3 years ago, Cinderash, Gearhart Estates.
Gearhart’s study room trembled under its owner’s aura. Having been on an excursion with friendly Saints to dungeons elsewhere, it was already the fastest that his Lordship could return.
“Cogs, tell me what you think.” Surprising Cogs Pwit, Cinderash’s foremost Guru, his Lord did not burst out in anger after hearing his report on the happenings with their battery and mana source.
His Lordship’s island was compromised. A son’s Molten Nucleus was stolen. The island’s Pyrothernite Source Stone was stolen. His family had been taken under…non-threatening hostages once again. The guards reacted poorly. And Cogs himself had been trapped outside his body for years.
“We…should not be in danger. As we’ve discussed and forgotten his lineage, he hasn’t been smited for saying a name we erased our memories of. So whatever that is, it should be his real name. But he’s human. 'They' shouldn’t care less about him.” Cogs was uncertain. He removed their memories of the name but not the memories of what 'They' represent. That race of creatures did not think like he or any other creature did but one thing he knew was that they were extremely prideful.
The Saint and he, together with the spirit of the prison cell that trapped their mana source were the only souls who knew of Ebony. And the two of them in the room were the only ones who knew of his heritage that he only dared mention the likings of within their minds. They had to keep it that way, even risking his escape because they couldn’t specifically tell their forces to keep an eye on a prisoner.
In any case, Cogs and Gearhart were more than enough to handle a Grandmaster. But it appeared not.
“That’s not my question. How should I make him feel the same? Tell me his weaknesses, close ones. If we can’t trap him, we will have him keep himself trapped.” As he expected, there was no way his Lord would forget about the entire hostage situation.
“That…I do not know. He does have who seems to be a lover. A Xeng, but I don’t know who.” Cogs was embarrassed to say that he failed to find out everything about his target who barely had active mental defenses.
“Elaborate.”
“He doesn’t even know what his lover’s face looks like.” Since he had to splotch Ebony’s mind with colour to see the invisible or clear images of that weird creature, Cogs’s clarity on the memories he saw was not the best so he didn’t even see the Xeng mask’s unique features to identify the individual.
“...who else.”
“Like the rumours say, I don’t think that race of creature truly…cares for anything or anyone else.”
“So he has one weakness. And that Xeng child must be the one he was with and Ezekiel sent to Teheil. That’s where he went too. Good enough. But Teheil, that mage kid will die. I should hurry.” Gearhart knew more than Cogs in this case. Ezekiel’s memory was sealed by him but it was against the law to look into his fellow Cinderashian servant of Lord Gearhart’s memories so all he did was seal up a certain amount of time’s memory without peeking.
“No, my Lord.” Cogs raised his hand to stop his master from taking any personal action.
His Lord trusted him a lot, hence he still had his head attached to his body.
“That man would thrive on Teheil. He is more, much more than just a frighteningly talented Domain mage.” Cogs was confident no one other than Ebony himself understood the man’s capabilities as well as Cogs.
“What about his Fluxaether Bane cell?”
“It might not be effective on Teheil, the newborn spirit might not even be able to handle the shock and fall into hibernation.”
“What are you sugges-”
Their mental conversation was interrupted by knocks on the door. Interruption wouldn’t occur when the study’s door was closed, it was an unspoken rule. The servants were well trained enough to know what kind of emergency permitted them to knock.
So Cogs opened the door to let the butler in to report the emergency. The butler was relaxed and had no urgency on his bearings, a result of their training.
“My Lord, you have a visitor. A lone Frost Elf.” Nodding to Cogs before kneeling and speaking his mind to their Lord.
“Who or what is he representing?” Gearhart frowned.
‘A Frost Elf? What would one of them be doing here of all places?’ Cogs was just as confused. Cinderash was not a kind planet to a race like the Frost Elves and they had zero contact or relations with each other. The Frost Elves may be the loser of a civil war on Yggdrasil and kicked to the edge of the World Tree but they were not a race of people a ‘puny’ Saint Gearhart could dismiss on a whim.
However, they were also a race that was spread out throughout worlds. If this Frost Elf wasn’t a World Tree native, Saint Gearhart wouldn’t have to bother meeting one of them.
“He said he is representing himself. King ranked. He is demanding to meet you. For…reparations. My Lord, his highness Gareth is currently frozen solid after he went out to greet this individual.”
Cogs was shaking his head mentally, this butler was a bit too composed. His Lord’s eldest son was frozen and the butler didn’t start with that in his report.
Enough said he found himself running after his Lord to the waiting room that visitors were usually directed to. The surrounding temperatures dipped drastically when he got closer to the entrance of the estate.
His spine tingled and his stomach lurched when he saw the tall man standing in the wide hallway. A massive bow on his back. Sleeveless shirt to show off his surprisingly muscular arms and light blue steel vambraces covered the veiny forearms. ‘This is a King?’
Cogs couldn’t move forward any further. There was no ice magic freezing him in place. It was a glare of a hunter that swept past his body before landing back on his Lord Gearhart who stood ahead.
“Who are you?”
“Greetings, Saint Gearhart. I am Vent Ly. I have come to retrieve one of our youths, and reparations for what your people have done to our forest.” The measly King exchanged eye contact with a Saint without fear. It was yet another person who didn’t bend to the aura of a Saint.
“Whatever you’re here for, release my son.”
“You should train your children. It’s a dangerous world.” The Frost Elf who called himself Vent Ly didn’t utter any complaints and released his spell on the frozen statue.
Breaking into a fit of coughs, his Highness Gareth was on all fours to catch his breath. Gearhart probably docked points from his first son embarrassing him. There were no signs of battle in the hallway. The Frost Elf probably contained Gareth without a fight.
“There are no Frost Elves on Cinderash but you.”
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Cogs knew Gearhart well enough that his Lord was gritting his teeth and controlling his anger at the disgrace and hostile act. He must know better than to act on emotions, that was how the previous Saint Gearhart died.
“Indeed, this place smells terrible. And Ebony seems to have already left. He’s a promising kid. Don’t think you can come to my home, disturb the nest of the mammoths that destroyed a part of our forest and think you can leave without reparations.”
“What qualifications do you have to ask for reparations for a natural accident that we did not cause?”
‘The forest is an excuse, he’s just here for Ebony. But was their relationship so close?’ Cogs knew that the Frost Elf and Gearhart knew that the mammoth incident was probably real, caused by his Highness Percival on his training trip. Side effects caused by the younger generations during training trips to other worlds were not against any kind of law but the parties involved with any damages would be more than willing to press charges. Elves, no matter the subspecies were territorial races so it wasn't surprising.
It would be completely different if Ezekiel, the Grade 6 Hazard caused the issue but that wasn’t the case. By now, it was clear to both Cinderashians that this was a Frost Elf from Elcra, a young world that recently came into contact with the larger universe beyond.
Of course, practically every other force nearby knew about Elcra long ago. If God didn’t decree that natural-born worlds such as Elcra were not to be meddled with till their Worldcore was Ancient ranked, it would have long been plundered and overtaken. When Elcra did become Ancient, surrounding forces were surprised to find out that it was very strong for a young planet.
The Myriad Bracelet that had been planted was reverse-engineered and mass-produced. A few other technologies such as rune languages were studied and made use of to a shocking decree. However all of that was trivial compared to the fact that Oplot, a pilgrimage of the Wandering Celestial Monastery was there. It would be hard to find nearby forces that dared to touch the world with him there.
More amazing was that the so-called ‘Lord’ family of barrier mages, or the individual known as Navin was quite the famous man. The barrier he built and cast over an area perhaps as large as some continents was strong enough to make him famous. A healing barrier that consumed its inhabitants' mana for energy?
His services were very desirable.
Saint Gearhart had nothing to fear from the Frost Elves of this world. Their culture dictates that they are independent from Yggdrasil’s Frost Elves.
They were not mistaken.
Yet Gearhart would remember this day to be the day he made one of his greatest mistakes.
The Frost Elf vanished from his home in a blink, they hadn't been looking at a real body.
Butlers, Savants and calls started to flood the next hours and days of his life.
Half of Cinderash’s dungeons disappeared. Destroyed.
He simply didn’t know he had been standing before a Son of God.
❅❅❅
“Haha, what now?” Ebony scratched his head.
The Mirellans didn’t have grudges against him or Xin. Although they knew Xin was part of the Natives and killed some of their soldiers, their race had very complicated politics, forces and conflicts of interest.
Both of them were allowed into cities without a problem. At least, after the past 3 years of constant sneaking in ambushes and constant success as sneaking out. They were extremely interested in how Ebony could fly and use mana but they had no one who could force a word out of his mouth. They didn’t even have magic equipment that could trap him. The only ranged fighters they had were a single unreasonably strong archer whose arrows ignored the cushioning effect and a few unique squads with advanced weaponry.
Under the effects of the cushioning, ranged forces were almost as disadvantaged as mages.
Since both of them hadn’t been hostile, the Mirellans let them in knowing that they had few people who could stop the two of them. They were here for business and their merchants could smell it.
Sadly, Ebony was left embarrassed. They couldn’t even afford a single ticket, much less two. Mana ores were not a viable currency here since all of them would turn to dust the moment they were near the planet. They trusted a banking service that Ebony did not have an account with.
The materials and ingredients they got from the Altarbound Kin were valuable but the tickets out of Teheil was simply too expensive. Since teleportation out would be even more expensive, the Mirellans actually have vehicles that directly fly out of space. But with Teheil’s conditions, although they consider the gravity here average, the cushioning made flight immensely difficult so their vehicles took a lot to run.
‘Spaceships, I really want to try riding one. I didn’t think all the Ancient ranked material and we can’t even afford a ticket.’ Ebony wasn’t even referring to private trips, he had to follow their flight schedule with the earliest flight out to be in 8 months. As for using portal technology to get out, he could forget about it as getting these tickets sound a lot more doable.
Coming to Teheil was much easier than leaving.
The miners, farmers and support classes who came here all planned to work for 50 to 100 standard years before even considering leaving while the soldiers had a 10 to 30-year plan. Although Ebony was good at making money, those methods were not viable here. Without a bank account connected to Eidolon Nexus, he couldn’t do jobs to receive money. All he had left was to trade materials for money on the tab or directly for the ticket.
“We still have 8 months. Let’s find a ques--job.” Xin said the unfamiliar words.
‘Can I sell energy in some form? I have no idea what their spaceship or vehicle looks like or what fuel they run on.’ Ebony was back to selling his services of ‘blessing’ crates and boots. It was suggested by the Mirellans when they found out he was the Ferroquad’s Spirit Blesser.
‘So their weapons run on electricity and this liquid is the container?’ Ebony managed to get his hands on a futuristic gun, very different from Cinderashian guns that used steam and rocks that could turn to lava or simply explosive-driven bullets.
“That is not lightning. If they used this on me or any lightning mage, we wouldn’t be able to manipulate the bullet.” Xin commented from the side. She was running a food stall while he ran his equipment blessing stall.
They could sell their services as mercenaries and fit in perfectly with the Mirellans but they didn’t. Their power was not for others to lend or buy and they did not want to interfere with this territory war any further than they already did.
Ebony still sold his services to the Ferroquads in secret, though people would find out in time. He was paid in rare ores and jewels. But with the Mirellans, those who bought his services deposited the money to the people in charge of the tickets, directly deducting the cost of the tickets. They were very particular with contracts so he made sure he understood the terms before he signed the agreement for this method of buying a ticket.
It was apparently backed by the Eidolon Nexus so he shouldn’t have to worry. The Eidolon was an artificial intelligence, not unlike a Spirit creature that was made by a joint venture between the God of Knowledge, God of Just with the help of an unknown entity who was only known to be the one who handled the technology and the logistics. This was common knowledge that his clones learned when they were on Cinderash.
Eidolon was as fair as any contract could be. It handled the rewards and punishments so no one dared to go against contracts unless the contract itself wasn’t fair or the party involved never planned to follow the terms. That’s why contract terms had to be understood very carefully.
‘This is fun. Come to think of it, I’ve never really worked for my own money. Since I landed on Elcra, other than one or two quests or hunting all my money came from my regeneration and the gamble that Sister Jing placed.’ Before that, he was sent to Elcra before his first real job on Earth.
Money had rarely been a problem for Ebony and he found it satisfying to see the progress he was making towards the ticket he was buying increase as the days go by. He expanded his services to farming, transport, and digging equipment. He had a lot more trouble because of the complicated structure of these vehicles compared to the Ferroquad’s hand and leg driven carts.
The owners of said equipment, be it independent farmers or government-owned equipment, were very sensitive to any modifications that could potentially break or reduce the efficiency of their expensive tools. And they were right because Ebony realised how messy the constructs already were. It might not be runes but the base materials themselves were already fully messed with.
He could only help lower-level and poorer farmers with their equipment. But it was still an increase in his market and income.
Look to the left where Xin was cooking up a storm. He sat on his chair with a thick table as a work desk and hammered runes into place on another metal wheel
‘This is nice. Perhaps even more so than challenging battles or increasing skill levels and tiers. I feel like doing this forever isn’t so bad.’ Ebony consciously made a faint smile when he realised his hands and mind stopped working.
“Hey! Stop ogling your woman, I need that to get back to work.” His customer grinned while he complained.
‘Ting’ ‘Core Skill Perpetual Tranquillity Spring evolved into Boundless Serenity Geyser.’
“Huh, is that all it takes?” No fighting, no intense struggle, no moral dilemma. Ebony cocked his head at the sudden change within him.