Peony’s mind felt like it wanted to emulate the scattered, flitting fragments that constantly swirled around within a contained sphere over her workbench; to just let itself disintegrate and become one with the environment rather than the strict control she was now imposing on it with her will channeled through her essence power.
While containing the small storm of splinters was one thing, Peony was currently trying to gently guide it towards a core of crackling static, small fulminations constantly arcing towards the slowly approaching shards. There was a strict equilibrium that needed to be maintained in what felt like forcing the opposing ends of a magnet together. The swirling multitude, parts but yet a whole had to meet and constrain the destruction while also melding into a new whole.
“To be a lofty silver-ranker, beyond these responses of the body,” she idly thought, wiping away some of the sweat drenching her forehead with one hand while constantly feeding the melding with a steady flow of sand, lightning and storm quintessence, with a piece of much more expensive unity quintessence interspersed here and there to help stabilize the process.
The last hour had felt like days, but Peony pressed on, channeling a meditative technique which she had been taught by a hired local teacher, steadying her mind enough for the final push. There was a moment when it felt impossible, the shards swirling so closely around the crackling core that she could barely see the glow within. But Peony had an ace up her sleeve for just this moment.
“Harmonious conceptual synchronization!”
A huge stream of mana left Peony, infusing the whole creation. None of the concepts or different types of magic within lost their potency, but it was as if they started humming in concert for the first time since Peony began the process. It would not last for long, but the essence power awakened by the expensive awakening stone of harmony had proved its worth repeatedly since acquiring it.
With a final surge of will and mana, there was a flash. And then there was unity. Peony almost fell off her chair from the sudden disappearance of the magical resistance, but couldn’t help the wide grin as she looked down at the core of her latest creation. While there were still things left to do, she felt confident; this creation was one of her best ones yet.
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“-but lady Geller’s advice certainly turned out to be worth heeding. That stone of gathering has paid for itself several times through pure convenience alone-”
Sun’s words were interrupted by an aura flaring in triumph, both he and Kite freezing to look towards Peony’s workshop, cups of tea still in hand.
“Was that Peony? Is she alright?” Sun asked, not having been able to glean much more than the force of the outburst from the higher-ranked aura’s brief expansion.
“Oh, more than alright, I believe,” Kite said placatingly, and was proven right just a few seconds later as Peony came charging out of her workshop. More than one strand of magenta hair had escaped her long braid, further adding to the slightly maniacal look of her triumphant grin. The bronzer ranker looked more like she had just finished a drawn out battle, sweat staining her robe and her aura slightly unsteady. Unsteady, but triumphant.
“I did it. Kite, it worked! I’m amazing!”
Even during her outburst, Peony marched straight up to her husband and gave him a forceful kiss, leaving Sun dazed but happy-looking.
“So, I take it that it is done?” Kite asked, smiling at the display of affection.
“Oh, it is. I would even like to call it my greatest work yet,” Peony bragged while puffing out her chest.
“Then please, dear wife, show us! Do not keep us in suspense!” Sun playfully chided, which led to him being kissed again before Peony dragged them both off to her workshop.
“It still needs some polishing and I am not done with the decorations,” she explained as they entered the neat area where she worked. Whatever she had been grappling with during the crafting process, it had not left much of a mark on the environment. “But it worked, Kite! I managed to merge them! The storm is now contained, but ready to be unleashed without breaking off from the whole!”
Both men looked to where she was indicating, finding the latest creation of Bastion’s up-and-coming crafter waiting for them. It was a meteor hammer, essentially a long chain with a heavy weight on top. In this case, the head of the weapon was round with slight ridges evenly spaced over its surface. It wasn’t a fancy weapon and wouldn’t be even after the decorations which Peony had planned, but both Kite and Sun could feel the shuddering power of the magic within.
“What did Rachel call it? A mana-sink?” Peony asked Kite, who nodded.
“Yes. Something which to pour great amounts of mana into for an instant, potent effect.”
“Then I hope this will prove itself worthy of bearing the title.”
“It looks like a marvelous piece of work, love,” Sun praised, giving his wife a sideways hug.
“What have you named it?” Kite asked, picking up the weapon and letting it gently sway back and forth to get a feel for the substantial weight of the head.
“Fulminating Sirocco,” Peony answered, apparently already having given it some thought.
“Sirocco?” Kite asked, the word unfamiliar.
“I… may have had Brook help me look up fitting words,” Peony admitted. “Apparently, it is a powerful gold-ranked kind of sand elemental with a wind affinity, creating a kind of living sandstorm. It felt appropriate, even if this is nowhere near the real thing. But just you wait; if I can reach gold rank, then we’ll see about making something truly worthy of the name!”
“Can we have a demonstration of your creation, then?” Sun asked. “This sounds like something which I’d like to see. The other two as well.”
“Not yet!” Peony protested, retrieving the weapon from Kite’s hands. “I need to finish the final touches. But I want to see it too. Why don’t the two of you go make yourself useful and find some suitable contracts for us? Surely there are still enough low-ranked, numerous monsters left stalking the wilds after the surge that needs cleaning up?”
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“That should be the last of it,” Force of Raging Torrent said, walking down the inner stair of the house which she had called her home for the last two decades. Dragonfly stood waiting down in the foyer in front of the sliding doors leading outside, and no one who saw her would have mistaken her mood for anything but sadness.
Force walked up to her student, remaining silent as she knew Dragonfly quite well after the many years spent together.
“Do… do you really have to go?” the younger woman eventually asked, her usual fires of passion thoroughly doused by the reality that yet another silver-ranker was leaving Gilded. Her silver-ranker.
“You know that I do,” Force said gently. “And you know that you are welcome to follow me. But we also both know that you will not. And while a farewell hurts, Dragonfly, they can also be good things. You are an adult now; a bronze-ranker carving her own path. If all goes well, you might even find yourself catching up to me sooner rather than later.”
Dragonfly didn’t answer, just standing there with eyes downcast. But her aura was like an open book to Force, who knew that it was time for the next step of the little dance they had often repeated over the years. She stepped in and wrapped the shorter woman in a hug. But unlike most other times, she also spoke.
“While I am quite lacking in the department of motherly care, you are living proof that I am a decent teacher. I am sorry, Dragonfly, for all the years spent waiting for me to return from contracts. And for me dragging you along across the whole Autumn lands to further advance my path. It is not the childhood you deserved, but it was what I could offer. But know that I am not sorry that I took you in, or what I have taught you. And I am not sorry for all the time I have spent alongside you. And I am proud of you and what you have become. That little girl of nine years who swore to end all monsters might just become reality.”
She could feel Dragonfly shaking a bit with quiet sobs, but they soon subsided. As the younger woman turned her face to look up at her teacher, her eyes were puffy from crying but also determined.
“I- I won’t just catch up to you. I’ll surpass you, master. Just you wait,” she said, eyes softening as new tears threatened to well forth. “And… thank you. For allowing me to follow in your wake.”
The pair stayed like that for a little while longer, before Force eventually extracted herself from the embrace.
“Until we meet again, student. May your path take you to the heavens and beyond.”
And with that, the second silver-ranker left Gilded, in pursuit of power and to continue her climb towards the heavens. In her wake was left a student now having to forge her own path in full. And an empty house, now belonging to said student.
Dragonfly did not know how long she stood and looked out towards where her master’s back had last been seen before she disappeared from view, but she eventually turned around to look at the house; a modest two-story affair more than five times the size of her own little cottage. Force had left her almost everything, taking only what personal belongings that she had not already been carrying.
She slapped herself lightly across both cheeks, trying to bring some fire back into her spirit.
“Alright, Dragonfly,” she spoke aloud. “Time to get to work. And to figure out what to do with all this space.”
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“There sure are a lot of them,” Sun said with some concern as he looked out over what once had been a big hill where the forests south of Bastion started to gradually shift more towards green grass plains and rolling hills. The rise was now thoroughly dug through, with tunnels covering its surface at irregular intervals, along with its occupants.
What had once been a hill was now a nest for fleshdrinker ants. They were insect-like monsters which looked like oblong versions of their miniscule cousins. But one difference made them so much more unsettling; their exterior. Instead of the dull exoskeleton one might expect, the fleshdrinker ants had only soft, pale skin covering both bulbous bodies and thin legs. The squishy-looking heads had several pairs of eyes and a pair of wicked mandibles flanking a round mouth filled with lamprey’s teeth.
As far as bronze-ranked monsters went, they were far on the weaker side as individuals, but compensated through the usual way; numbers. But along with their swarming tendencies came the fact that the ants devoured flesh of all kinds to make their nests and propagate, with a well-established nest able to birth new cycles of the monsters even as the older specimens started going berserk and left the nest in search of something on which to take out their final death-throes.
“I can see dozens even from here,” Peony agreed. “While I trust my equipment, are you sure that this is really the best time to try out something new?”
“I have faith, both in their make and in my path,” Kite said. “This is something which I have to overcome, as the monster surge has only driven home to me that enemies in greater numbers are one of my biggest weaknesses.
“But will equipment alone be enough for such a task?” Sun asked, apparently feeling skeptical in the face of the swarm ahead.
“While equipment can help me bridge the gap, I will still need to make sure that my path is tempered alongside my growing arsenal to make that bridge hold firm. All my teachers have counseled against forming crutches, so I’d be a fool not to heed them,” Kite said before looking at the fourth essence-user present. “But being consumed by pride is another thing I wish to avoid, which is why I was happy to hear that my dear junior brother Bloom wanted to come with us and guard my back.”
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Brilliant Bloom had just reached bronze-rank before Kite left, and like Kite he had used the surge to burst through the early stages of the rank. The former young master looked quite stylish these days, still favoring the yellows and gold of his former sect. Bronze-rank had made his more youthful features harden into a mix of handsome beauty, Bloom’s sharp features lending themselves well to being the center of attention. His familiar, Glitz, sat like a shimmering adornment in his black hair, her golden luster matching the robes he wore beneath his light metal armor.
“I need to show senior brother how much I have grown, after all,” Bloom said while tossing his head slightly to make his hair fall into its proper place. With the ascension to bronze rank, Kite could not as easily read the younger man’s aura, but he still thought he sensed eagerness and nervousness both.
“I am sure that-” Kite began, but was interrupted by a thin stream of water hitting his face. “Oh, I am terribly sorry, little beauty. I didn't mean to forget about you. I always trust you to guard my back,” he said in an attempt to placate the little carp who was still giving him a withering look. One treat and a mollified fish later, the two young men and their familiars were making their way towards the hill.
“Remember the plan?” Kite asked.
“Who do you take me for? Of course I remember.” Bloom retorted
“My apologies, younger brother. I just wanted to make sure that there were no more accidental uses of your most powerful attack right as we begin.”
“I- It-” Bloom spluttered, but whatever retort he was preparing died in his throat. Both men sharpened up as they felt the gathered auras ahead surge when the swarm noticed the intruders.
Sage at his back and Glint floating in the air above, Kite strode forward even as the hill in front of him started boiling with activity, the fleshy insectoids emerging to seize their perceived prey. Bloom remained behind, motes of glittering golden dust starting to spread from him, with his familiar helping to expand the density of the billowing cloud.
Kite did not have to go far before the vanguard of the ants was upon him. Two of the ten shot ahead, flexing their thin legs to launch themselves towards him with open mandibles. While his best choice would normally have been to conjure walls to corral the approaching monsters, Bloom acting as backup allowed Kite to dedicate this fight to trying out the shiny new additions to his arsenal, all of them made during the past two weeks.
That was why the pair of leaping ants weren’t met by a swing of Immutable Echo or a slash from Carmine Sunrise, but something new. As the pair approached, Kite had already reached back, picking one of his latest additions from his void sheath and swung it in a sweeping arc.
WWJS:
[Item] Eternal Quartz
Sword
Bronze rank - rare
[Effect] Pay a cost of low mana to have the blade shatter upon impact, sending a burst of crystalline shards outwards in a wide cone. Both the impact and the subsequent burst has their kinetic force increased, further increasing knockback. Cooldown: 3s
While technically a sword, cleaver might be a more apt description of the weapon which Kite currently swung towards his opponent. The blade was wide with a single edge which curved slightly inward. It had no sharp point up top, the end of the weapon being a straight, blunt line. The whole thing seemed to be made of an opaque kind of crystal which looked close to ordinary quartz, but was otherwise completely polished smooth. Its solid construction made it good for sweeping and chopping strikes, but it was the enchantment that had made Kite commission the weapon from Peony.
The heavy swing connected with the head of the closet leaping fleshdrinker ant, and Kite channeled some mana into the weapon. A loud crack followed and his arm jolted slightly as the blade shattered into a burst of jagged shards, catching both his target and two of its kin. Even though they had a mass close to that of a person, all three were flung backwards and left staggering with bleeding wounds, robbed of their momentum. Peony had tried to keep the enchantment simple, the weapon’s singular focus meaning that the cost could be kept low while still maintaining a solid effect.
While the blade of the weapon would rapidly regrow, it would still be a few seconds. For anyone without an ability to deftly swap weapons, Eternal Quartz would be quite awkward to use. But Kite just let it disappear back into his void sheath in favor of Carmine Sunrise, delivering a projected slash powered by Void-Sunders-Firmament to further put the three on the back foot. And this was needed, because the rest of the monsters were already moving to flank him, making it time to test out the next commissioned piece.
Three other ant-monsters made their move, attempting a unified attack on Kite’s left flank, only to find their mandibles suddenly stopped by a hard barrier of glass.
WWJS:
[Item] Heavenglass Protector
Shield
Bronze rank - epic
[Effect] Greatly increased durability and self-repair.
[Effect] Increases the effect of barriers employed by the wielder
[Effect] For a low to moderate ongoing mana cost, conjure a magical glass barrier of adjustable size. Cost changes according to the size of the barrier. The barrier is projected out from the shield, and will follow the shield’s movements. The barrier is of physical nature, susceptible to resonating force damage instead of disruptive force damage.
Even as he swung to further hamper his first aggressors, a shield had appeared on Kite’s left arm to ward off the new arrivals. It was rectangular and made from a framework of blue metal which spread outwards from its center like a stylized sun. Between the metal ‘rays’ was reinforced magical glass, mostly transparent, and the glass emitted a soft glow as Kite channeled mana into the shield to project the barrier of its enchantments; a larger rectangular barrier which hovered around thirty centimeters from the shield’s surface. It followed his movements, and Kite could also feel the somewhat muted impacts of the ants as they collided with its surface, miniscule cracks spreading from their point of impact.
More of the beasts were closing in on his other flanks and the three in front had recovered enough to go at him once more. Kite was being surrounded.
“A true trial to temper the new additions,” he thought, as the situation was just what he had hoped for in order to test his ideas of how to utilize his expanded defensive arsenal.
“Ward!”
The group on his right flank met the barrier of Heaven-and-Void Warding while another sweep of the newly regrown Eternal Quartz once more sent the ones in front flying backwards from the shrapnel. Both his staff and other sword made their appearances to complement the lower damage of the crystalline weapon, and Kite soon found himself in a kind of rotating battle of attrition.
He spun and stepped to keep guarding his flanks with shield and barrier, the monsters hammering on his defenses but finding it troublesome to break through as they either got a mandible-full of magical defenses or crystalline shrapnel as a reward for their efforts. And each time they collided with Kite’s defenses, they were left with the building affliction of Spiritual Reprisal. Kite let the affliction build up properly before focusing on individuals, consuming all instances at once to make more decisive attacks.
With these new defensive measures in place, taking his time to find his stride was a lot easier than it had been during the monster surge. But even so, it was a learning process. Kite was thankful for his growing spirit attribute and expanded vision letting him keep track of all his foes, but he was also made aware of his inexperience in fighting with a shield. A few miscalculations sometimes left one of the monstrous ants finding its way inside his little defensive zone, but both Glint and Sage were left as reserves for that very situation, with the intruder left struggling inside globs of conjured water and lanced with beams of resonating force.
One by one the monsters fell, gradually easing the pressure until a new group arrived from the hive to take their place in the battle of attrition. But unfortunately for them, attrition was where Kite’s path excelled. More enemies meant more mana devoured by his twin vortices, and the groups gradually stopped coming.
In the end, Kite was left panting but victorious, with over two dozen corpses of the creepy fleshy insectoids lying scattered around him. At one point, their concerted charge had nearly overwhelmed the united defenses of adventurer and familiars, but a swing empowered by both Potential of Stolen Power and Void-Sunders-Firmament had let team Kite regain control.
“I suppose I will have to congratulate senior brother. The first attempt was at least… passable,” Bloom said as he walked over, his glittering cloud spreading out behind him. “I am actually disappointed, as your showing left me unnecessary. Do you mind if I see if I can clear out what might be lurking in the hive?”
“Please, enjoy yourself, junior brother, and see what pointers you have gleaned from the example of your elder,” Kite retorted with a cheeky grin.
“Oh I promise you that the show will at least be a lot more stylish,” Bloom called over his shoulder as he sped towards the hive.
Kite also moved away from the scene of the carnage to let Peony use her looting power on the gathered corpses. Off in the distance, Bloom had already started sending his cloud of glittering dust down into the hive, and Kite knew that half-tangible illusions would start forming to scour the insides of the foul hill with their glowing blades.
“I’m a bit disappointed as well,” Sun admitted, having heard the bronze-rankers’ exchange.
“Oh?”
“You didn’t even deploy Fulminating Sirroco. I was looking forward to see what it would unleash.”
“Patience, love. This is but the first contract. I’m sure he will find the time.” Peony said as she came walking back toward them to get away from the geyser of rainbow smoke emitted from the dissolving monster corpses.
“And from this little experience, it seems that I have yet another aspect of my path which to practice,” Kite noted. The first time trying out the tactics enabled by his new equipment had been a success, both in that he had defeated the enemies and that it had pointed out that he had glaring holes in his technique which needed to be mended.
While they spoke, Kite had also taken the opportunity to activate his looting power, as the number of enemies had filled out the inner storage of the power. But he couldn’t help but wince as he looked at what came of it; a set of armor in the same kind of pale flesh as the monsters had been; rigid yet somehow still uncomfortably spongy.
The trio looked down at the thing, none of them speaking before Kite turned to Peony with an almost apologetic grin. “Soo… one more for Peony?”
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“-and also, there is the matter of Bliss Enveloped in Strife, my lady. Do you wish to prolong the deadline of him contacting you?”
In response, the woman clad in multiple layers of fine robes took a long draught from her slender pipe, the opal cloud of smoke swirling down to further reinforce the wisps which formed the divan on which she lay. She took her time to think, the bowing man unflinching as he waited for his mistress’ decree.
Eventually, she turned her bismuth eyes back to the man, having reached a decision.
“No, my little brother has had enough time. We shall assume that he proved too incompetent to extract himself while setting off what assets we still had left in the area around Gilded. It is a shame, as I had hoped he would be more competent. But maybe undertaking such an infiltration proved too much. Are the younger generations perhaps declining?”
The bowing man knew better than to answer the rhetorical question, keeping silent as his mistress continued.
“No, we will move on with other projects as planned. The Autumn lands were good trial grounds for some ideas, but in the end they are too sparsely populated to remain a priority. We will try and regain a foothold in the future and see if little Bliss managed to sow some seeds for us to reap before what I assume was his demise. Our lord ever counsels patience, and his plans for this country remain our very purpose for existing. While still way off, if we can make his plans a reality we will witness something historic.
Send out the missives you have already received and leave me. I will prepare, as I have another council meeting coming up.”
“Of course, mistress,” the man said, bowing as he exited.
This left the woman alone, looking out over the bustling grand city beneath her, each building and tower trying to outdo the other in splendor and class. She took another languid draught on the pipe and said a short prayer to Discord, before entering meditation.
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“So, this is all yours now?” Kite asked where he stood next to Dragonfly and looked up at the house.
His three weeks spent in Bastion had been both pleasant and productive, but Kite had always had his aims set on soon returning to Gilded and his friends. A time of intense training and as many contracts as possible awaited them, as the climb towards the heavens could not be made in a day. He had stopped by to knock on Dragonfly’s cabin upon his return, surprised to find it empty, but her sensing his aura outside led to the conversation that they were currently having.
“Yes. I barely know what to do with all the space,” she admitted. “But it was very nice of master to give it to me. It… having a true and proper home like this almost feels a bit weird.”
“And how are you doing, Dragonfly? Now that she has left?”
His words caused her to tense up a bit, but Kite remained silent. A few complex expressions crossed her face before she eventually sighed and leaned into his side, Kite wrapping an arm around her.
“I miss her. Which is weird, because she was almost always out on contracts when I was younger. I spent a lot of time here in the city just wandering by myself and finding things to do when not attending the lessons given by the church of Knowledge. So things are in a way the same, but I miss her a lot more now than I ever remember doing back then.”
Kite thought a bit about it, nodding. “Not knowing when you’ll see someone again does make for a different kind of farewell. Back then, you waited for her to return. And now…”
She sighed again, but nodded. “You’re right. And us spending more time together since I absorbed my essences probably changed things a bit too. It’s a bit weird; like having a mother who isn’t really your mother. I don’t demand that of her, never have. But the thought has still been there, because she has always returned.
Heavens, I’m speaking like she’s dead,” Dragonfly chided herself. “I know she can come back here too. But it doesn’t feel like it will ever be the same. Gods, I don’t know what to feel. It’s so complicated and vague.”
She fell silent again, just looking up at the house. Kite gave her some time, but eventually asked; “Dragonfly, do you want to talk more about it, or would you prefer to be distracted?”
Dragonfly thought for a moment. “Distracted. I need to let it rattle around in my mind a bit more.”
“Any preferences? A spar? Shall we play with Glint? Or go to get something to eat?”
“Is ‘all of them’ an option?”
“That it is,” Kite said, squeezing her a bit closer.
“And is you staying the night a possible addition as well? For aura practice only, of course.”
Kite laughed a bit before confirming. “That it is, my ardent Dragonfly. That it is.”