As I’d suspected, the Beast Lord was a Ki-Rin, a Sacred Beast that combined the bloodlines of Phoenix, Unicorn, and Dragon, eclipsing any and all of them. The fact He was a ki-rin was probably one of the reasons the High Emperors of Earth had been so driven to explore Time Magic, wanting to equal and surpass Him with the pride of their species.
Well, good luck to them for that.
“You are known to me, little human,” He said from the other side of His Veil, very close, His eye several times taller than I was. I found it kind of amusing, honestly. Size was very much a matter of choice at this stage of magic. An unmodified Giantform spell on myself would get me to four hundred feet tall, and with higher Valences I could easily stand up and look Him in the eye.
I had pretty much no reason whatsoever to need such an imposing physical size. It would affect my magic not at all, and only slow my reflexes down.
“I encountered you only in passing at the final battle with the Netherlord, Elder,” I replied calmly. ‘Exalted Eminence’ was the normal form of address for lesser Beasts to address a Realm Lord, but I didn’t have to worry about that, and of course the Emperors I was friends with had absolute leave to address me as a friend. “It is good to see you are well after all those years. Have the Netherlords harassed you much in the interim?”
He huffed slightly, regarding me steadily with great dark eyes bearing countless stars floating within them, reflecting and enhancing the aetheric heavens behind me. “They and the things of Light bother me incessantly, demanding I choose sides and submit to them, or there will be grave consequences.”
“Before or after they finish with the Mortal Realm?” I asked, softly deflecting the fishing question to see if I had the same ambitions.
“They are arrogant enough to believe they will take your Realm first, as they deem it of more importance,” He replied patiently.
Well, He didn’t seem to mind that much, so pride wasn’t an issue. “Am I correct in deducing that as long as the Summoning Element exists, you cannot sever the bonds between Earth and the Beast Realm, cutting yourself free from us and losing yourself in the Aether?”
“That is correct. I considered the linking worthwhile for my Beast Realm’s growth, and so it has been. The threat came from outside our bound Realms.”
I sighed in recognition. “I am aware of the High Imperial Dragons being the ones responsible for luring the interlopers in, Elder.”
It was His turn to blink and toss His head slightly, His mane and beard swirling like rivers of polychromatic silk. “Juniors often do things that are unwise. It is what it is.”
I had to laugh softly. “You have great patience and understanding of the foibles of dragons.”
“I would have slain them back then for their foolishness, were I capable of reaching into the Mortal Plane. They have imperiled both our Realms with their egos. But what is past is past...”
“They did not even realize they were the ones responsible until I informed them of it. It was definitely unwelcome news that the increase in Dark Mana they attribute to Humans was ultimately something that had to be laid on their own feet. They did not take it well.”
Just a twitch of a golden eyebrow. “They accepted their blame at all? I am surprised, given the egos of dragons...”
“Unfortunately for them, I know Truth, and there was no way for them to deny it thereafter.”
And there it went, a bodywide ripple as the power of a Word of Creation hit even a Realm Lord in the feelsies. It seemed the Beast Lord didn’t live in a world of self-delusion, however, as the only major effect was that His eyes lit up like suns had just ignited inside of Him.
I now definitely had His interest. Touching upon the Divinely profound was likely a very new experience for Him, and given His age, that was probably saying something.
“What,” He was forced to ask, “was THAT?”
I smiled slightly. “That was a Word of Creation, Elder, a distillation of the powers of Virtue, the foundations of Heaven.” I paused significantly. “Have you truly never encountered an aspect of the Four Alignments in your life? I admit I find that hard to believe, given the age of your Realm and power...”
“The Four Alignments?” He repeated slowly, staring at me, probably in a little disbelief, and with some definite eagerness. “No, I have not heard of those...” He trailed off a bit awkwardly, not knowing my name.
“As Named by the Many-Tailed Silver Fox High Emperor Flowing Silver, I am called Healer Fae among the Beasts, Elder,” I informed Him grandly.
“Healer Fae,” He mused. “The edifice you constructed to keep out the Netherlord has indeed been a source of outside energy to my Realm for all these years. The not-white fires still Burn upon it, and have restored a great deal that was taken, and perhaps even more.”
I bowed in space to Him. “It was my pleasure, Elder. I have absolutely no use for delusional children of Sin and Axiom capering about with their inane dreams of conquest and expansion to relieve their boredom. You may have noticed a certain disturbance in the Nether Realm some few cycles past. That was myself expressing my disappointment with the choices of one of the Nether Lords, and He certainly did not enjoy the results of it.”
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That actually earned an impressed whuffing from the gargantuan form of the Ki-rin. “That was you? That was most auspicious, revealing the master trump they had hidden away from all, and destroying their confidence in their ultimate victory.”
“Ah, they came here bugging you and ranting about things? My apologies. I was forced to start my Ascension by the event, and had to hide away to complete it. I hope they didn’t disturb you too much.”
“They were angry fools looking to vent on something, but not foolish enough to believe that I was responsible, and they were aware that the Lords of Light were watching them keenly. If they dared to enter my Realm, the Lords would have struck them harshly while they were weakened, and they could not leave their Realm and the wounded Lord undefended behind them. Mere children flailing their limbs at their plans coming unraveled, nothing more.”
“Excellent. I am hoping you understand why I have come here, Elder.”
The great glowing eye regarded me keenly for a moment. “You seek my aid,” He pronounced at last, somewhat aloofly.
“As you seek mine,” I replied calmly, and He did not deny it, although His long tail swished once. I waved my hand, and not wanting to seem overtly threatening, I brought up a Force Orb above my palm.
This Orb was, however, spun at maximum Valence, maximum Caster Level, and with the 1.68 billion Mana only a True Realm Lord could possibly weave into such a thing.
He could see it was an offensive spell, but He could also read my body language and see that I had no attention of attacking Him. However, He was forced to squint against the concentrated and constrained glow of power from the simple Orb which I couldn’t make any smaller than my head, and the simply unbelievable amount of power that was spun together inside of it, seething to be freed.
This wasn’t too far different from The Ice Emperor’s Great Flood spell, which He’d Cast in a Ritual format so as to be able to handle the extra juice. Except I had just wound it up as an attack spell.
In other words, I had jumped past Low Realm Lord and right into True Realm Lord status, and both the complexity of the spell by Valence and the Caster Level of it were completely beyond anything the Beast Lord could wield Himself, as He wasn’t a High Realm Lord, either.
And all that was before the Affinities of all my Seeds and Theurgies were taken into account, seething over the Orb with amplifying resonances and additional multipliers that turned this Orb into something incredibly dangerous to take on, even for a Realm Lord!
I watched His aloof posture slowly evaporate as He digested what I was showing Him, replaced with wary caution. I wasn’t just a newly ascended Realm Lord, whose power He was likely familiar with and wouldn’t consider to be much of a threat or of much help.
Despite my size, I was casually wielding as much Mana as He was, and doing it far more expertly! His own Elemental Affinities, dominated by Air, Fire, Earth, Void, and Blessing, were all extremely high, but the layers and sympathetic synergies of my Aura crushed His own in comparison.
His tail swished as He suddenly realized that I was extremely dangerous to Him, and even if I breached the Veil, I likely had more magical power than He did!
He did indeed want my help, there was no doubt about it. “Your power is greater than that of any of the interlopers,” He informed me after a moment, watching as I unwound the Orb as expertly as I had formed it, reclaiming the Mana and watching it unspin and go away. The Control Elements check for that was 125, with 48 Ranks required, and yes, I could DO it, for ALL of my Elements.
“I thought it might be, based on what I could sense at a distance, but I am vastly outnumbered, and of course they are massively more resilient than I am, Elder. It would take a dozen of those Orbs to bring the least of them down if they but stood there, and many times that if they are actively defending.”
“That is true.” He was more thoughtful now, forced to regard me in a new light and re-evaluating His expectations of me. “You have come here seeking an alliance, then...”
“I believe we can be very helpful to one another, Elder. Although my world is at the center of the conflict between the adherents of Sin and Axiom, I believe we both understand that if the Earth falls, the Beast Realm will follow in time. If they are not annihilated, the losers in the fight will be forced to flee, and you will not be able to withstand the survivors of the other side by yourself.”
“You understand the truth of the situation. You also understand that having two of us to stand against them means that they cannot ignore either of us, as they have largely ignored me.”
I nodded once. “Yes, Elder. I have not claimed the Earth yet, mostly because I have not worked out how to. I imagine it is not much different from claiming a personal domain. They will not be able to interfere with it successfully, although they may try once they realize what is happening. However, I am fully capable of seeing that doing so will merely incite a truce between the lot of them, and they will attempt to jointly remove me before settling their own affairs.”
“Removing you will be part of the game, as whoever spends the most effort doing so will naturally be the weaker party. Unless they have a massive advantage, they will not dare to overreach, and thus small and constant attacks will be the rule of the hunt, trading back and forth between them until you are exhausted and can be finished.” He could see the strategy they would use as easily as I could.
“My thoughts exactly, Elder. However, what we needs do is merely buy time. I have my own endgame in play, and I simply need time to execute it. I am sure they have their own excessively over-powered final tactics to play, too, but also that they have decided to play that conflict out on my world, instead of between their own Realms, not wishing to risk their own centers of power in a war between them.”
“The only cost to themselves will be time and alleviation of their boredom,” the Beast Lord agreed. “Will you tell me of this endgame of yours?” He asked, interested.
“I will say three Words to you, Elder, and ask for your trust in return. I ask that you open your Realm to me in order to aid you, in Truth, Hope, and Valor!”
Legs which could support skyscrapers wobbled after being hit with three Words of Creation, His great heart beating and soaring with the power of Heavenly Virtues whose power was beyond anything He had ever imagined feeling... and He knew they were but shadows of the true powers they represented!
“I... will trust you!” He answered as He caught himself from falling into wondrous contemplation of all those Words could mean, and our Alliance was set!