ACC Chapter 3 Threats

FAY 437, 2nd Month, Day 7, 9:01 AM

The grass beneath my butt and feet was breathing, it would have been complaining through the minute signals I could sense if I had been directly seating upon it. But I was floating an inch above the tallest stalk, with my legs crossed beneath me, having assumed a lotus pose.

The signs of nature and life were all around me, from the small critters, to the large beasts I could sense a bit further away. They were pure beings, not tainted by the heavens into becoming demons, yet.

A cluster of bacteria were feeding off the dregs of a broken virus on the surface of the soil, within the tall grass, just as a bird, a white crane with beautiful feathers was feeding its chicks above the very tree casting its shadow above me.

With divine sense, it was if I was close to everything within its range, simultaneously tasting, listening, feeling and seeing everything.

Even now, a century and some decades later, it was still a novel experience, one that set my heart racing.

But everything within my senses wasn't as captivating as the staff floating just a few inches above my palms.

It was two fingers thick and about four meters long, with its shaft a vibrant greenish-brown.

Every single cell on its surface was vibrating as if there was a heart somewhere within, beating like that of something made of blood and flesh, creating ripples across its surface.

Five long years had gone by since I had gone into seclusion to try and create it. I had been of the belief that it would have taken a minimum of twice that time, and yet, here it was, in its completed form barely into half that.

Ever since I had theorised living arrays, my dream had been to create life, or something close, like this staff before me.

The sheer joy I was feeling wasn't something that could be expressed clearly. My very nascent Soul was thruming with it, with some of my attention directed at calming it down.

I had produced millions of nano threads, woven them into array circuits that became fibres, all arrayed in such a way that they formed this staff. It had a core within, one which handled calculations of a biological nature.

Through this creation of mine, I was going to improve upon my manifested energy form.

With an intention transmitted by my divine sense, I felt the core light up for a brief moment before that energy was used to feed into biological code that triggered the DNA of the cells within, producing proteins that arrayed themselves in the exact configuration I wanted, upon which the greenish-brown staff transformed into one of silvery grey, the color of steel.

Though, it wasn't just the color, but the properties of actual steel had also been transmitted over, bringing a smile to my face.

This was the most important reason I had chosen a wood affinity, pliability. Of course, something like blood would have been better, but I preferred wood.

Now that it had been turned into steel, it was time for me to run an important test, that of durability.

The staff spun around me as I controlled it through my divine sense brand, closing my eyes to simply feel it with that sense, allowing me to even pick out the air currents disturbed by its movement.

After getting familiar with it, where I was moving it at speeds that made the leaves of the giant tree above me to rustle violently as if being blown by a hurricane, with the grass stalks being flattened onto the ground, it pierced out, like a thrown spear, moving at such speed that it almost seemed like lightning.

A sonic boom only entered my ears after the staff had embedded itself within a massive tree countless kilometers away, having left small holes in the trees it had passed through while also severing any plant matter that it barrelled into.

These trees were far more durable than their counterparts back on Earth, almost rivalling Nascent Soul cultivators in defense! After all, I had personally modified this entire organism!

Yet the fact that it had managed to bore holes into five of them without even sustaining any damage was a testament to the durability it had gained by temporarily taking on the properties of steel, the advantageous ones of course.

An intention of will and a flex of my divine sense brought the staff back into my hands near-instantaneously.

My heart was racing in excitement with the possibilities I was about to unlock. This was a key to the secrets of life! Turning into steel was just a minor ability compared to what I had in mind for the staff.

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Scanning it with my divine sense, I was relieved to find that there had been almost no impact damage. The minor damage was even being repaired as the torn fibres rejoined. The outer casing had only lost a few molecules and atoms.

Before I could get too far into my experimentation though, a query for communication from a satellite above, pinged me, and it was someone who I had expected, though that still didn't prevent my spiritual energy to almost sputter out of control.

Nervousness was a disease I wouldn't be able to chase away it seems.

Taking small steps, with my bare feet feeling the soft grass, I finally walked out of the tree shadow and into the light from the Sun, which was bright and scalding. That was only to be expected considering the fact that the Khaatam orbited the star.

My gaze fell upon my small hut, one which I hadn't seen in five years. I had just arrived here a few hours ago from my outer space lab. It was the same as I had left it, except that it was almost reclaimed by the plants, which, with a flex of my control over wood-attuned spiritual energy, I ordered to regress a bit.

The grass shortened to the same level as that beneath my feet with the vines and plants also doing the same, except that they all regressed to the exact heights they had been at, five years ago.

Within just mere moments of entering the abode, I was seated upon a woven green mat with signs of life in the vines of its structure, I sighed, then allowed my divine sense to connect to the spiritual net, instantly creating a secure private room for the two of us, me and the sect master of Pantheon.

"You have become calmer. I would have thought that your teeth would be bared." Spoke the man with the light blue eyes on the other side of our partitioned illusory room.

My left index finger tapped on my thigh as I worked to restrain the rage and malice that was being dragged to the fore. That expression of his, the one where he was looking at me as some inconsequential bug was unnerving me.

"The point, 3rd generation Zeus, the point. I don't have all day." I spoke with a calm that contrasted the waves in my mind.

That finally managed to get a tiny sliver of reaction out of the man, with the prized artifact resting at his desk letting out a few slivers of lightning that ionised the air and danced along the surface of the gem-like stone table, yet leaving no burn traces.

"Brat, don't get smart with me! Pantheon isn't something a little dog of Taylor can contend with!" He leaned forward, his gaze menacing and infuriated.

"Besides, we both know why I am contacting you! You have something of mine!"

"I haven't seen anything of yours anywhere, have you?" I asked with partially serious expression.

He snarled, making me almost believe that he was about to blow his top, but with a breath, he schooled his expression into a stoic mask.

"My woman, Lily Toba."

"Are you playing with me, Zeus? Has there been anything official on your end that ties my secretary to you?"

His eyes narrowed, with bolts of lightning slithering across his dark suit, with some even making impact with the walls. It seemed that the room he was in was made with durable materials, enough to withstand his wrath.

Even though we were in an illusory connection, our surroundings weren't a replica within the mind, but the real places our bodies were situated within.

Then the lightning that was threatening to increase in intensity abruptly ceased, with a smile touching the man's blue lips. It was weird on his face that almost resembled a marble statue.

"I can see what you are doing here, revenge! You want-no, seek vengeance for the past. But let me tell you this brat, what you have is a bone without any meat!"

Damned clone! Do you really comprehend the depths of my rage?!

"How can it lack meat if it got you to contact me personally? That woman must be really important!"

Something flashed across the man's face for an instant. I hadn't managed to get a glimpse before it vanished entirely, but for a moment, my symbiote, sleeping within my body had been stirred.

"Are you really prepared to face my full wrath? Taylor won't be able to protect you. Think very carefully about your decision. I will give you a few hour-"

"No need. She has become my secretary. If you attack her, do trust me on this, Pantheon won't be able to stay a super sect!"

With that threat, I consciously shattered the illusory connection, causing the man's half of the room to vanish like smoke.

My fist moved, hammering the wooden floor with such force that the entire hut splintered into fragments which shot away, shredding the nearby vegetation except the trees.

'Pantheon! I will get my revenge! Of that I will make sure!'

With a thought, the roots I felt beneath my feet shifted, with their cells multiplying, birthing new shoots that poked out of the soil to morph into a new hut, an exact replica of the one from before.

(Miss Toba is about to arrive.)

(Thank you, Paul!)

My vest and dark green pants vanished into my spatial ring before I cleaned myself with a burst of energy that expelled everything clinging to my skin.

'Zeus the clone' himself wouldn't contact me unless he really needed something. Lily Toba... What had made that woman important enough for a late stage Nascent Soul to desire? Because I was very sure that it hadn't been her beauty.

There was more to this!

(Paul! I want you to investigate something. Find out if there has been any trace of missing people in the past few years...those with a core attuned to any metallic elements.)

There had been rumors in the past of Pantheon's particular lightning gathering formation needing some sort of sacrifice. I had recalled it because it had been attention grabbing at the time, and yet it had managed to be resolved.

'Could that be related?'

A groan escapee my lips as I abandoned all those thoughts in favor of getting into the proper mindset to welcome a guest.

Meeting people, especially those I am getting acquainted with for the first time was an activity I hated.

I hoped the woman wouldn't resort to any small talk. Commenting about the weather here would drive me nuts in less than a second.

I threw on a white buttoned up long sleeved shirt, whose sleeves I rolled up to my forearms, tucking it into a pair of dark green pants.

This ensemble was necessary for this meeting but I hated these formal clothes as much as I hated crowds.

I made it out of the hut, holding the staff as a cane of sorts after making sure that I was satisfied with my attire. Though it wasn't my satisfaction that I was keeping in mind.

'Now, how am I going to steer the conversation towards important things?'

While ruminating upon that, I felt a craft enter khaatam's atmosphere, one I was certain carried my new secretary, bringing a smile to my face, one far less genuine in nature.

'Let's get this over with.'