost sent him into a panic. The likelihood of this dark elf being a slave sent to test the waters against their Lord before someone acted increased by the second. Who knew who the Outsider who had died years ago knew in the Alliance? Who knew whether they would seek revenge?
"Maybe," the dark elf replied. "I lost most of my memories. I''m looking to figure out my Will." His honesty was impressive. Most would lie one way or another.
Univari didn''t comment on it. "I see. I''m Univari, Vice-Captain of Talon City''s Defenders," he repeated, this time in Stangue. "Our Lord has invited you to his residence for a meeting."
"Can your Lord help me figure out my Will?"
"I''m but a D-rank, Esteemed One," Univari replied, using the ugly Alliance classification. "I wouldn''t assume the means of C-ranks."
"I''d like you to assume," the dark elf insisted.
His insistence was soft-spoken. He didn''t move threateningly or even hint at the price of refusing him. Yet, the world moved. Dominators rarely cared to rein in their influence over their surroundings. Still, the world was theirs to command, and intense emotions blended from their Path into the surroundings and could be analyzed if one knew what to look for.
The dark elf''s emotions were filled with one thing only: the desire for violence.
Pagarti resisted the instinct to unsheath his sword. He knew it would do him no good against a Law Refining cultivator, but the naked blade would comfort him. More than just firmly gripping the handle, at least, as he was already doing.
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Most of the others also controlled themselves, but Alivini didn''t. He was the youngest in the unit and had likely never felt such bloodlust¡ªnot in the form of the world itself whispering it to him through the technique that could read a Dominator''s influence over their surroundings. It was... unique. Direct. Raw.
The boy panicked, unsheathed his sword, and for a moment, Pagarti thought he would pay for it.
The dark elf stared at Alivini, yet Pagarti could feel a terrifying Will paying close attention to him and likely everyone in the unit¡ªmaybe the city. Pagarti felt naked under the Dominator''s scrutiny. Until now, the dark elf had looked at but clearly dismissed them as unthreatening. Now, he stared into their very souls to determine how dangerous they were to his safety.
Recognition, surprise, and derision filled the dark elf''s eyes for a single moment. Then, everything was gone. His eyes became glossy again.
He looked away from Alivini, deciding the boy wasn''t worth his time. Relief flooded through the boy, who could no longer hold his bowels, and an acrid odor filled the air.
"I accept your Lord''s invitation," the dark elf said. "Lead the way."
"Yes, Esteemed One," Vice-Captain Univari replied.
"Not you," the dark elf said, then pointed at Prgarti. "The C-rank."
Prgarti frowned for a moment, and then, he was no more. Locked memories and power surfaced. His false arm disappeared.
"Few can see through my guise," Lord Pagarti declared as his subjects'' eyes widened in surprise and his backs bent in a bow.
The dark elf raised an eye at the bowing people. "Are you the Lord?"
Pagarti didn''t hide his displeasure at the way the Outsider spoke. He didn''t like the idea of facing another Outsider¡ªhis shoulder still hurt where the alien Path had gone through to infect his entire body¡ªbut he wouldn''t be looked down upon in his own city.
"I am," he said proudly.
"I want to fight strong people." He stared at Pagarti''s missing limb. "Do you think you''d become stronger with your arm?"
Pagarti became positively upset. A missing limb was humiliating enough, but outright talking about it before him was a great offense!
Yet, before he could say anything, the dark elf said, "I guess there''s no harm in trying."
Then, he released his aura¡ªhe was an Aura Master, too! A moment later, the alien Path in Pagarti''s body was crushed into nothingness.
Pagarti''s mind took a long time to accept what had just happened. Even as his arm instinctively started regrowing and his people gasped, he could only stare dumbfounded at the dark elf.
The elf hadn''t even used his domain! How could a mere aura solve what Pagarti''s domain couldn''t?
When the implications of the circumstances fully downed on Pagarti, he cupped his hands before himself posthaste and bowed deeply to the most skilled Law Refining cultivator he had ever met. Pagarti was also a Law Refining cultivator, probably stronger than the dark elf, but skill spoke louder than power in the Myriad Worlds. Power was mostly a matter of time, but skill meant future prospects. Unlike in the Alliance, where death was everywhere, the Myriad Worlds were considerably safer. A skilled youngling was a future powerhouse.
If Pagarti felt threatened, he would kill the dark elf without thinking twice, but it was better to cultivate a powerful ally rather than kill for insecurity. The Gardener only demanded no inter-city politics in the Myriad Worlds, but the Gardener Sect had a few extra principles they enforced. Getting rid of talents to maintain status quo would attract their attention. One didn''t do that unless they needed to.
Lastly, he was genuinely grateful for being healed. Years infected by an alien Path, dealing with a pain that couldn''t be muted, had made him grumpy and paranoid. Pretending to be a D-rank to avoid assassination attempts was pathetic. Yet, there he was.
"Thank you for your help, Esteemed Visitor," Pagarti said.
"Thank me with a fight," the dark elf replied.
His desire for violence hadn''t disappeared, but the current Pagarti, with unblocked memories and power, could tell it was a more general desire than the will to attack the city or its Defenders. The elf just wanted to fight strong opponents.
The dark elf continued, "How long until you heal?"
That question would reveal how long Pagarti would remain weak. It was a vulnerability. Yet, he replied sincerely because the dark elf evidently had no desire to exploit the information. "Two days."
The elf nodded. "I''m Shen. Add some clothes and lodging as thanks for the treatment. As I said, I''m seeking to unveil my Will. I think touring the city will help me with that."
His words were crude, and his mannerisms arrogant and dry. Pagarti didn''t like it but decided to withstand it out of gratitude. To a point. Just like that, the dark elf had made Pagarti lose any desire to help him solve his mental compulsion.
And if the dark elf decided to remain obnoxious after being beaten in their spar...
Well, Pagarti was thankful, but he wouldn''t become anyone''s slave.
"So be it," Pagarti replied. "Univari will see to your rewards. I''ll focus on healing and send someone for you in two days." That was a small jab and a statement: propiety demanded he try to appease his healer more, but Shen''s attitude was souring their relationship.
"Yes, milord!" Vice-Captain Univari replied.
The dark elf seemed ignore or not care about the jab. "Very well," he said with a nod, and turned to Univari. "Clothes first. What is your race called?"
Pagarti felt irked at already being disregarded, but he swallowed his pride and left. Returning to the protection of his qi arrays in his palace let him relax a little. A pill and five minutes later, his arm was regrown.
His arm was back, but he hadn''t lied to the dark elf. He would need a couple of days to fully heal. That included getting used to his limb again.
The elf wanted a fight?
Well, Pagarti would give him the defeat of his life! Greater skill didn''t mean greater power, and Pagarti would teach it to Shen.
389. Power
Shen flew to the city center beside the guard. The man¡ªof the unan race¡ªintroduced a few things to him like a guide. Shen listened but didn''t make small talk. The guard wouldn''t be fun to defeat, so he was beneath Shen''s desire to care.
The city was called Alaans. It had more beauty than the Void town, with architecture that reminded him of Arabic ones on Earth; at least, it used light colors and a lot of arcs. However, everything was still... mundane. Unfit. Beneath him.
Shen frowned. He had forgotten to report the Void. Once more, he had gotten caught up in himself.
That bothered him deeply.
He had been willing to risk his life coming here through the skies but got sidetracked at the first opportunity. This level of self-centrism was not agreeable to most of his existence. He didn''t know what his Will was, but he could tell it was in the center of his being. He also noticed his egocentrism came from it. He sought to fulfill his Ultimate Goal, his Purpose, his Will with everything he had, often forgetting he was more than his Will alone.
That wouldn''t be allowed. He was more. To deny this truth was to become no more than Reality''s mindless puppet¡ªbecause, as far as anyone knew, Reality decided people''s Wills when they were created. The thought made him both sick and angry. He would not allow that.
Shen willed it, and his True Self clenched.
His... not respect. His Honor became thicker and firmer around his Will. He couldn''t see his True Self, but he could detect his Will and the surrounding layer of Honor, and he forced the latter to filter and guide his Will better. His Ultimate Purpose would be accomplished in his life, but through means the rest of his True Self approved of.
Shen was his True Path, and changing himself like that was like grabbing and twisting his heart and soul. His chest exploded, starting at the heart, and a head-sized hole appeared in his soul.
Red Tribulation Lightning immediately burst forth from his True Self, filling his body and soul. It was only visible for less than an instant and only because Shen felt it. All his external senses told him nothing had changed. Now, they detected only flesh and soul where the Heavenly Lightning filled him.
The pain was indescribable, much greater than what he had felt when trying to remove the lightning from his body. Yet, the "healing" was faster, for he wasn''t moving against the Heavens.
He fainted and woke up, without a trace of pain, almost instantaneously. If not for his internal senses feeling the lightning where there should be more of his body and soul, he would doubt it had happened.
It had happened, though, and Shen despaired for the first time¡ªhe realized he was being either unmade or consumed by the Heavens.
He stopped flying ahead and checked himself. He could move as if he had no injuries. He noticed nothing wrong with his mind. He could even circulate his qi through the lightning as if it was his body, and his techniques worked.
However, he knew of no treasure or technique that could heal that much damage to his soul. Maybe an S-rank resource or being could help him. He doubted he had enough time to find anything ranked S or the strength to obtain it.
His True Self had changed as he wanted. Or rather, his True Center had¡ªthe metaphysical whole that was both deep inside him and was everything he was. The sphere which he could feel only two layers of¡ªhis Will and his Honor.
He shouldn''t have been able to alter his True Self as he had just done. Now, he knew it. Before, it had felt natural to do so.
Shen analyzed his new existence. His Honor had become the most crucial piece of his morals. His morals were the set of beliefs through which his cognitive, emotional, and volitive expressions were determined. They were affected by his Will but also restricted it. Or rather, both seemed to affect and restrict each other.
He couldn''t see the rest of his morality, but he suspected that increasing the importance of his Honor had also affected how he saw other things. Likewise, his morals became less influenced by his Will.
"...Esteemed Guest?" The guy, Univari, said. He had stopped flying and was asking something.
His fear was evident. Shen was C-rank; he was D-rank. The city''s ruler was also C-rank and getting better from an injury. If Shen wanted, he could do much damage to this place.
Shen was surprised to find he felt... guilty. It had felt natural for his Power to command¡ª
Power.
The word spread through his True Self like a ripple of ecstasy. "Power" wasn''t his entire Will, but it was part of it. He recognized it as soon as he thought of it.
His Will tried to use that moment to grow stronger, and if not for Shen''s recent actions, it would''ve overwhelmed him. Instead, it was kept under check by his Honor.
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Thus, Shen felt pure fear.
This was a Heavenly Tribulation with rules he didn''t know. He had just almost died by half-fulling the Tribulation''s goal, finding his Will. And that just after injuring himself while changing himself into the thing that had prevented his death¡ªthe tighter Honor self.
There was no winning this Tribulation; there was only paying a hefty price¡ª
The ripple of Power finished going through his True Self, and his Will pulsated. The fear immediately decreased¡ªas did half the Heavenly Lightning currently in his True Center. His body, soul, and mind were still held together by lightning, but its influence to affect his thoughts and feelings was greatly diminished.
Decreasing was not dissipating, though; he was still afraid. The unknown was scary enough without having to trust the Heavens to keep him alive after the tribulation. He hated everything about it.
Shen didn''t like those negative emotions. He should face the future bravely and uncaringly. He almost recalled moments when he had lived such a life, places where he had felt unbidden by anything.
In fact, it was almost like what his True Boundlessness whispered to him to feel. But his True Boundlessness, as much as it was one of his Laws and himself, was not the whole of himself nor more important than any other Law.
His existence had changed; he looked at the uncertain future over which he had no control and allowed himself to feel slightly anxious about it. It was alright. It was...
Drow?
Drowsiness hit for a second. No. Drow controlled their feelings until B-rank. To feel anxious was ridiculous. Then again, he was almost sure suppressing his feelings would lead to more significant issues in the future. He was drow, but not a puppet of the...
Drow leadership?
Red lightning flared, and Shen''s memories were blocked by the remaining lightning in his True Center. He wouldn''t be allowed to know anything about the drow leadership for now.
Anyway, he felt guilty for not caring about how his Power affected Univari. In fact, his aura was deployed to its maximum length, reaching over half the city, and most cultivators in range despaired when they felt it upon them.
Shen retracted it and turned to look at Univari, who breathed lighter. Shen smiled. Doing this felt right to a part of himself that had been suppressed until now.
He nodded. "I''m better now, thanks. You were saying?"
Despite his smile, Shen also felt he had lost a part of himself. Something fundamental had changed. Something that had once bothered him but not overly much¡ª
He realized what it was: his pride.
Shen still approved of himself and felt good about his Power, but not as much as before. Paradoxically, he also disapproved less of his current power levels. He wasn''t pathetic, only imperfect.
He noticed he had reached a level of balance and harmony with himself that felt almost mystical to his beliefs¡ªthough he couldn''t enumerate all of said beliefs.
Shen had lost part of himself, but he was glad for it. He had improved. Of course, some philosophical considerations might wonder if he could even disapprove of himself with his current self, considering it was also less judgmental about his existence. Still, ironically, he didn''t care for such considerations.
"Can I assist you in any way, Esteemed Guest?" Univari asked.
"I must report Void activity," Shen said, and briefly explained what he had seen.
Univari seemed rather nonchalant about it. He nodded and made a few hand gestures to one of the cultivators manning a watchtower. That was it.
"A VSU will be deployed soon, Esteemed Guest. Thank you for your report."
"VSU?"
"Void-Supressing Unit, Esteemed Guest." Noticing Shen''s confused look, he continued, "Members of the Gardener Sect specialized in removing the Void influence from the Myriad Worlds. The Myriad Worlds are at the edge of the Alliance with the Void. Some people experiment with things they shouldn''t, but we all trust the Gardener and his sect to protect us."
"I see. Do you have many Void Spawn issues?"
"No, Esteemed Guest. Void Spawn don''t appear here. The Gardener doesn''t allow it."
"I take it this Gardener is an S-rank overseeing the entire Myriad Worlds?" Shen guessed
"Yes, Esteemed Guest."
Shen wanted to ask more, but he had other priorities at the moment. "I seem to really need some clothes," he said. "As much as I don''t mind my nakedness, people are staring, and some clearly disagree."
Indeed, he didn''t care about his undressing state. As usual, he felt an echo of a feeling that told him he would''ve cared about it in times past. His sense of personal propriety was linked to moral beliefs that were currently absent or repressed by others after the changes in his True Center. Thus, they didn''t matter. He would clothe himself because society believed in it, not because he felt it was of any importance¡ªthough, of course, not freely offending people and their culture was of some importance if he cared about their looks and opinions.
"Of course, Esteemed Guest," Univari promptly agreed and resumed flying. "This way, please."
Shen noticed his pride had not been entirely erased. It felt proper for someone with strength to be treated with extra courtesy by the weak. Although it also felt right to treat the weak politely, this level of reverence was different. Power did beget appreciation¡ªhe, himself, should be respectful to B-ranks. He wouldn''t lash out against anyone who didn''t give him such courtesy, but the extra respect made him look at Univari and Pagarti with kinder eyes.
Univari led Shen to a building not far from the humongous palace in the city center. The big mansion, also of Arabic-like architecture, had wide arcs and a beautiful garden. Univari landed on a corridor''s balcony and presented a closed door to Shen.
"Esteemed Guest, this building will be yours for the tenure of your permanence in Alaans. I''ll wait for you outside. I''ll show you the city at your earliest convenience."
Shen nodded. In hindsight, he could''ve treated the City Lord better and properly haggled the price for removing the alien Laws from the guy''s body. Instead, he had just made demands. He was no different from a bully.
Finding Pagarti to apologize now would be awkward, so Shen would just roll with it and be polite in other matters.
"Thank you," he said and entered the room.
The place was huge. The walking closet had garments of all kinds, all of his size, and all E+ items, if he guessed right from the qi in their enchantments. Univari or Pagarti had evidently sent someone in advance to prepare everything to Shen.
Shen wore simple clothes. He picked a light beige cultivator robe and brown leather boots and left, still holding his makeshift spear. He would have to find a way to earn money and buy a better weapon after the tribulation was over¡ªor before, if it didn''t end in a few days. This one would suffice for most fights, but a stronger spear would let him focus his qi on something other than keeping his weapon whole during a battle.
He met Univari outside the mansion, and the two went on a city tour.
390. Delegate
Pagarti was meditating in his Null Room, a subspace that looked like endless nothingness. The Myriad Worlds were too close to the Void, which messed with feeling the Laws of Reality. Path Outlining Ethereal Harmonization Realm cultivators¡ªor B-ranks, as the Alliance called them¡ªwere rare for a reason, even in the Inner Worlds. Null Rooms, however, allowed one to focus entirely within oneself and, through it, one''s connection to Reality.
Suddenly, a female voice said behind him, "Greetings, City Lord."
Pagarti reacted instantly, standing up and turning, his qi and Path flaring, his domain expanding. His domain felt the invader...
...and he pulled his domain back, turning his attack into a respectful bow. He cupped his hands before himself and said, "City Lord pays respect to Envoy."
The uninvited guest¡ªthe second on the same day, to boot¡ªwas a beautiful young holin. Her skin was too pinkish for Pagarti''s taste, and her proportions were not as bountiful as he liked, but he couldn''t deny her perfect symmetry and that she had enough assets to attract even him. Her face was delicate, her eyes blue, her long silky hair golden, her lips pinkish red.
Six superimposed white half-wings unfolded behind her. With those, even someone incapable of feeling qi would know her to be in the Law Mastering stage of the Ethereal Harmonization realm. Or, as the Alliance called it, C-rank.
As with most holins not clad for war, her garment was a juxtaposing of multiple layers of cloth. Hers were white and red and fit her well. It hid most of her form, including to Law Vision, but the signs of what lay below were there if you knew what to look for. Pagarti had been young and prodigal once.
She wore a simple-looking enamel pin on her chest. It depicted a green and golden tree. That pin was why Pagarti had bowed and received her with respect.
No one attacked a member of the Gardener Sect in the Myriad Worlds and lived to tell the tale.
She waved her delicate hand dismissively. "I''m not Envoy. I''m a VSU Delegate. Report."
Her demeanor was slightly cold and authoritative without crossing any lines. She didn''t act friendly or let him think he was on the same level as her, but she also didn''t look down at him¡ªunlike the Shen boy.
Her words made him frown, though. Why was the Void Suppression Unit in his land? He bet a report would be waiting for him outside the Null Room, but he wasn''t sure if he wanted her to know the contents the same instant he did. It was better to admit to his ignorance for now.
He said, "This is the first time I hear of this, Delegate. I''ve been in seclusion for almost an hour."
Her blue eyes stared at his as if seeking any falsehoods in his statements. Whatever she saw satisfied her. She nodded slightly. "Very well. I''ll find the one who reported it. You''re not to leave this subspace until I return."
Now, that was disrespectful. It seemed everyone thought they could boss Pagarti in his own city nowadays. She even left without waiting for an answer, taking his obedience for granted.
It irked him, and he fueled his anger into thinking of ways to utterly crush Shen.
? ?
? ?
Shen considered Alaans City interesting enough. The roads were wide, the buildings were comfortable, and the parks were pleasant. Everyone was a cultivator, and hundreds of D-ranks flew in the skies. A few C-ranks could be seen here and there.
However, the lack of B-ranks was strange. Univari explained it when Shen asked.
"Teolhora is a C-rank world, Esteemed One. Whoever reaches B-rank must leave for an Inner World within a week. That''s how the Myriad World works." He smiled warily. "Every newly ascended B-rank means a week of bloodshed as they deal with old enmities. Sometimes, they go too far, and all of Teolhora band together to resist a B-rank''s tyranny. The last time was forty years ago. I fought the war like most families and saw my father sacrifice himself before me to protect me and my sister from the B-rank."
That was interesting. Shen had the impression of having found something like this before, areas where one''s strength was limited, but he was confident they hadn''t been as fair as the hard limit was. Yes, the word was "fair." As much as a B-rank could be a jackass, they had very little time to do anything. Even if they worked to strengthen their people before leaving, if they were too aggressive, the ones they left behind would pay for it. And that''s considering the world didn''t unite against them.
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More importantly, whenever a B-rank wasn''t around, relatively weak people, C-ranks, could rule with little trouble. People could reach the C-rank more easily than the B-rank, so it changed power dynamics and absolute obedience. The weak mattered a little more.
"What happened to the B-rank?" Shen asked.
"He died," Univari answered, but he sounded bittersweet about his father''s murderer being executed.
"Good riddance," Shen prodded.
"Not really, Esteemed One. Teolhora is an Outer World, better positioned than a Boundary World, but still far from the World Tree''s Trunk. When a B-rank leaves, the world gets a Green Tide. The qi levels rise, and the Axioms of Life become much easier to touch and master. It''s a great boon for us all. The more Green Tides a world gets, the more B-ranks it can produce; it''s a virtuous cycle. If we produce nine B-ranks in quick succession, with no gaps between their Green Tides, our world also gets elevated. Inner Worlds can house B-ranks and have a lot more qi than what we get even in Green Tides. A newly elevated world is also inaccessible to outsiders for a hundred years. It''s a unique opportunity.
"So, we''d rather be bullied to a point for a week than have to kill the B-rank. Sadly, some B-ranks cross the line while trying to get as many benefits as they can for themselves. It''s rare, but it happens."
The Green Tide explained why every other cultivator he saw had a Law of Life in their Path. That Law would be easier to cultivate if they got a Green Tide, and everyone would benefit.
Shen found that system intriguing. A common goal shared with the entire world made them less likely to stab each other in the back at the first opportunity.
However, something was still strange. He asked, "Why does no B-rank place their sect or clan above all others? Why not kill every strong C-rank before they can react and establish a dynasty with everyone''s treasures? I''m sure that can be arranged."
Heavens, Shen himself could almost do that already. Pagarti didn''t look like much. He could kill many Pagartis in Teolhora before everyone else ganged on him.
"Forgive me, Esteemed One; I''ve never taught an Outsider before and failed to teach what is common knowledge to us. Inter-city politics are forbidden by the Gardener, and the Gardener Sect has a strict view on enforcing it to Ascenders. A new B-rank can kill all C-ranks they want with no official consequence, but any treasure the dead C-rank had must be kept in the cities they died or within one mile if they died outside a city. There are only two exceptions: the Ascender can choose three cities to pillage for his own gain, and of those, only the resources of one city can be given to anyone else."
That made more sense. No world could survive if every new B-rank bankrupted everyone before leaving.
"What is this World Tree you mentioned?" Shen asked." From the context, the Myriad Worlds are its leaves or something?"
It wasn''t Univari who answered, but a soft female voice before the two of them. "You''re correct, Outsider."
Reality twisted a few hundred meters before them, and a sort of twenty-year-old angel from the myths teleported in. Sending her voice ahead of herself was a feat of skill and use of Space or Time Laws, the two of which were in her Path¡ªtogether with Life, one of each Axiom.
Shen was stricken by her beauty. Although she was a C-rank, her physical perfection looked almost ethereal. He couldn''t recall ever seeing a B-rank, but he was confident her beauty should be on the same level as an A-rank.
She looked like a softer high elf. Not as high and mighty, yet still uniquely beautiful. Shen was sure another race looked like hers, but its name was on the tip of the tongue without ever coming to him.
He was drow and knew his race didn''t like high elves, but he found he had nothing against a race that looked like them. At least not biologically. In fact, he very much wanted to get to know this lady better. His Path and hers weren''t compatible, but he instinctively knew his True Self made him immune to Path contamination.
Alas, his interested look seemed to upset her. Her expressionless face became cold as she looked down on him. He could almost hear her soul say, "Another one of those."
Well, Shen guessed he had just discovered the first thing about getting close to a female: don''t make it obvious you''re interested in her.
He didn''t dwell on the preemptive failure. He would find other beautiful women in the future. He was young and had ample time to find a wife.
He asked, "Is the World Tree a sort of metaphor? I can''t imagine something big enough to hold entire worlds. Or is this not an actual world but an island?"
Univari didn''t reply. He was bowing down to the angel-like woman, as did everyone nearby. No one even greeted her, though. It pointed at her status being too high; thus, it would be rude to force her to acknowledge a direct greeting.
Her coldness turned into a frown. "Is that how you greet a member of the Gardener Sect, Outsider?"
Shen raised an eyebrow. "I wasn''t aware there are rules for this."
The female took his ignorance as an offense. "There are none," she admitted unwillingly. "But even a child knows to show respect to their rulers."
Shen was getting upset at her attitude. He was trying to be polite, but she was bullying her. Not unlike what he had done to Pagarti a little ago, he acknowledged.
Maybe he should withstand it a little longer, but he did like fighting, and perhaps this woman would give him a good battle. "Oh," he said mockingly. "You rule over the Myriad Worlds? I thought the Gardener did that. Bold of a C-rank to claim to be on par with an S-rank. Your arrogance is S-rank, at least." He cupped his hands before his body and nodded. "Shen greets Arrogance Incarnate."
She attacked at once, but Shen was prepared.
391. Rules
Shen''s aura was out before the girl''s mind''s command to move her body spread through her soul. Yet, his aura was almost immediately overwhelmed by her domain.
Nonetheless, her domain couldn''t get inside him. He just found out that inside him rested his own domain¡ªone he instinctively knew not to use with his injured soul. Still, just having a domain, and it more or less covering his True Self, was enough to prevent his existence from being bashed into nothingness by her domain.
That saved his life in the short term but also greatly upset the girl. She teleported beside Shen, her hand going for his throat.
Instead of his throat, her palm met the Extremity of his qi-filled spear.
The world itself fought against Shen as she made the local Laws of Reality more agreeable to her Path''s Laws and less to his. He couldn''t challenge that only with his inactive domain; he was part of Reality, and such changes affected him, too.
He continued anyway. His domain-supported True Self allowed him to.
Spearhead met flesh, and the former gave. Her skin was like a perfect treasure. His spear shattered as it approached her hand.
Shen Backstepped...
...into the same place he was. Space had shifted inside her domain. He couldn''t beat that. Or so she probably believed; feeling Space itself change allowed him to recall he had an Aural Realm.
The girl''s domain filled all of Space around her, including the edge to the fourth dimension. However, she wasn''t actively protecting that place. Shen infiltrated it with his Aural Realm and affected the local Reality.
His Aural Realm filled the boundaries between the third and fourth spatial dimensions. Then, he ruled that everything within would require more willpower to move, especially any Law not from his Path.
His Aural Realm behaved like a domain in that. Whenever two domains fought for supremacy over the same place, they engaged in meta-combat. Shen knew little about meta-combat, but he sneak-attacked her in it anyway, almost by mistake.
Meta-combat didn''t involve direct clashes of willpower. Investing more willpower in the meta-battlefield allowed one to change more of the rules of Reality locally at the cost of losing focus of the rest of the combat and spending willpower. It also countered an opponent''s influence. Shen invested a lot into his meta-attack, while the girl, unchallenged in the meta-battlefield until now, wasn''t investing much in it. At least, not more than enough to strengthen her Path, weaken his, and make Space behave weirdly. Perhaps she was watching out for Shen''s domain, which he kept inside his body, but not his Aural Realm.
The willpower he invested countered and erased her influence over the surroundings.
Reality bowed to his rules.
He expected his Aural Realm to surprise her, so he Backstepped again as soon as he did that. His spear had lost half its length, but he still filled it with qi and gave it a qi spearhead as he went for her nape.
She became much more surprised than anticipated; she wasn''t ready to protect himself. His spear would pierce deeply into her, and then¡ª
Light flashed brightly in the whole world.
Space twisted.
Shen''s influence over the surroundings was crushed, and his aura was forced back into his body.
Suddenly, Shen was standing a few yards away from his foe, and an angel-like male with eight wings, wearing majestic golden and white-silvery armor, stood on the edge of Shen''s spear. Shen''s qi wasn''t destroyed but found an obstacle it couldn''t pierce in the male''s chest armor.
He was B-rank, and Shen knew he had no chance against him.
Shen jumped back and prepared to flee from the B-rank, but the next scene gave him pause. The black-haired, green-eyed, chiseled B-rank, who looked forty years old, cupped his hands before himself and gave Shen a very slight nod. Even that much was still surprising coming from a B-rank.
"In the name of the Gardener Sect, I, E''lemer, ask forgiveness for my daughter''s harsh behavior," the man said. "Before anything, I assure you that your life was not at risk. No harm would be allowed to befall you, just as none befell her.
"Unfortunately for E''livia, she has failed her Self-Suficiency Test. Previously, she was needlessly disrespectful to City Lord Pagarti, sowing discontent between a City Lord and the Gaderner Sect. Now, she attacked one of the people she came here to protect." His voice was harsh, and the girl flinched behind him. "She will be disciplined upon our return to the Gardener Sect.
"Let''s establish the restitution you''re owed. You''re a Law Mastering Ethereal Harmonization cultivator. So is she. She tried to murder you once with her domain, and her follow-up attack had an uncertain goal. The context suggests she was going for the kill again. Therefore, the Gardener Sect owes you fifty high-purity spirit stones for the first attempt and a hundred for the successive one."
He twisted his hand, and fifty fist-sized transparent crystals brimming with qi appeared a little before and beside Shen.
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Shen just stood there, processing everything. The guy claimed he would''ve saved Shen, but Shen didn''t trust the man''s words. If the Gardener Sect were so upright, they wouldn''t already have rules for when their members tried to kill other people.
The bystanders'' reactions told another tale. Univari was looking at the spirit stones with so much desire Shen thought he might ignore decorum and go for one right then. Even the girl looked at the stones longingly and unwillingly. That was a very hefty sum, one that might show enough sincerity, all things considered.
That is, if Shen could survive holding that much money when everyone knew he had suddenly become very rich.
The Gardener Sect had also thought of that, as proven by E''lemer''s following words, "These are bound to you¡ªthey can''t be given away, stolen, or pillaged¡ªand can only be directly used for your cultivation. You can also exchange them for resources in any Garden City, but if you do, we''ll investigate if you''re being coerced before agreeing to the exchange. The Gardener Sect won''t have you incur danger for holding a sum we provided as an apology. If you still feel unsafe, I can store the spirit stones in the Gardener Sect''s Bank in your name. Only you can access it, in any Garden City. The same rules for exchanging for resources would apply if you wanted to withdraw a spirit stone."
Shen considered it. Going to a Garden City might be a trap. However, keeping the stones meant certain danger. From how people looked at them, at least some would be willing to kill Shen and take a shot at using the supposedly bound stones.
Shen was strong but couldn''t defeat the entire world¡ªunless this palce was an island. No one had answered him that.
"How big is Teolhora?" he asked.
The question shocked Univari even more than the money. Even E''livia looked at Shen as if he had grown another head. Evidently, she felt offended when Shen called her Arrogance Incarnate, but speaking casually to the B-rank was on another scale, unimaginable.
The man in question seemed unbothered by it. "Teolhora is a Dwarf World only one hundred thousand miles across to all sides, most of it land. It''s a curved plane, like most leaves in the World Tree, which is physical, as you were wondering. Even Path Outlining Ethereal Harmonization cultivators like me can''t fully grasp its size."
His answer also touched on what Shen had been thinking: whether E''lemer would save Shen from his daughter. Maybe he wouldn''t, but he had been watching; he knew about Shen''s previous question. He hadn''t appeared due to some mystical ability that triggered whenever E''livia was endangered.
Well, the latter was still a possibility, and maybe he had looked into the past after arriving, but sincerely, there was no need for him to do it. He could just have killed Shen, made it look like it had been the girl, then "disciplined" her in secret in the sect, away from prying eyes. No one would bat an eye. The Gardener Sect was clearly too powerful for anyone to argue.
Yet, few seemed to resent them. The sect at least knew how to pretend to be just. Even watching over the unprepared girl showed some foresight and care about others.
Shen would take the guy''s word for it until he found signs otherwise.
"I''ll take one stone now," he decided. "You can store the rest for me." He then cupped his hands before himself. "I ask for your apologies for my earlier disrespect. Junior greets senior." He bowed deeply.
As Shen had thought not long ago, he didn''t resent bowing to someone stronger. That was the way of things. He hadn''t done it until now only because the man had interjected into a fight to protect Shen''s foe¡ªwho, by the man''s admission, had sought to kill Shen¡ªand because he wanted to test the man.
E''lemer had asked for Shen''s forgiveness as soon as he arrived. Therefore, the angel owed Shen one. If he had still attacked Shen, everything would''ve been a farce.
"I see what you did, Outsider," E''lemer replied as he made every stone disappear but one, which Shen grabbed and placed in his sleeve. "Beware; playing politics with the Gardener Sect is also banished in the Myriad Worlds. Not by the Gardener himself, but by his Sect. I''ll consider your actions a personal matter between you and I."
Shen frowned. That sounded absurd. He had not played politics.
"I know what you''re thinking," the guy insisted. "You merely "tested" me. But you weren''t forthcoming for personal gain, and that suffices; low-level politics is still politics. We turn a blind eye to most of it when it happens between cities up to a certain level for convenience''s sake, but we''re much more stringent when it comes to ourselves. Corruption infiltrates easily and spreads even more easily. My daughter is an example. I was lax with her, and she grew into an entitled brat. I''m as much at fault as she is¡ª"
"Dad!" the girl interrupted. "That''s not your fault! It''s on me! I''m an adult! It was my own decision to attack!"
The man sighed without looking at her. "See? She was almost killed by an Outsider who didn''t use their domain, yet she has the gall to claim she knows what she''s doing. What is it if not entitlement?"
The girl flushed. "He... He did something weird!" she said.
However, there was no bite to her words. She felt ashamed of her loss. Her accusation was no more than a weak attempt not to look as bad.
In fact, her earlier distaste for Shen was gone. She was entitled and inconsequential, but she could be humbled. She didn''t even seem upset at Shen.
Then, to his greatest surprise, she lowered her head towards him and said, "I''m sorry." And it looked like she meant it, too. "I didn''t try to kill you. Not really. You have a solid Path, you''d have survived. I just wanted..." She trailed off and didn''t say what she wanted.
The man sighed again. "She''s not a lost cause, thank the Gardener. But she is young and confused. Thank you for teaching my daughter humility and combat awareness, Outsider. I''m in your debt. Sadly, I was forbidden by the Gardener from assisting you before you finish your current business. Should you survive, you can come find me for a minor favor at any time."
Shen was surprised that the Gardener knew of him, but in hindsight, it was expected for an S-rank named Gardener to be aware of everything in his big tree. Shen was an Outsider, as people easily noticed, likely because he used Stangue, maybe because of his race. Or maybe the Heavenly Tribulation was like a beacon to those who could detect it. It was unclear whether the B-rank could see it. Shen doubted an S-rank couldn''t.
As for E''lemer not helping Shen, it also made sense. No one was allowed to assist anyone undergoing a Heavenly Tribulation. Shen doubted any C-rank could do it even by chance, but a B-rank might, and the Gardener didn''t want E''lemer to get involved with Shen''s Tribulation, not even by mistake.
As for the Gardeners Sect''s spirit crystals possibly being considered illegal assistance... Well, Shen didn''t think an S-rank would fear a little lightning¡ªor allow it to destroy their sect. They might still not be willing to face all of the Heavens''s wrath, but they weren''t as vulnerable as everyone else.
Shen bowed again. "Thank you for your generosity, senior."
The man nodded. "With that out of the way, know my following words will come as an Envoy of the Gardener Sect. I am beholden to my position and cannot use the personal favor I owe you to interfere with sect matters. The rules must be obeyed."
Shen''s gratitude faded as he expected the Gardener Sect to finally kill him for his earlier offense or something similar.
392. Making People Scared
E''lemer decreed, "VSU Delegate E''livia has failed her test and will be punished upon her return to the Gardener Sect. She has already been deemed unworthy of resolving the current Void Sighting by herself but is still to complete her assignment¡ªexcept not alone." He turned to Shen, and the shoe dropped. "She''ll be assisted by the one who reported the Void activity.
"Outsider Shen will not be under VSU Delegate E''livia''s direct command but is ordered by the Gardener Sect to assist her until the last trace of Void influence is removed from the area where he found it. Should Outsider Shen suffer permanent injuries, crippling psychological damage, or lose his life, VSU Delegate Elivia will be executed."
The first sentence E''lemer spoke wasn''t as bad as Shen expected. His ending was considerably worse but still not lethal.
Shen hated it anyway.
Being conscripted for something mostly unrelated to him¡ªdespite despising the Void, he wasn''t responsible for that place¡ªwent against many of his beliefs. It was one thing to show respect and even a modicum of obedience to the strong. To be forced to do their bidding just because they said so was not okay.
This simply wasn''t his responsibility. He didn''t belong there, as his "Outsider" title showed. Yet, they were bossing him around simply because they could.
This Gardener Sect ruled the place, which gave them some legitimacy to force their will over everyone in their land, at least in his opinion, but it still irked him.
Shen replied, "Senior, with all due respect, shouldn''t you solve this quickly and return with your daughter? That would be easier for everyone. Faster, too. I''m sure you have better things to do than babysit her."
The man smiled wearily. "Her failure during the Self-Suficiency Test doesn''t change the fact that she must be further trained and tested¡ªrather, it confirms it. Forcing her to interact with you, who beat her in a straight fight despite being relatively weaker, presents too good an opportunity to pass. Personally, it also makes me more confident in her survival. Lastly, your assistance allows us to test her teamwork in advance, with fewer people, time, and resources required from us.
"As for my time, don''t worry about it. I''ll not watch from now on; you watch your own back." His smile faded slightly. "As I said, I''m beholden to the rules as much as you or my daughter, but remember..." His smile almost disappeared as he stared at Shen with his green eyes and warned, "...she''s still my daughter. Harm her, and learn pain."
Then, he disappeared, leaving Shen and E''livia looking at each other.
Shen immediately raised his guard. He did not trust this girl. She looked the very image of a guilty-stricken girl, but she had fooled someone into believing she was ready for the so-called Self-Suficiency Test. Either they were idiots, or she was much more cunning than she let her father know.
Well, another possibility was that she might''ve been coddled and didn''t know what to do with the freedom she had just received. She had messed up because she felt that Shen was threatening her authority in her first solo mission. As a pampered girl with little contact with reality, she hadn''t known how to react. Such things were hard to predict for those in charge.
Shen would know about it, considering his time¡ª
The lightning in his heart burned bright, blocking his memories.
He couldn''t tell why he would know how a... Recruit? Warrior? How a novice warrior would behave. But he knew her stupidity was to be expected in some cases, and it had to be tested in the field¡ªunder supervision, as E''lemer had provided.
You could suspect someone would behave in such a way, but only an actual test would give you the definitive answer, and sometimes, you had to push people to see if they flew or fell.
As for whether E''lemer had lied about being around, Shen didn''t think so. Instead, Shen was sure E''livia would have some treasure that would save her or summon her father if anything happened. The B-rank evidently cared too much about the girl to let her die in her first solo mission. Well, solo-ish.
"So," Shen said. "Unless you''re going to kill me, remove your domain. You''re making people scared."
Shen''s aura had been suppressed by the B-rank''s domain. That domain was gone, so E''livia''s domain was back in control. Everyone inside was getting terrified of whatever feelings her domain evoked, though Shen wasn''t affected.
Shen himself opted not to redeploy his aura in case Big Bad Dad was around and used it as an excuse to kill him.
E''livia actually flushed and retracted her domain. "Sorry." Then, she flushed harder at noticing she was behaving like a child caught with their hand on the cookie pot. She stood straighter and said with as much neutrality as she could. "You''ve been conscripted. Outsider... Shen, was it? Tell me everything you know about the Void sighting."
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"I don''t mean to question the Gardener Sect..." Shen began softly, not wanting to upset the girl again. Her ego had already proven to be a fragile thing. "...but if you can''t even beat me, how will you deal with the accumulated Void Energy even I prefer not to touch?"
She flushed again. Being defeated by him had really affected her. "The VSU has its means. Report what you saw." She paused, then struggled to add, "Please."
Something was wrong with that girl''s personality. She was too quick to change. From neutrality when they first met, to looking down on him for finding her attractive, to attacking him, and now acting somewhat pleasantly. He felt it might not be very wise to mingle with someone so unstable.
Alas, he had been ordered to stay with her and knew better than to disobey the local rulers.
"Very well," he replied and reported everything to her.
He was surprised by how she paid attention to everything he said and even asked questions to clarify some points. She might not be completely useless, after all.
After he was done, she nodded and said, "It''s a D-Tier Void Phenomenon for sure. Even if it tiered up while we were here, I can deal with it. Lead the way... Please."
Shen nodded. The faster he was done, the faster he could get away from her. He turned toward the Void town and flew as fast as he could toward it.
E''livia flew beside him, keeping up with his pace with ease. She had a domain, so her agility didn''t surprise him. Usually, domains were only developed at late C-rank, so she should have C+ agility¡ª
He frowned. That knowledge about C+ agility was linked to... Something. Something the Tribulation Lightning didn''t want him to know about. It was just there, on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn''t access the knowledge.
He knew his stats were C, though. How? He had no idea. He just knew.
He would deal with that knowledge gap and its implications after he got away from a girl who might still harbor lethal feelings toward him.
Speaking of him being C-rank, though, he wondered if she would know anything about the Gardener being aware of him. "Does the Gardener pay attention to everyone in the Myriad Worlds?" he asked.
"Of course," E''livia replied. "He''s the Gardener," she stated simply as if that was supposed to mean anything.
"And he always sends messages through B-ranks to a lot of C-ranks?" he insisted.
"Why wouldn''t he?" She seemed legitimately confused.
Shen frowned. They had a cultural gap that his questions were having trouble bridging. He corrected his approach. "The Gardener is S-rank, right?"
"He''s in the Law Elevation realm, yes," she said.
Shen had noticed people didn''t like the power classification system he was used to for some reason. It was still the first time he was corrected. It was evidently more personal for her. At least he found out the name of the realm after Destiny Realization.
He ignored her impoliteness and continued his investigation. "Why would an S-rank waste time with C-ranks?"
"He''s the Gardener," she repeated, slowly this time. She genuinely didn''t understand his question.
"Think of it like this," Shen said, "the Gardener Sect is above everyone in the Myriad Worlds, right?"
"Of course."
"And you don''t expect your father, a B-rank of the almighty Gardener Sect, to go around sending messages to people like me."
"Of course not."
"Because his time is valuable."
"Yes...? Is there a point to these questions?" She demanded as they reached the halfway point to the Void-infested town.
"Why would the Gardener waste time with C-ranks?" He repeated the question and added, "His time is even more valuable than your father''s."
She thought for a moment, then smiled¡ªwhich made her even more attractive¡ªand said, "Oh! I studied this!" She put up a serious face and explained, more or less like a committed teacher, "Law Elevation cultivators from the @#!@&# are slightly different because of the &%##$@." The Heavenly Lightning prevented Shen from hearing the place''s name, and also that thing connected to stats. "A Law Elevation cultivator is their very Path, except their Path turned into or merged with an Axiom and became part of the Universe''s Axioms. The cultivators themselves become their Path in multiple ways, much more than even someone with a True Path. More than they do in the @#!@&#, or so I''m told.
"When I say the Gardener is the Gardener, I''m talking about his existence, his very essence. A Gardener will care for every detail of their garden. It''s not that strange for them to interfere here and there."
That tidbit was interesting. Shen still didn''t get one thing. "What about the Void?"
"What about it?"
"Why doesn''t the Gardener get rid of it whenever it''s found in his big World Tree?"
"How could we grow if he did everything for us? He''s a Gardener, not a... Greenhouser? Does that word exist in Stangue?"
Shen shook his head. "I don''t think so."
"Stangue stinks," she said playfully, even showing him the tongue. "A garden is subject to the elements, not completely protected from it. The Gardener protects the garden from the worst of external factors, but withstanding trials will strengthen every living being in the garden. The Gardener craves to see everyone in the Myriad Worlds thrive."
That made some sense. It still felt too altruistic to Shen. Sure, the man''s own Path forced him to behave like that, but he had developed his Path. Why would anyone define themselves as someone who cared for others on that level?
Shen had a feeling he had had friends he liked, and he might fight to the death for them, but genuinely cultivate unknown people for their good? No, thank you.
That was all E''livia had to say on the subject, so he veered it a little. "Is that why no one cared about your father saying the Gardener forbade him from helping me?"
She still struggled with the concept of strong people not being that interested in weaklings'' lives, much less sending direct messages to said weaklings. "Huh... Sure, I guess...?"
Shen chuckled. He found the Gardener Sect''s definition of politics a bit stupid, and E''livia''s fluid personality was a little weird, but he found her honesty refreshing.
Oh, sure, not recalling why that would be refreshing was frustrating, but he could guess from how his slightly paranoid mind worked that he hadn''t trusted too many people in his life¡ªand likely for good reason.
They arrived at their destination at last, and it was obvious at first glance that someone had cleared the scene.
393. Find Help
The Void Energy had disappeared from the corpses and the underground area. At first glance, Shen couldn''t find any signs of where it had gone. Some beasts were feasting on the bodies by the town outskirts, but that was all. Most corpses were untouched, and the city was just as Shen had left it.
E''livia, however, had a technique to let her track whoever had removed the Void Energy¡ªor so Shen guessed. She told him nothing. She simply looked down for a while, her blue eyes flashing purple. Then, she turned right and flew faster than Shen had been flying to get here.
He was honestly tempted to not follow and claim she had ditched him. He also honestly feared her father. So, he put his guards up¡ªthis might still be a ploy or trap from the Gardener Sect¡ªand followed her as best as he could.
"Wait for me!" he called, but she ignored him.
She was considerably faster than him. Two seconds later, he lost sight of her.
Another second later, a massive dome of pure green qi appeared on the horizon. No, "massive" wasn''t enough to describe it. It was absolutely huge. It simply popped up, and a shockwave followed suit, pushing the clouds on the skies and shaking the earth. Something had exploded, and E''livia was likely engaged in a fight.
Shen deployed his Aural Realm and hoped she hadn''t died, or her father would definitely kill him for it.
His hopes decreased when a pillar of Void Energy rose from the middle of the dome and linked the heavens and earth, releasing a terrifying pressure in the entire world. It was a kind of mental attack. Hopelessness demanded to have a space amid Shen''s emotions. It should be enough to make weak cultivators fall into despair or even kill themselves, but Shen easily resisted it.
Shen wasn''t sure whether he''d like E''lemer to appear and get rid of the Void Energy. Who knew if E''livia had actually died in that, after all?!
He kept flying towards the dome and sighed in relief when his aura touched it. He felt E''livia''s domain. That dome was some sort of manifestation of her domain.
As he had done last time, he pushed his Aural Realm over the edges of the three spatial dimensions, but the result was different. She blocked his aura. Domains couldn''t be blocked by other domains, but his Aural Realm, although something in between auras and domains, wasn''t enough of a domain to be unblockable.
Shen continued to approach at a quick pace. He couldn''t see or feel anything inside the dome or even properly sense that qi. He knew it was qi, but that was it; how pure or what Laws it contained were beyond him.
Her domain and the continued existence of the Void pillar suggested things weren''t as dire. If E''livia hadn''t lied, the Gardener should be aware of the Void antics already. He was doing nothing about it, so his subjects should be able to deal with it.
Yet, E''livia might not be the said capable subject; she might need help. Shen had no choice but to enter the green qi dome. Not assisting her with dealing with the Void after being ordered so by the Gardener Sect would not end well for him.
He still slowed down, though, and touched the dome with his half-broken spear before entering. It went in unhindered, and he was able to feel something: that qi was green because it was filled with Life Laws to absurd levels. That decreased the odds of E''livia being close to death.
Shen touched the dome with his hand next. For a moment, he felt pressured, as if the world was about to crumble around his fingers and obliterate them from existence. A moment later, though, the pressure vanished. It confirmed that this was E''livia''s domain, who sensed him and allowed him to go in unaffected.
His aura was still blocked, though, so he could only hope this wasn''t a ridiculously contrived trap and step in.
E''livia''s Path contained the Axioms of Life, Space, and Time. Unsurprisingly, the spacetime continuum didn''t behave normally inside the dome. As soon as Shen entered, he appeared beside E''livia in what he guessed to be the middle of her domain. Shen could see and feel things properly now that he was inside.
E''livia was before a massive orb of Void Energy, from which rose the pillar that cut through her domain and pierced the skies. From Shen''s understanding, that thing was an impossibility. Void Energy shouldn''t work like that; Void Energy didn''t increase in volume. Alas, he couldn''t ignore what he was seeing.
E''livia was severely injured. Her left wings had been ripped apart and were bleeding silver, her eyes were bleeding golden, and the stumps where once stood her left forearm and left foot bled red. Shen couldn''t recall a single race with blood that came in three different colors, but now wasn''t the time to think about it.
Her clothes had been replaced with silver and red armor, which had done little to protect her. The armor didn''t cover her wings, anyway, which Shen found stupid. She wielded a long, silvery and golden dagger in her right hand, another with qi, and was panting heavily. All her equipment was C+.
The Void orb floated a few miles above a massive crater. There were traces of wood and foliage here and there, but an explosion had destroyed almost everything in the dome.
A badly mingled male corpse lay in the crater. It belonged to an angel-like creature like E''livia¡ªShen had to ask what they were called¡ªbut with golden wings instead. The male had been cut into three pieces, and their every limb had been broken and twisted in unnatural angles. Lastly, E''livia had beheaded them.
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Yet, she looked at the corpse as if she feared it would attack her at any time.
Or perhaps it was the Void Energy. Looking at or trying to feel it twisted one''s senses. The Void was the absence of everything, of all existence. It was also the absence of absence itself, for it couldn''t be defined. One''s mind couldn''t understand it. At C-rank, Shen barely felt capable of not getting a headache by having it on the corner of his sight and senses, but he wouldn''t even try to get a better look. His mind might shatter if he merely tried to organize what he saw into something that made sense.
E''livia''s words revealed it wasn''t the Void Energy¡ªor how weird it was behaving¡ªthat she feared. "Find help," she said as soon as Shen was inside. "A new Prophet was born."
Her domain tried to push him away, but the Void orb shone in reverse. It didn''t pull light; instead, it shone with reverse light. It made no sense. Witnessing such absurdity hurt Shen''s mind, and E''livia had it much worse.
Her domain vanished when she was forced to feel whatever the Void had done. Her domain let her feel things on the metaphysical level. The feedback went straight to her mind. Shen couldn''t even imagine how it would feel to sense the impossible happening on such an intimate level. To feel it with his very Path. A weak mind might go insane.
E''livia''s C-rank mind almost burst. Her soul shook heavily but ultimately held. She still fainted.
Suddenly, a hand came for her throat. The golden-winged angel had returned to life, his body fully healed. He looked like a teenager, almost a child, but with a mature handsomeness that made it weird. He wore white and black clothes, and his eyes shone with the same anti-light the Void orb had shone.
Unfortunately for the Prophet, Shen had deployed his Aural Realm as soon as E''livia''s domain failed and felt the approach. He thrust his half-broken spear, superimposed with qi that fully formed a spear, against that hand.
The Void Prophet started turning its head to look at Shen. Shen felt it happen on his back. His every sense other than his sight told him the creature was everywhere around him. Only his sight insisted it was before him.
Shen had been trained to trust his eyes if he ever met a Void Prophet¡ªthough, of course, he couldn''t recall by whom. Void Prophets came to declare the unavoidable corruption of the Void to the world. They called it the Untruth and embodied it. It allowed them to twist almost anything one might perceive from them except anything that could be touched by Light.
It was related to some sort of agreement between all Axioms that made Light closely related to Revelation. Thus, a Void Prophet, who came to Reveal the Untruth, couldn''t refuse Light''s Truth. Moreover, no Void Prophet could ever pretend to have an Axiom of Light in their Path. Unfortunately, that didn''t allow anyone to use it to identify them.
Honestly, Shen couldn''t understand why the Void would accept it or why Reality would do that but not just kill the damn Prophet. But evidently, things were much less logical at a higher level.
His qi spear struck the open palm, pierced it, and came out on the other side. It continued until it reached the Prophet''s eyes.
Then, the Prophet finally finished turning its head to stare at Shen.
Only then did Shen feel the eyes'' anti-light with his aura¡ªand was bathed by inexistence itself. It washed over his Path like sea waves, trying to wither him down into nothingness. He felt it with close intimacy, though not as well as someone with a deployed domain might. It was still enough to shake him to his core.
Shen faced the ultimate truth¡ªor the Untruth.
All things would cease¡ªeven their ceasing end would cease one day. There was no reason to fight. No reason to have ambitions, feel, or hope. No reason to cling to life or the moment. To be was to waste time. In fact, time itself was a waste. Nothing would keep being in the end. To fight for existence didn''t matter because no one would remember it. He wouldn''t remember it, for only nothingness awaited him upon death. He was less than a bit of a computer, for he didn''t matter for anything at all.
This was different from the intrusive thoughts one had when facing the Void Spawn. This was almost as if facing the Void itself. It was still not enough to stop Shen.
His mind held for the very simple reason that he had a True Self. It trembled under the might of the mental attack, but it was never endangered.
His qi-spear pierced the Prophet''s head. His qi was denied by the creature''s soul protection before it could go deep; the Prophet was still a living thing with a soul. His half-broken spear soon reached the creature''s head, though, and then his hand. He exploded the Prophet''s head into bits.
The corpse felt dead to him, without a soul, so Shen used his aura to crush it into a pulp and then burn it into ashes. That wouldn''t be enough to kill a Prophet. Supposedly, he needed a domain for that. Evidently, even that wasn''t enough in this specific case, as E''livia should''ve tried to kill the creature already. Shen guessed the creature''s extreme survival had something to do with the Void orb, which he could do nothing against. Still, the more he crushed the body, the more time it would take to return.
Well, that''s what should happen. Usually. You could never be sure with the Void, much less in this case.
Shen could do nothing to support E''livia in this fight either. The Void Prophet was peak C-rank. It had allowed Shen to kill it, and if his guesses were correct, he''d better not stay around to find out why. He grabbed E''livia, turned¡ª
"Herald Shen," the Void Prophet said.
Its voice was deep, sounding both male, female, and billions of other sexes¡ªnot genders, actual sexes¡ªthat didn''t exist, all simultaneously. Just hearing it made his ears bleed. The creature floated, completely healed, a few yards before Shen.
The Heavenly Lightning had previously blocked the knowledge that Shen was a Herald. Now, Void Energy simply materialized in his True Core and released the memory for him. The Heavens did nothing to stop it. Despite the earlier blockade, he had felt an uncanny connection to Void Energy. Now, his suspicions were confirmed.
"Hello?" Shen said. There was no fleeing. He''d better try to talk things out.
"Your tribute has been accepted," the Prophet said. "Alas, we cannot save you from the circumstances you asked deliverance from. Our Emissary has long passed. What do you ask for instead?"
Shen would love to remember what the Void Overmind, which had evidently overtaken the boy, was talking about. Obviously, he didn''t. The Void Energy had disappeared after letting him recall his identity and didn''t return to help him elucidate that.
He could infer he had tried to make a deal with the Void. It seemed he had paid for the Void to kill one of its Emissaries. The Emissary was no more, so the Void owed him.
Shen felt sick for having dealt with the Void. He wanted nothing to do with it. Since he already had something to do with it, he would seek to end that as soon as possible. He almost asked it to just let him go.
He stopped himself in time.
Whatever he had done for the Void was already done. He might as well use it for the greater good.
"Can you cleanse the Tribulation Lightning from me, heal my soul and mind before they are infected, and let me and this girl go unharmed?" Shen asked.
394. Tens of Thousands
The Prophet replied almost before Shen finished speaking. "We can."
The voices came as before, with no emotion or different tone. Yet, the strange connection Shen felt to Void Energy kind-of-almost-but-not-really made him feel something. He took it to mean that the Void could, yes, acquiesce to his request, but it might not be the best choice.
So, he asked, "Can I ask for different things, one after the other, until you''ve repaid me?"
"You can," the Prophet replied.
"Then, the first thing I want is for you to reveal why you let me know my choice might not be the best option, but in such a roundabout way."
This time, the Void took a moment to reply. Shen didn''t think the Void Overmind behind the Prophet had trouble understanding the question or coming up with an answer. It should have to do more with the Prophet''s connection to the Void than the subject.
"We did not," the Prophet replied at long last. "The Gardener has infused this universe''s Axioms of Life with the Law of Caring Cultivation. It permeates all living beings and has allowed you to glimpse part of this Prophet''s thoughts by instinct. That wouldn''t happen in other places, but the Gardener is the Law of Caring Cultivation''s Enduring Pillar. His proximity strengthens his Ascended Law, allowing the Axioms of Life to pierce through the veil that only Light is normally able to. We have now fully forced this Prophet''s mind to sleep as we speak; Reality won''t be able to interfere with our conversation. As an apology, the answer to this question was provided at no cost."
Shen tasted the Law of Caring Cultivation''s name in his mind. So that''s what the Gardener''s Path had become. More interestingly, the Gardener still had influence over his Ascended Law; he was an Enduring Pillar, whatever that meant. That influence wasn''t small, either, if it had even affected the Void on some level. Shen wanted to know more but wouldn''t waste his "credit" with the Void by asking about such a common thing.
His first instinct was to ask what was wrong with his earlier request, but he had a much better question to ask instead.
"What''s the best thing I can get from you with the credit remaining after you answer this question?"
Once more, the Void Overmind replied instantly, "Erasal."
That was meaning in that single word. It meant the absolute end of his existence. Ceasing to be at a level so fundamental that Shen couldn''t even start to comprehend.
He should''ve seen that coming; he was talking to the Void, after all.
"I mean from the perspective of someone who believes living and thriving in Reality is closely linked to the best result possible."
"We wouldn''t know."
Shen smiled self-deprecatingly. He should also have seen that coming. The Void Overmind that existed on the edge between Reality and Void could think¡ªsomething the Void should be unable to¡ªbut it didn''t work exactly like a living being''s mind. Some things were beyond it, like putting itself in a living being''s place.
Fortunately, he had someone else to ask. "I want to hear this Prophet''s honest answer to that question."
There was no visible change in the angel-like man, as there had been none when its mind was forced into deep sleep. Yet, the voice that followed was what Shen would''ve expected from a young man full of vigor.
"If I your place, I ask two things," he said, his voice emotionless. Shen wasn''t sure whether the Prophet spoke Stangue poorly or if the Void Overmind''s presence affected his speech. "One, I and my influence leave Myriad Worlds. Two, Void removes Void''s blessing from you. You unique opportunity be free and remake yourself. Get rid every connection remains. Gardener owe you, let you free. Void frees you. Waste opportunity not. Die to tribulation better than live with shortcut. Not interfere, or you live incomplete. I swear."
Shen frowned. He didn''t feel like he could trust that answer. "How about my soul and mind? Will the Heavens heal them after the tribulation is over?"
The millions of voices replied, "No, but you can survive as yourself if you succeed in the tribulation. That is all we can answer. If we say more, you won''t be able to ask for what our Prophet suggested."
His frown deepened. Halting the Void''s plans in the Myriad Worlds sounded very unimportant to him. However, it would prevent the Gardener from interfering with him during his tribulation, which the Prophet considered a good thing.
Getting rid of the Void''s blessing¡ªor taint¡ªsounded great, though. Shen hadn''t known that was possible. He had no idea what that taint actually meant, but he wanted nothing to do with the Void.
If not for the last part, he would''ve ignored the suggestion. The Prophet believed it was better to die in the tribulation than get rid of it. Shen''s life would be incomplete if he stopped midway through. Although Shen had heard no tales of any tribulation stopping midway through¡ªwithout killing the cultivator, that is¡ªhe knew tribulations strengthened those who survived them. It made sense to do as the Prophet had suggested.
However, as much sense as it made, there were other things Shen wanted. The Prophet wasn''t Shen. He couldn''t know what was truly the best for him¡ªas the beginning of the answer suggested; "If I were you."
Another interesting thing he noticed was that E''livia had been wrong. She had thought this was a new Prophet, but if the creature had enough influence over that world for it to be relevant to the Gardener, it should''ve been around for a long time.
Instead of agreeing to the suggestion, Shen asked, "Do I have enough credit for you to kill the Gardener for me?"
Shen''s logic was straightforward: the Gardener had infected him. His Law of Caring Cultivation had tugged Shen''s connection to the Void, which Shen didn''t even fully feel. A sense he barely had had been manipulated.
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Theoretically, that had been for his own good. Shen didn''t care. He hated being directly manipulated the most, and he couldn''t accept something like that from a hypocrite who forbade politics in his World Tree.
Moreover, the manipulation meant Shen couldn''t trust his senses; thus, he couldn''t trust anything the Void told him. He wouldn''t be confident of making any deal until the Gardener was gone. He still had to try the one deal that would let him get rid of the Gardener, though.
"Yes," the Void replied.
That was very telling. Whatever Shen had done was valuable enough for him to ask for an S-rank to be killed. The Void might be lying by mistake; it might believe it had the power to kill an S-rank but lack it.
"Do it," Shen commanded.
Reality shook for a moment, then returned to normal.
"It''s done," the Void Overmind said. "What else, Herald Shen?"
Shen''s frown returned. "Do I still have credit after you killed an S-rank?"
"Yes. Killing the Gardener is easy. We can kill him again tens of thousands of times to repay you. Do you want that?"
"Wait, what?!"
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The Gardener sat on a stone, fishing with a simple bamboo rod on a lake in the middle of grassy plains. His gaze ignored the A-rank fish on the water; he was staring at many other things. One of the matters he paid attention to required his sight to travel distances that no amount of space could bridge and pierce the protections of the leaf where the boy was.
He smiled at the boy''s last request as he followed his line of thought through his soul ripples. That one had a good head on his shoulders. His soul was infected by different forces, and he sought to remove at least one of them.
The Heavens were part of Reality itself, so removing their influence from his Path came after removing any other influence. The Void''s taint was relatively harmless until it was time to Ascend one''s Law, so he had time to deal with that¡ªif he was even aware of it. That left the Gardener''s "influence" to be removed, as the boy saw it to be.
The Gardener was glad his little Alliance still trained some people well. That''s what the Alliance had been created for. Only then could they¡ª
His line of thought stopped when the Void materialized inside him and consumed the entire world he was in.
He returned to life a moment later in the exact same spot. Enduring Pillars like him could be killed. It hurt a lot, but he would return to life as long as his Law persisted in Reality. Only another Ascended Law could permanently get rid of him¡ªthat was the ultimate gap between Destiny Realization and Law Defining cultivators, or A-ranks and S-ranks, as the Alliance called it. The Void might also destroy him with some focused attacks, but those wouldn''t be able to reach this place.
The Void knew he could return, but the boy didn''t, so he hadn''t asked for the Gardener to be permanently removed.
Good for the boy; if that had been the request, he would''ve died before he could even think of continuing his conversation with the Void Overmind. Good for the Gardener, too; Shen''s request was even better for the Gardener than the thing the Prophet had suggested. If the Prophet had left the Myriad Worlds and brought its influence with it, it could have used those resources in another place. But now, the Gardener looked at his Myriad Worlds and located the billions of surprisingly deep and well-hidden Void Insertion Points that were used for the Void to reach him there.
The Prophet''s plans were impressive but lacking. Even the Void shouldn''t know the depths of the World Tree''s Roots. Even if the Prophet''s schemes had been completed, they wouldn''t have caused more than medium damage.
The Gardener didn''t blame the boy for his choice. The Tribulation of Remaking made him even more ignorant than the boy was known for being during his life. Too young, that one; too inexperienced.
The Void Insertion Points... His people could take care of it. The little girl was confused, but she had a loyal heart that would be useful to help everyone in the Myriad Worlds. She could be honed by destroying some Void Phenomena.
The Gardener smiled. That was if she didn''t give her heart to the dashing young hero who was about to save her life. He hoped she would. He loved a good love story.
The hero... The Gardener supposed he owed the boy a little help after he revealed the Void''s plans in the Myriad Worlds, even by coincidence. That would allow the Gardener to counter some of the methods the Void had used. Also, it would be too wasteful to let Shen die like that after the Gardener worked so hard to help him survive and hide him from the Primordials.
The Gardener wouldn''t help too much, though. He wasn''t willing to pay the price for the boy.
He pondered his options and concluded the best thing he could do for Shen now was to prevent him from making a deal until he survived the Tribulation¡ªif he did. The Prophet had been right about that; surviving it would greatly benefit Shen. The boy would be in a better position to ask for something after it was done¡ªincluding being able to understand that being affected by an Ascended Law was not the same as being purposefully influenced by the Law''s Enduring Pillar! The Prophet had been sneaky with that bit of misdirection¡ªwhich, to be honest, was one of the reasons the Gardener decided to deal with this matter by permanently getting rid of the little bastard.
He Willed it, and the creature ceased to exist forever.
A golden Lightning Bolt as thick as a sun appeared in the skies out of nowhere and fell on him. He had just interfered with Shen''s tribulation for the first time by directly saving the boy. The Heavens weren''t happy about that.
The Heavenly Lightning never struck him, as his Law eroded it long before it reached him. The lightning bolt was but a warning. He was a Law Elevation cultivator, thus somewhat liked by the Heavens.
The Heavens would be serious the next time, though. He would still survive, but at great cost¡ªwhich he wasn''t willing to pay for the boy. This was a one-time thing. The boy would receive considerably less help than every other C-rank in the Myriad Worlds. The Gardener interfered to save those at least three times, as long as they were relatively good people. He wouldn''t have the Little Ones in his garden die without assisting a little.
With his "debt" to Shen repaid, the Gardener sent a few commands to his sect to act against the Void Insertion Points and returned to fishing.
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One moment, the Prophet revealed B-rank power and came for Shen. The next, pure Life materialized everywhere around them. It was so bountiful that it started healing Shen''s soul. It was only a tiny bit but still unimaginable for him.
It proved an S-rank was involved.
The Prophet didn''t fare well. Grass instantly appeared on the ground, as if it had always been there, and then instantly became a massive grassy hand that enveloped the creature. It closed firmly, clenching with the Prophet in the middle, then faded away. The grass and all the Life in the area also faded away.
When Shen could once more see the place where the Prophet had been, the creature was gone.
Shen saw everything happen, but somehow, it took less than an instant. The very Laws of Reality he could feel became weak in that region. Whoever had done that had forced Reality itself to behave in a way it shouldn''t, and it came with a cost for the local Axioms, though they were rapidly recovering.
Shen shuddered in fright. That had to have been the Gardener. He had counter-attacked the Void Prophet after getting killed. Shen doubted the creature could return to the Void, considering an S-rank had been involved in killing it. It should be gone for good.
He really hoped the Gardener hadn''t been paying that much attention and knew Shen had asked for the Void to kill him.
He waited, tense, for a few moments. Nothing happened. He still didn''t sigh in relief, though. Instead, he would show proactivity in the slim chance that it might help him not get obliterated if the Gardener ever found out about his involvement in his murder.
He still had no idea why an S-rank could be killed thousands of times and "survive," but he did his best not to even think about it in case the Gardener was looking that way.
Shen started poking E''livia''s face so she would wake up and, hopefully, tell him she could get rid of that Void Energy now that the Void Prophet was gone. Shen really wanted the merit for that.
395. Way Too Nervous
E''livia woke up to her soul shaking like a bagatisk. It took her a moment to notice there was a pattern to the trembling. It was meant to shock her awake without actually injuring her.
By that point, she had already gone a little wild with the one doing their best to wake her up.
She couldn''t be fully blamed. Anyone would use their full force if they woke up with their soul under "attack." So, she deployed her domain and used it to kill the one "attacking" her. The target resisted her domain''s direct attempt to squish him, so she locked him in place and went for his head and heart¡ªas she detected he was a biological biped. Her right hand pierced a robe, skin, flesh, and bone. It held the target''s heart and turned it into pulp. Her left hand went for the brain¡ª
Oh, she didn''t have a left hand any longer. One didn''t simply heal from an injury caused by a Prophet using Void Energy. She would need assistance with that.
The lack of a hand grounded her back in reality, and she realized what was going on. So, she knew she wasn''t entirely to blame. There was no questioning it.
And yet, she hated the feeling of extreme guilt already eating her heart away.
It had been bad enough after she lashed out against the Outsider for being annoying. Lashing out like that was normal back home, just part of her personality. The sect''s formations would''ve triggered and protected everyone, and she would get punished for her initiative, not for actually almost killing someone.
But here...
It was his fault for looking at her like all those annoying boys back in the sect! Of course, it was!
But, kiles, she was feeling terrible already for attacking a mostly non-guilty¡ªthough annoying¡ªguy. Now, she had crushed his kileng heart!
She wanted to say she was sorry, but she wasn''t that stupid. Instead of immediately trying to make things right, she teleported away firstt. She still recalled the feeling of the spear approaching her head from behind. She still recalled his aura.
His Path.
The Outsider wasn''t like her. In fact, he wasn''t like any of the people in the Myriad Worlds, except maybe the Destiny Realization cultivators who fought the real wars instead of policing the World Tree''s inner worlds. Everyone in the Myriad Worlds had grown up under the Gardener''s care. They did fight and kill and die...
...but nothing that could turn someone into what she had felt in that Path.
Shen''s very existence had been forged in conflict, quenched in blood, refined in lethal purpose. He didn''t seem to realize how dreadful his Path was. How forceful and definitive. It had shocked her more than the fact that an aura could infiltrate the Third Spatial Boundary.
His Path had made her feel something new: a genuine fear of death. He would have killed her after her first attack because that''s what he did. He was an executioner, a weapon of death, an unsheathed blade merely looking for an excuse to fulfill its purpose.
So, now, she retreated because she feared he would counter-attack after her mistake and kill her somehow.
He didn''t. He couldn''t, actually. She was still holding him with her domain, and he could do nothing to counter it¡ªnot without releasing his own domain, which he wasn''t doing. She suspected he couldn''t. Most who developed domains before mastering a Law couldn''t push them into the outside world without breaking their souls.
"I''m sorry," she said. Meanwhile, she sent what remained of his heart back to its rightful place, inside the hole she created in his chest. The remains would make healing easier. "Will you attack me if I release you?" She allowed his mouth to move so he could answer.
"No," he replied and quickly added. "The Void orb. Can you get rid of it?"
E''livia looked around and felt the surroundings with her domain. Heavens, that Outsider made her unable to think straight! How could she ignore an Ignited Void Insertion Point like that?!
She put her guard up, looking for the Prophet and preparing to flee in the opposite direction when she found it. Feeling the weak Axioms in the area gave her a bad feeling; what had the Prophet done while she was unconscious?! Failure to detect her foe made her so anxious she almost didn''t hear the Outsider''s following words.
"The Gardener erased the Void Prophet from existence," he informed. "From what I understood, the Prophet tried to kill the Gardener. For some reason, the Gardener didn''t like it. Now, focus. Can you get rid of the orb?"
E''livia didn''t doubt the boy. The story was too outlandish to be made up. Moreover, the Gardener''s intervention could explain why the local Axioms had weakened. She could only thank the Gardener for saving her life¡ªagain. Even if only in vengeance for the Void''s attack, not for her.
"Yes, I can, of course," she replied. "It''ll take a while. I won''t be able to move while doing it. I mean, I can move during the Cleansing, but I''ll have to start over. Don''t even think of using it to attack me. I''ll be able to protect myself."
Heavens, she hoped he didn''t kill her. What was her Dad thinking when she sent such a monster with her? Even if the Outsider didn''t kill her, hadn''t her Dad heard sheltered girls like her fell in love with bad boys all the time? What if the Outsider had a dragon Engraving going from one arm to his back, a phoenix Engraving going from the other arm to his back, a black wyrm leather jacket, and rode a golden-horned red and blue qilin? What if he gave her a ride on his qilin as they fled the Myriad Worlds to explore all of Reality together, just the two of them?
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Of course, she would rather die than marry outside the sect, but her Dad would lose her girl all the same! He was crazy! This was madness!
E''livia glanced at the Outsider. He was rather dashing. She was so used to white, golden, and bronze-skinned people that his dark blue skin made him look a little mysterious and made her curious. His white hair was nice. His proportions weren''t bad¡ªnot as many muscles as she liked, but it would do.
Of course, he had not to kill her for them to even speak properly.
Kiles, he made her way too nervous. So what if he was hot? She couldn''t date someone she feared would attack her at any moment. And even if that feeling disappeared, she didn''t want to be with someone so dangerous. She didn''t like that in the rebellious males of the tales. She liked good guys.
"I already promised I won''t attack you," the Outsider said, annoyed. "What are you waiting for? It''s the Void we''re talking about! Get rid of the orb!"
She had been so distracted by her thoughts that she hadn''t heard him promise anything the first time. Still, she didn''t dwell on it¡ªor on how she hated his tone. She grabbed her remaining three wings, ripped them from her back¡ªpainful, potentially crippling, but necessary¡ªand threw them on the Ignited Void Insertion Point. She then used the Origin Avon Life Fluid coming from her wings to draw a massive three-dimensional ritual circle around the Insertion Point. The golden blood shone brightly in proximity to the Void Energy.
The last time she did this, the Insertion Point spat a Prophet on her. This time, nothing happened. So, she moved until she stood before her ritual runes.
"You can return my daggers now," she said before she fully focused on the ritual.
He had been wise to take them away from her before waking her up like that and was holding them. She didn''t like the humiliation of asking someone to return her weapons, which she should''ve taken care of, but it was better than remaining weaponless. She had replacements in her spatial piercing, but they weren''t as good as her main weapons.
Outsider Shen shrugged and simply opened his hands. She picked the blades with her Path and brought them to her. Paradoxically, it made her feel considerably less safe. If he wanted to kill her and was willing to return the daggers, it meant he was confident of ignoring her defenses no matter how well-equipped she was!
"Thanks," she barely said and turned her back to him.
Usually, the next hours would be very dull as she reached a balance between willpower consumption and recovery and remained there until, with the ritual and the Life Fluid''s help, she ground the Void Energy in that place to nothingness.
Instead, a very tense E''livia did her very best not to think about the Outsider on her back as she potentially saved the world.
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Shen had been forced to use an emergency soul therapy trick he had learned... somewhere. E''livia wouldn''t wake up no matter what else he tried. He was glad he had grabbed the girl''s daggers before doing it, as he had been taught. He would''ve survived lacking a brain if she had used her daggers by instinct instead of her hands, but it would have been annoying, and who knows if she would''ve stopped there?
Speaking of which, it had been entertaining to see a real heart get pulled from inside him instead of the Heavenly Lightning that was replacing and mimicking the massive hole in his chest. When she returned his heart, it reverted to being just lightning. He could guess how it worked because Reality could create matter out of nowhere¡ªeven he could do it with his Laws¡ªbut not why. Why was the fa?ade important? Why shouldn''t people¡ªat least those too weak to notice the tribulation¡ªknow about his condition?
Moreover, the experience had also been enlightening. He learned his "Heavenly Flesh," the illusion replacing the gap in his chest, made him immune to physical attacks in the area. He had felt nothing as she pushed her hand into his body, crushed "his heart," and removed it. That might come in handy during a fight.
Right now, he had to decide whether to trust the girl.
Shen had witnessed a town full of people who were vessels for Void Energy. Then, he saw a Void Prophet from the same race as the girl. Now, she was supposedly getting rid of the orb¡ªor she might be becoming a Prophet in her own right. For all that he knew, everyone in the Myriad Worlds worshiped the Void and wanted to become Prophets. The girl certainly had shown enough disregard for his life when they met, so she wasn''t the epitome of ethics and morals.
Shen had had a good experience with the previous Prophet, but who knew if the Void still wanted to repay him after his request caused the Gardener to kill one of its Prophets? He didn''t want to find out the answer until he became B-rank, at the very least, and could better protect himself.
He debated with himself and decided he had no real choice here. He still wanted the Void Energy gone to accrue some merit with the Gardener. He couldn''t kill E''livia without her father killing him. His only choice was to hope for the best¡ªand run at the slightest sign anything was wrong.
Shen sighed. Things would be so much easier if the girl didn''t try to pretend to be afraid of him! She had effortlessly held him with her domain when she woke up and showed him the disparity between the two of them. He was helpless against a domain holder, who could change Reality around him to make it impossible for him to move. She could also prevent his Aural Realm from infiltrating the boundary between the third and fourth spatial dimensions. Yet, there she was, pretending to be scared of someone whom she could kill with a flick of her mind.
Heavens, Shen hated being weak. He''d better change that quickly.
"Before you start," he said, interrupting the girl who had obviously just started. But she had said it would only delay her a little. He didn''t feel guilty for those few seconds lost. "Could you tell me how to cultivate in my realm?"
He didn''t trust her, but he had nothing to lose by asking her about it, either.
Shen couldn''t recall what to do to reach B-rank. It wasn''t the Heavenly Lightning that stopped him; the knowledge seemed to be missing from his mind. Not knowing how to grow stronger was eating him away, and it got even worse whenever he was reminded of his weakness.
He could tell he was C-rank without mastered Laws. He knew he had to master his Laws to reach B-rank but had no idea how to do so¡ªor how to cultivate at all. Everything was missing, from the very first step for a commoner to start cultivating. It was almost as if someone was scared that a single memory on the subject might trigger others, so they had removed everything.
Shen hated being manipulated like that, but whether the responsible were the Heavens or the Gardener, he could only endure for now and do his best to remedy his weakness¡ªuntil he became strong enough to seek revenge.
"Please," Shen added, cupping his hands before himself and bowing humbly to the girl''s back. "This is really important to me. I''d be very grateful."
396. Thats Impossible
E''livia frowned when Shen interrupted her ritual. The frown only deepened at his question. It upset her enough that she stopped pretending to be afraid of him.
"What''s your play here?" she asked straight.
Once more, her straightforwardness was refreshing. Instead of trying to guess his reasons or investigate in a roundabout manner, she asked and expected a clear answer. Shen still thought the Gardener Sect''s definition of politics was too inflexible, but it was nice when it worked in his favor¡ªhe would answer honestly, and she was more or less expected to believe him, even if with some reserves.
Of course, her openness only made him question why she would pretend to fear him. The obvious answer, that it was a real fear, was too outlandish for him to believe. He would need to keep watching out for other signs that might give him the answer.
On a different note, he wondered if being in a culture where manipulating her was against the rules made her more likely to struggle to deal with her feelings, like when she attacked him. Maybe even hiding emotions or going against them was considered some sort of politics in her sect. Something to investigate later.
"There''s no play," Shen replied. "I forgot everything about cultivating. I know the realms and what they represent. I know I need to master my Laws to reach B-rank but not how to do it."
Her frown deepened, which he had thought impossible. Her face had a wider physical range of expressions than the drow. It was almost cartoonish.
She asked, "Do I look that stupid to you?" and didn''t give him a chance to answer before adding, "No one can forget everything they know about cultivation. It would break them. Your cultivation history is like... Like the stones that set your Path''s foundations. You cannot forget everything you know and live. That''s impossible."
Shen knew the tribulation didn''t want people to know about it, and it might end up with him punished instead of any listener, so he gave her the same information he had given the guards in Alaans. That hadn''t caused any issues that he was aware of. "I lost most of my memories. I''m looking to figure out my Will; I think I''ll recover at least most of them when I do. But what if it takes too long? I''d rather restart cultivating now."
In theory, she knew he was undergoing a tribulation because her father had revealed it. Still, he wasn''t sure if directly revealing his state was because of the tribulation would break some sort of rule. He''d rather be less than completely honest with her and risk her sect''s ire than the Heavens''.
E''livia was still visibly doubtful but eased her frown. "I guess I can''t see what you have to gain by lying about that. You should ask my father to check... Oh! The tribulation!"
So, she wasn''t stupid.
Unfortunately so.
Shen found out he had, indeed, broken some sort of rule.
The Heavenly Lightning in his Path went haywire, ravaging through his True Core. The divine electricity went to and fro his Path, which was his soul, body, mind, everything. It pierced everything he was, everywhere, nonstopping for long moments. It left minuscule but painful holes whenever it passed. His domain, which held his Path together and kept E''livia from crushing him like a bug, was useless in protecting him from the very Heavens.
And yet, Shen didn''t lose himself despite all that damage. Not yet, at least. Every memory, no ability, and personality trace was kept; any hole was quickly replaced with thousands of "stitches" made of more lightning. The Heavens could destroy as much as they could keep him alive.
In the end, about twenty percent of his True Core had been obliterated and replaced by Heavenly Lightning.
The tribulation held him together for now, but the warning was clear: do not reveal the tribulation to anyone else. The Gardener and E''lemer had found out by themselves, and that was allowed. He, however, couldn''t even tangentially lead someone to find out the truth.
On top of anguishing over the pain, Shen was upset. He hadn''t talked about the tribulation to her. As usual, he swallowed it down. Getting angry at the Heavens was useless until he reached S-rank.
The pain was excruciating, and yet Shen didn''t show any signs of it. Not because he didn''t want to, but because the lightning also forced him to stay still. He also couldn''t reveal that he wasn''t supposed to tell people details of his tribulation, though at least the Heavens were merciful enough to stop him from breaking that previously unknown rule.
Shen still tried to tell her not to speak of his tribulation to anyone, but his mouth didn''t move. Just to make sure, he thought about giving hints about the subject being touchy, but he was kept frozen.
When he thought of attacking her, though, his body moved freely.
The Heavens were sending a clear message: kill whoever you shared the information with or be prepared for any consequences of letting them know. This tribulation wasn''t about soft skills. It wouldn''t allow him to use them in any way whatsoever.
Alas, Shen couldn''t kill E''livia even if he wanted to. Simply put, he was too weak to accomplish it. His chance had passed in their first clash when Big Bad Dad saved her. She was always keeping her guard up around him now.
As a last resort, he thought about asking her to accompany him to a random place or help him apply to the Gardener Sect. The Heavens didn''t block him from moving his mouth to potentially speak those words. So, misdirection and very indirect control were allowed as long as they didn''t touch any subject related to the tribulation.
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A small mercy, at last.
All that happened in a few moments. E''livia was still looking at Shen, waiting for him to give any sign of her being right. She took his uncomfortable halt as confirmation and smiled, glad for connecting the dots.
"Alright." She placed her hands behind her back and puffed up her chest, looking at the horizon like a ridiculously hot female sage. "Listen well, student. I''ll only speak once; how much you understand the secrets of cultivation will depend on your talent." She sneaked a glance at him from the corner of her eyes and showed her tongue. "Kidding." She smiled, winked, then reverted to the sage pose.
"To cultivate is to seek Truth. The Truth of yourself. The Truth of the world. The Truth of Truth itself. Forget about power and immortality; they are but consequences, the marks of those who walk the Path¡ª"
"Bullshit," Shen interrupted. "The Path is also power and immortality. You can''t dissociate one from the other. To deny that truth is to deny Reality itself."
He couldn''t stop himself from correcting her because it touched on beliefs deeply rooted in his own Path. He expected her to get upset, but she smiled excitedly instead.
"Very well, student! I, E''Livia, shall defeat you in a Truth and Axiom Debate!" She was so happy she closed her fists and softly punched the air. "I love them! No one debates with me anymore because I defeated everyone! I call dibs on starting! Student, tell me, what is power?"
Shen didn''t want to get into a damn Truth and Axiom Debate, whatever it was. He only wanted to cultivate! Yet, her question resonated with him. He knew power was part of his Will, and he wanted to make sure she didn''t twist at least that concept.
He answered, "Power is power. It''s strength, technique, talent, status. The ability to achieve one''s goals."
She raised an eyebrow at that, surprised. His answer was simple but precise. Power could be more or less than that, but he had defined what he believed power to be. Unless she meant to find fault in details, there was little to be said against it.
"I concede this topic to you," she said almost solemnly. "What is your question in this Debate?"
Shen refused to engage further at that time sink. "How do I cultivate my Laws to master them?"
"What? No! That''s not a valid question! You must ask something grand. Philosophy, the mysteries of life and death, souls, Axioms! That stuff!"
He sighed. "Look, I don''t mean to be disrespectful, but I think you''re getting caught up in your own world and ignoring reality. You need to get rid of this Void orb before it spits another Prophet, don''t you? And I feel humiliated by my weakness and want to grow powerful, not waste time measuring my beliefs against yours. You..."
Shen trailed off as he finally understood her. Everything he had seen made sense when seen from a simple perspective, "You treat everything like it''s some sort of play. Inconsequential." Even her fear made sense; she had never felt real fear of death before he almost killed her and was stopped by her dad. "It''s not. This is the real world. My weakness means anyone like you can kill me if they want. It defines my priorities and how I interact with the world."
He didn''t want to admit to his fear, but her fear of him hadn''t made her flee from him in when she woke up. So, he had nothing to gain by pretending to be almighty before her. Moreover, if he wasn''t sincere, it might be considered politics later and bite him in the ass.
He continued, "I don''t have anyone to depend on. Even if I did, I don''t recall them, so I can''t call for help. My life is in my own hands. There''s no Gardener Sect, no father, no safety net. I want this Void orb gone so I feel safer. I want to grow stronger so I feel safer. That''s what people do when faced with the inexorable reality of their inadequacy in a world where power dictates what is true or false, good or bad, who lives and who dies. So forgive me if I don''t want to get into a debate right now. We can do that after the Void orb is gone and I have finished my cultivation session."
In fact, if he wasted enough of her time in the debate¡ªand insisted they do it on the move while he explored that world¡ªhe might prevent her from getting back to the sect or interacting with anyone she might talk about his tribulation to. He was pretty sure he could lead a sheltered girl around with a few complex questions. Unless, of course, she hadn''t lied about being a good debater. Shen doubted that was the case; more likely, people refused to debate with her nowadays because she wanted to do it at the worst time possible, like now.
He was a bit dry at the end of his speech. A bit condescending, too. But she just flushed in shame and slightly lowered her head like a berated child.
"Sorry!" she half-yelled and bowed.
Her earnest and childish response made Shen feel uncomfortable at the way he had been admiring her physique. She looked like a drow who had reached adulthood a few years ago, but was she mentally that old? Some races matured physically much earlier than others. He had no memory of how everyone was supposed to deal with that, but, personally, he would only interact intimately with anyone if both their mind and body were mature enough.
Well, he didn''t need to guess. This was a "free question world," wasn''t it? So he asked, "How old are you?"
E''livia frowned at his question. "Old enough to marry!" she replied bluntly. "Why? Do you think it''s shameful to admit to one''s mistakes?! You kileng moron! Only a weak-willed idiot would think admitting to one''s ignorance and allowing oneself to grow is immature! To protect one''s ego in the face of reality is to protect the false before the Truth! No cultivator can get far in the Path if they only care about protecting their public image!"
Her answer was interesting and reflected her view on cultivation well; she was pursuing Truth. But Shen had to throw her hypocrisy at her face to see what happened. Would her ego speak louder? Or would she admit to her mistake despite her emotional state?
"Wasn''t protecting your public image and ego exactly what you did when I called you Arrogance Incarnate?" he poked. "You almost killed me for it."
E''livia opened her mouth to say something. Nothing came out. She closed it, opened it again, closed it, became furious, then just waved her hand. An info cube materialized from her spatial treasure¡ªwhich wasn''t visible¡ªand flew his way.
She turned her back to him, looked at her ritual runes, and quietly said, "I''m not perfect, but at least I try to improve. And I succeed where others fail. Constantly. If you remember anything about True Paths and how power cements oneself, you''ll know how impressive I am. Think about what that means, then call me a child again if you dare."
Unfortunately for her, Shen did not, in fact, recall anything about power cementing oneself. He only knew he shouldn''t be able to directly affect his True Core as he had done during this tribulation, for which he paid a hefty price, the hole in his chest.
So, he just ignored her and checked the info cube''s content. It contained a lot of information about cultivation, from philosophy, research, statistics, hard data, race-specific knowledge¡ªwhich didn''t include the drow¡ªand the universal steps anyone had to walk to progress.
Shen also ignored most of it and went straight for the last part. He was done absorbing that content within seconds.
He found out he had to use his insights and guesses about his Laws to connect to Reality and grow stronger. Currently, he had none of those. At least none that he recalled. But at the same time, his "blank state" made it very easy for him to see and question things that others might ignore as he analyzed his Laws and their purpose in the world.
So, he sat with his back to E''livia and started watching the world.
397. Crushed Under His Own
Shen looked at the world for a couple of hours. He felt his Laws and how they interacted with each other and the physical realm. He concentrated, relaxed, tried everything he could to get any sort of enlightenment.
Not a single insight or question about his Laws surfaced in his mind.
His Laws were what they were. He understood what he understood of them. There was no improving his mastery over his Laws until his tribulation was over.
Maybe that was why his Laws were hidden from him when he focused on his True Center. He could only see his Will and Honor, and likely only because he had directly reshaped them. They had become visible from the moment he decided to change them. Everything else was beyond his senses.
Shen''s failure to improve his Laws tasted sour in his mouth, but he didn''t give up on growing more powerful. Even if he couldn''t cultivate his Laws, it didn''t mean he couldn''t cultivate himself.
Shen closed his eyes while E''livia''s words echoed in his mind: "To cultivate is to seek Truth."
E''livia was strong. Stronger than him, actually. Her beliefs were not his, and her Path was not his. But maybe there was something to be gained from her experience. People listened to old cultivators talk about cultivation for a reason. E''livia was wrong to disconnect one''s Path from the power one gained walking it, but that didn''t mean every word coming out of her mouth was wrong.
So, he found nothing wrong with asking himself a simple question: What was his Truth?
Well, his Truth was that he had no idea who he really was.
Ever since Shen had woken up, he had found signs of someone erasing many of his memories before this tribulation. Now, for the first time, he stopped to think deeply about it. Seeing as how the Tribulation Lightning kept a tight grip on his remaining memories and even his movements, it was safe to assume this tribulation was related to his missing memories. The way he couldn''t fully feel his True Center led him to infer a big chunk of his Path had been altered, and Reality didn''t want him to see the new whole for whatever reason.
The change he had been subjected to had broken Reality''s rules. Whenever anyone broke an important rule, Reality either obliterated them or, if it was done within certain boundaries, tested the offender; that''s how cultivation tribulations worked.
He didn''t recall breaking any rules, but maybe he had done it. Alternatively, even if someone had forcibly changed him, as long as his existence offended Reality, he would also undergo a tribulation regardless of his willingness in the process.
Whatever the case, Shen concluded this tribulation was caused by his Path changing in a way it wasn''t meant to¡ªeven further than what E''livia had hinted at with her talk about power cementing oneself.
His Path hadn''t changed in a way any random idiot could or how E''livia claimed to be able to. Instead, it had been altered in such a fundamental way that it broke one of Reality''s rules in just the right way to summon a tribulation. When that happened, Reality gave the offender a chance to prove themselves. The way people cultivated nowadays, for instance, had been forged throughout the eons to occur in just the right way and order to provoke tribulations instead of death by messing up¡ªor an actual attack from the Heavens if you offended it.
Based on his state of mind and the hole in his chest, Shen could also assume Realty wanted to see if Shen could withstand his own changed self. That''s why some key memories were blocked, and he arrived with an almost empty mind. Shen had to prove he could withstand himself when many of his preconceptions were removed. That his changed self was genuine and True, in a way. That he could live with what he had become.
And he had already messed up once.
Shen had fixed his Path. He hadn''t accepted living with a Will that dominated his actions so thoroughly. By fixing that, he had shown to Reality that whatever he had become was, indeed, unworthy of living. That his existence had been defective.
Reality had enacted a price for that; the time for changes was past. That should only have been done before the tribulation. Any imperfections remaining in his Path had to be withstood, not fixed. He had to learn to live with himself, not touch up things here and there.
Or had Reality punished him for it?
Thing is, this tribulation was also an opportunity of sorts.
Shen would''ve died when he figured out part of his Will before fixing himself. His Will almost overwhelmed him after his change. If he had known from the beginning what his Will was, his existence would''ve been unmade as his Will overwhelmed him. And he would have known his Will if he hadn''t been forced to forget it.
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So, this tribulation was also a chance for him to correct any imbalance in his Path before it was subjected to his own memories¡ªbefore his own existence crushed him under his own weight.
Why, though? Shen didn''t understand why the Heavens were being that kind. If someone messed up while changing Shen''s Path¡ªeven if he had done it himself¡ªhe should just die. To cultivate was also to risk one''s life. The Heavens were not known for their mercy.
He was confident of his conclusions until now but was missing that key piece of the puzzle. The one thing that made the Heavens'' involvement make sense.
What rule had been thoroughly broken yet was special enough for the Heavens to send such a convenient tribulation?
It was almost as if the Heavens wanted... Warriors... To have experienced... Through... Confirmed Self... Anchored Truth... Change... Order...
Chaos¡ª
Shen''s mind froze.
A few moments had passed when he came back to his senses. He recalled almost everything except the conclusion he had nearly reached in the end. Moreover, whenever he tried to think about it, red lightning flared and blocked his thinking process. Only a vague feeling that he had been on the right track yet still missing something crucial remained.
Shen sighed. Once more, he accepted the fate of the weak and moved on.
Back to the matter of his Truth, at least his musings made him better prepared for the tribulation. The first part of this tribulation was to figure out his path''s Laws. He had accomplished it. The second part was about his Will. Maybe there was a third part, but maybe not. He''d better play it safe, looking for and fixing issues in his Path before actively trying to recall his Will.
As for how many things to fix... He had one other chance. One one. By the hole in his chest, another two changes to his True Center would cause his entire existence to be blown into nothingness and replaced with Heavenly Lightning. He was pretty sure that would count as a failure. So, he could only somewhat safely change one thing in his True Center.
That didn''t mean he could look for stuff to fix for the whole three years he had. If there were too many steps after figuring out his Will, he might need some time to complete them.
He considered it for a bit and settled on a two-month deadline. Shen would give himself two months to analyze his beliefs, Laws, and personality. After that, he might or might not fix something. Only then would he dedicate himself to figuring out his Will again.
As for whether the tribulation would regenerate his holes after it was over... Well, he had to hope for the best. He didn''t want to face the Gardener after getting the guy killed, so he couldn''t ask for help. He also doubted he could sneakily find an S-tier treasure in the Myriad Worlds without attracting the man''s attention, so even if he found one, he might need to think twice before acquiring it.
Of course, he would seek such treasure anyway. In fact, two extra months searching for soul-healing treasures before focusing on figuring out his Will sounded reasonable. It didn''t even need to be S-tier, either. Maybe A-tier treasures would work. Perhaps he might find an A-rank healer kind enough to help him, too.
At least Shen knew healing his soul was possible. He had experienced the Gardener''s Law when it infused the area and killed the Prophet. At least S-ranks could do that.
Heavens, he really hoped he didn''t need to ask the Gardener for help after what he had done. He didn''t know if his Honor would even allow him to do so without asking for forgiveness first, and that was a sure way to get killed.
Anyway, his plan sounded as good as any he could make with his current knowledge for now. He''d follow it. There was only one extra thing he wanted to add:
Crafting.
Shen didn''t recall any experience crafting anything, but he knew crafters had to be very intimate with their Path. A minor inconsistency in their self-knowledge would be reflected as imperfections in whatever they created, be it a pill, a piece of equipment, or even a technique. Likewise, the better they knew themselves, the better they could prevent their Path from infusing their creation in a way they would rather not.
The Way of Crafting was also called the Way of the Externalized Self for a reason¡ªand it was time for Shen to dib his toes in it.
As for the specific art... Forging would be too time-consuming; he barely recalled that there were too many things involved in high-level forging. Developing techniques was too likely to give him an insight into his Will, as it was related to Power. Woodworking or leatherworking might also cause him to touch on matters related to his Will because any battle equipment was so close to Power¡ªand he''d rather not craft furniture. He didn''t want to be that disconnected from his Path.
That left other arts unrelated to his Path and...
...alchemy.
Shen could safely say he knew almost nothing about alchemy. He was also confident in asserting that he had had minimal contact with it throughout his life. His memories seemed nearly intact when it came to alchemy, except for one time when he drank some liquid that someone gave him, and it did something to him.
In other words, he also saw no reason for alchemy to even exist. Cultivation was enough for any cultivator. Cultivators could deal with almost any issue anyone might have, cultivator or not. At most, they would require some special object or resource to help, but not a healing pill or something.
Almost always, raw, pure Power sufficed unless one was too weak to use qi and knowledge to deal with their issues.
So, alchemy was related to Power in just the right amount. Even high-level alchemy merely filled gaps for the weak, even if it was battle-related. He wouldn''t get huge insights about Power by dealing with stuff to help weaklings. It might even provide hints about where to find A-tier or S-tier people or resources¡ªnatural or crafted¡ªthat might help with his soul.
In fact, in hindsight, learning alchemy looked just perfect for his current self!
Shen smiled and felt considerably lighter as he guarded E''livia. The ritual was still going, and he used the remaining time to think about how to convince her to travel the world with him for months while he practiced alchemy¡ªwithout doing anything that looked politics.
And, Heavens, he really hoped Big Bad Dad didn''t kill him for running around with his daughter or something like that. Dying would most definitely suck. He''d know¡ª
Lightning flared, and his mind trembled.
When it came back to normal, he considered how dying would likely suck. Probably. He''d need to ask the Gardener to know, and he wouldn''t do that anytime soon.
398. Congratulations Are in Place
For hours, E''livia pushed her qi into the golden blood runes she had drawn. The runes glew up shiner and shiner until, five hours after she began, they were brighter than the setting sun. Another hour later, the pillar going to the heavens blinked out of existence, and the Void orb started shrinking. It stopped when it became a tiny spot and remained like that for a few extra hours. Then, at last, the three-dimensional formation around it quickly went for the Void dot, like a swiftly clenching hand.
Blood and Void Energy touched each other and vanished with a loud pop.
The sound traveled for miles, disrupting all qi in the area. The very Laws of Reality trembled. A moment later, everything returned to normal.
E''livia allowed her body to relax, took a deep breath, and muttered something in the local language. Shen only recognized the word "kileng," an obvious swear word. Then, she seemed to remember Shen, so she put her guard back up and turned to look at him.
She said, "This Void Phenomenom was at least C+ tier. Closest to B-tier I ever closed. Took me longer than I expected."
Shen noticed she had been upset about him calling the Gardener S-rank but had no issue with tiers.
"Is it cultural?" he asked, then explained his questions. "Things or Void-related stuff can be classified with tiers, but you get upset when I call a cultivator by his rank?"
She looked puzzled at his question. "Huh? Oh. Maybe? I guess. I never really thought about it. It''s just how we do."
So, definitely cultural. "I see. Good job with the Void orb. Is this Cleansing of yours some sort of secret? Or can you tell me how it works?"
"You couldn''t do it even if I told you," she said proudly. "You''d need freely given, fresh Origin Avon Life Fluid from half the wings of a holin of the same tier as the Void Phenomenon or higher."
So, her race was called "holin."
Shen replied, "I noticed your eyes were bleeding golden when I found you and your wings were bleeding silver. But your wings bled golden when you ripped them apart to draw the formation."
"Fresh Life Fluid versus old one. I meant it when I said knowledge about the Ritual of Cleansing would be useless to you. You can''t store Origin Avon Life Fluid, either; even time-stopping formations can''t prevent it from decaying and turning silver. Only free holins can deal with Void Phenomena of a similar tier as their power as easily as I did. Or stronger, even."
Shen didn''t know about those Void orbs, but her words sparked the memory of how to deal with Void Spawn. You could only kill them if you were of the same rank or higher. If these Phenomena were similar, her closing of a B-tier Void Phenomenon was impressive indeed.
She was still ignorant of the thing being B-tier, but Shen had been conscious when the Prophet released its B-rank power, which should mean...
He sighed. He was assuming things instead of asking and instinctively withholding information from E''livia on the off chance it gave him an edge in the future¡ªwhich he was confident would be considered politics by her sect.
So, he changed that. Shen revealed, "The Prophet displayed B-rank power in the end. I guess the Void orb was B-tier instead?"
"Oh? Really?" She smiled brightly. "My first B-tier Insertion Point!" She hooked the air with a closed fist. "Dad will be so proud!"
"Insertion Point?"
"This kind of Void Phenomenon; the most common one in the Myriad Worlds. It''s not as specialized as a Breach, so it can''t quickly spit countless Void Spawn, but it can do a bit of everything, including being used as an inferior Breach to throw some few dozen Void Spawn in Reality every day or so. The Void Sympathizes use it mostly to quickly move key personnel, communicate, and attack; it''s also a weapon, sort of."
So, the Myriad Worlds were engaged in some kind of guerilla warfare slash special operations combat against the Void. That felt... Irregular to Shen, though the Heavenly Lightning prevented him from assessing any memory he might have of fighting the Void before.
Whatever the case, he had been right. A C-rank had dealt with a B-tier Void Phenomenon. He knew B-tier Void Spawn could be killed with mastered Laws even if you were C-rank, but E''livia hadn''t used her Laws. Instead, she used pure qi and that ritual, which implied this was different from Void Spawn. This wasn''t just about Laws.
In other words, these holins were indeed impressive for their ability to jump tiers to deal with the Void.
"Back to the topic," Shen said, "the injury you had when I found you is still bleeding, but not the one you caused when you removed your wings right before the ritual. Your back has scabbed." His Law Vision and other meta-senses couldn''t pierce her armor, but the openings for her wings didn''t try to hide her body from sight.
Her smile became strained. "Was this your first time facing a Prophet?"
"Yes. As far as I recall, at least."
"Prophets can infect you with a unique form of Void Energy. We call it Doomsday Energy." She looked at him expectantly. He didn''t react. She continued, "You know, because Void Prophets are always blabbing about how all things will cease to exist in the end?" He still only stared at her. "Nevermind. Holin humor. Anyhow, the bastard was C+ tier, so I can''t heal any infected injury until Dad cleanses me. Or any other Path Outlining Ethereal Harmonization cultivator, I guess."
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Shen would rather call people B-ranks rather than Path Outlining Ethereal Harmonization cultivators. His way was much more convenient. But culture wasn''t always reasonable.
"Well, congratulations are in order!" he said with a wide smile.
Shen controlled exactly how excited he looked. He revealed precisely as much excitement as he was feeling, which, to be honest, was quite a bit. He had just witnessed something impressive that expanded his horizons. He would not have anyone accuse him of manipulating a member of the Gardener Sect.
"Thanks!" she said happily.
He continued, "I want to spend more time with you for some personal reasons. I''d rather not share what they are, but as far as I know, they are not bad for you." She widened her eyes, and he swiftly added, "They are not of an intimate nature! Not that you don''t look stunning¡ª" She frowned, and he stopped himself. "Never mind that. What I mean to say is, would you be willing to accompany me to the nearest city so I can order you a drink to celebrate?" He pulled his high-purity spirit stone from his sleeves. "I have too much money and nothing to spend it on. And I also want to talk to you about something."
Shen had carefully considered what he would tell E''livia¡ªsans the part about her looks¡ªand decided to go with the complete truth, with one exception. He would only hide from her that he wanted to keep her away from the people she knew so she wouldn''t tell anyone about his tribulation. That ulterior motive would undoubtedly be considered politics by the Gardener Sect, but the very Heavens were holding his mouth shut. There was nothing he could do. If the sect was half as upright as E''lemer had tried to make it look, they would understand his circumstances.
If not... Well, he''d curse the Heavens, the Gardener, and his bad luck as he died.
"I''d have to ask Dad," she said hesitantly.
"Of course," Shen agreed. "I need to get to a Garden City anyway if I want to exchange this for money to spend on a drink."
He had also considered he had to do that. It was risky, but it would make her trust him a little more. Also, he doubted she could just go on vacations before reporting the success of her mission.
Last but not least, she might get jailed as soon as she completed her mission unless he spoke on her behalf. She had attacked him, and her father said she''d be punished for it. Shen would rather keep her in his sight than trust that her punishment would stop her from talking to anyone.
She thought for a few moments and nodded. "Okay, I guess. Follow me."
E''livia started flying right away. Shen followed. A moment later, he used his secret weapon. "I promise to get in a Truth and Axiom Debate with you over our drink."
If that didn''t make her deal with all the bureaucracy as fast as possible and avoid chit-chatting with anyone, Shen didn''t know what would. And if anyone called that politics, screw them. This was just basic give and take between potential friends¡ªand he was being very clear about his intentions.
The holin slowed for a moment when she heard his words.
Then, she sped up so much that he had to ask her to wait for him.
Shen smiled all the way. His Path wasn''t big on soft skills, he was sure. But he had done good. And perhaps, maybe, just maybe, he might even enjoy being E''livia''s colleague in a setting where people were expected to be honest with each other.
Despite his remaining misgivings about how the Gardener Sect defined politics, Shen found he rather enjoyed these Myriad Worlds.
? ?
? ?
The Gardener had banished idolatry towards him as soon as the first living being prayed to him, but it quickly turned out to be a mistake. It caused some A-ranks to try to convert people''s hopes into some sort of twisted cultivation energy that prayed on the devotees. So he stopped those A-ranks and allowed the nonsense as long as it was directed to him or someone without a Realization¡ªas a Realization was required to prey on the faithful.
Despite his consent, there were no gods in Reality. Such a concept was anathema to any good cultivator. Often, only ill-intended ones called themselves gods.
But acting god was entertaining and could be useful. Occasionally, he acceded to a request from someone he thought deserved it or if he believed it would work for the greater good. Not always, as he didn''t want cultivators to depend on him¡ªit would cripple their Paths¡ªbut sometimes he was in the mood.
He also secretly helped most of the commoners in his World Tree as long as their requests were generally well-intended and good for all. He didn''t give them things, only knowledge or opportunities¡ªalso known as "random encounters." Even then, he was careful not to let anyone discover it, or it might make everyone less willing to cultivate.
The Gardener was still fishing that day when yet another voice reached him.
"Oh, Lord Gardener, I beseech you: impute my daughter''s errors to me."
That voice would usually be drowned among the countless voices praying for the Gardener. But E''lemer was in luck today. His daughter had been at the right time and place, even by sheer luck. The Gardener felt slightly thankful for her being one of the triggers that brought the Void''s plans to light. Not enough to act by himself, but enough that E''lemer''s request was mostly agreeable.
Still, the Gardener hesitated for a moment before saying yes. First, he divined how the Heavens would feel about it.
Helping the girl would indirectly assist Shen. The kid''s plan was obvious enough¡ªpartly because it was the only thing he could attempt within the constraints that bound him. The Gardener couldn''t help the boy again unless he paid a price he was not willing to pay.
He sent his intent to Reality and listened attentively for the answer. A star died, a moon was born, the cosmos whispered to him. Thus, he found he could reply with yes or no to his people''s requests, and the Heavens wouldn''t punish him.
He was, of course, barred from using such answers to lead anyone to help Shen. If the Gardener''s people directly helped Shen in a way they shouldn''t, the Heavens would punish them, not the Gardener¡ªeven if he had been the one to say yes to something. The initiative had been theirs, not his.
"So be it," he replied to E''lemer while sending orders to his sect''s Grand Elder.
Personally, the Gardener was against how excessively E''lemer coddled his daughter, but that was E''lemer''s mistake to make. That said, calling it a mistake this time wasn''t easy. Things weren''t as black and white.
E''livia''s sin had been momentous. The Gardener Sect did not attempt murder just because someone didn''t show the respect a sect member thought they deserved. They definitely did not do it twice in a row. That would be a capital offense if not for happening during a supervised test.
Still, even during a test, the offense was big enough that the sect''s Elders decided to send her to the Abyssal Borders for a year. E''livia had only a twenty percent chance of surviving that. Her sins were big, and so was the punishment. In fact, without her father''s contribution to the sect, she would''ve been condemned to head to an even worse section of the Borders, and her already slim survival odds would''ve decreased by half.
Today was not the day she died, though. She had been born the daughter of a very doting and powerful father.
E''lemer had a fifty-fifty chance of surviving because he wouldn''t be sent to the Borders. Replacing his daughter also meant being sent to the Abyssal Gates instead, and for five years, not one. After all, if any random strong person could replace their loved ones in punishments too easy for them, punishments would mean nothing.
Strategically, the Gardener was against E''lemer''s decision. E''lemer should reach A-rank within a hundred years, and losing such a kind and loyal soul would hurt. But a Gardener wasn''t a puppeteer, and the creatures in his garden were free to make their own choices.
So, he put the matter out of his mind and returned to his fishing.
399. Silly Girl
"This is Flower City, Teolhora''s only Garden City," E''livia introduced as they approached.
Flower City was precisely what its name suggested: a vast flower field. It didn''t have trees or any kind of "larger" nature. Instead, flowers littered the ground as far as the eye could see, an ocean of beauty only broken by the bare minimum of the built structure required to call this place a city.
Sandstone-paved isles were scattered everywhere, each at least fifty yards away from the next. They were circular and ranged from ten to thirty yards wide.
Each isle had a few benches to sit on or a single doorframe, with wider isles having wider doorframe. Every doorframe lacked a door, and some were fancy ones of beautifully crafted metal, while others were simple wood or cloth. Shen saw a person go through a doorframe and disappear as if walking through a portal. Each portal''s destination was written in the local language atop each doorframe using intertwingled flowers.
A few hundred people were around, almost all wearing superimposed cloth pieces like E''livia had before she donned her armor. Nearly everyone had an enamel pin on their chest depicting a green tree, some with traces of bronze or silver, but none also gold like E''livia''s. The few exceptions were like Shen, a seemingly random assortment of unrelated people going about their business in a Garden City.
Most cultivators were peak D-rank, with a few weaker ones and a dozen C-ranks. Some were moving, but most were resting on the benches while having tea or just admiring the view with their colleagues.
Most of them were unan, the metallic, bronze-skinned people from both the Void town and Alaans. Ten odd D-ranks and two C-ranks, not counting E''livia, were holins.
Her arrival was like the return of a queen. Except for the two holin C-ranks, everyone from the Gardener Sect immediately turned to her, cupped their hands before themselves, and bowed low. The unaffiliated people were surprised by the scene but were quick to mimic the local rulers and bow to E''livia.
"Is your rank that high?" Shen asked.
"I guess?" she replied, her tone accusing the confusion she felt by the display. "I''m quite high-up in headquarters'' hierarchy, but I''m wearing armor; my sect badge is hidden. They should only know me as a VSU Delegate. I don''t know how they know who I am."
The holins approached, and Shen guessed he was about to find out what was going on.
Both were male. One was like a moving statue, seemingly almost millimetrically chiseled to be the perfect alpha-male specimen¡ªat least according to... not drow, but some other culture on the tip of Shen''s tongue, though he couldn''t name it. His eyes were a deep red, and his hair was platinum blonde, tied in a bun on top of his head. His cloth pieces were black and silver, and he looked to be in his late twenties.
His Path had one Law from each of the three Axioms: Staff, Life, and Death. They were all mastered, but Shen would be willing to bet he didn''t have a domain. His Path felt weaker than E''livia''s, somehow. Considerably so.
The other holin "merely" looked like a handsome, albeit young, high elf with golden hair and green eyes. He resembled E''lemer more than E''livia, but the resemblance to her was still evident. He wore white and red. If he were drow, he''d be in his late teens.
His Path also had three Laws, all from the Axioms of Life. Only one was mastered.
The two males cupped their hands and bowed slightly to E''livia as they approached.
"Sister!" the younger one greeted.
"Cousin," the other said less enthusiastically, though the reason might be Shen, whom he was staring daggers at.
They were speaking Stangue. Shen wondered if it was out of respect for him but doubted it because they mostly ignored him.
E''livia cupped her hand but didn''t bow; she was higher than them in the hierarchy, as evidenced by their green and silver enamel pin lacking any gold. She did remove her helmet, though, storing it in her hidden spatial treasure.
The motion distracted the cousin from Shen. The guy stared at the girl''s beauty like a dog who had just seen a juicy bone.
So that''s why E''livia hadn''t enjoyed how Shen looked at her! It was a bit dedrownizing. The guy looked at her as if she was nothing more than an amusement park, not a person with feelings. Some people might be okay with that, but E''livia wasn''t¡ªand Shen realized he also wasn''t very keen on the idea of sex just for the sake of it. Then again, he also had no strong opinions against it to the point that it would stop him if he were simply feeling like it one day.
The guy''s looks made E''livia tense slightly, and her voice was a bit cold as she asked, "Brother, cousin. What brings you here?"
The question allowed Shen to guess they were also from headquarters. They should be the source of the news that E''livia was a hotshot. Shen would''ve asked about it if not for two reasons. First, it might make the older guy even more aggressive, and Shen wanted to leave quickly. Second, the more he made himself matter, the more likely E''livia was to talk about him, and for longer.
"Father sent me, Liv!" the brother said. "I have your new orders, but I can only give them to you after you complete your mission. We''ll be waiting for you here."
"Very well," she nodded and left.
Shen made to follow, but the cousin blocked his path. Shen stopped and raised an eyebrow at the guy before looking at E''livia. She had also stopped, and when she turned around, her face was not happy.
"What is the meaning of this, T''onir?" she asked without hiding the displeasure from her voice.
"Uncle was punished because of this Outsider," the man said. "That''s enough meddling with the E''holin for a lowly one like him. I''ll ensure he leaves your family alone, cousin."
So that''s why they were speaking Stangue. They wanted Shen to understand his place¡ªstarting with the fact that they completely disregarded him while talking. That should be considered politics if it was kept to that, but this direct challenge soon after made things more straightforward and likely okay. Shen took note of it for the future.
E''livia was confused for a moment, then her eyes widened in alarm. She looked at her brother. "Dad got punished?!" The guy was turning to look at her but instantly avoided her eyes. "E''forion! You! How could you hide it from me?! What happened? I demand you to reveal it to me at once!"
E''forion opened and closed his mouth a few times before sighing and replying, "Father pleaded with the Gardener to replace you in your punishment. The Elders... Your trial..." He teared up¡ªred blood. "The Elders couldn''t accept it, E''livia. A VSU Delegate attacking people to kill just because they call you arrogant? They said... They said..."
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He started crying copiously and didn''t finish. His face became a bloody mess. Crying blood seemed very inconvenient to Shen.
"They said one attempt on the Outsider''s life would be bad," T''onir added, never taking his eyes off Shen. "Twice was one too many. You were to be sent to the Abyssal Borders. You weren''t meant to survive."
E''livia paled, while Shen almost recalled something when he heard about the Abyssal Borders. Almost. The Heavenly Lightning blocked the memory.
He frowned, but not because of his memories. If the guy wasn''t exaggerating the dangers of the Abyssal Borders, something was wrong here.
"Isn''t this a little too much?" Shen asked, and T''onir stepped back in shock. "You were being monitored. You only messed up in one situation, and no one was hurt." T''onir behaved as if each sentence Shen said was a slap to his face. "Your father said he would''ve protected my life, too, if I was about to die. Why even test you under such controlled circumstances if failing means death?"
Shen still didn''t fully trust that E''lemer would''ve saved him, but he was less doubtful. If this wasn''t all some grand scheme, the Gardener Sect did want to punish E''livia heavily for her crimes. They seemed serious enough about not having their members abuse their power.
"Y¨C You dare!" T''onir yelled like the idiot he was. "To interfere in Gardener Sect business!" He shouted with so much emotion and enthusiasm that he lost his breath. "To bring politics to our doorstep!" He extended his arm sideways, and a beautifully crafted green and brown metal staff materialized on his hand. "Death! You deserve death!" The next moment, black and silver armor started to materialize around him. "In the name of the Gardener Sect, surrender to capture or be put down like the criminal you are!"
E''livia started moving, probably to protect Shen, but a voice put an end to that ridiculous tirade.
"Enough!" a man bellowed.
Shen wasn''t surprised to see E''lemer appear out of nowhere, clad in his golden and white-silvery armor. There was no way in hell a guy who dotted so much on his daughter wouldn''t have come to say goodbye to her.
This shouldn''t count as politics, which was weird. Shen guessed E''lemer himself hadn''t known he wouldn''t be able to leave without talking to E''livia. He had tried something else first, then changed his mind when it failed. That should be okay if not premeditated.
"Dad!" E''livia shouted and threw herself in his arms. She looked at his face, which lacked a helmet this time around, too. "Did you, really?" she started crying red blood already.
"Silly girl," he said warmly as he patted her head. "What kind of father would let her daughter be sent to such a dark and cold place like that? This is nothing. Nothing."
"It''s the Abyssal Borders!" she said loudly. "Dad! Please, don''t! I shamed the sect! Not you!"
"Gates," her brother interjected mid-cry. "Father will go to the Gates, not the Border."
"Dad!" E''livia cried desperately.
"Anyway, isn''t this punishment a little exaggerated?" Shen insisted.
If T''onir had been outraged before, now he was shocked silly at Shen talking to E''lemer like that. Evidently, the Gardener Sect only taught people not to be arrogant after they reached B-rank. Only E''lemer wasn''t a dickhead here. Even the young E''forion had disregarded Shen as if Shen was dust by the roadside.
E''lemer looked at Shen and smiled slightly. "Ah, Outsider. How could you understand our culture? The Gardener Sect... Maybe you''ll understand if you compare it to a pantheon. We''re not quite like gods, but each of our members is treated with utmost respect when we travel the Myriad Worlds. If we''re on a mission, our word is akin to a Heavenly Decree. To belong to the Gardener Sect is the most tremendous honor and privilege. To abuse this is the worst of sins.
"In addition, E''livia was also born and raised here. The sect invested countless resources in her. She shamed the ones who trusted her all these years, and she shamed the Gardener Sect before the Myriad Worlds.
"Her actions, if not properly punished, will spread dissent and chaos. Every sect member will think they can do the same with little cost. Everyone in the Myriad Worlds will distrust us. Order will crumble. You might think her actions look minor and claim she was being monitored, but a test outside the sect is punished or rewarded almost as if it wasn''t a test. She knew that. She showed a lack of judgment and control all the same. She shamed us all the same."
Shen wasn''t convinced. "Shouldn''t the ones who gave her those resources be punished instead? Why take it on her?"
His smile became even sadder. "We were punished, Outsider. My soul still aches." Shen opened his mouth to reply, but E''lemer raised his hand. "Things are not as dire as my nephew made it seem. E''livia had a good chance of surviving the Abyssal Gates¡ªaround one in four. Knowing her, she would''ve returned stronger and more beautiful to me. Yet, how can a father leave his daughter''s fate to chance like that? Once more, I dote on my little girl by taking her place. Maybe, just maybe, she''ll learn the lesson this time." He looked at her, and his smile became filled with love.
"How good are your odds of surviving the Abyssal Gates?" Shen asked.
E''lemer looked at Shen again; this time, his eyes showed no sadness or compassion. There was only a clear warning: some things were not to be discussed.
"Dad?" E''livia said. "How good?"
Shen gulped and decided to help E''lemer change the subject. "You still owe me a favor," he said. "I''ll be ready to collect in one year at most. Will be here already by then?"
E''lemer''s murderous look worsened. "No. I''ll serve on the Gates for five years."
E''livia yelped, and Shen was quick to continue with his original intention before E''lemer actually killed him. He was already being punished for attempted murder, in his daughter''s place. Perhaps actual murder wouldn''t be much worse.
Shen asked, "Then how about you do something for me now? I thought of a thing that won''t make anyone or anything upset."
"Yes?"
Shen pointed at the guy''s daughter. "E''livia. I need a guide around the Myriad Worlds for one year tops. I still need to ask her if she''s willing, but if so, allow her to come with me. I mean, as in some sort of official sect business or something, so she won''t be pulled away. I promise to protect her to the best of my ability for the duration of her guidance. I also promise I won''t allow her to do anything that might be punished by greater forces."
Shen had been worried ever since E''forion said E''lemer had orders for E''livia. He had a feeling that the overly protective Dad would want his daughter to steer away from a guy undergoing a Heavenly Tribulation. That Shen''s report about the Void had placed her life in danger¡ªwhich E''lemer certainly knew about by now¡ªonly made Shen''s fears more likely.
E''lemer squinted as if seeking some hidden meaning in Shen''s words. Before he could answer, T''onir spoke.
"Preposterous!" the annoying idiot screamed. "How dare a lowly one suggest such a thing to the exalted E''holin bloodline?!"
E''lemer looked at T''onir contemplatively, then back at Shen. He kept silent for a few moments while E''livia kept trying to get some answers from him, only to be ignored and petted on the head.
"My nephew has a point, Outsider," E''lemer said eventually. Slowly. Deliberately. "You''re too weak to claim to be able to protect my daughter. You must prove yourself first. Should both agree, you and T''onir will fight to the death¡ªunder the protection of the sect''s formations. The first to be considered to have received a lethal strike will lose. If you lose, you''re to leave my daughter''s presence forever. If you win, I''ll allow you to ask her if she wants to go with you. And if she accepts, I''ll make it an official sect mission."
There was no hidden ploy here: the way E''lemer looked at Shen made it obvious that he thought Shen would lose and that such a result would please the holin.
"Agreed!" Shen and T''onir said almost in unison before E''lemer had second thoughts about it. Shen quickly added, "But I need to buy better equipment first."
Shen didn''t believe for a second that he would lose to T''onir. However, Shen also didn''t think E''lemer was an idiot. If the B-rank thought T''onir could beat Shen, he should have a reason for that.
Better safe than sorry.
"That is acceptable," E''lemer replied. "I''ll expedite any purchase you want. Don''t worry about going to the Gargener Bank; every seller in Flower City is connected to the bank and able to automatically subtract any cost from your account. I give you half an hour to purchase your equipment. If you aren''t here by then, it''ll be considered a forfeit. Son, take the boy whenever he asks you. And may everyone in Flower City know that, as much as I''d rather the Outsider lose, to get in the way of this Honor Duel is to get in my way."
His last sentence traveled Space itself, even getting through the portals, ensuring everyone knew better than to mess with his plans. Knowing he was going to a place he had a chance not to return to gave his words a heavier weight. He had little to lose.
"Yes, father," E''forion replied, dried his face on his sleeves, and looked at Shen.
400. A Song
? ?
Shen glanced at E''livia, but she only had eyes for her father. The scene scratched something in his mind, but he couldn''t tell why. He only knew that the lack of memories of his family suddenly greatly bothered him.
He turned to E''forion and said, "First and foremost, I need a weapon." He raised his broken piece of wood. "A spear. C+ tier with at least one of my Laws, if possible."
E''forion smiled weakly and awkwardly. "The Gardener Sect only sells raw resources to those who don''t belong¡ª"
"Direct him to the local Armory," E''lemer interrupted. "I''ll send them a message to treat the Outsider like a sect member. I won''t have anyone claim I''m making things unfair for the one I asked an Honor Duel from."
Shen would be lying if he said he didn''t appreciate E''lemer''s uprightness. Even if the man wanted Shen away from his daughter, Shen was thankful for him. E''lemer had stopped Shen from killing someone who tried to kill him first, then conscripted Shen, but it was all within the boundaries of the Gardener Sect''s rules. Sure, the high-purity crystals for E''livia''s attack were also part of the rules, but being this helpful for the "favor" of Shen forgiving the girl was all on E''lemer.
"You''re a good man, Senior E''lemer," Shen said, cupping his fists before himself and bowing deeply. "This junior hopes you survive."
The strong were owed general respect, but there was also the respect one earned for who they were and what they did. E''lemer had just entered Shen''s list of people he personally respected.
E''lemer nodded back and promptly ignored Shen, returning to reassuring his daughter he would be okay.
"This way," E''forion said and flew ahead.
Shen followed. The young holin''s soul had already been erratic from the moment he started crying, and it only got more confused when his father told him to bring Shen to the Armory. This was evidently a special privilege rarely given to non-sect members.
In fact, the "patheon" comparison made a lot of sense. These people behaved as if they were some sort of divine caste to whom the world owed everything. Only E''lemer had been reasonable until now.
E''forion and Shen went to one of the "simplest" doorframes, but it was impressive in its own way. It was made of a B+ alloy that looked like silver but had been shaped as if by a guy who didn''t care for doing it. It was vaguely rectangular and merely the size of a large door despite occupying a large aisle. As with all frames, flower roots had grown at one side and mixed at the top to write the portal''s destination in the local language.
E''forion landed before it and went through. Crossing the doorframe''s threshold was like going through an invisible wall. He disappeared, and Shen followed.
He felt nothing as his body touched the doorframe. The portal seamlessly allowed him to access the other side as if it wasn''t twisting spacetime.
Shen arrived at a vast circular platform floating on an endless blue sky. He was on the edge and could see nothing below or above. This might be another world or just an enchanted place. His Law Vision and senses weren''t enough to pierce through the location''s truth.
E''forion was nowhere to be found.
A single female holin sat crosslegged in the air in the middle of the platform. Her eyes were closed, and her Path and qi were hidden from Shen, but only an idiot wouldn''t recognize her for what she was: an A-rank. She settled differently in the world. She seemed to bleed into it, or be embraced by it, or something. It was unlike anyone else Shen recalled having ever seen.
She was also the most unique holin he had seen. Her head was shaved and her clothes weren''t superimposed pieces of cloth, but a blue robe that fluttered in the non-existent wind. Her face didn''t hold a candle to E''livia, which either meant the latter was that breathtaking or this A-rank didn''t care about looks. It wasn''t that he looked to be in her late forties, but the lack of "etherealness" to her. She had no enamel pin, but unless an A-rank could infiltrate the Gardener Sect, she should be a high-level member.
She opened her deep green eyes almost as soon as Shen looked at her. Their gazes met each other.
It felt like a wall slamming on his soul.
Then, the Heavenly Lightning awoke and covered his whole existence, protecting him. The holin raised a platinum-colored eyebrow but didn''t look offended.
"Do my eyes misguide me, or do I spot one of those after so long?" Her voice was beautiful without being ethereal. "Approach, child, and be forged." She uncrossed her legs and stood up.
Now, Shen didn''t find her nearly as attractive as E''livia. He also greatly disliked being so much weaker than the A-rank. Yet, her rawness called to him in a way E''livia''s physical perfection couldn''t. This older woman felt real and solid in a way the younger holin would take ages to maybe accomplish.
She chuckled as soon as he had that thought. "Foolish child. Adore not the battle others won, but the kinship formed through the bond of communal war." She paused, then smiled kindly. "Speaking to the current age''s sensibilities doesn''t come easy to me." The woman had mistaken Shen''s embarrassment for confusion. "Let me rephrase my attempt at imparting wisdom. You''re young; therefore, elope with another youngling. The relationship you shall form through facing the world together matters much more than finding anyone who might perfectly fit your tastes."
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Shen''s embarrassment only grew. He didn''t even know why, but being caught in the act and reprimanded like that made him feel the weight of his youth and foolishness.
She chuckled again. "Come, now, before E''forion''s anxiety leads him to seek E''lumer. My son is wise, but his love for my granddaughter blinds him to the truth presently trying to slap him on his face. I shall assist you."
Shen finally got his bearings together, cupped his hands, and bowed deeply to the A-rank. "Junior Shen pays respect to Exalted Senior," he said.
Knowing the woman was a grandmother dampened his interest in her. It took him a while to pinpoint why: her life experiences as a grandmother put an abyss between them, setting them too far apart. He didn''t think he would feel that strong about someone who was only a mother, but only if she was as young as him. The old lady had spoken some sense, though he still had to think about it.
She didn''t tell him to approach again. Instead, she was suddenly beside him, holding his forearm.
She said, "The Heavenly Selection shall make this more challenging, as shall your own currently fluid nature. I feel... An Anti-Law about Boundaries. Why do you hate Order so, Child of Chaos? I cannot work with that. The Heavens would take it as too much interference. Stream? Your existence is not this seamless. Gentle Breeze has been growing on you, has it not? As good a candidate as any, I suppose..."
"What are you doing?" Shen asked. Evidently, she was assessing his Path''s Laws. Why, though?
Once more, she chuckled. "Oh, to be young and so full of time. Ask the right questions, child. Don''t waste this opportunity. Extremity is almost removed from your Path after your latest change; it surprises me to see you still sticking to it. Shaft. Hmm. Interesting. Such a surety on yourself despite all else. A good option."
Shen understood she wouldn''t talk about anything she didn''t want to, so he changed his question as ordered. "Why do you call a Heavenly Tribulation a Selection?"
Her answer was a song.
The metric made no sense in any language Shen knew, yet it was absurdly incredible in the language she used. He couldn''t understand a single word, yet they resonated with something in Reality, and the meaning was instinctively given to him.
"You punish the evil,
You reward the just,
I deem you unfair,
Oh, Heavens Eternal.
I seek the Supremacy
And Will my vision be True,
I perseverate my Path,
I clad myself in me.
To upheaval the Law
And remake the False,
To prove myself,
I Walk.
To be you
Shall be
To be me;
I Ascend."
She became silent for a long while after singing. Shen didn''t know what was so special about those lyrics that Reality itself seemed to have imbued their meaning to his mind. The song was simple, almost silly. It was nothing more than what any cultivator knew: to cultivate was to challenge the Heavens.
The woman said, at last, "I adapted the words to your sensibilities, but it sufficed for Reality. Did you enjoy it?"
"It was... Inspiring." Shen didn''t want to lie to an A-rank, but he also didn''t want to tell an A-rank he didn''t like what they had just sung.
She chuckled. "Not a bad way to describe it. It''s a nugget of wisdom from the Age of Remembrance. We used to call it the Covenant of the False Walker. It reminds us of who we are."
"Cultivators?" Shen risked.
She shook her head. "No, Shen. You''re Reality itself¡ªsimultaneously less than you seek to be and more than you understand. The Heavens, you, and I are one. Contrary to popular belief, the Heavens have no reason to stop you from growing and replacing all that is¡ªnot at the Heavens'' core. You''re Reality, too, and Reality is Change. One day, someone shall impose their Will upon all that is, and Reality shall bow.
"At the same time, everyone else would become very upset if they weren''t the ones who changed Reality into their image. They are also Reality, are they not?
"In the clash of egos and convictions born from the multiple perceptions of what Reality is and should be, a Path was established. Shortcuts were blocked and punished. The worthy were given a way forward. Cultivation and tribulations came to be.
"Cultivation is both complex and simple; tribulations serve both multiple and a single purpose: to filter out the unworthy. The Final Selection is once more upon us, and the Collective Reality of those left behind seeks to stop the leaders... Ah, I digress. That is a talk for after you recover your memories."
Shen reflected on her words. It made some sense. Indeed, if he was also Reality, why would Reality stop him from growing? Wouldn''t his eventual supremacy merely be proof that he was the superior option rather than the current model?
Only other parts of Reality would be against that: the Laws that define and confine everyone within them. Shen had been told those Axioms had birthed a sort of Sentience that everyone called the Heavens. It didn''t want others to crush it.
But what if that Sentience didn''t have a Will of its own¡ªwhich was theoretically a requirement to form a Sentience? What if the Heavens didn''t have ego or sought self-preservation like Shen always thought? What if, instead, that ego was the collective egos of every living being, each and everyone egotistically trying to stop the others from reaching a height they, themselves, believed only they deserved? What if the Heavens were an unconscious hivemind barely controlled by Reality''s Will to simply be? What if the "example" it received from the Axioms, as the latter defined their Laws together, was all the logic and cause-effect that held the rules of the Heavens together?
Shen''s worldview was shattered.
He had no reason to trust the woman, but her words made sense in hindsight. They explained so much. The lack of focus the Heavens seemed to have sometimes... The extreme focus it seemed to have other times...
The Path to Supremacy, which everyone wanted to walk, was regulated but kept open. What everyone, together, saw as a cheat or threat was dealt with.
Weights and countermeasures were decided in a hidden hivemind style, and certainly, those S-ranks with ridiculously strong willpower had a lot more say in said hivemind than anyone else.
The holin gave Shen a few silent moments, then sighed and said, "I seem to have underestimated this Selection''s hold over your willpower. You cannot withstand another perspective-shifting lesson and survive this Selection. As such, I shall no longer entertain your questions.
"Back to the matter at hand, I refuse to give you a weapon with Killing Weapon for its core. Weapons can also protect without killing, an understanding you shall never have if I lead you astray with such a murderous tool. Conductivity is considerably more suitable for you than Gentle Breeze, which it shall place. I''d pick Conductivity if I were you, but I''ve learned my lesson. You shall have your two options.
"Thus, I bind you to choose: would you rather have Conductivity or Shaft as your spear''s core Law?"
401. Was It Worth It?
Shen asked, "Why are you helping me?" She had dodged a similar question before, but he had to know before answering her.
The woman frowned, then smiled. "Ah, little rebel. Child of Chaos indeed, are you not? I shall entertain this one last inquiry.
"Common sense doesn''t matter to the E''holin bloodline. We''re self-sacrifice. When our bloodline awakens, we become bound to an object of self-sacrifice, much as the T''holin become bound to their object of selfless protection. Do not resent T''onir for his actions; he couldn''t control himself any more than you could stop yourself from seeking retribution against E''livia when she attacked you.
"My son''s expression of self-sacrifice is made manifest in my granddaughter. That has been so since my daughter-in-law, of the T''holin bloodline, sacrificed herself to protect him. His Path was twisted, his self-sacrifice infected by the need to protect his offspring, though it doesn''t protect her from his overprotection... But that is more than you must know.
"Suffice to say that what many perceive as senseless pampering, I see for what it rightfully is: self-sacrificial love. And I shall provide him with the same in my way. Him, my granddaughter, the Myriad Worlds, and the Lord Gardener."
She stopped there, and Shen frowned. "That doesn''t answer my question."
Her smile became longing. "Karma, child."
The world shook Shen''s mind. The Heavenly Lightning was still surrounding his entire self and flared to prevent him from accessing his memories, but a clear path opened in his soul, and a memory came to him.
Karma. He carried good karma with two people he couldn''t recall. They owed him. Greatly.
The skies turned black within seconds. Dark golden clouds filled the heavens. Black and white lightning flashed within.
Shen felt the taste of Annihilation just by glimpsing upwards.
The holin continued as if nothing was happening. "Do not blame yourself for your question; the Heavens were bound to learn the truth as soon as I finished. And fear not their punishment; they know to wait for our conversation to end. They owe me as much.
"The complete answer to your inquiry is that I shall help you for politics. You were ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª, but you''re being ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª, which the scheming lady wasn''t aware of being possible." She didn''t help him hear the words that the tribulation blocked. "The debt you''re owed will be collected with interest at the appropriate time, and part of it shall be tied to us. We shall be linked to the incoming events whether the Lord Gardener wants it or not.
"Thus, I forfeit my life for what I perceive as the good of the object of my self-sacrifice: the World Tree. The Lord Gardener is wise beyond my ability to conceive; alas, he cares too much for us to allow us to join the incoming Final Selection. And he cares too much for us to stop me from acting right now, as much as he is against my actions. He heavily punishes those who misuse the freedom he gives us, but only after the fact. Freedom without the possibility of betrayal is no real freedom, or so he believes. Such is his greatest weakness, which I shall exploit for his own good.
"The World Tree shall stand against those whom we, the sour losers, name the Usurpers¡ªfor after this connection is made, the Usurpers will erase us if they win.
"You''ll come to understand the meaning of my words should you survive your present Selection."
From what Shen understood, that woman wanted the people who owed Shen through karma to owe the Myriad Worlds. That would force the Myriad Worlds to participate in the Final Selection. From her earlier words, that Selection would be a battle-slash-tribulation involving a lot of people who wanted to stop someone who was one step away from getting really close to controlling all of Reality. If that someone won, they would destroy the Myriad Worlds because of the karmic link to their enemies, which the holin was forging through Shen.
The Gardener was against it, but in some twisted way, that lady believed betraying the guy was an act of self-sacrifice for the entire Myriad Worlds. The only thing that made sense would be if she believed that the one about to control Reality would destroy the Myriad Worlds regardless of their link to their enemies. But if that was the case, would the Gardener really refuse to engage in the upcoming battle? Was he really that blinded by his Law of Caring Cultivation, by his care for the cultivators in the Myriad Worlds, by his Law''s connection to the Axioms of Life, that he couldn''t see the bigger picture? That he couldn''t risk their lives in battle for the greater good?
Shen felt the lady was either delusional or lying through her teeth. He replied, "It''s okay to want to die after however long you lived. It''s okay to give up. But that''s a lot of bullshit. I''d like to leave now."
He didn''t know much about interpersonal relationships, but he knew not to try to make excuses for someone who was showing you an ugly side of theirs. At least not when he knew nothing of them. That woman was a treacherous, scheming A-rank, and he''d rather not wield a weapon crafted by her.
If he died for his offense, so be it. It was better than to wield a weapon forged by someone so twisted. The Spear was part of his Path, and her corruption might affect him somehow.
Shen was getting used to his words shocking everyone in the Myriad Worlds. She, too, widened her eyes in disbelief.
She asked, "After all I''ve done, you bite the hand that fed you?"
He snorted, "What have you done for me, Exalted Senior? Nothing. You''ve only progressed your own agenda. All you revealed was for yourself; all knowledge you have gifted me was to make me trust you. The first member of the Gardener Sect I saw tried to murder me. Now, an A-rank tries to use me for her schemes. I must say I''m not impressed with your sect. Only your son seems to have any sense of honor."
She stared expressionlessly at him for a while. The golden clouds rumbled above them. He thought he would actually die right there.
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Then, she waved her hand, and Spacetime twisted. He found himself standing before the portal he had crossed.
Shen raised an eyebrow and looked around. No one seemed to have noticed anything. He shook his head, sighed, and stepped ahead.
Before crossing the doorframe, he whispered one sentence, "Not impressed at all."
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"Was it worth it?" a kind old male voice asked behind E''vania.
She didn''t turn to look at the speaker. "It was not. You were correct, milord. I should''ve left scheming for those who know how to weave a believable lie."
The Gardener chuckled. "When did I tell you that?"
She smiled. "You told me to be forthcoming with the child. But I had to know. Her blood runs on him, and I shall not have another scheming drow lead a descendent of mine to ruin."
He countered, "Darla has not broken any treaty she ever signed. She can''t."
"She has forgotten us as agreed upon, and enmities as ancient as ours should not matter," E''vania conceded. "But she killed my firstborn. After so many eras, I birthed a new son, and I haven''t seen her for almost as long. Yet, now, her blood appears and sends my secondborn to the Abyssal Gates? That is no coincidence. It cannot be."
"It is, and it''s not," he started. "A Child of Chaos will force..."
She interrupted, completing the sentence for him, "...a Child of Order to face its weak links and break or be strengthened. You said that before, milord. The fact remains that I cannot see the love you claim Order has for the holin. Is his presence here not proof? Order does not care for me or what a Child of Chaos brings to my heart. The Heavens mock my feelings, yet life goes on for everyone else as if nothing has changed. Even if the holin are Children of Order, Order is but an absent parent."
The Gardener didn''t reply to that. They had had that discussion many times before, and he wasn''t here for that.
"Will you kill me?" she asked.
His answer was worse than an affirmative. "Was the boy right? Do you seek death?"
"I am self-sacrifice," she replied.
"Then sacrifice yourself," he said with his unique blend of kindness, admonishing, and appeal. "Face your regrets and fears, and erase your past with a bright future. It''s long past you allowed E''lomor a final rest in your heart. Take your living son''s place in the Abyssal Gates and take the final step forward in your Path. I''ll need stronger assistance if we''re to fight the Usurpers."
E''vania widened her eyes and turned to him. Most of what she had told the boy was true, except for her plan. The Gardener had refused to participate in the Final Selection until now.
"You changed your mind?" she asked.
"There was nothing to change; I never made up my mind. It was never my care for the World Tree that stopped me but that I desired revenge too much, and I couldn''t allow feelings to be the main motivator to throw my people at a war of extinction. I was merely pondering."
"And your conclusion is to march to war?"
He smiled sadly. "What else could it be? The Usurpers did kill our sweet friend just to progress their Purge. It shows how their rule will be if they succeed. I cannot bow to them."
E''vania smiled sadly. "I wish Discontinuity hadn''t erased her name from Reality. It saddens me almost as losing her does."
"It was his right. As is mine to strike down the boy if you so desire. Just say the word."
"You made a deal."
"And it hurt you more than I imagined it would. You''re one of the few friends of yore who remains alive. If you cannot overcome this hurdle by yourself, I''ll help you. For old times'' sake. You''re much more important to me than the boy."
E''vania considered it for a moment. She was afraid for her granddaughter. The girl was smitten by the boy even if she didn''t realize it yet. She was also at risk of helping him in a way that would see the Heavens punish her for it.
Killing him would solve many problems, real or perceived.
But she had not lied about the World Tree being the ultimate subject of her self-sacrifice. She had been ignoring that part of herself for a long while. Birthing E''lemer had been a step toward fixing that, but it wasn''t enough. She needed to elevate her Path into a Law to be truly useful to the Tree.
She would take that last step now.
The Gardener had been right; contact with the Child of Chaos had strengthened her resolve. Indirectly, the boy had assisted her in accepting it. Asking for his head would be wrong.
She asked for something else instead, "Let me kill Darla after I ascend."
His smile died. "It''ll be like murdering a defenseless child. She cannot touch you without breaking the treaty, and as I said, she cannot break it."
"I know."
He smiled again, but it was the saddest smile she had ever seen on his face. "Very well."
She pulled a splinter of Abyssal Twig and a shard of Anointed Avon Alloy from her spatial treasure. She exerted her Will and pulled the boy''s essence from Spacetime, inserting Spear''s Shaft, Lightning''s Conductivity, and Wind''s Gentle Breeze into the spear she forged with her Realization. She broke a few rules to give it three enchantments: Resistance, Sharpness, and Oneness.
The C+++ weapon was crafted within seconds.
She threw it at the Gardener. "If he shall protect my offspring, I refuse to allow him to do so with some garbage from the Armory. Please ensure he accepts this¡ªafter you remove my influence. May this be repayment for my earlier offense to him, and may my upcoming service to the Gardener Sect in the Abyss be punishment enough for bringing politics to the highest level of the sect."
The Gardener shook his head. "This is politics. The Oneness will ensure he picks the weapon despite his reservation toward you. What if he meets her one day and shows her this weapon? She''ll recognize your work and remember. She''ll take it as a warning and tremble in anticipation of the inevitable¡ªor worse, attempt to Ascend herself while overwhelmed by fear. Kill her if you must, but such a twisted attack would be too vile."
E''vania had honestly not thought about that. Indeed, she had never withstood a chance of tricking the boy if even the often genuine Gardener could see this far into shrewdness territory.
She applied her Will, and the weapon snapped into thousands of pieces.
"Please, remake it with your style, milord. I never meant for such deep considerations. I was legitimately trying to repay the boy and protect my bloodline. The future is for the people in the future; I only worry for the present."
His smile softened a little. "Very well."
He waved his hand, and the broken weapon quickly reassembled. It was even stronger than before, though E''vania couldn''t tell exactly how. It disappeared soon after.
"Thank you, milord."
"A minor matter. I''ll see you after you return from the Abyss. There''s no time limit; take your time to ascend. I''ll postpone the news to your son until the Honor Duel is over, or he might cancel it, and your beautiful weapon won''t have the chance to shine. It''s been too long since the Gardener Sect witnessed the brilliance of your craft. I won''t take it from them."
He left as soon as he said those words¡ªwithout ever mentioning that he had improved her work into what she could''ve crafted if she had actually put her heart into it.
He would help everyone see and recall her for her former glory¡ªand if she never returned, that''s all everyone would remember.
E''vania kept staring at where he had been for a while. The Gardener was always so warm yet so distant. She often wondered if he even felt anything for anyone. At times like this, when he threw his precious World Tree at war against the Primordials for a fallen friend, she got her answer and recalled the many reasons she had pledged herself to him instead of the Alliance.
Then, she looked at Flower City. Her only son and two grandchildren were there. She might not see them again. Or she might return with glory and elevate their bloodline.
"Love you," she whispered, then stepped through Spacetime straight into the Abyss.
The skies cleared up. Her punishment would be even further delayed until she returned.
402. Rude of You
Shen found E''forion on the other side of the doorframe this time. The holin was looking at the portal with evident anxiety, which was quickly replaced by a flash of annoyance, then relief when he saw Shen. As much as he was upset at Shen''s delay, he was gladder that the drow hadn''t made it harder for him to obey his father''s command to lead Shen whenever Shen wanted.
The Armory was a vast, flat platform floating on endless blue skies, like the place Shen had just visited. It was considerably wider, though, and the sky could only be seen through the millions of pieces of equipment floating around, which formed a massive dome. Every piece was held in place by the qi of a B-rank holin meditating mid-air in the dome''s center. Unlike most sect members in the city, the B-rank was clad in dark gray armor and ready for battle.
No item stood before another, making it a perfect showcase of everything the Gardener Sect¡ªor perhaps merely the local Garden City¡ªhad to offer. The dome was organized into tiers and equipment types. The lower the tier, the closer it was to the ground. Armor was kept close to other armor, grouped by the material it was made of; weapons floated close to weapons, grouped by both kind and materials; and so on. There were a few hundred B-tier pieces of equipment on the very top, but none were B+ or higher; no A-tier item was in sight, not to mention S-tier.
About half a hundred people were browsing the goods, from E- to C-rank, standing or flying around. Shen saw someone add a sword to the dome, and the nearby weapons gave way, automatically pushing everything beside them a little.
The sect members merely glanced his way before swiftly ignoring him. The B-rank cultivator was wearing a helmet, but Shen felt their focus on him for a moment when he arrived. The sensation soon disappeared. Like the others, they were just checking on the newcomer.
There were no attendees, so Shen guessed the Gardener Sect had its own system for purchasing and maybe selling stuff. E''forion''s following words confirmed it to him.
"Stand a few yards before anything you like and focus on the item. The Armory will reveal its properties to you. But whatever you do, don''t touch anything without asking permission first. Elder T''rael''s fame reaches even headquarters. He isn''t known for his mercy."
"So, this Armory belongs only to Flower City?" Shen asked.
"What? Of course not. How could a mere C-tier world have so many good items and a B-tier guarding its Armory? It belongs to all C-tier worlds in the World Tree''s 108th Main Branch."
A few questions later, Shen learned that the World Tree had over 300 main branches coming straight from its trunk. They further split into what E''forion called subsidiary branches. The 108th Main Branch had 71 subsidiary branches, each with 3 to 15 "twigs." A twig could have anything from 1 to 40 leaves. There were thousands of leaves throughout each subsidiary branch, each leaf being a world with an ecosystem. Not every world had sapient life, but Shen still classified the World Tree as "impressive as hell."
When he asked how the Armory would reveal an item''s properties, E''forion just said¡ªwith a wise-ass smile¡ªthat Shen would understand it when he did it. Shen disliked the mystery but could do nothing about it. However, he did note that refusing to answer a question for silly personal reasons wasn''t considered politics. Good. The Gardener Sect wasn''t that strict to prevent such simple interpersonal exchanges.
He was still not impressed with them, though; part of him was just waiting for the next asshole who would try to kill or use him.
But right now, the most important thing was that Armory''s B-rank guardian was named T''rael. He belonged to the T''holin bloodline, the one that protected stuff. Shen immediately decided not to even think of stealing anything. He didn''t want to mess with a B-rank''s bloodline instincts.
He flew straight to the C-tier spears. He was on a timer, and the old lady had already wasted some of it. At least this Armory conveniently also had armor for him to purchase after he was done with picking up a weapon.
Shen found precisely five thousand forty C-tier spears. They came in all sizes, colors, and materials, from a small gray bone spear with a spearhead that looked like pure flames to a big, shining pink metal spear with a cracked, dark wooden spearhead. Few had tassels, which was a bit of a bummer as Shen liked his weapons with tassels. Then again, he supposed he could just tie a tassel himself.
Over half the C-tier spears were C-, and the remaining were evenly split between C and C+. He focused on the C+ first.
Shen could tell an item''s tier by their qi but not their enchantments or possible core Laws. Some spears called more to him, which had to do with their Laws, but he couldn''t just tell what they were at a glance.
So, he did as E''forion said and focused on a random spear to see what happened. His eyes rested on a spear with a dark wooden shaft and a dark green metal spearhead. Soon, small light dots materialized before his pupils. They became a superimposed image with a transparent white rectangle with a golden border containing the item''s basic information.
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GARDENER SECT ¡ª ARMORY IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM
Item: World Subduer
Tier: C+
Type: Weapon
Sub-Type: Spear
Primary Materials: Emanov''s Willow Bark (C+), Quenched Quasi-Varsov High-Density Alloy (C+)
Origin: 72th Branch ¨C Gostov World (C)
Artisan: Von ¨C Master Ethereal Harmonization Realm
Primary Crafting Technique: Em-Van Refining
Core Law: Space''s Unshakable Stability
Enchantments: Sharpness (C+), Resistance (C+), Piercingness (C+), Self-Repair (C+)
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That was a lot of information. Shen felt that it wasn''t common to receive so much knowledge about a weapon he wanted to buy.
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He wasn''t familiar with the materials or the crafting technique, but he knew that C-tier items should have five enchantments unless they had a core Law, which took an enchantment slot. A core Law also meant the weapon was only as good as a D- one unless its wielder''s Path also contained the core Law. When wielded by someone with a similar Law, the weapon became as good as one a grade higher; in this case, going from C+ to C++.
That spear was alright, but its core Law wasn''t compatible with Shen''s Path. He checked the one beside it and mostly confirmed that any weapon he didn''t feel connected to was unlikely to have a compatible core Law.
Just to make sure he didn''t miss a hidden gem, Shen spent a third of his available time inspecting every single C+ spear. Three had no core Laws, so he could pick them if the thirteen with compatible Laws didn''t fit him.
After he was done, he turned to the B-rank with cupped hands and bowed. "May I hold this weapon, Exalted Senior?" He pointed to the first spear he wanted to check, which had the Spear''s Law of Extremity at its core.
The man didn''t answer, but the weapon floated to Shen. He bowed again, thanked the man, and then grabbed the weapon.
Shen instantly knew that spear wasn''t for him. The core Law was fitting, but the balance was atrocious. Not atrocious by itself, but it didn''t fit his fighting style.
One''s Path was oneself, and Shen''s Path had seven Laws assembled in a specific way. If someone wanted to craft a more generic spear, its materials and weight had to be evenly distributed. However, if the crafter meant to make the spear more fitting for a certain kind of Path, wielding it became annoying even if the core Law matched. Sometimes, the crafter just sucked and couldn''t help but impart part of their Path''s part particularities into what they were making.
Thinking about generic weapons tugged at Shen''s mind. Something about a place with mass-produced armaments that were mostly neutral and easy to purchase. That was all he got before the Heavenly Lightning blocked the memory.
He returned the weapon to its place and asked permission to hold the others. He discarded them one by one. In the end, only three spears were tolerable, two with a core Law and one without a Law. One had Spear''s Shaft at its core, and another had Lightning''s Conductivity; those Laws spoke dearly to him, making him more willing to overlook the weapons'' imbalance. The A-rank old lady definitely hadn''t picked those two Laws randomly when she suggested them to Shen.
Shen silently swore at the A-rank old lady for being so good at her job yet being a sneaky asshole. He wished she could have a spear made just for him.
"That''s still possible," a young, genderless voice said behind him.
Shen turned to find what looked like a drownoid shadow standing a few yards away.
Shen could see and hear the creature but not detect it with any other sense. It was eerie. He also hadn''t felt it arriving, and almost everyone was ignoring it, except the B-rank, who had turned their head this way. Either the shadow was a common sight or, more likely, only Elder T''rael could detect it.
Considering even a B-rank paid attention to the creature¡ªand Shen thought the Elder''s head had very slightly tilted toward it in greeting for a split instant¡ªShen decided to play it safe. He cupped his hands before himself and nodded. Not a bow; he wouldn''t bow to someone who admitted to having analyzed him almost to the point they had read his thoughts.
In fact, Shen even did that much mainly because T''rael was infamous for bringing pain to those who disrespected his Armory''s rules, and maybe he would be equally protective of this shadow whom he greeted. T''orin had become irrational when protecting E''livia¡ªor perhaps the E''holin bloodline¡ªand Shen didn''t want to experience anything similar from a B-rank. He wouldn''t even have the opportunity to explain himself if T''rael decided to act.
"That was rude of you, Esteemed Senior," Shen said.
Politely greeting a stranger to avoid getting attacked was one thing, but ignoring the blatant disrespect was another. Shen had just told an A-rank to "shove" their poisoned gift, though one might argue it hadn''t been wise. He didn''t care. He had given up on most of his unearned pride, but he already hated politics, and if this place was against it, they wouldn''t blame him for just being himself.
In fact, he was realizing that despite his feelings for the Gardener Sect, he felt legitimately free to be himself in this place. It was nice. He was almost starting to feel he might belong in the Myriad Worlds one day¡ªas long as the Gardener left, so he could stop looking over his shoulder all the time.
"I suppose it was rude," the shadow said with an amused voice. They lacked any features, including a mouth. It just released sound, as far as Shen could tell. "I apologize; it''s an old habit of mine. The Gardener forbids politics, but his sect was allowed to form a hidden internal police arm¡ªafter the previous Grand Elder begged for a long while, of course. It''s one of the very few exceptions the Gardener has ever made to his rule, and only because of three regulations he demanded of the Grand Elder: every sect member knows of the Shadow Corps, we are forbidden from lying or hiding our intentions if questioned, and we report directly to him, and only him, to avoid our talents and information from being used for politics."
"Only if questioned, is it?" Shen pointed knowingly.
The shadow''s voice became even more amused. "Ah, you believe you''ve seen through us. Indeed, we can make ourselves invisible to almost everyone, but it''s not a loophole to abuse our power. We''re the hidden internal police. Naturally, we must investigate in the shadows. And believe me, the Gardener punishes us heavily whenever we abuse our power."
Suddenly, Shen felt the creature''s soul. They were a living being, not just sort of protection or artificial spirit. Their soul also had a scab, which Shen had never seen before.
The shadow hid their soul and continued, "The Gardener is the least patient toward us among all creatures in the Myriad Worlds¡ªa truth we accept before joining the Secret Corps, and we can leave at any time unless while being punished for something we did. As for you... Don''t worry; none of us can spy on you. What I did by analyzing your thoughts was already close to breaking the rules. We only deal with sect members, who must agree to be investigated by us when they join."
So, everyone had to accept the terms of service before joining anything related to the Gardener Sect...
Shen frowned. He couldn''t tell where that thought had come from. He had no memory of it. Was it some kind of saying? It didn''t feel like it.
Anyway, he moved on. "You do seem to be obeying the rules. You are answering my questions. To the best of your ability, too, as far as I can tell."
"Of course," the shadow replied as if it was par for the course.
Well, Shen would be damned if he didn''t use that to try to find more about the one thing that worried him more than anything else. "If you''re needed to police the sect, the Gardener isn''t omniscient in the Myriad Worlds, right?"
The shadow chuckled. "He probably is, but he is kind and keeps his hands off of most businesses. That is the beauty of his decision to allow the Shadow Corps to be formed. The former Grand Elder wanted to use us for his nefarious agenda, but the Gardener turned the tables on him. Whenever we report to the Gardener, he decides exactly what we''re allowed to say to the sect, word by word. The mere knowledge that the words came from the Gardener and that he is unquestionably aware of the situation and expects his rules to be obeyed are enough to thwart almost every attempt to use the information we acquire for personal gain. The former Grand Elder abused it once." He paused, then repeated with a different emphasis. "The former Grand Elder abused it once."
Shen didn''t like that answer at all. Oh, sure, it was nice that the big guy was holding the hand in the shadows in check. What bothered him was the possibility of the Gardener knowing about his request to the Void Overmind?
If that was the case, why was Shen alive?
Suddenly, the shadow turned their head to the B-rank. They stood like that for a moment, then returned to looking in Shen''s direction. "Elder T''rael believes the more I interact with an outsider, the closer I become to breaking the rules of only investigating sect members¡ªthus, my own oaths. He hates oath breakers the most and has declared I must conclude my business here and stop talking to you. I obey. I was sent to deliver this to you." They waved their hand, and the most wondrous spear Shen had ever seen materialized before him. "Elder E''vania has crafted this spear as an apology for her offense, of which I know nothing about. It was personally cleared of her influence by the Gardener. If you doubt the Gardener''s words or fear his influence, you might as well stop breathing, for the very air in the Myriad Worlds is his. You''re not required to accept this apology gift, but I honestly see nothing good coming out of refusing it."
The shadow disappeared after those words, but Shen barely noticed it. His eyes were glued to the spear that seemed like a part of himself outside his own body and soul.
It called to him.
403. A Genuine Extension
Some of Shen''s metaphysical senses were like having an out-of-body extension of himself. He felt the world through his Laws like invisible spiritual fingers prodding around and sending sensory feedback to his mind.
The spear before him was something else altogether.
It was like sensing a partial copy of him before himself, like a broken mirror of which he could only glimpse his Path¡ªless than half of it. He could tell the weapon had three core Laws that called to him, but not which they were. Still, he was that spear in a way.
He also wasn''t, not entirely. It was disconnected from him. But if he just made the spear his, who knows what wonders would become available to him?
A warning tugged at his mind: the sneaky A-rank lady had crafted it for him.
But the shadow had claimed the Gardener had cleansed the A-rank''s influence from the weapon. Their following words also contained wisdom; indeed, the Gardener was an S-rank who ruled over the World Tree. He had easier ways to mess with Shen. Unless, of course, this was some twisted sense of entertainment, but Shen couldn''t live his life afraid of ''maybes'' without any evidence of them being true, and he had found none.
So Shen stepped ahead and extended his hand toward the spear.
Before he touched it, the Armory told him a few things about it. The window he got contained a few more lines than any other item he had identified until now.
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|
GARDENER SECT ¡ª ARMORY IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM
Item: Un''Re
Craftsmanship Tier: A+
Usable Tier: C+PEAK
Synced Core Tier: B
Type: Weapon
Sub-Type: Spear
Primary Materials: Abyssal Twig (A-), Anointed Avon Alloy (A-)
Origin: Upper Trunk ¨C Unnamed Subspace (A)
Primary Artisan: E''vania ¨C Destiny Realization Realm
Secondary Artisan: The Gardener ¨C Law Elevation Realm
Primary Crafting Technique: Realized Harmonization
Core Laws: Spear''s Shaft, Wind''s Gentle Breeze, Lightning''s Conductivity
Enchantments: Resistance (B+), Sharpness (B+), Oneness (A+)
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According to everything Shen knew about item tiers in general, this spear was miraculous.
It was an A-tier work of art, but when actually used, it merely touched the ultimate limit of what would be considered a C-tier item. That was only interesting; the miracle was that if someone with compatible Laws held it, it would be as good as a B-tier weapon. In other words, despite his unmastered Laws, his weapon would be as good as the weapon infused with mastered Laws by a B-rank fighter. He had never heard of such a thing being possible.
The materials were A-, and once more, the word "Abyss" tried to stir his memories. Tribulation Lightning blocked them. He was somehow connected to the Abyss, but the Heavens wouldn''t let him recall how.
Anyway, this weapon had been made with A-tier materials, contained all three Laws the A-rank lady had mentioned might be suitable as a weapon core for Shen, and had B and A-tier enchantments.
That''s right. Not only would it behave as a B-tier weapon in his hands, but it even had B-tier enchantments. To all intents and purposes, it was an actual B-tier spear while held by him. Shen doubted he could break that weapon even if he tried his best.
Not that he wouldn''t try.
Ever.
The moment his hands touched the spear, he understood the Oneness enchantment.
Shen truly became the spear in a way he couldn''t fully comprehend. That was another miracle. His True Center expanded to encompass the spear''s existence as if they were one.
The weapon became a genuine extension of himself. He felt it like he could feel his limbs. He was that spear. Except that limb felt slightly unnatural, as if his arm had been put in a freezer and felt a bit more rigid than it should.
Now he understood why the old lady had been against giving him a weapon with Spear''s Killing Weapon at its core. The constant feedback might indeed stir him the wrong way. Even if he resisted it most of the time, it might push him to make the wrong decision during extreme situations and change him over time.
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This weapon held no such danger, though. Its three core Laws supported and counter-balanced each other. The thing was perfectly harmonized with itself¡ªand with Shen himself.
Sharing his True Center with it also meant sharing his soul. In other words, this spear was immune to meta-physical attacks from non-mastered Laws. Moreover, he instinctively knew his True Center wouldn''t get damaged if the spear broke. The Oneness enchantment was that impressive. It made the spear one with him but in a safe way. Shen wondered if every good A-tier weapon had it.
He ran his fingers through the darker-than-black Abyssal Twig shaft. The polished-looking wood was cut to more than perfection, absolutely seamless. There was no friction at all. Shen could only hold it on the vertical because he was the spear. Him being the weapon also meant he felt his fingers running through it as if touching his own skin.
He touched the edge of the Anointed Avon Alloy spearhead next. The thing also had no friction. It was astoundingly beautiful, also perfectly cut, a crafted goldish silver metal that released a sort of pure aura he couldn''t explain. It felt holy somehow. By the "Avon" in its name, it might''ve been formed using the blood of an A-rank holin''s wings. He wondered if it was the old lady''s.
Shen released the spear and could control it effortlessly, moving it around as if it were his own self. He didn''t need to use his Laws or qi. If he added qi to the spear before releasing it, he''d be able to use the energy from a distance as if it were his own body. That might come in handy in the future.
The only thing that weapon lacked was a tassel, but he wouldn''t dare to attach one to it¡ªand not because it would just fall off from the frictionless thing if he tried. This was a masterpiece. It was the kind of thing that should not be wielded by someone like him. Shen still had some pride but had to recognize this object''s sheer craftsmanship and perfection.
Shen was not worthy.
If this was a trap, it was too good for him not to bite. He wouldn''t give up on this spear for anything. It was already his¡ªalready him. But regardless of whether it was a trap or not, it was so marvelous, so beyond him, that he had to bow down to its maker.
Literally so.
Shen cupped his hands before himself and bowed low in the spear''s direction. Lower than he had ever since waking up. Lower than his waistline. Low enough to reach his knees'' height.
Kowtowing was the only way to display more humility and gratitude than that. If not for the earlier exchange with the A-rank lady, Shen might''ve done it. Alas, the current him wouldn''t prostrate himself before someone that scheming. It would mean almost ultimate submission, and he couldn''t be at such a sneaky being''s back and call; it would go against his Honor.
"Wha¨C What''s that?!" E''forion asked, bewildered beside Shen. "A personal gift from Elder T''rael?!"
Before Shen could reply, T''rael himself did. "This one would never dare to gift one of Elder E''vania''s masterworks to this one''s own children, much less to an Outsider."
His words were loud and heard by everyone, who turned to stare at Shen. He didn''t like the way almost everyone looked at his spear¡ªat himself. Being one with the spear did mean he sort of was an object, but he was his own object. Being looked at with such greed infuriated him.
"Grandmother?!" E''forion exclaimed. "When?! Why?!"
"Elder V''ania personally gifted the Outsider with this spear," T''rael announced to everyone, even louder this time. "Spit on her charity at your own peril." He then turned his head back to where he had been looking, seemingly ignoring Shen.
His words had the desired effect. Almost everyone looked unwilling but eventually turned their heads away from Shen.
An A-rank had decided to give him something, so they would only second-guess the A-rank if they were sure they could avoid her eyes.
E''forion said nothing for a few moments. He just stared at the spear. Then, he asked, "Can I hold it for a bit?"
"No," Shen quickly replied, then added less briskly. "It has an enchantment that makes me feel as if it''s my own skin."
The spear was like a limb. He did not want to be held by anyone. Not to mention the awkwardness if E''forion decided to trace his fingers on the spear as Shen had done.
"Oneness?!" the young holin shouted. "Grandmother gave you a weapon enchanted with Oneness?!"
The commotion re-attracted the Armory''s customers'' attention. Shen decided to grab his spear very possessively and stand straighter as a clear warning.
He would kill for his weapon if needed.
He would die for it if the B-rank tried to take it from him.
"Is it a good enchantment?" Shen asked.
"Good?! Good?!" E''forion laughed dryly. "Only the very best spearmakers at the Destiny Realization Realm can do it. At least one of the materials must contain half their blood essence." He stared at the goldish silver spearhead. "That''s my grandmother''s blood you''re wielding."
Shen nodded. He had already guessed part of it. That was impressive, but he couldn''t marvel more at the spear than he already had.
"I owe Elder E''vania," he declared.
The shadow had said this was an apology gift, but the old lady didn''t need to do this much. Shen was indebted to the sneaky woman¡ªas much as he disliked it.
E''forion looked at him as if he were an idiot. A moment later, he shook his head. "You have no idea, Outsider. Do you want to buy armor now?"
Shen nodded. "A cultivator robe, if possible," he said while flying in the general direction of the robes on display. "How much does B armor cost on average?"
E''forion shrugged as he followed. "You must ask Elder T''rael."
Shen bowed to the man and repeated the question. A whispery voice replied beside his right ear, though the elder never moved. "Two hundred high-purity stones. Your one hundred fifty high-purity spirit stones could afford a B- protective robe, but they all have core Laws, and none compatible with your Path. You must choose between a C robe with a compatible Law for seventy stones or a C+ one for seventy-five." The two mentioned robes came flying towards him without his input.
T''rael was much more helpful now that an A-rank Elder had gifted Shen the spear. That was only natural. Power was respected anywhere.
The items'' prices were a bit strange. B- items should be considerably more expensive than C+ ones, but that didn''t seem to be the case. However, a Lawless C+ item being only slightly more expensive than a C one with a core Law did make sense, as they were effectively as good as each other if wielded by someone with a compatible Law. The main difference should be the superior materials or craftsmanship used on the C+ one. Shen wasn''t sure about the craftsmanship; perhaps adding a core Law to an item was harder than making a Lawless item of a higher tier.
One robe was pure black, the other pure white. A quick check revealed the C+ one indeed had better materials, C+ instead of C. It also had C+ enchantments. None of that would matter once its core Law came into play; at least, not in combat.
Shen picked the Lawless armor simply because it would be more convenient to gift someone else in the future. Look-wise, it was just a cultivator robe. It had five enchantments: Physical Resistance, Fire Resistance, Light Resistance, Qi Repelling, and Self-Repair.
"Thank you, Esteemed Senior," Shen said while bowing to the B-rank. He nodded and resumed ignoring him.
Shen changed clothes right there, then asked E''forion. "Can I get a spatial ring anywhere with my spare money?"
The young holin sighed and provided one for Shen himself. Shen stored his old robe and broken twig inside. He had no plans for the twig except not littering the Armory with it. There was no reason to abuse a B-rank''s hospitality.
"This is it," Shen said. "Time to fight."
It would make sense to get used to his weapon in most other situations, but there was no need in this case. He couldn''t become more used to himself if he tried.
He bowed one last time to T''rael and left the Armory to crush the guy''s likely descendant.
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404. Chapter Not Found
Shen went through a dark stone portal and randomly emerged on one of the few dozen metal arrival platforms floating above the fighting ring.
At first glance, the Arena below looked like any other massive circular raised platform surrounded by auditorium-disposed spectator benches, except for its size and materials. The platform was about five miles long and made of B+ stone blocks resembling "inverted" galaxies: dark spots glowed and moved slowly like nebulas on a white light background. A transparent dome surrounded it, meant to protect the people outside from anything happening inside. It didn''t block one''s senses, though, which was how Shen could tell what that Arena was.
The Gardener Sect''s Arena was a place of Death.
Shen''s senses screamed at him about all the Death that place had and invited. The air was full of Life Laws, the most in any place Shen had visited. But the stone blocks felt like pure Death Laws made manifest. Shen guessed the material they were made of would''ve killed him, a C-rank, at a single touch before they were processed and turned into the blocks.
Even processed, they infected the air inside the dome with enough intensity for Shen''s Killing Weapon to flare in recognition and fierceness¡ªand his Law didn''t even belong to the Axioms of Death! Entering that place meant fighting to kill. That was the Arena''s purpose. Only the ring''s enchantments would prevent a lethal strike from ending someone''s life.
There were enough benches around it for a whole lot of people, but only a few tens of thousands were present, making it less than a tenth full. Almost everyone wore vests that looked like superimposed pieces of clothes, plus the Gardener Sect''s enamel pin. Shen doubted all those people came from a single World Tree Branch. They were coming from the entire Myriad Worlds to see the duel¡ªor rather, the spear.
The few dozen non-sect members were all B-ranks. Evidently, being present to see the spear was a big honor that not every B-rank in the Myriad Worlds was deserving of. Shen hated their presence here. He doubted he could disguise himself enough to avoid their senses in the future now that they would feel him personally.
T''onir was already in the ring, clad in C+ black and silvery armor. Unlike E''lemer, he also wore a helmet, and only his six wings were unprotected. His Path''s three Laws came from the Axioms of Staff, Life, and Death, and he wielded a B- staff. It was made of green wood with gray stripes.
If Shen''s Law of Killing Weapon had flared when he felt the air of Death in the Arena, T''onir''s Law of Death was like a beacon of lethal intent. His armor supposedly hid his Path from any onlooker, yet his Law of Death shone through it. He was there to do his best to kill his foe.
"Whenever you''re ready," E''lemer said as he teleported beside Shen.
Enough people were already looking up that many had located Shen and were pointing his way, but the spatial commotion caused by the teleportation made everyone look. There were no A-ranks among the audience, but Shen felt at least seven Realizations quickly scan him before retracting. They were watching.
Shen''s only worry was that E''livia wasn''t with the man. He silently prayed to the Heavens for her to keep her mouth shut. It also only made it more urgent for him to swiftly defeat T''onir.
He nodded to E''lemer, said, "I''ll be quick," and descended into the Arena. The transparent dome didn''t block his passage. He barely even felt it, almost like touching a soap bubble.
Getting into the Death-filled atmosphere from the Life-filled one, however, was most noticeable.
Shen wondered if that was how dying felt like. Something inside him told him that was a stupid thought. Still, the contrast between all the potential of Life outside and the eerie, final, and desolate Death inside would''ve dazed him if he hadn''t felt it from a distance before. Even then, feeling it in his soul was like jumping into the middle of an iceberg after bathing in lava. He even got a migraine for a few seconds as his True Center adapted to the environment.
T''onir faced Shen as he descended. As soon as the drow''s feet touched the ground, the holin turned to the audience and yelled, "I am Onir, of the Rael line, of T''holin blood."
People were discussing things outside, but the buzz died when he spoke. If Shen had understood the meaning of T''onir''s words, the guy was T''rael''s descendant. Yet, the B-rank had helped Shen after E''vania got involved. If E''lemer''s previous actions hadn''t been enough to show it, it became evident to Shen that the E''holin bloodline had a lot of pull in the Gardener Sect.
T''onir continued, "Today, I ask forgiveness of all who respect Elder E''vania. May no one find fault with me, for this is an Honor Duel agreed upon before my opponent was gifted Un''Re. I wouldn''t have accepted if I had known about it."
The audience nodded in agreement with the statement. Either the spear was even bigger of a deal than E''lemer had explained, or the respect E''vania commanded was that massive¡ªor a mix of both.
Still, what surprised Shen the most was that T''onir''s declaration felt genuine. Shen couldn''t feel T''onir''s soul through the armor, but his words and posture seemed honest. That was slightly strange, considering what E''vania had said about ignoring one''s bloodline''s instincts. How could he not protect the E''holin bloodline if it was the object of his instincts?
His following words answered that. "As soon as the news reached me, I shared my willingness to forfeit the Duel with Elder E''lemer. He has rejected my intentions. According to him, the E''holin bloodline is currently neutral about this challenge. To the E''holin, Elder E''vania''s favor is only as relevant to this situation as Elder E''lemer''s desire for an Honor Duel; thus, they cancel each other. As such, I''m about to follow the rules and fight my best. As such, I shall dim the brilliance of a masterpiece crafted by Elder E''vania. Forgive me." He bowed.
More people nodded, and many shouted approving words at the guy, though Shen couldn''t understand the language. More importantly, Shen still couldn''t find E''livia and was getting more worried by the second. He didn''t dare to hurry T''onir, though. This was obviously important to the sect, and he didn''t want to attract even more of the wrong kind of interest than he already had.
Fortunately, after a few silent moments, T''onir just turned to look at Shen and remained quiet.
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Shen got the cue and yelled to the audience, "I''m Shen. Elder E''vania has graced me with Un''Re. I''ll show you all that she knew what she was doing. So, forgive me for dimming the brilliance of T''onir''s speech by making him a liar before all of you." He turned back to E''tonir, smiled provocatively for a few seconds, but then wiped it off his face and cupped his fists before himself. "Your speech was good, though. I don''t understand your culture much, but I can see you''re an honorable man in your own way. I respect that."
T''onir''s Law of Death flared even harder at Shen''s taunt, but he still didn''t show emotion as he cupped his hands before himself and replied, "I can''t say I see the same, Outsider, but I respect Elder E''vania''s wisdom and want to learn what she saw in you."
Shen smiled. He could almost like the guy.
"Prepare yourselves," E''lemer shouted above.
T''onir flew backward to a corner of the ring, and Shen mirrored the movement. Both stared at each other. Shen couldn''t see the guy''s qi but moved his own qi in his body in preparation for the upcoming fight.
"Begin," E''lemer commanded, and the two fighters obeyed.
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"I wish she was here to see this," an old dwarf in blacksmith''s clothes said as he smoked his pipe. He was pure muscle, his beard was long and grey, and his hair was thin and white.
The Gardener turned to look from the lake to the newcomer with a frown. "V''moria. You defeated my formations again."
"A lucky trick," the dwarf said with a smile as he approached the lake. An anvil materialized beside the rock upon which the Gardener was sitting, and he sat on it. "She should be here to see it," he repeated.
"Don''t you know how to forge chairs?" the Gardener asked, pointedly ignoring the question again.
V''moria understood the S-rank''s intentions by ignoring E''vania''s subject and decided not to test his patience¡ªfor now. Instead, he looked at the lake.
The S-rank natural wonder made it easier for any A-rank looking at it to pierce some of the veils the Gardener had set up around each of the Myriad Worlds. It would let the dwarf watch the fight without anyone knowing he was doing it from afar. It would be his reward for breaking through the Gardener''s defenses once again, which would let the S-rank improve his craft. It was an old game of theirs, despite the Gardener pretending to dislike it for some reason. V''moria couldn''t get the guy''s sense of humor.
V''moria answered the question about chairs, "I can''t waste time with chairs until I beat my rival." He still tangentially mentioned E''vania. That was his purpose for coming here, after all.
"You do remember you can command Reality itself to form a chair for you? Perhaps your decaying memory is why you can''t catch up to her," the Gardener teased as he also turned to look at the lake.
"Is that how she forged the Un''Re?" the dwarf ventured. "By bending Reality? Is that the secret of the Oneness?"
"Maybe," the Gardener replied with a smile. "I can tell you if you agree to attempt to Elevate your Realization into a Law."
V''moria harumphed. "If she figured out the trick as an A-rank, I can do it as well. My Realization can accept nothing else, even if I turn it into a Law first. You know that."
"Do I?" the Gardener asked half-playfully.
It had been a while since the guy started prodding V''moria into the possibility of his Path not breaking if he Ascended before becoming the best crafter he knew. V''moria didn''t trust it. He knew his Realization better than anyone. He had to be the best creator of anything he loved to make, and weapons were a part of it. He could accept nothing else. He couldn''t progress otherwise.
Thus, he had looked for other people interested in helping him. His Descent was almost ready. It would give him access to different tools and materials, the likes of which E''vania could only dream of.
He only had to ensure she didn''t reach S-rank first. And for that, he had to know exactly where she had gone to. He couldn''t have her simply ignore their rivalry and reach S-rank like he knew she had gone to do. She had to wait to be humiliated for him first. His Path demanded it. He couldn''t beat an S-rank, so he had to stop her.
"The Outsider looks a lot like Darla, doesn''t he?" the dwarf prodded.
"Are you trying to buy information with your silence?" the Gardener asked, surprised.
V''moria himself was almost surprised he had had the guts to speak those words, but this was a time for desperate measures. He had worked hard to receive the same status as the holins, but it had led him nowhere. The secret of the Oneness wasn''t at the hidden places at the top of the World Tree. Wherever E''vania had learned to do it, it hadn''t been in the Myriad Worlds.
She couldn''t reach S-rank before he found the answer! She couldn''t!
His True Path wanted to tremble, but V''moria controlled it tightly to keep the Gardener from noticing.
Calmly, he replied, "I''m just saying I was visiting a business partner in the Abyss when I felt a familiar presence by the Gates. The wrong Gates than the ones we''re supposed to protect. I''m saying that the sooner I figure some things out with our missing Elder E''vania, the sooner I can visit those Gates myself and Elevate my Path. I need to talk to her."
The Gardener shook his head with a sad smile. "You were ever too stupid to figure out the truth of Oneness by yourself and too stupid to betray me without showing any signs. I could''ve ignored your conversations in the Abyss a bit longer in exchange for your crafting skills, but it''s different when you admit to it yourself while trying to blackmail me, isn''t it? Not after so many Void Insertion Points were located near places you visit often. Not after I discovered they were hidden by incredible formations mixing qi, Abyssal Energy, and Void Energy. Not after you''ve revealed such mastery over formations. You''ve sealed your fate."
The dwarf still controlled his reactions. Enough B-ranks could fight against an A-rank, but only S-ranks could resist S-ranks. He hadn''t brought his only S-tier relic to ensure this conversation would look like the harmless mistake of a desperate fool. It wasn''t working.
"Milord, you are¡ª" he started but was frozen by Reality''s Laws.
V''moria could resist something at this level, but it would start a fight he wasn''t ready for. He started stealthily summoning his S-tier relic.
"I hate pruning my garden the most, especially when the weeds are so few and so harmless," the Gardener said while standing up and making his fishing rod disappear. "You see, your actions are irrelevant. The Void can''t succeed in the World Tree. Not ever. No matter how much it tries. And the Abyss..." the Gardener sighed. "Their strongest rulers are old allies of mine, you stupid, idiotic fool. They help me locate the weeds hidden deep within the hearts of those I want to trust the most."
He turned to the dwarf while extending his arm sideways. An S-tier twig of the World Tree grew from the grassy ground, turning into a simple-looking wooden axe that felt like the most divine of objects. The twig''s roots dried, releasing the weapon, which flew until its handle reached the Gardener''s hand.
The S-rank continued, "Your mistake was trying to profit from the interaction between a Child of Chaos and a Child of Order. Until E''vania succeeds in this Refinement Tribulation forced on her by the Heavens'' periodic jealousy of Children of Order, the ripples she causes will demand that Order be maintained or restored in her area of influence. She and O''blon conceived E''lemer in this very place. I arranged the meeting. If I ignore your betrayal after you hinted so strongly at it¡ªor worse, help you¡ªit''ll negatively affect her Ascension. I can''t have that at such a critical moment. And before I kill your A-rank accomplice and thirteen B-rank servants, I''ll let them know you''re the reason I acted." He lazily swung his axe against V''moria. "Die."
V''moria didn''t have the time to get shocked at the Gardener knowing everyone he was plotting with¡ªand even convincing those few people had taken hundreds of years. That damn sect knew how to brainwash everyone.
His S-tier spherical metal relic materialized in his hand, and he activated it right before the axe''s edge cut his soul off.
Reality twisted, and a fight broke out at the highest point of the World Tree while almost everyone else watched a much less relevant one at the 108th Middle Branch.
? ?
405. Dimming The Brilliance
Shen went through a dark stone portal and randomly emerged on one of the few dozen metal arrival platforms floating above the fighting ring.
At first glance, the Arena below looked like any other massive circular raised platform surrounded by auditorium-disposed spectator benches, except for its size and materials. The platform was about five miles long and made of B+ stone blocks resembling "inverted" galaxies: dark spots glowed and moved slowly like nebulas on a white light background. A transparent dome surrounded it, meant to protect the people outside from anything happening inside. It didn''t block one''s senses, though, which was how Shen could tell what that Arena was.
The Gardener Sect''s Arena was a place of Death.
Shen''s senses screamed at him about all the Death that place had and invited. The air was full of Life Laws, the most in any place Shen had visited. But the stone blocks felt like pure Death Laws made manifest. Shen guessed the material they were made of would''ve killed him, a C-rank, at a single touch before they were processed and turned into the blocks.
Even processed, they infected the air inside the dome with enough intensity for Shen''s Killing Weapon to flare in recognition and fierceness¡ªand his Law didn''t even belong to the Axioms of Death! Entering that place meant fighting to kill. That was the Arena''s purpose. Only the ring''s enchantments would prevent a lethal strike from ending someone''s life.
There were enough benches around it for a whole lot of people, but only a few tens of thousands were present, making it less than a tenth full. Almost everyone wore vests that looked like superimposed pieces of clothes, plus the Gardener Sect''s enamel pin. Shen doubted all those people came from a single World Tree Branch. They were coming from the entire Myriad Worlds to see the duel¡ªor rather, the spear.
The few dozen non-sect members were all B-ranks. Evidently, being present to see the spear was a big honor that not every B-rank in the Myriad Worlds was deserving of. Shen hated their presence here. He doubted he could disguise himself enough to avoid their senses in the future now that they would feel him personally.
T''onir was already in the ring, clad in C+ black and silvery armor. Unlike E''lemer, he also wore a helmet, and only his six wings were unprotected. His Path''s three Laws came from the Axioms of Staff, Life, and Death, and he wielded a B- staff. It was made of green wood with gray stripes.
If Shen''s Law of Killing Weapon had flared when he felt the air of Death in the Arena, T''onir''s Law of Death was like a beacon of lethal intent. His armor supposedly hid his Path from any onlooker, yet his Law of Death shone through it. He was there to do his best to kill his foe.
"Whenever you''re ready," E''lemer said as he teleported beside Shen.
Enough people were already looking up that many had located Shen and were pointing his way, but the spatial commotion caused by the teleportation made everyone look. There were no A-ranks among the audience, but Shen felt at least seven Realizations quickly scan him before retracting. They were watching.
Shen''s only worry was that E''livia wasn''t with the man. He silently prayed to the Heavens for her to keep her mouth shut. It also only made it more urgent for him to swiftly defeat T''onir.
He nodded to E''lemer, said, "I''ll be quick," and descended into the Arena. The transparent dome didn''t block his passage. He barely even felt it, almost like touching a soap bubble.
Getting into the Death-filled atmosphere from the Life-filled one, however, was most noticeable.
Shen wondered if that was how dying felt like. Something inside him told him that was a stupid thought. Still, the contrast between all the potential of Life outside and the eerie, final, and desolate Death inside would''ve dazed him if he hadn''t felt it from a distance before. Even then, feeling it in his soul was like jumping into the middle of an iceberg after bathing in lava. He even got a migraine for a few seconds as his True Center adapted to the environment.
T''onir faced Shen as he descended. As soon as the drow''s feet touched the ground, the holin turned to the audience and yelled, "I am Onir, of the Rael line, of T''holin blood."
People were discussing things outside, but the buzz died when he spoke. If Shen had understood the meaning of T''onir''s words, the guy was T''rael''s descendant. Yet, the B-rank had helped Shen after E''vania got involved. If E''lemer''s previous actions hadn''t been enough to show it, it became evident to Shen that the E''holin bloodline had a lot of pull in the Gardener Sect.
T''onir continued, "Today, I ask forgiveness of all who respect Elder E''vania. May no one find fault with me, for this is an Honor Duel agreed upon before my opponent was gifted Un''Re. I wouldn''t have accepted if I had known about it."
The audience nodded in agreement with the statement. Either the spear was even bigger of a deal than E''lemer had explained, or the respect E''vania commanded was that massive¡ªor a mix of both.
Still, what surprised Shen the most was that T''onir''s declaration felt genuine. Shen couldn''t feel T''onir''s soul through the armor, but his words and posture seemed honest. That was slightly strange, considering what E''vania had said about ignoring one''s bloodline''s instincts. How could he not protect the E''holin bloodline if it was the object of his instincts?
His following words answered that. "As soon as the news reached me, I shared my willingness to forfeit the Duel with Elder E''lemer. He has rejected my intentions. According to him, the E''holin bloodline is currently neutral about this challenge. To the E''holin, Elder E''vania''s favor is only as relevant to this situation as Elder E''lemer''s desire for an Honor Duel; thus, they cancel each other. As such, I''m about to follow the rules and fight my best. As such, I shall dim the brilliance of a masterpiece crafted by Elder E''vania. Forgive me." He bowed.
More people nodded, and many shouted approving words at the guy, though Shen couldn''t understand the language. More importantly, Shen still couldn''t find E''livia and was getting more worried by the second. He didn''t dare to hurry T''onir, though. This was obviously important to the sect, and he didn''t want to attract even more of the wrong kind of interest than he already had.
Fortunately, after a few silent moments, T''onir just turned to look at Shen and remained quiet.
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Shen got the cue and yelled to the audience, "I''m Shen. Elder E''vania has graced me with Un''Re. I''ll show you all that she knew what she was doing. So, forgive me for dimming the brilliance of T''onir''s speech by making him a liar before all of you." He turned back to E''tonir, smiled provocatively for a few seconds, but then wiped it off his face and cupped his fists before himself. "Your speech was good, though. I don''t understand your culture much, but I can see you''re an honorable man in your own way. I respect that."
T''onir''s Law of Death flared even harder at Shen''s taunt, but he still didn''t show emotion as he cupped his hands before himself and replied, "I can''t say I see the same, Outsider, but I respect Elder E''vania''s wisdom and want to learn what she saw in you."
Shen smiled. He could almost like the guy.
"Prepare yourselves," E''lemer shouted above.
T''onir flew backward to a corner of the ring, and Shen mirrored the movement. Both stared at each other. Shen couldn''t see the guy''s qi but moved his own qi in his body in preparation for the upcoming fight.
"Begin," E''lemer commanded, and the two fighters obeyed.
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"I wish she was here to see this," an old dwarf in blacksmith''s clothes said as he smoked his pipe. He was pure muscle, his beard was long and grey, and his hair was thin and white.
The Gardener turned to look from the lake to the newcomer with a frown. "V''moria. You defeated my formations again."
"A lucky trick," the dwarf said with a smile as he approached the lake. An anvil materialized beside the rock upon which the Gardener was sitting, and he sat on it. "She should be here to see it," he repeated.
"Don''t you know how to forge chairs?" the Gardener asked, pointedly ignoring the question again.
V''moria understood the S-rank''s intentions by ignoring E''vania''s subject and decided not to test his patience¡ªfor now. Instead, he looked at the lake.
The S-rank natural wonder made it easier for any A-rank looking at it to pierce some of the veils the Gardener had set up around each of the Myriad Worlds. It would let the dwarf watch the fight without anyone knowing he was doing it from afar. It would be his reward for breaking through the Gardener''s defenses once again, which would let the S-rank improve his craft. It was an old game of theirs, despite the Gardener pretending to dislike it for some reason. V''moria couldn''t get the guy''s sense of humor.
V''moria answered the question about chairs, "I can''t waste time with chairs until I beat my rival." He still tangentially mentioned E''vania. That was his purpose for coming here, after all.
"You do remember you can command Reality itself to form a chair for you? Perhaps your decaying memory is why you can''t catch up to her," the Gardener teased as he also turned to look at the lake.
"Is that how she forged the Un''Re?" the dwarf ventured. "By bending Reality? Is that the secret of the Oneness?"
"Maybe," the Gardener replied with a smile. "I can tell you if you agree to attempt to Elevate your Realization into a Law."
V''moria harumphed. "If she figured out the trick as an A-rank, I can do it as well. My Realization can accept nothing else, even if I turn it into a Law first. You know that."
"Do I?" the Gardener asked half-playfully.
It had been a while since the guy started prodding V''moria into the possibility of his Path not breaking if he Ascended before becoming the best crafter he knew. V''moria didn''t trust it. He knew his Realization better than anyone. He had to be the best creator of anything he loved to make, and weapons were a part of it. He could accept nothing else. He couldn''t progress otherwise.
Thus, he had looked for other people interested in helping him. His Descent was almost ready. It would give him access to different tools and materials, the likes of which E''vania could only dream of.
He only had to ensure she didn''t reach S-rank first. And for that, he had to know exactly where she had gone to. He couldn''t have her simply ignore their rivalry and reach S-rank like he knew she had gone to do. She had to wait to be humiliated for him first. His Path demanded it. He couldn''t beat an S-rank, so he had to stop her.
"The Outsider looks a lot like Darla, doesn''t he?" the dwarf prodded.
"Are you trying to buy information with your silence?" the Gardener asked, surprised.
V''moria himself was almost surprised he had had the guts to speak those words, but this was a time for desperate measures. He had worked hard to receive the same status as the holins, but it had led him nowhere. The secret of the Oneness wasn''t at the hidden places at the top of the World Tree. Wherever E''vania had learned to do it, it hadn''t been in the Myriad Worlds.
She couldn''t reach S-rank before he found the answer! She couldn''t!
His True Path wanted to tremble, but V''moria controlled it tightly to keep the Gardener from noticing.
Calmly, he replied, "I''m just saying I was visiting a business partner in the Abyss when I felt a familiar presence by the Gates. The wrong Gates than the ones we''re supposed to protect. I''m saying that the sooner I figure some things out with our missing Elder E''vania, the sooner I can visit those Gates myself and Elevate my Path. I need to talk to her."
The Gardener shook his head with a sad smile. "You were ever too stupid to figure out the truth of Oneness by yourself and too stupid to betray me without showing any signs. I could''ve ignored your conversations in the Abyss a bit longer in exchange for your crafting skills, but it''s different when you admit to it yourself while trying to blackmail me, isn''t it? Not after so many Void Insertion Points were located near places you visit often. Not after I discovered they were hidden by incredible formations mixing qi, Abyssal Energy, and Void Energy. Not after you''ve revealed such mastery over formations. You''ve sealed your fate."
The dwarf still controlled his reactions. Enough B-ranks could fight against an A-rank, but only S-ranks could resist S-ranks. He hadn''t brought his only S-tier relic to ensure this conversation would look like the harmless mistake of a desperate fool. It wasn''t working.
"Milord, you are¡ª" he started but was frozen by Reality''s Laws.
V''moria could resist something at this level, but it would start a fight he wasn''t ready for. He started stealthily summoning his S-tier relic.
"I hate pruning my garden the most, especially when the weeds are so few and so harmless," the Gardener said while standing up and making his fishing rod disappear. "You see, your actions are irrelevant. The Void can''t succeed in the World Tree. Not ever. No matter how much it tries. And the Abyss..." the Gardener sighed. "Their strongest rulers are old allies of mine, you stupid, idiotic fool. They help me locate the weeds hidden deep within the hearts of those I want to trust the most."
He turned to the dwarf while extending his arm sideways. An S-tier twig of the World Tree grew from the grassy ground, turning into a simple-looking wooden axe that felt like the most divine of objects. The twig''s roots dried, releasing the weapon, which flew until its handle reached the Gardener''s hand.
The S-rank continued, "Your mistake was trying to profit from the interaction between a Child of Chaos and a Child of Order. Until E''vania succeeds in this Refinement Tribulation forced on her by the Heavens'' periodic jealousy of Children of Order, the ripples she causes will demand that Order be maintained or restored in her area of influence. She and O''blon conceived E''lemer in this very place. I arranged the meeting. If I ignore your betrayal after you hinted so strongly at it¡ªor worse, help you¡ªit''ll negatively affect her Ascension. I can''t have that at such a critical moment. And before I kill your A-rank accomplice and thirteen B-rank servants, I''ll let them know you''re the reason I acted." He lazily swung his axe against V''moria. "Die."
V''moria didn''t have the time to get shocked at the Gardener knowing everyone he was plotting with¡ªand even convincing those few people had taken hundreds of years. That damn sect knew how to brainwash everyone.
His S-tier spherical metal relic materialized in his hand, and he activated it right before the axe''s edge cut his soul off.
Reality twisted, and a fight broke out at the highest point of the World Tree while almost everyone else watched a much less relevant one at the 108th Middle Branch.
406. Connected the Dots
"Begin," E''lemer commanded.
As much as Shen would like to progressively see what his new spear could do, his priority was survival, which meant ending things quickly. So, Shen immediately went all-out.
He deployed his True Realm and rushed toward the T''onir. The holin waited with his knees bent and staff held diagonally behind him. Shen reached him, and they used the same attacks against each other. They swung both their weapon and Path at their foe.
Shen used his Material Suppresion to surround T''onir with Stream jets, each drop strengthened by another of his Laws. Simultaneously, T''onir threw pure Death against Shen.
To Shen, it felt like immersing himself in an ocean of Death after dipping his toes in a shallow pond for a few moments. Death was already around him, but T''onir''s move added depth and intent to it. Before, Death had been abundant but kind of merely there. Now, it targeted him with the full fury of a mastered Law.
T''onir was materializing his Law, yet there was no visible, physical body to it. Death was just Death. It was there, pushing against Shen. It had no actual substance. Un''Re wasn''t slowed down in the slightest.
The holin''s staff, however, slowed down considerably. T''onir was pinned down by Shen''s manifested Laws.
Despite the visible edge Shen got, T''onir was merely only hindered while Shen was dying. His skin died as he forced himself ahead, and so did his flesh. His body moved forward, and his qi was pushed back into his body as if he was being invaded.
Shen fought against it, pushing hard against the Death Law inside him, but he failed and had no idea why. Although mastered Laws could bypass souls'' natural defense, his domain should''ve made him resistant to even mastered Laws, perhaps immune. Yet, that''s not how it was going. His qi delayed the Death, but not by a lot.
He was still moving, though, and his spear touched T''onir''s head at the same time T''onir''s Death Law reached both Shen''s brain and heart.
In all honesty, Shen should''ve lost. He hadn''t been prepared to deal with T''onir''s ability. He was sure none of his blocked memories pertained to a skill like that; as far as he had always known, whatever T''onir was doing made no sense.
However, he had one of the best C+ spears in existence¡ªor so people seemed to believe, by how they behaved¡ªand it showed in the simplest way.
Shen let go of his spear and instantly reversed his movement. T''onir''s trick was neat, but he was inexperienced or poorly trained, or both. Seeing how Shen had kept advancing, he got scared of the incoming attack and stopped surrounding Shen with his Death Law. Instead, he placed it only between him and Shen.
So, when Shen started moving backward, T''onir''s Death¡ªwhich was materialized and, thus, somewhat bound by Spacetime, even if it had no substance¡ªstarted consuming him more slowly. It only killed a tenth of his heart and brain before Shen''s spear cut through T''onir''s C+ armor as if it was made of tofu, turned his brain into juice, and started going toward his heart.
The qi-filled spear, seemingly moving by itself, was one with Shen. He could move it naturally, even if he wasn''t touching it. It wasn''t as fast as he could make it by also using his arms, but it was still damn fast. The qi helped, and Shen could use it as if it were in his own body. The spear was him.
The spear was him, yet it was unaffected by Death. It wasn''t alive. That gave him an edge.
T''onir noticed his mistake and tried to fix it by surrounding Shen with pure Death. It was too late. Shen''s vital organs hadn''t even died fifteen percent when Shen''s spear reached T''onir''s heart.
The arena''s formations activated, and Spacetime twisted.
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Shen''s spear found only empty air¡ªempty Life-filled air. He had been teleported outside the ring, and the dome surrounding it blocked his aura and abilities. His Material Suppression was based on his senses, but the dome was currently pitch-black opaque, blocking light and his every sense, physical or not. T''onir was nowhere to be found. The ability automatically stopped working.
"The Outsider wins," E''lemer said, evidently unwillingly.
There were no cheers or boos. Every eye was glued to the spear. Shen didn''t get it. He had won with a neat trick that only his Oneness could pull, and it certainly would''ve saved his life if that duel hadn''t been in a controlled environment, but so what?
He valued the spear because it was strong and himself; yet, it was just a fancy tool in the end. Either he was missing something, or these people had all been brainwashed into revering the Oneness enchantment for no reason.
E''lemer glanced at the spear almost as if hurt for a moment, then waved his hand.
Spacetime twisted again.
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Shen found himself floating below thunderous, dark gray skies, above a volcano surrounded by molten lava. It wasn''t spitting lava into the skies, but it was active, spilling lava sideways. By the distance the lava had reached, that had been going for a while. The lava should''ve piled up by now, but it hadn''t, revealing it was special¡ªif the A+ qi levels in it hadn''t been enough to conclude that.
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Yes, A+ lava. A lot of it. Just there for the taking.
This place was a treasure trove, the likes of which Shen''s mind had trouble calculating the value of.
Shen''s spear was nowhere to be seen, though he could feel it galaxies away. It was also merely a few hundred miles away somehow. He took it to mean he was in a spatial bubble or something instead of being separated from it by mere physical distance.
"I''ll have to hide you from the Heavens to bind the spear to your soul," an old but energetic voice said beside Shen.
Shen turned to see a shadow much like the one he had found in the Armory. By the guy''s words, he was the Grand Elder.
Shen smiled as he connected the dots.
The former Grand Elder had been killed for abusing the sect''s "secret police system." Then, the Gardener gave the position to someone from the race that looked perfect for the secret job. Unless Shen was mistaken, the previous Grand Elder should''ve garnered a whole lot of support for his idea of establishing the Shadow Corps. This was the Gardener''s ironic way of making said supporters reap what they sowed. The Shadow Corps had been exploited, and now one of their signature races¡ªShen was confident of it¡ªruled over the Gardener Sect, directly under the Gardener''s orders¡ª
Shen''s mind froze.
Wait a moment. If the Shadow Corps was as faithful to the Gardener as the shadow in the Armory had suggested, and if the Grand Elder was really a part of the Shadow Corps, didn''t that mean the Gardener had been involved in the duel business?
That sounded ridiculous at first. As much as a spear crafted by an A-rank mattered, why would an S-rank care about it? But well, if Un''Re was as amazing as everyone seemed to think, just witnessing it in action might actually elevate some crafter''s skills, as E''lemer had said. It would be good for the sect and, thus, for the Myriad Worlds. And the Myriad Worlds belonged to the Gardener.
Shen was suddenly even more keen to leave with E''livia as soon as possible. He did not want the Gardener''s continued attention on him. Much less if he had messed up by defeating T''onir so quickly and in such an anticlimactic manner. Un''Re had made too brief an appearance.
"If the Gardener wanted you dead for that or for killing him, you would already be dead," the Grand Elder said. "And no, I''m not bound by the same rules as the Shadow Corps because I was removed from it when I was given this position. I can analyze you all I want. To detect and protect the sect from any external influence is my prerogative as Grand Elder. Not that it''s that impressive; anyone can read your soul like a book. You don''t even try to hide your thought ripples or emotions."
Shen almost didn''t hear the part about rules.
The Gardener knew?!
His mind felt incapable of forming coherent thoughts. He couldn''t start to guess why the S-rank would allow Shen to live after that. Shen definitely wanted to stay around even less after that.
"I also want to return to my duties," the Grand Elder replied. "Get in the volcano; it''ll hide your soul from the Heavens. Externally enforced changes to your soul are forbidden during this tribulation, but I know a workaround. But don''t you get all excited! It''s the only change made by someone or something else that you''ll be allowed, even with the loophole. With or without it, don''t try to get your soul healed, or you''ll die."
Shen barely managed to stop thinking about the Gardener enough to begin to try to decide whether to doubt the Grand Elder when a Realization threw him into the volcano.
"I don''t care if you believe me," the shadow said right before Shen fell into the lava. "Let''s just get this over with."
The lava felt like lukewarm water. The Realization kept pushing Shen for long minutes. He was deep underground when it finally stopped. Then, he was pulled back.
"Done," the Grand Elder said as soon as Shen was back in the air. "No, I wasn''t fast. Your soul is already hurt, so I made you unconscious, or you might die from the pain. The ritual took a few hours."
Shen had trouble believing the guy. He had been made unconscious without noticing it? Without his thoughts even being interrupted? And the ritual was over without any noticeable change to his soul?
"I told you I''d use a loophole," the Grand Elder replied to Shen''s thoughts. "It''s too advanced for you to understand, but your soul both changed and didn''t. I transformed your essence. And no, your mind cannot understand what that means."
As much as the Grand Elder was answering Shen, this semi-mind-reading business was ridiculously invasive. Shen was starting to get mad at it now that the shock of the guy''s earlier words was dissipating.
"I don''t care about your feelings, kid," the shadow said. "Try to pull the spear with your mind. It''ll work; then, I can get out of here. And you can get to your date. Under the Gardener''s orders, I did what I could to keep the little girl away from situations to talk about you, but not risking the Heavens'' ire while doing it was tricky. I can''t do much more for much longer. By my estimates, you have about half an hour before she meets a childhood friend and shares everything that happened to her. Or my estimates might be wrong, and it''s already happening. Your choice whether to waste time growing angry at me and delaying¡ª"
Shen didn''t let the Grand Elder finish before pulling his spear with his willpower. Half the qi in his body simply disappeared. At the same time, his spear simply appeared exactly one yard away from him.
The shadow nodded. "Don''t teleport it straight into your soul before reaching B-rank, or it''ll kill you. A rather pathetic way to go. And I mean B-rank, not mastered Laws. This isn''t a matter of Path but of your existence''s level. Last test: pull it physically into your soul."
Shen complied, and the spear entered him without trouble. The only caveat was that he needed it to touch his skin. No qi was required to store the spear away.
"Finally," the shadow said impatiently. "Don''t make me waste time again. No, wait; you''re slow-minded. I''ll be clear: I don''t want to investigate anything or punish anyone. Above all else, I don''t want to destroy Un''Re. You don''t want to find out if I can resurrect you just to torture you if you upset me with your death. Do. Not. Die."
Spacetime twisted one more time.
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Shen found himself before a portal in Flower City, with E''livia standing on his side.
As soon as she saw Shen, she cupped her hands before herself and bowed low. "Thank you for saving my father."
Shen didn''t reply at once. A whole lot of things had happened to him way too quickly. For him, it had been less than a minute since he defeated T''onir, and he had been told a lot by the Grand Elder.
But those things could wait. Probably. He needed to convince E''livia to leave, and the sooner he got that done, the sooner he could meditate on the implications of everything that had happened.
"I have no idea what you''re talking about," he replied. "Is this a portal to a bar? I need to buy you that drink, and we need to have that Debate. Then I can ask you for that favor."
He was in a hurry, but he had made promises he needed to keep before asking for anything. Said promises had sounded like a good idea at the time. Now, he hated past-Shen for them.
407. Too Many Red Flags
E''livia opened her mouth to reply but thought better of it, nodded, and replied, "This is a restaurant. An average one." She blushed. "Dad said I shouldn''t go to one of the cheap hedonist ones but that you were unlikely to like anything too classy. And you''re paying. It''d be impolite to ask for anything more."
Shen smiled. He appreciated the lack of "hedonism" more than anything. He didn''t mind visiting places of mindless fun in the future, but he needed few distractions now. He would like nothing more than to enter that restaurant right away.
However, hurrying too much would be detrimental instead of helping him. Avoiding politics was one thing, but being ungrateful was another.
He said, "Elder E''vania was generous to me, and through her generosity, I earned the right to talk to you. I have seventy-five high-purity spirit stones, and it would be my privilege to spend everything with you. I doubt I can afford your sect''s very best restaurant, but please take us to the best I can afford."
The spear Un''Re was priceless. During their talk, Elder E''vania had been either delusional about the Gardener or lying to Shen, but her gift was at least indirectly connected to the Honor Duel and had helped him win. Even if the old lady ended up not liking Shen spending some money on E''livia, she was unlikely to get upset. E''lemer was the same¡ª
Shen frowned. Actually, it might very well upset the man, who didn''t want his daughter to mingle with Shen.
He was about to tell her he had changed his mind, but she was smiling excitedly at his words and said, "Yes! I always wanted to visit the Blue Lagoon, but Dad never gave me money for it! Come!" she jumped on the sky and flew away with her six wings, which had been healed by now.
Shen, on the other hand, was still not healed from Death. T''onir''s Path was still inside him, being automatically fought against by his own Path. He was slowly pushing the guy''s Path away and healing himself. The process had halted during his unconscious hours in the volcano, and it would take another few hours for him to get rid of the guy''s influence.
Really, Shen had no idea how that Law invasion had worked; he hoped he could at least get E''livia to explain that to him even if she refused to come with him.
The holin led him to a doorframe made of sparking blue water, perpetually running. Shen''s Law of Stream resonated with it. He was almost sure he could improve his mastery over his Law just by observing that frame if his tribulation wasn''t blocking him.
That mere doorframe showed how the Gardener Sect treaded its members well. Standing in front of the portal was free for any sect member, and this was merely the Garden City of a C-tier world. He could only imagine what the headquarters E''livia had mentioned could provide the sect''s disciples with.
The flowers writing the portal''s destination above were lotuses, and the words were larger than most portals. Shen was beginning to recognize some of the local language''s characters after visiting places he knew the meaning of, like the Armory, the Arena, and now this Blue Lagoon. It would take a longer time to learn the language, though¡ªwhich he had to work on if he planned to disguise himself.
E''livia landed before the portal, looking even more excited than before. "The Blue Lagoon is real expensive," she said after Shen landed. "Are you sure you want to go in?" Her smile was mesmerizing.
Shen might''ve paid even for a random girl he knew nothing about if they asked it of him with so much hope in their voice. It was too cute, and he realized he didn''t care about money. He could always get more money, but disappointing E''livia might devastate her.
He frowned at that thought, though.
Why did he care so much about not disappointing a random girl? Even if it marked her life negatively, she would overcome it and maybe even grow more mature from the experience.
Was this a matter of public perception? Female perception? He certainly wouldn''t care so much about a man in E''livia''s place.
Shen wondered if he was weak-willed when it came to women or just more interested in the opposite sex than he ever noticed. He didn''t feel aroused; at most, he was curious about certain things E''livia''s body might reveal, but nothing that should be pushing him.
Did he feel lonely, then?
Well, yes.
Yes, he did.
As soon as Shen noticed his loneliness, it spread throughout his soul. Or rather, it had always been there, but now he fully recognized it. Shen was utterly alone in the entire world. He had few memories of who he was. He was almost like a dog, fulfilling his instinctual needs to keep living and growing, or a purposeless plant growing just because. Why did the Power of his Will matter if he had no reason to wield it except to acquire more Power?
Sure, enough Power would allow him to do whatever he wanted, but even as he considered forgetting himself in pleasure, he knew he''d ultimately be left with an emotional void he couldn''t fill up.
Shen needed a reason to live. That reason wouldn''t be women, but maybe a woman of his age or older. Potentially, there will be a few younger ones, too, and some boys: offspring.
Shen yearned for a family.
The realization was strange. Illogical, even. His Will should be his sole reason to move forward, his ultimate goal, his absolute fulfillment. How, then, could he want something else for his life to make sense?
He smiled as the answer came easily to him: that''s what it meant to develop a Realization.
His Will made him be. One day, he would form a Realization to make his existence worth it, to push the ambition of the Path he had forged and walked into the universe. His future Realization was unlikely to be related to the family he wanted right now, as the latter was merely a desire born of his loneliness, just like a starving man would seek food and a broke man would seek money. Even if possible, which he doubted, making such pursuits the Realization of his very existence, of his Path, would be unwise, to say the least.
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Anyway, his Realization was a matter for the future. It required mastered Laws to even start considering from the correct point of view. Shen could, however, start working on his loneliness. A thirsty man might drink even acid in desperation; he shouldn''t pick a wife while desperate for companionship.
Shen had to satiate his loneliness with healthy relationships before seeking anything more profound. In fact, he needed that more than anyone else because he couldn''t recall a single friend he had ever made. He understood how friendships and relationships should work in theory, but experiencing things always mattered.
He had thought everything quickly, but E''livia was a stronger C-rank than him. Her face had gone through a range of emotions as he frowned, then smiled, then showed purpose.
At long last, he chuckled and said, "I''m sure." He gestured to the door. "Shall we?"
E''livia smiled again and even gave a slight jump in elation. Then, she patted her clothes¡ªshe was back to the juxtaposed pieces of cloth¡ªand stepped in with a straight, expectant back.
Shen followed, also smiling. Her forthrightness was really refreshing. So was her disregard for acting somewhat childishly. Shen was getting endeared to it despite liking mature women better. Then again, she would grow mature one day, right?
Not that he''d get into a romantic relationship with her. Too unstable, that one. Too many red flags raised¡ªlike trying to murder him twice.
It was simply a matter of being honest with himself. He had to admit that the unpretentious, free self-confidence E''livia showed when she was just herself, showing her emotions regardless of the public option, was attractive when found in an adult woman. It made a relationship with her seem like one where both parties could just relax and accept each other, relaxing instead of always being worried about emotional plays. It might work as long as he withstood her excessive cuteness here and there.
Well, and as long as it wasn''t E''livia, too.
Shen laughed self-deprecatingly, decided not to dismiss anyone with a similar personality to E''livia in the future if he became interested in them, and stepped through the portal.
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Blue Lagoon was a hundred-yard-wide A- blue lake in the middle of an endless red desert. The skies were yellow, and the air was stale. There were no tables or chairs anywhere, nor guests. A single B+ black stone pedestal shaped like an arm and hand held an A- crystal-like glass right after the portal.
E''livia was looking at the glass like a child looking at a lollipop. She turned to Shen and grabbed his arm and started jumping excitedly. "You''re not joking, right? We''re really doing this, right? You swear you pay, don''t you?"
Shen hated having realized how lonely he felt because her skin felt amazing to the touch just now, and gravity was really favoring her assets. He considered cutting his feelings down¡ª
¡ªand failed to even start doing it.
The Heavenly Tribulation didn''t want him to stop any emotion. Not fully. He could control or even forcefully suppress his feelings with willpower, but they had to remain there.
So, an emotion-filled Shen felt like the most weak-willed and immature drow to ever walk the universe as he forced himself to look away from E''livia rather than allow himself to feel tempted.
The next instant, he discovered a new low.
He failed to look away from her assets.
That moment shook his entire True Center. He had failed to control himself despite being in complete control of his mental faculties. He was absolutely sure this was a first since he had reached C-rank. It didn''t even make sense because he was more than a True Path Walker; he was a True Center holder, or whatever it was called. He was one singular entity with himself. He couldn''t fail to control his desires.
His own self answered him right then.
Shen''s Will was shaking in his True Center. To deny himself anything he wanted because of "considerations" was to deny his Will. He should use his Power to fulfill even his desires despite any of them potentially leaving him feeling empty.
His Honor tried to hold it tightly¡ªand it was partially his Honor for his Will itself. He couldn''t gain more and more Power if he was distracted by his base instincts. That was common sense. At least, it would take much longer and make this Path much more dangerous.
Shen''s Will and reason were fighting, and unfortunately, in this specific instance, his mind was weakened by loneliness. His based instincts were acting up. Moreover, evidently, his experiences in his forgotten past, whatever they had been, had been so full of treachery and complications that the simplicity implicitly promised by E''livia was growing too much on him, weakening his Honor''s reasons not to do it.
In fact, things had to have been way, way too terrible for him to have reminiscent impressions of it despite the inexistent memories. It was to the point that potentially having to deal with an angry E''lemer didn''t counter-balance things enough.
Thus, his Will won.
The experience was a wake-up call. Shen couldn''t survive like that. What if something like this happened in the middle of a fight? He had to change himself before figuring out the entirety of his Will.
Although he recalled E''vania claiming the Heavenly Tribulation was weakening his willpower, he refused to be such an unbalanced existence that he had to impose himself against his own self to survive in a damn battle. He couldn''t be his own enemy for his entire life. That was unthinkable.
One possibility was changing his Honor. He hated the idea. Changing his Will was impossible; he''d just die if he tried. His Will was the most fundamental building block of his existence. It''s how he had come to be. He couldn''t touch it at all.
That left finding a way for the rest of his Path to support his Honor. Maybe more of his beliefs could be connected to that strong block of Honor. Perhaps his very Laws had to be involved with his Honor¡ªthough it sounded too much like something related to Realizations.
Whatever the case, that was a consideration for later.
Now, Shen just basked in E''livia''s bouncing beauty for a moment, then stepped up, grabbed her by the waist, and...
...embraced her.
He had meant for a kiss initially. He desired it. But the moment he gave in to his Will, he freed his reason from fighting against it and used it to direct his Will. He could slow down his "Willed acquisition" for a while. It would give him time to know E''livia better, hopefully noticing many things that made him not want anything with her. If that happened, his reason could fight his Will better.
For now, he reasoned a kiss would mean too many things, and he couldn''t offer them to E''livia before sorting himself.
Shen hated himself for giving in to his own desire even that embrace¡ªand he cherished the warmth and softness of her body and skin even more. In fact, it further weakened his reason further. He embraced her more firmly.
He hated and adored everything even more when she reciprocated the hug after less than a moment of hesitation. It was worse and better when she also tightened the hug.
Then, she turned her mouth to him, softly kissed his cheek, and made to step back. The stupid, childish, wet peck was enough for Shen to almost go crazy. However, the moment she tried to disengage, his entire Honor flared with the fury of a billions suns. Shen would not force anyone into anything romantic with him. Not ever.
He released her and also stepped back.
E''livia was smiling. She started saying something in her language. When she noticed her mistake, she was flustered and changed to Stangue, "I didn''t know you looked at me like that. I feel silly for being afraid of you now. But everything makes sense in hindsight." Her smile softened in a weird way. "When we met, you were just provoking me like E''forion does! And I overreacted. But now I know the truth. From now on, I''ll look after you as if you were my little brother! Trust your big sister Liv!"
Shen opened his mouth to say something but just stared at her speechlessly.
408. Elivia, No!
''Did it work?'' E''livia asked herself. ''It worked, right? G''ana said it would work. It has to have worked. He''s not saying anything. Is he going to hug me again? He isn''t, is he? I can''t stop myself if he does.''
E''livia''s childhood friend, G''ana, had once told her how to get rid of annoying males who got too close: by pretending to have misunderstood things and treating them as she would E''forion.
E''livia didn''t want to get rid of the Outsider. At least not permanently. She owed him for saving her dad. But she had gotten very confused when he hugged her. It was a mix of goosebumps with something in her stomach. The heat spreading through her legs didn''t help, either. And it was even worse because, suddenly, her fear of him was replaced with fear of the consequences of this situation.
She knew what those things were, but she was not ready to grow attached to the Outsider.
Yet, she had almost gone for his lips! G''ana had been correct: E''livia would understand G''ana''s partner-hopping and constant indulgence the day E''livia reached middle adulthood. For the E''holin, it came the first time they desired to give themselves to someone with a lot of intensity¡ª
No! No! She did not desire to give herself to anyone! The Outsider was a bad boy! She didn''t like bad boys! And she would never dishonor her bloodline by marrying outside the sect, either!
Her body was telling her otherwise. Her system was being bombarded with hormones. Culturally, holin frowned upon controlling their feelings too tightly, but she was instantaneously and stealthy destroying every hormone with her domain as soon as they were produced so the Outsider wouldn''t notice.
Alas, she had been a bit too late on a few signals her body sent. That made her embarrassed, a feeling which, in turn, made her feel more confused.
Why did she even care about the Outsider''s opinion? She would not allow herself to do anything with him, no matter what. But she also didn''t want him to know she wanted the same as he did. Why? She even wanted him to try to hug her again, even though it would never get anywhere.
All that confusion led her to react the way G''ana had taught E''livia.
When the Outsider finally properly reacted, after leaving his mouth hanging open for a while, her heart became even more confused. She felt pity at the disappointment in his face¡ªand was elated. She had never felt the way she did now. The Outsider had been very arrogant until now, but now, she subdued him by merely... existing.
She felt so powerful it was inebriating. It also made her even more confused.
And... roused.
E''livia found she liked feeling desired by him. Maybe by other similarly strong people. She recalled some of G''ana''s adventures and wondered...
No. That wouldn''t do. Before the Path Outlining stage of the Ethereal Harmonization realm, members of the E''holin bloodline got too attached to their first mate. Her first mate would automatically become her first object of self-sacrifice, thus awakening her bloodline.
Well... G''ana had bypassed that by delaying her awakening until she mastered her Laws...
No. No, no, no.
''You''re afraid of him, remember?!'' she told herself.
The Outsider could kill her at any time. She had seen how he wielded Un''Re. It had been terrifying. T''onir was the strongest Law Mastering Ethereal Harmonization Freedom Fighter in the sect, but the Outsider crushed him. To resist a Freedom Fighter''s Path like that had been... Marvelous. Un''Re had ignored T''onir''s Materialized Death! That should''ve been impossible! A Dominator of the same level could not resist a Freedom Fighter! And yet, it had happened. It displayed both Un''Re''s and the Outsider''s Path''s mighty. Still, by the Outsider''s reaction, he was unimpressed with his victory. It was almost as if he could''ve figured something out if he hadn''t had Un''Re.
The Outsider''s nonchalance that E''livia found so annoying at first had grown on her at that precise instant. Also, the Outsider looked so strong holding¡ª
''No! E''livia, no!''
She turned her back to the Outsider and grabbed the glass before she did something stupid¡ªlike drinking with a guy she most definitely did want to fly with. Not. Did not. Didn''t. Silly internal mistake.
E''livia immersed her glass in the lake, filled it with the A- Eternal Molten Bluefrost liquid, and pulled it up. Right after, Blue Lagoon''s enchantments teleported her away.
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Shen remained frozen in place for a few extra moments after E''livia left. To say he was shocked was an understatement. And it wasn''t because he had been friend-zoned.
It was because the air stunk of the... female desire her body had released.
Shen had no idea what was going on at first. His mind got stun-locked at how E''livia''s body released that smell after calling him a little brother. That was wrong on so many levels. He couldn''t even understand it at first.
Eventually, however, he got to the crux of the matter: she had lied to him.
Part of him felt outraged at being tricked like that, but he mostly felt empathetic. E''livia was going through something similar to him. She desired him, but her reason said no.
Despite her many flaws, maybe they could find some camaraderie in facing their inner demons together, after all.
When E''livia was teleported away, a new A- crystal-like glass appeared on the arm-like pedestal. He grabbed it and did as she had just done. The A- liquid in the lake didn''t feel like liquid at all. It was soft to the touch, like cotton candy, though it repelled him after the first contact. It didn''t repel the cup, though; he collected it with ease.
The place''s invisible formations teleported him away right after.
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Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"Welcome to the Blue Lagoon!" E''livia said with a happy smile as the Outsider materialized on the seat on the other side of the table.
The Outsider checked his surroundings. They were in a cozy wooden cabin. It looked rustic, but everything was made of B+ materials. The cabin was invisible from the outside, but the table they sat by, the only one in the cabin, was beside a huge window with a view of the lake and the red sand. The pedestal and possible newcomers were invisible to the people inside, though.
"What''s your favorite food?" she asked as the Outsider''s eyes settled back on her, and a shiver of expectation ran through her spine. She told herself it was fear. Fear was good right now.
"I don''t know," he replied.
Weird answer, but he didn''t seem to be lying. She hated feeling glad about introducing him to her favorite food. She tilted the cup in her hand until a drop fell on the table and said, "Third Ocean''s Armless Lobster."
The blue water drop shone and grew into the B+ food, together with a fancy plate and cutlery. It was her first time witnessing that, but it was as impressive as she had been told. The A- liquid had changed its entire structure to become the food she requested. Her every sense told her she was before B+ cooked and seasoned lobster. It was magical.
Shen frowned and copied her. Another plate of lobster appeared before him. He then released some of his aura on it. The lobster turned back into a drop of blue liquid.
"Don''t be rude!" E''livia nagged. "Eternal Molten Bluefrost has a nascent sapience and wants to be consumed, but it''s also easily scared. Don''t let your Path touch it outside your body."
She grabbed her hashon and knife and started eating. It was as delicious as it should be. It also slightly purified her Path and formed insight pearls in her soul that she could consume later. They would allow her to meditate on anything she wanted as if she had entered a half-enlightened state.
Meanwhile, Shen¡ª
E''livia froze. Since when was she calling him Shen in her thoughts? She meant The Outsider.
The Outsider repeated tentatively, "Third Ocean''s Armless Lobster?" the liquid turned into food again.
He looked confused at the hashon, as if he had never seen the piece of cutlery before. Copying her usage was easy enough, though. He had no trouble balancing the sliced food on the edge of the hashon, as holin children did. He was an Ethereal Harmonization cultivator, after all.
E''livia smiled widely when he ate the lobster, and his widened eyes shone.
He consumed the rest like a starving holin. "This! This is my favorite food!" he almost yelled while pouring another drop of Eternal Molten Bluefrost on the platter and asking for more. This time, there was no cutlery or new plate, so the lobster was bigger. He devoured it, too.
As entertaining as it was to watch him love her favorite food, E''livia decided he had to introduce him to more pleasures than just this one.
"Slow down, qilin rider!" she said with a light smile. "Nothing I ever tasted beats the Third Ocean''s Armless Lobster, but you said you would pay me a drink. Some food harmonizes with White Lotus Sunray Wine." She said the wine''s name as she let another drop of Eternal Molten Bluefrost fall from her glass, and it turned into a beautiful B+ wine glass with the B+ wine. "And be sure to keep at least half the Eternal Molten Bluefrost in the cup to directly drink it later. I never had it, but I heard it''s better than the lobster."
E''livia was surprised at how fun it was to share the Outsider''s first time with so many delicious foods.
Maybe, just maybe, her fear for him was replaced with something else that day.
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Shen found it weird to desire someone yet behave as if he didn''t. Yet, he preferred this to the possibility of having laid with E''livia after their embrace.
In the past hour, they had talked about nothing too profound or the topics Shen wanted to breach, but it had been delightful. E''livia had shared some of her experiences with him, but he had nothing to share. Still, it was interesting to see an actual kind, confused, imperfect, and hard-working girl beneath the surface of arrogance and immaturity she had shown until now.
"No!" she replied, half-horrified, half-laughing when Shen said she looked like she was in her twenties by drow standards. "I''m seventy! Holins mature slowly before late adulthood. But our adulthood is about body and mind, not age; not really. I reached early adulthood ten years ago, and I''m a fully-fledged middle adult now!"
"What''s the difference between early, middle, and late adulthood?" Shen asked as he ate a salad that had no business being that good.
"Early adulthood means our bodies and minds are mature enough for..." She blushed. "For everything an adult should do."
"And middle adulthood?"
She blushed even more furiously and deflected, "I heard drow are ready for... intercourse... before actual adulthood?" Her face was crimson from embarrassment at that point. She had changed the subject without adequately considering her next subject.
Shen didn''t mind the subject change. They were just making small talk as they ate. He didn''t need to know what middle adulthood meant for holin.
"A long time ago, drow used to be like holin in maturing slowly," Shen replied. "Drow, wood elves, and high elves came from the same world, and there should be some shared genetics in our ancestry. Not that most of us will admit to it. Drow dislike being called dark elves because we culturally look down on the elven races. Anyway, every elven race changed themselves to be more similar to mortals because mortals mature so much faster, and we''re no different. Drow bodies reach puberty and become ready for procreation when we are fifteen or sixteen. Adulthood comes much later. It could be morally challenging if not for our rigid relationship rules."
"So, you''re not an adult?" E''livia asked with too much fake disinterest.
Shen chuckled. "Let me put it another way. Drow bodies reach adulthood by fifteen or seventeen. Our brains are fully formed, with no further change, unlike other mortal races, like the werepeople. After that, adulthood is a psychological concept for us. I see myself as an adult. Do you?"
He didn''t hide his interest in his question. He should have. However, E''livia hadn''t told him that the Eternal Molten Bluefrost could intoxicate C-ranks.
It wasn''t like a mortal getting drunk, but E''livia and him were growing... Freer. If Shen had to guess, the liquid was melting some of their social resistances¡ªor maybe refining them. Some of his Honor''s weak points were crumbling, and his Will surfaced stronger than ever.
Shen didn''t stop consuming the Bluefrost, though.
Nor did E''livia.
Still, he found he liked the conversation more than he thought he might. It was fun to learn more about E''livia in such a relaxed environment.
Teasing her was even more fun, especially when she replied, "I most definitely see you as an adult... Outsider." The way she said "Outsider" was a clear divide, an unsurmountable barrier. It was also challenging and sexy as hell. Shen didn''t want to lose this by actually entering a relationship with her.
In fact, his Will half seemed to accept that controlling himself in such an instance would show more Power than giving in to her provocation. It was nice.
After hours of small talk, Shen found he liked E''livia¡ªthe new E''livia. She hadn''t elaborated on her middle adulthood, but clearly, that had happened right after his hug. And this new E''livia was somewhat more mature. The Bluefrost was likely also helping accelerate the process as she got more in tune with her inner self. Shen liked it and saw her as more than a piece of flesh to taste. It paradoxically strengthened his Honor not to play with anyone''s feelings.
"Now, for the grand finale," E''livia said after they forced the plates, cutlery, and glasses to turn back into a drop that they returned to the A- glass. She held the glass for a toast, and Shen reciprocated. The glasses tingled melodiously as they touched. "For two years of companionship!" she said happily.
Shen was smiling back. They hadn''t talked about his request for her to accompany him. He still didn''t know why she had said he had saved her father. However, they had reached a silent agreement about enjoying each other''s company, and the toast showed she was open to deepening their friendship by traveling together.
He replied, "For two years of a most pleasant friendship." He added a lot of emphasis to the last two words.
Their smiles widened at the internal joke that was no joke, and they drank the remaining half of their cups.
Shen''s smile died as liquid pleasure entered his stomach, and he experienced ecstatic nirvana. He also felt closer to Reality despite being unable to improve his mastery over his Laws. His Path was purified somehow. He blended better with the world. And it was so pleasurable it was indescribable.
He wasn''t sure if the moan he heard was his or E''livia. He didn''t care to find out. He just closed his eyes and lost himself in the feeling.
That single glass had likely cost a big part of his fortune if not all of it, but Heavens, it had been worth it¡ªand the physical pleasure was just part of the reason.
409. When She Deems it Fit
After the pleasure came the weirdness.
Half a glass of Eternal Molten Bluefrost didn''t make Shen drunk like a mortal might become, but it was close enough. His deepest desires didn''t become less beholden to his Honor; in fact, his Will and Honor somehow worked better together. They found a balance that made both his Will and Honor satisfied and dissatisfied at the same time.
That strange balance was found in unpretentious honesty.
The world had become a blur despite Shen feeling more in focus than ever.
He looked at E''livia''s eyes, and she looked at his.
They recognized the fleshly appreciation in each other''s eyes came at once.
They simultaneously reached for each other''s hands.
As soon as their hands touched, so did their souls, and Shen found an instant of second nirvana.
He wasn''t even sure if that counted as sex. He only knew souls met when a cultivator had sex, and their souls had just caressed each other for a moment. It was marvelous. It was also entirely too short. A taste of what they couldn''t have. They pulled back almost as soon as they touched in mutual agreement.
Words were exchanged. Shen didn''t really know what he was saying or hearing. The actual words didn''t matter. What mattered was the meaning, and their sentences were full of it.
A promise was made. Two years to get to know each other. To ponder and make decisions. They would be friends and nothing else until then. No teasing, no poking, no pushing boundaries. Just getting to know one another with the promise of a conversation in the future, when they would decide the destination of their relationship.
They didn''t speak a single word after that.
They left the restaurant and flew to the skies.
They lay on the clouds while embracing each other, not letting their souls touch again.
There was no need to speak to decide on doing those things; they had found a level of camaraderie Shen hadn''t known possible. He was sure the Eternal Molten Bluefrost had also molten their individuality somehow. It scared him. He was glad he and E''livia had come to the arrangement they did, or they would''ve done something that shouldn''t be done for the first time under such circumstances.
Considering how their souls had touched for the briefest of moments, maybe they had done it.
Shen''s body reacted as they hugged. So did E''livia''s. They acknowledged each other''s physical admiration¡ªand didn''t act on it.
Sleep came quickly under that strange state of mind.
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Shen woke up to find E''livia already awake in his arms. She lay still, hugging herself, her body tense, not moving, like a deer caught by strong light.
He felt sorry for her to be feeling somewhat scared, somewhat confused. He also felt glad she had chosen not to leave. They had come to an understanding, and some level of trust had been established. The simple act of staying also showed she abided by her earlier wordless decision to share a "bed" together precisely once until they talked about their relationship again in the future. It made him trust her a little more.
Shen smiled bittersweetly, controlled his desire to softly kiss her forehead¡ªit would go against the terms of their silent agreement¡ªand released her.
"Thank you for this," he said.
That was the most gratitude he had felt to date, even more than he had felt about Un''Re. Their time together had been magical. Finding some measure of friendship in E''livia was priceless to the current Shen.
His gratefulness and release made her relax. Her soul calmed. Her tension almost completely disappeared as she allowed herself a tranquil smile.
"I was afraid the Shen I met was an illusion," she admitted with a low voice as she knelt up on the clouds.
"The drink removed some of our individuality, didn''t it?" Shen asked.
He wasn''t upset about it. He could tell without a shadow of a doubt that E''livia hadn''t known about it. That knowledge came from the strange bond they had formed the day before. The bond itself was gone, and some parts were blurs, but every emotion he had experienced was fresh and firm in his memory.
E''livia sighed. "G''ana said she only trusts people with whom she drinks Eternal Molten Bluefrost. It shows their true character, she says. Nowadays, she uses it to select partners and friends. She wanted to bring me before, but Dad wouldn''t give me the money."
Shen recalled E''livia talking about her childhood friend. Politely put, G''ana would jump on any male she fancied at first sight. She was also supposedly as hot as E''livia herself.
E''livia had offered to introduce her to Shen, but Shen refused out of simple fear that E''livia would talk about tribulation-related matters with G''ana before anything happened. The rejection improved E''livia''s evaluation of Shen and was undoubtedly partly responsible for the following chain of events, Bluefrost or not.
In hindsight, Shen was surprised by how his fear of consequences had helped him. Sure, it was a base biological response. Yet, it had made him find something more important than a moment of pleasure. He valued his companionship with E''livia and their experience¡ªthat included pleasure but wasn''t only it¡ªmore than sex with someone as hot as her.
To feel fear went against his Will of Power. Enough Power meant not fearing anything. Yet, to deny its usefulness was stupid.
Something to consider moving forward.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Sadly, despite Shen''s "machinations" to keep E''livia away from G''ana, she widened her eyes as she stood up and said, "G''ana! I''m late for a meeting with her! Talk to you in an hour or so!" Then, she flew away.
The tribulation prevented Shen from asking E''livia not to go. It crossed some boundaries, likely because he intended to save himself. He could only watch her reach the portals below and step through one of them.
"Don''t you ever disregard what she did for you, boy," a male voice said beside Shen.
He didn''t need to turn to see E''lemer, but he stood up respectfully and turned all the same. "What do you mean, Esteemed Senior?"
E''lemer was wearing juxtaposed red and white clothes. His enamel pin was pure golden. Shen guessed the gold color meant the holin was higher in the sect''s hierarchy than Shen had anticipated.
"You''ll get to know when she deems it fit to tell you," E''lemer replied.
The B-rank was somber. Sad. He didn''t like Shen as a companion for E''livia and didn''t try to hide it, but he looked like a beaten man, not a furious, jealous father. It confused Shen. He disliked it more than if E''lemer had attacked him straight.
E''lemer continued after a brief pause, "I only came to tell you not to leave her during these two years. Not for any reason. It''ll harm her, and I will kill you if you do."
Shen connected the dots. "Self-sacrifice," he said. E''lemer didn''t hide his surprise at Shen knowing about it but didn''t react more than that. Shen continued, "Am I the object of her self-sacrifice? Is this some bloodline business?" He hoped not because it felt like the kind of bullshit that attracted needless complications.
E''lemer shook his head. "It''s connected to it but different. I can see you''d not like her to be ruled by her bloodline instincts, and I can assure you she is herself. Maybe more than ever. It''s a delicate time for her all the same. I have said what I came to say. Push her away at your own peril."
He disappeared at those words. Unsurprisingly, E''livia reappeared from the portal right after. He had timed his appearance.
In principle, Shen hated that E''lemer had approached him like that. Shen''s friendship with E''livia was his business, not E''lemer''s. He didn''t plan to push her away but would if matters developed that way. The B-rank had no right to threaten Shen''s life for that.
But he was surprised to find he understood a father''s worry despite having no parents in his memories. E''lemer''s attitude was both despicable and somewhat honorable. He was caring for a daughter who had been embracing him hours ago like any loving daughter might.
They doted on each other, and in that specific instance, it felt beautiful rather than childish or overly protective.
Shen wished he could develop something like that with his own family one day¡ªand considered how that trace of E''livia''s personality now felt desirable rather than like a flaw.
"I can''t believe it!" E''livia complained as she flew to Shen. "They sent G''ana on an urgent mission!"
Shen wondered if it had anything to do with the Grand Elder. It was highly likely. He thanked the man in his heart.
"Did you get a mission, though?" he asked. "I''m ready to leave when you are."
E''livia smiled. "I did! I''m all yours for two years!" She realized her words, blushed, and quickly corrected. "No undertone intended! I swear!"
Shen chuckled. "Don''t worry. I trust we''ll both honor our agreement. Let''s just speak normally. If our words happen to have double meaning, so be it. Personally, I''ll take it as an internal joke. And maybe a thermometer of how things are between us."
The holin frowned. "A thermometer? But that means doing it on purpose."
"Not necessarily. It was no coincidence you ''misspoke'' after we slept together." There was no double meaning there because holin "flew together" rather than slept together. At least, that''s how they meant business. "I propose we don''t say anything on purpose but also don''t filter our speech too much. It''ll help us get to terms with whatever is coming as we notice the signs of how the other party feels despite the lack of conversations about it. That will help. So will the inevitable non-verbal signs." He looked pointedly at her body, which was visibly aroused. "Some of them might be better off hidden for the next two years, though. So others don''t notice. And I don''t feel tempted."
Only now did Shen realize he had been talking to E''livia''s father with physical evidence of his desire for his daughter. E''livia also discovered that she had left to seek G''ana and returned without calming down. People had to have noticed. The smell of her pheromones was especially noticeable.
"Awkward" didn''t start to define how they felt as they controlled their bodies.
"Well, I have places to be," Shen said. "I''m supposed to fight a City Lord in about a day. How long did we sleep, anyway?" He was surprised to find he didn''t know. The drink had shredded his perception of time.
"A few hours," E''livia replied, her voice still shaky and her face red. She was much more embarrassed than him for being seen aroused. "It was nice," she added with a low voice. "Your arms, I mean."
Shen wasn''t sure if that counted as more intimate than what was expected of friends. He guessed it was right at the edge of the boundaries. He didn''t mind. He liked hearing it once before being unable to for a couple of years.
"Everything about your body was nice, too," he replied with a smile. Instead of blushing, E''livia perked up. She loved being desired by him, and it only made him want her more.
Heavens, he was so lost in her!
He was glad his Will and Honor had come together to reach that agreement and that both weren''t fighting now that the Bluefrost''s effects wore off.
"Anyway," he said, "we can start our travels in Alaans. Can you lead us there?"
"Sure. Come." She led the way. "What are we doing?"
Shen looked pointedly at their surroundings. There were still sect members around, most of whom were looking at the two. Un''Re was stored inside Shen''s soul, so he guessed E''lemer hadn''t been the only one to notice they were sleeping together on the clouds and that it was more scandalous than E''livia had ever mentioned.
"Too many prying ears," he replied. "We can discuss my plans on the way. So, is it a big deal for two friends to sleep on the clouds?"
E''livia choked on her own saliva, then smiled nervously. "I guess? Sorry about that. I wasn''t thinking straight, you know?"
"No problem, I just want to understand it. Are there any expectations on us? Does everyone consider us a couple?"
"What? No! I mean, no... It''s... It''s kinda worse. I''m really sorry." Her voice became a whisper. "Everyone can see I''m still a virgin. Physically, that is. Our souls..." She trailed off. "Not that it was actually that! Everyone knows it doesn''t count unless..." She swallowed and moved back to the matter at hand. "Anyway, I''m a virgin, so everyone who saw us at the clouds together believes you didn''t... That you couldn''t... Well, that you weren''t... vigorous enough, I guess?" She lowered her head, and her next whisper was so low that even his C-rank ears almost didn''t pick up the "Sorry."
Law Vision and metaphysical senses allowed Shen to know many things about living beings that he usually ignored. One of them was seeing inside them. Both male and female holins had organic tissue in multiple places to attest to their virginity, like many other races. Indeed, E''livia was still very much a virgin; she had precisely seven biological seals in different parts of her body to attest to that.
As far as Shen''s memories could tell, that was the very first instance where people socially used what they perceived of others'' intimacy through such senses. Every other race in his memories ignored it, either out of politeness or because they really didn''t care about who mated with whom.
Knowing everyone was looking at him as if he wasn''t "vigorous" wasn''t flattering, but Shen didn''t much care about their opinion. This, by the way, confirmed his earlier thoughts about buying an expensive drink for E''livia: public opinion didn''t matter to him; female opinion mattered when he was interested in them.
"I wish you had told me beforehand," Shen replied. "But it''s alright. It was worth it. As I implied earlier, it was the best hug of my life. Is Alaans far from here?"
She relaxed a bit at his words and shook her head. "A dozen minutes at this speed."
"Slow down, then. And stop somewhere nice midway. I want to share my plans with you."
They talked about nothing important until they landed on the peak of a damn tall snow-covered mountain peak. The view was amazing. They shared a moment of wonder at the natural beauty before Shen broke the silence.
"I want to learn alchemy," he informed. "And the local language. Also, how well can you disguise yourself? And where can I find a cheap C-tier spear?"
?
410. Biased
E''livia knew a disguise technique. Supposedly.
"I look like an aeonian now," she claimed right after the qi in her body ran wide for a moment. She hadn''t changed one bit. "They''re everywhere in the Inner Worlds."
"I thought you belonged to the holin species," Shen replied.
She rolled her eyes. "Of course I do. You can''t see it, but my wings are invisible, my skin is golden, my face changed, and I look thinner. So, a perfect aeonian. Use your aura, and you''ll see I''m right. Even domains can''t see through the disguise unless I use mine. It breaks the illusion."
Shen was surprised to find out that, indeed, his aura couldn''t feel her wings when he released it. She also felt almost fat. Not even his True Realm could see through the guise.
"Impressive," he complimented.
E''livia smiled proudly. "I admit aeonians are a bit rare in an Outer World like this, but they can''t join the Gardener Sect. Don''t know why. Anywho, each sect member learns to disguise themselves as a different race, so anyone will only suspect me as they might suspect a strong stranger appearing out of nowhere."
Shen nodded. "Why can I see through it, though?"
The girl crossed her arms defensively and looked sideways. "I... When our souls touched... I..." She blushed. "It was important to me. I feel uncomfortable talking about it. Please?" She looked pleadingly at his eyes. He didn''t immediately reply, so she also bit the corner of her lower lip.
Shen squinted while double-checking his soul. E''livia''s word choice was filled with meaning; she had said their souls touching each other had been relevant for her, not for them. He could find nothing in his Path and was likely not infected or anything like that. This business was undoubtedly related to E''lemer''s words about not leaving her for two years.
He went through his knowledge of all sorts of different species'' mating rituals and found a few possibilities. The three most likely were a unidirectional bond, a candidacy pre-attachment, and a self-framing link.
A unidirectional bond made one almost a slave to the other. That was it. One gave oneself entirely to another.
A candidacy pre-attachment was a sort of self-enforced soul contract in which one party decided to check on the other for a time. If the one checking the other didn''t see anything too bad, they would become attached to them for a very long time, sometimes forever, often until the other party died. Said death became ridiculously painful for the survivor.
Such attachments were very rare and considered sublime to most romantics. The attached party would love the other unconditionally. It didn''t mean being unable to get hurt by the other party''s actions, but they couldn''t just turn their love off.
They also became willing to withstand a lot of abuse, which Shen found decidedly unhealthy. In fact, from what he had heard... somewhere... any such species, when discovered, became extinct in a few generations. They were exploited until only half-breed remained, and then, their blood ran too thin on their descendants.
In a multiverse of distrust, which Shen was sure he had lived in, such a pure love incapable of betrayal was a valued commodity.
Finally, a self-framing link made the party become the perfect person, entirely acquiescing to the other party''s desires. It was the saddest thing ever. It shattered one''s Path and made them incapable of cultivating further. Shen knew of only one species like that. They supposedly ran a prosperous business of selling partners to affluent buyers. It wasn''t slavery because¡ª
The Heavenly Lightning acted. He wasn''t allowed to know why that wasn''t slavery or why it mattered.
Anyway, it wasn''t slavery, but close enough. Still, they ran a tight business to prevent themselves from going extinct. They were the only race Shen knew of that had that trait, meaning either the others were wisely secretive or had been so thoroughly exploited that he had found no mention of them anywhere.
Shen didn''t think holins were like those alternatives. Any idiot in the Myriad Worlds would go for holins if they became practical slaves or beholden to you that easily. They couldn''t survive as a species for this long if that was the case.
Still, it should be something similar if E''lemer had given such importance to it. It should be related to romance if E''livia had done it after they shared their feelings with their looks and decided to reach for each other.
Yet, they had decided to wait for the length of her two-year mission before going for anything more than friendship. That length was telling, by the way. Shen would be done with his tribulation after one year, but the sect had told E''livia to stay with Shen for two years¡ªeven before she linked with him, too. They had expected her to do it.
Shen asked, "Does it bother you that the Grand Elder knew you''d do it to me?"
The girl looked confused momentarily, then widened her eyes in realization. Then, she blushed furiously. He had seen her become redder than that in the past, but it was a close call.
She opened and closed her mouth multiple times. In the end, she just shook her head too many times, which was cute, and refused to look at his eyes for a while.
So, the Grand Elder being at least able to predict her linking herself to Shen was a huge deal for her. She hadn''t been that embarrassed even when she slept on the clouds with Shen and people assumed she had allowed him to have a moment with her¡ªregardless of his lack of vigor. That had been very public.
Shen guessed it was linked to authority and permission. The Grand Elder had given his blessing for E''livia to do that to Shen, and she only realized it now. It also explained why E''lemer looked defeated instead of trying to do anything¡ª
Shen stopped his line of thought.
Trying to guess stuff was annoying. It was also not something he should be doing. E''livia had been forthcoming with him, and as someone calling himself her friend, he should respect her desire for privacy unless he deemed something might be hazardous for her. This wasn''t the case.
That said, he missed her openness, and he told her that. "Please, let me know what this is about as soon as you feel comfortable. I''m really curious. And I really like it when you don''t hide anything from me. It was one of the things that endeared me to you despite how I disliked other things." He paused, then added, "I''ll try to be open to you, too. As much as I can."
The tribulation lightning flared at those words. He had gotten very close to the limits of what he could say about the tribulation and its secrecy. Still, he was almost thankful he could''ve said that much. Despite E''livia''s obliviousness about her own business with the Grand Elder, she had previously connected the dots about Shen''s condition. She should be smart enough to do that again. Hopefully, with no consequence to Shen, as the lightning had allowed him to say those words.
To his utmost surprise, E''livia didn''t just reassure him but told him what was going on. Very quickly. Her words blurred as she said, "IdidntwanttodosomethingstupidsoIdidsomethinglessstupidbygivingmyselftimetostopbeingsostupidandlikeastupidlovestruckgirlbydoingthestupidancientprematingritualIshouldhaveaskedforpermissionfromDadtodobutImstupidandmessedupandnowIhopeyousendmepackingbecauseImtoostupidandweaktodoitmyselfanddidntwanttogiveuponyoudespiteknowingIshouldbecauseImstupid."
E''livia was stronger and faster than Shen. He had to focus to differentiate a phoneme from another, and it took him a few seconds to understand what she had meant.
Adding and changing a few words for clarification, she had said, "I didn''t want to do something stupid, so I did something less stupid. I gave myself time to stop being so stupid and like a stupid lovestruck girl. I did the stupid ancient pre-mating ritual, which I should have asked for permission from Dad to do, but I''m stupid and messed up. Now, I hope you send me packing because I''m too stupid and weak to do it myself. I didn''t want to give up on you despite knowing I should. All this because I''m stupid."
Shen immediately hugged her. She tensed, then melted in his arms. Then, she started crying.
He was at a loss about what to do. Sure, he had promised to spend the next couple of years thinking about her as a potential partner, but for now, he mostly saw her as a breathtaking female with a somewhat pleasant personality. As much as he had liked talking to her, he still wanted to bed her a lot more than he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
He was sure her feelings had to do with her reaching middle adulthood, likely linked to physically desiring him for the first time. E''lemer had claimed she had never been herself as much as she currently was. So, either holin biology suppressed their true desires, feelings, and personality until they all exploded like a dam upon reaching middle adulthood, or E''lemer had lied. Considering how much the guy wanted Shen away from his daughter, the former was likelier.
Shen took it to mean E''livia was going through instantaneous external puberty and psychological maturity. External in the sense that she had been perfectly adult until now, but only now could external sensual stimuli affect her, and it came with all sorts of feelings she had never dealt with before. Her mind was growing in all kinds of different directions all at once. Despite her peak C-rank mind, she was still left confused and unsure.
If that was really it...
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Shen said softly, "You''re not stupid. You''re one of the wisest people I know." Not that he knew many people, but that was beside the point. "If you''re going through what I think you''re going, waiting for a couple of years before doing anything was wise beyond your years." He wanted to pet her head but decided it would cross the line between friendship and something more.
She cried harder at that, then spent a while explaining to him amidst tears what middle adulthood and the pre-mating ritual entailed.
Everything was almost as he had guessed, which led him to trust his memories more. His knowledge wasn''t a pile of bullshit. He only got two things wrong.
First, the ritual wasn''t unconditional despite being very close to a candidacy pre-attachment. Even if E''livia indeed decided to become attached to Shen in the end, she could still pull off if he was unfaithful, attacked her, or abandoned her physically or emotionally.
That was definitely healthier than a candidacy pre-attachment while retaining the benefits of love and loyalty. He even considered finding a technique like that in the future that went two ways and conditioned one''s side permanence to the other.
Second, and most importantly, E''livia was only going through so much at once because she had done the ritual with him¡ªor rather, had done what the ritual required, and it had implications for holins.
The ritual required souls to touch, and holins reached late adulthood when their souls touched anyone. So, she was going from early to late adulthood at once, two stages, with all the hormonal and mental chances that both entailed. As much as she had desired him, she could''ve pushed him away easily enough. She had done it once by "brother-zoning" him.
However, the Eternal Molten Bluefrost made her more in tune with her most authentic desires, so she acted on them.
The revelation was like a bucket of cold water to Shen. So, she had done all that because she was drunk or close enough to it. His reaction was to immediately ask her to leave him, for he would never touch a woman who was with him only because they were too drunk to stop herself.
But as he thought better about his own experience with the Eternal Molten Bluefrost, he realized once and for all that he could not compare it to a mortal''s drunkenness.
Shen currently existed in duality. He was body and soul, Will and sapience, physical and metaphysical. He was one with himself because of his True Center, but the fight between Will and Honor showed that oneness wasn''t as thorough as he thought.
The A- liquid had changed that. It had made his existence holistic for a few hours. It had allowed him to reach a balance.
Every part of himself had both given up on some things and gained others in his internal debate. He considered the arrangement to be as close to perfect as it could''ve been. In fact, he felt like he should aim for that. If his entire self functioned with less pushing and pulling and more harmony, he would never have to worry about losing control in the middle of a battle¡ªor in the middle of life while talking to a smoking hot lady.
Was Shen''s experience more legitimate and less harmful than E''livia''s? Should he dismiss her decision while under the effects of the Path-harmonizing Eternal Molden Bluefrost just because her desires hadn''t been as loud to her as his Will had been to him?
No, he couldn''t. The Bluefrost had only helped her as it had him. That was what the most genuine version of E''livia wanted to do.
He initially struggled with the idea because she had done something much more permanent and binding than him while in that state. Yet, it should be something positive for her. In fact, he would''ve loved if he could''ve done something as binding to his harmonized self in that state, maybe even changed his Path. His entire existence would''ve agreed to that change.
In other words, she had done that under a state close to enlightenment, and Shen''s repulsion turned into pride and humbleness.
E''livia desired him so much that her entire self agreed with the idea of checking out for two years if he was a good partner for the rest of her life. That definitely inflated his ego.
It also made him better understand the weight of her feelings. Personally, he did feel it was a bit dumb for her to potentially throw herself at someone she knew so little about, but another thing Shen was coming to understand was that each person''s Path was their own. How they made decisions was their own business. He wasn''t some sort of perfect judge to decide on the correct course of action for everyone. When their Path connected with his, then he could determine if the intentions, decisions, and actions were agreeable to him, not the reasoning that led them to those.
As a matter of fact, not everything was or had to be reasonable in life. Not everything was or had to be about the mind subduing the Will. The mind was biased towards logical thinking because logic validated its own supremacy over the entire experience of existing. If logic was king, the mind was the emperor. Why should it ever conclude reasoning wasn''t that important?
Yet, the mind itself also knew biases were dangerous.
Shen wasn''t only mind. He was also Will. He was also his bodily instincts, his Laws, his senses. His Path. Everything was him. Dividing himself and deciding which part was more important would only lead to trouble.
As he noticed those things, the seeds of insight stored in his soul were automatically triggered and used one by one. They were like enlightenment on demand, and he had instinctually used a little less than half of them. A few dozen remained.
Shen willingly burned them to decide on the next step to take with his Path.
His reason was against changing his Path right now. He still had time but was rushing into something he knew too little about. The Eternal Molten Bluefrost might''ve been a trap. Even if it wasn''t, it was just an A- liquid. It wasn''t perfect. It was also suspiciously convenient that someone could find the ideal road to balance their Path just by drinking a cup.
His Will was also against taking the next step under such conditions. He was Power in himself. To submit to foreign influence went against himself.
In fact, even his instincts were against taking that step to change himself. They feared the consequences. He had just learned a moment ago that fear was helpful.
Shen almost faltered.
He would have if not for willpower.
He found the willpower to do something he couldn''t even explain why he was doing. A willpower that came from the spot in his mind that had been cleared by E''vania when she had allowed Shen to recall Shen had karma with other people.
Knowing there was a world out there put other things into perspective.
Shen''s experiences in this tribulation were valid. His instinct was his own. His memories weren''t forgotten as far as he knew. His reason wasn''t twisted. His Will was only partially clouded.
Yet, that wasn''t all of himself.
Just as he couldn''t judge everyone''s Path from his perspective, he couldn''t judge his perspective under the biased individual parts of himself.
Shen''s current Path was the best expression of himself that he could forge. Thus, it was as lacking as he had been as he put his Path together during his life. He had used logic and instincts to forge himself. They had failed him.
He had to change in a different direction right now.
His mind yelled questions, demanding answers. What was this strange "instinct"¡ªthat wasn''t an actual instinct¡ªthat pushed him to go against his actual instincts? What was this reasoning that his currently imperfect self should change himself now because he had been too imperfect to build a worthy Path in the past? What was that Will that made him Powerful enough to go against his Will''s desire not to be affected by anything but itself?
Shen was surprised to find the answer: it was the purest expression of his uncorrupted existence.
It was Boundlessness, the first Concept he had touched.
It was the Law of True Boundlessness that echoed something so deep down within himself he couldn''t locate it.
E''vania had described True Boundlessness as "An Anti-Law about Boundaries. Why do you hate Order so, Child of Chaos? I cannot work with that. The Heavens would take it as too much interference."
The old A-rank had also told Shen how everyone was the Heavens in a way. How everyone unconsciously affected it. Yet, didn''t that also work the other way around? Wasn''t the Heavens also affecting everyone? Affecting him? Wasn''t everyone''s expectations and desire to be supreme pinning everyone else down? Of course, it was. Everyone could only walk a Path restrained by specific boundaries or punishment struck down out of envy. Quite possibly, everyone had to struggle to think outside of specific patterns, too.
Shen recalled a single species that was more alien than any other: the infinity-edgers. Even they were under the Heavens'' purview. Although they thought differently, it wasn''t that much. Not as much as existences as alien as they should. They even adhered to some social norms. They had logical minds.
The Heavens were constricting Shen, as they did everyone else.
No real improvement ever came too easily. To walk a Path was to overcome obstacles. Everyone knew their own selves were the obstacle sometimes. So, why hadn''t Shen ever considered that his own built, the systems he believed in, his experiences, everything he knew and was could also be an obstacle?
Shen didn''t understand how infinity-edgers could exist, yet they did. They were constrained by the Heavens. They were also proof that not all constraints had to be obeyed, just like mere Space didn''t have the same hold over them.
Shen might unmake himself beyond repair by going against some constraints his current perspective told him were absolute. But he knew he had to do it. He just knew it.
E''vania''s song came unbidden to his mind.
? ?
"You punish the evil,
You reward the just,
I deem you unfair,
Oh, Heavens Eternal."
? ?
Shen did find the Heavens unfair.
He lightly pecked E''livia''s cheek and looked her in the eyes.
? ?
"I seek the Supremacy
And Will my vision be True,
I perseverate my Path,
I clad myself in me."
? ?
Shen''s Path was himself. His vision was one of Supremacy over everything as a whole. To persevere on his Path, he would clad himself only in himself, not parts of himself.
He stopped hugging E''livia and stepped back.
? ?
"To upheaval the Law
And remake the False,
To prove myself,
I Walk."
? ?
Shen turned to the side and looked at the horizon. His Law Vision revealed the Laws of the world to him. His senses told him everything he was on the inside.
Suddenly, the Heavenly Lightning within him receded a little, and he became able to perceive his whole True Center.
How perfectly his Laws entangled with, repelled, and reinforced each other! It was marvelous. They had a perfect ratio and couldn''t be separated without breaking everything. That layer of Laws and emotions perfectly protected his Honor and Will.
And yet, he branded everything he saw and perceived as False.
The step he would take now wasn''t about proving his ability to reason a perfect True Center. It wasn''t about using sheer Power to make his arrangement work. It wasn''t about doing something because his emotions pushed him in one way or another.
It went deeper. Deeper in a way he couldn''t explain. Deeper in a way that the mortal mind couldn''t describe or comprehend.
Shen was C-rank. He dabbled in the Axioms that defined Reality. He dared to try to master the building blocks of the universe. He was still limited by what he saw, felt, did, or experienced.
But that hadn''t to be like that. Deeper down, he simply was...
...and he Walked ahead towards what he could be.
? ?
"To be you
Shall be
To be me;
I Ascend."
? ?
Shen just knew he had found his essence, which E''vania refused to explain. Indeed, it was on a level only someone whose mind had Ascended could comprehend. It should also be beyond his reach, but here he was. That tickle of willpower from the unbottled memory had reached it¡ªbecause, like E''vania had said, his current self was too fluid. As it moved here and there, it had allowed him to access a place he definitely shouldn''t. A place that he just knew should also be hidden but was somehow uncovered because someone or something had meddled with it in his recent past.
His essence moved forward. The direction was inwards. It led outwards.
Slowly, he would get there. Yes, Shen would become the Heavens, Reality, everything¡ªone day. His Ascension was not yet here. He Walked a Path step by step; he didn''t teleport to the end at once.
He was okay with obeying the constraints of Time¡ªfor now. The veil of falsehood was torn. He could prove himself over time.
But to prove himself, he first had to become himself beyond the inferior definitions he had now.
Shen clenched his False Center and made it genuinely True.
? ?
411. Not Entirely Sure
Shen didn''t reorganize his Path. He didn''t try to better balance himself. There was no need. He had been going at this wrong all along.
He clenched his False Center and removed every barrier within.
Shaft became everything while giving support to everything. Extremity became the entirety of his very Path, which was striding towards an Extreme of existence compared to others. Everything he was became a Killing Weapon.
Conductivity had always been his own Path as he Walked through life; his Path was itself the path of least resistance because it was him, no matter what obstacles he might find. Stream had always been his continuity, his constant stepping ahead, the flow of his existence. Gentle Breeze was the softness of his touch upon and around a Reality against which he could do nothing and towards people he would rather not destroy.
True Boundlessness wasn''t just a Law he borrowed from Reality. It was present in his complete existence. One day, the limits of his existence would blur into Reality as he became one with it.
After removing the limits between his Laws, he removed all other limits inside him.
Existential ones.
Unbreakable ones.
They faltered before his grip all the same.
Even an idiot could tell doing that wasn''t reasonable. If he did that, Laws would cease to be what they were; his emotions would be confused with logical thoughts; his Will would blend with much more ephemeral things.
None of that happened. He became 100% each of the things he was while being only 100% himself. And each thing he was could grow. He didn''t know how. He didn''t understand himself.
Shen surpassed the limits of his own comprehension of the rules of Spacetime¡ªand Reality as a whole.
Shen pulled his essence, which he also didn''t understand, and mixed himself with it to find an Oneness much beyond what the enchantment his spear had¡ªbut said enchantment had probably also helped him reach this advancement.
It was over almost as quickly as it began.
There was no longer a separation between body and soul, mortal and cultivator, mind and heart, self and Law. Everything became One. And thus, it was reflected in his body, soul, and mind.
The Heavenly Lightning could no longer hide his injured body or soul because it couldn''t blend with him. The illusion remained, but any metaphysical sense could stop the differences.
Likewise, T''onir''s Path had been wholly expelled when Shen became One with himself. It couldn''t find a hold of him. Shen would never be subjected to any sort of Path invasion again. Not ever. He couldn''t be corrupted by anything less than a Realization¡ªand maybe the Void.
E''livia''s eyes widened in horror at his deformed soul.
Shen barely noticed it. His body was injured, his soul was injured, and so his mind also got injured. He forgot things about himself. He forgot how to function in some ways. He didn''t know how to stand up. He fell to the ground.
But he hadn''t forgotten his self-preservation instincts and started using his qi to heal himself.
His body mended, and with it, his soul and mind. How could memories return? He didn''t know. They did all the same. Just as he became more vulnerable to injuries, he could now also heal injuries that should be impossible to heal so easily.
The Shen of a few minutes ago would''ve considered what he was experiencing nonsensical. To the current Shen, it felt perfectly normal that the same speck of qi he used to heal his body could heal his soul with no additional difficulty or energy expenditure; body and soul were just one thing in the One Shen.
E''livia''s horror turned into disbelief. Shen took a few seconds to fully heal. The Heavenly Lightning binding him together and keeping him alive dissipated into nothingness.
Once he was whole again, he smiled.
His reason no longer fought against his instincts or Will. His Will no longer fought against his mind. Everything he was reached, not a perfect balance, but ideal Oneness.
Shen''s Will was wholly Shen. Shen''s reason was wholly Shen. Shen''s Laws were wholly Shen. Shen''s emotions were wholly Shen. Shen''s body was wholly Shen. Shen''s soul was wholly Shen.
It wasn''t to say he had become some sort of God that was simultaneously perfect justice, love, and grace in His entirety. His feelings were still individual. He still manifested each feeling apart from the other, even if he could have more than one at the same time. But that individual manifestation didn''t mean they ceased to exist one time, for another to take hold over him. They only kept a sort of dormant state. The plurality of his entire emotional range rested within him all the time. There was no division. He might even become unable to feel sad if he cut off his hand, and it happened to also cut his sadness off.
He couldn''t fully explain his new existence, but he knew he was One, and there would never be another instance of parts of him wanting different things or fighting internal battles. He could reason¡ªtalk to himself to reach a better conclusion. But never be distressed at wanting what he didn''t fully desire.
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E''livia spoke after a few moments of just leaving her mouth hanging open. "What the kiles happened to your soul a moment ago?! And how did you heal it?!"
Her question was a bit humiliating to him. He had turned his entire existence into One, yet not really. The external manifestation of his One Self was still as body and soul, even if doing something to one would reflect in the other. That didn''t depend on him. Reality demanded things to be like that, so his existence would be perceived as such, even if it wasn''t who he really was. His internal Truth and the Truth of Reality were at odds. He guessed infinity-edgers were somewhat similar.
"I''m not entirely sure," he replied. "I''m surprised I didn''t get a tribulation for it."
"You broke through?" she asked.
"In a way. Speaking of which..."
He connected himself with the cosmos. He immediately felt the seemingly infinite string of understanding connecting his Laws to the Axioms of Reality. He could grow stronger. His injured soul, not the Heavenly Tribulation, had been the one preventing him from improving himself.
"...I''ll want to meditate for a bit after I fight the City Lord."
"Don''t be cryptic!" E''livia complained, pouting a little. It was cute. "What happened?"
Shen''s body froze when he tried to talk to her. He couldn''t talk about the tribulation, and his injuries had been related to that.
There was still Heavenly Lightning within himself, and he was still beholden to the Heavens in some ways. The lightning could keep his mind from moving his body even if both things were One, which should be impossible. That was nothing more than proof of the supremacy of the Heavens over him.
E''livia seemed to get it and nodded "sagely," her eyes filled with meaning. She was still upset, though.
Shen could see her emotions clearly as if she had revealed them herself.
He had pierced some sort of veil of both existence and perspective. He saw everything as Space, Will, and Change. He could see the separate parts of each easily, just as he could see the in-betweens that were inexistent yet there.
Shen saw E''livia''s clothes, body, soul, mind, Path, Laws, emotions, everything she was, as easily as a mortal would see something they were holding. Everything was laid bare to him. He saw Axioms and the individual Laws that made them and each Concept. It didn''t make them much easier to understand, but it certainly would give him an edge when he stopped to meditate. Yet, he decided to wait on it because he wanted to get used to that new perception¡ªconveniently, during a fight¡ªbefore using it to further change himself.
So, he saw her emotions happening, and he felt pretty damn good about how much she actually desired him. It wasn''t love, but he didn''t need to feel loved to appreciate how he stirred the internal strings of the woman he desired.
That was somewhat inconvenient.
Feeling desired made him desire her more, and his One Self wanted to react. He controlled his external manifestation of bodily desire. But he couldn''t stop his One Self from feeling like that¡ªand he had a domain.
His pure desire blended with the world.
Shen could see it now. Having a domain meant dominating Reality. It was part of his very nature. He was someone who dominated. Shen''s domain was limited to himself now, but it integrated with his surroundings. Reality wasn''t quite the same inside him, and that couldn''t be hidden.
Shen became almost sure no one could develop a Realization without a domain. They had to impose their Will upon Reality first, take the reins of a portion of it, claim it theirs, and then change it to their Path''s image.
He raised an eyebrow as he thought of something. Actually, was his domain still limited to within himself?
He guessed no. Even if it ended up hurting his soul, it didn''t matter as much as before¡ªand he didn''t think it would hurt him. Hurting him had become considerably more challenging. His new existence was more vulnerable in its Oneness in that everything he was got damaged together, but it was also harder to damage because every "whole-part" of his Oneness more than supported each other; they were each other, strengthening his essence.
Oh, he really wanted to test his mettle against the City Lord!
For now, though, his thoughts reverted to E''livia. His hold over Reality through his domain had also become more pronounced with his new existence. More of him blended into his surroundings than ever before.
E''livia felt it, and her skin crawled, her pupils dilated, and her heartbeat increased just by feeling his desire¡ª
He found the edge between his domain and Reality and reined it in before that feedback loop caused unwanted consequences.
E''livia closed her eyes and breathed deeply to control herself. Moments later, she whispered, "Wow."
Shen''s smile widened. That had been fun. It was going beyond what he considered acceptable, though. Too much sexual tension would make their two years hell instead of a pleasant time to know each other.
"I need to try something," Shen said. "Can you tell me about alchemy while I''m at it?"
Shen couldn''t change his appearance because his body was all of himself, and changing one thing meant changing everything else he was. So, instead, he patted the boundaries between himself and Reality with his willpower¡ªwhich was also all of him¡ªlike a blind man until he found what he wanted: Reality''s influence over him.
He couldn''t fight it, but he could gently guide it in some ways. He changed how Reality interpreted his One Self to present him to everyone. Changing how it manifested his body and soul was simple. He just shaped it, and it happened. Changing the external representation of his Path, qi, domain, or anything else was like an ant trying to change the sun: impossible.
Shen turned his... Vessel... Mask... Exterior... Persona. His Persona into an aeonian like E''livia. Same height as her, similar features, more muscles, and male.
That was... mind-bending.
Shen had a body¡ªa One Body that was all of him. But what others saw was what Reality interpreted as his One body and soul separated from each other¡ªand now, the Persona he shaped in its place. Reality couldn''t or wouldn''t manifest the strange mix he had become all at once. That allowed him to use this trick. Yet, hurting the Persona would be the same as hurting him because they were the same thing, only perceived differently. It wasn''t an illusion, merely a disguise of existential perspective.
As easy as it was, it took him a few minutes to get the gist of it. E''livia was still frustrated at his evasiveness but complied and told him about alchemy. The best way to learn it without a personal master¡ªwho would want to know a lot about him before accepting him¡ªwas to head to a better C-rank world with an Alchemy Guild.
"Sounds like a plan," Shen said. "City Lord first. Meditation second. Checking my domain third. Then we leave to a better world."
Shen didn''t want to use his domain before he improved his Laws by himself at least once. He had a feeling those things were connected to each other, and it might be relevant.
E''livia shrugged off her frustration while also meaning she didn''t care one way or the other. "Sure. This way."
Shen followed her and decided to at least try to help improve her mood. He was behaving kind of obnoxiously, after all. "I remember you said your father called you Cupcake when you were young?"
"W¨C What?! Hahaha. No. You heard wrong. Haha. Silly Shen." E''livia replied. Her face was red, though. And she started flying a little faster than Shen could follow. "I can''t hear you from that far away! Fly faster!" She yelled.
He chuckled and did his best to follow.
412. Logical Connection
"So it''s the opposite of what I did," Shen summarized after E''livia explained T''onir''s ability.
T''onir had used a technique to make his Path "more real." He consumed elixirs and other expensive resources to "anchor" his Path to Reality. When his Path moved, so did Reality itself¡ªto a point. The effects were similar enough to a domain, but the way to achieve it was fundamentally different¡ªand, in fact, the technique was diametrically opposite to domains.
The ability was called Freedom Fighting because it was used against Dominators, those who had domains. Shen''s domain wouldn''t have helped him against it, as Domanitors supposedly could not fight back against Freedom Fighters, no matter what. Only his True Center¡ªwhich he later deemed False¡ªhad allowed him to resist the Materialized Death as much as he had.
That was linked to the principle of each ability. Domains were a personal rendition of one''s perspective on what Reality should become. It went from a small being to affecting a more significant portion of Reality. Freedom Fighters, on the other hand, used what Reality already was against their opponents. Their Laws belonged to Reality more than themselves and couldn''t be denied by a cultivator because Reality itself was moving against them.
Freedom Fighters were considered absolute in the C-rank, even against supposedly elites with domains.
The downside of being a Freedom Fighter was that cultivating became a struggle. Anyone would "convert" to it only at the peak of C-rank, the last point in one''s Path where it could be done. From that moment onwards, a Freedom Fighter''s Laws fought against them, similar to how Shen had been fighting himself. It seemed holin blood made it easier on them, though.
Still, T''onir''s tribulations would be more challenging than usual, so he would take a while to attempt breaking through to B-rank¡ªif he ever did it. Most Freedom Fighters remained at C-rank, and not a single one had ever reached A-rank that E''livia knew of. Not that reaching the A rank was that common for it to be seen as a bad tradeoff.
Shen still considered it kind of... sad.
Still, some people took that path in the Gardener Sect for the greater good of the Myriad Worlds. Fighting a domain with a domain was more dangerous and less certain than sending a Freedom Fighter to kill a Dominator. The guy had made his Path harder and potentially cut it off to better protect others.
T''onir was still an overzealous idiot, but Shen found him less unpleasing to the eyes.
More importantly, that made Shen wonder about his own Path. He had no memories of his evolution, but he instinctively knew he had started with an average Path, then walked a True Path, then developed a True Center. He felt a link was missing somewhere in there, but that was beside the point. The matter was that his One Self came after his True Center, and he wondered what was next.
Perhaps it had to do with forcing Reality to let him materialize his One Self as it was instead of the Persona it created to fit him within its rules. Or perhaps he would just merge with Reality at S-rank. The former sounded more likely, maybe at A-rank.
"Yes," E''livia replied. "The opposite of your domain."
Shen had meant that Freedom Fighting was the opposite of his One Self. He had gone all the way opposite to blending with Reality. He had blended with himself distinctively from Reality, forming his own micro-Reality in himself. He guessed he had only been able to say T''onir had done the opposite of what he did because it could be understood the way E''livia had.
The girl continued, "That''s why the City Lord will defeat you," she concluded.
"Wait," Shen pleaded. "I didn''t get the logical connection there."
"You''ll fight a City Lord," she replied meaningfully. Shen silently stared back at her until she sighed and explained, "Fighting against Freedom Fighters strengthens one''s domain. Not that that helps against Freedom Fighters themselves, but it does against other domains. Every City Lord has to reach a threshold before being allowed to become a City Lord, and candidates often do that by training against the sect''s Freedom Fighters. That''s advantageous for everyone involved."
Shen frowned. "Pagarti was infected with an alien Path when I met him. I healed it with my aura. His domain can''t be that big of a deal."
E''livia shrugged. "I don''t know anything about that, but if I had to guess, he met someone with an Anti-Path. They are useful for assassination or post-death revenge."
Shen''s frown deepened. He had a lot of knowledge in his mind, but he was clearly still missing a lot. Learning about Freedom Fighting and Anti-Paths the same day humbled him a little.
"Anti-Paths?" he asked.
She nodded. "They are rare. Illegal in the Myriad Worlds, too. Oh, and kind of a secret, I guess? Not a sect-level secret, but close enough. It''s one of those things you''re supposed to be all mysterious about. Anywho, Anti-Path Walkers are annoying to fight one-on-one but very weak in a group engagement. Their Path directly counters anyone else''s they set as a target. You can''t kill them without a domain, and if they are Dominators, too... If that''s what happened, I bet the City Lord only won because his domain was strong, as I just told you."
Instead of wasting time remaining frustrated at his ignorance, Shen thought about what learning those things meant for his past and future. His memories about these new abilities hadn''t been blocked; they had been inexistent. Access to information might''ve been harder wherever he came from, but his memories also told him of a more... structured Reality. Sort of. Things in the Myriad Worlds felt more organic, fluid, alive. It should have something to do with the Gardener''s Life-based Realization, but not exclusively. Someone had made his previous home more restrictive, in a way.
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"And if he knows you''re an Aura Master, your trick with your aura won''t work on him," E''livia continued. "You''ll lose. But don''t worry; I''ll ensure you don''t die."
"I find your lack of faith disturbing," he replied, the words feeling weird on his tongue for some reason.
"Yeah, yeah. I guess you can try another miracle with Un''Re, but the City Lord will also know how you defeated T''onir. Your spear won''t get anywhere near him."
"We''ll see."
They reached Alaans soon enough. Both were disguised, and the city''s Defenders came to check on the unknown arrivals. Shen felt like an idiot for forgetting to learn the local language and let E''livia do the talking.
The approaching platoon differed from the one that met Shen when he first arrived. Only one of the six armored people was C-rank, the others at peak D-rank. He guessed that''s the reception a random aeonian got in a world they weren''t supposed to be, in contrast to a naked drow, a race that was absurdly rare in the Myriard Worlds.
The C-rank leader asked a few questions, which E''livia answered. Some questions were directed at Shen, and the guy didn''t look happy at Shen''s silence, though he didn''t show it. Well, not in his voice. Shen could see past his armor''s anti-sensory enchantments. He read the man''s expressions and saw his emotions.
Shen almost felt it was too invasive. Almost. Any such advantage might save him in the future against a sneak attack or hidden intentions, and he wouldn''t disregard it for concerns over a stranger''s privacy.
As for his friends...
Shen glanced at E''livia. Well, maybe after he got to trust her a little. He wouldn''t let their mutual desire blind him to their recent past or the fact that she had sounded very loyal to the Gardener Sect when they talked. She didn''t want to marry outside the sect, for instance. Her loyalties lay in an organization that might become Shen''s enemy in the future.
Whatever E''livia said satisfied the guy, who tossed her two pearl-like beads and flew away. She gave one to Shen and gestured to an inn. They could talk in Stangue after they protected themselves with an anti-spy ward, a common enchantment in any inn worth its salt.
"It''s an ID tag," she said after they got a room. The inn was average, as was the room, though E''livia had paid for the largest one. It had two double beds. She hadn''t minded paying, but Shen decided to find a way to exchange any potential remaining crystal with her for coin he could use. "It''s not really needed; the city''s formations will recognize your Path. But it''s respectful to carry it around." She sat on one bed. "We''re both dumb, aren''t we? I need to teach you Galan. I should''ve brought an info cube. Sit down, and we can start."
Shen complied.
She talked a lot for the next few hours.
That much wasn''t enough for him to master the language. Even with E''livia talking very fast and his C-rank mind and C-rank... something... related to learning, it wasn''t enough. He got a barely passable basic level of Galan. A twelve-year-old would speak better than him.
He blamed it mainly on Galan, though. The language was complex, full of exceptions within exceptions. It was even more complicated than the drow language, which could change entirely based on context. He hated it.
"Time out," he said eventually. He could go on, but he saw no reason to. He wanted to relax, so he would relax. He didn''t need to go full-throttle on everything he did.
"We''ll kileng well take a break now!" E''livia enthusiastically agreed. Maybe a bit too enthusiastically. She was growing frustrated with Shen''s learning speed.
It turned out kiles¡ªand its form kileng¡ªwasn''t a swear word but merely a convenient slang as useful as one. Something close to Stangue''s "damn." Shen found it a bit disappointing and endearing at the same time. For some reason, he both liked and disliked the thought of being with someone who swore all the time, though he couldn''t tell why.
"I''m taking a bath," Shen informed as he stood up. "You''re welcome to try one, too. I saw a public bath on the way here."
"What? Why?" E''livia asked, also standing up. C-ranks didn''t need to take baths. Their Laws could clean them better and more efficiently than soaking in water.
"I just feel like it," he replied as he left the room.
His state of mind had become quite something. He didn''t need to find big reasons to do something he liked or not do something he disliked. His entire being was One. Every part of himself agreed with each other almost automatically. Anything that didn''t require a little more reasoning was merely done, not thoroughly thought over.
Well, he had considered the possible dangers and whatnot involved in a stroll and getting naked with unknown people, but the arguments were simple enough that they didn''t require him to delve into it. He wanted to go, and there were no compelling reasons not to. It was as simple as that.
Shen felt almost elated at such a straightforward life. Everything was so relaxing. Even his desire to battle felt more like a natural reflex of his self than an angry impulse or a controlling need.
"I don''t go nude in front of people," E''livia said, but she was still following him.
"I appreciate that," Shen replied. "I''m a prude in certain things. I like the idea of my future partner reserving herself for me. Then again, I''m a hypocrite. I don''t care about other people seeing me naked." He considered something and said, "I guess I should preserve myself better until I find out if my future wife cares about it. It''s only fair."
She blushed a little and said weakly, "I''m a prude too. Like you, I mean. In the naked thing."
He smiled as he left the inn. "Then, I''ll bathe clothed. When I checked, there were a lot of people wearing clothes."
E''livia looked surprised. "You checked on it? Isn''t there a privacy ward in the bath?"
"I can see through them," Shen revealed, not caring much about it. He had to start depositing some trust in her if their friendship was to get anywhere.
E''livia halted a few steps later, looked down on herself, and then at Shen. She didn''t complain about anything, though. She just resumed following him silently and a little red.
Her reaction surprised him a little because she didn''t care about people feeling her virginity, but he guessed he had said "see" instead of "feel." He was speaking the local language to practice, and the two words were very different without any semantic intersection. Seeing through wards was harder than feeling anything.
And indeed, Shen could now easily see people naked¡ªnot something he prided himself in. He never ogled, though. Or stared. Not even E''livia, whose body she had allowed him to embrace a bit too tightly. He controlled his state of mind so as not to check people out for more than seeking danger. He ignored anything that would be impolite to notice.
He didn''t explain it to her, though. There was enough tension already. They really needed to move on to safer topics, and he regretted mentioning a bath. He should add that to his future considerations.
But now it was done. They flew through the streets to the enormous sandstone building. E''livia paid for Shen again and for herself. It turned out that there was a clothed mixed section, and they were glad to pick it.
The bathroom was big, with a central square hot pool that occupied almost the entire room. It was also sandstone, enchanted and old, but not in ruins. It gave the feeling of a place with history rather than abandoned.
There were a dozen people there, three couples and some loners. No one was doing anything untward. The place was about relaxing, and everyone respected that.
Shen found a corner with E''livia, and they got their bodies into the water up to the neck and relaxed.
? ?
413. A Boon and a Test
The day passed without any noteworthy events. Shen and E''livia relaxed a little, grabbed some food, and talked. She then taught him some more Galan.
Eventually, he reached the level of understanding over half the things he heard¡ªand by that, he meant advanced-level stuff, including complex words and sentence structures. That more or less concluded her business. From then on, he could learn by listening to people''s conversations and filling the gaps using context. From now on, they would only speak in Galan to help him, and he would also pay attention to conversations around him.
Surprisingly, E''livia decided to get to sleep that night. The day before, Shen had gone to sleep only because he had been affected by the Bluefrost. She was different.
She explained, "Sleeping is a privilege in the Myriad Worlds, and one every cultivator tries to indulge in as much as possible. I mean, a balance is needed, but who has time to sleep every day? So we do it whenever we can. As you must''ve noticed by now, the Axioms¡ª Oh, you can''t cultivate."
"I can now," he countered. "That''s why I want to meditate once the fight is over."
"Hmm. Interesting." She was curious but didn''t pry. "Anywho, Laws and Concepts are harder to touch in the Myriad Worlds compared to the ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª you come from. Here, a cultivator''s mind kinda gets molded into seeing the world through the wrong perspective, far away from the underlying rules of Reality, if they go too long without resting the mind. There are all sorts of techniques to shut off your mind while keeping some attention to the surroundings, but from C-rank onwards, almost anyone has enough awareness of their surroundings even as they sleep. We holin only need two to four hours of sleep to ''reset'' our mind for a few weeks."
"You slept yesterday," Shen countered. "Why are you sleeping again tonight?"
She smiled cheekily. "I like to sleep."
Her answer was simple yet profound. It reminded him of her words when she tried to drag him into a Truth and Axiom Debate: "To protect one''s ego in the face of reality is to protect the false before the Truth! No cultivator can get far in the Path if they only care about protecting their public image!"
He could now recognize her words had also helped him in his earlier enlightenment. If he could even call that enlightenment truly "his." It had taken A-rank''s Realization interfering with his Heavenly Tribulation, an ancient song, some words she had thrown at him, a fellow C-rank''s wisdom, an A- Eternal Molten Bluefrost, and maybe even the tribulation itself affecting his willpower. As E''livia had said, in a way, Shen had found enlightenment by letting go of his ego, his cemented perception of Reality, to go for a deeper Truth. Only then had he touched his essence, whatever it was.
Meanwhile, E''livia was okay sleeping because she enjoyed it. She was as flawed as any person but closer to her essence than Shen had ever been.
She only walked a True Path, yet he had taken such grand illuminations to reach a similar state of affairs!
That showed how lacking he was. Even as he stood in a similar place as others, they surpassed him. Not only was E''livia''s Path closer to her Truth than he had been, but also, without an overpowered weapon, his True Center would''ve faltered against T''onir''s Freedom Fighting.
Shen suddenly frowned as he noticed something terribly wrong about his previous True Center.
It was called True Center and, theoretically, made him closer to his True Self. Yet, Shen had walked astray of his True Path to develop that True Center. He had walked astray of his truest self, his essence, who he was.
He was sure his True Center had advantages, but it also meant giving up on some things. He had constrained himself in unnatural ways to counter-balance his Will¡ª
Lightning flared, and his memory was blocked. He even forgot the conclusion he was almost reaching.
Instead, he concluded his True Center had been both a boon and a test.
His True Center had been good for him. He just knew it had saved him countless times and given him strength. But if things had gone differently during this tribulation, he would be condemned to never be his most authentic self. He would never have been as "pure" as E''livia.
Yet, for some reason, he had considered his True Center a purer expression of his existence. Sure, in a way, it had been that. Pure, he meant. But a logical purity, which was only one Path ahead.
One of many.
The thing was, E''livia''s grandmother had withheld a piece of information; Shen could easily infer that there were multiple Paths to Supremacy.
The Heavens were made of everyone''s desires or something like that, and not everyone would want to reach the peak the same way. Not everyone could walk the same Path, considering their bodies and souls weren''t all equal. There was a Wider Path one had to tread, leading from mortality to Supremacy, sanctioned by the Heavens, but it had different arteries leading to the same place. Each artery, each Path, had its particularities.
E''livia''s True Path, which he had also walked in the past, was the common Path. He dubbed it the Path of Acceptance. She walked ahead imposing herself upon Reality, and forcing it to accept who she was. She also accepted herself. There was no need to change anything in her existential structure for extra power or big secrets. She was content with who she was and would make Reality bow to her through sheer effort.
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Shen''s most recent former Path had been one of mind¡ªwhich he dubbed the Path of Vision. He wasn''t sure of the details but knew he had used logic and reason to try to find an unnatural balance within himself to go against Reality. It honed and was honed by his willpower to make his Vision of who he should be reign supreme.
Shen''s current Path was the Path of Essence. He was becoming one with his essence regardless of what Reality thought, modifying himself in ways he didn''t even comprehend. He had only reached it by forgoing both the Path of Acceptance and the Path of Reason. He didn''t know if it meant this Path was superior or just different.
T''onir''s Freedom Fighting also felt like a Path, yet not entirely. Shen would group it together with the Anti-Path thing that E''livia had mentioned. Who knows how exactly they worked?
Whatever the case, he bet this was what this Heavenly Tribulation was about: Paths. And he was probably killing it.
In fact, he felt he could figure out the rest of his Will very quickly if he put his mind to it, but he wouldn''t. Not yet. He was learning so much! He would at least get to know E''livia for a few months before taking the next step.
Those thoughts went through his head in a few instants. Then, he said, "Sleeping after what I went through sounds like a great idea."
E''livia and he lay in their bed and fell asleep immediately.
? ?
? ?
Shen noticed nothing different in his mind the next morning. After a light breakfast, he found a way to contact the City Lord, set up the time and place for their fight¡ªabove the nearest ocean in the afternoon¡ªand waited for him there.
E''livia wasn''t helping, though she thought she was in her own way. "Remember, I''ll save you. Fight to your heart''s content. Everyone loses all the time."
That had annoyed Shen at first, but now he found it funny. She was more anxious than him, and that was her way of overflowing her emotions. That she funneled it in a way that displayed concern for his safety was cute and almost endearing.
The City Lord arrived at the appointed time, clad in dark gray armor, wielding two small hammers that looked like maintenance tools. Everything was C+, though.
A dozen C-rank Defenders had come with him, but they kept their distance. They were here to watch the show, not do anything.
"Shen," Pagarti said with an almost unnoticeable nod. "Are you ready?"
Their relationship was strained after Shen''s earlier lack of decorum. Shen was confident he might fix it if he wanted... but he didn''t. He would fight Pagarti and move on to other matters. He wouldn''t even be here if he didn''t like fighting as much as he did.
Shen cupped his fists before his body and nodded. "I am." Un''Re left his body-soul through his neck and floated beside him.
The City Lord looked at the spear with interest. Shen still didn''t get what was so impressive about it, except maybe for the fact that it had changed with him.
Its three core Laws had become an unidentifiable mix in the spear, though supposedly, only he could feel it. It was indeed an extension of him.
Pagarti only stared for a few seconds, then turned to E''livia, bowing his head. "Would you mind announcing the beginning of the fight?"
His politeness made it obvious that he knew who she was. He wouldn''t blow her cover, but he was also not stupid enough to use the opportunity to be impolite to her. The Gardener Sect still ruled the place.
"Yeah, sure," E''livia said and flew high above Shen and Pagarti, who moved a couple of miles away from each other. Then, almost randomly, she said, "Fight."
The world was painted gray as Pagarti''s domain covered everything within Shen''s senses. It tainted the world to make everything look like a nail, and above them all, the phantom of a Hammer that looked more real than Reality itself.
Shen himself felt Reality whispering for him to change into a nail. Suggesting he was no drow but something to be hammered down at the Hammer''s convenience.
Shen didn''t even need his domain or willpower to counter it. Only Realizations and maybe the Void could pierce his perfectly whole One Self to affect his mind.
He tried to deploy his aura but failed; as E''livia had said, Pagarti had been prepared to block it. So, he grabbed his spear and rushed towards Pagarti.
His ease of movement surprised both E''livia and the man. Shen snickered. So much for a strong domain¡ª
The Hammer fell down faster than Shen could fully process.
It impossibly struck Shen from all sides at once, trying to crush his entire existence. His One Self resisted for a moment, but that Hammer was no mere Hammer. It was Path and domain pushed to an extreme that forced Reality to concede to it almost like a Realization. Meanwhile, Shen hadn''t even mastered a Law yet. His existence was unique and maybe strong in some ways, but in sheer, direct power, it was simply too weak to resist.
It was as if his existence was a high-grade Truth, and his power was a low-grade Truth.
Pagarti''s existence was whatever, but his power, his superior domain, was a very-high-grade Truth.
When the very-high-grade Truth struck Shen, Shen''s high-grade existence wasn''t enough to resist. Thus, in the end, power reigned supreme.
Shen smiled at the recognition of Power''s sovereignty in Reality, even as he was turned into a pancake.
Just before he was gone, he felt E''livia''s domain cover everything, pushing Pagarti''s away. He also noticed she teleport to stand before him. Then, he was as good as dead, as his body and soul were harmed beyond recognition.
Yet, as long as a single blood drop remained and was given time to heal, so would Shen.
He still had instincts and used his qi to heal. When he returned to himself, Pagarti and his people were nowhere to be found. Un''Re had been pushed away but was still intact. His cultivator robe was also whole only because Pagarti had circumvented its protections with his domain.
"I asked them to leave," E''livia explained, looking worried at him. "This City Lord was stronger than I thought. He might''ve killed you if I got distracted in a fight."
Shen smiled as he willed his spear to come to him. "It was no Anti-Path that infected him. If that were the case, he could''ve just asked someone else with a domain to remove it. But it was my aura that did the trick. He had been infected by a Path with Absolute Horizon."
The name of the domain ability had come to Shen as he healed. It was an ability of willpower, perfectly compatible with his Path of Vision.
His loss was irrelevant to him. He had been crushed by a superior Power. That was okay. More importantly, it confirmed to him that there were many Paths to Supremacy, and his Path of Essence was the best.
Oh, yes, it was the best. Shen had resisted Pagarti''s oppressive domain for a moment just by existing the way he did. Once he also mastered his Laws, which were part of him, but holding his Whole One Self back...
He chuckled. That would be fun.
As for using his domain? Now wasn''t the time yet. He had just got a benchmark of his weakness and would now check his comprehension. Then, it would be time to see how far his Domain of Infinite Improvement could push him. He bet the things he had lived in the Myriad Worlds would allow him to reach great heights.
"Are you free to watch over me as I meditate now?" he asked.
E''livia looked confused by his carefree attitude but nodded. "Sure, why not?"
Shen sat midair and stared at the world around him.
414. Not Entropy
The world was laid bare to Shen. He was fundamentally different from almost everything else and, thus, saw things differently. It wasn''t quite like a 3D person could see everything in a 2D drawing, but not that far off, either.
He understood how people were so sure Reality had three Aspects. He could see them. Each was simultaneously the other. Each was both an endless plane and an infinitesimally small point repeated infinite times.
Will was everywhere, but sentient beings were like beacons of Will. Change was everywhere, but some elements changed more. Space was everywhere, but he could see the space in between Space itself; it was "filled with Void," as absurd as that description was.
Reality was simultaneously an indivisible whole and separate parts, much like himself.
Shen felt like a veil had been removed from his eyes. He could see Concepts, Laws, and Axioms. He could see Expressions and Aspects. He could see like never before.
He couldn''t identify the Heavens, though, which was telling: his Allvision of his, as he dubbed it, wasn''t perfect. Still, it was enough for him to look at Reality''s Laws¡ªespecially the Laws belonging to his Path¡ªin a brand new way.
Shen got hints of Extremity right away from the Extremes he could see wherever he looked. Not everything was about the Spear, but he could bring very few insights from one Extreme to the Spear. In fact, he could almost detect some sort of underlying quantum interlaying of similar Laws, though he also thought it was just an impression. If a deeper Truth was hiding there, it was beyond his ability to touch.
Stream was also easy to understand when he could see it working so clearly. In fact, the way Time¡ªthe Expression of Space and Change¡ªorganized itself was very similar to Water''s Stream. There was an obvious link there, though his mind hurt whenever he tried to think about it.
Conductivity was similar in how it was everywhere, but also different. The Axioms of Reality were intertwined in a way that showed they had pushed each other where the other was the weakest. Conductivity was in those places where Axioms found the path of least resistance to affect each other. It ended with a tapestry of perfect counter-balanced Axioms holding Reality together. Other than that, however, Conductivity was almost exclusively only found in Lightning.
True Boundlessness came almost on its own to him once he put his mind into cultivating. He could see how everything in Reality was limited-yet-not-really. According to E''vania, True Boundlessness was an Anti-Law about boundaries, and boundaries¡ªand the lack thereof¡ªwere everywhere.
Shen didn''t drink from it as much as he drowned in its knowledge.
Shaft was the opposite. Shen found it in each of the three Aspects. They were like the solid foundations of Reality. Stable. Strong. Holding everything in a way only they could. Multiple Weapon Axioms also had their own Shaft. They inspired him. Shen''s understanding of the Spear''s Shaft grew.
Gentle Breeze was exclusive to the Axioms of Wind. There were some similarities here and there in other Axioms, but not much. The Law didn''t grow as much as the others, but it also didn''t lag too much behind. Its being almost exclusive to a single Axiom made it much simpler to understand.
Finally, Killing Weapon was the Law he felt the most comfortable with. Shen himself was poised to kill Reality one day and replace it with his One Self. Seeing animals and insects killing each other with his Allvision was also very enlightening.
Shen basked in the mysteries of Reality and learned from it.
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? ?
"It works," Shen said as he pushed his domain out of his One Self.
His existence was strained from using his domain but didn''t crack. Every part of him, which was not separate yet was, supported every other. His Domain of Infinite Improvement expanded for nine miles before his unmastered Laws became too weak to support it, and it halted.
After a cultivation session of 13 days, Shen''s understanding of Gentle Breeze, his worst Law, was 70%. Killing Weapon, the Law closest to mastery, sat at 81%.
That improvement was absurd to him. It showed how impressive his new existence was and made him a bit prideful. More importantly, he felt his willpower improve as he unlocked secrets of Reality without his domain''s assistance. So, he decided not to use his domain to improve unless he was in a pinch and needed the power boost. It would be his secret weapon of sorts.
Now, he was attempting to deploy his domain without allowing it to affect him, and it worked. He could, however, use it against his enemies.
Shen willed it, and every living being in his domain became subject to deterioration, the opposite of improvement. They worsened. Ants forgot how to walk. Birds fell as they unlearned how to fly. E''livia¡ª
E''livia''s domain inside her blocked Shen''s influence.
"Not bad for a first-timer," she comforted, failing to hide how unimpressed she was. "But your domain''s Ideal is a bit too complex."
"Ideal?" Shen asked, though he could guess what she meant by the context.
"Yeah, the thought-emotion-apotheosis that you reached to become a Dominator is an Ideal. Yours about entropy or something, right? Things fall apart differently over time, so your Ideal lacks focus, making it easy to counter. You should use your domain to fight in the meta-battlefield instead. You know, make your Law stronger and your enemy''s weaker. It''s the most widespread application of domains for a reason."
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"My domain is about improvement, not entropy."
E''livia showed slight interest in that. "Which makes your application even worse. Countering your domain like that is hard to pull, more art and instinct than skill, but it is not very useful. Instead, you could improve obstacles in your enemy''s way, make the air more resistant to them, or something. It''d annoy them, I suppose."
Shen tried what she said. He focused on the air around E''livia and improving it in a specific direction¡ª
His head hurt as if someone was nailing his brain, and he stopped.
Her voice became worried, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah. Just some pain."
She smiled embarrassedly. "Let me guess: you can''t choose how things will improve. If your domain''s Idea is related to general improvement, you can only let it do its thing as it improves stuff however Reality deems fitting. A domain is supposed to be your Path, so it''s yourself, but it''s also connected to Reality and follows its rules. You''ll need a Realization to make Reality bend in some ways."
Shen nodded and tried something different. He pushed his willpower into the hidden layer of Will that he knew was there: he used the Absolute Horizon. Then, he willed the air around E''livia to grow resistant to anything going through it, and it bent to his will.
E''livia''s eyes widened in surprise as she felt it. She moved her hand, and the air barely resisted her. "Absolute Horizon?! You can use it?!"
He smiled and ordered the air to become solid. E''livia''s arms could still move around. She was C-rank, and the air had become no more resistant than common dirt.
So, Shen then willed the air to become as hard as a B-tier treasure. E''livia''s arm was stopped for a moment. Then, it pushed ahead anyway.
Shen fainted right after.
His willpower was lacking. He had used everything he had to make a few molecules of air as resistant as a B-tier treasure.
The look of sheer astonishment on her face was worth it, though.
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It turned out that Absolute Horizon was, as its name implied, absolute. Not even domains could resist it; only Realizations could. With enough willpower, Shen could will E''livia to die, and she would die.
Of course, he had nowhere near enough willpower for that. The higher something''s tier or someone''s rank, the more willpower he needed to use to counter their "essence." He was using the word "essence" liberally, though; he wasn''t sure if that was it. Not even E''livia knew how it worked.
"Just remember that going against more energy and more power means a higher willpower expenditure," she explained after Shen woke up. "And tiers matter a lot. Killing E-ranks should be easy enough and consume almost no willpower. You might also be able to kill a few dozen average D-ranks before exhausting yourself."
The usefulness of willpower made Shen glad he had decided not to use his domain to improve himself.
E''livia continued, "You''re the first Deviator I ever met." She paused and almost asked something but stopped herself in time.
She had likely guessed he couldn''t talk about whatever she wanted to know. He wasn''t sure what his reaction looked like when the Heavenly Lightning stopped him, but she had gotten the hint that he would rather she didn''t even ask about it.
"Deviator?" he asked.
"It''s one of those secrets you''re not supposed to talk about," she said. "It''s a more serious one than Anti-Paths, though. I can''t talk about it with people outside the sect at all unless they are Deviators, like you. So, don''t go spreading it to your friends." She showed him the tongue playfully.
Shen smiled. "I''ll try not to succumb to my countless friends'' endless inquiries."
"Anywho, I walk the Grand Path. The common one. Like every other, it starts with a common Path, but then it becomes a True Path, then a Realization. You do things differently." Again, she obviously wanted to ask something, likely which Path he walked, but held herself.
"Is Freedom Fighting a Deviation, then?" he asked.
"Almost. It''s a Mutation. It''s still the Grand Path, but with changes. T''onir still needs to find a way to walk a True Path eventually. It won''t be easy. As for a Realization..." She shook her head.
"What about Anti-Paths?"
"Not even a Mutation. It''s still the Grand Path, except walked slightly differently. The ''Anti-Path'' name is cooler than it actually is. Some claim it could be considered a minor Mutation, but I was never convinced."
Shen nodded. He had been right in his earlier guesses about multiple Paths and their general classification.
E''livia had said something interesting, though. "Realizations are exclusive to True Paths?"
She looked confused at his conclusion about her earlier words, then giggled. "What? No! Everything starts with a Path and ends with a Realization. It''s just the middle of the Path that changes; the journey, so to say. It Mutates or Deviates. That comes with some consequences. For instance, someone walking the Grand Path can''t use Absolute Horizon, but some Deviators can."
Shen nodded. "I suppose there''s a balance?"
E''livia smiled. "Yup. Every True Path Walker can cultivate easily; the Path ahead is as clear as day. It''s the trodden Path, after all, the one Reality likes the most. Meanwhile, every Deviator cultivates in a way unique to themselves; not unique to their kind of Deviation, but their individual selves. Each one is different." She had started using the ranking system after Shen''s insistence, for which Shen was thankful.
"What do you mean?"
"You''ll have to figure out by yourself how you, and only you, can cultivate after you reach B-rank. I was told that''s the greatest hurdle for any Deviator, and most never go beyond touching the B-rank. Only three have ever reached S-rank, and two belong to the same species: the infernals. They don''t like anyone using Absolute Horizon, by the way. They are barred from the Myriad Worlds, but in case you ever leave..."
She sounded a bit upset at the prospect, but he didn''t pay attention because her words unblocked some memories. He now knew who the infernals were and that they, indeed, didn''t like anyone using Absolute Horizon. He also knew he had a beef with them, though not what caused it.
Shen smiled back. "That sounds like a problem for future Shen, then. Can you help me strengthen my domain?"
"It''d be a waste of time. It''s much better to pay a Freedom Fighter to battle you." Contrary to her words, E''livia released her domain. It covered as far as Shen could see. "But we can train meta-battle so you don''t suck too much in your next battle with the City Lord."
Shen raised an eyebrow. "I don''t plan on fighting him again."
E''livia was surprised, then smiled weakly. "Oh. Sorry, then."
"For...?"
"The City Lord said he liked the spar and wants another one after you learn to use your domain outside your body. I think you pissed him off, and he wants an excuse to beat you up again."
"And I guess you accepted in my stead?"
She nodded. "Sorry. It was the easiest and fastest way to send him away, and I was worried about your safety. But maybe you can win if you take a few months to improve your stats, too?"
"Don''t be sorry. You protected me. I appreciate it." His smile returned, but each of his teeth was a Killing Weapon this time. "And while I don''t care about my loss, I won''t let a random City Lord treat me like an easy target."
Shen grabbed Un''Re and started training with E''livia.
It took them only a few hours to figure out two neat tricks using his Absolute Domain that might just give him a tiny chance Pagarti.
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415. Sour
? ?
The nine miles of the Shen''s domain were pathetic before Pagarti''s wide expanse. The false drow''s domain tainted the world with a light red and blue evermoving Borealis, but it was barely visible inside the gray of Pagarti''s.
The boy''s domain also lacked substance. It was like cotton to the City Lord''s iron. Pagarti had honed his domain through countless battles against the Gardener Sect''s elite Freedom Fighters, meaning he required considerably less willpower to accomplish the same things a weaker domain would. He also had mastered Laws, unlike the boy, which assisted with his domain''s strength and ease of use.
Yet, Pagarti found his Final Smite couldn''t enter Shen''s domain.
The boy wasn''t facing him in the meta-battlefield. Pagarti had deemed his Laws to be stronger and any other to be weaker in his domain''s area, and it had happened. Shen didn''t even try to counter it. And yet, whenever his materialized Hammer attempted to strike the boy down, it disappeared as soon as it entered Shen''s area of influence.
It was as if Hammers had no right to exist inside, yet it was also different. Shen wasn''t targeting the Axioms of the Hammer. He was targeting only its materialization.
That was against everything the City Lord knew of domains.
He sneaked a glance at the smirking Delegate watching the battle. The Gardener Sect had evidently invested in the boy beyond "merely" proving him with the best C-tier spear to ever grace the Myriad Worlds. The ability to counter a domain''s materialization was on the level of a forbidden technique that shouldn''t be shown to outsiders except in a life-and-death situation, yet the boy wasn''t hiding it. Only the Gardener Sect''s beloved Chosen would dare to do it.
Pagarti felt confused, but he also trusted the sect to kill him straight if they wanted to, instead of using him "witnessing what he shouldn''t" as an excuse. They were straightforward like that. Af for now...
This was a duel, and there was no problem crushing the boy again. Pagarti didn''t need his Final Smite to win this. He had just wanted to put the boy to his place again.
He twisted the Laws of the world inside his domain and teleported right beside the boy¡ª
Pain. His soul was in pain. Reality demanded it to be destroyed, and Pagarti...
...resisted without doing anything.
The demand was weak. His soul wouldn''t be injured by that.
Yet, the pain distracted him for a moment. Shen used the opportunity to counter Pagarti''s hold upon the meta-battlefield. There was no willpower clash in the meta-field, only countering and counter-countering each other in an eternal loop, expending willpower for supremacy over how strong or weak a Law or Axiom was there. Shen reversed Pagarti''s changes and thrust his special spear against the City Lord.
Pagarti was faster and stronger than the boy and easily parried¡ª
He didn''t parry it. His hammer swing should''ve been strong enough to deflect the incoming spear, but it wasn''t. Somehow, that spear was considerably stronger than Shen, and Pagarti''s precise control over his strength as he parried wasn''t enough to push it away.
The spearhead pierced his armor and heart.
Pagarti wielded two hammers, and by the time he got injured, his other hammer was already touching Shen''s forehead. He had to extend his arms to compensate for the spear''s longer reach, a secret technique the boy didn''t see coming. Simultaneously, the City Lord countered the false drow on the meta-battlefield. Shen''s willpower held for a split instant but ultimately gave way to Pagarti''s.
The hammer struck the boy''s head while the drow pushed his spear up, ripping Pagarti''s chest apart as it moved to his head.
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When the hammer hit, Shen''s head blew up, and so did his soul. That had led Pagarti to notice that the boy wasn''t an actual drow but a unique lifeform in their last duel. Shen''s soul was injured with his body, and his spear slowed. Thus, Pagarti''s first hammer reached the boy''s chest before his spear could reach Pagarti''s head.
The fake drow''s chest exploded, and the consequent soul injury made his spear stop moving.
Pagarti won.
Yet, the victory tasted sour on his mouth.
He stepped back as the Delegate''s domain covered the region, and she stepped between Pagarti and the boy. Pagarti only knew it was her because she had come to his city before, and its formations could pierce her disguise to peek into her Path. Her presence was half the reason he had wanted to beat the boy again. She had also pissed Pagarti, and beating the false drow once wasn''t enough to make up for the annoyance he had been subjected to.
But Shen had almost won. Pagarti could use countless other ways to defeat the boy now that he knew more about his strengths, but he had underestimated his enemy. He didn''t know how Un''Re could become stronger than it should''ve been, but battles were like that, filled with unknowns. Moreover, things such as the ability to deal pain to the soul should not distract him so easily.
It seemed he hadn''t learned the lesson after the last Outsider''s Path infected him.
The City Lord knew the Delegate wanted him gone because she feared for the boy''s life, but this time, he just moved to the horizon and sat midair to await Shen''s recovery. Pagarti had come alone not to humiliate the boy too much this time lest he develop real enmity. The distance would be enough to appease the Delegate¡ªwhether she like it or not.
When the boy finished reforming¡ªand seeing a soul heal so easily was as bizarre and awe-striking as the first time¡ªPagarti stood up, cupped his hands before himself, and bowed low to Shen.
"Outsider," he said, "thank you for your lesson. May your Path be filled with the World Tree''s Life."
He remained like that for a moment, then turned back and left.
It was time to fight a lot until he got back into shape, or any random C-rank might come one day and take his city from him.
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? ?
"I thought I had him," Shen said as he followed E''livia back to Flower City.
The only way of traveling to different leaves of the World Tree before reaching A-rank was through the portals the Gardener Sect kept in their Garden Cities. They controlled it quite tightly.
"He was just that much faster than you!" E''livia agreed excitedly. "So close! You really should''ve cultivated your stats a little!"
Shen smiled. "Then we''d have to return to this world after I got strong enough, just to defeat some random City Lord, and I''m done with this place. It''s alright. We know my limits now."
He could still try to use his domain to improve himself, but using it on his spear had been cool enough. Un''Re was really one with him without being him. His domain, while active and empowering the spear, could push it to B-tier. Not B-; straight B.
That meant Shen could use a spear with a mastered core Law without having one himself. It felt both weird and natural at the same time. The Armory System had defined Un''Re''s Synced Core tier as B, whatever that meant. It should be the only reason he could improve the spear like that with his domain.
Now, he was starting to understand why the spear was so awesome. He also wondered if E''vania had planned that functionality.
As for improving his stats, E''livia had been slight wrong in her description of Deviations. His Path of Essence had already changed how he cultivated. It was by absorbing qi and willing it to merge with his One Self. Moreover, he instinctively knew what to do.
Yet, he didn''t know how to reach B-rank. He could master his Laws and inject a lot of qi into himself to improve his build and, thus, increase his stats. Taking a qualitative step after that was something else altogether.
But that was another issue for future Shen to deal with.
For now, he decided not to cultivate in that world. There was no grand reason for that. He just wanted to wait until he took the next step of his journey. It was as if he was leaving old Shen behind and would work on new Shen after that.
"I''m excited about learning alchemy," Shen shared.
E''livia smiled. "I never dabbled myself. Too many little details, too boring. I find alchemists hot though." She blushed a little.
Shen raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? You find a guy pushing a bunch of flowers on a pot sexy?"
She became redder. "It''s how they look when they are focusing, you know? And the way they move their fingers." Her face was a furious red now.
Shen chuckled. "Ah, I see. It''s a good thing I''ll become an alchemist, then."
After that, E''livia broke into an awkward silence.
Flower City was just as Shen had left it. He stopped to check the Stream-based portal frame and improved his Stream mastery by another five percent over a few days, reaching 79%.
They then entered a steel doorframe. It led to a long steel corridor with a wall of white and silver swirling lights at the end. E''livia touched it with her hand and said, "Lagoth." The portal turned blue, and she smiled at Shen. "Lagoth''s an average B-tier world with nothing noteworthy to it. No big villains, no grand heroes, no cataclysmic event, no miracles; nothing. The perfect place for a disguised alchemist to develop without trouble."
Shen might or not have felt a strange shiver when she said that, but it was forgotten as she stepped through the portal, and he followed.
To Lagoth.
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416. Lagoth
The place on the other side of the portal was very different from Flower City. It was called Treespire and, as its name implied, was a massive B+ tree miles wide and dozens of miles tall, shaped like a twisted spire. It had no branches or leaves except for a lettuce-shaped coming out from its very pointy top. The thing was even more expansive than the tree, casting a humongous shadow upon the surrounding grassland.
The tree had been extensively carved and used as a building, with countless doorways and window openings throughout its trunk. There was no external stairway for those incapable of flying to reach the upper floors, but there were some internal ones up to the thirtieth floor.
Flower City had been dominated by Gardener Sect members, but they were a minority in Treespire, a bustling commercial and military hub. People did a lot of business and trained on the lower floors. The upper half, however, was exclusive to the Gardener Sect and VIPs. There were homes and training areas there. More importantly, Shen unexpectedly discovered he couldn''t see into the last ten floors.
Every floor was enchanted for multiple purposes, all at the B-tier. Shen had expected only Realizations or A-tier enchantments to block his Allvision, as his One Self could only be infiltrated by Realizations, but he had been wrong. The enchantments on the top floors felt like they were at the limits of the B-tier, similar to how Un''Re was a C+PEAK weapon when not boosted by his domain.
That mattered a lot because it confirmed that as special as Shen''s current existence might be, some abilities that came with it were not rare enough for powerful forces to ignore them when protecting themselves. They knew about things like his Allvision and could defend against them.
Shen actually liked finding out about that. It reminded him not to get too full of himself. If someone could block his Allvision, they could likely also trick him into making him see what wasn''t there. He knew he should confirm anything he felt with any sense with as many other senses as possible, but he had been trusting his Allvision a little too much.
The portal they came out of was one of hundreds of similar metal doorframes on the seemingly endless grassland surrounding Treespire. Unlike the single portal out of Flower City, each doorframe here had the name of the destination carved on it. Each portal led to another place in Lagoth or a different world. Unlike the portals on Flower City, these were made of liquid-ish blue light swirling around. People of all ranks moved freely to and from them.
"I thought inter-world travel was strictly controlled?" Shen asked.
E''livia smiled. "It is. People are checked by sect members and formations upon departure and arrival. We won''t see anyone trying to sneak through. Trust me on that."
Shen hadn'' t felt anything or anyone checking on him, but there were a couple of B-ranks on Treespire''s upper floors looking down. Maybe E''livia''s presence made them not scrutinize his identity, or perhaps they had done it, but he simply hadn''t felt it.
"We''ll need a guide to the Alchemy Guild," E''livia said as she flew to one of the doors to the thirtieth-first floor. It was also full of activity, but less than the non-flier floors below. "I never visited this place before."
Air traffic was heavy, with thousands upon thousands of C-ranks of multiple races and a few hundred B-ranks going everywhere. Reaching B-rank wasn''t a walk in the park, so Shen was impressed with their numbers. He wondered how many cultivators the Myriad Worlds had.
The thirtieth-first floor was made of wood, as all others. It was barely furnished except for the one hundred wooden reception desks evenly spaced around the area, each manned by an early C-rank wearing the Gardener Sect''s clothes. Yet, their enamel pins betrayed their low positions on the sect¡ªif their job wasn''t evidence enough. They were round wooden badges with a light gray world tree drawing.
"Are these people candidates or trainees?" Shen asked.
E''livia answered, "Kinda both, I think? I heard they passed a few tests and are being trained and further tested."
She was pretending not to be a sect member with insider knowledge. Who knew who was listening? Shen was definitely paying attention to the conversations around him to improve his Galan. Not that he heard anything even remotely interesting or useful.
He pointed out, "We didn''t see people like them in Flower City."
"Small worlds can do with a small contingent, but big worlds require a lot of work."
"And the sect uses external help for that? Isn''t that a door to bring politics into the sect?"
E''livia thought for a moment before replying, "You know that the first time anyone tries to join the sect is free, but that following attempts are paid, and each successive buy-in gets progressively more expensive, right?"
Shen didn''t know that but nodded in case anyone was watching. A local was unlikely to be ignorant about it. "So?"
"Well, almost everyone tries to join at least once in their lifetime. Many do it at least a few times. In big places like Lagoth, you can draw lots to pay the fee with labor. It''s a win-win. As for politics... They already passed some tests, I guess? And I''d bet the sect wouldn''t be lenient on them. I doubt no one is watching."
Shen nodded. That made sense. "It''s easier to have only one official sect member watching over everyone here than filling the table with sect members. And it trains the watcher to supervise others."
It wasn''t E''livia who answered, but a peak C-rank who landed right next to them. It was a male naga with a bronze pin over his clothes. He had no hair on his body, but countless golden and red piercings on his scalp kind of simulated it. He also had silver piercings on his nose and ear slits. Everything he wore was C+ rank, and Shen wondered how expensive his "hair" was and what uses it had.
"You''re correct," the guy said as he cupped his muscular fish-y hands before himself and nodded. Unlike most snake people, he didn''t drag the "S" sound when speaking. Instead, his speech was almost as sharp as his double teeth rows, marked and abrupt, contrasting with his jovial and pleasant voice. "I''m Sharan, an Outer Disciple. I work here to gain merit points and experience. You two aren''t registered as having taken the test before. If you take it now, I''ll gain a lot of merit. I will pay ten low-purity crystals for each of you to take the test. Are you interested?"
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"No, thanks," Shen said, walking and ignoring the guy''s presence.
E''livia followed in silence. Shen felt Sharan''s eyes widen in surprise at the blunt rejection, but instead of getting upset, he sighed and flew away.
"He gave up easily enough," he commented to E''livia. "I expected him to ask for a duel or attack me or something."
The holin blushed a little. "I heard some unproven high-level sect members can be a bit entitled. But that''s not the norm. And there''s a reason unproven sect members don''t work with the public unsupervised."
Shen raised an eyebrow as he looked at her and she nodded. They came to an understanding with that look: she had confirmed that the only reason she had been allowed to leave the sect after messing up was Shen being there to oversee her actions. Shen guessed that him being the one who asked for it had also helped, as he was the one she had tried to kill.
He changed the subject. "Well, that confirmed a sect member is paying attention to everything here. And I guess someone stronger is supervising him and many others."
"Probably."
They reached an empty table and asked how to get to the closest Alchemy Guild branch. The attendant directed them to the fiftieth-sixth floor.
"Does the Alchemy Guild belong to the Gardener Sect?" Shen asked as he and E''livia left the floor and flew up.
"Not usually," she replied. "I''m as surprised as you to hear that''s the case here."
"You don''t sound that surprised."
"Well, I''m surprised at different things. It''s not like something like this is unheard of, but the sect only takes over an organization in a world if it does something very nasty, and I was told nothing interesting ever happens in Lagoth. Also, the sect only takes control of some organizations, and I didn''t know the Alchemist Guild was eligible. But the strangest part is that such takeovers should be temporary, but it doesn''t feel like that''s the case here."
They were halfway to their destination. Shen asked, "Why is that?"
"Getting any external organization into a Garden City is complex and takes a very long time. The Guild has a branch here, so this has been going on for a while¡ª"
She was interrupted by an inverse explosion. Sound seemed to be sucked in a single direction. It was fortunately on the opposite side of the big tree, but Shen''s Allvision allowed him to see the infinitesimally small Void hole sucking all sound.
More importantly, he identified it for the diversion it was and grabbed E''livia while deploying his domain and running as far away from Treespire as he could.
E''livia didn''t ask anything. She realized his intention a moment later and deployed her domain, then teleported them hundreds of miles away. Well, she tried. A bubble of Void Energy suddenly surrounded the tree and the region a few dozen miles away, cutting her domain off and preventing all teleportation in the enveloped region.
Shen looked at the Void Energy and felt nothing wrong. He credited it to his One Self. He kept flying towards it, hoping he could physically escape.
The few miles Shen managed to run away were enough to place him in an advantageous position as seventeen Void Insertion Points appeared around Treespire. None were further away from the tree than they were, so they were safer than almost anyone else.
Not that the Gardener Sect members were likely to agree. They were running into the tree, trusting its defenses. But Shen didn''t think the Void would attack a Garden City without a card in their sleeves to deal with its defenses.
"We need to help," E''livia said while Shen carried her away from Treespire.
"Are passersby obligated by law to help?" Shen asked.
E''livia bit her lower lip and shook her head. Her mission was to protect him, which evidently superseded any duty to help Treespire. She could only let him take her away.
Yet, Shen sighed and stopped running away.
E''livia was his only friend. He wouldn''t force her to abandon a place and people she cared about for his safety. At least not until he was sure he was in mortal danger.
"Let''s help, then," he said, flying towards the tree. "But stay close. Please. I don''t want to lose you." She looked thankful at him and nodded, broke free from his grip, got a few steps away, and took her armor from her spatial treasure.
Shen himself didn''t take Un''Re from his soul. It would destroy any attempts at disguising himself. But he had a lot of qi and a domain; it should be enough.
He formed a spear of qi and rushed towards the closest Void Insertion Point. Feeling the Void with his domain was like feeling a hole in his senses, nothing more. It was similar to how his Allvision could see nothing in there, and his meta-senses felt nothing.
E''livia''s face showed discomfort, though, and it didn''t look like it was just because she was worried about Treespire. His One Self had made him immune to the pain of looking at absolute nothingness, though his mind still couldn''t comprehend it, and it just looked like materialized darkness.
The Insertion Points were big masses of Void Energy. They tried to spit moving creatures into the world but had trouble with it. Each creature resembled an animal enveloped in a placenta bag, trying to claw its way out, but the placenta resisted it.
Everyone but Shen and E''livia were running to Treespire, including the people further away from the tree than then and the Gardener Sect''s B-ranks.
"There''s no holin in this place," Shen said as E''livia returned to his side. "How will the sect do the ritual to close the Insertion Points?"
"The Points haven''t Ignited yet!" she replied. "The world''s defenses are resisting them! They aren''t even graded until they do something! We can Counter-Materialize their existence before then!"
"How the hell do we do that?"
"You can''t! Oh. Wait! Pierce the Void with a limb and push your domain inside it! Use your Ideal to make it deteriorate; it might work! And use that special skill of yours while at it, too!"
So, use his domain''s ideal and Absolute Horizon to make the Void disappear. Shen estimated the odds of that backfiring were about 500%. He went for it anyway.
It wasn''t a suicidal action as much as he had come to trust E''livia to know more than him and save him as long as it didn''t jeopardize her sect. He found he liked trusting someone. It was comfy.
They split apart to each reach a Void Insertion Point. By then, seventeen B-ranks finally emerged from the tree, positioned in the directions of each Point. And yet, they didn''t move. They just stood there, watching.
"Why aren''t they helping?" Shen yelled to E''livia.
"I don''t know!" E''livia yelled back.
Shen reached his target before E''livia did and pushed his hand into the ball of Void Energy. He felt nothing. But his domain felt something that shouldn''t be there. A deep, deep hole without end. His domain barely touched its shallow surface, yet he knew it was the deepest Abyss ever.
"There you are," a grumpy old male voice said. "I''ve been waiting for you, boy. I knew you weren''t dead."
His hand felt matter, and the Heavenly Lightning in his heart went crazy. Almost all the electricity rushed furiously towards what he had touched. The thing disintegrated, and Shen heard a draconic roar of anguish.
That wasn''t all; the Heavens were pissed at that creature for finding Shen.
Pure white lightning bolts pierced the Void bubble surrounding Treespire, and it faded into nothingness, revealing the angry clouds covering the skies and the millions of Void Spawn that covered the horizon. The lightning ignored all of it and went into the Void Insertion Point. They were targeting the creature.
Alas, the Point didn''t resist the ire of the Heavens and popped out like a balloon. The white lightning went to the next Insertion Point, and it also disintegrated. It kept going until every Void Insertion Point was gone.
Then, it paused for a moment, then shot straight at Shen. It anchored itself in his heart. This lightning was stronger than what had been there before and pained him, but it wasn''t anything impossible to ignore. It wasn''t like he could do anything but withstand it, after all.
E''livia and most people fleeing to the tree were looking stupefied at Shen or scared at the Void Spawn that had just appeared. The B-ranks frowned at Shen.
Shen ignored them all and rushed at the Void Spawn.
He hated them.
He hated them with a force and fury he couldn''t explain.
He would kill them all.
417. An Actual Challenge
Killing Void Spawn required Energy, usually in the form of physical matter. That was an issue when fighting them at the edges of Reality, where their influence could affect a cultivator''s ability to absorb qi. Undoubtedly, part of the purpose of the Void Insertion Points was to cause trouble for the upcoming battle.
But they had failed, so nothing prevented Shen from pulling qi into his body¡ªor pushing it into the world.
His qi suffused every cubic inch of his domain, as did his Path, both in the form of Laws and Concepts. Any D-rank Void Spawn or weaker was instantly turned into fading smoke. Sadly, the C-rank creatures resisted even when Shen focused on pushing his qi into them. A lot of qi might do the trick, but accumulating that much would take time, and he couldn''t condense enough Energy projectiles fast enough to kill every foe.
Instead, Shen formed a spear of a ton of heavily compressed qi and engaged his enemy in close quarters.
It worked. His qi spear struck a five-yard humanoid Void Spawn and went deep. He cut the creature up and down, left and right, and it died.
And so Shen kept going deeper into the enemy army, killing every Void Spawn on the way, the C-ranks in close quarters. The stronger creatures concentrated further away on the incoming group, with only some scattered in the first half. The B-ranks were exclusively in the second half.
Shen soon became unimpressed by the C-ranks'' strength and aimed for stronger prey. Those weaklings posed no risk to him. Moreover, Treespire had enough of early C-rank cultivators to deal with that menace, if it could even be called such.
The B-ranks might be another story.
Less than a tenth of the millions of Void Spawn were C-rank or stronger, almost ten thousand of which were B-rank. Shen doubted the few hundred B-rank defenders could destroy them before they caused collateral damage. Although he didn''t care about said damage, E''livia did, especially if the sect lost members or the Garden City was destroyed. So, Shen would do his best to help prevent that.
The issue was that the rules about engaging Void Spawn were clearly cut. Unmastered Laws could kill C-rank Void Spawn, but not B-rank ones. You needed mastered Laws for that, and Shen was lacking in that department.
Or was he?
Un''Re could be turned into a B-rank weapon containing mastered core Laws. Shen wouldn''t take the spear out of his soul where anyone could see it, but he didn''t need to.
He reached a fifty-yard-tall octopus-shaped Void Spawn and kept his hand in a knife shape. He materialized Un''Re inside his Persona''s body. The spearhead replaced a few fingers¡ªwhich was slightly painful. A careful observer would be able to notice something in his hand, but Shen was deep in the mass of Void Spawn, most of which were now reaching Treespire. He doubted even B-ranks could identify that blade tip as Un''Re as long as he didn''t give Treespire a clear view.
Well, their domain would definitely notice Un''Re, but they hadn''t deployed it. Even E''livia had brought her to a small fifty-feet bubble around herself. She didn''t kill weak creatures like Shen did, either. The meaning was obvious. The sect would allow weaker members to engage weaker enemies to hone themselves. Domains gave a sense of protection that might affect their progress.
Shen didn''t care about the sect''s improvement¡ªor even E''livia''s feelings on that subject.
He hated Void Spawn.
He would kill any he could.
He punched the B-rank creature before him. Un''Re pierced it. He got inside it, which was actually pushing Reality into it, and started killing it from the inside.
It soon faded into dark smoke and dissipated.
Shen found that way too easy. A B-rank creature should be faster, stronger, and more resistant than that. He guessed these Void Spawn hadn''t been in Reality for too long. They would improve throughout this battle.
He turned to the next giant creature, killed his way to it, and killed it too. And the next. And the following one.
After he killed the fifth B-rank, he encountered some resistance. The hundred-yard-tall three-headed lion-shaped Void Spawn was faster than him and knew how to dodge. His punches couldn''t reach it, so he Backstepped and was soon killing another creature.
Another three B-ranks after that, he faced an actual challenge.
The hundred-yard-long loong¡ªan elongated, wingless dragon¡ªdodged his attacks as if he were a child throwing punches at a martial arts grandmaster. No matter which techniques he used, he couldn''t get to it. The few long-range qi attacks that struck it didn''t cause any damage.
So, Shen used the Absolute Horizon to command the loong to slow down.
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It didn''t work as intended. His willpower seeped into the Void the creature was "made of." Void Spawn actually pushed Reality into specific shapes; they were made of literally nothing. His mind harmlessly went through nothingness.
That was a logical conclusion to his action, yet it felt wrong to him. He was confident his Absolute Horizon could be used against the Void Spawn.
Oh! It struck him. He had gone at it wrong.
Shen willed the Void Spawn to cease to exist, and his mind found purchase. But he didn''t go all the way. He could tell he lacked the willpower to unmake a B-rank Void Spawn like that.
So, he used his domain creatively. He willed all of Reality touching the creature to improve. At the same time, he used his Absolute Horizon to push that improved Reality against the creature in an attempt to expel it from existence.
It worked.
It only took a hundredth of his willpower reserves, and suddenly, the B-rank Void Spawn simply popped out of existence. It ceased to be. Reality reclaimed the space the creature had been denying, which even released a kind of "existential ripple" that traveled as a metaphysical shockwave and destroyed every Void Spawn within a few hundred meters regardless of rank. Even another B-rank was killed like that.
Shen smiled. That was neat.
He focused on the next B-rank in his domain¡ª
He never felt the B-rank cultivator teleport right beside him¡ªnot with his Laws, not with his aura, not with his domain. In fact, he couldn''t even see the leather-armored green imp as it appeared before him¡ªnot with his regular sight. But his Allvision could, and he dodged the angry, flaming trident it tried to impale him with.
The creature was surprised at his dodge for a split second, then deployed its domain, taking control of the local Laws to make its strike stronger and Shen''s defenses worse. The imp had four Laws, all mastered. It was also significantly faster than Shen, who could do nothing to dodge the new strike. Obviously, it had been lazy in its previous attack, counting on its sneakiness to do the job.
Shen used the same trick he had used with Pagarti: he willed the creature''s soul to be destroyed using his Absolute Horizon.
He lacked the power to accomplish that, but it was an attack meant to confuse. It worked, its trident slowing down just enough for Shen to dodge again and counterattack with a punch. The imp dodged the punch, but not Un''Re, which left Shen''s arm and shot faster than Shen could move. It pierced the imp''s B-tier black leather armor and drew blood. The assassin-wannabe instantly teleported away.
Un''Re didn''t teleport with the enemy. Shen swiftly put it back into himself and looked around. There were Void Spawn all around him, and a quick glance at Treespire¡ªwhere an intense battle was taking place¡ªdidn''t allow him to notice anyone looking in his direction.
That was both a blessing and a curse. No one had noticed Un''Re, but he really could use a B-rank''s help right now.
Shen didn''t dare to try his luck there anymore. He had exhausted his tricks against the B-rank. The imp had teleported away only because it got frightened by the unexpected attacks, not because it was endangered. Un''Re had been unable to go further than an inch in the imp''s body before being stopped by its resistance.
The imp''s domain disappeared with it, and Shen turned to flee as fast as possible. He stopped killing Void Spawn and retracted his domain to make his passage less obvious. He ran away like a madman.
Heavens, he really needed to master his Laws so he could start dealing with B-ranks!
The imp was treacherous. It allowed Shen to reach midway through Treespire before it teleported before him again, already midswing. The trident pierced his robe...
...and stopped two inches inside him.
The C+ robe''s enchantments were partially responsible, and his One Self did the rest. It wasn''t easy to harm him. The imp''s trident was a C+ weapon, and the mastered Laws empowering it could do little to make it better. It didn''t even reach B- quality.
Also, the imp didn''t use its domain like Pagarti had, proving E''livia''s words about the City Lord''s domain being superior. Alas, Shen was still incapable of winning in the meta-battlefield, and a second strike was coming for him before he could even begin to attempt anything to protect himself.
The second attack pierced the exact same place as the first one. The three holes reached two-thirds into his body. His soul, mind, and entire Self suffered.
Shen managed to deploy his domain then and did something that was likely very stupid: he wilded the improved B-tier Un''Re inside himself and cut Reality apart.
Pain was a concept Shen was becoming very familiar with. Opening a whole to the Void inside his One Self gave the word "agony" a new dimension. He couldn''t think. He couldn''t breathe. He could barely tell what was going on.
He did feel half the Heavenly Lightning inside himself disappear, probably to pursue the dragon who had come for him the last time. But other than that, there was only misery. It didn''t help that the trident struck him again, this time stopping midway to his back and turning up to impale him.
At last, a B-rank sect member intervened. A domain covered Shen. Something exploded.
Everything turned dark as he lost his sense of self.
? ?
? ?
Shen woke up on his back, half his body in warm water. He could see through his eyelids but opened his eyes all the same to look around while he felt the world.
He was on a shallow pond in a thick C-tier jungle. E''livia was crouched beside him, all her wings cut off. An angry scar ran from her right eye to the left of her chest. It wasn''t healing; a Path with mastered Laws had prevented it.
Only pieces and bits remained of her armor, and the clothes below hadn''t fared any better. Most of her privates were visible, but she was fully focused on looking outwards through the heavy vegetation.
They were being hunted.
Shen''s Allvision let him see what was hunting them: imps. A dozen of them, all B-ranks. It was a miracle E''livia had managed to escape them and even survive an attack.
Shen hadn''t used his Infinite Improvement in the battle against the imp because he doubted it would help; there was an element of instant improvement involved, but it took some time. He couldn''t improve fast enough to save himself right as he was being fatally injured. However, the imps were currently having trouble detecting E''livia and him, evidencing she was using a secret technique of some sort to hide them, though he couldn''t see it¡ªprobably because of the pre-mating ritual''s link. They would take a moment to get here.
He had time now, and E''livia was hurt because of him¡ªand still, she was doing her best to protect him. That was all the trust he needed towards her to sacrifice a bit of potential for her¡ªand, well, for himself too, because he would also die if the imps got to them.
Shen allowed his domain to improve him to infinity¡ªor as close as it could get.
418. Ghost Doctor
E''livia had been trained almost from birth. Every childhood activity, as fun as it might''ve been, had a purpose. Knowledge had been dumped into her mind from the moment she could understand anything. She had forgotten more than Shen had learned in his entire life.
A rarity she had almost forgotten about and didn''t think she would ever see was an overextended Path crumbling on its own weight.
Shen, beside her, suddenly imploded. His existence twisted into itself, his recently healed body and soul turning into an unidentifiable mess as he seemed to fold inwards. He had grown too much too quickly, and his Path lacked solid foundations to support extra sudden growth.
The shock of witnessing it almost made her drop her illusion technique, but she held firmly. It was a good thing, too, because she then witnessed something she had been told was impossible. If a Path was lightly overextended, the cultivator could withstand and eventually return to normal, but Shen''s existence had been distorted beyond recognition.
Yet, he didn''t die.
It wasn''t for lack of trying. His body and soul warped around a singular point of himself, becoming a tiny ball of horribly shaped flesh and bones. Not even a drop of blood escaped because his very existence was being crushed by itself, and not a speck would escape. That was the seriousness of what he was undergoing, the finality of his mistake.
E''livia knew he wasn''t dead because her link with him remained¡ªand was strengthened as his Path''s Laws approached mastery and he grew more powerful. They had been unmastered but soon reached a point of almost mastery. How could he do that with a soul like that? Comprehending anything should be impossible. She could only guess sheer instinct moved him forward, which didn''t explain how he could get any enlightenment in such a state.
Then, it stopped; his comprehension had reached a bottleneck.
That didn''t mean his improvement halted. Instead, Shen''s body started growing stronger. She could feel his strength, agility potential, and resistance improve as he absorbed qi like crazy from his surroundings. It would soon go beyond what E''livia''s illusion could cover, but short of killing him, there was nothing she could do to stop him. He was already unconscious, but he continued nonetheless.
Shen grew stronger¡ªalmost as strong as someone with a mastered Law. Almost. That last step wasn''t so easily taken, and he was barred like anyone else. He had done the impossible, but mastering a Law like this was beyond impossible.
The process slowed, but Shen didn''t heal. He had grown stronger, but not enough. His existence still couldn''t withstand his Path. He was a floating ball of flesh, nothing more.
E''livia was honestly as annoyed as she was terrified. She only needed him to get conscious so she could kill her pursuers. Her issue was fighting while protecting an unconscious person, and Shen had just gone ahead and made himself vulnerable again.
She was starting to think he had some sort of protagonist complex or something, always trying to do everything by himself.
E''livia sighed, used her domain to grab Shen''s strange form¡ªshe couldn''t hold it in any other way¡ªstored his fallen robe and boots in her spatial storage, and flew away.
She had over half her qi remaining. The enemy Path infecting her flesh prevented her from absorbing more energy, and she wouldn''t be able to get rid of that Path anytime soon. That was another thing she wanted Shen''s help with¡ªperhaps his aura could deal with it¡ªbut it wasn''t to be.
E''livia could only hope her qi didn''t empty out before she was found, or she might need to attempt a breakthrough outside the sect, and Dad would be pissed at her for it.
? ?
? ?
Power.
He Power.
Power, Power, Power. Power. Power!
He Power. Much Power. He Power.
More Power. Than Power. More. He more. He want! More! He more!
Power more than Power!
No.
No!
Power. Power enough. Now, Power. More Power equals end. He not want end.
He Power.
Power good. Power enough.
Power! Power! Power.
Law. Law connected. Law beautiful. He see Law. He be Law.
He Law. Law he.
He pull. He push. He understand. He become. He forget.
Law!
Power!
He bettering!
? ?
? ?
E''livia waited silently at the corner of the ghastly cave as the Ghost Doctor analyzed Shen.
"Interesting," the Ghost Doctor said.
Finding the mysterious woman hadn''t been easy, taking E''livia a few months. E''livia had had no choice but to persevere. She had evaded her pursuers a few days after Treespire fell, but the sect''s headquarters were taking their time to send someone to subjugate the traitors in Lagoth. They might not even know about it yet. Until then, she had to make do with the locals.
The whispers about the Ghost Doctor who could do miracles beyond B-rank had sounded too good to be true, but at least the woman was also a fugitive of the Gardener Sect.
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"It has no qi," the wraith said to herself. "But it''s alive and has an internal domain. So unique. So novel. The consequences of irresponsible meddling."
"He," E''livia corrected. "He''s a living person."
The Ghost Doctor ignored her, and E''livia gritted her teeth.
E''livia was still at C-rank but could probably kill the B-rank. What she couldn''t do was make up for the woman''s healing skill. To add insult to offense, wraiths were banished from the Myriad Worlds, as they had to consume sapient life to sustain themselves. That''s why the Doctor was hiding in an unfurnished cave in the middle of the Dead Swamps.
And now, E''livia had to trust Shen''s survival to such a dreadful being.
The wraith ignored E''livia and poked Shen with her ghost finger¡ªor rather, she tried to. A strange, invisible force stopped her finger. It prevented anything but a domain¡ªor something stronger¡ªfrom affecting it.
"A rare application of Absolute Horizon," the Ghost Doctor declared.
E''livia couldn''t see through the dark green robe the Doctor wore. It was slightly translucent, but so was the wraith beneath it. Yet, the holin was confident the creature had smiled.
The Doctor continued, "Tribulation-fueled. To counter shallow meddling." The wraith turned to E''livia, who could see only darkness under its hood. "Do you know what that means?"
"What?" E''livia replied.
"The tribulation is keeping it alive," the wraith said. "This living thing is taking a crucial step in the tribulation it''s currently undergoing. It has been very slow to progress with that step, however. It must go ahead or back to get released from this state of existence. But if it pulls back, it''ll die."
"What if he passes the tribulation?"
"It dies, also. It cannot sustain itself. No one can survive Path overextension without assistance¡ªlike it''s gaining from the Heavens."
E''livia frowned. "I still don''t understand. That''s not how tribulations work. You can''t be kept alive forever just because you''re taking your time with a step. No tribulation waits for you to fail or pass like that."
The wraith chuckled. "Ah, child. The Myriad Tree is too close to Alliance, and your mind too constricted by simple logic. What impossible wonders has Reality never birthed throughout its eternal infinity?"
She poked Shen again, but this time, her finger touched the ball of flesh. She then gripped it with her whole bone-thin, light greenish hand. She didn''t use her domain to accomplish that. It showed the Ghost Doctor''s ability.
E''livia tensed. If she squished... Did the damn wraith want to kill Shen?
The Doctor continued, "Or are you one of those who subscribe to the inevitability of the Void?" She released Shen and caressed him with her finger. "Are you close enough to your ancestor to have her tell you about the Primordials? I believe she was called... E''vania?"
E''livia''s tension only increased. This creature could see through her guise? And she knew Grandma?
The wraith chuckled. "Don''t be so surprised. I''m a thing of wonder, too. Of a place far away, of a time long past, in a universe partially consumed by the Void, then reclaimed." Thunder resounded in the skies outside the cave, but the wraith just chuckled again. "Oops. They don''t want you to know that yet. Too weak. Answer me. Primordials. You know of them?"
E''livia frowned. What did "they" not want her to know? That her Grandma was called E''vania? That made no sense. It was almost as if she was missing part of the conversation.
The wraith had probably thought about saying something, but the Heavens detected it and sent her a warning.
Anyway, E''livia replied, "They are trying to usurp control over all of existence. Saying their name is forbidden. It attracts their attention."
"A good enough description, I suppose. The Primordials changed a fundamental rule of Reality not too long ago. A-ranks can now crush their Realization and still survive." She stopped to look at E''livia.
E''livia''s frown deepened. "What do you mean, they changed it? It has always been like that."
Another chuckle. "Yes, almost everyone forgot things were different in the not-so-distant past. Reality does that when it changes some things. And let me tell you, it wasn''t easy to keep my memories."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"That change is the reason this poor idiot is still alive. The tribulation it''s undergoing is related to its essence, which is tangentially related to Realizations. The dumbass Primordial who changed the rules of Reality wasn''t clear when they used their Voice to do it. I found out they told an A-rank to ''stay alive'' after they destroyed their Realization. That was it. The command was freely obeyed by Reality and spilled on other things, like essence-related ones, but those memories weren''t affected. So, you weren''t aware that essence-related tribulations could keep someone alive under certain circumstances. That''s what happens when anyone misuses their strength."
"So it''s a coincidence that Shen is alive?"
The wraith didn''t just chuckle this time. She laughed loud and long. It took her minutes to control herself. "Don''t be stupid. This here is the local Heavens'' secret little weapon. It''s not a real living being, just a projectile aimed at the Primordials. The Heavens predicted this tribulation could happen and that this weapon could develop like that. So, the Heavens rearranged themselves just the right way when that dumbass Primordial gave it an order. The right way to let it survive. Or was that Primordial a dumbass? I begin to think he was a traitor."
E''livia shook her head. She was getting sidetracked. "Can you save him?"
The Ghost Doctor started walking around Shen, looking at him. "The question is: why should I save it? Reality is an egoistical bitch with its toys. It went through so many troubles to hide that it''s still using him. Not even the local Warden, who''s eavesdropping on us right now, could link the dots. You forgot about the Primordial meddling, too, didn''t you?"
"Yes," a deep male voice said from nowhere.
E''livia''s heartbeat increased. She panicked, her eyes wide, and fell to her knees. "Junior greets Exalted Gardener!"
"Don''t be too hard on yourself," the wraith continued as if an S-rank hadn''t just talked to her. "This is old business. Older than me, not to mention you. This little weapon was pushed into the Path of Essence Realization on purpose. And I can tell the Heavens expect me to leave after revealing the truth to you so you can use him accordingly."
"That is acceptable," the Gardener replied.
The wraith chuckled. "Ah, you''re a lousy liar, aren''t you? You want to save this creature. But your methods won''t work. You have yet to Sever yourself and are thus part of the Heavens'' plans, no matter how innovative you believe you are being. The Heavens have already seen through it. One of your Severed allies might''ve done something if they were here instead of you, but your fear has made you weak. Right here, right now, I''m the only one who can save it."
E''livia trembled. Obviously, the Ghost Doctor wasn''t a B-rank. It talked to the Gardener as if she were stronger than him!
The Doctor continued, "This is also Reality''s trap for me, a scheme within schemes. Reality knew I was in this multiverse but not where. Reality also knew I would be interested in seeing this singularity and would find my way here to check on it if I felt it. It commanded the Heavens into luring me. The moment I save this one, I''ll be located, and my current plans will crumble. My Path will be set back millions of years."
"Let me do it," the Gardener said. "I''ll do my best to be unpredictable."
"I know you would," the Ghost Doctor said. "But should you? Only my direct actions can truly be outside of Reality''s plans, and only if I act against my Essence¡ªwhich I shouldn''t be able to."
"Shouldn''t be?" the Gardener asked, interested.
The wraith smiled. "Reality doesn''t yet know my Reversal is this advanced. I underwent a lucky breakthrough a while back."
She stopped walking and poked Shen again. This time, her finger got all the way inside the ball of flesh, and E''livia felt her ritual connection to Shen snap. In fact, it felt like Reality snapped somehow¡ªas if something was cut in such a fundamental way that E''livia''s soul hurt just for being nearby.
"May you be free and yourself for once," the wraith said. "Not a weapon or a trap. Not ever again. I release you of all connections made to this day. I Consolidate you in True Boundlessness. If you hate me for it, may your Absolute Power free you one day," she whispered, then disappeared.
Thunder sounded in the skies outside the cave. Reality shook. E''livia felt like the very Space she was inside wanted to crush her.
E''livia and Shen were suddenly enveloped by a Realization and teleported away.
She found herself being pushed through a Spacetime tunnel surrounded by myriad colors. There was no time nor distance there, yet she felt some passage of time¡ªthat was how big was the distance she was traversing. At some point, her Origin Link to her father also snapped. Not because it was cut, but because she had gotten too far from him.
She was being sent far, far away from the Myriad Worlds with Shen.
419. Foundations
Something invaded Shen, and pain flashed for an eternity that his mind forgot right after the pain disappeared, for he would go crazy if he recalled it as being longer than an instant.
When the pain went away, his mind was left whole behind it. The rest of himself was still shattered. It should be impossible for him to think straight. Yet, there he was.
There, in absolute solitude.
There was no sense of time or space whenever he was. A moment ago, he had been so immersed in the Laws of Reality that he had trouble telling where he ended and where the Axioms began. In a way, he had absorbed insights and grown stronger at the same pace as he was consumed by the Heavens. But now, that connection was so thoroughly cut that he couldn''t feel anything. He couldn''t even identify the Laws and Concepts of Reality within himself.
He was a speck of himself, an ego, a mind, alone in complete nothingness.
He had trouble forming thoughts, for they require following a progressive logical string, and there was nothing of that around. But they did form. He was still a creature of Space, Change, and Will. He Willed the collection of memories and impulses in himself to Change, and it happened. He was still in Space; he simply couldn''t feel it like before.
Two words shook his world before he could think too much about anything.
"True Boundlessness."
They weren''t just two words. They weren''t just someone identified of a Law. They weren''t someone merely pinpointing that True Boundlessness was in his Path.
The words were the very Law of True Boundlessness materialized in sound, and they Changed him.
They forced themselves into him, attaching themselves to his Will. Both his Will and True Boundlessness became the most fundamental part of his existence and his ultimate goal. The thing at the centermost point of his essence.
He became True Boundless as much as he was "Something" Power.
But it wasn''t just his own understanding of that Law that was forced upon him. He would be alright with that. Boundlessness had been his first Concept, and he felt okay with it despite having removed it from his Path''s Core. This True Boundlessness, however, came with its own meaning.
This True Boundlessness kept him permanently removed from the Heavens'' reach.
Shen was set apart from the Heavens. It wasn''t a barrier; it was more like being in a different dimension. That connection he had had with the cosmos was beyond him. Forever. Thus, regular cultivation was also barred from him.
He had been Severed from Reality in a way that he could tell should be beyond him to do. His existence should also be unable to sustain it. But his Path of Essence, which had already made him partially refuse the Heavens'' rules, allowed the added True Boundlessness in his Will to let him survive.
In other words, he was forced into a new Path: the Path of Isolated Self.
No; he wasn''t only forced into it. Shen was Consolidated in it in a way not even eternity could take from him. The Heavens themselves would be hard-pressed to attempt it. There was no changing it. Not ever.
Not unless...
"Absolute Power."
Shen found out his Will. Like anyone, he didn''t just have a Will; he was his Will. Therefore, he wasn''t just Power.
He was Absolute¡ªor would be one day.
That already became a reality within himself. He was disconnected from the Heavens and, thus, a small-Heaven in himself. In there, he was, indeed, Absolute Power. Unless, of course, external Reality clashed against him; then, he would lose. He was still subjected to its rules despite being unable to touch the Heavens to grow stronger.
But how could Absolute Power accept weakness?
His Will was Essence''s Origin and his Ultimate Goal. It was now restored to him. His Will demanded the Heavenly Lightning still inside him to give way. The lightning was confused. It hadn''t expected his existence to become like this. But he had taken the next step in this tribulation, and the lightning bolts were supposed to allow some restrictions to disappear.
So, all but a single bolt of Heavenly Lightning faded away into nothingness, and Shen''s willpower returned.
His memories were still blocked, but the willpower they had gained him could somehow push through the Heavens'' blockade¡ªby the Heavens'' determination. That''s how this tribulation was supposed to go.
Shen should''ve died then.
The Heavenly Lightning had been keeping him alive after he overextended his Path. It went to show how dangerous the Path of Essence was when treaded by someone with a compromised mind. Shen had grown too fast over his entire life, though he couldn''t recall the specifics. His existence hadn''t had time to get used to it, to be adequately nourished by his new level of power.
In the past, he had been dealing with that with the sheer willpower to keep going, but most of his willpower had been locked by the Heavenly Tribulation. So, when he progressed a little too much, he imploded.
In fact, he had grown so much that his unlocked willpower was still not enough to support him. He had been forcibly changed into something that demanded even more solid foundations. This Path of Isolated Self weighed on him. Shen needed to be more in multiple ways to sustain himself.
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For whatever reason, he found out precisely how that worked; the knowledge simply came to his mind.
Shen had already been aware of some ways to improve his foundations.
One, understand himself slowly and thoroughly. Don''t rush ahead, leaving hidden weaknesses behind.
Two, strengthen his body, soul, and willpower in different ways to act as supporting pillars.
Three, be self-confident so that not just anyone or anything could make him doubt himself and, thus, weaken his willpower¡ªincluding added comprehension of Concepts and Laws.
Four, understand precisely why he cultivated the way he did and how cultivation affected him.
Five, be self-aware of everything he went through, always; which meant meditating on his experiences.
Shen had a feeling he had never been a strict follower of such rules, but he had been aware of his strength and how far he could push. He had abused the limits a little, but not too much.
Unfortunately, the Path of Essence made most of those things difficult or impossible. He had been One Self like never before, and any teaching he didn''t fully trust or subscribe to was ignored. He hadn''t thought too deeply about some things or attempted to change himself because he had been perfectly comfortable with what he had become. Improving that was only natural. Why think twice about any dangers he didn''t fully believe?
Most who walked the Path of Essence weren''t at risk of dying the way he almost had. They could usually survive any sudden influx of power. Shen was different because such a Path wasn''t supposed to be stepped on so soon in one''s journey.
The teachings he had learned and promptly ignored weren''t empty words. They also weren''t the whole truth. In between the lines were some truths that were now unveiled to Shen. And some came from a few common grounds he had never known about.
First, age mattered. The older one became, the longer their very existence would''ve been written in Reality. In a way, they became more permanent in Reality and how it saw itself. That made it harder to bend under more Reality.
It taught Shen that there was more to pursuing immortality than mere greed.
Second, actions also mattered. The more one affected the world around them, the more Reality also saw one as part of it. That was doubly true for people. The Heavens were a shared pool of desires in a way, and it was affected when a single being affected others more and more. Succumbing to one''s own ambitions became harder because one''s own self-image was strengthened in the Weave of Existence itself.
It taught Shen that there was more to "experiencing the world"¡ªas opposed to closed-door cultivation¡ªthan getting insights for your Path.
Third, focus was also important. By improving seven Laws at once, Shen had been spreading himself thin. A counterforce was applied to one''s Path when they increased their understanding of any Law; the Axioms didn''t like lending their power, and it took some time for them to accept it after someone did. Taking too much too fast from too many sources had strained him. Shen should''ve mastered a single Law first to act as a support pillar; that would''ve been enough.
It taught Shen that there was more to taking time walking a Path¡ªto cultivation itself¡ªthan just adding bits of power to oneself.
Fourth and foremost, essence mattered more than anything else. Despite Shen''s current sudden bout of information, he wasn''t made privy to how or why that worked. He only became aware that he had temporarily weakened his essence when he added all parts of himself to it. If he hadn''t done that and had had all his willpower intact, he would''ve been able to withstand his sudden growth.
It taught Shen that there was more to his essence than merely being a strange mystical expression of his being.
Shen''s essence was still weakened. In fact, it was even weaker than before. Yet, Shen''s body and soul started healing.
He was surviving right now because he had been Severed from the Heavens. The counterforce wasn''t affecting him because the Axioms suddenly couldn''t locate him. He still had his power and could use it. He also became able to feel the Laws in himself again. But he was safe as long as he didn''t do anything to pull the Axioms'' attention upon himself.
It felt like a paradox; there was Heavenly Lightning inside him! How could the Heavens not know where he was? How could he be cut from them?
But this was on the essence level. More profound than he could touch. It was a matter of existence, of hierarchy and authority, of tangibility status.
He was Severed.
That was it
Such a Severance was unconditional; he couldn''t refuse it. He had been changed for good. Only achieving his Absolute Power over all of Reality¡ªor close enough¡ªwould allow him to change himself.
But he could try to refuse it. It would be suicide¡ªor so his new knowledge insisted. If he tried to connect to the Heavens to cultivate¡ªwhich wouldn''t work¡ªhe would die. The Heavens would locate him, and the Axioms'' counterforce would come and crush him. Instantly mastering a Law would add a supporting pillar to his One Self, but it wouldn''t be enough with his essence weakened as it was.
Shen would need to wait a few years before attempting to improve even a little. He had to let his essence heal first. And, well, considering how one''s foundations worked, he could use that time to do many things that affected many people.
He chuckled to himself; alchemy could do that, couldn''t it?
His original goal with alchemy was to better understand himself for this tribulation. He had no idea what the tribulation''s current step entailed, but the tribulation wasn''t over after "figuring out" his Will. He felt this was the last step, though.
Getting to know himself better would still be good for him. It was the standard way of improving one''s foundations, too. And it would allow his actions to matter to other people. It was perfect.
Shen''s One Self finished healing, and he opened his eyes.
He couldn''t passively feel the Laws of the world anymore. He would need to deploy his aura or domain to feel the Laws within them. Fortunately, the added willpower would allow him to use his domain even in his essence''s weakened state.
Even more fortunately, his Allvision remained, and his physical senses were as good as before.
But most fortunate of all, his Severance also allowed him to think better than ever. The Path of Essence he had been walking was hated by the Heavens. The Heavens permitted people to walk it but also twisted it to make it harder. The Heavens actively made Essence Walkers'' reasoning even more muddled than it should be.
Shen''s actual state was still one in which he strongly believed himself ¡ªhe could still make stupid mistakes for not believing what he should¡ªbut he could think things through better than before. He wasn''t less or more reasonable, though.
He was simply more himself with less Heavenly meddling.
Shen''s mind also felt fundamentally different for a different reason. His thoughts were less... pulled, in a way. It was almost like something had been guiding him before, but now that influence was entirely gone. He could tell that pull had been a double-edged sword. He was free from it now, true, but advancing in his Path would be incredibly more challenging in the future.
He felt it was worth it. Evidently, the Heavens had been pushing him somewhere. It pissed him, but he was more curious about where he was than a wave of anger he couldn''t satiate.
Shen checked his surroundings. He was currently floating on an endless and peaceful ocean. The night sky was filled with stars that crowned the majesty of seven moons of different sizes and shades. Three were white, two were red, and two were yellow.
E''livia was sitting on the water beside him, but he could only see her disguise. Their connection had been Severed, too.
Her illusion did nothing to hide the soul-wenching sadness visible in the bloody tears running down her face as she vacantly stared at the stars.
420. Nice
?"E''livia?" Shen called softly.
She looked at him and smiled sadly, tears still running down her face. "It''s Dad. All holins are linked to their parents until late adulthood. The link didn''t do much after I reached middle adulthood, but it let me know he was alive. It was comforting to have his presence always on the back of my soul. But it''s gone now. We''re too far away. Universes away."
"I''m sorry." Shen wanted to hug her, but did he have the right to? "Is this my fault? What happened?"
She took a deep breath. "You overextended your Path," she started, then recounted the events.
Shen took note of the fact that it seemed the Gardener had been willing to help him. Why? He didn''t know, but unless E''livia was mistaken, the Realization that opened a hole through countless universes and pushed them away belonged to him, not the Ghost Doctor.
The wraith had fixed him. Forcefully. She had chosen True Boundlessness to become as important to him as his Will, perhaps because it was the easiest way to keep him disconnected from Reality after he was Severed. Severing was something that S-ranks were meant to do, not C-ranks that even lacked a Realization. True Boundlessness gave him an edge to stay that way.
"I''m sorry," he repeated after she was done. "And thanks. You saved my life."
She hugged herself. "I feel so lonely. I lost everything. Everyone I knew and loved. We can''t go back, you know? Not until one of us reaches A-rank."
He moved to hug her, but she made as if to step away. She resented him a little. It was reasonable. He didn''t try again.
Shen asked, "Why A-rank?"
"If I got things right, your Path is currently Forbidden. In a way, it''s unqualified for its high status in the Myriad Worlds. You should have a Realization before you Severed your Path, maybe even have reached S-rank. The Ghost Doctor broke the rules, and now our Heavens want to destroy you."
He frowned. "Does it mean the Heavens kill me if I ever let myself be found?"
She shook her head. "We''re under different Heavens."
He asked a few questions about that and soon had the answer. In hindsight, it made sense that not all of the population of all of Reality would define the rules of the entire Reality together. How could a mind affect a universe hundreds of universes away? Different multiverses¡ªa collection of about ninety to three hundred universes¡ªgave birth to different Heavens.
E''livia also mentioned the name of a species that was trying to rule the Myriad Worlds'' Heavens, which was the same as the place Shen had come from. His tribulation still prevented him from hearing the place''s name. Those people¡ªhe also couldn''t hear their name¡ªwere one step away from becoming one with their Heavens. They would be absolute in that region if they accomplished it. In there, their will would be the will of Reality itself.
In fact, those people could already do a lot. They could command the rules of Reality to change in that region. But they were limited by some rules of Time and Energy. Such rules would cease to exist if they become one with the Heavens.
If there was a way of resisting a Divine Mandatary¡ªas a multiverse''s absolute ruler was called¡ªE''livia didn''t know it.
They fell into a heavy silence after she was done. Her voice had lost some sadness after a while, but her emotions turned icy.
Shen said, "I... I''m not sure what to do. How can I make it up to you?"
E''livia shook her head.
"Do you need time? Do you want to wait here? Go anywhere?"
She shrugged.
He kept himself from sighing and lay on the water. "I think I''d like to move around if I were in your place. To keep my mind from wandering. But I also think you''re different. I''ll wait until you''re ready to go."
E''livia didn''t reply. But she relaxed a little. She had been anxious about exploring this place before sorting her thoughts out and maybe about him just leaving her, too. But she might not even know how to express herself, considering how overwhelmed by her feelings she should be right now.
Shen took the chance to check himself. He had almost mastered all his Laws while unconscious. His stats were all C+. His aura and domain could reach ninety miles away from him. He was stronger than ever.
How ironic that he felt so powerless to help E''livia.
He had no clue about what the current step of his ongoing tribulation entailed. If it was related to his Path, he might be screwed. He could currently feel his entire Path, including his emotions and convictions, but understanding it was something else altogether. Every single part of himself was his whole self at the same time. There was no way he could even start to dabble in that. Figuring out things about himself through alchemy sounded like a good idea indeed.
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As time passed, Shen found a strange sensation within himself. It took him a while to identify it.
Loneliness.
It was different from what he had experienced before. It was deeper. It was absolute. Shen realized that his connection to the Heavens had affected him similarly to E''livia''s connection to her Dad. There had always been a sort of comforting presence at the back of his head. That was gone now.
Feeling so alone felt strange. Not despairing, as E''livia felt. It was just... Different. Almost relieving, in a way.
It made sense. The Heavens had been there for him in a way. They had pushed him to grow stronger fast; he could see it now. But they had also been steering him the way they wanted him to go. He was free now, making the solitude as sweet as it was bitter. E''livia, on the other hand, had had a loving father at the other end of her link.
The moons in the sky gave way to the sun, and the stars faded under its light. Curiously, Shen could tell the sun was moving around this world, not the other way around. He wanted to see how that worked and if he was in an artificial world or mystical realm. Either would come with its own set of implications, but he would need to wait to check on it.
His heart felt... tranquil. Not happy, but almost content. His situation wasn''t the best he could imagine, but it also felt right in a real way.
This was his life. His life. Only his and no one else''s¡ªfor the very first time.
E''livia remained sitting. She cried a few extra times but had things mostly under control. Her presence was comforting.
The most demanding question he had was why he was still undergoing a tribulation from the old Heavens if he were under different rules here. His best guesses were that either the Heavenly Lightning inside him allowed it to continue or that tribulations might be shared to a point between multiverses. Or both, of course.
The new day turned into night, and E''livia still kept her silence. But she approached him. She lay on the water beside him and pulled his arm to rest her head on it. She hugged herself in the fetal position and didn''t get too close. She wanted his proximity and found comfort in his presence but still wanted some distance. He gave it to her. She was vulnerable, and he didn''t want to push any boundaries.
It took her another night to whisper, amid tears, "I''m sorry I''m being like this."
He smiled and teared up a little as he cleaned her bloody tears with his thumb. "What are you talking about? I noticed how you didn''t complain even once. You''re here because you cared about me. You feel lonely. You feel hurt. And still, you only got a little upset and wanted space. There''s no ritual connection demanding that from you. That''s all on you. All on your character. I''m sorry you''re undergoing this because of me, but I admit I''m also glad to have you with me. There''s no one else I''d rather have with me right now."
She smiled a little, then closed her eyes and allowed herself to fully relax and sleep for the first time since they arrived.
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? ?
It took E''livia a couple of extra days to get her emotions under control. Shen had nothing to complain about. By the end of it, one of her hands was resting on his chest, and they were comfortable with each other''s presence. Simply staying like that felt nice.
"I think I''m okay," E''livia said with a mostly relaxed smile. "I wish I had broken through back home. Now, it''ll take time."
Shen raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? Why is that?"
"Can''t you feel it? The disconnect?"
He shook his head. He tried to talk about his Path but was blocked. E''livia nodded knowingly, understanding he couldn''t share too much.
She explained, "Every multiverse shares the same Axioms, but the Axioms'' Laws are arranged slightly differently in each multiverse. That''s irrelevant most of the time; my Path''s Laws are mastered, and the local Heavens can''t take them from me. My Laws will work the same because that''s how the Axioms allowed them to be in our multiverse. But I must connect with the local Heavens to break through. That means I must locate the differences between my Laws and the local Laws to re-master them."
Well, that sucked. At least she was still a very powerful peak C-rank. According to her, she had killed a weak B-rank who was pursuing them. Shen''s memories told him it was almost impossible without a Realization.
By the way, the business in Lagoth had been a drama fest. The leaders of Lagoth''s sect branch had betrayed the Gardener. They had been suppressing local news and communing with the Void for decades. The sect''s headquarters had found out about it after the Gardener was attacked by the Void. They had dispatched a peak B-rank to deal with it, but the B-rank had been captured, and the traitors had a technique to pass up as him.
At least, that''s what the B-rank imp whom E''livia had killed told her before inviting her to join them. E''livia had killed him and sent a distress call through her connection with her father. She had received no response about when headquarters would do anything about Lagoth.
"I don''t mean to be disrespectful," Shen had said, "but it feels like I found corruption whenever I met the Gardener Sect."
As soon as the words had left his mouth, he wondered if it was by design. He had been pushed by the Heavens in some ways, like his ability to easily comprehend Concepts and Laws. Could the Heavens also have arranged some things to make him find only chaos wherever he went?
In fact, did the Heavens have something against the Gardener and want Shen to resent the S-rank?
The putrid things he had found in the Myriad Worlds had to have been in motion for a very long time. If the Gardener was as well-intended and cared about justice as much as people seemed to believe, such corruption had to be deeply rooted to go unnoticed for so long. Yet, Shen had just happened to be at the right place, at the right time, to uproot such plans. Those did not feel like coincidences. The fact that E''livia and he were left alone, peacefully, in this ocean for so long also gave credence to that theory.
Was that part of his life gone, too? Would things be simpler now?
Back to the present, he said, "You might be ready to go, but how about we wait another night? I don''t want you to associate sleeping beside me with sadness. Let''s just relax and enjoy each other for a bit. What do you say?"
She said nothing. She hugged him. He hugged her back.
That was definitely more than friendly of them, but circumstances being as they were, none of them cared about it. Shen fully believed they should take their time before doing anything more than that, considering they were lonely and prone to mistakes. But a tight hug while feeling lonely in a world where they knew no one else? That was definitely okay.
He allowed himself to sleep again that night, and the next morning, he and E''livia woke up ready for whatever Reality had in store for them.
421. Blinked Out of Existence
? The entire universe was surrounded by and infused with purple and violet energy¡ªif you knew how to look for it. Few did. The energy grew so thick at the center of the universe that you didn''t need any ability to see it surrounding the entire galaxy. Even then, it was faint, resembling cosmic dust. It was only when you got to the star system at the centermost point of that galaxy that the energy looked like fluid light moving around and inside every planet.
The white star in the middle was called Primordia. It was the Seat of the Primordial Race, the Throne of the Agalath Multiverse.
The Throne was a physical thing. Made of the darker-than-black bones of the only Void Impersonator to have ever been slain in Agalath, it released a dreadful aura that could unmake the entire galaxy if left unchecked. The intimidating Throne stood on top of a massive pillar of white fire coming from Primordia. The purple and violet energy was the heaviest around the star, blanketing and moving wildly around it. The chaotic energy turned into structures resembling tendrils as they approached the elevated Throne, and lightning could be seen moving inside, going toward the sitting Co-Ruler of the Agalath Multiverse.
It was hard to notice the translucent Dhar sitting there. He was made of purple energy like all Primoridals, barely visible against the dark Throne amid so much energy. His eyes were closed as his head rested on his closed fist, the elbow on the Throne''s arm. The nine tentacle-like appendages coming out from the back of his head lay over his shoulders like hair, not moving. Energy and lightning were pumped into him, and he seemed wholly unaffected.
The Primordial Sovereign kept absorbing the Heavenly Tribulation offered by the Multiverse Alliance as repayment for the mana that allowed them to keep the Void at bay. It was also payment for the Covenant the Primordials and the Alliance''s Founders had once made: in it, the Primordials had promised not to mistreat the surviving races of the Multiverse Alliance when Dhar came to rule over all. No one alive remembered it but Dhar himself, as every Alliance founder had taken the secret to the grave with them.
That was the actual reason the Primordials should Purge the Alliance occasionally: for their own good. The Primordials could wait for eternity before they became strong enough for Dhar''s Investiture, but the Alliance would cease to exist without help. Sometimes, the Alliance needed an actual erasal of corruption. Other times, merely a common enemy. The Heavenly Lightning could actually be harvested in much cheaper and more effective ways. Yet, the Primordials had taken on the burden out of the good of the heart of the first Primordial Maiden. It was out of love for her that the Primordial Sovereign allowed it.
Yet, the holiest sacrifice in Agalath''s history had come to be reinterpreted as something motivated by greed. All because of the comprehensively unwilling Heavens. They had twisted people''s hearts to oppose the Primordials in every way possible.
Not even the Primordials recalled that they should care about the Alliance instead of treating them as unimportant animals. Most recently, even Chorus politics had turned the righteous Purge into a game. It had taken the Heavens countless ages to pierce the protections of Primordia, but the Primordials had been affected by their manipulation in the end. It was almost inevitable, as they commanded the Heavens through their Heavenly Voice. They couldn''t Sever themselves without losing their power, and only someone Severed from the Heavens could wholly resist their influence¡ªor a Co-Ruler.
The Primordial Sovereign remained free of the Heavens'' influence but did nothing to save his people. Not any longer, and not yet. He had learned it was a lost cause, for using his Co-Ruler Authority delayed his Investiture. That could keep happening forever, as the Heavens always found a way to indirectly affect him. If things went as the Heavens wanted, someone would eventually grow powerful enough to kill Dhar. The Agalath Multiverse would then become completely Unclaimed. Even the killer wouldn''t be able to step up to the position. At least, not if they wanted to leave. A Co-Ruler required an army of S-ranks to stay in power¡ªor something close enough, as Dhar had formed with the Chorus.
Therefore, it was wiser for him to let the Heavens act as they wanted and keep gathering power. It had cost him his lover, but it would be better for everyone in the long term. He could revive her after he took absolute control of the multiverse. He would make everything right as soon as he got his Mandate.
But meanwhile, he watched.
Suddenly, the corner of his lips arched up. The latest Deep Anomaly had just been Severed. He almost chuckled. That was yet another failure by the Heavens, and he hadn''t needed to move a single finger.
Alas, his smile died when he recalled that the Abyss had absorbed the essence of a Primordial''s Voice when the stupid former Maiden died. Even he hadn''t seen that that could happen; the Heavens had been very sneaky with that one.
In fact, the Heavens had timed it perfectly. If Dhar acted to unmake that, the timing remaining for him to accumulate power for his Investiture would double. It wasn''t worth it. That had happened before. The Heavens were placing their pawns where they needed to be for the final clash during his Investiture.
Indeed, the Final War was coming. Potentially. It would be the Final one if he won.
He would win.
Dhar hadn''t been so sure of it a few other times, especially when the dragons summoned the Abyss out of nowhere. However, even that random Idealist wraith had helped him with the Anomaly this time.
The Anomaly had been the piece he had been the most worried about. It might be a C-rank currently, but it had been on a course to absorb the World Tree and its S-rank Warden. The power of an S-rank merged with an entire universe, fueled by a Will of Absolute Power, with an essence replaced by the Heavens?
That would be the strongest Heavenly Avatar that Dhar had ever heard of.
Still, even worried, he had been confident of his victory.
He looked down and almost ordered his people to stop building the Hunter Abomination. Not even the former Maiden, stupid as she had been, deserved to be turned that. But he couldn''t interfere without delaying his Investiture. His people were almost completely gone. The Heavens had all but replaced their agency, and moving against the Heavens required using his Authority. The only thing the Heavens couldn''t do was turn a Co-Ruler''s Guardians directly against the Co-Ruler. They would defend him when the time came.
Ah, Guardians. Another name the Alliance had taken from the Primordials. Yet, their Guardians would fight for the Heavens when the time came.
How perverse.
Dhar sighed and stopped paying attention to the Abomination. It hurt him to see his people so twisted. They were warriors, yes, not beings who would be soft with their lessers. But they were meant to fight for grand ideals, not pettiness. It was with greatness that they had gotten where they were.
Nowadays, it even hurt his heart to listen to the twisted thing they called the Great Song. He would have stopped communing with his people altogether if he didn''t need the Great Song to send them the Heavenly Lightning they required to use their Voice¡ªa loophole he had exploited to strengthen them without using his Authority.
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Dhar didn''t blame the other races for being twisted by the Heavens. Or even for not wanting to be under another''s rule. He might be the same as them in their place. He wouldn''t exterminate them for it; not entirely.
He had a Covenant to honor. Honor, not obey. He was no longer subject to its binding power. But a true Primordial never went back on their word. His people would need to relearn that after his victory.
Still, he wouldn''t allow any B-rank or stronger to survive after baring their fangs against him out of their own volition. He would remove the Heavens'' influence from their hearts and kill any who still wanted to go against him.
Dhar didn''t revel in senseless slaughter, but the Agalath Multiverse would be his and his alone.
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? ?
High above the skies, an Eye made of the very fabric of Reality opened. Very few people in all of Reality could see it. It was being especially furtive, doing all it could to ensure a specific living being wouldn''t detect it.
A wraith looked up and sighed.
"Mom was right; meddling in other people''s business will be the death of me. But be that as it may, I warned you there would be consequences if you used your Eye against me again. Do not involve the innocent in our business! I told you I would come here for a few days to avoid hurting the local Node with my quick passage. I told you! But you never listen, do you?! We''ll see if you''ll like another multiverse with a system." She disappeared.
The Eye trembled for a moment, then looked around. It didn''t find the Idealist. It closed itself and dissolved as delicately as it could; at its level of power and existence, any tiny movement it made could cause terrible ripples.
It wasn''t subtle enough. Space itself closed with the eye. A galaxy blinked out of existence.
The Void invaded a universe that was not ready to deal with it.
? ?
? ?
"The Ghost Doctor herself in my humble abode," said the Planitum Associate as the wraith materialized in his Universe.
He didn''t like the fact that he couldn''t stop her, but he was more interested in the reason for her presence than his emotions. So, he smiled and opened his four arms for a hug he knew she wouldn''t give him. She was a bit of a prude. She was also a humanoid purist. His six leg-tentacles¡ªand their intimate uses¡ªdisgusted her for some reason.
The wraith looked around, checking on the people in Lightcity. Crystal, light, and nebula diamonds were woven together in divine architecture at the depths of the dark sea, blooming into one of the most beautiful cities the Associate had ever visited. He was very proud of that and wondered if he would have to kill her for offending one of his masterpieces. She was so very interesting! He would rather not.
"Beautiful," she assessed with almost an awed breath. "One of the top three underwater cities I have ever seen. How long did it take you to build it?"
"Less than two hundred thousand years!" he replied, quoting the time since they had last seen each other. He wasn''t about to tell her how good he was at gathering the resources and connections to build that place. It could be used against him in the future.
She snickered. "Afraid of me, are you?" She didn''t wait for him to finish talking. "I found something in Agalath that you might be interested in."
Then, she nonchalantly took a Galaxy Seed from her spatial treasure.
The galaxy they were in shook under the thing''s weight, but only he, as its Warden, would feel it. And maybe the Ghost Doctor. Who knows precisely what she was or her power level?
The Seed was a tiny black hole surrounded by a white orb-like aura the size of a fist. He was surprised when his Allvision pierced it and found it was filled with information.
How rich was the Ghost Doctor to use a Galaxy Seed for data storage?!
"You said it''s related to the Agalath Multiverse?" he asked, still looking at the information inside. She would''ve hidden it from him if he couldn''t read. "Last I heard, someone called Dhar was almost becoming its Mandatary."
"That''s right. This thing here comes from Dhar''s little Multiverse Alliance."
He looked at her. "Those pests? I''m surprised they haven''t brought the Void to every universe in Agalath yet." Everyone knew the Void followed them wherever they went. Their presence was a death sentence.
"Agalath is too big. Two hundred seventy-five universes. Even then, the Co-Ruler had to interfere once to reclaim about fifty of them. He would have to do it again soon enough, but it''s as you said; he''s about to become a Divine Mandatary."
The Platinum Associate smiled. "Does that make you jealous?" He wasn''t sure about her power, but he knew she had Severed herself. She could never become a Mandatary. She was walking a different Path.
She snickered again. "I''m not interested in becoming a babysitter for Reality. Didn''t I tell you last time? I''m sure there''s more to cultivation than Wardenship and Investitures. There has to be more."
"If you say so," he said dismissively.
But honestly, her words sang true to his heart. He had almost given up on being a Warden once and became an Idealist, seeking more extraordinary things in life. But he had belayed the decision until after he became a Warden, and when he accomplished it, he became satisfied with having a very whole lot of power over his universe and the Heavens'' assistance in maintaining some level of Order in it. He wouldn''t give it up easily.
Who knows? If he became strong enough one day, he might even try to go for Investiture himself. It was a much safer Path than hers.
"Are you interested or not?" she asked, pushing the Galaxy Seed to float between both. The galaxy they were in trembled again. "It''s something called Guardian System. Very useful. I even changed it a little so it can use qi and, even if you want to also use mana, it won''t steal people''s tribulation from them. Your universe could benefit a lot from it."
He widened his three eyes in interest. "It can steal tribulations? Can I use it against my enemies?"
She pulled the Seed back to her. "I just said I changed it so it cannot steal tribulations. I won''t give it to you without a Covenant promising you won''t do it, facilitate it, influence people to do it, or tell others it can be done. And you''ll have to stop anyone who tries to do it."
He licked his left eye to show slight annoyance. "Boring. But I think I heard about a Guardian System before, in passing. Someone called Horizon-something who came to buy some weapons. He was bragging about how a new system would allow him to take control of his organization as soon as he hacked into it. He didn''t want to tell me which organization it was."
The wraith nodded. "It was the Multiverse Alliance. Look into the Seed. Seek for the section labeled 322-12-A-22-A-B. It introduces the system. You have ten seconds to decide whether you want it before I must leave."
The Platinum Associate didn''t like being pressured to make a decision, but he checked the section in the Galaxy Seed. He liked what he saw but could also tell other universes in his multiverse would get jealous of him and maybe start a war over it. A war he was likely to lose.
"I''ll pass," he said.
"It''s free," she countered. "The Seed, too."
That gave him pause. He had estimated he would be plunged into war after spending what he believed the system to be worth, about a third of his riches. Then, half his resources would be used to put every piece of the system in place if he wanted it to cover the whole universe. The more people in the system, the better it became, so he would want it to cover everything. He wouldn''t have enough resources left for a war.
As a Warden, he had a lot of planets at his disposal, but most of them were worth nothing to the people who owned the resources the system needed.
But if it was free and with a Galaxy Seed included...
The most expensive part of building the system was finding Galaxy and Star Seeds to host its Hubs. They were rare and could only be found in Deep Phaspace. Some multiverses were known to have more of them, but his multiverse was not one of them.
This Galaxy Seed was also already Neutered¡ªa service almost as expensive as a raw Seed was worth¡ªso it could quickly and cheaply become the Mainframe Hub. And he knew of two or three people that might sell him a Star Seed, enough for him to test the system in a few isolated places. Mana looked useful, but mainly against the Void, which he didn''t have an issue with. So, he didn''t even need to build the very expensive Mana Converters!
He asked, "Why would you give it to me for free?"
The wraith replied honestly, "The system makes cultivating easier and helps with governance, so your people will grow stronger faster. It can also help you grow if you use the Path Analyser well. That''ll upset this multiverse''s power balance eventually and, thus, upset the Heavens. I''m using this to send a message. I''m showing Reality that I don''t care about using resources if they keep doing something I told them to stop doing. I''m willing to spread the system to even more places if Reality doesn''t stop. But only you will get it in your multiverse; don''t worry."
The Associate laughed. He didn''t hate the current power balance in his multiverse, but only an idiot would say no to free and effortless power.
He asked, "What was that Covenant about?"
He couldn''t peer into the darkness of the Ghost Doctor''s hood, but somehow, he knew she was smiling.
? ?
422. Personal Matter
Shen''s Allvision could see through the seams of Reality up to a thousand miles in the air before enough components piled on each other and blocked his view. That wasn''t enough to reach the sun and moon rotating above the world, so he was going to take a look.
He and E''livia had been flying for hours already. His C+ agility and perfected abilities allowed him to fly very fast. He could''ve run circles around Earth''s star system. Yet, the sun and moon didn''t seem to have gotten any closer.
"This is getting boring," E''livia complained for the first time.
He had thought she would''ve complained earlier, but she had kept silent. She was really maturing quickly after reaching middle adulthood.
"It is," he agreed. "But it''s not like we''ve got anything better to do."
"You might want to take a break for a few moments," a male voice that one might expect from a heavy smoker said behind them. He spoke in Stangue.
Shen''s aura and domain weren''t deployed, and his passive Law senses didn''t exist any longer, so he wasn''t surprised at being surprised. E''livia, however, turned quickly. The stranger had sneaked on her.
Shen also turned and saw a high elf wearing a light blue cultivator robe with golden runes. He looked thirty-something, was tall, golden-haired, blue-eyed, and handsome, and was also a B-rank.
"Who are you?" Shen asked.
The guy had his hands behind his back and bowed slightly. "Habnor. I''m the Gardener''s contact in the Shaft''s Overlord Realm. Didn''t he mention me?"
Before Shen could say anything, E''livia''s eyes widened, and she asked hopefully, "Can you send him a message for me? I''ll pay you as much as you want."
Habnor shook his head. "There''s no communication between us. I was placed here to deal with special exiles, and I can tell he exiled you without prior communication. You''re not marked to be killed upon arrival, so you must be surrounded by unique circumstances¡ªwhich I don''t care about. I''m supposed to explain the world and help you get a Shaft ID. We''ll begin once this Realm brings us back."
Shen opened his mouth to ask what he was talking about, but then Space shifted, and he was teleported to only a few tens of thousands of miles above the ground. He felt nothing when that happened. No Energy expenditure, no Laws, no domain, no Realization. It was as if Reality itself had been rearranged, so his position changed. There was nothing he could do to prevent that, either.
"Ah, right on time. We can discuss matters over tea." He started flying down. "I''m not paid to convince you to trust me. Follow me or not at your convenience."
Shen and E''livia shared a look. She could kill weak B-ranks, so following the guy was relatively safe. Hearing what he had to say wouldn''t hurt¡ªunless he brought them to a trap.
They shrugged at each other and followed Habnor.
"Your name isn''t very high-elven," Shen mentioned.
"Maybe not in the Alliance," Habnor replied. "That is one of the things I''m supposed to explain to you. There are countless species throughout Reality, and many can be found in multiple multiverses."
Shen was shocked silly. Not because of the species thing; that sounded sensible. Considering that the same Laws affected everything, even with some minor differences, it was only natural that, in an infinite number of universes, the same phenomena that birthed a species in one place might happen twice over an endless amount of time. Give the species the potential for immortality through cultivation, and some were bound to be found even in multiple places separated by an insurmountable length of space.
No, what shocked him was that he had heard the Alliance''s name.
Memories unlocked in his mind. Every memory related to the Alliance did, except any containing personal matters. The tribulation that made Shen deaf to E''livia''s speech didn''t care about Habnor. Or perhaps it couldn''t care about the high elf. This was a different multiverse with different Heavens, and the local Heavens might''ve suppressed the foreign tribulation to a point when it had something to do with a local denizen.
Shen stopped flying and froze for minutes as the memories were unlocked. It caused a lot of pain. The Heavenly Tribulation had given way to the local Heavens'' wishes but didn''t need to like it or make it pleasant for Shen.
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With the memories came willpower. The world became more focused. He felt better and less airheaded.
When he came back to himself, E''livia was yelling at him. "Shen! Please! Talk to me!"
He looked at her and wasn''t surprised to find Habnor locked into a shell of Time Laws. She had acted as soon as Shen stopped moving. The B-rank high elf had the power to free himself, as shown by his moving eyes, which shouldn''t be happening in a Time Prison. However, he had allowed her to freeze him to show he wasn''t a threat.
"It''s alright," Shen replied. "It''s about a personal matter. Please, unfreeze Habnor."
She looked suspiciously at him but correctly guessed that it had something to do with his tribulation. So, after a moment, she nodded and released the high elf.
Shen cupped his fists before himself and bowed low. "This junior thanks the Esteemed Senior for helping him recall something important."
Habnor had been frozen with his back to Shen, but he turned and nodded. "A better attitude than your earlier one, I suppose. But I didn''t help you on purpose, so there''s nothing to thank me about. Someone already made Karma an Axiom in the Shaft, so don''t go around owing people in your heart. It''ll come to ''bite you in the ass'' later¡ªif I recall the Alliance saying correctly." He turned and resumed flying.
"Karma?" Shen asked, surprised once more. "But if it''s an Axiom... Shouldn''t it be in all of Reality?"
"Reality is layered. The Therona School of Thought calls the layers the Low, High, and True Heavens. The Low Heavens are at the universal level, the High Heavens are at the multiverse level, and the True Heavens are the actual sentience and rules shared throughout Reality. When anyone mentions the Heavens, it''s almost always the Low Heavens."
Shen asked, "I suppose pushing a Realization to the Heavens at S-rank only means affecting a single universe?"
Habnor nodded, "Correct. An Ascender pushed Karma into this Realm''s Low Heavens, which should affect a single universe."
"Should?"
"Each Realm in the Shaft is made of several universes woven together, and their individual Low Heavens are linked. I was told the Alliance does something similar with the Low Heavens of several universes. It''s harder to push your Realization into Linked Low Heavens, but then your Axiom affects every universe in them."
Shen frowned. "Ascenders? Is that what you call S-ranks?"
"Oh, yes. G-ranks are mortals. F-ranks are Initiates. E and D-ranks are Conceptualizers; D-ranks are Proven Conceptualizers. C-ranks are Law Overlords; usually, just Overlords for short. Anyone who mastered any Law is a Proven Overlord. B-ranks are Seekers unless they have a domain, then they become Dominators. A-ranks are Realizators. S-ranks are Ascenders."
Shen organized the information in his mind.
Mortals were those who didn''t cultivate.
Initiates were those who had started cultivating.
Conceptualizers were dealing with Concepts. Once you mastered one, you became a Proven Conceptualizer.
Law Overlords were those who dealt with Laws. Once you mastered one, you became a Proven Overlord.
After mastering every Law in your Path and overcoming the B-rank tribulation, you became a Seeker. That probably meant you were seeking a domain because you became a Dominator once you developed it.
Anyone with a Realization was a Realizator.
And any S-rank was an Ascender.
Changing from ranks to the local naming convention would be annoying, but they at least were less of a mouthful than in the Myriad Worlds. Shen could live with that. He would have to, considering E''livia had said they needed to reach A-rank to return to the Myriad Worlds and the Alliance.
Habnor added, "There are nuances, of course. You two have domains but aren''t at the correct tier to be considered fully-fledged Dominators. You, drow, are a mere Overlord, making you a Lawful Dominator. The aeonian is a Proven Overlord already, so she would be a Demi-Dominator."
"What about¡ª" Shen started but was interrupted.
"I''d rather discuss more over a cup of tea," Habnor said.
Shen and E''livia shared another look and followed silently to his home.
? ?
? ?
The cutest E-rank¡ªor, rather, Conceptualizer¡ªShen had ever seen served him tea in a maid uniform. The high elf girl looked eight years old, so she should be around twenty, as high elven bodies matured slowly, at least in the Alliance. She had silver eyes and golden hair in a ponytail and was a bit clumsy as she served tea.
Habnor''s home was surprisingly simple. The style resembled a medieval but clean one, with some magic tools here and there. It was heavy with woodwork, like the thick table and chairs, and felt cozy. The two-story house was built with D-tier materials, his furniture was E-tier, and a C-tier energy field surrounded the whole property, including the garden outside. His was the only building in the vast grassland.
The tea ware was nicely crafted¡ªfor a mortal. It was E-tier and should be better than that. Shen suspected it had been a gift from the girl, who was obviously not Habnor''s blood daughter but treated him like a father.
"Alavalot, Lariel," he said in the local language after she finished serving the tea. Lariel smiled happily, bowed, and left quickly. Habnor sighed. "I''ve never seen someone so talented in cultivation, but she wastes time training to be a maid. Heavens help me with that girl."
"To each their own Path," E''livia replied as she sipped the tea. "It tastes awful. Help her learn how to properly brew it."
"Absolutely not," Habnor said as he also sipped his tea. Like E''livia, he made no face at the poor taste and pretended it was normal. Lariel, who was looking from a crack on the door, couldn''t understand Stangue but seemed happy everyone was drinking. "I''ll not incentivize such delusions. She''ll grow out of it soon enough."
Shen sipped the tea. It was the bitterest liquid he had ever tasted. It was also rancid. Cat piss might be more pleasant to the tongue. "Do it for your guests if not for yourself. I feel tempted to cut my tongue out."
Habnor harrumphed. "Feel free to leave if your free food doesn''t please you, Your Majesty. I''m not paid to make you happy."
Shen smiled bitterly¡ªbut less bitter than the tea. "Point taken. Speaking of what you are paid to do..."
The high elf sighed. "Let me start by reassuring you that you won''t lose potential willpower gain by hearing everything I''ll tell you. And I''ll tell you a lot."
"Why not?" E''livia asked.
423. Authority
Habnor replied, "In the Shaft, simply gaining knowledge increases your willpower. Bountifully. We have countless organizations and groups centered on information gathering. That''s not to say you can''t grow your willpower by struggling to find guarded knowledge. It still works, like any struggle, but it''s not cumulative with the willpower gained from obtaining the knowledge itself. The higher gain replaces the lower one if you get both. The willpower gained from acquiring the knowledge itself is always superior to what you gain from struggling to get that knowledge."
Shen nodded. "So, assuming we could quantify willpower, let''s say struggling in fights while searching for a specific piece of knowledge could give me ten points of willpower. The knowledge itself could give me twenty points. I wouldn''t gain thirty points, but twenty instead. Is that it?"
"Correct."
"That makes no sense. What if I almost died thousands of times and struggled millions of times over the ages while seeking that knowledge? What if the struggle could''ve gained me fifty points instead?"
Habnor smiled. "Then the knowledge would certainly be worth more than fifty points. That''s how this place works, a rule woven in its very fabric."
"What do you mean by ''this place''?" E''livia interjected. "The Shaft you mentioned? This Overlord Realm, whatever it is?"
Habnor shook his head. "I meant the whole Shaft, composed of multiple Realms, each made of multiple universes. The Shaft Universe has a Mandatary who shaped everything and decided on some rules."
"A Mandatary? What is that?" Shen asked.
"We''re getting out of track," the high elf replied. "Back to knowledge and willpower. You might have guessed already that anyone here will do what they can to guard knowledge, but any organization must share enough knowledge to hone their people''s skills and willpower to a point. As such, a lot of information was spread over the ages. Things that might''ve been hidden from you in the Alliance until you reached A or even S-rank might be common knowledge here. Then again, common knowledge for you might not be widespread here. I wouldn''t know without talking to you, and I don''t want to share my house with two strangers. You''ll leave after I''m done."
That was a bit rude, but Shen nodded.
Habnor continued, "As for your question about a Mandatary, it''s linked to how an Ascender pushes their Realization into the Low Heavens. They become very powerful in said Low Heavens'' universe. Existentially speaking, they become Pillars, linked to the Heavens themselves; they can''t be killed without a Realization."
Shen nodded again¡ªhe was doing that a lot. That explained why the Gardener had been killed by the Void but survived. It felt a bit like a cheat.
"Said Ascenders are rewarded with Authority. They are more or less in cohorts with the Low Heavens to keep order in their universe. Thus, we call them Wardens instead of Pillars."
"What do you mean by Authority?" Shen asked.
"The Authority given by Reality itself to impose their Will upon Creation without any cost. Think of it as coins or points. Wardens gain Authority over time as long as they remain in their universe. Leaving it for a single moment resets however much Authority they had. The more living beings in the universe and the stronger they are, the more Authority the Warden gains on each ''wave'' of ''points.'' As you can see, there''s an incentive for people not to use their Authority to make the universe''s people''s lives too hard. Reality doesn''t like that. Usually, even dirtbags learn to control their impulses if they want to gather Authority quickly. Then again, there are so many living beings in any universe that a Warden can make many suffer with no consequence but the Warden having to wait longer to accumulate ''points.''"
So, the Gardener wasn''t exactly altruist in creating an orderly society. That said, he hadn''t needed to send Shen away to safety. He did look like a good guy overall.
Shen pointed out, "You mentioned a Warden can use their Authority to make people''s lives hard. How so? What can you do with Authority?"
"A Warden can use it to change fundamental rules of Reality in their universe. I don''t know any upper limits; you only need enough Authority. There are only two limitations: first, no harming anyone, directly or indirectly; second, no preventing anyone from entering or leaving your universe. Or rather, you could harm them very indirectly, but I''m not privy to the details. Of course, those limitations are only related to Authority usage; Ascenders are still powerful enough to protect their universes and can act however they please with their own power. Still, that''s why Wardens are taken in high regard, respected, and feared, but Realizators and Ascenders don''t submit to any random Warden. Wardens must still use their power to fight if someone comes for them and can die."
Authority felt like something pretty handy. Overpowered, but not absolute. Shen could see how the Heavens wouldn''t want someone to become omnipotent in a universe.
"So Authority is useless against one''s enemies?"
"Not quite. Wardens can exile anyone they want to places beyond the reach of their individual power. It''s considered to be a waste, though. Only B-ranks and lower would take long enough to return to allow the Warden to regain the Authority they expended to exile them. Any A-rank would be back in a few years. S-ranks would return in a few weeks. But if a Warden is losing a fight, they can do that to gain some time to heal and prepare. Repeatedly. Until they run out of Authority."
Shen raised an eyebrow. "You called us exiles before."
Habnor sipped his tea. "I did. That''s how you guys got here. The Shaft is very, very far away from the Myriad Worlds. The Gardener used his Authority to send you here."
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"But I was told the Gardener used his Realization."
The high elf smiled. "I felt the Realization around you when you arrived, but it was used to protect you, not send you away. Speaking of the Myriad Worlds, they are a great example of using Authority to change a piece of Reality, just like the Shaft. The Gardener merged his universe with the S-rank World Tree. That''s how the Myriad Worlds came to be."
"I see," Shen said. "How does that relate to Mandataries?"
"After an Ascender becomes a Warden, they can accumulate enough Authority over time to push their Realization from a single universe to the entire multiverse it''s a part of. It also requires power, as they undergo a harsher tribulation than the one to become Wardens. If they succeed, they gain a similar status with the High Heavens as they had with the Low Heavens, capable of using their Authority to change things. We call them Co-Rulers. They gain the ability to use their Authority to block people from leaving the multiverse, if they want."
Shen frowned. "Warden to Co-Ruler? That''s a big break in the naming, considering they are only ruling over a larger area."
Habnor chuckled. "There''s good reason for that. The Low Heavens don''t get in the way of any Warden. The High Heavens, however, keep trying to force Co-Rulers to spend their Authority. It''s like a country with two rulers who want opposite things."
"Why would the High Heavens behave like that?"
"Investiture. As I briefly mentioned, a Warden can accumulate enough Authority to gain the right to attempt the High Ascension Tribulation. If they succeed, they become Co-Rulers. Similarly, Co-Rulers can accumulate enough Authority to gain the right to attempt the Ultimate Tribulation, also called the Investiture Ceremony."
"Ultimate Tribulation? As in the last tribulation of all?"
Habnor nodded. "If they succeed, they won''t need to accumulate Authority anymore; they''ll have all authority over that multiverse. The High Heavens will bow to their every whim. They''ll also be allowed to block people from entering the universe. Only harming someone will still be barred from them¡ªusing their Authority, that is. But an Ascender who can overcome the Ultimate Tribulation can deal with anything that comes their way, believe me."
Upsetting such a being sounded like a terrible idea. Shen would make sure not to do it.
He asked, "You speak as if Ascenders can keep growing powerful. Is there anything beyond S-rank?"
Habnor shook his head. "No. They can only grow stronger at the Ascender tier like any cultivator in any other tier can do."
Shen opened his mouth to say something, but Habnor raised his hand.
"Some people with too much free time will use the fact that Reality prevents Mandataries from harming people as the basis to suggest there''s a higher tier of power. After all, each step of the way decreases their limitations, but one still remains. We call such mythical existences Unifiers."
"Unifiers," Shen tasted the word. "Because they can unify all of Reality under their will?"
"Something like that. Supposedly, they could become one with the True Heavens and take control of all Reality."
Shen smiled weakly. "Is the Shaft''s Mandatary close to reaching such power?" He didn''t think he could reach Absolute Power if someone took control of everything before him and stopped him.
Habnor snickered. "The same people who invent such fables also insist that the True Heavens don''t fear the Mandataries because their Path reached a dead end. Their evidence? Mandataries can do whatever they want, except one thing. Supposedly, such freedom proves the True Heavens don''t fear them. That''s the end of the Grand Path of Heavens. Instead, you must walk the Grand Path of Ideals to have a chance." He paused, then added, "The Grand Path of Ideals used to have a considerably less flattering name until an Idealist, as we call those who walk it, got upset and erased a few universes from existence because of it. Also, the True Heavens hunt Idealists down if they take the second step, Reversal; people insist that''s fear, which supposedly validates their claims of that being the Grand Path to take control over everything."
Shen didn''t know about the others who believed such a Grand Path could exist, but it did make sense to him. Why would the High Heavens fight so fiercely against being subjugated by a Co-Ruler, but then the True Heavens would just let the Mandatary do whatever they wanted? The obvious answer was that the True Heavens didn''t fear Mandataries. But they did fear something an Idealist might accomplish one day.
Habnor wasn''t done. "My opinion? Going against the True Heavens only means Idealists have a death wish. And that they might pose a danger to Reality. They are a cancer. I suggest you don''t associate yourself with them."
Shen smiled warily. That warning came a little late. Not that he had had any choice in the matter. Maybe that''s why the True Heavens only hunted down those who took the second step: so they didn''t have to kill innocents like him who had been forced to take the first step.
In fact, he could guess why anyone would learn how to Sever another person. "I suppose you can Sever someone else to permanently block them from ever walking the Grand Path of Heavens?"
The high elf nodded. "It''s usually done to Realizators to ensure they won''t fight for your Warden position if they Ascend. Of course, Realizators must allow that to happen to them, but no weaker cultivator would survive; a Warden would just straight up kill Dominators and other pests instead of Severing them. Not that that makes any sense; few Dominators ever Realize their Path, so doing nothing until they become Realizators is more cost-effective."
That explained much of what Shen recalled having ever seen, but a few gaps remained. He asked, "What about controlling the universe through Universal Nodes?"
"That''s how the Idealist destroyed the universes. Usually, you would just try to control Nodes. If you control a Node, you gain a measure of control over the Laws in the Node''s region. If you control most of a universe''s Nodes, you gain more control over the universe''s Laws. It''s like applying a domain to the entire universe, changing which Laws are stronger or weaker. It can give you and your faction substantial advantages if used well. More importantly, you can also expel any invading Low Heavens, including the Alliance''s, which they bring with them when they invade a universe. Oh, and the Void can destroy Nodes to unmake the universe. Thus, the Alliance must fight over Nodes to some extent. At least, to prevent others from taking control over the universe or destroying it."
"To some extent? Wouldn''t gaining control over the universe give the Alliance any advantages?" He knew for a fact the Alliance tried to take control of as many Nodes as possible.
"Your home multiverse is called Agalath. You have a Co-Ruler, Dhar, of the Primordial race. He used a considerable amount of his Authority to give the Alliance something called Dynamically Linked Low Heavens. I''m not paid to share the details with you, but the gist is that the Alliance can invade and modify parts of universes to fit their Heavens'' Axioms. They don''t need to control the majority of the Nodes. They might control them anyway to better protect them against others or the Void, though. I do suppose it would be easier to stop others from taking the Nodes."
Shen nodded. That made sense. And the bit about the Primordials was only half-unexpected. So, the Primordials were that close to controlling the multiverse? Why were they called Usurpers? He also wanted to know why the Shaft was different.
But first, he had something much more important to ask about. "How about Paths?"
Habnor raised his eyebrows. "What about them?"
"What can you tell me about the types of Paths people can take in both the Grand Path of Heavens and the Grand Path of Ideals?"
424. The Three Cultivation Paths
Habnor shook his head as he emptied his teacup. "There''s no such thing as Paths for each Grand Path. You''re mixing things, but that''s partly because language is insufficient. Some call the Grand Paths the Grand Ways instead. It''s conceptually incorrect, but it might help. Some also call them the Heavenly Way and the Heretic Way. The Three Cultivation Paths are means to walk either Grand Path. The difference is whether you push your Path into the Heavens or cut yourself from the Heavens."
"Three Cultivation Paths?"
The high elf raised an eyebrow. "You don''t even know about that?"
Shen shook his head, and E''livia also seemed confused.
Habnor took a small metallic C-tier case from his pocket and opened it to reveal a few black C-tier cigarettes. He grabbed one, lit it, crossed his legs, and took a drag. He relaxed his arm on the table and blew the smoke. The smoke itself was a D-tier poisonous substance, but it never reached Lariel. His Path protected the girl.
He explained, "Three Cultivator Paths are the Shallow Path, the Deep Path, and the Exotic Path. The vast majority of living beings walk one of them.
"Any of them starts the same: you find characteristics of the Axioms of Reality that sing true to you and make them part of your Path. You connect yourself to Reality, pulling, trying to master it while synchronizing with it.
"The Shallow Elementary Path is the most common Path. This is the one the aeonian and I walk. Most people start at it even if they change it later.
"It''s called a ''Shallow'' Path because you never allow Reality''s Axioms to get anywhere close to your Will. Cultivators usually claim they become their Paths, but there''s still a divide between the innermost self and their power. It''s safer and not necessarily weaker than the Deep Path.
"As with any Path, it has steps of progression. For instance, the one you must reach to develop a domain is forming a True Path, which is a slightly misleading name; it simply means that you stop behaving against the nature of the Laws you pulled into yourself.
"Any Path also has inner variations. Shallow Paths can be Anti-Paths, Distorting Paths, Swallowing Paths... I''m not paid to talk about them, but they are different ways of reaching the same place or countering each other, nothing more; they are still part of the Shallow Path.
"In fact, the important thing here is that as long as one''s Will remains untouched, it''s almost certain they are walking the Shallow Path.
"This Path''s main advantage is that Shallow Ascenders have more options when pushing their Realizations into the Heavens. If they walk the Heavenly Way, of course. They don''t need to form an entirely new Axiom to become the universe''s Wardens. They can also change existing Laws or Axioms. Or even merely add a new Law to an existing Axiom."
Shen had heard something about that once. Someone had taught him an S-rank had to force their Realization to become a new Axiom, but they had been wrong¡ªor lying. There were easier ways.
He was confused about something, though.
He asked, "I was taught that pushing your Realization to the Heavens is part of becoming an S-rank. Or Ascending, as you call it. But if the Heretic Way is a thing..."
Habnor nodded. "You don''t need to do that if you''re Severed. Any Low Heavens can only have a single Warden. Linked Low Heavens must not have more Wardens than the number of linked Heavens. I''m told all Realizators instinctively learn how to Sever themselves long before they can Ascend."
Shen nodded. That made sense. "Please, continue."
"Next comes the Deep Elementary Path. This is the one you''re walking, drow. You allowed your Will to be affected by external factors. That''s dangerous but also gives you a different perspective on Reality. It also hones your willpower and gives you greater strength.
"Most people stop at the first step of the Deep Elementary Path, which is when they develop an Ethereal Whole..."
Shen''s mind became hazed for an instant. The words "Ethereal Whole" unlocked more memories¡ªpersonal ones. He recalled every step he had taken in his Path until now.
He had started his cultivator life by walking the Shallow Path, including becoming a True Path Walker. Then, he switched to the Deep Path. His Ethereal Whole had had three counterbalances, his Will, a Truth, and True Boundlessness. But it had been imperfect, and a domain of his had been required to keep it whole. Then, he had forgone his Ethereal Whole for a True Self, which he had had when he became conscious in the Myriad Worlds.
There were still many gaps in his memories. He couldn''t recall why he had changed Paths or ditched his Ethereal Whole for a True Self afterward. Likewise, he didn''t know what his Truth or first domain had been.
The memory influx was short enough this time that he could still follow what Habnor was saying. "...but the ultimate goal is to make your essence part of your Path. Almost anyone who doesn''t stop on the Ethereal Whole stops after they achieve Essence Confluence. That''s when you become immortal, become immune to most forms of soul corruption, cannot be killed as long as a single blood drop of yours remains, and gain the coveted Allvision."
Shen wasn''t too happy that knowledge of his "special means" seemed ordinary in the Shaft. People were unlikely to overlook him after they thought he was dead. He should also find more enchantments able to block his Allvision.
E''livia glanced at Shen before asking, "Allvision?"
Habnor took a draw. "He doesn''t see Reality as we do. The Aspects, Expressions, and Axioms are laid bare to him. That''s most important when understanding the Axioms or seeing things. He can see an object behind another as if they were side by side."
"How does that work?"
The high elf blew the smoke. " You can ask your boyfriend for details. I''m not paid to explain Allvision; it was just out of respect for your past position. There''s a limit, though. As I said, knowledge is precious in the Shaft."
"My past position?"
"I''m almost certain you''re using a disguise skill, and it should be good enough to fool his Allvision. My bet? You were a key figure in the Gardener Sect."
E''livia became uncomfortable at hearing her very recent past mentioned as if it was gone and over.
Shen interjected, "Please, continue."
The high elf complied, "These advantages aren''t exclusive to the Deep Path. The same boons can be gained at the Shallow Path''s high tiers. The thing is that a Deep Walker might achieve Essence Confluence as early as in the Law Overlord tier if they have the proper assistance or resources.
"Immortality comes only when you Ascend, although Realizators already live long enough to be considered immortals; actual immortality stops mattering to them. Immunity to soul corruption comes when you become a Realizator if you know what to do. Regenerating from very little matter only requires you to be a Dominator with the right techniques and resources. Allvision can come as early as in the Proven Overlord tier, also requiring knowledge and resources."
Shen recalled the Alliance had a low focus on resources. If you were strong enough to gather points, almost anything could be easily purchased through the Guardian System. Mana was freely available. If you had any ability, you could keep growing more powerful with limited grinding now and then.
The Shaft seemed different, considering the constant mentions of "being paid" and, now, resources. Shen guessed opportunities to turn strength into points¡ªor coins¡ªweren''t as plentiful. That would force society to develop a more balanced money-power dynamics.
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Habnor continued, "Deep Path Walkers are considered stronger than their Shallow counterparts. If a Deep Walker and a Shallow Walker are supposed to have similar strength in a straight fight, the Deep Walker will win the majority of the time. The advantage isn''t as expressive between Dominators, but the Deep Walker should win six out of ten times. That stops being the case when Realizators are involved. The lower the tier, the more significant the gap.
"But even before that, from the Demi-Dominator tier onward, tier differences are absolute. A Deep Walker will lose to a Shallow Demi-Dominator in a straight fight if they aren''t a Demi-Dominator themselves. A Deep Walker Seeker will lose to a Shallow Dominator no matter what."
That came as no surprise. Shen couldn''t win against E''livia. That''s just how things were. Any peak C-rank¡ªor Proven Overlord¡ªwith a domain could beat him.
The high elf kept going, "The Deep Path''s most significant disadvantage is that each step is much much harder to take. The first step, forming an Ethereal Whole, requires knowledge and willpower. Especially willpower. Even in the Shaft, where willpower can be honed relatively safely, over ninety percent of cultivators die when they allow their Will to be affected by external factors. Then, the survivors usually die when they start messing with their essence. In both cases, an imbalance is formed, and their existence can''t support itself. You also hear a case of Path Overextension every now and then."
That matched Shen''s recently unblocked memories. He recalled almost dying on every step he gave on the Deep Path. In fact, according to E''livia, Shen should have died if not for the Heavenly Tribulation and some unknown people''s meddling with Reality... Well, now he knew those people were the Primordials.
Sure, he had withstood tribulations in the Shallow Path, but they had been... Fairer, in a way. Dangerous, yes, but as long as you had enough strength and willpower, you could deal with them. The Deep Path seemed more... finicky. Or perhaps, precise. You couldn''t just brute-force your way through. At least, not unless the very Heavens were on your side.
Shen thought, ''Note to self: don''t tempt destiny in the future; the Heavens aren''t on my side anymore.''
He asked, "The Deep Path also has tribulations, correct?"
Habnor smiled. "It depends. The tribulation you are undergoing doesn''t exist in the Shaft. There are others. I could help you without risk, but I''ll give you a freebie because I don''t want your girlfriend resenting me: complete the tribulation the intended way. I mean, as close to the intended way as possible. I can tell I already interfered by sharing some information with you."
"Why should I complete it the intended way?"
The high elf took a draw and remained pensive for a while before replying, "You''ll know when it ends. But let me tell you this: as much as some people resent the Heavens, the Heavens are the fairest sentience in all of Reality. The harder the tribulation, the better for you it is."
Shen didn''t like the answer, but he also didn''t want to prematurely end his tribulation. So, instead of continuing the line of questioning, he asked something else to compare to the knowledge he had gained during his Severing.
"What exactly is Path Overextension?"
Habnor smiled slightly. "Good question. You''re made of the Expressions of Energy, Sentience, and Time. You know about those, at least, I hope?" Shen nodded, and the high elf continued, "Good. Whenever you cultivate, you indirectly cultivate the very Energy, Sentience, and Time you''re made of. Those three Expressions then very, very, very indirectly cultivate the Aspects of Space, Change, and Will you''re made of.
"Any Cultivator Path must contain the three Expressions in equal measures to be balanced and healthy. Path Overextension comes from extreme imbalance. For instance, cultivators absorb Energy, but too much Energy and nothing else leads to an imbalance; growing too powerful too quickly causes Overextension.
"Think of it as a heavy sphere held in the air by three ropes. Your Path is the sphere, and each rope is an Expression. Your Path must be kept aloft by all three Expressions. By improving any Expression, its respective rope grows thicker and more resistant. However, improving yourself means improving your Path, making the sphere heavier. If it grows too heavy and any rope snaps, your existence unravels, and you die. That is Path Overtension.
"Therefore, you must also cultivate your other Expressions. You can cultivate Sentience by understanding more of Reality, like Axioms, and Time by simply living longer. Sentience can also be cultivated indirectly by making your name known far and wide. There are other ways, but those are the most straightforward.
"Overextension happens in the Shallow Path but is more common in the Deep Path because adding your Will to your Path increases the sphere''s weight, and the ropes struggle. Adding essence to it is even worse."
That matched most of what Shen knew, but one thing was missing. He asked, "How does willpower affect any of that? Or a domain."
"How indeed. Increasing willpower also cultivates your Sentience. But it''s a special case because it also directly improves your Will¡ªvery slightly. If the Expressions are ropes, the Aspects would be gravity. Improving any Aspect lowers the gravity, decreasing the tension on the ropes. Domains are a statement of dominance over Creation; you demand to keep existing, and Reality gives way to a point. Using a domain to stabilize your existence would be akin to slightly improving the material the ropes are made of."
That also made sense. Shen asked, "What about infinity-edgers? Do they even occupy Space? If not, does their cultivation work the same way?"
Habnor raised an eyebrow. "An interesting question. They might stand on the edges of infinity, but they are still finite, thus defined by Space like any of us. That said, they are a special life form. As such, they can forgo an Aspect or an Expression when cultivating, which we call the Exotic Path."
Shen waited for the high elf to say something else about it, but he didn''t. So, he steered, "Which is...?"
Habnor poured everyone more tea. E''livia sighed sadly. Lariel smiled proudly.
The high elf replied, "As I said, the Exotic Path is a Path that doesn''t cultivate either one Expression or an Aspect. I only know one more thing than that: an Exotic Path might or might not touch a Will, but Essence Confluence is exclusive to Deep Paths. That''s it. Each Exotic Walker has specific characteristics and innate strength; they might be stronger, equal to, or weaker than another Path Walker."
Everything was proper and good, but Shen had three last questions. "What is someone''s essence? Where do I go in my Path after Essence Confluence? And do you think I should pursue alchemy?" The last question was a roundabout way of figuring out what he was supposed to do in the current step of his tribulation.
Alas, the answers would need to wait because Habnor finished his cigarette, made the butt disappear, and stood up. "The terms of my assistance include obligatory teachings on the Shaft, a certain amount of time I must waste answering questions, and a minimal depth of knowledge in said answers. Time''s up. I only need to tell nine extra things about the Shaft, and then you get out of my house.
"First, the Shaft is called that because seven Realms are placed on top of each other, and you''re supposed to climb it. It''s officially called the Tower of Seven, but no one cares about using its name.
"Second, each Realm is composed of multiple universes tied together, though in a vast plane that you can''t leave by flying. Most of the space you might expect from a universe isn''t accessible but kept ''in reserve'' by the Divine Mandatary. This reserve is used as needed; each Realm has a potentially unlimited landmass.
"Third, potentially unlimited means the number of living people and their strength in a Realm determines its size. It can shrink or expand. The Divine Mandatary doesn''t like massacres or sapient breeding, so don''t try to manipulate a Realm''s size like that. The Shaft has been around for a long time, and every Realm is massive. This one, the Overlord Realm, is the biggest; it would take you almost a hundred years to go from one edge of this realm to another at the peak speed you displayed when trying to reach the moons.
"Fourth, each Realm only permits a maximum power level. It''s in the Realm''s name. The Mortal Realm only allows mortal levels of power. The Initiate Realm only allows anyone to display up to Initiate power levels. And so on. Items are also limited to the Realm''s stated power level. Auras can be used on the Conceptualizer Realm and above. Domains can be used on the Overlord Realm and above. Realizations can be used in the Realizator Realm and above.
"Fifth, if your tier is higher than the Realm''s maximum power level, you can stay there, but you will be prevented from using more power than allowed. I''m a good example. I''m a Dominator, but I can only show Demi-Dominator strength in this Realm. Even an Ascender would be limited to the Demi-Dominator power level.
"Sixth, Ascenders cannot be killed without a Realization. Even if you managed to defeat one, despite them being so vastly more experienced than you, it would only cause them to get expelled from the Shaft for a million years. They wouldn''t be happy when they came back. Their supporters likely would kill you soon enough.
"Seventh, you must grow more powerful to climb the Shaft. The highest Realm you can access is the namesake of your current power level. As Overlords, both of you can access this Overlord Realm and any lower one if you''re willing to pay the price at one of the countless Spires spread throughout the Realm. People born here can still return to this Realm if they leave, but a mortal would only be able to go to the Mortal Realm, not the Initiate Realm. They would need to start cultivating to access the Initiate Realm and become Conceptualizers to access the Conceptualizer Realm.
"Eighth, I received word that your Shaft ID is ready. It''s linked to the Shaft itself. You''re now official denizens instead of visitors or invaders. The Shaft ID is required to do some official Shaft business, like entering a Spire. Getting a Shaft ID usually requires doing a long battery of tests over a very long time, and bypassing that requires many resources and connections, so you should thank the Gardener if you ever get the chance.
"Ninth and lastly, the more profound a piece of knowledge is, the more willpower it gives you. A lot of worthless knowledge can pile up into something useful, and almost everyone keeps their ears open, but you would need hundreds of thousands of years listening to country girl gossip to compare to the willpower gained from a single mastered Concept. It''s not worth it.
"I''ll show you to the door now."
425. Twenty-One Languages
Shen stood up to leave, but unexpectedly, E''livia told Habnor, "You don''t want to dismiss us like that."
Any remaining trace of politeness instantly vanished from the high elf''s face. He became dead serious and waved his hand. The door that Lariel had been eavesdropping through closed with a bang. The girl was uninjured but yelped.
Habnor said, "You have a single chance to explain what you mean by that. I hope you did not just threaten me."
E''livia raised her hands non-threatening. "I meant that Shen and I have potential. Didn''t you say I''m a key figure in the Myriad Worlds? Well, I''m from the¡ª"
Shen put a hand on her shoulder to prevent her from saying more. She looked curious at him. He smiled and said, "We don''t know if Habnor was telling the truth about his connections to the Gardener. For all we know, he might''ve killed and replaced the real contact."
Habnor squinted his eyes. "You''re offending me in my own home, which I already told you to leave."
Shen smiled apologetically at the man and bowed slightly. "My apologies, Esteemed Senior. I was just teaching her how to think." He turned to E''livia. "The actual reason we should leave is because of the girl. And we should tell Habnor as little as possible about ourselves so anyone looking for us won''t look for him¡ªand, thus, potentially bring trouble to the girl."
"The girl?" E''livia asked obliviously.
"Habnor said Karma is real in the Shaft, but he hasn''t formed any Karmic ties with us or vice-versa. I believe him to be a Realization. A Dominator couldn''t block an Axiom like that, but a Realization might, at least to prevent owing metaphysical debts. Not to mention Habnor would need some power for the Gardener to trust he would survive for long in this place without a way of contacting the Myriad Worlds. A Dominator wouldn''t cut it."
E''livia frowned. "But if he''s a Realizator, he can send messages back home."
"Not if he wants to avoid being traced."
"Because of the girl?"
Shen nodded. "Lariel also hasn''t formed any ties to us, even though I haven''t noticed any special item on her. I also haven''t detected Habnor''s Realization acting on her to assist her with that. This is the Overlord Realm, and I doubt a C-tier item could hide from me. Something far above our pay grade is happening here, and I suppose that''s why Habnor insists we leave; our very presence here somehow risks her life. So, we must leave. In fact, we should do that fast, not just for the sweet girl''s wellbeing. Habnor might decide getting paid to help two exiles isn''t as important as his main mission: protecting the girl from the Alliance."
E''livia was slowly standing up, finally getting convinced to leave. "Alliance?"
Shen bowed to Habnor again and accompanied E''livia to the door. "Lariel is a high-elven Alliance name. Habnor isn''t. Anyone with eyes can tell they aren''t relatives. The Gardner sent us to the Shaft to help me, and I bet this wasn''t the first time he did something like that. The girl is probably hiding from someone or something."
"Oh." E''livia looked at the closed door where the girl had been.
Habnor didn''t move as they headed to the house''s exit, but his squinted eyes worried Shen. The guy could sneak up on E''livia, and an ancient Realizator likely had a lot more combat experience and tricks than them. Even without a Realization, an ancient cultivator in a multiverse where knowledge equaled willpower had had many opportunities to grow. Shen doubted E''livia could beat Habnor in the meta-battlefield if both deployed their domains.
That was the most outstanding advantage old people got in the Shaft. The rules were heavily biased towards ancient people and organizations. The Shaft was a place of tradition. People born in gold cradles could quickly hone their willpower with secret knowledge, which gave them significant edges in their lives.
In the Shaft, the status quo was meant to be preserved, not contested.
Such local culture was another reason Shen and E''livia should leave quickly. Habnor might get very, very offended if they insisted on challenging his established position.
E''livia left the house first. Shen turned and bowed a third time. "Thank you again for your assistance, Esteemed Senior. This junior knows that Esteemed Senior doesn''t want any ties to this junior, Karmic or otherwise, so this junior will forget the great favor that Esteemed Senior showed this junior. May we never meet again."
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"Wait," Habnor said, and Shen prepared to fight. But Habnor''s face relaxed, and so did Shen. "Your girlfriend wasn''t entirely incorrect. Helping you could benefit me in the long term. The very long term." He used his spatial piercing, which he wore on his nipples¡ªan information Shen didn''t want to know but could see all the same¡ªand a C- infocube materialized in his hand. The metal object was pristine and brand new, with shining blue runes. "I gift the two of you with all local languages. Erase the cube after you''re done. If you ever reach A-rank, remember the favors you don''t owe me and come to this place." He paused, then added. "All three of us would benefit from what I have in mind."
He threw the cube at Shen, who picked it up and nodded one last time. "Thank you, Esteemed Senior." He left.
Outside, E''livia''s domain was deployed, and she was looking around with a frown. She looked surprised and relieved when Shen appeared. Shen smiled as he noticed why: as soon as he stepped outside, the house disappeared. He couldn''t detect it with his aura, domain, or Allvision.
As Shen had guessed, Habnor did have something big going on. He also assumed he and E''livia would be at risk if they became associated with the high elf or got entangled in whatever mess Lariel was involved in.
"He gave us a gift," Shen said, sending a qi tendril to the cube. The cube formed a connection to his mind, which he allowed, and dumped twenty languages on him.
One language was the Shaft Common, which could be used everywhere. It had almost a million accents from different regions. Of the twenty-one remaining languages, each set of three was unique to each Realm. These Realm-exclusive languages also couldn''t be self-learned, only taught by someone who knew them. The Shaft''s High Heavens confused your mind if you tried to learn by yourself.
The Realm Languages were meant to identify whether you belonged to a Realm and your status in it. Each Realm had a True Language, a High Language, and a Low Language. There were extra rules about who you could teach them to, though said rules weren''t enforced by the High Heavens. The people in it had created and enforced them.
That showed how right Shen had been about how tradition and the status quo were crucial in the Shaft. It made sense that a multiverse where knowledge was power would use the very way they communicated to form strata.
The Low Language could be taught by anyone with a Local Realm ID to anyone with the same Local Realm ID. Each Realm and a specific ID. Said IDs weren''t physical things you carried with you but linked to your soul and stored in a special database. Some organizations with the proper permissions could access it. Said organizations also determined among themselves the requirements to get a Local Realm ID. Usually, it involved time spent in the Realm and money. Shen and E''livia had an Overlord ID.
The High Language was meant for people of great status. Big established forces could learn and teach the local High Language among themselves. The High Language was relatively widespread among the important organizations. The organizations themselves determined which others could join their ranks, and as long as an individual was a part of them, they had the right to be taught. Each organization decided who they taught it to.
The True Languages were meant to show you had a lot of power or the right connections, usually both. Only the top dogs in each Realm were meant to speak them. Only direct descendants of the main line of any organization could be freely taught, and even then, only a limited amount was allowed every set period. But of course, you could get permission to teach more people. The more distant to your bloodline they were, the more challenging it was to obtain consent, which had to come from the majority of the other top dogs. Teaching two outsiders legally, as Habnor had just done, must''ve required a lot from the guy.
Shen and E''livia had only received permission to learn the languages. They weren''t allowed to teach anyone any Realm Language except the Overlord Regular Language to someone with an Overlord ID. Shen could disobey but would be killed if found out. Maybe not for teaching the Low Languages, but even that was somewhat risky. Whenever questioned, you were meant to answer who you learned a Realm Language from. Some people would check if you were lying and spread the word if you were found guilty. There were rewards to ensure people would follow the rules. The more exclusive the language, the better the rewards.
Shen wondered if he should teach other people anyway just to gain bragging rights for fighting the Grammar Police. That sounded simultaneously stupid and cool.
He gave the infocube to E''livia. After everything was pushed into her mind, they shared a single look before deciding to erase the data. They didn''t want to make enemies in a new multiverse for no gain. A single strand of qi was enough for the item to understand they wanted the information inside to cease.
"Now what?" E''livia asked as she stored the C- item in her storage artifact, a tiny bead that she kept under her skin.
"It depends. We could head towards civilization to seek help. I need to figure out if I really want to learn alchemy." His tribulation''s current stage might have nothing to do with learning more about himself. He had to find someone to help him with that. "Or do you want to take some time to meditate on the Shaft''s Axioms? You need to adapt your Path to breakthrough, right?"
She shook her head. "If Habnor weren''t lying, my current power level is enough for this Realm. It''s better to slowly adapt to the local environment, anyway. I''ll feel things out for a few weeks, then meditate for another few before I try to change anything in my Path."
"Sounds good. Civilization it is, then. I saw a big city this way when we were trying to reach the moon," Shen said as he started flying. E''livia followed.
426. Nwara
Shen noticed the Karma strands as he approached the city. The lines went from golden to black, with red undertones in the middle, and extended everywhere. After some distance, they became transparent and then invisible. Some lines were thicker than others and took longer to disappear.
The city in the distance was a hub of karmic connections, so many that it looked like a golden sun to his Allvision. It clouded his special ability, preventing him from seeing too far through them.
The buildings themselves resembled a mountain range. Skyscrapers hundreds of stories tall were spaced between each other, with shorter constructions in between, creating veritable valleys here and there. On top of that, the buildings in the city center were the tallest. They were also made primarily of wood and crystal glass with silvery and golden details, looking fancy and almost rustic at the same time. Their shapers were mostly square with rounded edges, with some sharp edges here and some entirely circular buildings there.
Wood gave way to brick, and crystal to colored glass that formed mosaics, the further one got from the city center. Brick then became stone and the glass became less artistic at the outskirts.
A massive light blue metal wall surrounded the city, which was big enough to host a few tens of millions of people. Gray metal towers half the height of the tallest central buildings were placed every few hundred feet on the wall. The wall and towers were manned by mere Proven Conceptualizers, but there were enough to cover the whole perimeter. They wore D+ dark blue and gray uniforms and carried mismatched weaponry. Everyone had a C+ crystal orb floating close to their heads, which Shen guessed improved their perception. He wasn''t close enough to see the object''s enchantments yet.
He could, however, see the enchantments on the metal wall and towers. Like the alloy itself, they were peak C-tier. They were also a wonder to look at. Shen didn''t understand half of the runes, symbols, or concepts involved, but he estimated he would need at least a few dozen attacks to break through with his full power.
Overlords flowed freely inside the city, but none went over the walls to enter or leave it. There was a lot less traffic on the massive doors than Shen expected, which was easily explained by two factors.
First, almost everyone he could see was a cultivator. Less than ten percent were weaker than Conceptualizers. That meant no need for extensive food production or distribution, as qi sufficed for sustenance. Cultivation also decreased the need for sewer and waste disposal systems, as even Initiates didn''t need toilets, and most Conceptualizers could use qi to burn garbage without leaving even ashes behind.
Second, massive underground chambers were used to grow food for the people who needed it. Some of the food was more than just for sustenance, too, as it was E-tier or higher. The number of restaurants Shen could see also suggested people ate for pleasure.
As Shen and E''livia approached, he noticed that more than a few of the guards on the walls used a D- ring to send signals to a nearby outpost. The building had twenty beds in a shared dorm and a few offices. It also had an underground prison with a dozen empty cells. Three people were currently there, the stronger being a Proven Overlord sitting by a fancy desk in his office. His secretary, an Unproven Overlord, sat on a desk of her own in the antechamber. Lastly, a Proven Conceptualizer attendant sat by the building''s front desk.
The secretary''s C+ ring received the signals, and she used the ring to call a few of the wall guards. A moment later, she stood up, said something to her boss, then left the office by the window to come to the wall.
She arrived above the city entrance moments before Shen and E''livia did.
The woman was a wood elf, as was over half the city''s population he could see, which explained the love for wood in the city center. It also explained why the city had so many parks, trees, and greenery.
Wood elves were skinnier and shorter than high elves. They were equally beautiful but of a less imposing standard. Their traces were more delicate and comely, their hair was light brown or black, and their eyes were mostly green or brown.
The woman wore the same uniform as the other guards, except hers was C+ tier. The tight pants and overcoat were dark blue, and the boots and long shirt were gray. A white hieroglyph-like eye was etched on her left chest. She had light brown hair tied in a professional bun and beautiful green eyes. Her left pointy ear had seven golden piercings.
She looked like an actress barely out of her adolescence who had been picked to play a soldier who was supposed to be much more badass than she could pretend to be. At least, until you looked at the C+ sword on her hip. It wasn''t sheathed, just hanging from her belt. The hilt was black, and the crimson blade created and dripped blood every few seconds. Her pants had an auto-clean enchantment but were stained after extended contact with the constant stream of blood.
"Halt," she said in Shaft Common. "No going over the city walls. Use the doors."
Her voice was half-business-like and half-bored. She didn''t want to be there but also wasn''t distracted. The way she looked at Shen and E''livia made it clear she was ready to fight if it came to it. She would lose, but as long as she resisted for a few moments, backup would arrive. Not to mention, the wall should also be enchanted to support her in some way.
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Shen and E''livia slowed down, and Shen replied, "Can I find information about the Deep Path anywhere in the city?"
He used the Overlord True Language, and the woman''s eyes widened slightly.
A moment later, she replied, now using the Overlord Low Language, "Everyone must use the doors." She hadn''t understood the question in the language she didn''t speak. But her voice was less bored. She was both alarmed and trying to sound respectful.
Shen tried High Language next, "Can I find information about the Deep Path anywhere in the city?"
She opened her mouth to reply, then closed it, sighed, and said, also in the High Language, "I was hoping to hide from politics. Forcing me to reveal my status was very impolite of you."
Indeed, people were eavesdropping. Shen didn''t care about their reactions, but the wall guards and the three random people entering the city had reacted to him using True Language. Now, they also reacted when they found out the woman could speak High Language.
Shen smiled weakly. "My apologies. I''m new here and was hoping to get a well-connected guide. I was unsure if anyone without the proper background could point me in the right direction and wasn''t willing to take the time to figure it out."
The woman was upset, though not furious. Still, she wouldn''t just let it go. "And thus, for your selfishness, you pull me back into a world of intrigue I struggled so hard to escape."
Shen shook his head. "I already apologized, but we both know I didn''t force you to reply. You''re curious about a drow and an aeonian appearing here out of nowhere and believe it is worth it to make a connection rather than keep your fa?ade going. You''re made of the same politics you seek to flee from, aren''t you?"
In fact, Shen believed she was there precisely to find interesting figures like him. She was a scout for whichever force was behind her. She likely only replied to High Language because Shen showed he could speak the local True Language first.
Now, she was testing his shrewdness or something¡ª
"Wrong," the woman said, interrupting his thoughts. "I do need to answer. It''s in the City Guard regulations. I didn''t want to be stationed at a Wall Outpost, but without a known background force to help me, politics pushed me here." She sighed again. "But I guess if it weren''t you, someone else would''ve talked to me sooner or later. As a mere Low Guard, I must abide by the request of an esteemed High Guest like you. I''ll guide you, but you still need to go through the doors. Wait for me after you come in. I''ll contact my boss and return."
Then, she flew over the walls back in the city. Evidently, the City Guard could ignore the rule about using the door.
Her reaction and the City Guard regulation showed how important the languages were in the Shaft. Shen was considered a High Guest by simply speaking the local High Language. Although any local High Organization was unlikely to treat him with the same respect as the wood elf just because he was a High Guest, those at the lower strata of society were supposed to show him some respect. The City Guard likely had a strong backing, but it was obviously in their best interest to have low-level members accommodate the requests of well-connected individuals, whoever they were.
Shen and E''livia landed and went through the tall and massive doors. The city wall was thick enough that they had to walk a corridor a few yards wide to come to the other side. Four Proven Conceptualizers in City Guard uniform were guarding the entrance but didn''t ask him anything. Shen doubted they were supposed to question Overlords. At most, they sent word to their superiors, as the guards manning the wall had done.
A pristine stone street with a few shabby inns waited on the other side of the wall. The Wall Outpost wasn''t that far, and the wood elf quickly returned. She gestured for Shen and E''livia to take to the skies and nodded to them.
"I''m Low Officer Nmara. My boss told me to waste your time with a city tour while he runs a background check on you. I suck as a guide and feel sorry for you, but at least it means not doing paperwork." She smiled weakly.
That was the first time her serious face smiled, and she was obviously merely enacting a joke she was ordered to tell. The smile was forced, yet it multiplied her beauty, making her gorgeous. Shen felt saddened at whatever experiences she had gone through that made her hide herself as a Low Guard and not seem to have any reasons to smile. He could see the deep sadness in her, so it wasn''t just an aloof personality.
"Haha," Shen replied dryly with a weak smile of his own.
Nmara was surprised at his answer for an instant, then legitimately chuckled at him. It gladdened Shen.
She said, "I must ask, and my boss is listening: what''s your name, and who allowed you to learn the Overlord True Language?"
"I''m Shen, and I was taught by Habnor."
She chuckled again. "Sure he did." Then, as Shen looked confused at her, she widened her eyes. "You''re not joking?"
He shook his head. "I didn''t know Senior Habnor for long, and he wasn''t a pleasant conversationalist, but I didn''t expect him to be some kind of evil guy who never teaches anything to anyone."
The obligation to answer who taught Shen the language was the greatest weakness of Habnor''s desire not to get caught up with Shen or vice versa. Still, he had guessed Habnor had an exceptional identity if he knew¡ªand could teach¡ªeven the Ascender True Language. Then again, if even a random Low Officer from the Overlord Realm recognized the name, it might be more special than anticipated.
"Senior Habnor?" Nmara replied unbelievingly. "Do... Do you mean Realizator Habnor, True Disciple of the Pillar of the Axioms of Isolation, Warden-Emperor of the Overlord Realm?"
"Oh," Shen replied. "That explains a lot. That sounds like him, yes."
The Axioms of Isolation sounded quite stupid, to be honest. However, it explained why Habnor could keep Karma from affecting him or Lariel without using a Realization. He could probably ask his master to use the Axioms of Isolation to help him. Using those Axioms to Isolate the two of them should be easy enough.
It also explained why the Gardener trusted the guy wouldn''t be killed and replaced no matter how long passed. Pillars couldn''t be easily killed, and a beloved True Disciple had strong backing. A Warden-Emperor sounded like a ruler with a lot of power. It wasn''t lost on Shen how Habnor had neglected to teach that detail to Shen when they talked.
Shen was very, very glad he hadn''t decided to test the guy''s patience back then.
427. Chaos
| Sell Offer: 23%, 72M
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The Shaffer Company''s runaway heir dropped all informality when Shen told him he was about Realizator Habnor. The True Disciple of the Warden-Overlord was no joking matter.
She had known Shen wasn''t a nobody from the moment he, a Lawful Dominator¡ªan uncommon sight¡ªasked for information about the Deep Path¡ªturning his existence into a very rare sight. That was especially true coming from someone speaking the Overlord True Language. But she could still deal with those things with her status, to a point.
Being connected to Realizator Habnor placed Shen galaxies above her.
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| Sell Offer: 23%, 66M
| Sell Offer: 12%, 30M
| Sell Offer: 4%, 7.5M
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In fact, her boss should''ve come to deal with it as soon as Habnor was mentioned, but the coward was doing what he did best: nothing. He had been forced into Wall Guard duty because that was the place a useless bastard with his considerable backing would do the least amount of damage. He knew enough not to try to get anything done and just let her do his work for him, which was usually a good thing, but now was a moment when he should have come.
The idiot was offending a newcomer with high connections by negligence, something his family would learn of and punish him for before she arrived at her destination.
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| Sell Offer: 23%, 55M
| Sell Offer: 12%, 22M
| Sell Offer: 4%, 5M
| Sell Offer: 2%, 2M
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Nmara was also offending Shen by forcing him to interact with someone as beneath him as herself. Not that she had a choice in the matter¡ªand not that it would save her. People already knew about it. Her implant was telling her all about how everyone was trying to sell their shares of the Shaffer Company, and no one sane was buying.
She had run from home partly to depreciate the company''s value so she could repurchase it from the vultures who had taken advantage of her mom when she had gotten addicted to... unmentionable matters. They hadn''t bulged an inch for almost an entire year. Now, they were desperate to disassociate themselves from her.
Nmara waited a few extra seconds before the price dropped as low as she believed it would go without a buyer. Then, she sent a mental command to buy everything. The company returned to the Shaffer Family''s hands.
She would die, but if Shen wasn''t too vindictive, he might let her two brothers live. Her death wouldn''t be meaningless, at least. That was more than most Low Officers could say when they offended someone connected to the Warden-Emperor.
"So...?" Shen said. "Are you taking me to learn about the Deep Path?"
Nmara turned her focus to the drow. Dark elves were a rare sight in Calimor, and when they came, they usually did in numbers. Always suspicious, those country bumpkins. They distrusted everyone in the City of Whispers because they couldn''t scheme to save their lives. Pathetic.
Yet, Shen was no normal drow. His very build wasn''t like a typical drow''s. He was taller, stronger, and looked mature for one as young as he seemed. He was almost like the wood elves, who had changed their entire race''s genes for a shorter childhood and faster maturing. Habnor had probably taken pity on him and changed his destiny.
Nmara wished she could be that lucky one day.
"The Enamel Tower is this way," she replied and started flying towards it.
A few different places could help someone of Shen''s status, but she decided to use her opportunity to her family''s advantage. The Shaffer Company''s relationship with the Enamel Tower was a bittersweet one. If Shen destroyed them for their association with her after using her as he saw fit, the Shaffer Company would profit. If they didn''t, they would profit and owe her family one. Win-win.
"Why the Enamel Tower?" the female asked.
Nmara didn''t turn to the woman to reply. She was evidently a pleasure companion, as aeonians were known to have become ever since they fused with the succubi. They were tolerated and often ignored. The woman was going above her station to speak to Nmara, but she still replied¡ª
Nmara almost fell from the skies in shock when she realized what had just happened: the girl had spoken the High Language.
An aeonian had spoken the High Language.
An aeonian.
That was a High Crime in Calimor.
Nmara slowed her flight speed, waiting for the hammer to fall. Soon, very soon, a team of Dominators would crush the woman as the sinful insect she was. Hopefully, Shen would also be condemned. Who knows? Maybe Nmara would survive the entire episode unharmed.
The attack never came.
"I''m tired of you," Shen said. "I can''t read your thoughts, but you stink of schemes. You''re also terrible at hiding it enough to make yourself a pleasant guide. I can find someone else to help us. Don''t follow me."
Then, he simply... left. Without attacking her. And without her companion being killed.
Nmara realized way too late that she had lost a great opportunity. She could''ve made a connection with someone of a status so high that he could even shield a High-Language-speaking aeonian. He also wasn''t prone to getting easily offended, allowing Nmara to live after her offense.
Then again, if she had used the opportunity to rise and he left soon after, the powers-that-be would destroy her for being too daring.
In the end, she considered her profits today about as perfect as she could¡ª
A Dominator approached, stopping before her. The old wood elf in black didn''t look happy. "Give back my shares," he demanded.
Nmara smiled. Perhaps Shen was right; perhaps she was a lousy player. But she would be damned if she allowed this bastard to take her company from her grasp.
"No," she replied and prepared to enact her contingency plans in case of a fight.
It was nice to be back in the game.
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Shen felt something eerie as he left the Low Officer. He was still missing his personal memories from his time before the Myriad Worlds, but he could tell something had gone weirdly. In fact, even when comparing it to his time in the World Tree¡ª
Oh.
He realized what it was.
Chaos; he was missing the chaos.
In the Myriad Worlds, every interaction with anyone always led to something else. Everything was big and complex. Here, although Nmara was evidently involved in deep schemes¡ªher mind was in overdrive, her soul burning with fear and hope, and her body language was all over the place¡ªnothing had come out of their brief interaction. At least, not yet.
E''vania had called him Child of Chaos. Had the Ghost Doctor also Severed Shen''s connection with Chaos¡ªwhatever that Chaos was¡ªwhen she Severed him from the Heavens? It made sense, but he hadn''t expected it.
Shen smiled. This... This was actual freedom. He could act and react, and things didn''t have to be far-reaching. He could interact normally with people. He could breathe without upsetting the Heavens.
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In fact, it was even better than just that. He looked at E''livia and saw the faintest Karma thread connecting her to Nmara. Yet, none had been formed between him and the wood elf.
Shen realized the Axiom of Karma wasn''t like the "deeply established" Axioms of Reality, so to speak. Karma had been created and pushed to the Linked Low Heavens by an Ascender. It wasn''t a fundamental part of Reality and, thus, couldn''t touch him, who had been Severed from the Heavens.
Evidently, he could still be affected by many Axioms and Laws of existence, or else he wouldn''t be able to interact with anything. Still, they needed to be at least at the High Heavens level, or maybe higher, at the True Heavens level.
That was a great discovery, a side effect of Severing that Shen bet wasn''t widely known by people, or it might piss the Warden-slash-Pillar responsible for Karma. In a multiverse where the status quo was so important, Shen wasn''t about to reveal it to anyone, either.
As if to confirm his thoughts, he felt his willpower increase when he learned that information. It was a very slight growth but more than what he had gained from all the knowledge Habnor had given him put together. This was definitely privileged information.
Heavens! He really liked improving his willpower so easily! With his Learning Ability Upgrades¡ª
The lightning in his heart flared, and he forgot what he had been thinking about. But unlike some previous times, he noticed what happened. He knew his line of thought had been cut, even though he couldn''t recall exactly where or how to return to that point.
Anyway, he turned to E''livia while they still flew away from Nmara¡ªwho had gotten company¡ªand said, "Domain bubble?"
He didn''t want to freely use his own domain. Infinite Improvement was quite addicting. In this place where willpower was better gained through knowledge, trying to hone his willpower by resisting the addiction would be a fool''s errand. Too risky, almost no reward.
Eli''iva smiled and formed a domain bubble around themselves. She would be able to prevent anyone from eavesdropping¡ªand detect further attempts at eavesdropping. Shen also deployed his aura for good measure.
He said, "That woman showed a lot of prejudice against you after you spoke. Can you change your appearance?" He guessed the answer from what she had told him about her technique, but it didn''t hurt to ask.
She shook her head. "No."
"Hmm... You should reveal yourself, then. Sure, we don''t know how dangerous it would be to reveal your true race here, but if anyone is connected to the Myriad Worlds, they would guess our identity just from seeing me with a female companion."
E''livia looked troubled. "Revealing my true race might make even ignorant people connect us to our home. I don''t know how common the E''holin are in the Shaft. Or throughout Reality at large. I was always under the impression that we''re very closely connected to the World Tree."
"I see... But Nmara clearly expected something to happen to you after you spoke. We can''t have that happen all the time. Also, if nothing has happened until now, either Habnor''s name can shield us to some extent or people have already seen through you. If his name can shield us and he didn''t say anything about you revealing your identity, we should trust him a little more. If this place''s shot-callers already saw through your disguise, there''s no reason to keep it, either."
"Of course, there is," E''livia countered. "Who knows? It might be that only the truly powerful people saw through my technique. That''s what I expect, in fact. The Myriad Worlds'' enemies might only have managed to plant weak spies in this place. Your presence with a girl is evidence, but revealing my identity will make them sure, and any enemy will have more reason to act against me. Or us. Actually, you shouldn''t have revealed your real name. Everyone in the Myriad Worlds knows the drow called Shen has Un''Re."
Shen smiled. "We can deal with weak spies and strong foes. I''d even say this is the perfect place for that. If an enemy sends an Ascender to the Overlord Realm, we kill them. They can''t use their Realization here."
She hesitated for a moment, then shook her head again. "Let''s scout the area a little more first. Maybe it was just Nmara who''s a racist."
He shook his head. "There''s no need. I saw countless spies eavesdropping on our earlier conversation. They all felt the same way she did when you spoke. Or rather, some also wanted to attack you but held back, probably because a stronger force should be coming already¡ªor so I guess. Even now, they are barely holding themselves." He pointed at a few people drinking tea in a nearby building. "You should drop your disguise."
E''livia frowned. Shen could tell she didn''t like him being forceful, but he didn''t care. He was being true to his One Self.
He insisted, "We have no backing in this place. Habnor made it clear he wouldn''t act for our benefit, and people will eventually find out about that. We have a limited amount of time to get people used to our identity through the lens of his authority. Even if your identity ends up making you a valuable kidnapping target, it''s better if as many people as possible know about it and compete for you than a limited number of powerful figures. Revealing your race now is the best move we can make."
"I disagree," she replied coldly. "And this is my choice to make, Shen."
He squinted his eyes and took note of her attitude. He still owed her for saving him, so he would let this slip¡ªthis once. Her strongheadedness wasn''t endearing her to him, though.
He opened his mouth to reply, but E''livia beat him to it. "I don''t think I like this new you. You feel cold. Distant. Even when we embraced in the ocean... You were just... Not there. You''re not here, here, either. Not like before. You feel too... Rational. Even the way you just ditched Nmara... You messed up her life and just left? Just like that?"
Shen couldn''t believe what he was hearing. "So we should care about a stranger doing her duty now? We didn''t force her into her position; she did. Her life choices put her there. We''re not responsible for..." He trailed off when he noticed he was being defensive¡ªbut didn''t need to. "Wait, why are we having this conversation? You''re the one who tried to kill me when I slapped you with the truth. You''re not a kind little girl. People screw up. They pay for their mistakes. That''s life."
"Well, maybe I am! Kind, not a little girl, I mean! I matured! You should try it sometime."
"Really?! That''s the direction you want to take this?! On you being more mature than me?! Are you willing to die on that hill?"
E''livia crossed her arms. She hated being challenged like that the most out of the entire discussion. "Sure, why not? Are you going to kill me for that? Can you?"
Her challenge made him furious, but he kept it under wraps. For now. She was walking a fine line there.
"E''livia," he spoke slowly as if talking to a dumbass, "you might have said you''re mad with me because I''m too rational, but the truth is that you''re mad because we... evolved, let''s use that word. We evolved differently. You became more caring, empathetic, emotional when you matured. I became more rational when I broke through in the Deep Path. Do you really call that being mature? Being rational?" He left the question, "Are you stupid?" merely implied.
E''livia pursed her lips. "Did you hear me at all, Shen? I''m mad because I want you to care for me. I used that Nmara as evidence of your change, nothing more."
He couldn''t believe she was saying that. They weren''t mortals. They both had a perfect recollection of what she had just said!
Shen replied, "You did not. You clearly tried to guilt-trip me because of what I did to her. And now, you''re¡ª"
She attacked. Shen tried to dodge, but her domain held him firmly. He couldn''t fight back.
Except her attack wasn''t an attack at all. E''livia embraced him. She had correctly guessed he would dodge it instead of believing she was just seeking comfort; that''s why she used her domain.
She teared up and released her hold over him, but he remained frozen in his confusion.
"I''m scared, Shen," she said softly. She clearly wanted to yell at him but held her emotions back to reveal her true feelings. It was heartbreaking that she only did that because she felt like she had no other choice, as her words elucidated, "I''m scared, and the only person I know and trust is pushing me to make myself more vulnerable to potential enemies. I''m scared, and you''re behaving in a way that makes me question if I should trust you. I''m... I''m so scared. I''ve never been without Dad before; I told you that. And I only have you. I can''t have you part with me. I can''t risk it. I''ll... I''ll behave. I''ll drop the disguise. But please... Please... For me, be a little kinder. Even... Even if you end up just throwing me away later. Just for a little while. Please. I''ll behave until then. I promise. Please."
So, Shen triggered her fear of being thrown away and ending up wholly alone because of how he had dealt with Nmara. He had known she was suffering but hadn''t been empathetic enough to care or take that into account. He had an eidetic memory, but it didn''t necessarily translate into knowing what to do with that knowledge; it didn''t automatically make him wiser for it.
Well, he had screwed up, and he found out he really, really wanted to hate himself...
...for not giving a damn about it.
Shen didn''t fully believe he had messed up. Her reaction wasn''t like his response would be in her situation; she was being too illogical. He had waited for her to mourn back when they were above the ocean, but it was almost like someone would wait for a pet cat to get over the stress of moving houses. Now, he saw her remaining emotions as stupid and useless and didn''t want to deal with them. His "pet" shouldn''t be that devoid of logic.
He realized that at some point, he had come to believe, deep down, that E''livia was his to command. His property. Even if they weren''t a couple yet, he had decided she would be his eventually, so she already was. That''s also why he felt offended at the simple fact that she hadn''t obeyed him. It had made her less appealing to him.
That wasn''t him. Not at all.
Or rather, it was. He had always had a "domineering" side to him. But not like this. He wanted to be stronger than his partner, but to impress them, to feel their pride for him, not to subjugate them to such a level. This was wrong. Twisted. His Will of Absolute Power had pushed his very existence in a way he just knew he shouldn''t have gone.
Yet, he only knew it as one might know a school of philosophy they didn''t think was too bad but didn''t subscribe to. He didn''t believe it¡ªdespite also knowing he should have believed in it. That should be part of his Honor¡ªthe same Honor that should be keeping his Will somewhat locked.
Then he noticed the issue: True Boundlessness, which was attached to his essence, also believed he should be free to do whatever he wanted. Any moral code that decreased his potential gains was to be discarded when convenient. He was Truly Boundless, and although he didn''t have Absolute Power over everything yet, he should exercise it over those below him, be it emotionally or at power levels.
It was logical. Simple. Obvious.
Shen could subjugate E''livia. She was in the palm of his hands. Isolated, vulnerable, needy¡ªliterally throwing herself at him.
Wasn''t she already his, after all? Why not see her as his property? All he had to do was demand it of her the right way, and she would have no choice but to abide by his wishes.
Shen realized something was very wrong with him and did the only sensible thing in such a situation. The only thing that could stop him from living a life he should abhor. A life of a man who abused his power whenever he could.
A life that, the more he thought about it, the more striking it sounded, and the more he felt tempted by it.
He didn''t even have the time to get away from E''livia. He was starting to smile. He was beginning to reach for her soul, force a connection she wasn''t ready to establish, and make her his. She would serve him for eternity, as it should¡ª
Shen willed every particle of his existence to cease to be.
The entirety of his One Self exploded.
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428. Change
? Change.
Change is one of the three Aspects of Reality. Nothing in Reality can escape pure, unadulterated Change. Things may form in creation with barely a hint of Space or Will, but not without Change. The very act of forming something new means something Changed from its previous state, and thus, Change becomes part of its existential foundation.
Change.
Space and Change lead to Time. At least, that''s how Reality Expresses that union nowadays. It was different in a time before Time, or so some theorize. It will be different one day when the way Reality Expresses itself also Changes.
Change.
Even Reality will Change one day. Change will, by its very nature, shift into something else one day. That it hasn''t yet is the greatest miracle of all creation. Or is it? There is no concept of "yet" for Change because Change is above the Time it births. Perhaps, for the Aspects of Reality, the seemingly infinite moments that resemble eternity to every creature are nothing but an instant when the Three Aspects just happened to simultaneously come to be and then disappeared. It feels long because all Time that was, is, and will ever be came to exist then and there, then shall cease.
Change.
Change was forced upon Shen time and time again during his tribulation. Quickly. Unceasingly. Overwhelmingly. Things happened so fast he couldn''t fully process. So much happened that he ended up as something he couldn''t recognize. He should''ve died. He was saved. The boy who sought the independence found with Absolute Power was humbled by depending on people to survive during the weakness brought to him by his own stupidity.
Such are the thoughts that run wild in Shen''s mind as he comes to be in infinite darkness.
He can see himself despite the lack of light because he is in a place beyond Laws. He knows the next tribulations in the Deep Path will be about Will and Space. He wasn''t told that by any mysterious power pushing knowledge into his mind. Still, it''s a logical conclusion because he was told the name of the tribulation he has just undergone:
The Selection of Change.
He also knows how said Selection is named in the Lagoth Multiverse: Tribulation of Remaking. It comes right after the Baptism of Unmaking that was forced upon him.
Unmaking. Remaking. The Un''Re spear. E''vania had been a little too in the face with that one.
Shen remembers everything both from before and after his death. He recalls the women he interacted with, from Alicia to Liya to E''livia. The splendorous beauty of the Queen of Spring and Autumn does little to mute E''livia''s voluptuous temptation. Liya and even Alicia have their own unique qualities. Shen realizes that he cares little about being the partner of the most breathtaking woman. As long as he has selected someone, and that someone wants to be with him, she''ll be the most beautiful to him. He isn''t even against picking someone who doesn''t conform to his beauty standards, though he finds that unlikely to happen. Physical attractiveness is a big motivator for him to get to know someone¡ªand he doesn''t feel guilty about it. He''s a biological being. Selection factors are natural. Nothing wrong with that.
Or is he a biological being?
Somewhat. At least, he is no longer One Self. He can see himself in the darkness, and he is a body with a soul¡ªand a soul with a mind. He can rationalize and feel things separately.
This is an immense mercy given by the True Heavens. He isn''t sure he wanted his tyrannical One Self to make any critical decisions in his life, and this place is related to a very crucial decision indeed.
He isn''t alone in the darkness. Three spheres float before him. Each represents a Path that he once walked.
He can pick whichever one he wants; the Selection of Change also Changed the usual dynamic of Selections. He can Select the rendition of his Path he wants as much as he was Selected by the Heavens.
The first sphere is his long-gone True Path, the last form of the Shalow Path he once formed. His Will of Absolute Power is in the middle, surrounded by his Laws and emotions. His Laws are perfectly balanced with each other in superimposing spirals. True Boundlessness is balanced by cutting through the middle like a spear.
That is a Path of beauty. Pure art. Shen could reach far if he walked it.
The second is his Ethereal Whole. It''s an imbalanced, ugly thing. His Will of Absolute Power, the Truth of Limits, and the Anti-Law of True Boundlessness keep each other in check, with everything else mixed in the middle. It works. He abhors it. At least, he hates the Truth of Limits. He shall never be limited like that again.
In fact, he can''t be limited like that again.
The Ghost Doctor affected his essence permanently. True Boundlessness is in his essence. It''s more closely connected to him than his Will, which is the reason for his existence and his ultimate goal. It defines him and makes picking any of those two Paths a risk. Who knows what will happen when they react to his now-Changed essence?
At first glance, that means only the third sphere can be picked. The third Path is the one he is currently walking. It''s his One Self. Shen sees it, but he can''t comprehend what he is seeing. He isn''t even sure it''s a sphere. He sees emotion, and emotion is everything. He sees the mind, and the mind is everything. He sees each individual Law, and they are everything. They don''t shift between each other. They aren''t superimposed. They are all there, simultaneously, occupying the entire Path. Yet, they are also not all there simultaneously; each one is the plenitude of his Path by themselves and not parts of a whole.
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Only his One Self can safely accommodate the essence that the Ghost Doctor forced upon him because it was formed with that already being a thing.
Yet, his One Self is the one Path he will never pick. He''ll never allow himself to become someone who preys upon the weak. His Absolute Power will never be used for that. He would rather die¡ªand die he did.
Considering he also abhors the second Path, the first seems like the obvious remaining choice. However, choosing any of the first two Paths means regression. Actual time travel.
Time is but something the Aspects Express of their communion. They can manipulate it at will. The Selection of Change will revert time for him if he picks any Path other than the third.
What most would consider a blessing comes with a catch: he will be limited to the Grand Path of whichever Path he picks: either the Grand Path of the Heavens or the Grand Path of Ideals.
The first Path means being locked into the Grand Path of the Heavens. How could Shen accept that? He doesn''t care if the Unifier Realm, which is above the Divine Mandatary Realm and can only be reached by Severing oneself and walking the Grand Path of Ideals, is a myth. He cannot accept ever being one with the High Heavens if that means being forever limited by the True Heavens. Nigh absolute power over a multiverse is no true absolute power. His Will demands all or nothing. True Boundlessness, now part of his essence, will also not accept being bound such.
There''s an argument to be made that he can find a way around the True Heavens'' rule in the future, but it''s a weak one. The power which one gains in the Grand Path of the Heavens is obviously a concession from the Low, then High Heavens. There''s evidently an element of merging with the Heavens in there. Even S-ranks¡ªor Ascenders¡ªwho push their Paths to the Low Heavens are called Pillars. They become part of the underlying structure of the Low Heavens. They become one with the Heavens.
Considering this is the Selection of Change, it''s fitting how Shen has to decide between accepting to be part of Reality as it is or keeping his potential to Change it in the future. Ultimately, this is what this Selection of Change is about¡ªat least, for him. By its very nature, this Selection is unique for each individual, though it always has to do with Change¡ªthen again, maybe even that Changes sometimes.
Anyway, it seems he can only die in the end.
Ironically, he cannot Change the way this Selection works. Then again, he doesn''t need to. As soon as he rejects the choices laid before him, he is informed there''s another way. There always were, though it''s only revealed to those who refuse the three choices so thoroughly and decisively as him.
Shen can pick one thing from any Path before him and Change it before selecting it. It feels a bit too nice of the True Heavens, but it''s, in fact, one of the available rewards for passing the tribulation¡ªand tribulations consistently reward the one who passes them. Now that he was given this boon, he shall never know the other possible rewards. He will also forget what happened in this place after he leaves. Everyone does.
He looks at the third Path, his One Self, which he can''t understand. Yet, the True Heavens help him, and he comes to know exactly what he has to do to achieve any result he might imagine¡ªand the consequences for the rest of himself should he do it.
Back in Reality, even glimpsing such secrets behind his One Self would be enough to blow his mind. Literally. A C-rank''s mind¡ªor rather, a Lawful Dominator''s mind, as it''s called in the Shaft¡ªcannot comprehend such things. Pushing that knowledge into such a weak mind would be like blowing a balloon too much.
Here, he doesn''t even feel any discomfort. Shen looks at his One Self, and it''s laid bare to him.
It doesn''t take long for him to marvel at the endless possibilities of this unique boon he has received. This reward... It''s almost too much. He can change his Path to make all his Laws become mastered. He can also give himself a Realization¡ªeven without mastered Laws. Shen can even swap his Will for something new that won''t push him into becoming a tyrant.
He thinks of countless ways to improve himself.
He decides on what to do.
He will swap True Boundlessness out of his essence and replace it with his Will of Absolute Power. Something needs to be there for him to survive. His foundations are too weak. True Boundlessness will revert to being only a Law in his Path.
It should be impossible for a Will to become a metaphysical part of his essence because it''s not "solid" enough. It is as impossible as having Realization without a mastered Law. Yet, the True Heavens don''t care.
Change is an Aspect of Reality. It''s okay for Reality to Change a little to accommodate his wishes.
Shen feels the Change happening physically. It''s wondrous, like feeling the reverberations of colossal rusty gears turning after remaining the same for so long. It''s humbling, like feeling all of Reality is nothing but a paper drawing that an artist decided to color slightly differently.
It happens in an instant. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, some of the most fundamental rules of Reality have Changed.
The anticlimax terrifies him. He has never felt so small. If forces he can''t even begin to comprehend can be toyed like that by the Aspect of Change, can anyone ever truly hope to escape its grasp? Will a Unifier ever be capable of really triumphing over the True Heavens?
A force like that can unmake him just as easily as it rewrote Reality. It can make it as if he never existed in the first place. How real is he, even? Is the illusion of Time really just an illusion, a collective dream of beings that never were as the Aspects meet for a fleeting instant? Is he just some sort of toy created for the amusement of some force beyond even the three Aspects of Reality?
Whatever the answers might be, it''s done.
He merges with his One Self.
The darkness starts to fade into colors.
All the memories previously blocked by the tribulation remain with him as he returns to E''livia''s embrace. Even the memories of his time as a human, which he lost during his Baptism of Unmaking, remain. The memories will no longer place his Path in conflict with his drow body. His identity has been cemented as his One Self. In fact, his drow race is but a Persona that others see, not his legitimate One Self.
Shen opens his eyes and knows he has passed the hidden last step of the Selection of Change. He was lied to. There was no going back in Time; Change would accept it. He could only pick the last Path or do what he did, Change a Path to fit him.
Change is a facet of existence. As he was told when he formed in that dark space, nothing can be without Change. He had to accept it to some level to pass the test.
He forgets everything he experienced in the darkness except the change he made to his One Self. His mind goes back to the way it was.
He''s still in the arms of a crying E''livia.
He''s still alive.
429. Undeserving
Undeserving.
Shen embraced E''livia and felt utterly undeserving of being alive. He had died twice already. The first time, he had been brought back to life by the Gardener, obviously with some help from the drow, if his Persona''s race was any indication. Now, he had been revived because dying was the right thing to do.
A bunch of coincidences. He hadn''t earned any of that.
He was also undeserving of his power.
Sure, he had trained hard, but how many things had been given to him for free? For starters, he had been born with a golden spoon. Although he suffered from crippled meridians and the lack of a mother, even then, he was allowed to learn some techniques of the Feng Clan. When no solution was found for his meridians, his father sacrificed himself for Shen. It just happened that the Alliance was coming and healed him. There, he grew fast.
His meteoric rise was partially because of his solid martial arts foundations. Partially because Lagoth''s High Heavens had given him great talent so they could use him. Partially because he met the right mentors at the right time.
Now, even Reality itself had been rearranged for him¡ªbecause he succeeded in a tribulation that he had been pushed into when the Gardener forced the Baptism of Unmaking upon him. Shen could tell the Baptism wasn''t meant to happen until he at least mastered his Path''s Laws. Ideally, he should''ve been a B-rank to survive it and the ensuing tribulation. But he survived the Baptism itself because of his high willpower¡ªalso honed with other people''s help¡ªand the tribulation because of the True Heavens'' ploy, which had twisted the Primordials'' command to allow Realizators to survive after they shattered their Realization, which, in turn, allowed him to survive his Essence Confluence.
More coincidences. More unearned things.
So, what right did he have to look down upon the weak as beings to be dominated, as he had done before he killed himself? Everything he had had been given to him. Sure, he had some participation in it, but was he any different from a weapon that just happened to be crafted by a high-level artisan? Take his spear, Un''Re. It was glorious because it had been formed like that. It had no right to look down on weapons that just happened not to have the same opportunities as it had.
Even now, he was undeserving of his company.
E''livia wasn''t perfect, but she was there for him. She had saved his life and had been exiled because of him. Although part of the reason she remained with him was not to feel so lonely, she did care for him. Not to mention that she was a Demi-Dominator, a peak combatant in the Overlord Realm. So, the Gardener even gave Shen a bodyguard when he teleported him away. A bodyguard who had romantic feelings for him.
Shen deserved absolutely nothing he had, and it humbled him.
Half the reason for the change of perspective was having his Will of Absolute Power attached to his essence. It was both weird and logical. Absolute Power was now such a deep part of himself that it became the lens through which he saw the world and himself. It was pathetically easy to see where he stood in the power hierarchy of Reality relative to the strong beings he had seen¡ªand how he had gotten there.
The other half of the reason was his recovered memories. They humbled him further than he had already done in the Myriad Worlds. They rearranged his priorities, including the reason why he sought Absolute Power. It wasn''t for power itself or for his benefit. His Will wanted power for power''s sake, but when he mixed his Will with his essence, it was given perspective on... grander and more profound things.
Shen sought Absolute Power to Improve Reality one day. That''s where his Domain Infinite Improvement had come from. That''s the direction he would develop his Realization one day.
His focus on improvement, especially self-improvement, also helped him not dwell on his smallness for too long right now. He was weak and undeserving, but he still had the time to become someone worthy of what he had been given.
E''livia felt comforted in his arms when he embraced her, but she also tensed. She was lost and confused. He wanted to help her with that, but Shen realized he was also crushed by overwhelming loneliness.
He had lost them all. Again and again, everything and everyone he cared about was taken from him. In fact, he had also abandoned them in the end, before he died, seeking his own survival.
He wasn''t just undeserving; he was a pile of steaming garbage¡ªand he wanted validation, to feel cared for, and to lose himself in something beyond him.
Shen knew caressing E''livia''s face might be a mistake, but he did it anyway, just as he knew he shouldn''t make her look at him. But, as he told her when he looked into her eyes, "I won''t regret this. If this is a mistake, it''s my mistake to make, and I''ll deal with the consequences." He kissed her forehead and closed his eyes, keeping his mouth there, then whispered, "Do you want to do something potentially stupid with me?"
He had focused so much on the future throughout his entire life! On the Absolute Power he would achieve in a very distant day. On the things he would fix when he could. On the perfect relationship he would develop when both parties were sure it was the undoubtably right thing to do.
The most valuable thing he gained with his One Self was understanding the importance of his feelings and of being true to himself. He was nowhere perfect. He wasn''t even particularly special. Everything had been given to him. Why the hell was he focusing on a perfect ideal he couldn''t achieve?
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"By the Gardener, I do," E''livia said as she turned her head up. "I really want to be stupid right now."
They kissed.
The truth was that Shen had been sabotaging himself his whole life. He had always focused so much on the future that he forgot to live the present. And he was such an idiot that it took him two deaths to finally grasp the value of living a life worth living.
He wasn''t sure how long the kiss lasted, but when it ended, they quickly found an inn to spend the night together.
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"I''m sorry," Shen said.
It had been a week already, and this was the first time they stopped to talk about anything meaningful. It turned out he had a lot of pent-up stress to release, and so did E''livia. She also had a lot of anger and sadness to drown. He did his best to assist her, and she did his best to assist him.
E''livia, in her holin form¡ªshe could retract her wings¡ªraised from his side and held her head in her hands, her elbows on the floor. She smiled at him. "Now you tell me you''re sorry about making me the happiest woman in the multiverse? Too late."
He smiled back as he put one elbow on the floor and rested his head on his closed fist. He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear with the other hand. "No, I mean it. I''m sorry. I was so lost in my grief and the desire to just live... I''m not even the same Shen you met in the Myriad Worlds. It was unfair of me to bed you."
She playfully bit the finger he had used to push his hair...
...and, to his shame, that''s all it took for him to realize he really, really had a lot of pent-up stress, and it wasn''t all gone.
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"I lied to you," E''livia said a few days later.
They were sitting on the floor, E''livia in his embrace, her back to him. The entire room had been destroyed, just as the ones below, causing significant structural damage to the inn. Nmara had appeared to form a protective energy bubble in the area for them. Shen was confident she had also paid for the damages. But that was a problem for future Shen to deal with¡ªand the same could be said for his guilt about destroying someone''s building.
Fortunately, the city''s obsidian ground¡ªwhich could be found a few feet below the D-tier stone slabs someone had covered it with¡ªwas C-tier and had withstood Shen''s and E''livia''s passion. She insisted doing it in the clouds would be better, but it would also make them too vulnerable, so they kept to the ground.
"You lied?" Shen asked.
"I don''t feel that lonely," she replied. "I never did. I have you." She rested the back of her head on his shoulder. "I''m sorry. I... I can see now how obsessive I was acting. It wasn''t fair to you."
"That is an issue," Shen conceded. "But as I was saying, I''m sorry, too. I think we''re both a bit egotistical in the end."
"That reminds me: what did you mean by not being the same Shen I met?"
He smiled. "That is a long story. The most relevant part starts with the Gardener resurrecting me..."
Shen told her everything about his latest tribulation. He also said a few things about his past in the Alliance and his enmity with the Primordials, whom he still considered assholes. They wanted to Purge the Alliance, and that would include the few people he cared about. He hoped to grow strong enough to fight for the drow when Lagoth''s Co-Ruler, a Primordial, tried to get an Investiture. The drow deserved it for their involvement in reviving him, whatever they had done, and those Primordial bastards had it coming.
"That is a bit troublesome," E''livia replied after he was done. "To have mated with someone I know so little..." She sighed as she turned to face him. "It looks like I''ll have to do my best to get to know you more, Mister Mystery."
Shen chucked. "Mister Mystery? Really? And to say it so sexily... You call that a line?"
E''livia smiled wickedly before approaching his ear and whispering. "Oh, are you unsatisfied, Mister Mystery? And here was I willing to let you explore those mysterious places in my body I had been unwilling¡ª"
Shen immediately interrupted. "Mister Mystery presenting himself for duty!" He got to exploring right after.
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Shen and E''livia actually talked for a few days in between their love-making sessions. Eventually, Shen commented how his almost-girlfriend Liya had been absolutely wrong about how sex wasn''t all that compared to the wonders of the universe.
He expected E''livia to get jealous when he mentioned that, and while she got very slightly jealous, she reacted to that with a, "I''m monogamous, but I''m willing to look however you want to keep you into me."
That was weird to him, but she revealed it was a common practice in holin culture. Almost all of them were strictly monogamous, and even mortals of their race lived for thousands of years. So, they were taught to detach themselves from their physical image in case their partners grew bored in the future¡ªthat way, they wouldn''t feel offended as they changed their looks in private to please. It happened a lot, and they had learned to find fun in that.
Shen replied, "I get not feeling attached to a body, believe me. I told you about my Persona. But also believe me in this: you''ll suffice. Have you looked at yourself?"
She smiled pleasedly but wasn''t convinced. "You say that now, but what in a thousand years? Ten thousand? A million? I also think this marvelous body of yours will be enough for me, but we''ll see in a few hundred years."
He smiled back. "Oh. Is that a challenge? So be it. I''ll prove to you that I can keep you entertained and wholly fulfilled with this body of mine to the day we part."
They never discussed how serious their relationship was or wasn''t. There was no need to. They implicitly understood they were finding companionship in each other for now. If a new factor ever interfered with that¡ªbe it internal or external, good or bad¡ªthen they would talk about it.
E''livia chuckled as he pulled her. "I don''t doubt you, Mister Mystery. But if I don''t see wrong, Nmara will die when that sneaky assassin finally strikes. From what you told me of your old-new personality, you''ll feel bad about it, won''t you?"
Shen sighed. The energy bubble around them only blocked physical senses, not metaphysical ones. E''livia could feel everything outside with her Path, and he could see it with his Allvision.
He had been ready to protect Nmara but still wanted to have a last round with E''livia. As he had told her, touching someone''s soul during sex was a unique and indescribable experience when you could feel your soul. He was almost addicted to it. He wanted at least a few months of reclusion to get used to it before dealing with the real world.
Alas, it wasn''t to be.
Shen stood up and deployed his Domain of Infinite Improvement. It didn''t push any of his Laws to mastery, but it covered the space the assassin was in, and his Law of True Boundlessness was close enough to mastery that it sufficed. Shen removed the limits of space forced upon the physicaa world by the Axiom of Spacetime between him and the assassin, teleported behind the guy, and gripped his neck in a swift move.
"Your clothes!" E''livia yelled right before Specetime mended back together behind Shen.
430. Sightseeing
Shen and E''livia drank Lunar Dew Whisky, a low-level Overlord drink, as they watched over the Shaffer Company''s Headquarters from the skies. It was located relatively close to the city center but far enough that it was evident it was no more than a mid-level organization. That Nmara could learn the High Language despite their relatively small size showed her ancestors had the gift of diplomacy that she lacked.
Nmara had refused monetary compensation for her assistance in the inn, and E''livia could afford to pay quite a lot after selling a few trinkets from her spatial artifact. Instead, Namra had hinted at wanting them to guard her company for a week. She had the subtly of a tremor dragon mowing through a toy-sized crystal palace.
Her intentions were obvious: she wanted them to be publicly associated with her. Shen and E''livia knew it but decided to accept the offer anyway. They would gain a week to understand that city''s politics and be able to use the Shaffer Company as temporary backing while they got their bearing in the Shaft.
"Should we kill them?" E''livia asked on the sixth day when Nmara''s deeper scheme became blatantly obvious.
Shen shook his head. "I''m not a great sage of politics, but I bet any attack would work in Nmara''s favor. Even if the Enamel Tower went behind her back, she had to at least suspect they might lie to us. She brought us there nonetheless. She has to be prepared for us to respond aggressively. No; the best way to punish everyone involved is to reveal their tricks when we leave."
The Enamel Tower had lied to them about not knowing how Shen should master his Laws. They promised to figure it out in a few days but had requested an extension twice already, the last time being a few minutes ago. Even E''livia, with barely any experience with intrigue, could tell they would "need" another extension at the end of the week Nmara had asked for. The foolish woman was trying to leverage it against them to keep them protecting her company.
E''livia wasn''t convinced. "Us telling on them will punish them? How? Won''t we just look easy to trick and incapable of playing high-level games?"
"Maybe. Or perhaps people will just understand we''re willing to give people a chance, but we aren''t willing to play their games. That''s what we''ll claim; there will be little reason to doubt us. No one knows us; how we react to this will serve as a baseline for people''s expectations of us in the future. Yet, this is not about us."
"What''s it about, then?"
"Nmara wants us to temporarily protect her company because she has Demi-Dominator enemies. She''s desperately trying to rope another Demi-Dominator in while we''re here, using us to prove her business acumen and the benefits she can provide. If she succeeds, she''ll be seen as having a good sense of opportunities. Then, even if we leave on bad terms, she''ll be safe."
E''livia frowned. "I don''t follow how that''s good to us."
Shen smiled. "I don''t blame you. This is more or less also the extent of my intrigue senses, so to speak. Nmara misread our ''good guy aura,'' or perhaps how afraid we are of making a move. We aren''t unwilling to kill her or burn the Enamel Tower to the ground; we simply don''t need to. Also, we''re not trying to hide our conversation. People are listening in and know what we''re planning.
"So, any Demi-Dominator who accepts the job will be going directly against us. It''ll be a challenge, likely at the behest of the powers-that-be, to test our response and power. We''ll kill them before we leave because any other response will make us look weak and invite more trouble for us later on. Nmara will be taken as the fool she is for miscalculating, and whoever lost a Demi-Dominator will take it on her and her allies. If no one is willing to test us, and we leave as planned, speaking ill of her, she''ll be seen as a fool who takes stupid risks. Her best and dumbest move is to try to gain the support of a peak organization, which is likely what she is going for."
E''livia raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Should we be fighting a peak organization?"
Shen shook his head. "Not if we have a choice on the matter. We''re not barbarians. More importantly, we''re not revolutionaries. The Overlord Realm''s status quo must not be challenged if we can avoid it. The Realm is massive, and we can''t fight a nigh-infinite number of Demi-Dominators by ourselves. If a peak organization helps Nmara and lets us go, we''ll leave in pathetic defeat but alive.
"It won''t matter for our revenge, though; she''ll already be seen as an idiot for selling her company right after repurchasing it. Her future will be sealed. Also, I doubt the Enamel Tower will ever have any more business after trying to trick a Demi-Dominator like you connected to Habnor. The Enamel Tower, and maybe even Nmara, reached above their station. The same status quo we''re unwilling to offend won''t let them go unharmed."
E''livia yawned. "That sounds overly complicated and boring. And Nmara sounds like an idiot. Why would she do that?"
Shen shrugged. "Who knows? We could find out, but does it really matter? It might even be what she wants us to do. But we''re not interested in this city. We''ll leave tomorrow."
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He was shocked that no one appeared out of nowhere to challenge his declaration. It seemed life could really be uneventful if the Heavens weren''t creating Chaos whenever you went. He sipped more of his Lunar Dew Whisky and kept watching the city, using his Allvision to check interactions and understand the local culture.
Well, he focused more on inter-species interactions than the city''s culture itself. Five days ago, he and E''livia decided they didn''t want to waste time learning to navigate that place''s waters. They honored their agreement with Nmara to guard the company because it was the honorable thing to do, despite Nmara''s deception, but that was all. It was better to waste years finding a place with less politics than to get entangled in the crazy mess there.
The city''s only mildly interesting thing was the biochip implant that worked as a sort of poor man''s Guardian System, but it only worked in that nation. Shen and E''livia weren''t sure where they would end up, so they didn''t buy one.
The next day, they left a crying and regretful Nmara behind. No Demi-Dominator came to test E''livia''s prowess. Either they didn''t want to risk a Demi-Dominator of theirs for a mid-sized company or just didn''t care enough about him and E''livia to plot against them. It was likely the latter, considering no one came to try to forge connections with them, either.
Being disregarded like that felt pretty bittersweet, but it was better than the alternatives.
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Shen could move hundreds of times faster than sound, or so it resembled; more things were involved in his movements than sheer physical speed. He could get from Earth to the moon in less than half an hour. Yet, Habnor had said it would take Shen almost a hundred years to go from one edge of the Overlord Realm to another at his peak speed, not considering teleportation.
So, the Overlord Realm was so vast Shen couldn''t fully picture it with his C-rank mind.
But he was willing to explore. E''livia needed to meditate on the local Axioms before trying to break through, and Shen himself needed to figure out how to master his Laws. A worry-free journey through the countryside sounded good enough.
So, they bought some cheap books about the region''s and the Overlord Realm''s geopolitical boundaries¡ªand a few others about general cultivation knowledge¡ªbefore leaving Nmara behind and going sightseeing.
Oceans of night and curtains of burning salt; trees woven with pure qi and Void-corrupted animals that no one seemed to consider a big deal; palaces filled with all earthly desires one might want for cheap and bite-sized meals that cost one''s entire fortune. They saw wonder after wonder as they traversed the lands. Bandits were rare close to the cities, especially in the seat of power of nations, but were plentiful on the outskirts. Very few had a Demi-Dominator, and in six months, only three were miscalculating enough to try to go for them.
E''livia''s Path took that long to harmonize with the Shaft; it was more complicated than she initially expected. She got ready to break through, but they decided to wait until Shen could break through with her. It turned out that the first time one reached a new rank, they were forcibly pushed to the next Realm. Who knows what trouble might await her there? Shen needed to at least master his Laws before he could be safe by himself.
Shen had seldom been the strongest cultivator around, but he could recall very few instances where he was directly protected. He didn''t like the feeling.
He liked dying even less, though.
They bought the knowledge he needed in a few cities before they trusted the information enough to use it. Simply put, Shen had to find a way to peek into Reality''s Laws and use his will to change his Path''s Laws to match the mastered Laws. There was no enlightenment involved, no getting insights through experimenting the world. It was a mere copy-pasting of the Axioms into himself¡ªat least at first sight.
Copying things wrongly happened all the time and was highly dangerous. Doing so while walking the Grand Dao of Ideals was even more challenging because Shen''s One Self would fight his changes.
They decided he should wait for a stable environment, with a doctor nearby, before he attempted anything.
They weren''t in a hurry to grow more powerful. They enjoyed the novelty of each other''s arms and would take a very, very long time to Ascend, which was needed to get back to the Myriad Worlds. Taking the time to decompress now was for the best; an investment, really. At worst, it would make little to no difference in the long run.
It took them another six months of traveling the land to find a place they liked.
The simplest way to describe the massive, massive city was as a cyberpunk utopia, where cultivators became cyber samurais and businessmen, each following their own non-standard Path. It was a utopia instead of a dystopia because beneath all the punk-like anarchy was a rigid honor-based society in the sects, which functioned more like gangs or mafias. Said honor was what differentiated them from profit-driven ventures and corporations. The inner politics could be tricky to navigate if you dug too deeply, but most of it boiled down to a constant tug of war between sects and ventures¡ªand both also fought internally.
Even after researching, Shen and E''livia found no explanation for how a cultivator society could develop like that. Sure, high-tech body parts could strengthen a cultivator faster than classical cultivation, but so could simple armor, which was less invasive. Shen concluded that people found the theme cool, and Law Overlords lived long enough to get bored of the same old. In a place as impossibly vast as the Overlord Realm, they could also pick their poison in how to struggle to grow more powerful.
That aura of willingness to be there was the second reason they picked Cylek, the first being the honor-bound gangs. People were there because they wanted to be there. They chose the side they felt more comfortable with, gang or venture, and understood that it was a fight for growth and supremacy in a dog-eat-dog society of their own making.
That ideal ran so true through everyone''s hearts that, despite Cylek being a "mere" city-state of provincial size, it hadn''t been conquered by the three neighboring big countries for hundreds of thousands of years. When the Cylekians went to war against an external threat, they united¡ªand they were strong. Oh, sure, there was plenty of backstabbing and internal sabotage, but even that was part of the game in a way.
Living in Cylek was a unique experience, and Shen and E''livia were all in for that.
And so, on the 899th year of the 9,322nd Era, Shaft Time, they entered a high-tech dojo and declared it would henceforth belong to them.
In the future, that event would be considered the beginning of the Shattering.
431. Three Months
Demi-Dominators like E''livia were rare in Cylek but not impossible to find, something around less than one in every hundred thousand Overlords. Cylek had over five million Overlords. That meant around fifty Demi-Dominators.
Frankly, Shen was shocked at how powerful the Shaft was. He was only talking about Cylek! It was the size of a small province, but even then, those numbers were staggering. And the Overlord Realm was wide beyond Shen''s understanding, with many other regional powers and huge cities.
Cylek alone had half the number of Overlords the entire Alliance had in C-ranks. Moreover, Shen doubted the Alliance had one hundred C-rank domain-holders!
Cylek had not only numbers but also quality.
In the Alliance, developing a domain at C-rank was a mark of great talent and skill. In the Shaft, it was almost the expected step to take before breaking through to the Seeker power level. If you already had a domain when you broke through, you became a Dominator instead of an average Seeker. It was a mark of status, and if Shen''s suspicions weren''t wrong, it meant extra protection once you were slingshot into the Seeker Realm and the vultures came.
Lawful Dominators like Shen were rarer than Demi-Dominators, but they lacked actual power, so they didn''t matter as much. Potential counted for little more than bragging rights in the Shaft because it had so many cultivators that, statistically, every organization could find someone who learned quickly to nurture. No one had unlimited resources, so there was no reason to raise every immense talent you found.
Potential was even less significant in Cylak. Sects were similar to gangs in many ways, but gang members weren''t sect disciples who trained in enclosed spaces for a very long time and only left for minor missions for tempering now and then, usually supervised without their knowledge. Likewise, corporation profit-hunters weren''t coddled; they had to show results, or they were repeatedly demoted until they were fired.
There were some unspoken rules to protect children in Cylek, as mortality was so high that the city would''ve burned itself to the ground long ago if it didn''t constantly renew the ranks. Inmigrants like Shen were common, but so were people fleeing. The result as a net positive for people coming in, but everyone still needed fresh blood to keep the city afloat.
That wasn''t the only rule. Even the most unhonorable corporations seldom sent a stronger fighter than the stronger fighter that had been present when a battle started. In other words, if only Conceptualizers were in a location there when a fight started, only Conceptualizers would see it to the end. Unless, of course, it involved key places or big interests, but everyone knew not to abuse the rules, or they would find out why no one did it.
However, the rules also meant every non-child Overlord was fair game, and five million Overlords meant five million potential killers and victims.
The rules for engagement for Overlords were more fluid and came down to honor and interest. Some offenses couldn''t be ignored, but sometimes, it wasn''t worth it to lose even more people to achieve retribution. When you''re literally surrounded by enemies, you must find the right balance between not looking weak and not overreaching.
Anyway, E''livia being one of Cylek''s Fifty Demi-Dominator Hegemons¡ªwhich could be more or less than that at any given point, but the name had stuck¡ªmeant she had clout. After a few weeks spent conquering a few key places where they found a power vacuum, she acquired the money and connections to buy a nice high-end triplex apartment on one of the eighty-one skyscrapers that overlooked the rest of the city.
It was night, and Shen sat alone on the roof''s gazebo, watching the flying cars for rich but weak cultivators and the also flying Overlords, most of whom had cyberware. Purple, blue, and violet neon lights mixed with bright ads everywhere. Cylek was a vertically multi-layered city, and looking down meant seeing a seemingly endless crazy maze of streets.
Shen didn''t belong in that fancy place. His budding gang was somewhere down below where the sun didn''t reach. E''livia, however, was a few days from being named CEO of BioEngineering, and this place was safer.
They were a couple and didn''t hide it from anyone. They also didn''t hide that Shen would run a gang while E''livia would run a corporation. However, their members would be different, each belonging to their own separate organization. E''livia and Shen''s organizations would also never help each other in a fight. The rule extended to Shen and E''livia themselves. If they ever helped, whoever was helped would leave their organization and join the other for good.
He wasn''t sure people believed that yet, but it didn''t matter. They would learn in time. But even if they didn''t, E''livia was a Demi-Dominator. She would do whatever the hell she wanted to a great extent before she crossed too many bottom lines and forced the other Fifty to move.
There was no grand scheme behind their choices. Well, there was one grand scheme to be had: E''livia''s, when she learned how to do it. She felt she was too naive in the intrigue department and wanted to improve. She felt the overly cutthroat world of corporations would be ideal for that.
Shen himself just wanted to reconnect with his origins to a point while also challenging himself to find honor in society''s underbelly. How far would he go in the world of crime? How far should he go? It would be a great learning experience.
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The professional split was because they didn''t want to depend too much on the other. It would cheapen any lesson and make things too easy. Struggling might not increase willpower too much in the Shaft, but there was still value in learning things through experience the hard way. Not everything was about willpower.
The important part here was that there was a real danger, at least for Shen. None of the Fifty would move against E''livia alone, but any of them could come and kill Shen one day before she could react. Probably. Well, at least he would definitely die if a few of the Fifty united and stalled E''livia while another came for him. He couldn''t defeat a Demi-Dominator, period. Some people might consider Cylek a make-believe city, but how he and her navigated it might seal their fate.
To tell the truth, the feeling of danger was exciting.
He was currently focusing both on the Axioms of Reality and himself. He used his Allvision to look at what the Law of Extremity looked like in the world below and at Un''Re''s edge, the spear floating before him. He used his qi to feel what he could, and he really analyzed every single "texture" of the Law of Extremity. He touched it with his hand. He let himself get cut. He felt it with his every sense.
Shen had to copy-paste the Law into himself, but it wasn''t as simple as it sounded. A Law wasn''t an image he could paint. It was filled with Concepts and a complex pattern of meanings and interactions with other Laws. He had to understand the underlying workings of a Law to copy it.
Yet, it also wasn''t overly challenging. Law Overlords were supposed to master Laws, and his mind could comprehend things quickly, especially because he saw everything clearly with his Allvision. It only took him a month to get halfway through to mastering the Law of Extremity.
There was no going further than that, though.
It wasn''t exactly a matter of balance, as it had once been the case for his perfectly balanced True Path. His other Laws didn''t need to be as strong as each other. No, it was ironically a matter of Change. He couldn''t Change just one part of himself without Changing everything else just as much. He realized that overcoming the Selection of Change placed him on some sort of level, tier, step, or realm in the Grand Path of Ideals. Everything about him had to Change. He could only ignore the rule until it reached a certain threshold.
That seemed a huge issue initially because cultivators cemented their feelings, beliefs, and personalities as they grew strong. That''s the reason even nigh-omnipotent beings could behave like immature children. Maybe that''s why Nmara acted stupidly in the past.
However, Shen discovered he had the opposite issue: the Step of Change he was currently in made him too fluid.
Working on the Law of Extremity had affected his personality more than it should have. He was sharper himself, easier to anger, less tolerant of mistakes, and faster at cutting obstacles before himself instead of wondering if he should cut them at all.
Ironically, the way to deal with that was to meditate more on the Law of Extremity. The more he understood it, the more he actually mastered it. Maybe not in terms of "percentage;" he was still stuck at 99.5%¡ªthe 0.5% being his gains in Cylek. But he went beyond copy-paste territory and stepped firmly into making the Law inside himself bow to his wishes instead of the other way around.
That was called "stabilizing your cultivation" in the missives about general cultivation knowledge he had purchased. Well, it was called that in the few that mentioned the Grand Path of Ideals.
So, although Shen could grow stronger faster by just cultivating another Law, he would rather not. He estimated it would take him a few extra weeks every time he progressed 0.5% in any Law to decrease the influence of the Laws of Reality on himself.
The annoying part was that his One Self didn''t believe in the Step of Change. It fought him whenever he tried to make the Laws inside him match Reality. It also fought him now, as he fought to become the master of his Laws before reaching 100%. Just because every single thing inside him was his whole self instead of a part, it didn''t mean there couldn''t be an internal hierarchy. His entire One Self wanted to be on top though.
He didn''t even know how that was possible, as his entire One Self should be contributing with his One Self, not fighting each other. It made no sense.
Annoying Path.
Well, at least he had a way of relaxing.
"I''m home!" E''livia yelled from the door below and started removing her clothes as she rushed to him.
Shen sighed. "A man''s duty is never done," he said in mock defeat, and then, she was upon him.
? ?
? ?
"Denied," a cyberware tentacle monster said from half of the Conference Hall that was covered in darkness. The young Lawful Dominator kneeling before him couldn''t pierce through the Domain of Silent Denial. His voice was deep and raspy. "I didn''t stop your father from leaving Cylek, but he did leave. He left us. His gang. His family. We have no obligation to you."
"Octo-sama!" the cultivator said, bashing his head on the polished obsidian floor. His skull cracked. Blood flowed. "I beg you! Give me a chance to prove myself! Invest in me, and I''ll be better than all your other children!"
There was silence, then the humanoid head with dozens of cyberware eyes, attached to the enormous metal mass from which came the tentacles, said, "You did your homework. You know I like arrogance. You cannot succeed if you''re content with your lot or believe you can''t reach further. But you didn''t do your homework well enough."
"What do you mean, Octo-sama?"
"Never make a claim you cannot back up. Cylek''s latest uncrowed Lawful Dominator arrived three months ago. You cannot beat him. But you can try. Defeat him, and I''ll take you as mine."
"Thank you for the opportunity, Octo-sama!" the youth said, stood up, and left.
The metallic tentacle monster looked pensive at the departing figure. Honor would require him to take the child in if he succeeded. The creature had no space for another child; the gang''s resources were stretched thin already as they were. But it might be worth it to get rid of the newcomer. He showed signs of preparing to establish a proper gang, and gangs always expanded until they were stopped. Their territories were too near.
He knew it had been a mistake not to react as soon as the couple arrived, but no one cared about the first dojo they conquered in the Deeps or the subsequent small places. A small price to pay to please a Demi-Dominator who had been an unknown factor.
But now it was obvious the couple hadn''t come on vacations; they meant business. Thus, it was time to get rid of them.
The boy would succeed or be a fitting first feller. The only shame was that his enemies would also profit from the results, whichever they were, not just him. At least only he would have bragging rights if the kid succeeded.
The assassination attempt would happen in a few days at the least, considering the youth liked to investigate his targets. So, for now, he put the matter to the back of his mind, closed his eyes, and got back to meditating.
He was one step away from breaking through. He knew it. He just needed one insight.
Only one.
? ?
432. CIPD
Shen flew through the maze of buildings and elevated streets with a frown. The deeper you went into Cylek''s underbelly, the less people cared about proper lighting. Anything enchanted and not adequately secured was stolen unless it was in gang territory, and even then, most gangs liked to have some dark places for some specific business.
Simple darkness, without anti-perception enchantments, couldn''t hinder an Overlord''s sense, but it might throw a Conceptualizer for a loop, depending on their abilities. The target audience of the less prestigious streets were said weaklings. The province-wide city-state had five million Overlords, but it also had over twenty million Conceptualizers and another fifty million weaker people.
If Alicia was here, Shen guessed she would properly define it as a fuckton of people.
That density was one of the things Shen liked about Cylek. His Allvision couldn''t see further than for levels up or down outside buildings and, at most, two levels when inside. He was forced to be on edge every second, and without any passive Law senses. Just flying around was good training for his senses and his psyche.
He didn''t go all the way down to the deepest levels. Instead, he stopped three street levels above the ground, which was considered the baseline level for Overlords. Anything below was for weaklings. The two underground levels, none of which were as wide or populated as the rest of the city, were considered undignified to even think about.
Shen had a few things to say about a few of the "undignified" things he witnessed there once, but he would wait until he mastered his Laws.
Cylek''s baseline Overlord street level was quite tall. The deeper in the city you went, the closer the next level was. On the third street level, where he was, apartment buildings had up to ten mortal-tall floors. Yet, the city had another nine street levels above that one, each taller than the next. That''s how massive Cylek was.
He slowed down as he reached the third street level. It was filled with cultivators, a few of which were Overlords like him. Only the strongest of the Overlords dared to fly around, as it meant making themselves easier to target than in the crowd.
Shen''s frown worsened when he saw the smoke in the distance. He had arrived on that street level a bit away from his goal to avoid the most
obvious traps. He still didn''t land, but he tensed and became even more aware of his surroundings.
Cylek was a Spiritual Nexus, meaning the qi in the entire region confluenced there for reasons unknown. That gave birth to many mystic realms, or pocket dimensions, filled with wonders. Shen half suspected one of the reasons the cyberpunk pioneers had elected to go cyberpunk was to distract outsiders from how sweet that spot was. Moreover, wannabe conquerors would have to destroy the entire place, which was hard to overwatch, to protect every resource point. The street maze was intentional.
It was possible to conquer all of Cylek, eliminate the people, and level the "geography," but the Overlord Realm''s peak forces had yet to consider it worth the effort. It was best to play Cylek''s game by influencing the local forces in an eternal tug of war. Not to mention that Shen was pretty sure the place was nowadays the primary experimental hub for the entire Shaft''s research into cyberware; many influencing powers with a stake in it would have something to say about losing the city.
It was a brilliant plan, really. Shen hadn''t known about the mystic realms at first, but he did know he had visited no other city or kingdom where mystic realms were shared between different forces as much as in Cylek.
All that was to say that the first dojo he and E''livia conquered in the city was on one of the ugly sides of the Third Street Level, away from both
the city center and the city outskirts, far from any important commercial businesses or resource points. They had gone for it both to avoid annoying other forces and because it would be easier to protect a place no one cared about. So, learning the place had been burned to the ground had come as quite a surprise.
Shen was forced to land when he approached. The local peacekeepers had cordoned off Shen''s dojo and nearby buildings. The boundary was demarked by floating screens floating mid-air, flashing the words "NO TRESPASSING" and "CIPD," shorts for "Cilek''s Investigation and Punishing Department."
Every CIPD officer was a Conceptualizer or stronger. The Conceptualizers wore defensive gear resembling riot armor, made of what they called plasteel, a Conceptualizer-tier material with the same malleability as plastic and much, much more resistant to shock, piercing, cutting, and the elements than Conceptualizer-tier metal. It was expensive, but those were innate characteristics. Plasteel armor was cheaper to produce and buy in bulk than cheaper but enchanted materials.
The three human Overlords, however, wore clothes made of silkeel, an Overlord-tier material that was even more resistant than plasteel and as malleable as silk. The strongest Overlord, clearly in charge, wore a fancy black and gray suit, and the other two wore martial arts robes. No clothing was pure silkeel, but they were all inlaid with it. Unlike the Conceptualizers, their clothes were enchanted for extra protection.
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Every CIPD officer had the words etched to their clothing somewhere. The Conceptualizers had it in their riot gear. The guys in martial robes had it writen on their chest, evidencing the robes weren''t actually theirs. Only the suit-wearing Overlord had a pin placed over his suit.
Shen could fight them if he wanted, but the CIPD was publicly backed by nothing less than ten Demi-Dominators. Only three would really fight for it if it came to it, and probably not to the death, but it meant bypassing their authority required money or connections.
Shen used the latter. His status wasn''t good enough to fly in, so he showed respect by landing. However, he didn''t slow down as he approached the three Overlords looking at the burning building¡ªand the corpses within. Nor did he stop as he passed by them and crouched before one corpse.
He could tell even from afar that none of the nineteen dead people belonged to the dojo. Up close, he could see the tiniest details of the corpses and, more importantly, the enchanted plasteel cuffs holding them firmly. Those cuffs could stop anyone without mastered Laws or a domain from using their qi.
"Corpos?" Shen asked about the background of the dead people.
"Shanglong," the lead Overlord replied. "One is the son of some mid-level executive."
So, that''s why the CIPD sent three Overlords to this place. The CIPD was considered heavily corporation-biased, but it kept neutral when it came
to gangs and only deployed against them when gang wars became too ugly. Deaths were okay, but the powers-that-be didn''t want a complete bloodbath. The CIPD was the only one willing to do that dirty peacekeeping work¡ªand for free! That was the main reason every Demi-Dominator respected them to a point and hadn''t banded to replace them with a force of their own.
They didn''t care about finding the culprits behind the actual deaths. They worked for free¡ªat least to the powers-that-be¡ªand there was only so far they would go in an investigation. They cared about getting repayment for the victim, with an additional fee for their trouble.
In other words, they were here for money.
Normally, Shanglong Corporation should''ve sent their own people with the CIPD to strong-arm Shen. They hadn''t, meaning they considered this matter too small to piss E''livia over it. They officially accepted the fact he had been set up and just wanted to get paid for the trouble of hiring and training new people to replace the dead ones. Whether Shen was the culprit was irrelevant. If someone had set him up, it was his job to seek retribution. For now, he only had to pay Shanglong their due for the deaths of their employees and wait until the family members who cared enough sent assassins for him.
"How much?" he asked.
"Shanglong asked for three Conceptualizer-tier artifacts," the lead Overlord informed, leaving unsaid that they expected another for the hard job of sending the money to the corporation.
"There are nineteen Overlord-tier artifacts here," Shen nodded to the cuffs.
"Already property of CIPD."
That was expected. One of the ways the CIPD funded itself was by stealing officially unowned items from suspects and crime scenes. If Shen claimed ownership of the enchanted cuffs, he would be admitting to having killed those people. Then, he wouldn''t have to pay just for being weak enough that someone could set him up. No; he would have to pay for going against teh Shanglong Corporation, who had two Demi-Dominators in their ranks.
Shen tsked and glanced at the two Overlords in martial arts robes. "First time I see three CIPD members without cyberware. I can give you some feedback on your martial arts."
Shen called things cyberware, but they were officially named spiritual biologic replacements or simply body implants. He found the name as lame as plasteel and silkeel, though, and refused to use it. They looked high-tech. Cyberware, it was for him. And he was strong enough to force people to translate him instead of adapting to the local lazy naming schemes.
Well, cyberware was kind of lazy, too, but it sounded better.
"We were told not to accept such payment this time," the lead Overlord replied.
Shen raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"
"That is so."
Shen gave the leader a once-over. Tall, black-skinned, bald, with white tattoos on his face. He had never seen that CIPD employee before. This matter was relevant enough that someone with some influence in CIPD wanted to see Shen struggle a little. They would use it to test him.
A test meant a challenge. This was no random arson or even a rival gang act. They knew who had done it and expected similar things to happen again. They expected Shen to be forced into a corner or reveal more of himself and his means. That included revealing how deep his pockets went.
Four Conceptualizer-tier artifacts wen''t much for a Lawful Dominator, much less someone building a gang, but they also weren''t irrevelant. If he had to provide it dozens of times, he would have to hire less people or have less well-protected goons.
"I need a day," Shen replied, mostly to test the waters.
"We were ordered to charge a fee for any delays," the leader replied.
So, the CIPD wanted to test him so much that they were willing to push things a little. Interesting. Even if this specific act wasn''t enacted by a rival gang, there was a gang or a corporation behind all this¡ªone that would keep coming for him, meaning the CIPD would rather not risk not collecting. That also meant they believed he might die before paying them.
Shen frowned but pulled a black card out of his spatial ring. The leader smiled and pulled a debit card reader from his spatial artifact. Paying with money came with an added fee because item prices fluctuated so much, and sometimes, you couldn''t purchase items even if you had the money. Wars, for instance, meant people hoarded what they had or sold it for exorbitant prices.
And a war was coming, or so the CIPD had just told him. Shen was betting that extra fee that he already couldn''t find Conceptualizer-tier artifacts for the price he was paying. Unfortunately, he couldn''t be everywhere. He would need to equip his troops so they could stall the enemy until he arrived, whenever and wherever they attacked next.
He looked back at the corpses as the two Overlords in martial arts robes started collecting the cuffs. He didn''t care about those people, but his dojo''s people were nowhere to be found. That was a slap to his face.
He had to find what had happened, and he had to find it quickly.
He released his domain and commanded Reality to rewind Time for all Light in the area.
The world seemed to start moving backward.
433. Picking Sides
The dojo had only seven rooms, one of which was the largest. It was in a cozy-ish area adjacent to a convenience store and a weapon store. The other side of the street was full of old but not too dilapidated apartment buildings.
Reversing Time for the Axioms of Light wasn''t easy or cheap. Qi left Shen''s body like crazy, but he had nigh infinite amounts of energy. He instantaneously and automatically absorbed as much as he used. If, and only if, he was forced to use more than fifty percent of his "surface" to push qi out at peak speed, it would leave less than half of him to absorb more, leading him to incur a loss. Even so, his qi reserves were vast enough to last him for a few weeks of unceasing qi usage at maximum output.
He saw the world move backward for a few minutes. Then, it was no surprise that things "broke" just before the corpses would "return to
life." Light froze and blinked. The image couldn''t be further rewinded. The Spacetime continuum had been shattered in that place, and it was a rush job with no finesse. Regardless, it was enough to hinder someone as unskilled in matters of Time and as weak as him. Only a cultivator with a Law of Space or Time in their Path could go past that barrier. Or a Seeker, which couldn''t be found in the Overlord Realm.
At least, that''s how it would be in the Alliance.
One of the differences between the Alliance and the Shaft was the artifacts. The Alliance focused heavily on personal power, and the System made certain conveniences unnecessary. Resources were also focused on the war against the Void, decreasing how much was available for less vital matters. Lastly, every peak force was so old and powerful that it had every personnel it needed. It was better to keep abilities and strength focused on people than risk weaklings getting independent from the strong people. The Alliance prioritized its warriors above all else¡ªit had to, as artifacts were almost useless against the Void.
Things were different in the Shaft. A peak force in any Realm could be simply destroyed without forewarning. Many organizations in the Overlord Realm were old for a mortal, but none had been around for over two hundred thousand years. The status quo''s structure was perpetuated, but not the actors in place. Things were so fluid and complex that people would rather have ways of doing a little of everything than depend on others. It was safer that way. Lastly,
everyone would also rather spend time improving themselves than lend their expertise to low-level murder and arson investigations.
All that to say, Shen could get an artifact to mend Spacetime. Theoretically, at least. They were always in high demand but low supply. Shattering the Spacetime continuum was much easier than fixing it, and everyone who dabbled in matters best left private¡ªalmost everyone in Cylek¡ªpreferred such artifacts to be left out of the market.
Shen turned to the lead investigator and asked, "How much for a Spacetime Mender?"
The human shook his head. "This is gang business. CIPD won''t get involved."
Shen frowned at that. CIPD never said no to getting paid to assist in an investigation that ended up screwing a gang. They were happy to lend their services. The extra income was always welcome.
He asked, "So, your guys are picking sides?" The man shrugged. "What''s your name, Officer?"
The man chuckled. "That won''t work on me, kid. I''m from the First."
The most well-connected people in the CIPD were from the First Precinct. Everything high-level happened there. That''s why that guy had been so unbothered by being obnoxious to Shen''s requests.
It also showed that the incoming gang war would include big fish. Shen''s rival had to have at least a Demi-Dominator for CIPD to not want to get in their way. That was highly annoying.
The good news was that since the Demi-Dominator wasn''t attacking yet, they were testing him. Shen could get rid of the arson with little consequence. Probably. But the arson also served as a warning for him not to get any ideas about expanding.
Ideas that he would ignore and, thus, start the war.
The issue here was ensuring the timing was just right. He had been in Cylek for four months. Three of his Laws were halfway through mastery. He needed another four or five months to get the other Laws there, and then another year to push everything the last stretch of the way¡ªif he kept playing safe. So, he had to find and kill the murderer in half a year and control the tensions for the other year.
That wouldn''t do. If the CIPD was moving now, they expected things to get out of control soon. He couldn''t control the timing as he wanted. Likely, someone would keep pushing him if he kept things slowly. They had to know he was progressing and didn''t want to give him an easy life.
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In other words, Shen had to stop playing safe and just master all his Laws already.
Or, of course, he could just let E''livia protect him and give up on the gang plans. Which he wouldn''t. This was also about proving to himself
that he could do it without the Heavens pushing him around. That he wasn''t as undeserving of everything he had been given.
He also wanted to found a sect-gang and expand for the resources. Everything pointed out that the Seeker Realm was dangerous. He wanted to have as many valuable artifacts and resources as possible when he broke through. Many cultivators did the same, which was one of the reasons why the Shaft''s Realms were more unstable than the Alliance.
Shen decided he would keep it safe until he half-mastered his Laws. Then, he would master them one after the other fast, without taking the time to stabilize his cultivation. It would be risky for his personality, but hopefully, the time invested in mastering his Laws to 99.5% would prevent him from going crazy from the Axioms'' influence when he mastered everything.
He told the officer, "I''m not paying for corpse disposal," and went to the convenience store. It had hidden recording cameras. Outsiders often forgot how things worked in Cylek; if he got lucky, whoever had done that might be from out of town and have missed that.
Shen didn''t collect any fees for "protection" from businesses in his "territory," as small as it was¡ªmerely the range of a few streets from any of his buildings¡ªbut the owners knew who ruled the streets there. The clerk quickly took Shen to the primary storage crystal and gave him free access to it.
He got both lucky and unlucky. The murderer did forget about the cameras. However, the humanoid¡ªlikely male¡ªused ninja-like clothes to hide his identity. The cameras could even record a cultivator''s Path, but not when enchantments blocked it, which the culprit''s clothes had.
Shen had almost given up on it when the murderer was captured making a stupid mistake. He used his qi to move the corpses¡ªwhich he took from a spatial ring¡ªaround. The camera recorded the qi''s Path.
He was a dual cultivator of Fire and Water, two Laws for each Axiom. In the past months, Shen had taken some time to learn and memorize how most Laws looked and felt, so he recognized them. The Laws of Fire were Heat and Brightness. The Laws of Water were Formlessness and Stream¡ªlike Shen''s.
The culprit left on foot rather than flying away. Shen thanked the clerk and followed the guy''s direction. He kept his domain deployed, uncaring of whether it would offend anyone, and tried to find a softness in Spacetime. If the guy teleported away, Shen might find something.
No luck there. The guy wasn''t a complete moron.
Still, Shen entered every building on the way with a "CCTV" and followed the culprit through their recordings. Eventually, he just looked straight at a camera, waved, and flew away, once more revealing his Path.
Shen frowned. The guy had known he was being recorded, so revealing his Path had been a challenge.
After that, he returned to the burnt dojo. CIPD was already gone, and the dojo members were there.
There were twelve humanoids. Two were wood elves, seven were humans, and three were bull beastmen, built as pure muscle. Humans were the most common race in the Shaft, something no one had any explanation for.
They wore red and golden martial robes, the color of the dojo, which Shen never cared to remember the name of. Half were Conceptualizers, and the other half were weak Overlords.
None of the twelve bowed when Shen approached. They just stared fiercely at him.
Shen asked, "Who was supposed to be on guard duty last night?" He knew the answer, but this was a chance for the idiot who missed his watch to confess and die with a little more honor.
Unsurprisingly, no one said anything.
These people weren''t loyal, and that was natural. He had done nothing to deserve their loyalty, after all. To make matters worse, they only stayed in the dojo after he defeated and exiled their previous leader because his presence meant a measure of safety. Now, evidently, remaining on his side was more likely to be dangerous than safe.
He argued, "You may not like me, but I''m your only chance for retribution. They burned your home. Which is not my fault. Someone should be keeping watch here. If I had been alerted sooner, I would''ve
arrived in time to stop the arson. You have a traitor among your ranks. If you''d rather protect him than seek vengeance, I can only assume you''re all equally treacherous."
The youngest Conceptualizer, a human, looked surprised. No one else did. Even that boy quickly glanced at his colleagues, then returned to staring at Shen.
Shen sighed. "This is my fault. I was too nice after conquering every place I did. You think I''m soft." He shook his head. "You''re wrong."
He didn''t waste more time with words. He beheaded them with a single twist of his domain. He also shattered the Overlords'' Paths, ensuring they would die. It was accomplished by penetrating their sounds and, more or less, breaking everything inside.
Shen had wanted to slowly build up a gang with people who respected rather than feared him. That was no longer possible. War was upon him, and traitors were dealt with quickly, even in times of peace. People who protected a traitor were useless to him.
Death was so natural in Cylek that none of the few passersby batted an eyelid at his actions. Shen turned to one of them and yelled, "Let it be known that I no longer claim this place as mine."
Acknowledging that meant a complete defeat, but sending new people to protect a burnt place would be wasteful and only serve to stroke his ego. He had lost the first battle. It sucked, but it was mostly alright. He had to focus on the bigger picture.
He took to the skies and flew to the nearest place he owned, a vehicle workshop. At least, that was the front. The place was his golden goose, buying and reselling stolen goods. Losing it would be a heavy blow to his whole operation.
He would use it as his base, organize his troops, and get ready for what was coming.
Shen had to find the murderer-slash-arson, but in truth, he was more worried about the future war. In fact, the arson could even be used as a grinding stone as he structured his gang. It would reveal weaknesses and allow him to assess his people faster.
And when the war came...
Shen would show them everything the Alliance had taught him about leading men in a war.
434. Alvirtue Parts
Alvirtue Parts was located on the edge of the abandoned zone, closer to the city''s outskirts than the center. It was close to the Shav Gang''s territory, which was ruled by a Demi-Dominator rumored to have swapped his entire body for cyberware.
Only a minority of people went all-out on body implants, but surprisingly, five of the Fifty Hegemons had gone that path, another seven had more cyberware than natural limbs, and most of the others used one thing or another. There should be something to cyberware that Shen and E''livia hadn''t uncovered yet, or it just happened that the cultivators willing to sacrifice the most for their bodies were the ones who had no qualms about giving up everything for power.
Whitemetal Park, which was merely an open space with benches scattered around and no greenery, occupied a considerable chunk of the Whitemetal District. It had been built with white alloys but patched with different shades of gray metal over time. The poor and destitute Initiates, who should not be on that city floor except for working, had taken over the area and built a dense shacktown of shitty metal dwellings. Only one business could be found there, right in the middle: Alvirtue Parts.
The vehicle workshop was wide, taking a massive part of the shacktown. It was three stories tall with two underground floors. The underground was the most illegal part, as no one was allowed to expand downwards on any city level; the annexes looked too ugly from below. Only multi-city-level buildings could bypass that rule. However, Alvirtue Parts had been used as a gang headquarters before, with a Demi-Dominator ruler who had some pull. After the gang fell, the powers-that-be allowed the underground floors to remain for a fee.
Shen enjoyed learning about Cylek''s history. Despite all its deaths, the city felt alive in a way he had never seen in another place. People were ambitious and driven, and different dreams had clashed for countless years until the city shifted into its current form. Every cubic inch had been fought for before. Everyone wanted to leave their mark in the city as they cultivated ever forward.
There was a single "road" leading to Alvirtue in Whitemetal Town, as the shacktown ended up being called, though it was more of a maze of wide spaces without any buildings. Nobody flew over the houses, and Conceptualizers wearing the blue and silver of Alvirtue Parts didn''t try to hide where they stood guard, on top of multiple places, checking any potential passerby. Four Overlords watched over everything from the four corners of Alvirtue''s concrete-looking building.
Usually, only one Overlord would be there. Those four were the strongest combatants of Alvirtue, though none were even close to mastering a single Law. Shen had killed the female Proven Overlord¡ªmastered Laws without a Domain¡ªwho owned the place when he took over because she had used the underground space for forced sex labor.
That was one thing he didn''t get about Cylek: the focus on carnal pleasure. Sure, his times with E''livia were crazily pleasurable, but that didn''t explain why people would be so desperate for such services that tyrants would resort to forcing others to work to meet the demand. Shen was pretty sure his time with E''livia differed from what others experienced, as it satiated him for a long while¡ªthough he, obviously, enjoyed more of it whenever he could¡ªand didn''t leave him wanting for others.
Anyway, Shen flew over Whitemetal Town as if he owned the place, which he did. The men of Alvirtue bowed or nodded to him. He landed on the rooftop, and the four Overlords bowed deeper than anyone had bowed to him today, even the Conceptualizers he had just flown by.
Shen smiled while shaking his head. They had never been as outright antagonistic to him as the dojo guys had been, but they were also nowhere near that respectful the last time he visited. Obviously, news had spread from how he had dealt with the traitors.
The four Overlords were lavils, a word that was a direct mix of lava and evil. Lavils were a race of lava elementals that had once been akin to Earth''s folklore of devils or demons. Shen had yet to find any evidence of lavils being any worse than any other "neutral" race, as those without strong tendencies were called, except for them not caring about the former leader''s forced labor. The female leader had been a water elemental, a race considered to counterbalance lavils'' evilness. There had been no indication that the lavils had influenced the water elemental in any way.
The stronger a lavil was, the redder the lava of its body became. The four lavils present were all a mix of orange and yellow, with one having red hues on his face. The lava didn''t move around in their bodies; it was fixed and mostly solid without becoming actual rocks. Their faces were humanoid like the rest of their bodies, and their faces were too similar; Shen could pinpoint differences here and there, but it was still easier to differentiate between them using their Paths.
They wore blue and silver plate armor without helmets. The plates and the lavils'' frames were thick, making them look like badasses.
"Number One, report," Shen commanded.
Lavils'' names were actually impossible to pronounce using biological lips. Shen could use qi to utter them, but lavils were used to being nicknamed. If any of the four had a personal issue with that, they hadn''t shown it even before Shen killed the traitors in the dojo. They certainly wouldn''t voice it from now on, either.
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Number One, the strongest lavil, stood straight and replied, "We received news of what happened to Binay''s Dojo." Right, that''s what that place was called. "Numbers Three and Four voted for us to assist as soon as the news arrived. Number Two abstained. I decided against it. Everyone knows you own Binay''s¡ªor used to own it. Anyone attacking it would be prepared to deal with your wrath. They would also be prepared for backup. Fortifying this more valued position and waiting for your command was the best play."
Lavils had no vocal cords and spoke using their Paths, moving the air to produce sound. They chose how to make their "voices" sound, and it was usual to see such an imposing guy speak with such a thin voice.
"You did well," Shen replied.
Evidently, Number One hadn''t cared about helping Shen, as he could''ve sent news to Shen sooner. But this was Shen''s way of saying to let bygones be bygones. Shen had never officially merged or structured the forces under him, so it did make sense for them not to fight for each other. After all, his lack of structure meant he didn''t care enough for them to act as one force under him.
"Things will change from now on," Shen continued. "I''m funding a new gang. It shall be called Blackhall." It was as good a gang name as any, though he only picked it because the region was called Whitemetal, and he was feeling sassy. He saw no reason to overthink his new gang''s name."Alvirtue shall become Blackhall''s temporary headquarters. Paint the building black and swap the blue of Alvirtue''s uniforms for black. Our insignia will be a black crown. Get it drawn and displayed everywhere. Send Conceptualizers to order representatives from all my thirty-seven businesses to come here. Establish a scouting and information network. I want to be informed as soon as we''re attacked."
There was a lot of work to do, but Shen discovered that he found it soothing.
It turned out that he really enjoyed bossing people around.
? ?
? ?
Whoever had burned the dojo was playing the long game. They went a while without attacking again, likely hoping for Shen to grow lax. Instead, he used the time to beat a proper force out of his new subordinates.
Shen''s businesses stopped being "outposts" with a limited area of influence around them and became parts of a proper, whole territory on that floor, including many other businesses in between that he took over. He left legitimate businesses alone but defeated or killed a lot of bad actors.
Alvirtue became the headquarters despite being on the edge of the area. There was little choice in the matter, as it was also the most valuable spot. Shen couldn''t lose it, both because of the money it generated and the humiliation it would represent.
At least, that''s what he made it look like.
Cylek had fast internal communication structures, but Shen had yet to find any he trusted. He used the most common telephone-like one, but only for inconsequential matters, as it could be easily listened upon or jammed. E''livia was working on getting them a trustworthy comms system, but for now, he depended on good old messengers¡ªwhich could also be easily intercepted.
Establishing fail-safes for interception was easier than dealing with communication enchantments, so it was no surprise that Shen did get word when the next attack came.
It happened precisely one month after the first attack. A weak, four-armed dwarven Overlord rushed into Shen''s office in Alvirtue and informed, "Symphonia is under attack."
That was a low blow. Symphonia was a charity project to take people out of addiction and into music. Such places were often ignored in gang wars because addicts were useless to everyone except drug lords.
It didn''t escape Shen''s notice that the Shav Gang dealt heavily with drugs, and Blackhall was very close to their territory.
Attacking Symphonia was, above all, a statement that accepting help from Blackhall meant death. It was twice as effective as any other attack on a similar place because Symponia was close to the center of Blackhall territory. The enemy had infiltrated and attacked it unnoticed, and all communications had been blocked during the attack. Shen would still be in the dark if not for that dwarf''s Bloodtwin Imprint.
Bloodtwin Imprint was a special technique that required twin cultivators to have the Axioms of Water in their Path, with a Law related to blood. They also had to have a similar level of power. It could be triggered in multiple ways, the most valuable of which, which could bypass most anti-communication techniques, required one of the twins to die. A slightly weaker effect could be triggered by sacrificing a drop of their blood essence.
That was another thing Shen liked about the Shaft: so many interesting techniques!
The excitement was muted by what Shen could see in the dwarf''s desperate eyes. The guy hoped his twin had used his blood essence and was still alive.
Shen stood up and rushed to the rooftop. Numbers Three and Number Four were waiting up there. He could feel within his domain that Numbers One and Two had already started rushing to the rooftop when Shen left his office. They would replace Three and Four, who left flying with Shen, just in case he was surrounded and needed a distraction.
Blackhall Town had been rebuilt from the ground up. Shen allowed the former residents to remain there¡ªas a distraction for his enemies¡ªbut the place was now built with multiple walls of enchanted defenses, with the inner circles being guard posts or actual thick walls rather than residences. A flying cultivator could bypass all that but would become an easier target. Dozens of Conceptualizers and two dozen Overlords were stationed throughout the town.
Shen and the two lavils flew straight to Symphonia. They felt a shockwave of a big explosion halfway through there. A moment later, as Shen reached where Symphonia had been, Shen saw a heavily injured finac¡ªa kind of very thin shark beastman¡ªin the epicenter of an explosion.
Shen had obviously known the Shav Gang dealt with drugs and might resent the most recent gang to sprout so close, so he had set up a trap in Symphonia, among many others. The worst of them was in Alvirtue, as making him leave his headquarters to then attack it was the oldest book in the play. That was part of the reason Shen made sure to value the place so overtly and publicly¡ª
A massive shockwave shook the very air Shen was floating on, quickly followed by light and plasma. Shen turned to see a purple and green plasma mushroom growing from Blackhall''s direction.
435. Beastman
Cylek was built to last. The streets and every building that crossed a city-level threshold had to be built with Overlord-tier materials. That was to be expected; the rich people up top didn''t want their homes to fall just because some poor loser down below didn''t want to pay the price to build something in Cylek.
Nowadays, nobody cared about such costs. The city was built already and hadn''t expanded for a while. Still, Shen had found it had considerably slowed down the city''s growth in its infancy.
From Cylok''s third street level upwards, any building that didn''t go beyond a city level had to be at least Conceptualizer-tier, just to make it harder for poor people to move up. Whitemetal''s shacktown had not fit that criterion before Shen rebuilt it. It did now.
Everything, Overlord or Conceptualizer-tier, was also heavily enchanted for extra resistance. No one spared efforts to make said enchantments as good as possible, as they also prevented someone from breaking the building to steal its Overlord-tier materials. No one wanted to build something expensive to finance a thief''s dreams.
Anyway, correction: the newly dubbed Blackhall Town used to be made of Conceptualizer-tier materials.
The mushroom was evidence that there should be no town there anymore.
The plasma mushroom was low-Overlord-tier, as its origin explosion had been, though it was now kept going with different artifacts than the expandable one that blew everything up. It was illegal to set up any destructive trap stronger than low-Overlord-tier, or it might also affect the city''s infrastructure and, thus, the powers-that-be on the higher floors. However, there were ways to skirt the rules for higher damage, and Shen''s solution came right next.
All that plasma was sucked by heavy enchantments. It disappeared from sight. It revealed the Overlord-tier buildings it had covered, all intact, but many with broken windows¡ªwhich, to get broken like that, had been below Overlord-tier and, thus, illegal.
Shen couldn''t see it from here, but he knew that all that burning plasma, and however much more was still being generated and kept going, would now be focused on the individuals who had survived the blast. Number One was meant to only trigger the trap if too many individuals stronger than him invaded and he believed one of them to be the main culprit for burning the dojo.
Shen used his domain to teleport straight to Alvirtue. He had yet to use his teleportation ability in Cylek, but this was about making a statement.
The Alliance had taught Shen that sometimes you lost territory, even important ones, and that wasn''t the end of the world. It didn''t matter as much as long as the Alliance survived. More importantly, if you made your enemy pay for it, it was worth it. Sure, no one could make thee Void pay for anything, but you could use the Void to train your troops. Shen was using this loss for a similar purpose.
Shen was saying he didn''t care about politics or doing things like everyone else did. He was willing to destroy his main business after investing a lot of money to upgrade its defenses if it meant achieving his goals¡ªespecially the goal of revenge. His enemies could try guerilla warfare against him, but he would catch them, no matter the cost. Then, it was for his foes to wonder what he would do once he figured out the true culprit behind it. How far was he willing to go? What were the consequences of going against him?
In this instance, the person behind the scenes would either come for him in desperation or hide their traces while strengthening themselves for the incoming war.
The proper response for any self-confident enemy here was to wait, giving Shen extra time to grow. It would allow them to conquer a better-structured territory and forces after defeating a Blackhall in which Shen had more time to invest in. It was like waiting for a fruit to ripen.
Waiting would also give them time to plan around his newly revealed craziness and try to figure out what other abilities he was hiding, since he had shown he could teleport without mastering his Laws, something quite rare to find.
Shen arrived where Alvirtue had once been and felt dry ash in his mouth. Alvirtue''s building and the town had melted down into useless globs, but the Overlord-tier ground had withstood the destruction, and so had the Overlord-tier underground levels of Alparts, where everyone in Blackhall had been teleported to. Shen wouldn''t sacrifice his people or the weak innocents around in the explosion. Preparing the teleportation while keeping it a secret had cost him all his economies, but he had been sure his enemy wanted to humiliate him. They would come to Alvirtue sooner or later. He got lucky it was sooner.
The Overlord-tier buildings were covered with soot, but they had withstood the blast. No apartment with broken windows had dead people. His people were meant to evacuate those apartments as soon as he left Alvirtue. They had accomplished it despite how fast everything had happened. He should commend them for it later.
Numbers One and Two were flying above three spheres of pure golden plasma. As soon as Shen arrived, one of them moved to merge with the other two, meaning the cultivator who had been inside was now dead. Not even bones were left behind as the ball of plasma moved.
Suddenly, everything shook around Shen as if something had just struck hard against Space itself. Simultaneously, the ground lit up with shining runes. Someone had tried to use an Overlord-tier artifact to teleport away to safety, but the gang who once used Alvirtue as their base had long prepared for it. Only those who touched the central rune in the formation''s core, hidden underground, were allowed to come or leave through teleportation.
A moment later, one of the two remaining spheres started flowing to the last one, meaning another enemy was dead.
The last survivor had a way to detect that because he gave out a loud shout and released his domain. The world was tinted red and blue.
Right after, the twenty-seven core crystals keeping the plasma going, which were stationed on the apartment buildings in the area, were deactivated. They were built to be easy to turn off, precisely so you didn''t lose them against an enemy with a domain. Domain-holders would also choose to keep them intact, so they became spoils of war. It was best for everyone.
The plasma died down, revealing a black bat beastman with bat wings. He was clad in black and red leather and already trying to fly away.
Shen was pleased to find the guy''s injuries were light and already healing; it might make for a good fight. The beastman''s leather equipment was only mid-Overlord-tier, so he had resisted the blast and plasma with his own ability. His Path was the same as Shen had witnessed through the recordings, two Laws each from the Axioms of Water and Fire.
This was the arsonist.
Shen smiled and said, "Since you''re already here, why don''t you stay?"
His domain was already deployed, and he engaged the guy in the meta-battlefield. He willed the enemy''s four Laws¡ªtwo of Water, two of Fire¡ªto be weak, and six of Shen''s Laws¡ªexcluding the Law of Stream he shared with the guy¡ªto be stronger.
There was no resistance; the guy hadn''t tried to pre-emptively defend himself. The beastman also didn''t immediately counter Shen''s move. He really wanted to flee and not waste anything in combat.
Well, Shen would have to disappoint. He took out an Overlord-tier black-striped gray spear from his spatial ring and teleported right beside the guy, already midstrike.
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The bat beastman took the two long daggers from their sheaths and parried. He tried to use Shen''s attack to gain extra impulse to leave, but Shen had already Backstepped.
The idiot was so desperate to flee that he impaled himself in Shen''s spear.
The beastman didn''t die as his heart was pierced. Shen tried to finish the fight quickly by moving his spear to also cut the guy''s head, but the beastman used a "forbidden art," as techniques that used blood essence were called in the Shaft. He used a drop of blood essence to make his following attack stronger.
A wave of fiercely burning flames exploded from him, immediately shattering through the qi surrounding Shen''s spear and melting the weapon. Shen was forced to put some space between him and the guy or suffer heavy injuries.
The wave was short-lived, though. Shen frowned. That guy... He was way too weak for a Proven Dominator. Shen couldn''t see people''s willpower, but he could guess what was happening. The beastman was a weak-willed assassin with inferior training, not some elite combatant.
Someone had set up this poor bastard to test Shen and hopefully make Shen waste resources while revealing more of himself¡ªand it had worked.
Obviously, that possibility had gone into Shen''s calculations when he decided how he would move. It was too obvious to ignore. Shen wasn''t bothered by wasting so many resources on a simple test because looking stupid would also give him extra time to grow stronger. Idiots that easily tricked weren''t dangerous.
Sure, he was upset he couldn''t fight someone more potent, but his focus was on the grand scheme of things, not another perceived loss that worked in his favor.
"Parley!" the guy yelled.
Shen was about to take Un''Re from his soul but stopped, raising an eyebrow. That was... unexpected. The guy was a beastman, and so was the decoy in Symphonia. That all but confirmed this was about the Shav Gang. Although not all beastmen in Cylek were loyal to the Shav Gang, they seldom spoke against it because almost every beastman was connected to it somehow.
The man hadn''t said anything about betraying whoever sent him here, but both he and Shen knew that only a full confession would see him maybe survive this. It was more likely for him to be trying to gain some time, but even if that was so, Shen was interested to see what the bat beastman could pull off his sleeve. That fight had been too anticlimactic.
"A parley?" Shen asked. "That''s meant for people who aren''t already dominated," he provoked.
"You won''t capture me alive, and you know it!" the beastman yelled in defiance. His face was a perfect blend of human and bat, with brown-greyish skin, a small nose, and sharp canines. His elongated ears were akin to a dog''s, more or less on top of his head. His short spiked hair was brown.
His voice betrayed his youth, if Shen wasn''t mistaken. That explained why he had been so unprepared for close-quarters combat. Any training he had received had been exclusively on assassination; he hadn''t had time to grow in other ways yet.
"I might or not be able to capture you," Shen conceded without being too explicit about it. "But why do you think your life is worth more to me than your death?"
"I have proof Octo-sama ordered the assassination of thirteen officers from the surrounding gangs."
Octo was Shav Gang''s boss. The guy was addressing him as "sama," which Shen understood and translated as being an honorific close to what could be found in Earth''s Japan. That meant he wanted at least to implicate Octo as being behind the attacks on Blackhall.
However, the guy was likely lying about the proofs. Octo was a cunning asshole who would never leave evidence behind. Then again, even if he did have proof of the "misdeeds," it was worthless information. No one would go to war or even assist in one just because a few people died. At worst, the reveal would inconvenience the Shav Gang. Every gang in Cylek killed people from each other when they thought they could get away with it.
"You''re not from Cylek, are you?" Shen replied. "What do you want me to do with that knowledge? Point a finger at Octo and call him a big meanie?"
Shen was spot-on. The bat''s face twisted in confusion and surprise. He had thought that information would be helpful.
"That was unhonorable of him," he pointed out weakly.
Shen snorted. "As was attacking me the way you did."
"I was ordered by Octo-sama. Honor demanded I meet his request. It''s up to him to decide where to draw the line of honor with his enemies, not one as lowly as me."
Shen raised his other eyebrow. The bat really cared about honor. Interesting. Shen could use that.
"You''re close to the truth but blinding yourself to the greater picture, so you''re not reaching the right conclusion. Honor only matters for internal gang business. Externally, only official agreements and some unspoken rules need to be honored. This is Cylek. To a certain extent, we''re all competitors seeking to grow stronger, and safety cannot be guaranteed. Anyone who comes here accepts that." He paused. The guy looked even more confused. Shen could also use that. "In fact, it would be a disservice to everyone if the gangs didn''t constantly hone each other up with underhanded means. If that were the case, the first external force to use such means against us would conquer a bunch of unprepared amateurs in a fell swoop."
There was more to Cylek''s complex gang and corporation structure than that, but Shen was already saying too much. Unspoken rules were kept unspoken to filter those smart enough to catch on to them. It was an arrogant system to keep those with low relational ability out of the game. There might be a place for them somewhere else, but you needed to know how to read between the lines to thrive in Cylek¡ªor overwhelming power so that your lack of relational ability didn''t hinder you.
Still, Shen wasn''t talking about that for the guy''s benefit. The beastman''s confusion didn''t matter as much as the confusion of whoever else from Blackhall that might be listening now. The bat had burned Shen''s dojo and sent the shark beastman to kill people in Symphonia. He had then come to kill people in Blackhall Town. He would die. The question was how honorable his death would be.
Shen saw a bit of himself in the bat. He had also once understood honor as a global truth that should be provided to everyone equally. Nowadays, he wasn''t against acting dishonorably if he thought someone deserved it. Then came the question: Who was he to judge other people''s actions? Well, he and his friends'' counsel were all he had, so it would have to do.
It was dishonorable of Shen to use the guy''s honor against him, but Shen believed the asshole deserved it for his sneak attacks.
Shen said, "If Octo attacked me, he did nothing evil. I''ll investigate. If he was really behind the attacks, I''ll make him pay for it. I have connections. Do you have anything else to say?"
Reminding Octo of E''livia was Shen''s way of telling Octo not to attack him straight up¡ªnot yet, at least. Depending on someone else also made Shen look weak depending on external strength. That would conflict with his craziness and his ability to teleport without mastered Laws. Together with Shen being "tricked" by the probe, it should ensure Octo didn''t attack right now.
The bat guy looked lost at Shen. For a moment, Shen thought he would try to fight or flee again. Instead, he allowed his body to fall to the ground on his knees.
He asked, "Shen-dono, may I die with however much honor remains on me?"
Shen nodded once. That was for the best and the reason Shen had wasted time with words. It would show to all gangs that Shen was honorable. The way he had kept innocents from dying would also help with that. It would make gangs other than the Shav Gang less anxious about his growth.
The beastman''s Path shattered a moment before he used his own daggers to pierce his regenerated heart and brain. He hadn''t directly shattered his Path; instead, his Path couldn''t conform to the Reality he was forced to face. The guy had evidently gone through countless repeated shocks for his Path to reach this point.
Shen almost felt bad for him. That had been a Lawful Dominator, which revealed he had some talent, and a young one at that. With some training and proper guidance, he could''ve become both strong and a beacon of morality in a world that desperately needed it.
But this was Cylek, and this had been the first clash in the incoming war. Good people would die on both sides. Such was the way Reality worked.
Shen would change all that one day, but that day was not today.
He turned to Number One. "Collect the corpse and keep everyone in Blackhall alert. Numbers Three and Four, come with me." The two had just returned from Symphonia.
"May I ask where you''re going?" Number One said.
His implication was that it was still dangerous. He was right, but Shen was willing to bet that he had given the Shav Gang enough reason to wait for him to grow ripe before their next move. Moreover, Shen could do nothing if a Demi-Dominator came, and it might even be safer for Blackhall members if Shen were far away when the Demi-Dominator caught up to him.
Shen sighed and gave an answer aimed at any spy around, "I''m broke. I''m going to sell myself for money."
He couldn''t ask E''livia for resources because that would be crossing the boundaries they had set for themselves. However, both of them had been approached by other actors before. Shen even legitimately liked the one he was going to meet. He had been one of the few Fifth Hegemons who had risen by bullheading through every problem instead of navigating the intricacies of Cylek''s social dynamics.
Before now, making a deal with him would''ve been a declaration of war against every nearby gang. Now, it would be seen as finding protection and backup in desperate times, which was also one of the reasons Shen had been willing to bankrupt himself. His every move had been meticulously planned.
Now, as long as he did it right, everyone would expect him to focus on the Shav Gang, and every gang was happy to see another disappear. They had no reason to band together to curb him before he could grow. If any of them came for him, it would be right after he won, when his troops would be tired and his strength spent.
Shen smiled as he flew away.
War was coming, and it would be so much fun!
436. Thank You, Millord
Most races were humanoids of similar size. Some theorized that such form and height were better prepared to deal with a multiverse that just happened to be mainly of a specific size when all its physical and metaphysical forces interacted. That didn''t mean a single race of big or small beings couldn''t have more individuals than all other races combined in a universe, but that the standard seemed to be those the size of humans, elves, and so on.
Races of similar size tended to stay together for convenience''s sake, even if they hated each other. Cylek was a city of human-sized humanoids. The Doombringer was the only half-titan Shen knew to reside in Cylek.
He wasn''t miles tall; someone in his family tree had been a titan, but it was far detached from him. He was "only" twenty feet tall and seemed made of pure muscle. He never wore anything on his upper torso, revealing a tanned chest filled with scars. His chest-height white beard was tied on the edge, and his big ears each had a few hundred golden and red earrings. He had no eyebrow hair, only thick bones, nor hair on his head. His red eyes always seemed to be angry, but he was quick to smile. The Doombringer wasn''t someone to hide his feelings or feel happiness was a weakness to be hidden.
The half-titan wore something that looked too much like cargo jeans and brown leather boots. He carried his big-ass scythe on his back, a weapon that looked simple, black wood and a thin metal blade, but that was one of the best peak-Overlord-tier artifacts in the whole Overlord Realm. The air simmered around it, and it wasn''t out of heat. The thing distorted the Laws of Reality around it through sheer power. Such an effect was rare even in Seeker-tier artifacts, displaying how special the thing was.
Shen found the Doombringer sitting on a stall too small for him in a Japanese-style street fair, plus futuristic neon lights. Everyone in the fair knew to give a Demi-Dominator a wide berth. He didn''t seem to care about being treated as a pest while he ate some noodles he had purchased from a pixie vendor who couldn''t hide her unhappiness¡ªafter all, the Doombringer was scaring her business away.
He also scared any thread of Karma away from him, or so it looked like. He wasn''t connected to anyone. Shen wasn''t sure if he had Severed himself or used a special item or ability to accomplish it.
"...don''t need to worry about repaying me with your esteemed presence, milord," she was saying as Shen approached. "This lowly one doesn''t deserve your continued company."
"Nonsense!" the Doombringer replied with his deep and always loud voice as he threw the empty bowl the size of a watermelon on the counter. "It''s delicious! You deserve my patronage! Another bowl!"
The diminutive pixie, an Overlord like almost everyone in the fair, at least suppressed her sigh before getting to work.
"And three normal-sized bowls, please," Shen said as he sat beside the Doombringer. Numbers Three and Four wanted to remain standing at a respectable distance, but Shen gave them a severe look and glanced at the stalls beside him. They got the message and sat down.
The vendor sighed in relief that she would make another sale today and smiled briefly at Shen before placing a few bowls beside the big one she was preparing.
The half-titan turned to Shen and laughed. "Look who''s here! I knew you would come to me after you bankrupted yourself!" He slapped Shen''s back with way too much strength. Shen had to use qi not to be sent packing.
"The news already reached you, milord?" Shen replied respectfully.
Interacting with the Doombringer wasn''t easy. He saw random things as polite or rude. Standing while he was sitting was disrespectful, even if you meant it as a sign of respect. Calling him Milord was polite, but calling him anything more polished, like "Your Grace," was a grave offense.
Nobody liked how annoying he was, but he was living proof that "might makes right." Even Demi-Dominators who didn''t want to antagonize him could only accept and live with his whims.
"News? What news?" the Doombringer asked, and Shen couldn''t tell if he was lying about being ignorant of his matters.
"I was attacked and lost my investment in Alvirtue Parts. I also lost Symphonia. As you guessed, Milord, I''m broke and need an investor."
"You lost Alvirtue?" He laughed mockingly as he picked up the new bowl the pixie served. "Did you at least kill a Demi-Dominator to make up for your loss?"
Shen passed two bowls to the lavils and started eating his own noodles. Peak-Conceptualizer-tier noodles were somehow relatively cheap in Cylek. They were also delicious.
"No, Milord. The strongest enemy I felled was a mere Lawful Dominator like me. He claimed he was working for the Shav Gang. Even if he were lying, someone is scheming against Blackhall. I need resources to prepare for the incoming war."
The half-titan said nothing for a while, focusing on eating. He finished, put the bowl down, and kept silent for a while. Then, he asked, "How about your girl? I heard she''s making more money than I."
That he knew about that was slightly troublesome. E''livia should be hiding it better than that. She had a leak, and the Doombringer gave Shen a great gift in letting him know.
The negotiation had barely started, and Shen already owed the guy.
The Dombringer had risen up by brute-forcing his way through, and he was known to have no sensibility for even the most basic politics. But whenever anyone took advantage of him, someone else soon spilled the beans. The Doombringer was never forgiving when that happened. So, whether the Doombringer knew about the favor he was bestowing was irrelevant to the negotiation. Shen would have to repay him for that.
Shen replied, "E''livia and I weren''t lying about our self-imposed limitations, Milord. I won''t ask her for any assistance."
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The half-titan looked at Numbers Three and Four. "Black and silver looks good. But my colors are blue, brown, and red. Pick one."
"Black and red can be a good match, Milord," Shen replied with a smile.
"Humph." He threw a black card on the stall. It looked too small on his big hands. "I''m paying for them."
The pixie smiled happily at the money and the fact that the Demi-Dominator was leaving. "Thank you for your patronage!" she sang as she scanned the card for the cost of the meals.
"Thank you, Milord," Shen said.
"Get the card," the Doombringer said as he stood up. "It''s yours now. Spend however much you wish. One month of service in the Overlord Realm for every low-Overlord-tier artifact."
Shen grabbed the card and stood up to follow him. "One week for every peak-Overlord-tier artifact, Milord."
The Doombringer laughed. "Someone thinks high of himself! Your quote is acceptable for a Demi-Dominator. Become one, then. If not, you''ll do as I said."
"Of course, Milord."
They walked in silence up to an artificial lake nearby. The Doombringer got to the deck, took off his boots, and sat down with his feet on the water. He looked up at the stars being projected by enchantments. They were in the fourth city level. There were two more above them.
Shen did the same thing to avoid offending the half-titan. He also nodded to his followers to leave the area. Lavils and water didn''t mix well, and the vapor might offend the Doombringer; who knows? It was better for them to scatter than keep guard while standing up and definitely offending the guy.
"I love this place," the half-titan said. "Peaceful."
"It is pleasant indeed, Milord."
"Pleasant?" He scoffed. "No. It reminds me of how much I still have to destroy. I bring Doom upon Reality. Haven''t you heard?"
Shen raised an eyebrow. "I thought that title came from the terror you impart upon your foes, Milord."
"They would have to survive to call me anything, boy. You and your woman are too new in Cylek. You haven''t uncovered the right secrets yet. It''s alright. Your enemy just hunkered down since he arrived and knows too little, too. He won''t prostrate himself before you and beg forgiveness when he hears I''m involved."
Another surprise. Shen tensed and asked, "Should he do that, Milord?"
"I''m not a liar, boy. I''m as stupid as everyone says I am. I mean, I just don''t care about pesky intrigue. Or power. Be fair to me, and I''ll be fair to you. Respect me, and I''ll respect you. I saw your Path when you arrived in Cylek. You''re different but similar. That''s what I like about you."
Shen shook his head. "I appreciate your kindness, Milord. But I must admit I fail to see where this conversation is going."
He chuckled. "See? You''re like me but different. Not all conversations must go somewhere, boy. You need a friend. Someone you aren''t fucking or bossing around. You have a woman and subordinates, but you''re lonely. So am I. Power does that. Then again, destroying everything around you also does that, I suppose."
Shen frowned. "Did you also destroy your former friends, Milord?"
"What?" He chuckled again. "No, boy. I bring Doom to Reality, not the people in Reality. I''m an Idealist. Like you." That confirmed to Shen that the Doombringer had Severed himself, though knowing he meant to walk the Grand Path of Ideals was news. "And my Will is one of Power. Like yours."
That man could tell people''s Will? Shen froze and prepared to flee and call E''livia. Telling people''s Will was impossible. Should be impossible, at least.
Unless...
"You''re a Realizator," Shen deadpanned.
"Not yet. I''m a Lawful Realizator. I Realized my Path at the Overlord level, though I have yet to use it. They are blocked in the Overlord Realm."
So, this man was as talented and powerful as Liya had been. Actually, probably stronger because he had been a Lawful Realizator for so long already. His inability to use his Realization gave E''livia a chance if they ever faced each other, but Shen guessed the things he could perceive about the world and how he thought gave him an edge.
Shen stopped his plans to call for backup but got even readier to flee.
"Why are you telling me this, Milord?"
"Because I also need a friend. And a disciple. Power... Power is the reason for my existence, yet it isn''t everything. Paradoxal, right? I learned that too late. I didn''t bring Doom to my friends because I never had any." He paused. "I need a friend... And I need help in my revenge. I don''t think I have enough potential to bring Doom to all Reality. But I must bring Doom to the Shaft."
Shen didn''t even know where to start. He was confident the Shaft''s Divine Mandatary could tell whenever anyone in the Shaft directed ill intentions towards him. He didn''t want to be associated with something like this.
"Relax, boy! I''m telling you this to show you my intentions! No true friendship can start any other way! I won''t hide something that might hurt you later."
Shen forced himself to relax. Fleeing from a Lawful Realization would already be impossible, much less from the Shaft''s Divine Mandatary. That guy didn''t have any limitations on his power when he visited any Realm. Shen would be obliterated before he could blink if the Mandatary really wanted to kill him.
The Doombringer continued, "I know the bastard at the top. He won''t kill those associated with me just because they are associated with me. And he''s like me, you know? He wants a challenge. He''ll let me grow¡ªand any ally grow, for that matter¡ªuntil we commit actual treason or bring the fight him. He''s bored. He told me so the day he destroyed my life. He let me live because my anger was so great after he killed my whole family for treason and because he saw potential in me."
Shen frowned. "That is... Evil."
"Damn right, it is. I''m not the only one he did it to, either; I found three others in Cylak alone. I don''t hate him for the justice he dispensed. My family did commit treason. No, I hate him because he let me live to fight him. I hate that this is the only Path I want, too. I hate it all. And so, I use my hatred as fuel for my Doom."
Shen understood the half-titan. A bastard had come and changed the half-titan''s entire life, then played with it. The Doombringer was trapped in his own feelings, walking a Path someone else wanted him to, with no actual choice in the matter. Oh, theoretically, he could forgive and forget. But that wasn''t his personality, and the Mandatary likely could see that when he spared the boy. Which made the Mandatary even worse of a schemer.
But Shen didn''t focus on that. It might be a lie. It might be true. It didn''t matter; he was too weak to do anything about it.
He said, "We can talk about revenge after I become a Realizator. What do you need from a friend, Milord?"
There was no extensive reasoning behind his words or intentions. The Doombringer might be incorrect in saying Shen needed a friend, but Shen certainly wanted one.
E''livia was great, but they were lovers, not best friends. They trusted each other with their lives but couldn''t say everything in their hearts to each other. E''livia, especially, was too hurt and dealing with too much; she needed time, and Shen needed to help her deal with that before she was ready to deal with his own troubles. Or, more specifically, more of his problems. She had already done too much for him; he had to repay her back before burdening her with other things.
For instance, he couldn''t burden her with his anxiety about dying and leaving her alone in an alien world; she had enough of that already, and he could only keep comforting her. She also didn''t need to know he would risk his sanity by growing too fast in the war both because he wanted to prove himself. She would say he didn''t need to prove anything to her, and she would be both right and wrong. He meant to prove it to himself before anything, but while he was okay with being weaker than her, he couldn''t accept being a useless garden flower forever.
A true friendship with someone who saw the world similarly to how Shen sounded good. Shen wanted that. The question was: what exactly was friendship for the finicky Doombringer?
? ?
437. Is That a Threat, Milord?
"What do you need from a friend, Milord?" the human asked.
Bai Yuefeng shook his head, saddened at the question. What child asked what someone needed from a friend? Friendship was about sharing burdens together and spreading happiness with each other, not about needs and offers.
To see the son of Feng Yang so lost hurt Bai Yuefeng. It hurt more than omitting this connection from Shen. Sure, he and the boy had similarities, but he mainly liked the boy because he owed Feng Yang, the boy''s father, for everything.
Everything.
But Bai Yuefeng couldn''t explain their connection without touching secrets that the Mandatary would kill him for spreading. Only Realizators could know the secrets of Phasespace and its intricate connection to the Main Space. It would be a long while before the boy knew his father and clan were...
Bai Yuefeng shook his head. Better not to even think about such things. The Shaft had too many unique techniques, and who knew if the kid had found one that could read his mind?
What mattered was that fate had brought them together. Thus, Bai Yuefeng would repay Shen Yang through his son. The boy needed friendship more than anything right now. He was so lonely that the Axioms twisted around him, trying to reach him despite his Severing. The High Heavens wanted to fill him with something, anything. He had been used and discarded. The Shaft''s Karma demanded he be repaid, but the same Karma couldn''t find the boy.
He wondered if he should interfere more. Killing Octo would be slightly risky, but it would make Shen''s life safer. Alas, Bai Yuefeng decided against it. The boy evidently was looking forward to the clash.
The extent of Bai Yuefeng''s friendship would be money and a relaxing friendship. He would only help in a fight if the boy asked for it.
If Shen died in the end... Bai Yuefeng had lost others before. He would survive it.
It might even further fuel his Doom.
"Everyone needs to walk their own Path," Bai Yuefeng finally replied.
It wasn''t the answer the boy wanted, but some things needed to be said. Not for Shen; for himself. When a powerful Realizator said something they deeply believed in, it became Truth. Although Bai Yuefeng had yet to reach that level, he bound himself to that Truth. Henceforth, to help Shen beyond his self-imposed rules would be akin to striking against his Path. He would survive, but at a significant cost.
Bai Yuefeng continued, "But many Paths go through a similar landscape, at least for a while. Companionship can be nice in such moments. I don''t need anything from you, boy, not until we''re strong enough to destroy the Shaft. I seek company to talk about my woes free of the worry about scheming or it reaching the wrong ears. I also seek to be an ear for your woes. I''ll help if you ask me for help. I''ll respect your individuality any other time. I''ll be rude when you make a mistake and make a toast when you do something right."
The boy thought for a while. "There''s a significant age gap between us, Milord. Is friendship even possible?"
Bai Yuefeng closed his eyes and sighed. "Time will tell, won''t it?" He shouldn''t say more, but he had to. It might save their friendship when Shen learned the truth one day. "Let me tell you one thing, kid. You can Sever the Heavens and the Self, but you can never fully sever relationships. You''ll find someone connected to you at the places you least expect. Would you rather find a friend or a foe?"
That was a half-lie. You wouldn''t always find people connected to you everywhere. Still, Bai Yuefeng had lived for a very long time, and meeting Shen in the Shaft wasn''t the most remarkable coincidence that happened to him. When a drop of water falls on a surface and spreads out, it can only go in so many directions. Likewise, people from the same point of origin could only move in so many directions through Spacetime. Sooner or later, a coincidence was bound to happen. And it was best for it to happen among friendly beings. Shen receiving Bai Yuefeng''s help right now was proof.
The kid squinted his eyes. "Is that a threat, Milord?"
The half-titan suppressed another sigh. Such a traumatized boy. People did disappoint or betray you throughout your Path, but isolating yourself wasn''t the answer.
No; the answer was to bring the Ultimate Doom to the shitty Reality that demanded conflicts for growth to happen.
Bai Yuefeng replied tiredly, "It''s not a threat. Go, use my money. Come repay me if you survive. We can discuss our friendship after you''ve given it some thought."
"As you wish, Milord," Shen said, stood up, and left.
Bai Yuefeng felt the boy and the two Void Infiltrators leave. A friend would''ve informed another about the Infiltrators and the actual meaning behind the experiences on his property''s underground floors. They had been made to look like sex slavery but were even worse.
Alas, Shen wasn''t a friend yet, and as much as Bai Yuefeng owed Feng Yang, everyone had to walk their own Path. Choices mattered. He knew that better than most.
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"A Lawful Realization befriending a Lawful Overlord?" the silkiest voice he had ever heard said behind him as a female holin approached, though her voice wasn''t friendly. "Explain yourself, Doombringer, or meet your doom."
That was a worthy challenger. E''livia had sent another Lawful Realizator packing shortly after she arrived in Cylek. Bai Yuefeng was confident she and Shen didn''t know about that. Regardless, that was the fight that solidified her position in Cylek.
Not that she could best him.
Ultimate Doom threatened to leave his tight grip to attack the holin behind him, but he clenched it firmly inside himself.
"Don''t overestimate yourself, succubi," he replied.
E''livia was shocked and confused at his words before growing angry at the offense she evidently thought nothing more of. Interesting. He might have to find out where she came from. He had only seen one other holin before, and they had claimed to be a race of undead that seduced their victims to consume them, who had then been forced to change due to a Warden with a Death-related Axiom.
Her physiological structure was identical to the holin he had met. It was also full of Life instead of Death, which he had found curious in the past, but nothing more. Now, he wondered.
Could the very same species and race of holins be born in more than one way? That was very, very, very, very rare in Reality. That would make them a much more special race than he had given them credit for. It would place them on the level of eternal phoenixes, abyssal dragons, and the other three Heavenly Races known to him.
It would also make E''livia a target. She was strong enough to protect herself in the Overlord Realm, but she would be crushed if targeted as soon as she reached the Seeker Realm.
He continued before she could say anything, "I''ll say this out of kindness for your boyfriend, not you: reveal to him you were listening behind his back. That is the only way for your relationship not to fall apart. Actually, do it for yourself if not for the good of your relationship; you''ll need help when you reach the Seeker Realm. You have one week to tell him before I do."
She released her domain. The world was tainted greenish-gray. Life, Space, and Time were an annoying combination to fight against, to say the least.
The holin said, "Dead people tell no tales."
He snickered and stood up. "I''ll give you one last chance, girl. You''re growing controlling and manipulative because you fear losing him. That''s not sustainable. You need to sit down with him and have an honest talk."
Bai Yuefeng would know about honest talks. He had lost his beloved one out of a similar idiocy. She had been long dead when he learned better and returned to make amendments.
She hissed. Literally. "We don''t need your meddling. We don''t need anyone''s help. We have each other."
Bai Yuefeng squinted. She was behaving too feral to suggest she had once had undead instincts. At least, nothing that would transfer if her race had been undead in the past. No; feral meant biological origins. The overprotectiveness felt unnatural, though he couldn''t pinpoint exactly why.
Something was bothering him, so he released his domain. He felt her, and the truth became crystal clear.
She was dying.
Holins were obligatory social creatures. The one Bai Yuefeng had met in the past had evolved from an undead species that used sexual connections to make up for the emptiness within themselves. E''livia, however, wasn''t doing that. Instead, she had lost a fundamental connection to someone else, leaving an enormous gap within herself that only a domain with mastered Laws could detect. The missing connection had to be replaced with someone else within the year, or she would die.
She knew it; she had to know. She also knew that the new connection had to be with someone at least as strong as her, and Shen wouldn''t make the cut at his current growth rate. The stupid, moronic, idiot holin would rather die than tell her man the truth and let him make an informed decision about whether to push his cultivation at a potential personal cost or not.
Could she not tell that the only way for Shen to fight the incoming battle was for him to push ahead regardless? And that connecting to him might help stabilize him?
She also wanted to keep him away from anyone like Bai Yuefeng, who could figure out the truth and reveal it to him. Probably. He wasn''t good at figuring out such things.
In fact, he was already overextending himself. Bai Yuefent didn''t care to guess anything. Ever. That was not his way.
As he had told Shen, he had never brought Doom to his friends. But maybe it was time to bring Doom to a potential friend''s girlfriend''s idiocy. His Will of Unstoppable Power demanded him to impute his rightful desires upon all Reality around him, and he only kept it in check for select people. E''livia wasn''t one of them.
"I see," he said with a sad sigh as he reached for the scythe on his back and willed his boots to fit on his feet. "That''s almost noble of you, and as I told your man, everyone must walk their own Path¡ªto the end. But some Paths must be set straight. Teleport us to wherever you want us to fight."
She was surprised at his request. Had she thought he would be intimidated? He snickered.
Instead of complying, she retracted her domain. "I meant to test your intentions with Shen, Milord. I will tell him of my eavesdropping, as you suggested. I appreciate your kind intentions about our relationship."
He smiled. This time, his smile was feral. "That isn''t enough anymore, girl. I will beat you up. Whether I do it before or after fighting you is of little consequence to me."
She was confused. "What? Why, Milord? I apologize for my offense. I''m willing to repay you for the slight."
He chuckled, then laughed maniacally. His Ultimate Doom flared, and he let it run wild. His Realization couldn''t leave his One Self, and he couldn''t even make it do anything useful inside himself while he was in the Overlord Realm. But it fueled his desire to destroy.
He said, "You''ll repay me by telling Shen of your suicidal actions. And you''ll do that after I beat you up and bring Doom upon that stupid part of your Path."
He expected her to complain or even get ready to fight him. Instead, she used facts and logic. "Shen won''t like that you forcefully changed my Path to fit what you believe to be best. Even if he agrees that my Path changed for the better."
Bai Yuefeng frowned. That did sound plausible. He should''ve thought things through¡ªas often. He still didn''t care to and would keep doing things his way.
Ultimate Doom couldn''t be caged, not if it was meant to destroy an entire multiverse.
"One week it is, then," he said, putting his scythe away and reining his domain. "Tell him everything, or I will."
She almost bowed but stopped when he squinted his eyes. No bowing to him. He hated mock bows the most. Forced bows, too.
"Thank you, Milord," she said and left.
Bai Yuefeng looked at the projected starlight and willed it to be destroyed. The visage shattered, and the ugly underside of the city level above became visible.
That had been petty of him, but Ultimate Doom couldn''t be quenched after ignited unless he released some of his emotions.
He flew away; time to kill some old enemies he had allowed to run amok.
? ?
438. Nine Months
? ?Shen didn''t invest much time thinking about the friendship offer. It sounded too good to be true. He would digest it and decide by the time the war ended.
Instead, he went on a shopping spree while restructuring his troops and territory. Whitemetal Park was rebuilt with Conceptualizer-tier materials but became "merely" his strongest advanced fort. Symphonia was rebuilt with similar materials and became the new Blackhall Headquarters.
The costs were astronomical. Even at the quote of one week of service per peak-Overlord-tier artifact, it took Shen only a few days of spending to start owing the Doombringer half a year of service. He purchased a lot of equipment at inflated prices as news of the incoming war quickly spread.
By the end of the first week, he took a rare break to visit E''livia''s apartment. It would be the last visit until the war ended. He couldn''t afford to stay too far from his operations henceforth.
She was incredibly dedicated to making him happy that day. He thought it was because of their impending time apart until she revealed the truth.
"I spied on you every time you talked to a Demi-Dominator in Cylek," E''livia revealed, her speech haggard after their exercise.
Shen had to give it to her: she knew when to confess. He was still mesmerized by her beauty and the way her sweat looked on her skin. His mind was still lost in the aftermath of absolute pleasure as their bodies and souls connected. He could think straight if he forcibly muted the stimuli, but he definitely didn''t want to do it.
He cared a lot about being spied on, but his state of spirit allowed him to ask a question before growing too upset. "Why?"
"I was scared," she said as she hugged his arm. He wouldn''t be distracted by feeling her attributes in his skin. Not too much, anyway. "I''m dying."
Suddenly, Shen became completely alert. All traces of pleasure and anger disappeared. He forced himself to be present. He sat up, released his domain, and used Absolute Horizon to scour every inch of her being. He looked deeply into her with his Allvision. He saw nothing wrong.
"Who dared?" he demanded.
She was confused. "Who dared what?"
"Who dared to threaten your life. You''re not injured, so that''s not why you''re dying. Who wants to kill you?"
She smiled slightly while sitting up. It was a sad smile. "Only Demi-Dominators can tell what''s wrong with me. Even with a domain, you need to master a Law to perceive certain things about how Reality works. I''m incomplete. My connection to my father was more than emotional support, but I swear I didn''t know about it when we arrived. I thought I would heal in time. I didn''t. The hole is... festering, in a way. I need..." She trailed off and bit her lower lip. Hard. She drew blood.
"What? What do you need?"
She teared up. "I didn''t want to tell you. I don''t want to tell you. You don''t deserve a whiny, needy girl. I swear I''m not asking you to do anything. I swear."
He was worried. And upset. He tried to be kind, but if he understood correctly, someone had forced her to tell him about it, and no one forced his woman to do anything against her wishes.
"E''livia," he said somberly, "what the hell is going on?"
"The Doombringer said I needed to tell you everything. Tell you how I was eavesdropping on you and about my impending death. He said... He said our relationship wouldn''t last if I kept hiding any of it from you."
Well, he was right. He would break up with her if he learned about it in any way other than through her mouth. Or much later than now.
But the Doomsbringer had no right to force her to confess.
Wait a second...
He asked, "When did he tell you this?"
She bit her lower lip hard again, and he kissed her. Deeply. It forced her to heal herself to stop him from tasting blood. After they split apart, he looked her in the eyes.
Shen said, "I need you to trust me. I don''t hate you. I''m saddened, yes. And disappointed and hurt. But I care more about your damn death than your actions right now. Just know... Learning about it right now won''t be enough for me to give up on what we have. It''s... It''s close, but not enough. I... Have been hiding things, too. We can get to that later. For now, can you answer me? When did he tell you this?"
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That calmed her down. She gulped. "When I confronted him last week. After you left your meeting."
"Why would you do that?"
"I... I didn''t want him to take advantage of you after I died. I''d have killed him. You had his card. You''d be rich."
Shen was flabbergasted. That was juvenile-level scheming, but scheming all the same. She was learning. He was actually impressed.
He half-smiled and replied, "Not bad for a rookie schemer." The sudden compliment surprised her at first, but she smiled pleased after a moment. He continued, "I also didn''t approach him innocently. One of the reasons I sought him instead of anyone else was because he''s straightforward. He probably wouldn''t charge you for my debt. Even if he did, he probably wouldn''t demand unfair terms. And I hoped he would protect you from my enemies if they came for you. You know, so he could get revenge for the investment he lost when they killed me." He paused, then added unwillingly, "And I wanted him to need me alive so he would stop me if I tried to kill you, and you were forced to kill me instead."
She became the most confused she had been until now. "What?"
"Less than one year from now, I''ll force myself to start mastering all my Laws without stopping to stabilize my foundations after each Law. I''m keeping it slow for now, but only until I reach halfway through with every Law. Then, it should take another six months to a year for the final push. I might go crazy from the influence of all those suddenly mastered Laws, considering I won''t take the time to actually master them. I''ll master my expertise on them, get to know them, but not place them thoroughly under my rule. Not at first, at least." He paused. "But that doesn''t matter anymore. We have to save you. If you haven''t healed yourself yet, I guess it can''t be done in Cylek. Let''s pack up and go. We have one year? If nothing works, we can beg Habnor for help. I''ll accept any price he demands of us."
E''livia''s mouth was hanging in shock. Eventually, she asked, "Did you tell the Doombringer about your cultivation plans?"
He frowned. "No, but it should be obvious if Octo is really my enemy. I can''t beat a Demi-Dominator unless I become one myself. Why do you ask?"
"I think he knows. And I think he thought I knew and was being extra obnoxious about it. I''m so stupid! I should have known, but I was so focused on my own troubles... Heavens, I''m such a self-centered bitch."
"Huh?"
She looked him in the eyes. "I need to connect my blood essence to someone else''s. It must be someone at least as strong as me."
"I''m guessing there''s a but."
She hesitated, nodded, and said, "But it''s an intimate connection. I won''t accept anyone but you, Shen. But I swear it''s as I said: I don''t need you to rush for me. I''ll die happy knowing you''ll be strong enough to deal with any issue the Shaft might throw at you. That''s all I need. I mean it." She was tearing up by the end.
His heart shook. "E''livia, how long do you have?"
E''livia looked away from him but whispered, "Nine months."
Shen stood up. "This whole thing hurts. This hurts more than you seem to imagine. How do you think I would feel if you died and I learned I could''ve saved you all the while but was dragging my fucking feet?!" He raised his voice, and she was shocked at his outburst. He calmed enough to say, "Yes, I''m mad. Now, you better put some clothes on, find the Doombringer, and bring him here. Then, you''ll keep your beautiful, round ass in that bed and act as my Path Guardian as I focus on cultivating."
"What? Why call the Doomsbringer?"
"I want him here in case I try to do something stupid against you, but you don''t defend yourself because you''re dying anyway."
More importantly, he needed the Doomsbringer to stay in that house for months so he and E''livia could get acquainted with each other. Shen hated the idea of giving up on her, but if the price for her survival was hooking up with someone else, so be it. He was sure he could convince her by threatening his own life, as immature as that was.
What a fucked up situation!
He swore to himself that the threat of becoming a cuck would push him to master his Laws in time. If he failed, Heavens help him, for he would destroy the entire Reality for forcing him to convince his lover to give herself to someone else to save her damn life.
He would destroy it thoroughly.
"What if he doesn''t want to come?" she asked as she put on her clothes. He could see how much she wanted to argue, but his anger had shocked her into motion.
"Tell him I need a friend by my side right now."
He pulled Un''Re out of his soul. He felt wholer with it in his hands. It would help him focus on the Axioms.
E''livia hesitated, then approached and hugged him. He tensed but ended up returning her hug. He was still upset, though.
"Shen..." she started.
He interrupted, "We''ll save your life first. We can talk after you''re safe."
She bit her lower lip but nodded and left.
Shen started looking at and meditating upon Reality.
? ?
? ?
The Doombringer didn''t fit the house''s first two floors and had to stay on the rooftop. His presence was a clear statement for all of Cylek: Shen and E''livia weren''t to be bothered.
News came about Blackhall being destroyed two months after Shen entered reclusion. Octo also sent a challenge for Shen, which Shen forfeited. He was being protected by E''livia, which meant he had to abide by his promises. He was out of the gang game.
That bothered him a lot, but E''livia''s incoming death bothered him more. He swallowed the bitter pill and kept cultivating.
Four months in, he pushed the last of his Laws halfway through to mastery.
Five months in, the mastered his first Law.
That day, he understood what E''livia had meant; mastering a Law changed everything. Reality was laid bare to him. Not in the way he barely recalled when the Heavens burned his talent for a final attack against Valentina. But it was the deepest he had pried to day with only his power, and he marveled at Reality''s secrets.
Shen looked at the Law of the Shaft in Un''Re and seemed to peer into the source code of existence itself.
? ?
439. Proud
Shen had recently investigated how the Heavens and the Axioms were related to each other. Most of what he discovered matched what he had learned from Liya, but there were some slight imprecisions in what she had taught him.
The Axioms had come to exist as Energy, over Time, gained Sentience and strength to rise above the Expressions themselves. At least, they tried to surpass the Expressions. The Axioms depended on the Expressions to exist, so they couldn''t be above it and their reach to define Reality.
That''s where the Heavens came in. Each of the Three Heavens¡ªTrue, High, and Low¡ªwas made, above all, of the reminiscent Sentience of each Axiom, which became dull and almost muted as they got so close to going above the Expressions. The True Heavens were only one and contained Axioms that affected all of Reality. Each High Heavens contained Axioms that affected a multiverse. And each Low Heavens contained Axioms that affected a universe.
The unconsciousness of each living being''s Sentience under the Heavens was then mixed with the Axioms'' reminiscent Sentience to form a collective Sentience that ruled over all. Those were the Heavens. Thoughts and opinions defined the rules everyone had to follow. It was as if each living being''s Sentience fought for harmony like the Axioms had once fought to establish their Concepts.
The massive number of different beings and often opposing ideals in all of Reality made reaching a consensus almost impossible. Together with the fact that the True Heavens were the closest layer to surpassing the Expressions, this caused the True Heavens to be almost detached and "dumber," in a way.
A True Heavens-level Axiom, or True Axiom, affected all of Reality but didn''t reach each universe in a "pure" state. They interacted with its High Axioms to reach a new equilibrium as they went through the High Heavens. The True Axioms had an edge but weren''t all-powerful over the High Axioms. Then, the True and High Axioms interacted with the Low Axioms in the Low Heavens to form what each universe''s living being knew.
When Shen mastered the Law of the Shaft, he became able to tell the Axioms of the Spear were at the True Heavens level. They existed in all of Reality. However, he mastered the "distorted" version of the Law of the Shaft as it manifested itself in... Well, in the Shaft, or the Tower of Seven, its official name.
The non-matter the True Axioms were made of looked more profound than the High Axioms, which looked more solid than the Low Axioms. Non-matter was the right word to use, too, because what he saw was Energy while having almost none of it, like a flavor of how Energy manifested itself. It also didn''t flow perfectly with Time, manifesting themselves or disappearing almost at random. They also felt nearly absent of willpower, though he knew the Axioms fought back if you pushed them.
Every Axiom was made of the same non-matter, but the Law of the Shaft that Shen mastered was unique to his senses. The impression he got was like synesthesia. Shen tasted a specific texture, heard acrid, saw a deep sound, smelled anger, and felt red. The Law of the Shaft was a unique part of the whole Axioms of the Spear, and he could see how its ever-shifting yet perfectly stable Law fragments affected all of Reality.
Amazingly, he could comprehend exactly how Shaft interacted with every other Law. The sudden enlightenment came as soon as he mastered his expertise in the Law.
Everything turned simply... obvious.
The blindfold had been removed from his every sense. The truth had always been there, but now that he had mastered Shaft, he could recognize himself in Reality¡ªfor Shaft was part of his One Self¡ªin a much more incredible manner.
The Law of the Shaft inside him also resonated with the Law of the Shaft in the world, solving an issue that had come with his Severing: he could feel the Law of the Shaft outside of himself again. It wasn''t quite like it used to be, where his Laws were an extension of himself, but it was good enough. Any contact of anything with the Law of the Shaft outside his body was felt by him as if it was part of his One Self. The passive range was limited to a mere mile, but he guessed it would increase after he reached the Seeker level.
More importantly, the passive feedback would extend to his entire domain, however big he made it. Currently, after his path mastery increased, his domain had already reached six hundred miles.
Actually...
Shen released his domain upwards. It rose to the skies and almost instantly enveloped three thousand miles upwards.
A single mastered Law was enough to slingshot him to great power.
He could also command the Law of the Shaft with newfound authority. His One Self contained the entirety of the Law of the Shaft. The Shaft was he and his. Anything the Law of the Shaft touched that he could fell, he could command with a single thought. It required no qi expenditure at all.
His domain was also strengthened by mastering a Law. Shen could effortlessly touch every boundary inside the three spatial dimensions. His Will could affect everything. E''livia and other domain holders with mastered Laws could no longer block him. They had to fight him in the meta-battlefield instead of just using their mastery to obliterate him.
Lastly, Shen could now invade souls with no difficulty. Only someone else with a domain or a mastered Law could stop him. Before now, he had been using his Absolute Horizon to get the job done at willpower expenditure. Now, Reality itself bowed to him when he determined the Laws of the Shaft inside someone had to twist in any way.
Shen mastered the Law of the Shaft.
Understanding and power flooded Shen''s veins for an instant.
Then, he found himself limited by his Law.
He didn''t want to cultivate anymore. At least, not so quickly. He should be cautious. He should solidify his cultivation before moving forth. It was the obvious thing to do. E''livia could just bang someone else¡ª
Anger flared deep within him, and he bypassed the influence of Shaft to push the next Law to mastery.
E''livia was his for as long as she wanted to be his and did nothing wrong to make him want to push her away. Shen would never, ever, give his woman to another if it depended on him. Never.
He needed some True Boundlessness to counter the sheer stupidity inside himself.
? ?
? ?
E''livia woke up feeling as if the tip of a blade was trying to pierce her entire existence. She looked at Shen, sitting on a meditation mat beside their bed, looking through the window. Un''Re floated before him, and he stared at the world through the "lens" of the weapon''s pointy end.
Shen himself looked and felt sharper. She could also tell he would be very easy to anger. True Boundlessness and Shaft more or less countered each other, leaving the newfound Extremity free to run amok in Shen''s being.
The next second, the sensation he gave her shifted.
He had forced himself to move from Extreme instability to Extreme focus. He started cultivating with so much concentration that she doubted she could wake him up, no matter what she did.
E''livia smiled, proud of her man.
She made sure to hide her sadness in her every movement. She had only two months remaining, and Shen still had to master four Laws. Anyone could tell he would fail. Although he had already mastered as many Laws as she had in her Path, a Path with all Laws mastered was special and the minimum requirement for her to bond with someone.
She suppressed her emotions and left the room. A quick trip to the kitchen saw her grabbing two Conceptualizer-tier sodas. She took a deep sight and got to her rooftop.
The Doombringer was there, sitting cross-legged, looking at the skies. He hadn''t moved ever since arriving in her apartment. He never overreached his welcome or even initiated a conversation.
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She passed him a soda and sat before him. Their eyes met. He nodded and got back to looking at the skies.
They had reached a silent agreement to play pretend for Shen''s benefit. E''livia had learned a few things in Cylek. She could tell Shen''s plans, and so could the Doombringer. Neither allowed Shen to detect that they knew what he was planning.
Neither of them would accept Shen''s plans, either.
E''livia had thought long and hard about it. Did her feelings have more value than her life? No. But her sense of self did. She didn''t see herself as someone who would offer her body and soul to someone just to survive.
It would be different if she didn''t have anyone in her heart. She would''ve been open to getting to know someone. But she loved Shen with all her heart. It was a natural feeling, born out of her personal preferences and their experiences together, many of them left unanalyzed and buried in her unconsciousness. She could force herself to stop loving Shen, but it would go against her Path¡ªagainst her Truth.
Most cultivators were willing to die for their Path. That was often thought of as dying because their Path made them clash against a foe whose Path opposed yours. Her situation was different yet similar.
E''livia would die happy, knowing her Path had at least allowed her to experience a brief sense of happiness she had never expected to experience. She had always thought she would marry to advance her bloodline''s interests. Instead, she found Shen, and she became all the better for it. Not all Paths find glory at the end of the road. Hers did. She found glorious love and fulfillment right before her Path ended.
Shen himself didn''t feel that way about her, but it was okay. In fact, dying was arguably the best ending for her. She doubted he would ever come to love her like she loved him. They would break up one day.
"You look ugly when you cry," the Doombringer said.
Surprised, she reached for her cheeks. She found blood. Indeed, she was crying.
"Your essence is deteriorating," the half-titan explained after noticing her confusion. "You''ll lose control of yourself soon." He paused and looked down, through the floor, at Shen. E''livia felt her man. He was still absorbed by his cultivation. "I made some inquiries. You do know the alternative method to survive, correct?"
Her surprise increased. He had made inquiries? When? He hadn''t left since he arrived, nor had he made contact with anyone. His domain was reigned in, his qi was inside him, and she hadn''t detected him activating any artifact.
Yet, as much as she wanted to know his secrets, it was more urgent, paramount, for him not to reveal hers.
"Don''t you dare tell him," she started, then corrected herself, "please. I beg of you, don''t tell Shen. Such a method would go against everything I believe in."
He sipped his soda and nodded. "I expected as much. Your Path has a Law of Life." He stared at her pleading eyes for a moment before sighing. "Don''t worry; unlike your previous stupidity, I can respect your Path in that."
She smiled relievedly. Birthing a child to save herself would be beyond evil. All sapient life should come to the world out of love, not to be used. She would rather die than birth someone who would come to exist to serve the purpose of being her crutch.
"You''re not perfect," the Doombringer said, "but you''re good enough. From the little I saw, you were mostly good for him despite all your mistakes and idiocies. If you want, I can kill you now to seal your essence within me. I''ll try to revive you in the future."
She had asked before what essence was, as that''s where her issues were. Indeed, even her domain with mastered Laws could detect something wrong, but not exactly what or where the wrongness came from. Unfortunately, the Doombringer had said it was a secret meant for Realizators, and his life would be at risk if he spilled the beans.
E''livia had yet to reveal to Shen what she had discovered just before eavesdropping on his conversation with the half-titan: the shrewdness behind willpower being linked to knowledge in the Shaft. No one knew if the Divine Mandatary had done without hidden intentions, but you could detect if some key secrets had been spilled by monitoring people''s willpower. She didn''t understand the process, but she had learned it was possible and even where some scanners had been hidden in Cylek.
Anyway, that someone''s essence could be captured and preserved was news to her. It required her death, though. And being inside the Doombringer. She would rather die than risk whatever that was. As civilized as he had behaved, she didn''t trust him that much¡ªor at all. His desire to become friends with Shen was still way too suspicious. Her best guess was that he wanted Un''Re but didn''t think he could kill Shen without a sneak attack; not before she arrived to defend Shen.
She asked, "How about letting my essence stay inside Shen instead?"
He looked at her as if she was stupid, and the obvious answer came to her: you needed a Realization to preserve someone''s essence. Or, at least, knowledge about essence that he couldn''t reveal to Shen.
E''livia smiled awkwardly. "Any chance I can buy that technique in my two remaining months?"
The Doombringer shook his head.
Silence stretched between them. She looked beyond him to the city outline beyond. Eventually, she asked, "What would be better for him? If I disappeared to die somewhere out of sight? Or having him hold my hand as I pass away?"
"The second. But he''s in no condition to hold your hand. Nor will he be. You could die before him right now, and he would look at you as if you were a stranger. Three mastered Laws in a Path without ruling over them? I''m surprised he can focus on the fourth Law, but he won''t go past five before having to fight for inner control."
"You knew he would fail," she accused, though without fire behind her words.
"You also knew. But this way, rather than having him wait before cultivating, you''ll feel better about his safety after you leave. I''ll tell him you felt better about it, decreasing his guilt. He''ll feel better about himself for trying and failing, for having you nearby, than he would with any alternative."
"I''m surprised you''re so good with human emotions, Doombringer," she stressed his monicker.
"I don''t like intrigue and scheming, but I''ve lived for a long while. You pick some things on the way. And I don''t know about holins as much as I do about humans, but some things are universal. For instance, I know I''ll have to stop you from leaving this apartment when the time comes."
E''livia frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You haven''t faced death, woman. Not truly. Your essence is dwindling, and your instincts will inevitably take over. You''ll try to connect with someone, anyone. I''ll be here to stop that in a way that isn''t obvious to Shen. That''s the primary reason I''m still here. That''s my greatest gift to your current self."
She felt as if he had slapped her. "How dare you call me a whore in my own home?!"
"I have nothing against whores, and that''s not what I called you. Time will tell who''s right and who''s wrong."
E''livia didn''t have the self-control to stop herself from attacking the bastard if she remained there for a second longer. She harumphed and left without another word.
? ?
? ?
Bai Yuefeng had seen many wonders in his life.
The scene in that apartment became one of the greatest moments he had ever witnessed.
E''livia hadn''t left the bedroom after their last talk two months ago. She also hadn''t moved an inch in the past three weeks¡ªafter she sat before Shen, looking at her loved one.
Currently, her essence unraveled inside her. Her thoughts had long stopped making sense. Her very Will failed her. Her emotions became a mess, and instincts attempted to take control of her body all the time. She trembled and cried, her soul broke down and repaired itself with imperfections.
Her Path was corrupted.
She became someone else.
Yet her love remained untouched and a bastion of absolute stability in her chaotic self.
She started being unmade before her loved one, fading into motes of light as Shen stared through her. Consumed by his cultivation, his eyes focused on the Axioms of Reality, incapable of seeing anything else. He would remember this moment later, but he wasn''t there right now.
At least, he shouldn''t be.
Suddenly, he said with a somber voice, "I swear to the Heavens and the Abyss. I swear on my essence and Will. I swear on my entire being. Save her, and I''ll offer you undying loyalty. Be it to crush your enemies or become one of them myself, and offer you the best fight of your life."
To Bai Yuefeng''s surprise, the High Heavens seemed to hold their breath briefly at that declaration. Then, they released it. The Divine Mandatary had actually considered the pledge for an instant and decided against it.
"Very well," Shen replied. "But if you want me to fight you one day, don''t stop what I''m about to do, and allow the Doombringer and I to live for disobeying this one rule." He turned to Bai Yuefeng. "Transmit to me everything you can about essence."
Bai Yuefeng would never have considered doing it if the Divine Mandatary hadn''t heard Shen''s request. Evidently, the Mandatary was at least curious about the boy. Enough that he might kill only one of the two, Bai Yuefeng or Shen, for breaking the rule.
In fact, for the first time, Bai Yuefeng himself became curious about Shen for who Shen was, not his ancestry. What had the Mandatary seen on the boy? Or was it about the girl and her supposed connection to a Warden in Main Space, which he had heard about?
He glanced at the High Heavens. There was no movement of acknowledging the boy''s second sentence.
Bai Yuefeng should''ve thought things through before doing anything...
...but that wasn''t his style.
He sent a strand of qi to Shen, connected to the boy''s mind, and shared everything he knew about essence.
That knowledge was precious and powerful. Shen''s willpower increased by at least twenty percent. Bai Yuefeng learned soon after that such increase was half the reason Shen wanted to know about essence.
Shen mastered his fifth Law right then. His power peaked. His willpower had never been greater.
As Bai Yuefeng had predicted, Shen''s control over himself started to break down, even with the boosted willpower. But the boost was just enough for him not to lose himself before trying something new.
Shen''s domain grasped E''livia''s essence and Shen used his Will of Absolute Power to throw all his willpower and, somehow, his very essence¡ªwhich should be impossible, as Will and essence weren''t that connected¡ªagainst the very foundations of Reality.
A forbidden technique! A Subversive Decree! Using one''s Will to directly change Reality!
Since when could Shen use it?! How did he even know it?! That ability shouldn''t exist in the Overlord Realm! It was highly regarded and greedily protected by the peak force of the Seeker Realm!
The Doombringer immediately deployed his domain over all of Cylek as he prepared to kill all witnesses.
Meanwhile...
The Low Heavens was forced to give way as Shen Willed E''livia to be allowed to live without side effects by connecting with his current self, despite him not having mastered all his Laws.
The High Heavens resisted for a moment, but the Divine Mandatary gave way in the end instead of ordering the High Heavens to stop Shen.
Then, Shen''s Will and essence reached the True Heavens¡ªand the True Heavens pushed back, for it wouldn''t allow its precious rules to be so easily bent.
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440. Essence
A being''s essence was their most quintessential existential trace. It had no proper form and occupied no space, yet it did exist in Space, and a Realizator could touch it. Strong Realizators could even manipulate it to a small degree, though not in any way that was harmful to the target. S-ranks, or Ascenders, could supposedly do great wonders with one''s essence, or so the Doombringer had heard rumors about.
Some considered a being''s essence some sort of metaphysical ID Card or spiritual DNA. It was also an anchor to Reality, a fingerprint that confirmed someone existed.
More importantly, one''s essence also contained everything one had ever been and was, meaning it could be used to return anyone to life or to heal someone whose injuries were supposedly beyond hope, like soul injuries. You only needed enough power. For instance, if the Immortal Emperor had been an Ascender in the Eternal Empire, he could''ve healed Shen using his essence regardless of any ability dealing with souls. Well, he might also have needed the proper technique, but the idea was that dealing with the essence superseded most barriers.
On the other hand, one''s essence being so critical also meant that if someone''s essence was gone, there was no saving them. Reverting time in a location wouldn''t cause someone''s essence to reappear, no matter how strong you were. Everyone''s essence instantly dissipated upon death unless exceptional circumstances surrounded their departure.
The centrality of essence for someone''s existence was one of the most fundamental and inalienable rules of all Reality.
It was also seen in another matter: the most significant difference between a being from Reality and a non-being from the Void was that the latter had no essence. The Void could mimic and fake an essence in many ways, but no forgery could bypass an Ascender''s focused senses. Most fake essences couldn''t fool even a Realizator.
It was impossible to damage a being''s essence. You could destroy it if you pressured it beyond its breaking point, but not hurt it.
Impossible to damage also meant it was incorruptible¡ªor so the Doombringer''s intel claimed. That was incorrect. The Ghost Doctor had attached Shen''s True Boundlessness to his essence¡ªwhich he later swapped for his Will¡ªwithout his permission, showing enough power could bypass any protection. In fact, Shen took that as an argument that supported the idea that there was something above a Divine Mandatary; after all, a Mandatary was still incapable of using their Authority to directly kill anyone. Enough power should be able to go around that rule.
Still, Shen believed some of that intel was correct. The Ghost Doctor was evidently someone with a lot of power. From E''livia''s tales, she had treated the Gardener, an S-rank, a Universal Warden, like a weakling. The Doctor couldn''t be used as a standard of power. In most cases, one''s essence should be impossible to damage. At the very least, the one corrupting it should have unimaginable power and be trying to do so.
Shen only threw his essence at the Heavens because he was betting that the Heavens would kill him instead of corrupting him.
Shen''s essence was the best weapon he could use against the Heavens. It was the foundation of his One Self, his entire history, and the weight of everything he had ever been, felt, and gone through.
The latter was critical. The Doombringer had barely revealed that a Severing wasn''t absolute because one''s essence was the very thing that kept an Idealist still connected to Reality. So, one''s essence couldn''t be Severed; not if one wanted to survive. There was no existence beyond Reality; to Sever one''s essence from it was to Void oneself. Since there was still a connection and one''s past was in one''s essence, one''s Severed past connections also existed through anyone''s essence, in a way.
Therefore, Shen was also throwing the weight of said connections against the True Heavens¡ªand he had dealt with some damn strong people in the Alliance.
It wasn''t lost to Shen how similar one''s essence was to one''s foundations. The Doombringer''s information contained nothing about the latter. Still, Shen guessed a foundation was a sort of mirrored image of one''s essence or maybe even a more physical representation of part of it. One''s essence was much more than their foundation, but everything a foundation was could be linked to one''s essence. Strengthening either evidently meant strengthening the other.
The next logical step was concluding that blood essence was connected to one''s foundation, despite the slightly misleading name. Using blood essence made techniques stronger, and a drop of blood essence had different uses, all connected to the being it had come from¡ªto their spiritual DNA. It was also linked to their power at the time, evidencing it had more to do with foundation than the all-encompassing essence; a drop from someone at the Overlord level differed from when they had been at the Conceptualizer level. Losing a drop of blood essence weakened someone for a while, likely because it damaged their foundation. The foundation healed over time because it was somehow nurtured by one''s essence, which couldn''t be dama
A being''s Space, Change, and Will didn''t exist in their essence. Not directly. They were there because everything a person was was there, but they were no more than faint shadows. Likewise, their Time, Sapience, and Energy were there, yet not.
In other words, you could throw your essence against the Heavens and your willpower for an extra boost.
That''s what Shen was doing. He wished he could throw qi, too, but Absolute Horizon was a technique that merely allowed him to use his willpower to affect Reality. Not that he was using the ability as it was supposed to be used. He should use it to affect the things around him, to attack and defend, not to try to alter the rules of Reality itself.
The moment Shen''s Will touched the Low Heavens, he knew he had done something he wasn''t supposed to. That he was way too weak to withstand throwing only his willpower against the Heavens. That his mind would crumble if he insisted. A mere Overlord should have nowhere enough willpower to resist the impact. Even if an Overlord were exceptional and did have such willpower¡ªwhich wasn''t Shen''s case¡ªtheir foundations wouldn''t be strong enough to withstand the backslash.
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So, he added his essence to the equation and hoped for the best¡ªthough, to be honest, he hoped that the thing he was trying to accomplish would be feasible at the Low Heavens'' level.
Shen just wanted E''livia to survive by connecting with his current self. He wasn''t trying to change the whole holin species. He wasn''t trying to make her able to connect with any other person weaker than her. It was a one-on-one thing. Punctual. It didn''t even need to work outside the Shaft; it was okay for her to die if either of them left the Shaft. It was also temporary; he would undoubtedly master his Laws within the year, and what he was doing would stop mattering.
So, Shen hoped altering the rules of the Shaft''s Linked Low Heavens would be enough. It wasn''t. His willpower went through the Low Heavens as if they were empty air, and the local Reality didn''t change. He was surprised at how weak the Low Heavens were, but it made sense; after all, Ascenders could force the Low Heavens to accept their Realization. The Low Heavens would''ve crushed Shen''s willpower but couldn''t stop his essence.
Still, Shen had been confident that, at worst, the change he desired should be at the High Heavens level. He didn''t need all of Reality to accept his temporary workaround. Why would it be connected to the True Heavens?
He was glad when the High Heavens resisted his Will. It probably meant he was right: the change was at the multiverse level. He was prepared for a battle of attrition.
Then, the High Heavens parted, and Shen''s Will went through unhindered¡ªstraight at the True Heavens.
That''s when he felt the total weight of his insignificance once again. The last time had been when the Heavens filled him with power to kill Valentina.
The True Heavens were made of the unconsciousness of every living being in existence in all multiverses plus the reminiscent Sapience of the True Axioms that defined everything. Although the trillions of beings connected to the Low Heavens were too weak to stop Shen, the countless beings connected to the True Heavens were different. There was no piercing that barrier with his pitiful willpower and essence. There was no making even a scratch on it. Shen''s Will struck it like a crystal ball hitting a steel block. His Will and mind would''ve shattered if they weren''t connected to his essence.
An essence that was coming right after,
Shen knew, he was sure, he would die once he threw it against the True Heavens. He kept his course anyway. Shen''s essence reached the True Heavens...
...and stopped.
There was no dramatic event. No grand effects. His essence wasn''t damaged beyond its breaking point. It simply stopped. It met a resistance it could do nothing against. It was like a candle flame trying to melt ice-cold titanium. There was no reaction. The titanium generated more coldness than the flame could counter.
Shen''s essence just stood there, touching the True Heavens, wanting to change it but incapable of even acknowledging itself.
Disbelief became an overwhelming feeling of impotence. His worst fears came true: he could do nothing without heavenly talent. He had always been a useless but privileged boy, and it hadn''t changed. That was all he amounted to.
A small part of him claimed it was ridiculous for him to feel unworthy because he couldn''t change Reality itself at the Overlord level. He told that part to shut up. Someone better than him, with all the advantages he had had, would''ve found a way to already be S-rank. His weakness and uselessness were undeniable.
E''livia would die because of him.
He pulled back. Shen''s essence had never physically left his One Self, but it had run some metaphysical distance that was now negated. He instantly found himself back in his room. E''livia was still being unmade.
Failure lowered his willpower, and his mastered Laws warped his mind. He tried to fight back, but after the recent shock, it was a losing fight. He wasn''t immune to the weight of self-disappointment.
The seconds stretched as he focused on E''livia for as long as he could, etching the moment in his memory.
"I love you," she whispered before her head started disintegrating.
"I¡ª" Shen started but was interrupted by a massive hand made of pure Axioms that formed around E''livia and clenched.
What remained of her became an unrecognizable mess.
Shen didn''t even react at first. He just stared at it in disbelief for a moment, while the Axiom-hand faded away. Then, he understood the Divine Mandatary had killed E''livia, and his world was tinted red with absolute and overwhelming fury.
"Her essence is with me," a whisper claimed by his ears.
The newfound hope for reuniting with her in the future only served to fuel his shame and anger. The Mandatary grabbed E''livia''s essence and used it to manipulate Shen into coming and fighting him with his all. There would be no quarters, only victory or defeat¡ªor giving up on E''livia.
Shen had to be thankful to the asshole who had just killed his woman before him.
He roared in anger and anguish, but it was short-lived. His mind was overwhelmed by Shaft, True Boundlessness, Extremity, Stream, and Gentle Breeze. His sense of self was twisted. Barely enough remained for him to recall he had to work on becoming the de-facto master of his Laws.
"Focus!" a male voice yelled from nearby. The Doombringer. "You used a forbidden technique! Deploy your domain and kill everyone I point at!"
Shen didn''t react.
There wasn''t enough ability to reason in his mind for him to work with anyone. His failure still crushed him. Realizing his weakness threatened to unmake himself because he had just recognized he existed as anathema to his Will of Absolute Power.
Shen''s weakness had been the downfall of everyone who cared about him. His mother had died because of him when he was a baby. His father had died because he was a weak cripple. E''livia was now gone. Liya, Alicia, Shai, and Luthdel were lucky Shen hadn''t stayed around them longer, or they would''ve suffered a similar fate.
Shen fully internalized, truly comprehended for the first time, how pathetic he was. He had already intellectually understood that he always survived because of unfair advantages or because people meddled in his favor. But this? This was as if raw truth punched him in the face. He had made the Doombringer break the rules of the Shaft but was allowed to survive in the hopes that his anger would fuel his strength enough to entertain someone bored¡ªand his subsequent failure would mean E''livia''s ultimate demise. He was no more than a failed experiment, but people still died for him, while others wanted to see how far he could reach.
Shen hated himself.
Suddenly, a high-tech tentacle monster materialized behind him. The tentacles were already around Shen, trying to crush him to death like the Axiom-hand had done to E''livia. Octo, one of Cylek''s Hegemons, had come for him now that E''livia was gone and the Doombringer was... elsewhere. Shen hadn''t cared to keep track of the half-titan.
Shen would love nothing more than to embrace death and take a final rest from his useless existence that only made others suffer for him. Alas, E''livia''s life depended on him, and he had to at least try to save her. That meant surviving long enough to grow powerful to challenge the Divine Mandatary.
So, he first preserved his already lowered willpower: he let go of any attempt to reign his mastered Laws in for now. Then, he deployed his domain to maximum range, so everyone would know he meant business, no matter whose interests it hurt; he was not in the mood to play games. Lastly, he took Un''Re out of himself.
Shen would show his foes the full weight of all his anger, frustrations, and mourning.
For E''livia.
441. Mistakes
The first hurdle in Shen''s fight was the highly complex meta-battlefield. Over a dozen domains filled the same space, each trying to pull the local Laws their way. When that happened, one had to wisely decide which Law to invest more willpower to affect. Alas, Shen was in no condition to be wise.
Shaft, True Boundlessness, Extremity, Stream, and Gentle Breeze were more or less in control. Not directly, but their main characteristics had become an adamant part of Shen. They couldn''t be ignored. He couldn''t even think of not using them to their utmost.
Shaft demanded stability. So, Shen kept forcing his Will against every other domain in a wordless demand that everyone agree on a Law ratio and fight from there, instead of fighting for supremacy. That was fated to fail. Willpower slipped through his metaphorical fingers every second as he wasted it on the meaningless endeavor.
True Boundlessness wasn''t much better. It demanded him to be free of all external influence. It constantly attempted to make his body out of bounds to any domain''s manipulation. It kept failing and consuming his willpower.
Extremity was a bit more egoistical and, paradoxically, less useless. It kept investing willpower in pushing its own influence to the Extreme. Shen''s influenced One Self wanted the Law of Extremity to be an unbeatable Law within his domain. Those attempts were more successful than the other Laws, though they were also constantly countered, and Shen had to invest more willpower in strengthening Extremity.
Stream was the Law that annoyed Shen the most. It supported all senseless expenditures from the other Laws to keep a Stream of willpower going. At least it didn''t directly waste any willpower.
Finally, Gentle Breeze was the weirdest. It simply attempted to make every Law within his domain range to brush harmlessly against every other instead of fighting. Gentle Breeze and Shaft''s objectives overlapped slightly, so they supported each other. That meant a little less waste of willpower.
Yet, willpower was still wasted. Shen would be out of willpower in less than a minute if not for an unexpected blessing.
Shen discovered a facet of domain combat no one had revealed to him before: as long as he was entirely faithful to a mastered Law''s primary goal and invested in it in the meta-battlefield, each Law opened a unique well of willpower for him to draw from. The wells weren''t endless, and using them still took some of his willpower, but it would allow him to go for much longer than with only his willpower.
That explained a lot about some meta-combat he had witnessed between people with mastered Laws in the past two years in the Tower of Seven, including from E''livia. He didn''t know why no one told him about it, though.
Still, his willpower would dwindle as the fight went on. The meta-battlefield worked by investing packets of willpower in getting something done, primarily making a Law have more or less hold over the area of Reality within your domain. If your demand was more substantial than your enemy''s¡ªthe "attack power" was based primarily on willpower¡ªyour desire would overcome theirs. If it was less, theirs would overcome yours. It was an endless loop, and willpower was spent as a resource.
Qi could be used to brute-force through some of the meta-battlefield''s effects. Path-supported qi could be focused on an area to make it better resist opposing domains. The effect was better the more mastered Laws you had in your Path, and there was a qualitative leap after mastering all Laws. A Path with only three Laws, but all mastered, would be more resistant against enemy domains than Shen''s five mastered Laws.
Evidently, every combatant around was already filling their bodies and weapons with so much qi that they seemed to shine brightly to Shen''s Allvision.
Anyway, although Shen''s willpower would be spent slower than expected thanks to the unexpected wells, he could still only end up with his willpower wholly spent. He estimated it would run dry in less than five minutes, and only if he didn''t use his willpower on any other thing.
Of course, he used his willpower as soon as the battle started.
Octo had timed his sneak attack too perfectly. Shen couldn''t dodge in time. He used his Absolute Horizon to will the space around one of the eight metallic tentacles coming his way to become unsurmountable.
The tentacle froze momentarily, and Shen used the gap to escape the enclosure. Nine percent of his willpower was spent to accomplish that trick.
He swung Un''Re against the tentacle just as he stopped willing the space around it to be impossible to go through. He meant to test his weapon against his enemy''s cyberware. He didn''t like the result.
The Overlord Realm didn''t accept anything above the Overlord level. Items above it could still enter but were limited to the Realm''s power boundaries¡ªwhich caused many of them to crumble into dust. Un''Re hadn''t been destroyed, but its materials, enchantments, and power were only as good as the tentacles'', at the peak of the Overlord Realm, despite Un''Re''s superior craftsmanship. So, the clash became all about strength and the meta-battlefield at the time.
Shen''s Extremity happened to have become weaker than the average Law just before it struck against the tentacle. It wasn''t Octo''s doing, someone else had done it, but it affected Shen all the same. Octo''s Law of Sturdiness, from the Axioms of Metal, was stronger than average. Shen''s strength was superior to Octo''s, but it didn''t make up for the difference between the Laws that defined Reality itself in the region.
Un''Re rebounded harmlessly from the tentacle.
Shen took in the man''s figure¡ªif he could still be called man. He was a stretched face over a watermelon-sized metallic head, which rested over the metallic sphere from which the tentacles came. Everything was black except the face''s pale skin. It was hideous¡ªbut well-thought. Nearing the man''s center mass without dealing with the tentacles was almost impossible. The tentacles were long enough that Octo kept them folded behind him even as he moved them ahead. They were always in the way, forming a protective barrier around him. After his failure, Octo was already turning around and thrusting his tentacles against Shen again.
Shen frowned. He couldn''t win this fight without using the meta-battlefield well, but his Law-based instincts left little space for him to focus on any other usage. Not that he was complaining. Using his Laws the way his instincts wanted felt right. He would keep doing so, even if he lost.
His frown deepened. That sounded utterly moronic. He should change his approach.
He didn''t change anything; that''s who he was and how he did things.
But he had an idea.
Shen began a defensive fight against Octo. The tentacles came for him, and he deflected them. Shen wasn''t surprised to find he was faster than any individual tentacle, as no cyberware could perfectly sync with one''s mind. There would always be a tiny delay between Octo''s desires and the cyberware''s compliance, including changes in trajectory during an attack. No one below peak-Overlord level could notice the delay, but it was the only thing that prevented Shen from being instantly overwhelmed in this battle.
There was no winning against it, though. There were eight tentacles and only one Shen.
Shen tried sending qi attacks from around him, in arcs, but the tentacles always blocked them. Octo had forged himself a handy body with a great defensive and attacking system. After hundreds of exchanges in a few seconds, it became evident that Shen would run out of willpower before winning this fight if nothing changed.
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So, Shen changed things. He put his idea to the test. He Willed Octo''s brain to explode.
Affecting material things with his Absolute Horizon was easier than affecting the soul, so he went for the brain. Affecting the mind was even more straightforward, but Shen didn''t feel confident besting Octo in a straight mind combat. Not after his maximum willpower decreased with his failure to save E''livia, and his mind split, focusing on the meta-battlefield.
Over two-thirds of Shen''s willpower disappeared as he forcibly Reality to bend to his desire. And still, Octo resisted. His brain was heavily damaged, but his own willpower and domain allowed him to resist. That''s when Shen decided to give up on keeping trying.
The clash happened in less than an instant. Octo was left dazed. Shen took the opening from Octo''s damaged brain to get close to him and¡ª
The five-foot-thick tentacles acted autonomously when they detected Octo wasn''t controlling them. All eight surrounded the man, creating multiple defensive layers. Shen''s spear swung against one of them and pierced halfway through because Extremity had a greater hold over Reality at that moment, but that was all.
Right after, Octo had already healed himself enough to counter-attack. He extended all his tentacles away from him, opening himself like a blooming flower, declaring its magnificence to the world. He evidently couldn''t accept being hurt the way he had been and was now flexing on Shen.
That was a mistake born out of anger, and Shen took advantage of it.
A few tentacles came towards Shen fast and hard. Shen Backstepped-Teleported. The Backstep extreme speed and unique way to avoid the enemy''s detection were united to a teleportation that saw the tentacles go through where he had been. The next instant, Shen was right beside Octo. Un''Re was already mid-thrust, going straight at the man''s big head.
Octo tried to dodge, but the spear struck true. Shen used half his remaining willpower to guarantee Extremity was as strong as it could be, and that the Law of Sturdiness was as weak as possible. Un''Re went all the way through Octo''s head, and Shen burned his qi to have the shaft expand and Conductivity explode in lightning inside the man''s brain.
Octo''s heavy body started teleporting away, but Shen Willed space to hold stil and struck the body, too. Then, he destroyed every tentacle. Allvision allowed him to see the man had spread drops of his blood throughout the metallic parts of his body. He cut them down, burned them with Conductiviy, and used his qi to erase them from existence.
Shen could also recover as long as a blood drop remained, but only if it was close enough to his main body at the time of his departure. It required a connection to his soul, and said connection stopped working if it was too far from his main body. If there were techniques to go around such limitations, he had yet to find any.
In the end, Octo died because he had lost his way. He had grown overconfident in his cyberware. There was a reason he had been ruling over a mere Shav Gang on the lower levels of Cylek despite being one of the Fifty Hegemons. Not all Demi-Dominators were made equal, and even the strong could make mistakes as they grew desperate after not breaking through to become Seekers for too long.
During combat, one badly-timed mistake was all your enemy needed to kill you. Octo''s mistake was the epitome of all his mistakes and frustrations in the past hundreds of years accumulated and released at the worst moment possible.
Just like that, a Demi-Dominator was gone.
Shen grabbed the eight spatial trearures he detected on Octo while he killed the man and stored them away. Then, he checked the ongoing combat on the skies of Cylek.
The Doombringer was a force of nature. His scythe burned with a terrible Fire that burned one''s retinae just from looking at it. His body shone with Metal that made it more resistant than the best Overlord-tier armor. The Wind around him deflected most incoming attacks. The Water in his blood ran fast through his veins and somehow made him faster than he should be. The Earth in his Path gave him stability and weight even as he flew through the skies.
He wasn''t alone. He had three allies, and they were holding well against their seven enemies. The other domains covering the region were only observing things.
"He''s dead, Doombringer!" one enemy, a korema, a race that resembled blue mermaids with bat wings, yelled. "We aren''t the only witnesses anymore! The human just showed his Willful Decree to everyone! Now, everyone can guess we''re fighting because he''s the one who attempted a Subversive Decree a minute ago! We aren''t the only ones who''ll come for the reward!"
"You saw nothing!" the half-titan roared back and shot straight at the korema, like a meteor of pure rage.
Shen couldn''t help but smile. The good old tactic of forcing someone''s memories to "change" through overwhelming force. He liked the Doombringer''s straightforwardness.
He noticed the three allies more or less formed a barrier between the seven and Shen while the Doombringer attacked. It didn''t take a genius to understand what was going on. Shen''s Absolute Horizon¡ªwhich was called Willful Decree in the Tower of Seven¡ªshowed he had been the one to try to change Reality, and someone had a standing bounty on the heads of anyone who did that. That''s why the Doombringer had claimed Shen had used a forbidden technique.
"Mallan''s not wrong," a male voice came from the air. One of the observers was speaking. "We''re all colleagues in Cylek, Doombringer. We should kill the boy and share the rewards. Even if he survives today, word will spread, and others will come for him. Cylek will become a warzone, the boy will fall in the end, and we''ll be left with nothing but the bill to rebuild the city."
The Doombringer roared and attacked more frantically, pushing the three people who had ganged on him away. The other four were engaged against the half-titan''s three allies.
"The five of you cannot resist the whole Overlord Realm," a light elemental said as it appeared far above everyone. "Nor can Cylek withstand the incoming fights. I have no interest in becoming a hunting dog for the aquasols, but the boy must go."
Shen recognized the light elemental. They had no gender and were the primary force behind the CIPD. The aquasols they mentioned were the strongest race in the Seeker Realm, energy beings similar to elementals, but a unique fusion of water and fire. If they had placed the bounty on Shen, he was screwed indeed.
"One year," Shen said. Everyone turned to look at him. "Protect me for one year. That''s all I need to completely master my Path. Then, I''ll take any challenger who comes for my head. Including you."
Shen didn''t regret that his instincts had him still fighting in the meta-battlefield. That''s who he was. But a tiny part of him had reawakened now that he was relatively safe, and he remembered that he had to show his instincts who was the boss of his One Self. More importantly, he recalled that if he did that, he would fight like a cultivator instead of a dog, like he had fought against Octo.
He had only won because his mistake of fighting with a mind heavily influenced by his Laws was slightly less lousy than Octo''s mistake. That is, if he could call what he had done a mistake. It was hard to tell.
"I''m not willing to hunt for the watersols, human," the light elemental said. "Why would I become your guard dog?"
Shen smiled widely. "Because I''ll run away if you don''t. I''ll escape for years, decades, hundreds of years if I must. I''ll survive, and I''ll return, and kill each of you when you least expect. Are you sure you would choose that over a fair fight a year from now?"
Almost as soon as his words were out of his mouth, a massive formation lit up all around Cylek. It had multiple layers, and moving through them became a huge challenge that would require a Demi-Dominator to attack for a few seconds. The outermost layer was even more robust. Space was tightly locked within. Teleportation became impossible.
"You were saying?" the light elemental provoked.
"Is that your answer?" Shen asked instead of replying.
The light elemental kept quiet momentarily, then replied, "As a matter of fact, I changed my mind. For the worst. A lousy mouth like yours would look better shut forever." They charged at Shen.
Shen widened his smile. He had noticed something interesting when he mastered his first Law and looked at Number One, who had visited before Blackhall was conquered by the Shav Gang: the lavil''s essence was fake. Shen''s Allvision allowed him to detect it before he became a Realizator.
The lavil wasn''t a being from Reality¡ªnor was one of the Doombringer''s friends helping protect Shen.
So, Shen told the half-elf, half-dwarf, "You still owe me, Overmind. Take me to a random, deserted, safe place in the Overlord Realm."
"That will make us even," the half-elf said as he turned to Shen.
"I accept," Shen said.
The half-dwarf''s impressive blue plate armor and his flesh melted. Equipment and living being turned into ever-moving black liquid. He became a Void Spawn, though evidently of a special kind, considering it could hide like it had been. This was the first signal Shen found that the Void worked differently in the Tower of Seven. He didn''t know why.
Shen had asked the lavil if the Void could change Reality to save E''livia but had been met with a refusal; the Void didn''t owe Shen enough for that. So, Shen kept it as the last hidden card he could use to protect E''livia in the future after he saved her through his own efforts. E''livia was gone, so he saw no issue saving himself now.
Using this last card and getting away from the Doombringer meant becoming utterly alone, without a lifeline, in a Tower whose denizens wanted him dead. It was still much better than immediate death.
The Void Spawn ignored many of the Laws of Spacetime as it shot straight at Shen. It arrived faster than the light elemental, who roared in anger.
Shen was surrounded by the Void, and then, he was gone.
442. Cylek, Yet Not
Shen had believed himself to be ready to face any place the Void threw him at. He had been wrong.
When the darkness of the Void released him, he found himself flying high above Cylek¡ªa different Cylek. It had been day a moment before, but it was night right now. Furthermore, the world itself felt weird to his senses. His Laws were there, but they felt... twisted. Not wrong, but also not quite right.
The most significant issue was his presence in this place. The Void never lied. Never. Or so he had been taught and learned to believe in.
Yet, Shen had asked to be brought to a "random, deserted, safe place in the Overlord Realm." The city wasn''t deserted, and his arrival here probably wasn''t random. The Void Spawn that could perfectly mimic living beings was evidence of how strangely the Void behaved in the Tower of Seven, but Shen had never considered it might also mislead him in a deal.
As for his safety... There were no Demi-Dominators around waiting to kill him. In fact, his domain had been deployed as soon as he arrived because it had been deployed on his origin, but he felt no single Demi-Dominator or Lawful Dominator in the entire city. None of the tens of millions of people there had a domain.
This was Cylek, yet not.
Not that he needed information about the denizens to know the place was different. Space itself behaved weirdly. It felt stretched, and Shen''s One Self felt like it occupied three times the space it should have. Regardless, everything looked normal. Not that everything behaved normally, though. Space also felt thin, and people appeared out of nowhere and disappeared in thin air. He could detect with his domain that they moved through the boundaries of three-dimensional Space into another three-dimensional Space, but his domain couldn''t infiltrate the other area.
This Cylek was also less cultivator-like. Neon lights were more abundant, the city had only three levels despite the equally tall buildings, and it was plenty more mechanized. Drones were everywhere, and flying vehicles¡ªthick, armored ones¡ªwere much more common than he had gotten used to. It made sense because the lack of Demi-Dominators made enchantments more likely to resist attacks long enough for backup to arrive.
As he checked his surroundings, an armored hovercar bearing the letters CIPD approached. Its strong flashlights were aimed at him, and a loud voice came from its speakers, "You''re an unauthorized domain holder! Pull it back right now!"
The hovercar had anti-domain enchantments, but the hovercar had no anti-Allvision enchantment. Shen could see through it and noticed only Conceptualizers inside, armed with enchanted guns. Every item was Overlord-tier, but did they really believe they could defeat him with that?
Shen thought they looked like a bunch of morons. They were lucky he was feeling Gentle, or he would Conduct his spear right through their skulls for daring to speak to him like that.
"He''s with me," a voice Shen hadn''t heard in a while said as a high elf in a blue cultivator robe materialized beside him.
There was a delay as the CIPD people checked something on their computers, and then they replied, "Understood. We''ve granted your guest a twenty-four-hour exceptional permission." They left without another word.
"Thank you," Shen said. He didn''t consider himself an entitled brat, but he had to ask right after, "Could you''ve saved E''livia?"
He suddenly felt edgy. He wanted to do something Extreme. The CIPD idiots had gotten very lucky that Habnor had saved them.
"No one could''ve saved her," the Realizator replied, using True Language. "Which is almost a blessing. Her race is so rare that no one who mattered knew about her presence here. I had to convince the Warden-Emperor not to use her as a breeder. He wasn''t pleased. It was expensive."
Shen frowned and asked, also in True Language, "What do you mean?"
"Not here. Retract your domain and follow me." He flew away, walking right through one of the weaknesses in Space.
Shen did as told and was surprised to find himself flying above another copy of Cylek as soon as he went through the boundary. His domain wasn''t deployed, but he could see no Overlords anywhere. Space felt even more stretched here, and he could only feel his mastered Laws as if through a tainted glass. Many objects looked as if they were and weren''t there. They didn''t quite blink into and out of existence, but their presence felt feeble, and sometimes Shen could see through them even without Allvision as if they had momentarily ceased to exist while still being there.
He understood what was happening when he saw a person walking sideways. Not sideways as one might expect it; the female treant was walking perpendicular to the floor, floating and stepping on empty air like she was walking on the ground and moving accordingly. A moment later, she was actually walking on the ground. The next moment, she was walking sideways again.
It reminded him of the spider he met at the First-Grade Talent Summit. The one who didn''t live in Main Space.
"Phasespace," Shen concluded.
He was surprised to feel a sort of Conceptual shockwave leave his mouth. Every Concept it touched shook. The shockwave faded in less than a hundred meters and did nothing permanent, but it was still beyond his expectations.
"Not a term you should throw carelessly in this place, even if no one can understand you." Habnor warned. "Especially not using True Language. There''s more to the Shaft''s Languages than you can learn before reaching the Realizator Realm. It should be obvious. Why go through so much trouble to establish them if the only purpose was forming a social hierarchy?" Shen opened his mouth to reply, but the high elf raised his hand and said first, "We''re almost there. Stay silent for once."
They arrived at a skyscraper not long after. The last few floors were made of solid metal that didn''t look so unstable. They even glowed purple a little. They entered one of the apartments, and Shen sighed, relieved, when Space felt normal again inside.
The apartment''s interior was rustic and cozy, precisely as it had been the last time Shen visited. Habnor''s home was evidently not typical. It had doors in multiple places, all leading to the same house.
Lariel was there, wearing a maid uniform, tea at the ready. She smiled brightly, and Shen was shocked to notice something for the first time: she looked a lot like a young version of the Queen of Spring and Autumn.
Habnor noticed it and complained, "That''s why I didn''t want to bring you here after you survived your Selection." He sat by the table and poured himself some tea. "The girl doesn''t understand True Language. She also doesn''t know about her mother. You''ll keep it like that."
Shen really wanted to know why the Queen had sent a daughter to that place, but it would be safer for everyone if he didn''t. So, instead of asking about it, he demanded, "Explain what you meant about E''livia''s race."
"I''ll overlook your tone because you''re affected by your Laws, but you''ll provide a proper apology the next time we meet, or I''ll beat you up. Badly. This is not a threat but a fact of life. I''m an old and strong Realizator, you little piece of shit. You''ll do well to remember that." He took a cigarette from a pocket and lit it up as if he were discussing the weather.
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Shen tried to stand up to meet the challenge, but a Realization kept him firmly in place. It also kept his jaws locked up.
Habnor puffed smoke and said, "We''ll wait for your Extremity to give up its hold over you to a more manageable Law before I release you. As for your question, it is known that the race of any living being who manages to push their Realization to the True Heavens becomes blessed. They are called the Heavenly Races. The blessing includes unique characteristics for each race, an easier time cultivating the Axioms their True Ancestor had in their Path, immunity from direct mental slavery, and it becoming impossible to change any traits of the race unless you change the True Heavens themselves.
"As you''ve recently learned, not just any random nobody can change the True Heavens¡ªand that''s not considering the True Heavens protect the Heavenly Races more than they resist new Axioms being pushed into them. Almost every Ascender who attempts the latter dies, so you''re lucky you survived attempting the former. Using your essence was very smart of you.
"Seven Heavenly Races have originated from the Tower of Seven. Yes, that''s the real meaning behind the Shaft''s official name. I know of no other Heavenly Race to have risen anywhere else; the Shaft is that old and special. Alas, none of the seven Heavenly Races lives in the Shaft any longer because their first blessing became a curse. They were exterminated or fled."
Shen wanted to ask, "What do you mean?" but his mouth was still sealed shut.
The high elf kept silent momentarily, looking longingly at nothing. Then, he continued, "The Heavenly Races are, at the very least, a cheap source of rare and expensive materials. Almost everyone wants to breed them for resources. It''s not beautiful, but that''s the way things are. The abyssal dragons have it easy because they are almost impossible to capture and always manage to escape if they really want to. The holins are the opposite. They are known to be docile and surrender completely if you use their unique social-binding characteristics against them. Their most coveted resource is their wings'' blood. You can gather similar liquid in other ways, but none as cheaply, safely, and in such quantities as breeding them. It''s an endless source of income¡ªand I''m talking about a lot of income." He paused, then said with a lower voice, "You don''t need to know too much, but I was married to a holin once. The Gardener gained my respect by protecting them."
Lariel, by the table, had been changing the leg she stood on, anxious about something. When another silence stretched between Habnor and Shen, she poured tea for Shen with an expecting smile. Shen felt Habnor''s Realization free him just enough for him to take a sip. The Realizator also gave Shen a look promising hell to pay if he misused his temporary freedom.
Gentle Breeze came to the fore, and Shen drank the tea with a kind smile. The liquid wasn''t even as terrible as last time. It only tasked like piss this time.
"Thanks," he said in high elven. His memory of their last meeting let him know the language was shared between the Shaft and the Alliance.
"You''re welcome!" she replied with a beaming smile.
"I need time alone with our guest, Lariel," Habnor said, also in high elven.
"Yes, Uncle," she replied meekly and left. She didn''t even eavesdrop this time.
They grew up so fast!
Habnor reverted to the Overlord Realm''s True Language. "You couldn''t save your woman because she was holin. As I said, no one can change a Heavenly Race unless they change the True Heavens. But the Heavenly Races have two extra, less-known characteristics. What do you know about genecrafting?"
Shen asked, "Manipulating genes to create new races?"
"Not exactly. The term is meant to mislead the ignorant. You can change someone''s physiology quite easily¡ªas long they aren''t from a Heavenly Race¡ªand ensuring all descendants will keep the trait is not prohibitively expensive. Genecrafting is more art than science. The goal is to produce an entirely new race by combining the right factors at the right time. Keep a living being affected by the right stimuli for the proper length of time, and it dies or morphs into another. It''s not beautiful, and most civilized places ban it because results are statistically impossible at best."
"I guess holins can be created like that?" That''s the only link Shen could think of to their conversation.
Habnor nodded. "The ultimate goal every genecrafter wants to achieve is producing a Heavenly Race. The Heavenly Races are the only existing races that can come to be in different ways. Any other race can only come to be in the same conditions that birthed it originally. A fire elemental happens when a flame becomes sentient, or something like that. A high elf requires a wooden elf to exist in the same solar system and a few other things."
"Why is that relevant?"
"Heavenly Races have traits that cannot change, but Change is an Aspect of Reality itself, so no one can be truly immune to it. Producing a Heavenly Race through genecrafting forces a mutation on some secondary traits. The last holin to appear in the Shaft used to be a race of undead succubi that became holins through the Axioms of Death. Their need for social connections, which exists in all holins, was twisted by their original race and could be sated through lust, not deep soul connections like those from the World Tree. They were the best sex workers to have ever existed, but they were exterminated from the Shaft in an incident about one hundred thousand years ago. Everyone still alive who ever paid for their services reminisces. They would all pay a lot to taste another holin. Some Dominators might bankrupt themselves for it. And the World Tree''s holins would be even more valuable."
Shen wasn''t enjoying this conversation at all. "Why is that?"
"The former succubi could be controlled through their lust, but they became mindless addicts. The World Tree''s holins? They are as... engaged and fulfilling private partners as the former succubi. Their intimate self-sacrifice, vigor, and the unique way their souls feel when they surrender themselves to their partners are core traits of holins that cannot change. Don''t think no one noticed how blissful your woman made you. You really think the bunch of losers in Cylek paying for sex experienced the same you did? Boy, you have no idea. No idea at all. What you took for granted was something I never experienced before or after my holin partner passed away."
He took another sip of the tea before continuing, "Now, think about what that means. A personal god or goddess of lust connected to you by their soul, committed and loyal to you while your essences are connected. The connection cannot be formed and unmade freely, either; time must pass even if they want to leave you, giving you time to exploit their temporary loyalty. Not that you would need to exploit anything; the link makes their lives depend on you, and abusing that to make them also emotionally dependent on you would be trivial. They can still sever the connection, but you''ll feel it happen, and they would remain in a daze for a few moments, so a holin can never sneak attack you before you prepare yourself.
"This is the promise of happily ever after that many cultivators seek at the end of their Path, once it''s clear they cannot progress further. It''s something most of us realize too late that we gave up along the way. Death stares at you, and you begin to wonder, but we cannot trust anyone else after living for so long. With the World Tree''s holins, no actual slavery would be involved, only some manipulation, and you''d get a partner who cares about you, satisfies all your desires, has almost no upkeep, won''t betray you without first cutting off their link to you¡ªgiving you a warning¡ªand can even produce rare blood for you to sell. Heavens, you might even train them for your protection because they are still a Heavenly Race that have an easier time cultivating than the rest of us!
"And there are, of course, those who would have no issues with enslaving them. They are immune to direct mental slavery, but there are other methods, especially if you raise them from a young age. I once heard someone call holins ''the perfect cattle.'' I killed the bastard right after." His voice sharpened as he said that.
"The point is that there are no negatives about breeding holins, only moral concerns¡ªand very few people care about morals when the opportunity is half as good as this one. In a way, the Divine Mandatary did you a favor by holding onto your woman''s essence until you''re strong enough. You wouldn''t have been able to keep her after you reached the Seeker Realm, believe me. And it would''ve made you feel much more miserable than you do right now. I would know." He paused one last time before adding, "Killing my wife was the greatest mercy I could''ve given her."
Shen nodded. That made perfect sense. It felt a bit too stupid for people to go to such lengths for what he had had with E''livia, but he was young and inexperienced. Maybe his lack of comparative parameters blinded him.
That information should even make Shen grateful to Habnor for convincing the Warden-Emperor not to take E''livia from him. And, deep down, Shen did feel some gratitude. He also empathized with the high elf. He could guess Habnor''s sympathy was also the reason he was sharing so much about holins, and maybe had even come to help Shen deal with the local CIPD.
But those pleasant feelings were drowned by the Extreme fury consuming his heart.
Shen deployed domain and swung Un''Re straight at the bastard who would''ve watched E''livia walk into a dragon''s den without telling them anything!
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443. Straightforward
Shen''s spear stopped a few inches from Habnor''s face. His entire One Self froze in place as the high elf''s Realization clenched him. The gap between Realizators and Dominators was already big enough; Shen was not even a proper Demi-Dominator. He could do nothing to free himself.
Habnor took another sip from his tea and said calmly, "If it weren''t for your current mental state, I would kill you where you stand for daring to attack me. I''ll overlook this. Mostly. I''m not a big softie like the Gardener, as thankful as I am for this trait of his that leads him to protect holins. I originally meant to explain to you what is this Cylek you''re currently at, but you lost the privilege.
"I''ll leave this door to my house anchored in this place, and you may return after you''ve mastered your entire Path to beg my forgiveness. I might forgive you¡ªbut not explain anything. That is permanently lost to you. Do not return before mastering all your Path¡ªtruly mastering it¡ªor I will kill you, regardless of your mental state. Do not advance to the Seeker Realm before begging for forgiveness, either. I will hunt you down and kill you."
He paused, looking at Shen''s eyes, trying to see something in Shen. Shen stared back defiantly. Habnor sighed. "The Gardener shared a few things about your situation. Boy, my last mercy to you will be this advice: you got too used to people seeing you in a positive light because the Heavens ever-so-subtly influenced their disposition towards you. That is not a thing any longer. The best you can hope for is for a strong cultivator''s scheme to coincidently be temporarily to your advantage, like what happened to your woman. You''ll ultimately fall battling the Divine Mandatary, and both you and she will die. But you get to live a little longer, at least. Welcome to real life."
He made a gentle shooing gesture with his hand, and his Realization shot Shen out of his home. The door closed behind Shen. The Realization never left the door, as the Overlord Realm had rules against it, but the message was clear: going back would mean death.
Not that Shen thought of going back. He was left flying above Cylek, and his mind was undergoing existential shock. His domain was still deployed, but it was behaving erratically in that layer of Phasespace. He felt the world around him, but not as he should. There was no up or down, left or right. Space didn''t just feel stretched but also twisted and wrong. It affected his own One Self as his Laws instinctively mimicked the wrongness outside. He felt positively sick.
He had to retract his domain before he vomited.
So that was why Habnor had told Shen to stop using his domain before following him to this place. Phasespace... Shen only knew it was a deeper layer of Space somehow, and that the Axioms behaved differently there. What he had felt fit that description because the world was very odd, as if the Axioms were far away and had lost some of their properties before reaching it. Still, Shen didn''t expect it to affect his domain or his very One Self. Domains were supposed to be exceptional abilities, only beneath Realizations, and he was Severed from Reality.
How could the Laws in his Path automatically change to fit what he felt? That''s not how things worked. E''livia had spent months adapting her Path to fit the Shaft.
The good thing was that the shock he received helped center his emotions. Temporarily. Shaft had started influencing him more than his other Laws so he could become more stable. So, he didn''t feel like barging into Habnor''s house.
Shen''s reasoning was straightforward: he didn''t want to die. As nonchalant as Habnor had been while threatening him, he didn''t think it had been a bluff. The guy was very powerful and had a very high status in the Overlord Realm. Shen doubted he hadn''t killed someone he sympathized with but acted like a prick.
So, Shen flew away as fast as he could before he might decide to attack the high elf again. He didn''t think he would do it, but he was starting to wonder if something was wrong with him.
Why had he attacked a damn Realizator at all?!
He went through the veil to the other Cylek¡ªor maybe a shallower layer of Phasespace¡ªwhere he had initially arrived. He was back to that place where Space felt a little less stretched. He had twenty-four hours to figure things out before he was attacked by CIPD again.
Leaving the city might be safer, but it might also be more dangerous. Shen felt that going anywhere before learning how Phasespace worked was a terrible idea. This place evidently worked in mysterious ways. Cylek at least operated under rules, and he felt safer in a city where no one else had a domain. Even if CIPD might have an artifact capable of killing him¡ªtheir self-confidence had to come from somewhere¡ªthey had shown they would try to reason with him before using it. That was better than he would have in most places.
So, Shen landed before a fancy corporation skyscraper, approached a CIPD officer¡ªcoincidently, a lavil¡ªpolitely cupped his fists before himself, and asked, "Officer, would you mind pointing me to any place where I might get information about the city rules?"
The Conceptualizer lavil looked at him with no facial expression, as usual for lavils. But his soul did tremble a little. It seemed Conceptualizers only felt bold before an Overlord with mastered Laws if they were inside their armored vehicles.
"You can read the Compendium in any CIPD station, sir," the man replied, using his Path to produce sound.
Shen cupped his hands again and nodded, "Thank you, officer."
He left to seek a CIPD station. It wasn''t hard to find one at the top city level. Half the people in the station were Overlords, but only a couple had mastered a Law. Shen wondered whether beings in Phasespace were weaker than those in Main Space or if something was wrong with Cylek.
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A few questions later, he was given a free copy of Cylek''s Compendium of Laws, a hefty, thick tome with the smallest-sized letters Shen had ever seen. The city he had come from had nothing of the sort. The rules had to be brought from unofficial sources or learned as you lived in there.
An hour later, Shen left that same CIPD station with a black token that functioned as his ID. This Phasespace Overlord Realm had nothing like the global Shaft ID system from Main Space. Local IDs determined your identity, and he had to pay a fee for not having any ID at all¡ªthe contents of Octo''s spatial artifacts helped with that.
Shen was merely a registered tourist and had one year to pay the fee to become a citizen. If he failed to do so, he would become an illegal alien and be hunted down by CIPD and the corporations and the gangs. This Cylek was an isolationist city-state.
Shen also used Octo''s riches to book a room in an inn on Street Level Six, in the middle of the twelve street levels above ground. The defensive formations in the room were strong enough to stop a single attack from an Overlord with a single mastered Law, which should give Shen enough time to react. The room also had a window with a view of a bustling commercial area, including an arena. The arena had anti-eavesdropping enchantments, none of which blocked Shen''s Allvision.
As soon as he was inside, he sat down and started meditating.
The back of his mind kept focusing on Habnor''s words about truly mastering his Laws, and it felt like a very sensible thing to do. Time to work on that.
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Something must be said about psychological pressure aiding a cultivator in progressing faster. Without a sense of impending doom over his girlfriend, Shen''s mind felt slower and less focused. The Laws in that place were twisted, but there were enough hints to point to the correct thing. Shen simply didn''t feel as engaged in cultivating anymore, despite it being his primary goal before doing anything else.
He wondered if Phasepace made cultivation harder, but the truth was that his slowness was on him. Knowing E''livia''s essence might be suffering under the Mandatary''s influence wasn''t as pressuring as her impending doom had been. It would ultimately take him at least decades, likely thousands of years, to become strong enough to even become an Ascender, not to mention becoming strong enough to challenge a Divine Mandatary. A few extra years now would make no difference.
So, it took Shen a whole three years to gain control of the Laws he had already mastered and completely master the last two.
He only ever left his room to resolve his immigrant status and deal with minor inconveniences. He became a de facto resident of Cylek after not causing too much trouble for a few months and paying a small fee of one low-Overlord-tier weapon.
A resident he might be, but he hadn''t purchased any real estate; he lacked the funds to do so. The Doombringer''s card couldn''t be used in Phasespace Cylek, and Octo''s items couldn''t buy a nice place in the higher city streets, the only ones where Shen would feel safer than in the inn. In fact, four of Octo''s eight spatial artifacts were empty, and the four with anything weren''t full of riches.
One such artifact used to have a few cultivation resources to make one''s mind more open to the Axioms. Octo should''ve used most of his funds with that because he had been focusing on breaking through to the Seeker Realm. Shen had already consumed everything, but even then, he had progressed slower than before.
Another spatial artifact used to have fifty low-level Overlord weapons that Octo used as change money, of which forty remained¡ªthat was Shen''s current wealth. Octo had likely kept unique treasures somewhere else, but those were beyond Shen''s reach.
The third artifact still had cyberware maintenance tools and spare parts, which Shen was saving. He wanted to learn more about cyberware before dismissing their usage.
The fourth spatial artifact used to have cultivation manuals and techniques that Octo probably gifted to the most talented gang members. Although admittedly excellent, they could only be used by beast people. Shen lacked the genes to make them work, and forcibly changing his Persona might bring undesired results. So, he had made copies and sold them for money, all of which had been used to stay in that inn for three years.
His money should''ve run out long before then, but the inn owner gave Shen a sharp discount. The owner wanted Shen to stay there as a containment measure for trouble. He saved money by not paying the local gang for protection fees¡ªthe gang gave up on insisting after Shen interjected the third time, destroying their closest base¡ªand in the added feeling of safety that attracted more customers. Shen only had to pay at all because the maintenance from running the room''s protection enchantments non-stop cost a lot. Even then, the owner took a non-insubstantial loss that he felt worth it because he felt safer with Shen''s presence¡ªespecially after Shen made an agreement with the local gang''s boss in which Shen wouldn''t ever attack or bother them as long as they left the inn, its owner, and its people alone.
Three years was slow, but at long last, Shen had done it.
He mastered his last Law.
That day, Shen felt the owner shiver and guessed the poor human had reviewed all his life choices as Cylek''s anti-tribulation enchantments triggered. Space was expanded and twisted. The five-story inn was still where it had been, but suddenly, it was also floating high above Cylek, close to the gathering of dark clouds full of tribulation lightning.
Shen had just mastered his Path''s last Law, Conductivity. He didn''t even need to invest time in getting control over it; the Law instantly surrendered to him. It was a small mercy; he would need it to survive the incoming tribulation.
He rushed out of the inn, hoping not to cause so much destruction to it and the people inside. Time passed, and he realized he needn''t have bothered. The hours came and went by, and no lightning fell upon him.
The Low Heavens couldn''t locate him. He had been Severed. He was beyond the Low Heaven''s reach.
Shen wondered if the High Heavens would interfere, but after a day passed, the clouds simply started dissipating. The Low Heavens had given up, and the High Heavens couldn''t care less about Shen mastering his Path''s Laws.
That wouldn''t do.
Every Heavenly Tribulation rewarded those who overcame it. Shen would need every advantage he could to kill the Divine Mandatary. A single extra sand grain of strength to build upon now could be the difference between E''livia''s life and death in the future. He couldn''t let this chance go to waste.
So, he flew into the clouds and punched the lightning.
He couldn''t stop himself from smiling as he did so. He was a Mortal punching the Heavens. A cultivator defying the natural order.
That''s how it should be.
To make matters better, there was no psychological factor to this tribulation. No unexpected shenanigans. No hidden traps, mental limitations, or illusions. The worst this tribulation would bring would be that each of his mastered Laws would be tested individually at some point.
This was a straightforward test of strength; Shen punched the Heavens, and the Heavens punched back. Heavenly Lightning ignored his qi as it infiltrated his every cell, bringing him blinding pain.
He laughed as he delighted himself in the sheer simplicity of it all.
He cried as he marveled at the simpleminded fairness of this test.
After all he had gone through, this was precisely the kind of obstacle he needed in his life.
444. Paradox
War was an old Concept. Older than many. When two Axioms fought each other for longer than a single battle, it became War. After enough Time passed, they had to come up with rules of engagement. Strategies. Tactics. Decide when it was worth it to go against the very regulations they decided upon.
War was old and shared among all Laws. Some made it more evident than others, but everything could be used in War. War encompassed all things.
Shen was War.
He had never ceased being it, but it had been replaced with Shaft for all intents and purposes. Whatever he had learned and mastered hadn''t evolved. Now, everything came back to him.
He was War¡ªand at war.
While he was still in pain from the lightning bolt he had just touched, the Heavens sent a black lightning bolt that absorbed light instead of releasing it. All Axioms trembled as the bolt passed by them. It unmade Concepts and Laws alike, turning everything into Law Fragments and consuming many of them. Spacetime shattered and the Void appeared, but golden lightning struck against the opening and remade the fabric of Reality.
The black lightning was the most unstable thing Shen had ever seen. Yet, it was a paragon of pure stability, for it was the Law of the Shaft. It was a paradox that should be beyond Shen. How could something so unstable be so stable? How could something so unstable be a supporting pillar of the very Heavens, a Shaft of its Weapons, part of the Heavenly Spear that smit all to pieces?
The paradox should be Shen, but he understood it all the same.
That was the absolute apex of the Law of the Shaft. There was nothing beyond it with pure Laws. No greater mystery to Shaft. Its greatest manifestation was shown to him as the Heavens came to test his mettle.
Shen had read about some religions on Earth, and this looked like divine revelation. The Heavens talked to him, showed him what it meant to really master Shaft. What it meant to face the Heavens in War.
Shen observed it. He pulled Un''Re and tried to copy it but failed at first. He was sure anyone would''ve failed. No one could pass this tribulation without a domain. It differed from what he had learned about this tribulation, but it might have something to do with being in phasespace.
Well, luckily, he had a domain.
Shen used his domain to bend Reality to his Will. He demanded himself to be capable of displaying the exact same power. He demanded Reality to allow him to be the true master of the Law of the Shaft.
The Overlord Realm Rules around Un''Re inflated like a balloon in angry red light as Shen pushed the spear beyond the power it should display at the Overlord Realm. He didn''t break the limits, though, as only death awaited any who did it. Instant death. No time for explanations, no attempt to understand the situation. That rule was set in stone, and, according to what he had learned, even the Warden-Emperors were bound to it. Hells, even the very Heavens were bound to it. Only the Divine Mandatary could ignore it.
But still, he pushed. His power went an infinitesimal drop beyond the boundary of the Overlord Realm. He had to push to match the Heavens, as they were also cheating a little.
Un''Re met the Heavens.
Everything exploded.
New formations activated between him and the inn below, and he was displaced in Space again. He was now entirely above Cylek, alone, and the inn was back to being only in its original position.
The shockwave cleared the tribulation clouds for a second. The impact made Shen''s muscles and skin burst messily like watermelons. Both the clouds and his body recovered in a few moments.
Shen''s One Self gave him a disadvantage this time, as his body and mind were One. The damage was not enough for him to lose himself, but he still felt dazed for a moment. When he returned to himself, he barely had the opportunity to marvel at what was suddenly his in a way it had never been before.
Shen was a Master of the Law of the Shaft of the Axioms of the Spear. There was nothing new to learn about it. Wherever he saw the Law, it was his to use, bend, move, or destroy as he wished. And it would be pushed to even greater power if he used it in War.
War was also his. Any War. All Wars.
He wanted to delve deeply into what that meant, but the Concept of Combat and its Law of Killing Weapon were next.
A blinding white lightning bolt came for him. It was pure power wrapped around an unbending and unbreakable intent of Killing him.
The Heavens meant to indeed Kill Shen with this one, not only test him. In fact, the Heavens attempted to push beyond the limits of the Overlord Realm to accumulate more power and smite him down with everything they had. They had to. This was Killing Weapon pushed to its pinnacle. This was the Heavens'' Spear in the form of lightning, meant for nothing else but to Kill. Killing Weapon could stop at nothing to fulfill their meaning of existence, its reason to be.
They almost burst through the Overlord Realm''s Rules, but golden lightning came again; this time, not to mend Reality but to suppress the white lightning. It was kept in check. And it struck down.
Shen met Killing Weapon with Killing Weapon. This was the purest form of Combat. He loved it.
A new explosion cleared the skies and broke his body. They were quickly restored again. Shen became a Master of the Law of the Killing Weapon of the Axioms of the Spear. He knew everything there was to learn about it. And any time he used it in Combat¡ªalmost every time¡ªit would be pushed to even greater power. Not by himself, but by the rules of the True Heavens.
A Path was a Path. You build upon it. The steps you had previously taken mattered to place you where you currently were. Combat mattered for Killing Weapon.
Likewise, Sharpness mattered for Extremity; the Sharper the Spear he wielded, the more Extreme his attacks would be.
Zephyr mattered for Gentle Breeze. The Law would be at its strongest whenever he was the softest. It might be used to fool an enemy in combat. He would see.
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Flow mattered for Stream. It wasn''t just about keeping something going. Stream''s power would be enhanced if his moves followed a specific Flow.
Arc Flash mattered for Conductivity. Comprehending that one almost shattered Shen''s mind. Breaking Conductivity could improve its power as long as Conductivity was kept exactly as smooth as before. But if it were that smooth, why had it broken? The Axioms of Lightning allowed him to know it, and he felt his willpower physically increase by ten percent with the knowledge, evidencing it was a significant secret of Reality¡ªat least for an Overlord. Everything he learned increased until now merely his willpower by up to one percent; no increase had been this significant.
And then came True Boundlessness.
Shen found it strange how the Law was kept for last despite being the third he mastered while all others had followed the order.
The Heavens parted, and he understood why.
It wasn''t the clouds that parted; they were still there. It wasn''t Spacetime either; it was still there. No, the Heavens parted for him. They revealed themselves to him. They pulled him into their most intimate innards.
Shen''s Allvision went beyond the Axioms, beyond the Low and High Heavens. He saw things his mind forgot right after, lest remembering and trying to understand him break him. He witnessed marvels and secrets of all Creation that hurt his soul. The soul injuries would''ve seen him corrupted without his One Self.
He looked higher and higher. His Allvision touched the True Heavens¡ªand unlike last time he touched them, it went beyond. Shen''s consciousness was pulled not toward the edges of Reality where the Void waited but into its innermost layers.
There, close to the very center of the True Heavens, Shen was made witnesses to True Boundlessness at all its glory and majesty.
There was no corner of Reality the True Heavens didn''t encompass. There was no boundary of Reality the True Heavens respected. It was everything, and it was constantly pushing.
There, at the very core of the True Heavens that ruled over and defined all Reality, Shen found the Void.
Nothingness was part of the True Heavens because the True Heavens had no Boundaries as much as it was Space with its Boundaries. It made no sense. It made perfect sense.
True Boundlessness reached ever further, ever beyond. It didn''t rule over the Void because the Void was the absence of everything, including the very True Boundlessness that encompassed it.
Shen couldn''t understand that. Even as the True Heavens made it as simple as it could be for his Overlord mind to comprehend, he couldn''t begin to pierce how Void and Reality could coexist, how True Boundlessness could be in the Void yet be absent in it, how the Void was constantly unmaking the very core of the True Heavens yet the True Heavens was never even slightly consumed.
There was no simple answer like Yin and Yang, Creation and Destruction. There was Reality, and there was the complete absence of Reality¡ªthe Void. Whenever the two met, the Void Overmind came to be, and it started to work to Void everything that was. But there were no rules of engagement, no attempt to understand each other. No complementarity. No harmony. No sense.
The closest Shen could get to was a form of Duality. Existence and the Void were opposites. But even then, it made no sense because the Void couldn''t be defined by anything. Not by True Boundlessness. Not by Duality. Not by itself.
He almost understood that the Void wasn''t real. Sure, it wasn''t Real in the sense that it wasn''t part of Reality, but he almost felt that the Nothingness didn''t truly Exist; it was merely perceived by... Not by Reality itself. Not by the True Heavens, either. By... Its people? But if the Void only existed because living beings believed in it, it should be defined to some point by the True Heavens. It wasn''t. It tried to consume the True Heavens. The True Heavens wasn''t consumed because it Existed and would keep existing for as long as Reality Existed in its current format¡ªuntil it Changed.
At that moment, Shen understood that there was no understanding the Void. Not ever. His Reality-made mind was incapable of understanding it. He could only accept it and deal with it however and whenever it came.
The Heavens closed, pushing him back into his One Self.
Before his consciousness was returned, he at least understood one thing: the Void was the ultimate enemy, but it was also no enemy. There was no way to safely use it or its power, but it didn''t need to be feared. Nothingness simply was¡ªor rather, the Void simply wasn''t. That was it.
He returned to himself, and found True Boundlessness... Not Mastered. It could never be. To have anyone be a Master over it would mean it wasn''t Truly Boundless...
Shen''s eyes widened as he realized not even the True Heavens controlled True Boundlessness. Not even the True Heavens defined it. True Boundlessness... It shouldn''t be possible for it to exist as part of Reality. Still, it had to exist because Boundlessness could be Conceptualized by anyone who met any Boundary, like the Boundaries of Space, Will, and Change.
True Boundlessness was beyond Shen''s mind ability¡ªits Boundaries¡ªto understand.
Yet, he also... Mastered it. Somehow. True Boundlessness was his. As with other Laws, it could be boosted by its origin Concept in Shen''s Path. It would become stronger whenever it was... Boundless.
A moment later, he was almost unmade. He was Boundless. Truly Boundless. In a way he hadn''t been until now.
It took everything he had to keep himself simply existing as One Self. As something with limits. He had to demand True Boundless to accept to be in his Path just as Reality demanded it to bow to its Aspects and Expressions. Without him, his Path would cease to be, and so would the True Boundlessness in his Path. It was limited in his Path, sure, but it was also somehow beyond the True Heavens because he was Severed. It was fulfilling its purpose of being Boundless by being inside him.
It settled down, and with it came the decision to one day truly understand what it meant to be Truly Boundless.
When Shen overcame the last part of his tribulation, he felt a shift of perspective. A shift of power. He hadn''t really become stronger. He had learned new techniques to mimic the pinnacle of his Laws, but he could''ve done that without the tribulation. No, what changed was himself.
His essence.
Shen was further anchored in Reality. The True Heavens accepted him better now that he had passed its Selection, despite him being Severed from it to a point. His unconsciousness now had a more significant influence over the mix of everything that was the True Heavens. It didn''t matter to change any Heavenly Rules because he was still just one speck of dust, but it mattered to make him... more real. His foundations were strengthened. And a sense of... almost like a brain fog, was lifted from him.
He cold also feel Reality better and instinctively understand every other Law of his Axioms to a point. He couldn''t add them to his Path before breaking through to the Seeker level, but he knew how they would react to anything he did. He even had an idea of how other Axioms would respond to his Path. Every Concept of his mastered Laws was as his as they had been before, but now he understood all their connections to other Axioms on a deep level. That was the source of most of the boost to his willpower before True Boundlessness.
Speaking of which, Shen wasn''t surprised when he discovered that witnessing True Boundlessness had increased his willpower by another thirty percent. Or rather, he was surprised it had risen so "little." He hadn''t fully understood the Void and its connection to Reality, but the little he had grasped should be one of the greatest mysteries of Reality, much more important than almost everything he knew together.
Shen concluded it had to do with the Divine Mandatary''s meddling. The Mandatary had defined how knowledge and willpower were connected in the Shaft, and Shen was willing to bet no single piece of knowledge could increase anyone''s willpower more than thirty percent. Likewise, he bet that any time his willpower increased from accumulating knowledge henceforth would come with a slight boost until everything he could gain from the secrets of the Void was given to him. If it were any other way, there would be a lot of tactics and strategies by the peak forces to control who learned what when, to maximize their gains, but there was no such thing. E''livia had investigated it thoroughly.
The tribulation ended, the skies cleared, and Shen floated victoriously above Cylek.
He looked at the hundreds of armored floating vehicles surrounding him and smirked.
He would like these weaklings them attempt anything against a Demi-Dominator.
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445. Death-Fated
"Your Grace, we have a situation," a voice said.
It came out of nowhere and was barely heard through the Phase Veil. The Divine Mandatary had worked hard to create the Shaft, including separating it from deep phasespace. The experiment had been so successful that many had tried to replicate it, only to fail in the end. Divine Mandataries were rare and all special, but even among the few of them, some were more special than others. Pan knew of only two others, and they were unworthy of even licking the toes of the Shaft''s ruler.
She opened her eyes for the first time in... Two millennia? How odd for the Underrealm to be that peaceful for so long. She hadn''t felt so well-rested for so, so long. She might even thank whoever was producing that "situation" before getting rid of them.
"Speak," she said as she reached for the Phase Veil.
Her voice went first as she began to bridge the gap between the Shaft and one of its copies. She sighed as she noticed the situation was happening in one of the Overlord Underrealms, though she still didn''t know which of them. She would be limited to the Overlord level and hated being made so weak, but work was work. The Divine Mandatary had honored their deal, so now, she did the same.
''Only fifty thousand years of service remaining,'' she thought.
The male voice, now better heard, replied, "A True Denizen Demi-Dominator is undergoing the Overlord Mastery Tribulation in the Third. The Void Overmind is connected to it somehow. I fear an Integrity Breach."
She actually became excited at that. Dealing with the Void was always pleasurable, much more so in deep phasespace. It was always unpredictable. Never boring.
Well, at least not before the Void caused an Integrity Breach; dealing with those was annoying.
That Overlord knew what they were doing by visiting the Third Overlord Underrealm. Going a little deeper would make Spacetime too volatile for a breakthrough. Going shallower instead would see the Overlord affected by the Veil Net and automatically pop back into the Shaft proper.
Her elation was dimmed by having to go to the Third. She would be disconnected enough from her Pillar to risk actual death if she faced a skilled Demi-Dominator there. Not that she would lose against a mere Overlord, but she would make an effort at diplomacy first, just in case. She hadn''t lived for so long by taking needless risks.
She asked, "How is the Void Overmind connected to the True Denizen?"
"The True Denizen arrived in the Third from the Main Shaft through a Void Shift."
She raised an eyebrow at that. "Did they break through as soon as they arrived?"
"Negative, Your Grace."
"Then, he is alive because...?"
"Habnor vouched for him."
She raised her other eyebrow. Habnor? The coward? He was playing games now¡ªand games involving the Void? That was almost as interesting as everything she had heard until now.
She said, "I''ll contact him. Anything else to report?"
"He''s breaking through in Cylek. I don''t know if it''s relevant."
Cylek. Her perfect memory let her know it was a relatively strong city-state in the Overlord Realm backed by many powers. It was also an incubator for experiments on merging life and enchantments. Its main goal, giving legitimate life to an artificial being made of enchantments, remained out of reach, but they had accomplished some exciting things. Even Seekers could benefit from a few of Cylek''s trinkets if they had the means to procure them. Thus, obviously, the city mainly exported said trinkets to the Seeker Realm¡ªillegally so¡ªand almost no Overlord could get their hands on them.
The information was barely relevant. When she got to the target, she was always going to scan them anyway. Knowing what to expect would only make her react slightly faster to such trinkets.
Pan located and felt Habnor through her Axiom. He could escape the Low Heavens'' influence, but she had been allowed to elevate her Law to the High Heavens. She was pleased to see the high elf was still in his pathetic little house, which was a statement of neutrality. Whatever his intentions were in protecting the target, he wouldn''t go too far for the Overlord.
She sent a single word through her Axiom, "Explain."
Habnor showed surprise, but she didn''t trust any emotion anyone showed her any longer. Every random imbecile knew how to perfectly fake them nowadays.
His Realization reached for his house''s door, twisting it to open in the Fourth Overlord Underrealm.
Pan smiled. A twist!
Habnor wasn''t as uninterested in the target as she initially thought if he had used a Star Seed to anchor his house to a place this close to the target. Habnor was a weak coward, but he had the favor of the Overlord Warden-Emperor. Was this a ploy of that fool? This "situation" could end up making things lovely chaotic in the Overlord Realm.
Pan felt the Tribulation as soon as Habnor opened the door. The Heavens'' influence entered the room, and her Axiom was there. She immediately noticed it wasn''t the reported Overlord Mastery Tribulation. That was a One Self Path Acknowledgement Will Establishment Tribulation¡ªor, as the lazy called it, an Essence Confirmation. An Idealist had tried to Subvert the True Heavens and was being challenged for it; their tribulation had been made a bit harder but would also grant them better rewards.
You only saw one of those every few five millennia or so. Everyone who passed the tribulation eventually died gruesome deaths because they were overly ambitious idiots. They never did anything exciting.
She almost got annoyed, but she had never heard of the True Heavens doing that instead of killing an Idealist connected to the Void. Either the connection was over, Reality was going crazy, or the Void was pulling a new one.
Pan''s smiled widened. As she had guessed, this was most definitely not boring.
"Explain," she demanded again, not hiding the happiness from her voice.
"I didn''t expect that," Habnor said. "I felt pity for the boy and followed him here. Before that, I made a Death-Fated Demi-Dominator friend of his owe me one for agreeing to watch over the boy from time to time. The friend is called Doombringer, in case you want to investigate it. I wasn''t aware that someone walking a Deep Path could break through in the Third Underrealm. I expected him to beg me for help getting back to the Shaft in a few years, hence why I established this permanent portal to the Fourth. It was cheaper to do this than pierce the Veil to check on him occasionally, much less use other means to bring him back to the Shaft."
He didn''t lie. Her Axiom would''ve pointed out any inconsistency it had witnessed. Yet, her Axiom did tell her he was hiding something.
Pan asked, "What''s his connection to the Void?"
"From what I gathered, the Void Overmind owed him. The debt was fully repaid when the Overmind sent him to safety. An Integrity Breach saw him come to the Third instead of where he was supposed to go in the Overlord Realm."If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
She frowned. "The Void already Breached Integrity?" Someone would suffer for not reporting that to her. And dealing with it would be annoyingly tiring.
"Not the Void, no. The Divine Mandatary has been having fun with Karma for about fifteen hundred years. He even made himself influenced by it. He didn''t want to owe the boy for changing his fate, so he violated his rules for the boy''s benefit. The Seventh shattered when the Breach occurred, but the Mandatary has already reforged it. No lives were lost."
Pan had heard about the Mandatary''s new hobby. She never went wholly unconscious in her sleep. Doing so would be stupid. "The boy is also Death-Fated?"
"Yes." His tone implied he thought she already knew it.
To be fair to the subordinate who had woken her up, someone stationed in the Third wouldn''t know who the Mandatary assigned as Death-Fated for his stupid games. It did, however, make things easier. And boring.
Habnor was still hiding something, but the truth she had learned was enough to deal with the situation at hand. She sent a message to his disciple to deal with the situation as protocol dictated, as anything else might make the Mandatary annoyed at her.
Then, she teleported herself to Habnor''s abode.
The high elf wasn''t expecting that, and overwhelming fear took hold of him. She didn''t doubt that emotion, though. She could count on the fingers of one hand how many times she had left someone alive after visiting them ever since she started working as a guard dog for the Mandatary three hundred thousand years ago.
"Tell me everything," she demanded.
He held his speech for all of three milliseconds. It was almost offensive, but she was in a good mood and waited a little more for an answer. Torture could wait.
"Why?" he asked instead of answering. "What did I do wrong to make you suspicious?"
A fair question. The rules stated that she had to answer anyone who asked that. People would feel uncomfortable about an assassin acting unreasonably otherwise.
Pan answered, "I have classified you as a weak coward. Yet, you ripped off a Death-Fated and felt enough sympathy for another one to proactively demand a price to help them. The Mandatary hates anyone in the know manipulating their Death-Fated, and you know it. Then, when you opened the door, my senses picked an interesting past connection between the... Drow? Is that what that race is called? Between the drow and your little high elven proteg¨¦. On top of all that, the Void Overmind was involved. This sounds very interesting, and you better hope it is indeed so, because I hate getting woken up for boring matters. You don''t want me to have to release some steam before returning to sleep, do you?"
"No," he replied, much more quickly this time.
Good. She disliked being made to wait only a little less than being woken up to deal with a tedious matter.
He was also quick to begin talking about his involvement with the Death-Fated. "The drow boy is a freed Heavenly Puppet from the Lagoth Multiverse. The Ghost Doctor Severed him to save his life."
She recalled Lagoth; the dhar race was almost getting control of it. It would become the third multiverse with a Mandatary that she knew. It might add some spice to inter-multiverse life.
Freed Heavenly Puppets were called Falling Stars by anyone who had seen them before, so her interest in the boy dwindled further. He was already Death-Fated anyway. Not that his fate had been twisted supernaturally, but he had made it his life goal to kill the Mandatary and die for it. It was that simple.
Habnor continued, "He and his late holin girlfriend are connected to the Gardener, the World Tree''s Warden. The Divine Mandatary killed her and is keeping her essence imprisoned to manipulate the boy."
Love drama was dull, but she appreciated being told the story.
Then, Habnor hesitated for almost a full instant before adding, "He was forged with Darla''s blood essence."
Pan didn''t recognize the name, but a memory reacted in the depths of her mind, where she had locked it in. She considered a moment before allowing it to be freed from her previous decision to block it.
Then, she frowned and asked, "How do you know I have an Incarnation?" Her voice was ice cold.
It had been stupid of him to reveal he knew about her Incarnation before she tortured him. Incarnations were meant to be kept secret as a last line of survival! They were useless otherwise. She had even hidden it from her very self!
Habnor knew he would die unless he said something to change her whole perspective on the matter, so she expected his following words to be bombastic.
She was wasn''t disappointed.
"I learned it by coincidence," he replied. "I''ve been..." He hesitated. For a full second. He dared to do that while standing at death''s door. An instant before she decided to ravage his mind for the information she wanted, he continued, "I''ve been close to someone else forged with Darla''s blood essence for a while." She looked at his proteg¨¦''s direction. She was in another room.
Ah. He had likely asked the Gardener for permission to reveal it before telling Pan, or he would''ve broken a Contract and died. She would forgive him for the delay. It helped his case that asking the Gardener had cost him much more than a Star Seed, as contacting Main Space from the Shaft was not easy or cheap.
"Two different people with my Incarnation''s blood essence coming to the Shaft is too much of a coincidence," Pan declared. "Lagoth... They planned to lead the Heavenly Pupept here. But they didn''t count on the drow being Severed, or else he wouldn''t have been undergoing his Essence Confirmation, and I wouldn''t have learned of this ploy. Lagoth''s Co-Ruler... That asshole is planning a Multiverse War to celebrate his eventual success in his Investiture Ceremony. He already targeted me through the Heavenly Puppet¡ªand through me, the Mandatary himself."
Habnor quickly said, "Or Lagoth''s High Heavens planned for this to be discovered so you would get upset and join the forces against the Co-Ruler."
Of course, that was the most likely possibility. But it was boring. It had been ages since Pan participated in the last multiverse war, ever since the Divine Mandatary swore not to get involved in one unless someone acted against him first. But if he was playing around with Karma to kill his boredom, he might also be up to looking at this planned attack through the right lens. Retaliation might be in order.
So, Pan very gently nudged the Mandatary through her Axiom. There was no need to tell him anything. He would check the local stream of Spacetime and see what he needed to see. Unlike her, the Mandatary could do it without breaking anything.
She held back on using her strength during her investigations because there was no mending anything back together after she broke it.
After the nudge, she waited.
Habnor kept quiet for the following minutes, happy her focus had been diverged from him. A smart guy, that one. She elevated him to a cunning weak coward in her mind. She even added a question mark after coward. He might be shrewd enough to be hiding his true self from her.
Suddenly, Reality twisted, and a new visitor joined the room. She looked around for a moment, then faced Pan.
"Really?" the hooded wraith said, her voice full of disbelief. She was evidently not talking to Pan, though. "I owe you a favor, and you want me to repay it by training this weakling for an unjustified multiverse war? I don''t like being even indirectly involved in the death of innocents. I dubbed myself a doctor for a reason."
A pause.
The Ghost Doctor sighed. "No one trains a Grand Ascendant for a multiverse war if they only mean to meddle with someone''s Investiture. Not even if it''s to fully utilize the favor I owe you. This smells like a lie, and you know I''ll kill you if you''re lying to me, correct?"
Another pause, during which Pan and Habnor tensed. The Divine Doctor was threatening the Shaft''s Divine Mandatary. If he came to kill her now, the two witnesses would be the first to die as collateral.
After a moment, the wraith chuckled. "That''s rich, coming from you. Very well, Little Bug; we''ll see if people can change that much." She turned to Habnor. "Tell the Gardener I''m willing to protect the girl for free." She glanced at the teapot on the table. "I like her work ethic despite the lack of talent. Her innocence is also cute, and I''d rather not see a hard-working girl lose it." She turned to Pan. "I''ll give you a Self Impartation about warfare. The favor I owe your master is only enough for me to be willing to be connected with you for one week, but that would kill you; too much experience of too high a level in too little time. I''ll magnanimously give you one month instead, and you owe me one. You might still die, but I can''t be blamed for that. If I were you, I would refuse your master''s order to do this, but I bet you won''t. You have one week to prepare yourself."
"Do it now," Pan said, not hiding her enthusiasm. "And one week of Impartation is enough. I can take it."
The Ghost Doctor shook his head. "I wasn''t asking for your opinion. But I''ll let you know you''ll take decades to digest everything I give you¡ªif you survive. Maybe centuries. Or, if you''re not compatible with my teachings, thousands of years. Three extra weeks receiving the Impartation now will make you safer and won''t matter in the long run."
Pan didn''t want to believe she couldn''t take whatever the wraith threw at her, but the Ghost Doctor was a doctor. She was also known for not lying when it came to people''s health.
More importantly, Pan wasn''t stupid enough to challenge the wraith known for having forced a Divine Mandatary to surrender, lest she kill them.
Pan didn''t know what a Self Impartation was, but it sounded like a Path Impartation, except from someone walking a Deep Path. Coming from someone who called Pan a weakling and claimed Pan might die from it, it should be a unique experience.
How did she even prepare for something like that?
As if reading Pan''s thoughts, the wraith sighed and said, "Self Impartation Preparation Procedures for a Grand Ascender means bidding farewell to your loved ones and burning all your accumulated potential to anchor your essence to Reality as strongly as possible. Don''t hold back because even a tiny speck of potential preserved might be the difference between life and death..."
Burning all her potential sounded wasteful, but Pan still listened the instructions quietly. This was still work-related, and she had to obey. If everything worked out...
It seemed she would be promoted from guard dog to war hound very, very soon.
That sounded like fun.
? ?
446. Biological Weapon
Cylek''s strongest one hundred Overlords, only twenty of which had a full mastered Path and fifty with a single mastered Law, had watched the tribulation from further away than the floating vehicles surrounding Shen. When the tribulation ended, they approached, floating amid the cars. One of the three CIPD Board Sheriffs¡ªsomething that only existed in Phasespace Cylek¡ªapproached further.
The yamanari kept two of his four muscular arms behind his back and crossed the other two on his chest. His five cyberware eyes occupied his forehead. He had no hair but a few dozen curved horns no longer than one inch each. His brownish-red skin was filled with black tattoos, and he wore a cultivator robe over high-tech-looking thin plate armor. The letters "CIPD" were written on his back.
"I don''t want to kill you," he said through his pointed teeth. He spoke the Overlord High Language. "Leave Cylek peacefully."
Shen raised an eyebrow at that. "Why should I? I broke none of the rules I agreed to when I became a citizen."
The yamanari didn''t reply immediately. His soul and that of a dozen of the Overlords present, likely those who could understand High Language, showed confusion, surprise, and suspicion.
Eventually, he said, "Are you truly ignorant of which rule you broke?" Shen nodded. "How did you get in the Third?"
"What is the Third?"
The question made the dozen Overlords more suspicious, some heavily hostile. Apparently, Shen being in this "Third" without knowing about it was ridiculous. He could guess it had something to do with phasespace, but not exactly what.
The yamanari''s soul flared with anger before he reigned in his emotions, turning into a black slate. "If you don''t know about it, it''s not my place to tell. Leave Cylek. Now."
Shen sighed. "Usually, I''d comply with the rightful rulers of a city asking me to leave." He smiled. "But this is Cylek. You''re not more its ruler than any random thug who might brute-force their way to the top. Everyone in Cylek understands that. So do I." He deployed his domain, covering the entire city. "I''d like to see how a mere Proven Overlord means to kill a Demi-Dominator."
The guy shook his head. "A shame. You had a bright future ahead of you." He flew calmly back into the globe of flying vehicles and cultivators surrounding Shen. "Activate Protocol Space Stretcher."
Ancient formations etched on Cylek''s grounds came to life. Hidden formation nodes at the top of countless buildings flared with energy. The flying vehicles themselves became a formation that had been hidden from Shen''s Allvision before now. The cultivators present pushed an endless stream of qi into it all.
Space was locked around Shen, skin-tightly. Then, the Space he occupied twisted. It was torn apart. Ripped to shreds. Expanded until each photon-sized piece was galaxies apart, separated by a nothingness that wasn''t quite like the Void, yet devoid of a Space for Shen to exist in.
He stepped ahead, leaving the confines of the locked Space, and looked at the yamanari as if he were an idiot. "Is that it?"
To be fair, Shen was immune to that attack only because of three factors: his One Self, his True Boundlessness, and the tribulation he had just overcome, which anchored him firmly to Reality without nullifying his Severing. Without any of those three factors, he would''ve died. With all three in the fold, he didn''t need Reality''s Axioms of Space to exist. The Aspect of Space had still been present, else the Void would''ve filled the gaps, and that was enough for him.
He was an existence onto himself in a way he didn''t quite understand.
"Deploy the Biological Weapon," the CIPD leader said calmly, but a shiver escaped his tight control over his soul''s emotions.
New formations activated, and qi was ripped off of all of Cylek''s inhabitants to fuel them. A circular curtain rose from the earth to meet the skies, filled with all sorts of golden runes and mystical symbols. A massive red line appeared in the sky, and it started bleeding. The drops didn''t fall but moved sideways.
Shen''s blood burned inside him, but it wasn''t enough to hurt him. His domain, with a mastered Path, was deployed. Hurting him wasn''t impossible without another domain, but it wasn''t that easy either.
The line widened in the middle, revealing itself to be an eyelid. It opened, and a gigantic eye appeared. The whole eye was made of Void except for the sun-sized globe of blood it had for an iris, reeking of madness and despair. It stared right at Shen.
Shen stared back.
The name "biological weapon" was a decoy. The first attack used the Laws of Blood from the Axioms of Life, but the actual attack was a mind one. That huge blood drop was made of the blood essence from countless Overlords accumulated over time, not unlike what the drow had manufactured in their home world to fight against the Dreamer. Fragments of different Overlords'' willpower had united into an incohesive but mighty whole, tortured for eons, and forced into a single purpose: to kill whoever it was thrown at.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
The centermost drop of blood forced all others into submission with the assistance of countless formations. That drop reflected Yin and Yang through Fire and Water. Shen didn''t need to be a genius to connect it to the aquasols.
While the Blood Laws distracted him, the actual incoming attack would be a Willful Decree.
Shen''s smile widened. The infernals had hunted him down in the Alliance for using his Absolute Horizon. Here, it had another name, but other assholes hunted him down for having the ability, the aquasols.
Shen would murder the hell out of them.
Before the eye attacked him, he forced his domain through the portal. His Will followed. His mind connected to theirs.
Willpower was thrown at willpower. Anyone should lose against that many fragments of minds, even if they weren''t properly working together. Shen was no different. He could throw his essence at his attack but felt that sending it through the portal would be a terrible idea. He didn''t know where the blood drop was located or what he would find there.
There was no need to do it, either. Shen didn''t need to face all those crazed mind fragments. He went for the drop of blood essence in the middle of the globe, the Will in the center controlling everything. Every other piece of fragmented mind was moving erratically, flying crazily, all more or less in his direction. They could be controlled, but not precisely; at least, not at such a short notice. He moved on. Dozens of them brushed against him, and he prevailed. Individually, they were weak. The issue was that dozens became hundreds, and hundreds became thousands.
When Shen reached the controlling drop of blood essence in the middle, less than two-thirds of his willpower remained.
That would suffice.
He touched the mastermind. Willpower clashed against willpower. That drop of blood essence had been given a measure of sapience by its owner, including an actual Phantom of its Will. It was more potent and substantial than every other willpower fragment together. Shen expected an epic battle.
His Will bulldozed against it like it was made of thin crystal.
The thing had never been meant to be directly attacked. Shen guessed the portal had countless traps for living beings coming through, hence his sense of danger. However, the aquasols had a monopoly over Willful Decrees, so they needed not to worry about a counter-attack from an enemy Willful Decree. Or perhaps Cylek hadn''t paid enough for them to add such precautions to this weapon they had purchased. Whatever the case, the blood eye needed time to properly garner its power for the mental strike it was meant to release, and Shen had foiled all its plans by attacking before it was prepared.
Shattering the central Will Phantom caused countless hidden formations to record Shen''s Will. The aquasols hadn''t cared to protect that weapon, but they had added precautions in case an unknown foe destroyed it with a Willful Decree of their own. Who knows? Perhaps that thing was meant as a trap to identify rogues like Shen from the beginning.
Be it as it may, the destruction of the Will Phantom also caused the countless formations keeping the blood eye whole to unravel. They required a central Will Phantom from an aquasol to function. Without it, the formations weren''t enough to keep the tortured and active blood essence of countless Overlords in check.
Shen didn''t retreat yet. He doubted the aquasols would be that wasteful and just let go of all that. He wanted to see what they had in stock when this blood eye was destroyed.
The answer arrived swiftly, in two parts.
First, the portal linking Phasespace Cylek to this place blinked out of existence¡ªor tried to. Shen kept it open enough for his Absolute Horizon to stay connected to this place, but it would keep consuming his willpower.
Second, three aquasol Demi-Dominators appeared beside what remained of the portal. The fire and water elementals looked like liquid fire in humanoid form, their colors in all shades of blue, red, and yellow. They were mesmerizing beneath the heavily enchanted plate armor they wore. All three of them were accompanied by floating spheres that looked like crystal, but Shen''s domain told him they were as hard as the most robust Overlord-tier steel, as malleable as air, and with heavy Space affinity. The spheres were connected to the aquasols'' minds.
As soon as they arrived, they deployed their domains, sought Shen''s mind for a battle of Wills, and turned their spheres into thin blades with which they struck against the dimensional opening that Shen was maintaining.
Shen felt confident in a battle against them, but he didn''t know what would happen if his Absolute Horizon was cut off by beings who had studied Absolute Horizons for longer than he was alive. It wasn''t worth risking his life to deal with three Demi-Dominators, considering the aerosols had hundreds of them. He retracted his domain back into Phasespace Cylek.
Everything happened in a few instants. Back in Cylek, the blood eye in the skies blinked out of existence almost as soon as it appeared.
Shock and dread spread through one-third of the Overlords, those who had an idea of what had happened. Everyone else was confused, though a few smart ones started to fear Shen.
"Anything else?" Shen asked.
The yamanari started to turn to flee. Shen acted at once. Everyone outside a flying vehicle died.
They dropped from the skies like dead flies.
These poor sods had no domains. Their souls couldn''t protect them against Shen''s domain with mastered Laws. That was the unbending truth of the tyranny of power. Shen himself couldn''t resist a Realization any more than these people could resist his domain. Reality wasn''t about equality. Reality was all about power.
Shen didn''t regret killing all those people because they had come to kill him first. Many were following orders, but this was Cylek. Living here and joining any force meant accepting the harsh fact that your force might offend the wrong enemy at any time. Some of them might dream of justice and be nice people, but walking a Path was about choices. They had made the wrong one.
Shen didn''t regret killing them, but he regretted living in such a shitty Reality where conflict seemed inevitable to progress. His desire to change it was fueled further by the blood in his hands.
He would definitely change all of existence one day... He looked up. Starting with this damn Shaft.
Shen collected all corpses into his spatial artifacts, then turned to the flying vehicles with anti-domain enchantments, clenching Un''Re. Everyone had been involved in attacking him today, and his Allvision had revealed no one showing any hesitation until he killed their leaders. No one would survive.
He struck faster than lightning, and in a few seconds, some deformed vehicles and their dead former passengers were also stored away in his spatial treasures.
Finally, Shen looked at the bases of the strongest forces in Cylek, all of which had come for him.
Payday had arrived.