The beginning of the war was very subdued. The scouting divisions of both sides fought across the law ocean trying to gleam the abilities of the opposite sides. Information was of prominent use in war. Both sides had concealed their forces through formations and arrays, making it hard for their enemies to find their firepower. Thus, both sides sent scouts who specialized in piercing and breaking formations to figure out the battle plans, secrets and reserve strength of their enemy.
Formations were a flourishing path and several small and large sects in the law ocean studied this path. Formations were not only used for concealment and defence, but they were also used offensively in some cases as well. Michael had used a killing formation many years ago in the first battle against devils. There were many different formations for each purpose and the knowledge in the field was so vast that most people would only specialize in a specific area like illusion formations, concealment formations etc.
Similar to formation path cultivators, there were cultivators who specialized in breaking formations as well. These cultivators were trained in breaking all sorts of formations and arrays. These cultivators were called breakers and were used for scouting and for breaking defence lines. While these cultivators were at the highest risk of dying in war, they were also paid countless resources for their achievements. They generally ignited jealousy in their fellow cultivators and could progress extremely quickly in their cultivation.
Michael too was interested in the path of breaking. He was one of the hardest to kill cultivators among lesser ascendants and even high-rank ascendants might not be able to kill him. Escaping methods of psychic cultivators were famed in the law ocean for a reason. He felt it was a perfect choice for him to take reasonable risks and raise his strength quickly. But his hopes were shattered as soon as they were born. The path of breaking was no less complex than the path of formations and required hundreds of years of training to show results. After all, breakers were expected to break all sort of formations. Also, any decent formation was dynamic with countless changes. Calculating the correct method to break a formation was a skill that required a huge amount of knowledge as its foundation.
Just a few introductory formations had scared Michael. He was sure that if he stepped into the enemies' formation, he would have to escape via psychic reincarnation. There was no other way to escape, let alone breaking the formation. The power of formations had scared Michael quite a bit. The only saving grace was that these complex and large scale formations needed many cultivators to set up and use. Thus, they were only used in large scale battles and wars. In small scale battles, powerful formations hardly made an appearance. For mortals, the concept of superiority of numbers always held true. A person could only fight so many people. As long as one had numbers on their side, they would definitely win. For cultivators, it was not as straightforward. A high-rank cultivator could kill thousands of low-rank cultivators if they fought normally. After all, with the increase in cultivation, recovery, stamina and energy reserve all increased. At a sufficiently high level, one could recover their energy and perpetually fight low-rank cultivators for a very long time without tiring out. But it all changed with the inclusion of formations. Formation-path was the method of using numbers for cultivators. With a formation of a thousand low-rank cultivators, an enemy high-rank cultivator could be killed.
Michael's family members had grown with time as well. Collins and Sitara Rageberg had reached demi-ascendance quite some time ago. With the upcoming war, Michael had used all his connections to make sure that his family would remain safe in the upcoming war. He had asked Razor Mark, the genius disciple from Dead Sea Sect who he had good relations with, to help his family members get settled. Razor's teacher, Raval, had friends in the Paradise Sea Sect who were a couple and focussed on cultivating the art of yin yang unity. This was a dual cultivation art that was famed in the Divine Sea Sect. It was known as one of the most miraculous cultivation techniques in the Sect. This art allowed couples who practised this art to tie their lives together. In this way, even if one from the pair was to die, they could be resurrected. This also connected the couple in a miraculous way allowing them to sense each other across multiple worlds and borrow strength from their partner even when separated. This connection was something even divinities could not cutoff! At a sufficiently high level, the pair could summon each other across space anytime they wanted. Also, when present together, they could cast combined magical abilities whose might was much greater than their level of cultivation. The only drawback of the art was that it was hard to find compatible people who could cultivate it.
The Paradise Harmonious couple who cultivated this art were Elders of the Paradise Sea Sect and only took in dual-cultivating couples their disciples. With help from Raval, Collins and Sitara were introduced to the elders. To the shock of Michael, Raval and the Harmonious couple, Collins and Sitara were found to be compatible to cultivate the yin-yang unity art. This shook the entire Paradise Sea Sect and even the Paradise Sea Divinity and other Divinities of Divine Sea Sect were informed! Afterwards, Collins and Sitara were accepted as successor disciples to the Paradise Harmonious couple. While their strength was weak, their status in Paradise Sea Sect was very high. In the whole of Divine Sea Sect, they had a higher status than Michael! The Paradise Sea Sect directly enforced secluded cultivation on the Rageberg couple, making it so that they would not be allowed to leave unless they cultivated the art to a high level and broke through to the ascendant realm.
Michael was very happy with the result. He knew that his strength was not enough to protect his family. If he used his connections, he could get them momentary safety. But who could know the future? With the status of Successors of Paradise Harmonious Couple, his parents would be safe unless the Divine Sea Sect was destroyed.
Another person who had succeeded in gaining a secure status was Ashley. Michael had similarly asked Razor to help find a good position for Ashley to join the Sect. Again with Raval's help, the Seiren elder had accepted Ashley as a legacy disciple. The reason for this was Ashley's inborn charm and beauty. Seiren elder of Paradise Sea Sect was a woman famed for her beauty and charm techniques. She was an enslavement expert and had many slaves who were upper-ascendants! Her techniques focussed mainly on charming people and using mystical methods to enslave cultivators with weak willpower. Ashley, due to her natural beauty and charm, had an advantage in the field. Of course, while she had an innate advantage, she had yet to prove her talent in the charm-enslavement techniques. Thus, even with Raval's mediation, she was only given the position of a legacy disciple. But she still had a high status and a secure future.
For others, it was not the same. Tresline, Michael's sister was not very talented, neither did she have any special advantages. She had managed to reach the demi-ascendance realm with effort and resources. But she did not show much value in the eyes of the Sect. With Michael and the Rageberg couple as her backers, she was accepted into the Endless Sea Sect as an inner-sect disciple.
Maria and Kandriff had joined as inner-sect disciples of Blood Sea Sect. This was suggested by Raval as well. Both Maria and Kandriff were more powerful than normal cultivators at the same stage because they possessed powerful bloodlines. The Blood Sea Sect specialized in bloodline evolution and bloodline cultivation. As a result, joining the Blood Sea Sect was the best choice for both of them. Many years ago, Kevin Kross, the former werebeast emperor had given a small bottle of purification pills to Michael as a sign of goodwill and had received a favour from him in return. As time progressed, Michael shook the entire plane with his achievements. The value of that one favour had increased to the point that it could be called a reserve treasure of the werebeast race. Using that favour, Kevin and Kyle asked Michael to help Kandriff in securing his future beyond Aterna. Thus, Kandriff obtained the chance to join the Blood Sea sect as an inner-sect disciple along with Maria. It could be said that even if the plane was to be destroyed, as long as Kandriff succeeded in bloodline cultivation, the werebeasts would have left their mark in the world.
He had extended the offer to move beyond the plane to Mubal, Karslon and Leonor but all of them had adamantly refused. Mubal and Karslon had lived for a long time. They were ready to live and die with the plane and did not want to leave. His brother Leonor had similar sentiments. Michael had created the native division of Divine Sea Sect army in Aterna as well. The army consisted mostly of the devil-slayer army that had been created many years ago by the combined council of races. Michael's brother Leonor was the commander of this army.
"Brother, I am proud of you and what you have achieved. But I don't want to live in your shadow. You might be able to get me status and safety, but that is not my choice. I have lived more than half my life with the devil-slayers army. We have lived and fought together. We have gone through countless challenges and hurdles. The army is already a part of me. I have already decided. I will remain as the commander of Aterna army. I might die in this or some other war. But who can say that they can live forever? I am already 90 years old. While it might not be much for cultivators, I have already had all the mortal pleasures. Razia also supports my decision. We will stay with the army."
Leonor had commanded the army for a long time. Over the years, he had created his own family with the army. He had married Razia who he met in the army as well.
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When Michael went to find Leonor after many years, he was stunned with this discovery. While Michael had been busy creating plans to fight the devils, his brother had already moved ahead with his life. Michael did not regret doing anything he did in his new life, but he still wished from the depth of his heart to spend time with his family. Alas, it was not easy for the emperor of the plane to have his wish.
In the end, Michael did not meddle in his brother's decision. He just thought in his heart:
If one day, the apocalypse is no longer present, I will take a rest.
Time passed and the war became more and more intense. Slowly, it escalated. Eventually, the Aterna division was called into the battle as well. After all, it was the style of devils to use brainwashed fodder to exhaust their enemies' resources. The Aterna division, as well as the native cultivators, were asked to handle the fodder army. Many cultivators in Aterna answered the call to fight the devils and soon, there were many people heading to beyond the fortifications of Divine Sea Sect to fight.
Michael too wanted to fight but he held the position as the Emperor of the plane and the liaison of the Sect. Thus, he could not go into battle easily. Also, his strength put him in a unique spot. He could not participate in the main battlefield as he lacked the strength and training to work with the main army. But, the fodders of devils and natives of the plane were simply too weak for his level. He could unleash a massacre on the fodder army but what would that do? There were millions of brainwashed puppets and he alone could hardly make any difference. He was not very exceptional in management and daily government either. While he was the emperor in name, the government of the plane proceeded without much input from him. Ambrose could be said to have exercised the authority of Emperor much more than him. Given that he had sent his family to safety, he did not have much left to do.
In the end, he started looking into a possible solution to the problem - clones.
Creating a clone was a method for cultivators to handle mundane affairs, or to increase their experiences and cultivation efficacy. This method was generally used by high-level ascendant cultivators or divinities. This was because creating a clone required one to separate a part of one's soul and conscient and place them in the clone. The part of their soul and conscient should also boast independent thinking capacity. Thus, the part could not be too small. As a result, only upper-ascendants who had enough strength created clones. Another method which was similar was the creation of avatars. Avatars were like spare bodies for cultivators. They did not have independent thinking abilities and the cultivator generally controlled their avatar from a distance. They were used for the purpose of scouting dangerous locations, guarding important places and so on. The avatars did not have their own thoughts and could not grow or cultivate. They had to be replaced as one became stronger. But the same was not true for clones. Clones could cultivate on their own and could even become stronger than the main body.
Generally, clones and main body would be in sync and their thoughts would be in confluence. It was very difficult to break this connection and they were, in essence, the same person. Therefore, while creating clones was difficult, almost all high-level cultivators would create them. The chances of clones birthing a separate consciousness and betraying their main body were infinitesimally small.
For cultivators, creating clones was a big step that required many preparations. After all, the process of creating a clone was dangerous even for divinities. Also, after the clone was created, the strength of the main body would decrease drastically due to the injury of conscient and soul. It should also be noted that the process of breaking off a portion of one's conscient was extremely painful and wasteful. The conscient was an intangible entity, thus, as a portion was forcefully separated, it would start dissipating rapidly on both sides. There were many cultivators in history who died due to having their conscient dissipated while cloning.
But a lot of these issues were not difficult for Michael. First of all, his willpower was extremely vast and powerful, comparable to late-stage divinities. In comparison, his conscient and soul were much smaller. Thus, he could easily attain the miraculous state of self-command, something even divinities were envious of. This allowed him to completely control his own conscient. He had gained many abilities due to this. He could not be charmed or enslaved. He could not be soul-searched. Even divinities would find it hard to disperse his conscient and kill him. He could not be corrupted and could not be cursed with mental afflictions. Another benefit of this state was that he could precisely cut out his conscient for creating a clone without being wasteful. He would also not be in fatal danger when he created his clone.
Also, he had the recovery attribute. Thus, he could recover from the injury of splitting his conscient easier and faster than others. In fact, self-command boosted his recovery attribute as well making it so that he would recover even faster. Apart from this, he had decent attainment in psychic path, making it possible for him to control the separated conscient so that the process of cloning succeeds easily.
Due to these unique factors, it was possible for a rank-1 ascendant like him to form a clone. In the entire law-ocean, this was unprecedented. Once he found the idea feasible, he could no longer stop thinking about it. After making up his mind, he decided to leave the plane with Ambrose and go into secluded meditation in the Sect. While it might be easy for him to make a clone, that was only relative to others. It would be a big undertaking given his level of cultivation. Even with all his preparations, he might end up severely injured in case of accidents. Even if he were to succeed, he would need time to recuperate. His strength would fall during that time as well. Thus, he booked a seclusion chamber in the Sect.
After making the preparations, he went into seclusion. He did not tell about this plan for creating a clone to anyone. He wanted it to be a secret for now. Fate is a mysterious law, even gods can not know the future. If the Devil Ancestor or the Empress of Antiquity had known Michael's decision today, they wouldn't have given it much thought. But this event created a branch in Fate, and no one knew where it would lead.
The requirements for creating a clone were not difficult. One needed to form a suitable body and soul as the container. Michael used his life laws to form the container. He used materials from several powerful and legendary beasts and spirits. He spent almost all his remaining contribution points for this. The better the container, the higher the potential for the clone. Of course, this was a pet-project to Michael for now. He only wanted to participate in the war and did not know if his clone would survive in the end. But he still used the best possible materials commonly available to form the container.
The process of cutting the conscient was both easy and hard. It was easy because Michael could do it with a single thought. It was hard because the corresponding pain would almost debilitate him. As his cultivation was low, his conscient was not too strong. As a result, to successfully form a clone, he needed to use 30 per cent of his total conscient strength. This was the bare minimum. After Michael split his conscient, the worst possible pain violently emerged. From the outside, his entire body started oozing blood and his soul seemed to collapse. Had he not experienced the devils' refinement before, he would have gone mad from the pain. Even divinities would likely die if they were to split 30 per cent of their conscient!
Even while in such pain, Michael skillfully controlled the part he had cut off and started refining the clone. It was the hardest thing Michael had done in his life. The torture was even worse than the devils' puppet refinement. The entire process took him a month. As his existence was collapsing, Michael managed to complete the refinement. As soon as the refinement was complete, he immediately started to actively use his recovery attribute. While suffering through the pain, he started healing his conscient. Time passed on and half a year went by. In this time, Michael had stabilized his conscient and healed. But while he was no longer in pain, he felt a sense of weakness from the depths of his existence. This was due to using a significant portion of his conscient. His recovery attribute only helped in healing wounds of his conscient and not in cultivating it. In fact, the process of recovering the conscient's strength was simple, he just needed to rest. His conscient might have weakened but his cultivation level for different pahs was unchanged. Thus, as long as he rested properly, his conscient would recover.
After this, he started to complete the final steps of cloning. Soon, the clone opened its eyes.
It was a bizarre feeling. Michael felt as if he had been split into two bodies. But there was no discomfort due to this. It was not that he had to control two bodies with a single mind. He had two different minds. But while he could think independently with both minds, both were, in essence, same. He could also feel a mysterious connection between both bodies. It was indeed miraculous. Had it not been for the significant price and dangers involved, all cultivators would want to have clones. After all, you could cultivate at two times the speed. As Michael observed himself, he found the differences in his main body and his clone.
First of all, he could share his willpower between his main body and clone. This was something he had not known before. Secondly, his clone also had the recovery attribute in his conscient. But apart from that, his clone was pretty simple. He did not receive his prefect persona blessing, his volcanic bloodline, his psychic or dao powers. He also could not use his life treasure. Without these methods, the clone was much weaker than Michael's main body. Thus, apart from willpower and well as existence, nothing else was shared. But due to shared willpower, he could attain self-command for his clone as well. Michael had shared some of his understanding of life and death laws as well. Thus, the clone was actually at demi-ascendant cultivation level.
After arranging for the clone to return to Aterna, Michael's main body went back to the seclusion chamber. There, he activated the defence of the chamber and fell into slumber. According to his estimate, it would take him 4-5 years to completely recover. Meanwhile, his clone returned to Aterna via teleportation formation. As Michael had kept the clone a secret, using his main body, he created a new identity for his clone.
Thus, after 5 years of Aterna Emperor Michael Rageberg's seclusion, a young stepped out on the plane. He was average looking, with no noticeable features. He had black eyes and black hair, dark skin and average build. In a crowd, one would not notice him. He was Michael Rageberg, or rather, his clone - Mark Strong.