Flight was a fast way to get up a mountain. It seemed some specific locations could be determined where the remnants would appear soon.
There were Cari eating corpses of others. At the time, it seemed to be mostly mercenaries. This would likely be the case overall. Too few of the higher Cari existed and if they kept dying in constant battle, they wouldn't be that high in status. Yet, clans like the phoenix clan had lots of wealth to throw around. Number of mercenaries were high. Just random Cari who would like to leech off some of that wealth.
Kaden found it all rather interesting. How many of the higher clans actually fought much themselves? He himself was in a group of phoenixes. Yet, some were lower cultivation while some higher. It was likely just generally safe battle training. Probably when real power was to be shown, it would be on the actual battlefield among Cari clans on mainland.
"I still don't quite have perfect sense of how all things work", Kaden though to himself as his group landed among the Cari.
"What is the situation?" The phoenix leading Kaden's group, Caark, asked immediately.
"Repeated attacks and we have suffered losses, but nothing major ... yet", one of the Cari replied. Then looked around. "See, we killed some. Its good hunting."
"Is this everyone?" Caark questioned.
"Ah ... no one left after those who fled, but ...", the mercenary replied. It seemed somewhat uncertain. "That crazy one, though, she ... ".
"I'm going to flyyyYYYY!!", someone very familiar screamed up a ledge higher up.
"Oh no!" Kaden cursed in his mind.
Soon after something very big slammed against the ground. Dust was blasted up in a cloud. Soon after it dissipated and what was revealed was Ciner in a small crater.
"Who hired this lunatic?" Caark questioned in incredulous tone.
"No idea, but even if she is famous for crazines, she is strong", the mercenary replied.
"My future hubby is here!" Ciner said and rushed towards Kaden. "I'll learn to fly and then you will marry me."
What?
"Keep her away from me", Kaden said angrily. "Send her to die some other location."
The mercenaries looked at Kaden curiously. It seemed the phoenixes were aware of the situation already and prefered to stay out of it.
"So this is the famous 'husband'?" One of the mercenaries said. "What did you do, phoenix?"
"I merely helped her with some minor things some years ago", Kaden replied. "After I saw what became of her previous husband, I didn't want to stay anywhere near. I'd kill her, if I could."
"Oh don't say such nasty things!" Ciner replied very casually as if it was some minor jest. "I'll learn to fly soon and we will be together."
"She will interrupt our work", Kaden said to Caark. "Send her away."
"Unfortunately we need everyone here", Caark replied. "Though I demand that everyone does their job and that there will no disruptions. Contributions will be reduced at the very least up to death sentenced depending on severity. I believe this should be very clear to everyone. Including you Ciner."
"I take my work very seriously!" Ciner replied walked out of her little crater. "I have fulfille all my contracts to the letter. Its not my fault they aren't as detailed as what the phoenix clan demands."
"I will still want to work away from her", Kaden demanded.
"Create defensive formations in the area", Caark told Kaden. "No one else here can make formations."
Kaden started his work. The problem with Ciner was known. Everyone seemed to have heard of her. Apparently she caused chaos basically wherever she went and was known to be a lunatic. Yet, she was very good at what she did. She was very well paid for her services at her level. One had to always weigh the downsides of having her around and the positive side of her strength.
Luckily for Kaden, she was arranged to the outer defenses when Kaden stayed inside to put together formations. The exact location where the remnant would appear wasn't known, but it was roughly pinpointed to the area.
Whether it was something that was useful or not, access to it needed to be obtained and opponents kept away. Formations were very good for this.
The True Cari and the rest would not come for aid unless absolutely neccessary. Chance for that was very low. Their problem was the entire area. Kaden's group only had to care about that new remnant.
Madakar was constantly shifting territory based on what one side could hold and then intensifying once a location for emerging remnant was discovered. The relatively small mass of land was split with many factions. The faction that included phoenixes and their allies only held some of it.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
For Kaden this all reminded him of small scale version of what Sacronan and Saint Empire fought at human territories with only their two factions.
"At least it happens out the way here in separate corner of the world", Kaden muttered to himself as he put together defensive formations. "Not that Cari fight less. Probably even more, if you count in all the shows of strength and posturing that is commonplace."
The only interruptions were several attacks while Kaden was building the formations. Yet, it became much less of a problem by the time Kaden finished the defensive layer that blocked attacks. Afterwards it became clear that, if anyone wanted to break through they needed much larger attack force. Kaden had plenty of time to build rest of the formations, such as sensory and offensive formations. The latter being application of his most recent studies. These offensive formations would release a ball of energy that would attack targets based on the rudimentary programming Kaden embedded in it.
These specific offensive formations were the best what he felt he could reliably rely on.
He did build one experimental one that relied more heavily on the simulation formations deeper inside perimeter. Kaden had discovered with a few adjustments he could store mana in specific form inside them. Then he had stored his own mana inside. Specifically the layer of mana he used as armor. With this he could create a spectral version of himself made out of mana and had his abilities.
There existed some problems with it. To set up the formation, he needed to expend huge amount of mana for it. If he had time to rest afterwards, it was fine. Even afterwards controling the formation was far more difficult than some ball of energy. At best he could achieve roughly similar efficiency as with the far simpler offensive formations, if he took personal control at which time he might as well fight himself.
There were some good sides such as that he could program them to shoot things like Fire Beams, but that would expend most of the mana the formation had and would have only few shots until it ceased functioning.
Kaden also had some extra ideas and upgrades he was already planning to test. Such as disguise it as himself and provide distraction. Program attacks for it that are efficient and so on. If he would one day discover method to imprint complex programming to it, then it would be like a clone to help him fight. To duplicate oneself would be a powerful ability, even if the copy is weaker.
There existed such spells, but they were very rare and required specific talent with those specific mana types. It even took some effort to train to use those spells and one would likely be weaker otherwise.
To simply generate a copy with formation and some mana would be a far more optimal way. There were reasons why Kaden had become very interested in such formations. Unfortunately, at the time it was at most a turret with an interesting shape.
The attacks still continued, but most were just potshots from distance. Kaden assumed the attackers wouldn't leave it at that. Likely they too fortified some locations nearby. Wherever they chose to stay, it was outside of the sensor range.
"I better be well prepared when that remnants appears", Kaden muttered to himself.
In many ways it was actually peaceful. Ciner was elsewhere and did not have the chance to be annoyance. Everyone let him build his formations without disruptions too.
It lasted for about two days until Kaden started to notice something strange. He at his level was not yet able to sense things like space mana, but he for sure could see the world bend and vibrate slightly. This wasn't something like a teleportation formation he had seen before or the very clear distorted space in the great remnant. It was actually rather unsettling feeling to have space naturally warp around you slightly.
This was both good and bad news.
Good was that they were defending the right location, but bad was that it was right on top of them.
They actually had to move out of the area. Unless you were at least a True Magus or a True Cari, you did not want to be at the spot where newly formed remnant was about to appear and tear open a rift in space. Also one couldn't tell the actual condition of the remnant. It might as well start to pull in material from the world as soon as it opened. You did not want to go in accidentally. Specifically since these random remnants were more often unstable.
Since the fighting in Madakar had been going on for a long time, there was only some predictions based on previous remnants what would show up. Phoenixes were holding the area because it often had all sorts of elemental remnants, but that was not a quarantee. Kaden had heard there was a time when such a remnant had nothing to do with elemental mana, but was instead made out of some ... horror. Apparently severe insanity was one of the more minor symptoms that was involved with being near it and none had survived inside. That was just one of the examples.
Its was simply a good idea to wait and let it appear and see what it was about.
"If my formations aren't destroyed as the rift forms, they will stop anyone but us from approaching for a while", Kaden thought to himself.
Kaden's group was surely not the only ones to notice warping of space. It was likely possible to feel it very far. All the random attacks had stopped too. Once the remnant was open, there would be a fight.
"Everyone be prepared", Caark said. "We will only retreat if there is an overwhelming force. In that case we will take the place they currently hold and prevent them from doing anything useful with the remnant."
Kaden wanted to kill something. What he cared about was to gather more cores and eat more mana rich flesh to progress his cultivation. Addionally he would do this in efficient manner and get those contribution points for once his group is replace with another and he has time to get the black fragments.
Any future plans were still open. Kaden was rather interested in seeing how human empires would react to the godless mana system in long term. Cari territories were relatively safe place to wait and see.
A few hour later Kaden stopped his thoughts as space seemed to start vibrate faster and he could actually see an area bulge out. Light bent around like a lens. You didn't need to sense space mana to see that spece was being distorted.
It was actually rather interesting. Kaden knew some physics from the ancients and his knowledge from the current world. He could understand what was happening. Witnessing such events would be useful once he became able to affect space.
Then a spot started to ripple and it kept intensifying until space was torn open. A rift quickly formed. Immediately afterwards temperature rose as heat escaped from the rift. Kaden could see the inside resembling the local terrain, but ... everything was on fire and there appeared to be some kind of firestorm inside. Flames were even being ejected outside by some kind of strong wind.
"I do wonder, if anyone can go inside", Kaden thought.
The remnant looked the usual kind of elemental type. It was the time to hold the remnant and any other concerns such as entering were to be left for later.