“Everyone, cooperate and get the walls restored. The local Beasts don’t like the random rocks sitting around,” I instructed them, and it didn’t take much thought for them to realize they could do that, or they could potentially annoy the two Emperors present by loitering around like annoying ants.
I flew over to the column, broadcasting Psychically to the Emperors as I plunged down it with my Awareness, Detect Magic IX+4, and Detect Earth Element IX+4, too. The tails of both Emperors actually waved at the sheer amount of detail and perception I was feeding them, and their casual attention to the feed grew much more intense.
I went down the entire column for hundreds of feet, plummeting to nearly a thousand feet down before the column of destroyed Earth petered out, and the discharge had disappeared further into the mantle, forming a massive natural formation of slagged stone and crystal behind it as it was dispersed in all directions.
There was a bulge in that length where the Heart had been, seething with vivic Seals burned right into the stone, incredibly dense remnants of Dark power embedded there and still being Burned away. It would take at least a couple days before they were gone.
All that power, and some of the target was still left behind and was being cleaned up. All three of them hissed mentally at the realization. They knew exactly how much power had been involved here...
Taking out the heart of an Emperor really was not easy. If I hadn’t accentuated it all with vivic fire, it might not have destroyed it at all!...
“This is why Netherworlders suck, Elders,” I informed them grimly. “They are very hard to kill. If you ever have to fight some, make sure you contact me or my people ahead of time. We can give you the Vivic Fires needed to make it much easier.”
The Emperors huffed agreement, the long and slender, graceful form of Racing Thunder Emperor turning away to be about Wolvish matters, his job here done and other things on his mind than little Humans and their works. Plenty of time to come back and inspect the things later.
-Glenn, Burt.- The two KIA boys, currently doing a round of collecting Wind Seeds along the Andes where I’d started Gathering Formations by punching wind tunnels through the mountains years ago, perked up. -As soon as you complete your rounds, I need you both to come to the North American Breaker Formation to set up security. The Dark Curia has been attempting to seed a nasty surprise here, and I can only imagine they are doing the same at the other sites.-
They’d probably spent their best effort here, since this was my homeland, and the most disastrous failure would be best here. But the odds they’d left the other Formations alone was slim to null. I suspected South America was going to be a total disaster.
But I’d known that back when I’d made the information public on what to do, where to go, and how to do it. It was just another way of drawing the Dark Curia out, as they simply could not pass up this opportunity to cause havoc.
-Got it, Fae!- Glenn /called back, the two just about to Teleport to the next wind tunnel entry. -Edie will be happy to have me in one place for a while!- he /admitted ruefully.
-Yeah, it’s like saving the world keeps you busy or something,- I /agreed with him. -You’re going to be doing a lot of scanning of new people coming in, looking for those using Shadow, Chaos, and Psychic Magic to conceal their Auras, both of you.-
-Understood!- Burt /replied coolly. -We’ll be on it. How are you handling the other locations?-
-Glenn’s got enough Div experts under him to handle the other locations after I clean them up. Not that I expect those to be clean, either.-
Divination experts had a lot of uses in the modern world, and being a lorekeeper was way down on the list. Real-time discovery of information others were trying to keep hidden was a valuable ability, especially in combat, and scrying and Detects and Assays were hugely valuable tools.
The two /nodded understanding, returning to their work. The one hundred and forty-five Wind Tunnels each yielded a basic +150% Air Spirit Seed a year, the grade of them increasing by +50% per year they were allowed to grow thereafter, to the maximum of +400%. We could use them as cultivation resources, sell them for money, or use them ourselves. The Formations involved were purely passive and so couldn’t be sensed by the Awareness of passing Beasts, which also meant they weren’t anywhere as fast or aggressive as a Pyramid or Obelisk in growing such things.
It was fine. At $600k a pop for these basic Seeds, they were another good, steady revenue stream used to support our people, be it with cultivation, money, or starter Seeds of their own. Just harvesting them was a ongoing revenue stream that could support the KIA boys for the rest of their lives.
Air was a popular choice Element, if for no other reasons than it allowed you to run around at high speed and you could fly under your own power early and easily, so there would never be a dearth of folks wanting cultivation assets. Chopped-up Seeds were basically ideal means of advancing your Magery quickly, or as food for Contracted Beasts with the Element.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Our Wind Towers harvested a lot of Air Seeds, too, but those were quietly stockpiled for Babe’s Tribulation for Emperor, and so no publicity was given them inside or outside the corporation. There were over a hundred stockpiled at this point, pure storage devices of Air Mana for his attempt, an easy fifty million in Seeds tucked away and waiting for him.
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I felt His Awareness sweep past casually. I wasn’t trying to truly hide, as that would be kind of foolish while laying down hundreds of pillars of Vivic Icefire Braziers in a path that led right to me.
I immediately paused my progress, went to one knee, bowed my head, and said, “Healer Fae pays respects to The Ice High Emperor!”
I was a couple hundred miles away from Him, so I wasn’t in danger of being killed by an attack, nor did I have any inclination whatsoever to disturb Him. In fact, I was just outside His default area of Awareness, so He’d had to go searching for me.
Although Antarctica was His continent, I wasn’t intruding on Him, or anyone else. Actually, given the number of Ruler and Imperial Beasts I’d met while doing my little excursions, I was quite welcome here!
“SO, IT IS THE LITTLE ENVOY OF THE TRUE EMPERORS,” the ancient voice echoed from the ice all around me, amusement underscoring the flexing of His power. “WHY ARE YOU HERE, LITTLE ENVOY?”
“This one is here to set down Vivic Braziers, Your Imperial Majesty!” I replied calmly and promptly.
He waited for more, but there was literally nothing more to say. “INDEED. FOR WHAT PURPOSE ARE YOU LAYING DOWN SUCH THINGS, LITTLE ENVOY?” He sounded vaguely curious.
“This one hopes to help The Ice High Emperor sleep better!” I replied forthrightly.
“SLEEP...?” The ancient and powerful voice trailed off. “AND HOW WOULD YOU DO THAT?”
“The Ice High Emperor is no doubt discomfited and annoyed by the spread of the Dark Mana throughout the Manafield, even here in His domain. By encircling His personal Demesne with Vivic Braziers, this will stop the majority of incoming Dark Mana, as such spreads at near-ground level if there are no other pressures.
“In addition, The Ice High Emperor will be able to raise His Ice Domain, push the Dark Mana out of His Demesne and into the Vivic Braziers, and thus purify His personal Demesne of Dark Mana. Subsequent infiltration of Dark Mana would be at a hundredth of the prior rate or less, and could be disposed of with merely another pulse of His Domain.”
There was silence in the area, but His power was still in the Manafield, so I did not move. “AND WHY ARE YOU DOING SUCH A THING FOR ME, LITTLE ENVOY?” the ancient High Emperor asked firmly. “HUMANS ARE KNOWN FOR THEIR GUILE, NOT THEIR GENEROSITY.”
“If a gift to ease the sleep of The Ice High Emperor is not sufficient reason, then this one will merely say that the Vivic Braziers here are most unlikely to be damaged or destroyed, as is being done by some factions among this one’s Tribe, and their task of devouring the Dark Mana continues regardless of where they are located. If they may slowly raise the Mana of this realm to near that of the Beast Realm, that is a secondary benefit the Beasts of this land may enjoy.”
I could sense His Awareness flitting around the pillared stands upon which the misting Iceflames Burned, but since there was no odd Formation or strange Runework or other supplemental inscriptions upon them, there was nothing to find. They were just stands of very strong, tempered Ice, bearing braziers holding cold mistflames that sucked in and destroyed the Dark Mana about them slowly.
“YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE BEAST REALM?” came the disbelieving question.
“This one’s magic was Awakened there, and this one’s High Emperor dwells there, Your Imperial Majesty.”
“YOUR HIGH EMPEROR?” Now there was a trace of disbelief in the ancient voice. “YOU SERVE A HIGH EMPEROR OF THE BEAST REALM?!”
“This one’s High Emperor is Flowing Silver Nine-Tailed Fox High Emperor, Your Imperial Majesty. He did Name this one as Healer Fae to the Beasts, and so I am known there.”
I still didn’t get up, and the Manafield was thrumming now with some agitation. “YOU... CAN SPEAK WITH A HIGH EMPEROR OF THE BEAST REALM?” was the careful follow-up.
“Flowing Silver High Emperor occasionally holds court in a pocket dimension between this Mortal Realm and the Beast Realm. A number of the True Emperors of this world and their vassals confer with Him when He is not busy with other matters.”
I could well imagine the awful turn of thoughts going through The Ice Emperor’s mind right now. After all, none of the True Emperors bothered to confer with Him, or The Sea Emperor, or Infinite Sands. Matters of the True Emperors were beneath the High Emperors, who did as they liked as long as they did not inconvenience one another. The rest of the world had to accommodate them, not the reverse!
“YOU ARE BUT A HUMAN. YOUR TRIBE HAS EXISTED FOR SCARCELY A HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS...”
I thought about leaping to defense of Humanity, decided it wasn’t worth it. This old fossil had His opinions, and they were likely as frozen as His Preeminence.
“WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO THE ATTENTION OF FLOWING SILVER HIGH EMPEROR?” The Ice Emperor pressed me further when I made no defense against His words.
“This one brought to the Beast Realm the Vivic Fire,” I waved at the line of Braziers to my left, “and in doing so enabled them to fight back against an invasion from the Netherworld that likely would have gone very badly, indeed.
“In addition, this one Healed many Beasts great and small of grievous injuries both physical and spiritual, and in doing so earned her Name.
“The Pyramid this one constructed in the Beast Realm still caps the remnants of the Gate the Netherworlders used to invade there, Burning off the energies of death to bring new life into the Beast Realm.”
I could almost feel Him making the mental connections. I had been allowed to build a Pyramid there. I had used it to cap the invasion path, something that likely the Beast Lord Himself had to Seal.
The Beast Lord knew who I was and had approved of the move.
The Beast Lord had no power in the Mortal Realm, other than allowing Beasts to be Summoned by those with the right Element and allowing Contracts between them and Human mages. As far as other Beasts went, the Beast Lord was a known fact and accepted existence, but too far away to actually do anything here, the ruler of a paradise that perhaps the spirits of dead Beasts returned to in their afterlife.
A High Emperor knew otherwise. The Beast Lord was a Realm Lord, and the barrier between our two planes was strong because the Beast Lord had made it that way. If He chose to let it lapse, the power of the Beast Lord could indeed reach this Earth...