There was no time for Rieren to even feel the betrayal that was wrenching her heart. Forget that, there wasn’t even any time to show Kervantes what she felt about his actions.

Not that she could have. The Ceramic Automaton had flung the Dew Talisman at Rieren, who had been forced to duck to avoid being struck.

“Farewell, Rieren,” Kervantes said before disappearing back inside the tunnel. His voice began fading as he left. “We will meet again if you survive. The gods have chosen to spare the dungeon and all that lies within it so long as you are dead. Make of it what you will.”

“You mechanical bastard,” she flung at his departing back.

There was no way to tell if he heard. She certainly couldn’t wait to find out. The red lightning spearing across the navy expanse of dusk was making its presence felt. They had grown louder and brighter as though the lightning storm was steadily coalescing at her location. She had to move.

Of course, she couldn’t jump back into the tunnels and make a run for safety inside there. She had already nearly caused the Sect’s destruction once before.

Make of that what you will.

Monkey’s barnacle-encrusted balls. Bastard had known exactly what was going on. Rieren couldn’t go back inside, no matter what. It was the reason she had left, after all. And now she was already paying for it.

Batcat hissed again, this time at her.

“Right, right.,” she said, twisting away from the tunnel mouth. “We must get moving.”

So long as Rieren channeled no Essence, she wouldn’t be found too easily. Of course, she knew first-hand that the gods didn’t need to depend on sensing Essence to root out their targets. They had a bevy of other senses, many of which would locate Rieren for them.

Her best bet lay in exiting the area as fast and as stealthily as possible. So, lowering her profile, Rieren hurried away.

Unfortunately, her current location was the same spot she had been discovered before. It wouldn’t do to have a confrontation with the Arteroth soldiers—or worse, with Essalina—right now.

Though, meeting Essalina right then might not be the most horrible thing to happen to her. In fact, it might even be beneficial.

Of course, Essalina didn’t speak for the entire Arteroth clan. Things were far more complicated than a simple declaration of no longer complying with the Emperor’s commands. Such outright disobedience would be met with harsh reprisal, which no one would want.

However, Essalina did have a great standing in the Arteroth clan and all the lands under them, which was a significant portion of the Elderlands. They were the third strongest Archnoble clan, after all. Essalina was one of their Five Furies of the North. She hadn’t risen to such a high position without having a good approximation of where her clan’s intentions lay.

As such, if she said a certain thing about the clan, it was likely it would have at least some significance within the entire Arteroth family, top to bottom.

The problem was that their stance was against the Emperor. This was an issue because Rieren was now against him too, simply by virtue of the fact that he was being manipulated by the gods. She regretted it. It was unlikely that he had come under their influence of his own volition. Despite what many might think, he was a rather honourable man.

But still. If this was what it had come down to, then Rieren would take a stand against the Forborne Emperor if it meant defeating the gods.

As such, there was the tiniest possibility that she might be able to make use of the Arteroth.

Rieren began moving. However, confrontation was likely possible soon, so she took a quick look at her [Status] and assigned all the stats she hadn’t yet.

[Status]

Rieren Vallorne

Race: Human

Class: Divine Bladereaver

Profession: [N/A]

Realm: Awakened [Mid]

Level: 22

Perks: Divine Resilience [B]

Titles: [N/A]

Stats

Body: 44

Mind: 26

Spirit: 26

Skills

Fray Passage [B]

Gale Blade [A]

Earthfell Blade [B]

Reaver Stance [B]

Techniques

Tidal Summon [D]

Call of the Past [Spirit Bond] [E]

-

Domain

Ocean [D]

Oh, that was interesting. The system designated the technique she could use through Batcat as part of her overall techniques. Focusing on Call of the Past opened it up in greater detail.

Call of the Past

Summons self from the past onto current body.

Stats

* Use: Once per battle

* Effects: Raises Grades of all Skills and Techniques, Raises all Stats

* Current Grade: E

* Special: Improved by sacrificing memories and non-corrupted Beast Cores

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Rieren read that last line over more than once. Improved with her memories and using non-corrupted Beast Cores. Had Batcat eaten a Beast Core without Rieren knowing? Well, there had been that time they’d been separated in the Abyss, and Abyssals—monsters with corrupted Beast Cores—weren’t the only creatures there, proven by the Aetherians using it.

Point was that she would have to find new Beast Cores to give to the cat. It was a good thing she had taken the time to look through the technique.

Above her, the red lightning was flashing even brighter now. There had already been enough light for Rieren to make her way down the slope without much trouble. Now, with how frequently the lightning was bursting across the sky without thunderous crackles, the evening was as bright as day more often than not.

Unfortunately, while it had the benefit of lighting up the path she intended to take, it had also revealed her location to any observers.

“There!” someone shouted in the distance.

Rieren didn’t need any extra senses to understand that the alert had been about her. She had been spotted. There was nothing for it. With no warning, she made a run for it.

Fray Passage helped. Her speed was boosted greatly as she tore downslope. She was certain she passed by a few guards here and there as well.

More importantly, she was glad that Batcat clung to her hair tightly. It might have hurt her head a little, but it was far better than the other possibility of Batcat falling behind and Rieren returning to retrieve it. That would just lead to disaster.

But her dash to freedom was brought to a crashing halt before long.

Rieren was forced to come to a sudden stop when a bolt of black-and-gold flames hammered into the ground a few paces ahead of her. Broken debris went flying everywhere, checking her motion.

“Well, well, well,” Essalina said, emerging from the maelstrom. “Look who we have here.”

“I have no quarrel with you, Essalina,” Rieren said. She didn’t like how urgent her voice sounded, but the situation called for it. The lightning overhead was thickening into powerful bolts that ripped through the heavens. Soon enough, it would start crashing down upon them. “For all our sakes, you must let me pass.”

Essalina didn’t move. Didn’t even remove the sword she had pointed straight at Rieren’s face. “Or what? Will you once again turn into your future self and seek to destroy me and all else around me?”

“I will not have to.” She pointed straight up. “The gods will do it for me.”

Essalina took one step forward, staring straight into Rieren’s eyes. “Oh, I am well aware. Which is exactly why I am going to hold you in place.”

Rieren’s mind screamed at her to get moving. Any moment now, a furious bolt would crash down and obliterate them all. She hadn’t seen or learned what had become of Essalina at the moment before Lionshard mountain’s destruction, but surely she had seen the destruction the gods had wrought. Even if she hadn’t, the evidence was everywhere around them.

Which meant she was serious about using Rieren as some sort of bargaining chip to ensure her and her soldiers’ safety. Maybe she had determined that retreating was futile now that the great lighting storm had already begun. They wouldn’t be able to leave its area of effect.

The only way to ensure safety was to prevent it from landing in the first place.

“I assume you have a plan then,” Rieren said.

“Why, of course.” Essalina’s eyes told Rieren that all she had surmised was correct. The Arteroth scion was confident about her chances. She grinned. “All you need to do is cooperate.”

Rieren would have groaned if the situation wasn’t so serious.

She wasn’t disinclined to agree with Essalina, but she also knew that, at her current level of strength, the scales of balance were tipped mightily in the Arteroth scion’s favour. Thankfully, there was a way to ensure that this wasn’t any sort of trick.

Rieren pulled Batcat off her head. The action seemed innocent enough. Essalina’s and her soldiers’ only quirked their brows up a little as she held the kitten close to her.

“I need it now, Batcat,” Rieren whispered. “Time for you to grant me my old form.”

Nothing happened for a while. Batcat had been a bit disgruntled at having been removed from its perch, and now it only stared around at Essalina and the other soldiers. Rieren considered channelling Essence through the kitten, but that would be dangerous now that she was likely being sought by the gods directly. It would also raise the hackles of her current guests.

But it was a gamble worth taking if she grew strong enough. For even a Banishedborn would hesitate at the strength she had displayed against the Gravemark Puppeteer.

Batcat started glowing all of a sudden. Rieren’s eyes widened. Was this it?

As expected, it had alarmed the others as well. Essalina had pointed her sword straight at Rieren’s heart.

“What is that cat demon doing?” she asked.

“It’s not a demon,” Rieren said.

“Answer me, now! Before I skewer you.”

Rieren rolled her eyes. “It is—” Batcat’s glow brightened to a flash for just a second before it disappeared entirely. She blinked. “Well, apparently it was performing an elaborate disappearing act.”

Before she could form a proper mental reaction, Batcat’s new technique came into play.

Rieren changed once again, just as she had done with the Temporal Recollector. Her limbs and body lengthened, her muscles strengthened, and power flooded her. But even as she grew a little taller and felt the air around her stir with her newfound strength, she could tell that this wasn’t as effective as Temporal Recollector. Not even close.

Well, the physical growth was still enough for her to retear her clothes. Divine Resilience had repaired most of her robes, but that was all undone by her latest transformation.

When she opened her eyes, having closed them during the change, she found that Essalina and the rest of the Arteroth had all fallen several steps back. There was clear, outright hostility in their eyes now. She couldn’t blame them. At least they would know not to do anything stupid.

Rieren might not be as strong as she had been against the Abyssal, but she was powerful enough to defeat Essalina, of that she was certain.

The real question was how long this would last. If the Temporal Recollector granted fifteen minutes, and this was significantly weaker… Rieren would need to keep track of it somehow. Not that it would be easy in the midst of trouble.

“The same trick as before, is it?” Essalina asked. “What good is it going to do you? You think you can take on the whole world in that form?”

Hmm. Maybe the Arteroth scion couldn’t tell the difference in Rieren from the one she had witnessed battling the A-Grade Abyssal. Well, all the better for Rieren herself.

“I do not,” Rieren said. “However, now that you know I can kill you with a mere glance, I believe we can conduct ourselves more civilly.”

At that, Essalina laughed. “Then I believe we should depart this place before things turn tumultuous.”

Rieren nodded. “Agreed.”

Essalina was right. Rieren might not have channelled Essence consciously, but this transformation could not have happened without some sort of Essence spiking around and within her. For all she knew, there might be those who had been alerted by it already looking to discover and pinpoint her exact location.

They started moving away from their current location. It was a good thing they were fast. Those flashes overhead were starting to get more furious. Rieren wished she knew what exactly had become of Batcat. A part of her was alarmed at the possibility that Batcat had sacrificed itself entirely. But no. Something told her that it was nearby, not exactly gone.

Unfortunately, they didn’t get far. The lightning that had been storming across the sky now turned savage as it all joined together in one spot. It grew so brilliant that it was like having an entirely new sun overhead in the middle of the growing nightfall.

“Monkey’s hairy balls,” Rieren said.

The bolt that struck down cracked the earth itself. Essalina had yelled at them all to scatter, which Rieren had already done, using her greater speed to move away as fast as she could. The impact made the whole mountainside shake, dust and debris flying through the air, accompanied by virulent red electric sparks everywhere.

Rieren had pulled out her sword, standing at the ready. She looked up. More sparks were flashing overhead. They all came from one gigantic flying overhead. She hadn’t noticed it before.

The beast was a bird she had seen distantly once. A thunderbird with half of its feathers as red as blood and the other blacker than the night above it. It soared through the expanse of the heavens, scarlet bolts materializing from its wings to crash down upon the earth.

Along with the others, Rieren continued dodging as well as she could. There was no point in dancing to that gigantic bird’s tune. So, she hurried backwards as fast as she could, even if it required her to climb upslope. She couldn’t tell what had become of the Arteroth. Not that she would begin to regret if something had happened to them.

If anything, that would just mean one more obstacle had been obliterated from her path.

Apparently, no longer satisfied with shooting at its prey from high above, the enormous bird decided to crash down to the ground. It turned blisteringly bright, red-white sparks dancing all across its body before thundering down to the earth like a meteor. When it finally landed down, the blast that spread outwards was a rapidly expanding dome of red-black energy.

Rieren was well aware that she couldn’t escape its radius no matter how fast she moved. But that was no issue. In her current form, Earthfall Blade was at B-Grade.

Enough for her to deflect away the powerful explosion that rocketed towards her.

Unfortunately, while that took care of the worst of the thunderbird’s landing, she couldn’t protect herself from all the debris accompanying the attack. Rieren had to cover her face and head to prevent any of the rocks from shattering her skull, though her enhanced skin stopped any of them from harming her overmuch.

Loud claps resounded through the area as things settled down. “I cannot believe it,” a man’s gruff said. “You survived! I am starting to see why I had come here to these backwoods personally.”

Rieren grimaced. The man coming out of the dusty gloom was none other than one of the Banishedborn.