Ashlock noticed the void lightning was not simply being shrugged off by the mysterious figure wearing his cult's garments—it was coiling around their body, meaning one thing... they had seized control of his void lightning.
A feat only possible by someone who knew void Qi law and had a higher cultivation level than him. Considering nobody on this layer of creation with void affinity should be able to ascend to Nascent Soul Realm, let alone Monarch Realm where most learned how to wield their affinities laws, that left only one person it could be.
"Is that your attention I feel prickling down the back of my neck?" the figure said as they pulled back their hood to reveal silky black hair, eyes blacker than an abyss, and flawless skin. She was a woman who was as beautiful as she was dangerous. A person who had been there since the start and seen it all: the origin of the void.
"Morrigan, what are you doing here," Ashlock said as he stopped his {Voidstorm Aegis [S]} from targeting her. It didn't cost 10% of his Qi per lightning strike like in the past when he had been in the Star Core Realm, but it was still a costly technique. Each strike taking around 1% of his Qi reserves.
"Am I not allowed to be here?" Morrigan asked, tilting her head.
"Was the barrage of void lightning not clear enough?" Ashlock retorted.
"Oh, this?" Morrigan opened her palm and made the void lightning harmlessly gather in a stack of silently crackling rings, "I thought you were giving me a welcome gift."
"Did you really?" Ashlock said as sarcastically as possible. His clear distaste for her presence dripped from every word. He did not want her here at all.
Morrigan snorted and absorbed the void Qi, "No. But since we are friends, I decided to delude myself—"
"We are not friends," Ashlock corrected the origin.
Morrigan ignored him, "—after all, you wouldn't strike me down for simply coming to say hi, right? Especially after I just did you a tremendous favor."
Ashlock remembered the sudden influx of divine energy arriving moments before Morrigan appeared. Just what had she done while wearing his cults clothes?
"What was the favor?"
Morrigan went to sit on the bench, "Well, you see—"
"Don't sit there. That's Stella's bench," Ashlock said.
Morrigan paused mid-motion as she was about to take a seat. Frowning, she straightened up and crossed her arms while glaring up at Ashlock, who loomed over her. "I left you in the shadow realm to go and assist your sect members, as I know they are important to you. I planned to save a few of them from certain death to prove we can work together."
"Uh-huh, and how did that go?"
"Terrible," Morrigan threw up her hands, "Finding your sect members in the endless sea of pocket realms was a nightmare. I did find a few of those monsters you have living in your mountain—I believe they were called Mudcloaks? Anyway, I don't know what demonic god created those terrors, but I have never seen such one-sided Conquest over pocket realms before. Those poor turtles didn't stand a chance."
Ashlock had questions... many questions. He mostly let the Mudcloaks do their own thing. Outfitting Geb as a walking military base with weapons was one thing, but outright conquering pocket realms in a planned manner that even scared the origin of the void that had seen all history has to offer? Now, that was suspicious.
"Maybe I should make the Mudcloaks wear cult uniforms. At least that way, I will receive divine energy while they commit war crimes." Ashlock muttered to himself. His brand as a deity was already questionable at best, so he was willing to lend his name to various ventures if it resulted in divine energy.
Morrigan let out a long sigh, "I tried and failed to find any of your sect members that needed my help. I was about to give up and admit I couldn't find a way to earn your trust when I returned home and encountered a problem that gave me a great idea."
Ashlock wasn't sure if Morrigan should be quite this open about her failed schemes. Though, to be fair, it did make her feel a little more trustworthy but incompetent at the same time. Or was that all part of her plan? This is why he hated hard-to-read people like Morrigan the most.
"What was your great idea?" Ashlock asked. He was terribly curious about the devious scheme an origin devised that resulted in this immense influx of divine energy.
Morrigan slowly walked around the bench, trailing her finger along its backrest worn down by the elements, "You tasked me with defending Slymere, keeping the death of the Voidmind Grand Elder and Elders a secret from those that are left of my family, and to fend off the Skyrend family."
Ashlock didn't like where this was going. Just what problem did she encounter that gave her an idea?
"When I returned, I discovered those Skyrend dogs had sneakily brought in reinforcements from other families, wiped out most of my remaining family, and were heading toward Slymere. So, I finally figured out how to be helpful. I would restore balance to the battlefield!"
Alarm bells started going off in Ashlock's head. If he had learned anything from the Worldwalkers, it was that old monsters, especially those attuned to the void, only had one answer to problems. Violence.
Morrigan's finger paused, and she looked up with a slight smirk hanging on her lips. "A simple task, but someone had to do it. Otherwise, Slymere would have fallen while you were distracted. To level the battlefield and give the dregs of my family a chance to hold off a little longer, all I had to do was kill their Grand Elder Demetrios Skyrend and most of their Elders. Plus, I always found that heaven-loving bastard an eyesore, so it was like killing two birds with one stone!"
Ashlock felt his world freeze as the implications of what she just said set in. The Blood Lotus Sect was in a careful state of balance, which Ashlock had been trying to maintain for as long as possible. Killing Demetrios Skyrend—head of one of the most influential and powerful families in the sect—would be a perfect way to throw everything into chaos.
"Tell me you are joking. Killing the Elders is one thing, but Grand Elder Demetrios Skyrend? Did you really kill him?"
Morrigan stuck her nose in the air as if she were enjoying his disbelief, "Yes, that heaven-loving bastard is dead! I Void Stepped to the battlefield, killed Demetrios Skyrend and a dozen of his Elders, and then left. All within a minute. It was Qi intensive, but now the battle should continue for a little longer. Helpful, right?"
Ashlock was confused. Nothing about that was helpful—on the contrary, it was outright detrimental to his plans. In fact, the only positive to take from this was the divine energy he had gained, but she hadn't mentioned anything about it during her reasoning.
"Hold on, Morrigan doesn't know anything about my plans or the runnings of the sect or cult." Ashlock realized. It wasn't her fault that she had a skewed view of what was helpful. He had kept her in the dark to try and avoid problems, but holding back information seemed to have been a bad idea when involving an origin that would naturally have a very different view from him on how to solve issues. Now that he thought about it more, why she was wearing his cult's clothes was even more confusing as he never remembered her showing interest in joining.
"Where did you get that cloak?"
"Not quite the reaction I expected, considering who I killed." Morrigan frowned as she looked down at the cloak and pulled at its fabric, "This thing? Just some cloak I got for free from a very enthusiastic woman in Ashfallen City while I was wandering around. She said it was free so long as I spread the name of their clothing brand, the All-Seeing Eye or something. I wasn't really listening."
Ashlock couldn't believe what he was hearing. She hadn't intended to join his cult at all. Did that mean the surge in divine energy was simply dumb luck from a misunderstanding involving a powerhouse?
"So you accepted the cloak and decided to wear it while killing Demetrios Skyrend? Why?"
"I wanted to hide my identity when I interfered with the war and killed the Skyrend Grand Elder. Which is a problem, mind you, because my wardrobe is quite iconic, dare I say." Morrigan snapped her fingers, and her outfit changed in a flash of silver light to a rather daring midnight black dress that flowed down to her heels. She also wore knee-high tights, and Ashlock could now see why she said her outfit was iconic. It would definitely draw some eyes.
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Morrigan grinned as she gave a twirl, "See? Iconic. So, I was hunting for new clothes and saw many people wearing the All-Seeing Eye brand, which I had never seen in Slymere before, meaning it's a Darklight City region exclusive, so tracking me down to Slymere would be hard if I wore a cloak from them."
"Did you mention the clothing brand's name during the killing?"
"Of course I did. I got it for free, and I promised the sweet girl who gave me the cloak that I would spread the name of her business." Morrigan said, almost offended, as if he had questioned her nature as a person.
Ashlock would facepalm if he could.
"Morrigan, the All-Seeing Eye isn't a clothing brand," Ashlock sighed, "It's a cult."
"Really?" Morrigan snorted in disbelief, "Never heard of them, and I guess I never will again after pretending to be one of their members while killing... whoops."
Ashlock wondered if there was nothing but a void between her ears. If the All-Seeing Eye had been a clothing brand, her directing the Skyrend family's anger toward them to cover her tracks would have resulted in problems for the 'sweet girl' who gave her the free cloak. Not to mention, void wasn't exactly a common affinity. It wouldn't be hard to guess who was the culprit.
Morrigan frowned, unaware of Ashlock's judgment. "But to think they managed to convince such a sweet girl to handle recruitment. What a devilish marketing strategy! Let me tell you, I've run into a fair number of cults over the years and have never seen one recruit off the street like that in all my life. I mean, I even saw mortals wearing their clothes!" Morrigan shook her head as if it were the most ridiculous thing she had ever seen, "They are a cult? Really? Cults usually sacrifice children in blood rituals to their 'gods' in exchange for power, not give out free things in the street to passersby."
"Yes, I'm sure of it." Ashlock felt tired, so so tired. He let out an irritated sigh. "I'm so sure because the All-Seeing Eye is my cult. They worship me. "
There was a long, drawn-out, awkward silence.
"You have a cult?" Morrigan eventually broke the silence as she stared up at his canopy. The corner of her lip twitched as if she held something back with all her might.
"Yes...?" He was unsure how to answer such a question.
"You? A cult?"
"What's so hard to believe about me having a cult—"
Morrigan couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing, "That has to be... the cutest thing... I've ever heard... oh heavens, my sides hurt." She was fully buckled over, using the bench's backrest for support. "Cults are for idiots! Those fools believe that godly deities care about them at all. I could never have imagined there would be an even bigger group of fools willing to pray to a weak spirit tree posing as a deity."
Lilac flames and divine energy roared to life in a grand pillar that touched the clouds and wreathed Ashlock as he smacked Morrigan on the head with the entire weight of his presence, which had increased dramatically with his recent leap in cultivation. She lost her balance and kneeled over, eating the dirt, which silenced her laughter and made her grunt as she tried and failed to stand.
"Who said I was posing as a deity? I may be 'weak' now in comparison, but soon I will be above them." Ashlock flexed his power a little more, lighting the entire peak with a divine glow, "In the void, you may be an origin, one of, if not the strongest existence. But in heaven's carefully woven reality? You are nothing before a deity—even a demi one like me."
"Ugh," Morrigan gasped out as she spat blood on the purple grass.
Ashlock relaxed his presence all at once. The mountain peak stopped glowing as intensely, and the grand pillar of soul flames reduced to a causal flicker across his bark.
"Us becoming enemies does neither of us any good, especially if we are both origins and therefore share a common goal," Ashlock said as Morrigan staggered to her feet and wiped her mouth. "You are godly in the void. You made that much clear when you toyed with my soul fragment. But I am a deity, and immune to the void. You can't kill me, but I can kill you."
Morrigan clicked her tongue. "You sure about that? There's other ways to kill a deity, you know."
Ashlock's trunk slowly split open to reveal his demonic eye, and he glared at Morrigan. As expected, she appeared as nothing but a blob of void in his demonic sight. In fact, he wasn't even sure if Morrigan counted as having a body. She seemed closer to a vessel made entirely of void Qi.
If that were the case, he had nothing to fear. Morrigan was bluffing.
"Try me," Ashlock said defiantly. Even when a Voidmind Elder had gone supernova inside his soul, it had only made him stronger.
The problem was that he didn't want to kill Morrigan.
As an origin, she would be reborn on death as she likely had been many thousands of times before. If he were to kill her right now, she would become an immortal cockroach villain who could kill his sect members at any time while rocking a new identity, as even after rebirth, she would remember how she died.
Of course, she would have to cultivate from scratch again unless she managed to retrieve her origin stone, but that wasn't the point. For the safety of his sect members, void was too dangerous of an affinity to make an enemy out of. Shown by how effortlessly she had apparently killed the Skyrend family's top dogs.
Morrigan stared into his eye for a long time before eventually grinning, "You're an interesting one, you know that, right?"
"People have told me that before, yes."
Morrigan nodded as if confirming something she had decided on her own. She held out her hand in an open palm, "Friends?"
The ground split apart, and a black root, a person-thick ending in a spike, emerged like a snake. Ashlock rested the tip of the spike in Morrigan's palm. "Allies for now, possible friends in the future."
Morrigan shook his root. "Cautious as always."
He had to be. He already had trust issues without a heavenly contract, but this was an immortal being who was likely older than even Senior Lee. How much did a promise of friendship really mean to someone who had seen as much as Morrigan? It was hard to imagine where her values and priorities lay as she had simply lived such a long and unique life.
Morrigan withdrew her hand and scratched the back of her head awkwardly, "Sorry about drawing attention to you with the whole telling them about the cult thing."
"Don't worry. This time, it turned out quite helpful. I got quite a lot of divine energy from your antics. It seems you scared the hell out of them while under my cult's name," Ashlock said, deliberately not explaining how his system worked. It was common knowledge that deities got stronger the more they were worshipped, but he had no plan to disclose how much more it benefited him compared to a typical deity.
Morrigan exhaled an exaggerated sigh of relief. "That's good to hear, darling. I feared I'd made a blunder." She began to walk away from the bench with a slight spring in her step. "Now that we have come to an agreement, I will return to Slymere. That fight took a lot out of this body of mine, so I must spend time recovering."
Snapping her fingers, Morrigan vanished into the void.
"She is finally gone," Ashlock muttered as he looked to the distant mountains and saw the bottom of the sun kissing the mountain peaks. Dusk was upon him as night drew near.
[Time until sundown 0:52]
Ashlock's vision blurred as he returned to the Shadow Veil Sanctum. He didn't have time to check on his Inner World to see if the flesh trees had finished multiplying, so he brought up his system menu.
Idletree Daily Sign-In System
Day: 3631
Daily Credit: 65
Sacrifice Credit: 16680
[Sign in?]
It was a ridiculous number of credits. As always, the temptation to say fuck it and do a gacha draw festered at the back of his mind, but Ashlock resisted.
He had a Dark Throne to claim, a shadow Qi law to inherit, and a shadow realm to own.
[Merge the artifact {Dark Throne} created by the Shadow Sovereigns to the Bastion {Nox} for 9000 credits?]
"Yes," Ashlock said and watched the number drop in an instant from 16680 to a comparatively small 7680. Tendrils of shadow spread out like fingers, and the Bastion began to melt into the titanic obsidian throne that dominated the eye of the abyssal storm.
[Assimilation of shadow Qi law commencing...]
Nox's avatar collapsed to her knees, clutching her head, and her tree body erupted with shadow soul fire.
[Siezing control of the pocket realm {Shadow Veil Sanctum} created by the Elder Thalion of the Shadow Sovereigns...]
A while passed, and Ashlock nervously watched the timer tick down to the last minute before sundown.
[Dark Throne assimilated. Please choose a new name for the pocket realm]
"Finally! Wait, a name?"
Ashlock had expected to seize a level of control over the pocket realm, but outright stealing it to the point he got to rename it? This was beyond his wildest expectations.
Now that he knew names held power, the question was... what should he name it?
"I choose Tartarus. It was the name given to the abyss used to imprison the gods." Ashlock decreed, "That will be this place's name."
[Acknowledged. You are now in possession of {Tartarus}]
[Tartarus:
Description: A forbidden enclave once used by the Shadow Sovereigns as their hidden training ground and fortress. Now under the control of the Demonic Demi-Divine Tree Ashlock.
Qi Level: Nascent Soul 1st Stage
Environment: Hostile
Monsters: True
Current Occupants: 2]
[Edit Tartarus?]
"Not now," Ashlock dismissed the notifications and spread out his spiritual sight through the Bastion that was now fused with the throne. Compared to the disabling darkness from before, he was now able to see everything. Reaching into the abyss, he pulled Hades out. The Ent was in a sorry state. With its Qi drained, it had been reduced to its crystal state, and it seemed the Bastion hadn't been the only target of the Shadow Leviathans, as Hades was missing many of his tentacles.
Nothing Ashlock couldn't fix by plugging the Ent in with a black root, but it would take a while for his most powerful Ent to fully recover.
"Would have been Qi intensive too, if not for all this," Ashlock mentally grinned at the surrounding shadow Qi law that had been a horrifying prison and was now a source of power under his control.
Ashlock wanted to explore his new powers some more, but life had other plans.
[Time until sundown 0:00]
His soul fragment was once again forcefully pulled and remerged with his Inner World. Thankfully, there was no life-threatening amount of Qi this time, so he could relax.
Ashlock watched the tip of the sun vanish below the horizon, and despite it being the end of the day, he was far too excited to sleep. He had over 7000 credits to spend, and in the morning, the Mystic Realm would end, and his sect members would return.
"I can't wait to see how everyone has grown," Ashlock stared at the celestial fog on the mountain peak. A mere week had passed, yet so much had happened.
Whether he liked it or not, things were about to get a whole lot more interesting.
"But first... time to upgrade some skills."