Consul Pallick. It’s… it’s me. We have a problem. Yes. It’s related to the removal of Evernest… And Operative Yu… It’s his son, you see…

The boy has the System…

Yes. The Keter-System. The Concept—

Yes. Yes, Consul. I understand. You are entirely right—it is my fault. I am a subhuman piece of shit who should let a drugged bull ogre skull-fuck me to death with their large cock layered with shit-smeared spike studs.

Yes. I will do that and send you the video, Consul.

But… I think we’re going to require more support.

Yes. Of course. I’ll make the arrangements right now. I’ll get fucked to death first. I’ll get—yes, I will make sure the ogre’s genital cannot fit in my eye. Yes… I deserve this—you are right…

-Harlon Seever, Inheritor

55

Hunting Hunters (III)

For a single instant in time, all the wind in the world stopped drifting, the water stopped flowing, lightning froze, and the earth went stone-still.

That moment signalled its end with a cataclysmic blast.

The Lance of Calamity, already tremendous in mass and size, zipped the scant few hundred meters between Wei and the orc, bringing with it a crushing tidal wave of absolute destruction. A blast wave swept down from the air, and Wei had to cleave through the collapsing winds to prevent himself from being flung aside.

The same couldn't be said for Mulver’s demons. The lesser among their number simply ceased to be. Wei witnessed their unmaking through his Aspect of Omniscience. The Lance approached at such velocity that their very blood evaporated. Some of the larger demons survived, but even then, their bodies were compromised, unraveling as they were flayed by the force of the coming blow.

Only Mulver came forth, and—in a comical act of defiance—he sent the hydra head he stood upon forward in a vicious headbutt, amplifying the impact even more.

A city-crushing hydra slammed against the mountain-hollowing construct. The orc’s lips curled up in a smirk as a ripple of pure force swept over him from the impact. The smirk quickly vanished as his eyes widened.

Wei couldn't tell how fast his Lance was going, infused with all those Velocity Charges. But considering his own Relativity right now, he wouldn't be surprised if his construct could reach orbit with its current acceleration. If used against the Knight of Lust, Wei wondered if there would be anything left of her.

Mulver was a different story. The seven remaining heads of his head splashed into the one he currently commanded as the Knight strengthened his blood-summon as much as he could. Wei witnessed a surge of essence waterfall through the orc, and with a look of concentration, Mulver flicked his knife across his throat, slitting his neck open to channel more blood.

The Lance continued to drill against the hydra's head, its tip a vortex of steam and heat, its sides crackling with exploding bolts and orbiting stone. The clash was deafening—like nothing Wei had ever heard, but his Fortitude held, insuring him against any manner of sound damage.

Suddenly, as Mulver stabbed himself over and again, the balance shifted. The hydra’s Strength was more than substantial, but ironically, where it failed was Constitution. A rupture of blood erupted free from the base of the summon’s neck. Mulver’s powers faltered, his jaw dropped in surprise, and as his blood-demon spilled apart, the Lance sheared clean through its skull, no longer impeded by any opposition.

Immediately, Mulver was pulled into the spiraling vortex, his body twisting and folding in directions that would be fatal for anyone else. It was a testament to his Constitution that he remained intact. The Lance, meanwhile, surged forward, traveling a good two hundred meters before it finally began to fall, momentum spent.

The struggle Mulver’s hydra had put up astonished Wei. If it hadn't been there, the amount of destruction the Lance would have inflicted upon the Moongrave's surroundings would have been staggering, to say the least.

Now, however, it simply carried the orc’s broken body down, chipping the upper corner of an obsidian pylon before impacting the ground in a spray of rising glass. Wei followed close behind. A sense of fatigue gnawed at the young master's, and a feeling of abject absence passed from his Eidolon into his body as he slowly felt his Arrogance return point by point.

Observing the trail of destruction, the young master beamed at the deep furrow he left across the Moongrave. It hadn’t only traveled 200 meters long, but also left an ugly ditch 50 meters deep as well.

On an even brighter note, the young master took in his system messages and found himself most pleased. His Authority had climbed multiple advancements, as had his Relativity. The amount of velocity and damage he inflicted was a new height reached by the young master, and the System seemed to agree as well. It seemed to reward feats as much as it did strain. This was good. Seeking new heights to achieve was the only true way to be a cultivator.

Relativity Advanced > 32

Authority Advanced > 34

Omniscience Advanced — 27

[12/10] Aspect Advancements to Core Ascension

Then, as a final advancement to his Omniscience triggered, Wei immediately he found his attention drawn to a trickle of essence.

In a deep pit left in the ground, sodden with melted rock and crackling static, Wei sensed a lingering convergence of power and pressure, its presence so thick it felt like a knot. Thinking back, he remembered feeling the same thing each time he inflicted a wound on the Knight—and also when the Knight wounded him as well.

Now it was the young master's turn to be absolutely flabbergasted. Projecting his the totality of his senses into the deep wound he left upon this Moongrave, he beheld what could only be described as a mangled smear of splattered viscera and pasted organs slowly pulling themselves back together. Connected to all the rapidly healing tissues was also a heart that remained unblemished, undamaged. It still continued to beat faster, harder, and through it, at its core, was a wound that glistened with raw essence—a raw essence that slowly diluted itself to become several others.

Arteries extended from the heart, stretching wide to outline an entire body. Bones emerged from the growing circulatory system, followed by muscle, tendons, and skin. He watched as the Knight's clothing also regenerated alongside the healing process. Wei simply stared on in disbelief. He understood the healing, but the clothes, the equipment—that didn't make any sense at all.

A small part of him screamed to continue the attack, to strike again and use this opportunity to break the Knight of Pride utterly, and just force him into a suicide by way of a shattered Will. But a greater part of the young master was, frankly, in awe. His foe had survived the Lance. A Lance empowered by every last Velocity Charge Wei had. A giddy thought intruded as the young master considered just how devastating a full-stack Velocity Charges could make his attacks, but still, the orc surviving even this was thought-quelling.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Ultimately, Wei stayed his hand, deciding that he wanted the fight to continue, if nothing else. Across the length of less than twenty seconds, the young master watched what constituted something less than a whole corpse regenerated into a body of a yet living orc.

A choking wheeze filled the air, slowly turning into a loud cackling laugh as the orc’s lungs merged back into shape and suddenly filled with air. "Holy shit, kid, that was one hell of a goddamn hit. If the Harbinger didn't have his eyes on you before, he will now!"

Mulver sat up, placing his elbows on his knees as he shook his head. "You know what, I take all it all back. I'm glad I came down here. I'm glad I went on recruitment detail." Without hesitation, he pulled something out of his inventory.

At first glance, it looked like another contract. However, this one had what looked to be a complex array of ciphers fused around its front page and coiling around the rest of the stack as glowing chains.

Wei still didn't approach the orc, not foolish enough to be lured in. But strangely, his instincts told him this fight was functionally over.

"Tell you what, kid, I'll do what you want. That hit—that would have killed almost any other Knight but me. Hell, it might even kill some dumb shits on the verge of ascending to Count Tier."

"But you didn't die," Wei said, trying to understand the orc’s meaning.

"You're correct, and that's because you didn't finish me off. You saw my Conceptual Core. You could have taken a stab. Wouldn’t take you much. Which means I’m dealing with an actual true-blooded warrior. Unless I read you wrong.”

Wei's mind went completely blank. Was he actually fighting an insane person?

Resisting (confusion) with Aspect of (Intent)

"We can still fight if that is your preferred outcome."

"No, no, I think I've seen enough," the orc grinned. "And you still got something left up in your pocket, don't you? Something even nastier than that hit.”

Wei didn't reply.

“Yeah, you do. Knew it. What’s the secret? You snatch an Eidolon early? You one of them Trespasser’s with an existing blessing from another System-host sent in to kill the Harbinger?”

“They do that?” Wei asked, surprised.

“Oh, hell yeah they do. Mepheleon does it back to them as well. There’s like—a constant influx of elseworlders being spawned in to do this kind of shit. Most of the long-time Trespassers call those one’s cyclers. Because they’re usually reborn entirely rather than just dropped in like your usual Alice.”

Wei blinked.

“Alice is what they call the poor bastards who happen to just fall through the gaps. Straight down into the Fathoms.” The orc whistled as he pointed down with a clawed index finger. “So. You gonna tell me about what you got or are you going to be smart about your choices?”

Wei kept silent. Mulver snorted as he summoned something from his Inventory: a Spatial Navigator. Without another word, he dropped it on top of the contract and continued. “The Class Divergence will suit you. You’re the wrong kind of Arrogant to continue down the Path of Pride.”

The orcs words were leaving the territory of confusion and beginning to inspire genuine curiosity. “Why?”

“Because if you were properly Arrogant, you would have told me loud and proud and restored some of your essence. You? You’re still thinking of this as a fight. You still want to win. Pride isn’t enough for you. You want damage. You want blood and meat.” Mulver bit at the air. “Just the right kind of bastard to tear up the Claimed Hells. Just like me.”

And then something clicked. This Knight wasn’t taunting Wei or psychotic. Somehow, for some reason, the orc considered the young master a kindred spirit. Wei took a moment to consider that and…

Well, almost anyone was pleasant compared to the Knight of Lust.

“You should make the choice. Joining Pride and Wrath together will change your Arrogance to Scorn and turn you from a Tyrant to a Dominator. Your Invocations will change too, but considering you don’t even have the Aegis active, you seem like someone who doesn’t mind bleeding a bit if he gets to break his foe.”

That statement wasn’t incorrect.

Waving Wei off, the orc sighed. “Anyway. That shit’s more exciting if you experience it yourself. You’re not going to want to delay it when you get a chance—hell of a rush forming your initial Concept Core.”

“Concept Core,” Wei asked, noting the orc had already mentioned it twice. “What’s that?”

Mulver simply gave him a toothy grin. “It’s your own little realm of power seeded directly inside your Class—a display of the Harbinger’s latitude. It’s why we can operate in other realms while most other Classed lose their magic bullshit outside the coverage of their host’s System. Mepheleon’s more like our dealer than master. Hell of a fuck, he is. You might think the Claimed Hells nightmarish now, but—hey, you could do with a worse overlord.”

“I see they’re a popular figure,” Wei muttered.

“Popular? Wouldn’t go that far. He’s just… an enabler. Whatever the case, best go over a few things before we finish this transaction.” The orc pointed at the stack of papers. “This is a contract of assistance. Flip the first page up when you need help—and you are going to need help passing through the Hearted Realm. Everyone does. Even you. It’s where most of us recruiter fucks try to snatch up nubile little Sinners.” Mulver moved onto the orb pulsating with spatial essence. “This is—”

“A Spatial Navigator,” Wei replied. “I know. You aren’t the first Knight I’ve faced.” A beat followed. “I actually used it to find you. I am… trying to hunt your like.”

The orc’s eyes turned to saucers. “No shit? A Servant hunting Knights. Well. Some people are going to be embarrassed as shit by this.”

“Not you?” Wei said.

“Nope. In fact, I think my branch is going to be mighty pleased with me. Fuck the elves, you’re the real catch.”

Wei sneered at the orc’s words. “I’m not signing myself to your Circle.”

“Fine. Sure. But don’t make any deals before you read the print. You might just like what’s written on the page. And besides—you can negotiate to be a Commissioned Member and not a Subservient. But you might want to wait until you reach the end of the trials and earn the favor of a lawyer.”

“What?” Wei said. He was back to confusion with the orc. “What is a lawyer?”

‘It’s—ah, fuck, you’re from one of those sword, horses, and funny hat worlds. Agh. You’ll figure it out. Now.” The orc summoned a final thing into his hands: it was the ritualistic dagger he used to cut himself earlier. “Let me demonstrate the first benefit of being a Commissioned Member: death insurance.”

“Dea—”

Before Wei’s question could fully leave his lips, the orc plunged his blade deep into his own heart. It punched clean through his flesh without any resistance, and at once, every bit of essence he still possessed converged within the wound. Cracks began to spread across the orc’s body as blood essence fractured out from his heart and Wei felt something shatter beyond the material world.

And then the core of the orc broke into pieces, and suddenly a crimson explosion swept out from their being. Wei the idea of a wound pass into his mind—the concept consuming every bit of his focus for a single second. Across the Moongrave, the lesser cat-like demons that were caught in the area of effect went rigid. Most of them remained unharmed, but those few who had even the slightest cut suddenly came apart in showers of spraying gore—the effects of their injuries magnified a thousandfold.

Then, a new sensation swept into the world—an essence of absolute coldness that left even Wei shivering where he drifted afar.

As Mulver fell onto his back, a massive skeletal hand rose from the ground below him to grasp his corpse. An ethereal portal opened upon the face of reality, and with a casual yank, the orc’s corpse was pulled across space—and far beyond Wei’s Omniscience.

It was only then that the young master also realized he couldn’t peer into the realm of coldness where the hand came. An ambiance of quiet returned afterward, leaving only Wei, a mostly destroyed Moongrave, and two items bequeathed to him by the Knight he “forced” into a suicide.

A Class update loaded into his mind just then.

Class Divergence

>(Path of Wrath) [Unlocked] — Requirements: Dominate an adversary in combat and force them to end their own life thereafter.

It was then that Wei realized just how liberally interpretive some of these requirements were.

As another moment of hesitation, Wei shrugged and initiated his Class Tier Ascension with a thought. He wasn’t fully committed to merging his Pride with Wrath yet, but it would not hurt to see just what each option specifically entailed.

Class Tier Ascension Initiated!

And with that, a sphere of abyssal fire promptly exploded out from Wei’s Eidolon and swallowed his person as well.