“I’ll do the talking. You get her seal back up.” Xin casually asked when the tunnel was getting brighter.
“It’s ready since I got back in range with your ring.” Ebony had already begun recharging the moment he sensed them waiting.
“Hey, I want that necklace back. You gave it to me.”
Having to interact with a more aggressive version of Xin was nothing new, but it was certainly nostalgic. Her current state and form were also different from what he remembered. ‘Her vibe is more…how do I say this? Mature? Is that the word? Rather than mature, maybe her aggression is sharpened at the tip and grounded at the edges.’
Looking at her red hair back, he had to say that he was not familiar with the comparatively short hair she had. It threw him off a bit.
“Speak in Gia.” He didn't want to be left in the dark.
They exited with a burst of speed and a Flicker respectively.
“Holy Maiden…I see he failed to pick up the Sacred Anchor too.” The High Priestess had the faintest quiver in her voice that both humans picked up.
Ebony didn’t need the ability to sense emotions to feel her fear towards him, only comforted by her two strongest warriors’ presence. They weren’t aware that out of all the Emperors of all races, the natives were the least threat to him because they had non-existent magic resistance and they didn’t have strong gear and equipment to protect them from ice magic either. They didn’t even have the proper vitality control techniques and defensive skills that the other races had developed. He could let them attack him and freeze them all in the same manner he did to the other guards that pierced his body.
He just had to be careful of instant decapitation and heart piercing which wasn’t a problem with Xin acting as an alarm for him unless he was underestimating their speed and power too much.
“We’ll pick it up before we leave.” Xin ‘cordially’ replied.
“...Holy Maiden, are you going to abandon our people.”
“Your people…I will do what I can before I leave. It is beyond me right now to get these races to scram. Take it as my last recompensation for your earlier kindness that your people had given me.”
Ebony was confident of their combined powers but even if they were Kings, they wouldn’t be able to get the 4 races out of Teheil. Individual power was not effective when they had so much spare strength behind this invasion. Teheil was too large for the Natives to protect and much too large for two people. They could only blame the planet for being so rich in resources.
‘There are few natives, even if we conquer a few Golden Fields they wouldn’t be able to protect them. They need a couple more generations of fighters to protect their land. Their strongest fighters aren’t strong enough if other races put enough effort into making sure they are gone…I suppose the native’s only choice is to take over all the Golden Fields within this curtain of cushioning and survive a few generations while fighting and improving their techniques. There is nothing we can do…how pathetic.’ Once again, Ebony realised how little his arms could grasp.
“30 years! Just 30 more years! I beg you Holy Maiden!” The High Priestess got on her knees. The strongest warriors of their kind similarly got on one knee and bowed their heads.
Slightly shocked, Ebony just watched. He didn’t understand their culture and why Xin was so significant to them.
Having her state in half red and half black, Xin couldn’t answer immediately.
‘I guess I underestimate how significant they are to her.’ Ebony wasn’t going to say anything. He knew the way out of the planet but he still needed to get the tickets. That was going to take time. There were also many things he could get from these Golden Fields.
‘The cube should be my main goal for now, I really want it. I could use that cube for my Conditioning! With that much gravity mana, I should be able to tear my body apart if I compress it into a spell properly and strengthen it with Domain. Tier 5 Conditioning is not impossible if I use that cube.’
30 years honestly didn’t sound like much but it was too much of a delay. He needed to get away from Teheil for some of his skill evolutions. But he kept silent and made sure he numbed his emotions in case Xin’s decision was affected by him.
“3 years. I will leave this city in 3 years. During this, he will seal you up. And I will cut one of your horns.”
“Wha!?” The high priestess was one expressive woman as she couldn’t hide the absolute shock on her face.
“It is no different from taking a part of me. You will trade it for your life. That’s all the grace I can give you for taking care of me when I just arrived. Nothing more.”
“That’s--I accept your punishment for my sin and transgression. I beseech you to light our people’s Altar of Might once again.” The High Priestess’s reaction seemed to surprise both the strongest warriors of their people.
“Ebony.”
At the call, he froze the High Priestess’s body and had the Will he implanted in the ring to lead her back to the farms.
The Guardians looked at each other before making way and bowing, allowing both of them to pass.
“So, can you tell me what they want from you?”
“This race, they call themselves Altarbound Kin. It’s their race’s unique trait, they draw power from Spirit. I’m not sure what’s so special about it but it’s similar to Will in some ways. Their race is connected by Spirit, and their horns allow them to connect to what they call an Altar. According to the High Priestess, they had 7 Altars lit in the past. Altar of Courage, Harmony, Abundance, Fertility, Liberation, Longevity and Might.
The Altarbound Kin can draw corresponding power from lit Altars. One-horned can draw from one Altar, and two-horned can draw from two Altars simultaneously. Whether or not the Altars are lit depends on their people. They needed everyone to believe they had the power to draw that kind of power. For example, the Altar of Courage was only lit very far in the past when they hadn't conquered Teheil, they had ‘heroes’ who traversed in the dark, explored the unknown and expanded their reach. Henceforth, the Altar of Courage was lit and people with horns can draw courage from their combined belief that they as a race have courage.
After they prospered and their warriors had no wild monster to fear, the flame on the Altar of Might slowly dissipated. They didn’t need Might. They had no heroes to show off their Might because there were no opponents that required overwhelming force to bring down. At least until the Cinderashians came. They were overwhelmed so badly that their spirit was crushed. With close to every Golden Field taken, every additional death, their Altars were extinguished one by one.
They only have the Altar of Harmony, Abundance and Longevity lit right now. Actually, I think they mentioned that Harmony had changed to Unity. Their race works as one. Abundance makes their crops grow faster and just about anything else in the Golden Fields would propagate faster. Just through spirit and belief. The High Priestess is their symbol of Longevity. They are a long-life species from the start, growing a horn every 800 to 1000 years. The hornless may stay that way if they never evolve to extend their life that much but they also provide spirit to the Altars even without horns.
They want me as a symbol of Might to light their race’s combined belief that they have power. So they can draw power from themselves again.”
“Even though you are not an Altarbound Kin?”
“The previous symbol of Might coincidentally had long red fur and oddly shaped claws, like my swords. If you ask me, it was probably that way because he or she was always covered in blood from fighting monsters. Race doesn’t matter to them, just something they believe in and that I am fighting for them. As long as they can make everyone believe that I am one of theirs, they can light their Altar.”
“I see. That’s not quite possible because you can’t beat their Guardians but their people don’t need to know that. So she just had to bring you along with a group of their people. With new people watching you fight and win against their enemies, they were slowly turning you into their next symbol of might.”
Ebony got a clearer picture of their needs and them using Xin. Special circumstances led to the odd dynamics between the Altarbound Kin and Ning Xin.
‘This is just an issue of logistics and propaganda. They can’t move large numbers of people outside thanks to the cushioning and food is a massive pain to deal with outside the Golden Fields. They don’t have magic to show her fights and feats to all their people. Yes, I think I can solve this.’
“I can help you with this.”
“I know, that’s why I said 3 years. Efficiency is your thing.” She said so either thanks to her Intuition or pure guess.
“The problem is how many people know about your feats. Going out to fight or protecting a few camps from attacks isn’t going to cut it. Only their warriors would know about it and word of mouth would take time for others to truly believe your might. I can conjure a bunch of humans or even monsters to attack this place. And you can fend them off. Best if it were in the air, they can’t fly. And more could see you. I don’t even need you to act or fight, I can conjure one of you and put on a show. Even light refractions might be enough.”
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“Err…so simply? I feel like I’m deceiving them if you do that.”
“They draw power from their own belief. It’s not like you aren’t strong, they just don’t believe it yet. And if they do believe you are strong, then they don’t believe you, a human is part of them. They selfishly want a figurehead to fight for them. I might even use their Guardians instead.”
“She’s using me as a symbol because their belief in their history is already very strong. Even stronger now that they got suppressed and culled. Some of the two-horns personally lived in the generation with this holy maiden of theirs, they are the ones I need to convince. It was easy for me to step in as their ‘Holy Maiden’. However, their faith in their Guardians is not so strong because they weren’t able to stop the cullings. The current Guardians used to be from a group of seven people who were hailed as their forefront fighters but thanks to all their defeats and the continued deaths of their people and even the deaths of these Guardians, their faith has long been shaken.”
“I see…what were you planning to do?”
“My cooking skills are lagging behind and thanks to her, I haven’t gotten the skill evolutions I was aiming for. I needed more fights but I wasn’t comfortable picking fights with the strong ones. I’m trapped with opponents either too weak or too strong. You are right, the Cinderashians are the most skilled. Their techniques are polished, their base physique is strong. The Kings are too weak, the Emperors are too strong. The jump in power between them makes it hard for me to find a person with very strong technique and equally strong stat-wise. Stats isn’t my point of focus either.”
“What a dilemma.” Ebony had the same problem. With their augmentation, they could easily rival high-level Kings in stats. Even more so if the Kings in question cannot augment themselves with mana. Many had Vitality augmentation but an inferior version compared to Xin’s and Ebony’s Domain and coagulated mana combination.
But the average King had Tier 4 mastery for Cinderashians while the Mirellans had quite a few with only Tier 3 mastery since they relied more on equipment and technology. The jump in power Emperors had was huge not just due to stats but a single evolution in skills would likely be a doubling of power at minimum. Outliers were hard to find on Teheil because this planet wasn’t a place to send talented people to for any of the races present. It was a place to send soldiers, farmers and miners.
“Want to come with me to meet Steelbreaker? She’ll be a good opponent for you.”
“She's a Ferroquad isn’t she? I killed quite a lot of them when I just arrived. I doubt they’ll be up for a simple spar."
“I’ll be with you, running wouldn’t be a problem. And I can change how you look to them with a bit of refractions, though it'll come off as the intensity of your battle goes up. I want some good fights too. I’ll carry you, traversing in and out wouldn’t take long and my stamina consumption is extremely low compared to yours. We can make trips in and out, I already marked most of the noteworthy people.” Ebony was glad that his gravitational perception helped so much since there was no ambient mana to perceive.
“Sounds great.” His suggestion seemed to spark her love for fighting which was suppressed by having her body possessed.
“Then let's go pick fights.”
And so they did.
❅❅❅
Not being slowed down by fighting, Ebony could transport them both through the curtain of cushioning in record time. Going in and out, he appeared like a ghost at camps and Golden Fields where people he marked with strong auras and requested a spar.
Most of the time, they weren’t welcomed since he literally came knocking on their doors or tents for Ferroquads. The Veilarans took least kindly to his intrusions, they were needlessly angry because they didn’t sense him till he was right at their doorsteps. They seem proud of their abilities of stealth and scouting skills.
He might have underestimated how mobile he was because no matter how much he angered some people, none of them chased him for long or at all.
Extricating themselves from fights against Emperors was the toughest part but they jumped from one Emperor to the next. Every trip out of the Altarbound Kin’s Golden Fields took a few days. Within that time, they took turns challenging as many people as they could.
Ebony was surprised to find that roughly 10% of the people he noticed with potent auras were just Kings. They gave them the best experience fighting, with slightly superior technique but weaker physicals.
He would recharge the seal when they were back at the Altarbound’s city and pick up the dense cube that collected over time. Combining it with the one he was holding, they conveniently combined themselves whenever they regrew. It was surprisingly easy to set up a runic field that cut off the Sacred Anchor’s reach. So he had a farm for these rocks not too deep underground. Sadly, it wouldn’t last for long so he had to come back to refresh them often.
During this down period, he would conjure Xin’s fights in the sky throughout the city. The Holy Priestess was both amazed and shocked. They couldn’t imagine what kind of sorcery they were looking at.
It helped that these Kin recognised some of the people they went out to challenge, especially Cinderashians. Ebony avoided fighting them, only letting Xin fight them. He already knew better Cinderahian techniques and there was no reason to expose himself to them so much. There was another thing that helped him escape them, Entity Evanesce. However, the reduced effectiveness of this skill forced onto him was either due to distance from the caster or something else he wasn't aware of.
Of all their opponents, the one that gave him the best fight was on the Mirellan's side. He was a mercenary, not a Mirellan himself. Merely a level 532 King. Even so, it was rare to find someone who could spar on equal terms with just a mere evolution and 30 or so levels over them.
He was what Ezekiel called someone on the Path of the Formless.
It might have been the first time Ebony came across such a fighter and one that was better than him in formless technique. Ebony wanted to get to know this person but when he went knocking on his door for a conversation, it always ended in fighting. The man was quite aggressive and unwilling to talk but it was obvious from their body language that they were both extremely excited with their spars.
On Ebony’s third visit, the man stopped his ambush from opening the doors and invited Ebony to his dojo-looking room for the spars. Still, he never exchanged names, only short comments whenever they fought and pulled off moves that confused him. Ebony did the same.
The man didn’t look old, early thirties in his old Earthen terms. His fighting style used twin daggers about an arm long each. Made for quick killing and assassination which was perfectly countered by Ebony’s style of survival both evasive and defensive.
Both of them understood that having advantages was the weakness of their styles because the achievement they were looking for was to be balanced in every way and not to have a style but free-flowing motions.
His sparring partner had some odd effects, likely Fortifications. When they clashed the first time, Ebony’s reflection of vibrations exploded and sent both of them flying back. It was a defensive fortification that reacted to physical shocks just like his vibration reflection. In the instant they clashed, the reflections kept reflecting each other and burst. Seeing that he was sent back further, he could only assume his opponent had complete Fortifications of 250% every evolution up to King.
Some other traits he noticed were exceptionally strong bones, exceptionally rubbery muscles and very fast reflexive capabilities. Most importantly, cuts from him don’t heal fast, it damages his Mana Chassis. The man himself didn’t notice anything weird so it was probably normal for him to see the cuts he dealt, not heal.
Ebony didn’t think it was the weapon. It was more like a vitality-based attack and effect together with a familiar feeling. Intent or Will. That was the basis for his Fortification of making his cuts not regenerate or heal.
To find something that can permanently hurt Ebony raised his expectations. The threat of danger to his life truly added to his experience of a ‘good fight’.
Of course, Xin wanted to spar with him too and she did. But she held a bigger advantage. The opponent doesn’t seem familiar with handling opponents that exceeded his speed and strength by so much. Yet he still managed to slip through Xin’s notice, reflex, and defence to land a cut on her ribs. It tore through her robe and bodysuit to cut her but was only flesh deep. The man seemed more surprised that she healed within a second than the fact that her blood was black.
“Those daggers are cursed. It reduces health regeneration.”
“I think it’s fortified by a technique too, not just the dagger.”
After a couple of these spars, they were acquainted with each other and were always welcomed for a spar. A kindred spirit was truly rare to come by. Sadly, he was not an amiable man because they had to run away every time as he tried to kill them for real every visit. Well…the two of them were serious in trying to kill the man too but Ebony realised that it was not fair when he was the one picking fights.
Honestly, what a rare breed of individual to find.
‘Rubbery muscles to give that…bounce. Interesting Physique, Fortified even.’
Other people were not that friendly. They did not want deadly spars, they wanted to take his life for trespassing. It would be fine if they wanted his life for a battle but wanting his life for visiting and asking for a spar was too much!
What unreasonable people.
In a year, every Emperor was acquainted with both of them for ‘sneaking’ in and out of their camps like ghosts and asking for a fight before dipping when they learned enough. There were times when two of them did not escape even when they were losing and those were when he worked on cooperative battles to brush up their teamwork without showing all their skills to each other.
They did this by testing his endurance and holding down a spot in the invader's territory just for fun. It was fun in the human camps because they would automatically call stronger people after long enough and he didn’t have to find them or go through defensive structures.
“The older humans are calling us mischievous brats.” Ebony listened to a few meetings between old folks. They did not take a single life throughout this year of challenging top fighters so their intentions were already clear to the invaders.
“What about the Ferroquads?”
“They are laughing it off and calling us interesting kids. I wonder if we look like children that much. It’s been years and we are still called kids.”
“They can all sense Vitality, life force has a sensation of age behind. Our life force must feel young for Grandmasters. I hear it’s a recurring theme for Xengs until we’re Emperors for some time. I can estimate a living creature’s age pretty well.”
“Now that you mention it, I do get that feeling from time to time, but it's not as obvious with mana.” Ebony piggybacked Xin back to the Altarbound’s city. They summarised their trip with each other again, having swapped opponents. This would be their last trip for some time. They finished fighting everyone in Central Teheil that he found had strong or interesting overflowing essence. For some reason, no Saint appeared and he didn't hear a single word about any of these people. However, Ebony never relaxed his guard about any news regarding them.
“Can you explain your battle with him? Why do you fight with him differently? The two of you never land attacks and pull back your attacks right before impact a few hundred times before committing to an attack. Looks silly.” Xin asked after much consideration. They chose to let each other see some of their battles depending on their opponents.
“Hmm, energy conservation? We know when clashing wouldn’t work or when attacks are futile. He’s a master of feints, I might not be as good as him even if I used magic and refraction of light. I’ll have the upper hand if I cast my Domain. In a pure physical exchange with feints, he is superior but I doubt he has Tier 5 mastery. It looks like we’re attacking but we’re just faking for a reaction to take advantage of.”
“Hmph. That sounds troublesome and more of a waste of energy. Just whack them.”
“...That has certainly worked for you.” Mouth opened, Ebony didn’t expect the skill evolution he was looking for to come to him at this moment.