Zev
Zev Andar didn’t feel much after killing the jinn. During his time as the Violet Mountain Lord, he’d killed seven jinn for having the potential to reach C rank, and Epecteos Ka’Dravone’s chances had been the lowest of any of them. He also had no backing, so there wasn’t any chance of anyone trying to get revenge for his death.
The bigger issue was the loss of face for the Violet Mountain Sect due to Kalin’s actions. Zev would only live for another few tens of thousands of years at most and Kalin had been his best hope for a successor, but now he was no longer an option. Were Kalin to become the leader of the sect, due to the reputation he’d earn because of this incident, there was no way any of the other powers in the sector would treat him with any degree of respect, and that could potentially allow the Violet Mountain Sect itself to collapse.
Deep in thought, Zev barely even registered how his affinities had all slightly risen, and it was only when he half-heartedly took a second look at the planet’s System menu that he realized Epecteos might have been more connected than he thought.
He’d originally taken a brief look when he’d first arrived, wanting to see if he should bother assigning someone to take over the E rank world, but the planet’s status had greatly changed in the last couple minutes, and it now showed something he’d previously thought impossible.
Toril (E rank planet)
The planet Toril, previously the Territory of Epecteos Ka’Dravone. It has now been taken over by its previous Overlord, the Heavenly Spark Soul King.
Lord: Heavenly Spark Soul King
Overlord: NA
Benefits to humanoid population:
Qi, Mana, and Psyforce regeneration +6.25%
Affinity for all Laws +25%
+25% affinity for all Laws just for being on a planet was ridiculous, and it was no wonder Epecteos had managed to advance so late in life if he’d been training with that type of effect.
Given the strength of the monster’s affinities, which Zev could calculate from how much his own affinities were boosted, the Heavenly Spark Soul King had to be at least an extremely talented D rank, or maybe even a slightly less talented C rank.
More important, however, in order to take control of Epecteos’s Territory, which had not had an overlord when Zev had first arrived, the monster in question would have had to have been on the planet, yet there was no one who met the criteria. There were no D rank monsters or higher, and there was no one with the aura of someone on the path of the Heavenly Spark, at least not still on the planet.
As Zev flew down toward Toril’s capital city, he analyzed his short term memory, focusing on the sensory information he hadn’t been paying attention to. As a B rank, his senses covered the entire planet, but actively processing all that information was draining, so he normally didn’t bother. This didn’t mean the sensory information was lost, however. As a B rank, his short term memory was far, far better than a mortal’s, so he could review anything he’d sensed within the last several days with perfect accuracy.
From his senses, there had been 228 E ranks on the planet, most in the capital city, and, during his contemplation after killing Epecteos, only seven of them had left, along with 12 F ranks and someone who appeared to be a mortal.
That mortal moved too fast, however, and the E rank he’d been with had felt like the most powerful on the planet, while both had their features completely covered by cloaks. More important to Zev, however, before teleporting away, the mortal had summoned five flasks out of a spatial storage artifact which looked like a scaled azure fingerless glove and had poured the contents of the flasks onto the teleportation platform, something only the lord of the planet would be able to do.
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As one of the minor hubs of the Carium Galaxy Cluster, the planet’s large teleportation platform was protected by System generated shielding which would block out up to D rank attacks, so even Zev wouldn’t be able to just pour fluids on it, as the entire point of the shielding was to block out anything that could impede the platform from functioning.
After pouring out the contents of the flasks, however, the Heavenly Spark Soul King and his follower had both teleported away. And, much, much more important to Zev, after they left no one had been able to teleport again, the E ranks complaining about the planet’s lord blocking teleportation.
Zev quickly stepped forward and used his status as the absolute head of the Carium Galaxy Cluster to override the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s command, but that process took nearly an hour, and, by that time, the platform had started to release smoke, any part of it which would normally contain mana completely dry.
The Heavenly Spark Soul King had sabotaged his own teleportation platform, blocking Zev from returning to the sect, and it would take at least five days to fix.
* * *
Mila
Mila was extremely angry and, were she not around Violet Mountain Sect D ranks, she would have started to cry. But, compared to Aalam and Isaiah, she’d been nowhere near as close to Epecteos, so the main emotion she was feeling was fear.
It had been a while since Aalam had stopped blocking her ability to sense his emotions through their bond, so, even though the distance between them usually made the effect practically useless, with them now in the same galaxy cluster she’d felt his fear which caused him to enter into his Id state for the first time in years. And she’d felt as that fear of Epecteos dying turned into rage as Epecteos hastened his own death, starting off fiery and uncontrolled, but then turning cold and far more terrifying.
Mila knew Aalam. He was someone who would often get lost in his own world, bringing himself cheer while pursuing his passions, a very internally focused person. And, as a result, at least before the integration, external forces very rarely caused him to feel negative emotions and, when they did, the emotions were usually balanced by his own internal cheer.
This had led Aalam to express his emotions more openly than most, which Mila liked, but it also meant Aalam had very little practice in how to healthily deal with extreme negative emotions when he did feel them, such as when he killed himself after she ran away and Diana got sick.
Inevitably, when Aalam felt extreme emotions, there would be an extreme result, and, before he teleported away from Toril, she was pretty sure Aalam was angrier than he’d ever been in his life.
For a couple seconds there, she’d been afraid he’d do something incredibly stupid like directly attacking the Violet Mountain Lord, but, after she couldn’t feel him through their bond for the next couple minutes, she formed a guess as to what he was planning and it was far, far worse.
“Nana Xara,” she sent, “he’s on Hira, right?”
“Yeah.”
She couldn’t feel him, which meant they were out of range, but there were only twelve places Aalam could use the System’s network to teleport himself to. Seven were in the Carium Galaxy Cluster, Epecteos’s six planets and the capital planet she was on, her having used the Violet Mountain Sect giving her access to add the planet to the approved teleportation platforms of her force as well. And Earth, due to having set up a specialized artifact on one of Epecteos’s F rank worlds, was within range of her, so she wouldn’t have lost connection with him had he returned there.
This then left four choices, Hira and the three E rank worlds Nitya and Epecteos had gone to for trade, but only Hira had a weapon capable of hurting a B rank.
“Is he still sharing his senses with Diana?”
“No.”
Mila looked around at the three D ranks still with her. She might be able to escape from them, but she wouldn’t be able to leave the planet. The Violet Mountain Sect wouldn’t let her leave without high level permission, and she wasn’t going to get that due to the assassination attempts on her life and the information about Epecteos’s duel with King Hewin almost certainly spreading like wildfire.
She also couldn’t fake her identity to flee, not with the Violet Mountain Mark still on her arm.
“Could you get Diana to head to Hira to try and stop Aalam from coming here?”
Isaiah was with Aalam and wasn’t in a berserker state, but he had even less control over his emotions than Aalam, so, while there was no magic involved, he almost certainly wasn’t thinking clearly. He probably didn’t fully understand what Aalam was about to do, but, if he did, he’d probably go along with it.
This left only Diana of those who might be able to talk Aalam down and, if she couldn’t, things were going to be really, really bad.
“Aalam used his status as Earth’s overlord to lock down the planet completely. No one can teleport in or out until he changes the planet’s status.”
“That idiot.” Mila was so incredibly terrified and angry, but there was nothing she could do. She was helpless.
And then things got worse.
Through her Sensory Domain, she could see three more D ranks headed toward her and her guards, and these three worked for the Violet Mountain Sect’s disciplinary committee. She was going to be forced to head back to the Violet Mountain Blessed Land, and, given the Violet Mountain Mark, she had absolutely no chance of escape.