As they left the area, Rieren received an achievement that made her pause to think.

New Achievement!

You have completed your first impossible rescue! Even when the danger is greater than what you can handle, you never failed to step forth and stand against it.

Rewards

* 1 Level

* 1 Skill point

* 1 Credit

* 1 Skill Slot

Her fifth skill slot was a nice reward, but at the same time, the achievement itself seemed odd. Had she not rescued anyone yet in this timeline? The system didn’t count the time they had forayed over het slopes of Lionshard mountain, or the time she had found Avalien and his group in the dungeon, or even when she had tried to find Elder Olg in the Abyss.

Though, the achievement had added the greater modifier. She recalled that being significant, especially in a case where the danger outweighed her direct capability to fight it.

Rieren decided not to think much of it. Apart from looking forward to when she could gain access to a fifth skill, of course.

She also stumbled across a strange item on the grounds of the ruined Sect. It was an old talisman, buried halfway into the ground and bearing the symbol of a moon surrounded by dark grey clouds. Hmm. Might be an insignia of the Sect itself. Rieren saw nothing untoward about it, even with Essence-fuelled eyes, so she threw it into her storage ring.

“How exactly are you doing that?” Rieren asked after a while, waving a hand vaguely to indicate how he had been popping up wherever he chose like some sort of teleportation.

That wasn’t her main question, but she hadn’t needed to ask the real ones. Elder Olg had been happy enough to regale her with his rather short tale of his peculiar predicament.

Apparently, after Foxwolf had bitten off and swallowed his entire head, he hadn’t exactly died. His Ashflame had still kept him alive.

Over the course of his life, Elder Olg always fed his Ashflame bits of his body. This was so when he had to sacrifice a specific part to call upon the services of Foxwolf. The Spirit Beast had always needed a certain part of his body as a sacrifice, and the relative significance of the body part determined the strength she could muster.

This was why Foxwolf had needed Elder Olg’s entire head, arguably the most significant part of one’s body, to attain enough power to take on a Banishedborn.

Of course, as Rieren had gone on to see, that had not been enough. Sure, in the moment when Foxwolf had gained tremendous power, she had been able to push back the Banishedborn far away. Rieren had been suitably impressed by the strength the Spirit Beast had displayed, after she had gotten over her shock and grief at Elder Olg’s death.

Well, apparent death.

It seemed that he’d stored enough nutritious blood and breathable air via his Ashflame to keep his head alive within Foxwolf’s guts. Rieren was amazed that he had survived in a Spirit Beast’s guts for over a month, but then, it hadn’t been because of his Ashflame. That had run out a long while ago.

No, what had sustained him was Foxwolf’s Beast Core.

Much as Serace had conjoined with an Anachron’s Beast Core within the dungeon underneath Lionshard mountain, Elder Olg had done the same with Foxwolf’s Beast Core. The only difference was that he had done so on purpose.

He spun a tale of desperate woe. While he had been alive within the Spirit Beast’s body, he had felt how it had been beaten and then killed by the Banishedborn. In desperation to keep himself alive, he had tearfully taken over his precious friend’s last remnant in the world of the living to survive and keep up her memory.

As he couldn’t get out in fear of being caught by Essastior in his condition and then killed with a flick of the Banishedborn’s finger, he had remained hidden within Foxwolf’s corpse.

For over a month…

“What did you ask?” Elder Olg said.

He had refused to perform the trick he had been using at the ruins to move around. As such, Rieren had been forced to tie him to her waist via a short rope attached his neck. She didn’t appreciate that it gave the appearance that she had garroted or hanged Elder Olg, before chopping his head off like a grisly spoil of war.

“I asked how you moved around in the ruins,” she said. “And why you keep refusing to do it now. And why you keep avoiding the question.”

“No, no I’m certain you only asked one question.”

“Well, I have decided to add some more to it. Answer me, please, Elder.”

“We should make camp soon. Moving under the cover of darkness might be dangerous.”

“On the ground, perhaps. But I had a better idea.”

He wasn’t wrong. If there were Abyssals in this land, they would no doubt use the cover of darkness to move around, and with her reduced visibility, Rieren would be at a disadvantage. Especially since the night was moonless. The glimmering stars were a poor source of worldly illumination.

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But Rieren didn’t have to worry about travelling across the land on foot. Not when she had her little Dawn Cloud to take to the air.

She summoned her Domain, then her Domain-summons. The cloud materialized a few paces overhead, quickly drawing all her stormy water inside it to expand into a proper, fluffy seat.

Elder Olg was staring as Rieren climbed onto the cloud. With gentle care, she slowly deposited a sleeping Batcat onto the fluffy surface nearby. Hopefully, if the cloud moved too jaggedly, she would be able to catch the little Spirit Beast before it fell off.

As the cloud began moving, she decided to enjoy the chill air of the night.

Rieren placed Elder Olg nearby as well. It was still strange seeing him as nothing more than a head. She had cleaned him up and removed all the blood, but that had only revealed the effects of the corruption from the Abyssal-Aspected Essence he had channelled.

Apparently, just because he had cut off the bits of him that looked corrupted—only to replace them with his Ashflame—didn’t mean he was free from the corruption entirely.

Curious as Rieren was, it was obvious Elder Olg wasn’t interested in answering her questions. So, she decided to let the matter rest for now.

Since she no longer had to worry about sleep much, she could instead use the time to expand her elixir field. Ever since breaking through to the Enlightened realm, she had been pushing it outwards ever so slowly. She couldn’t make it faster. The pills she had obtained so far wouldn’t help with that.

Though, she still appreciated that they enhanced her channelling, which allowed her to draw in a greater amount of Essence at a faster rate. There was also all the Essence her Receptor sword had claimed from all the Abyssal-killing.

Still. She needed to find a few specific resources to enhance her elixir field expansion. So far, she had only managed to make it touch her ribcage. It still needed to pass through her muscles and skin, and then she could worry about her Domain. In other words, even with enhancements, it was going to take her a long while…

“Hit the Enlightened realm already, have you?” Elder Olg asked suddenly.

“Already?” Rieren smiled, though it was more sardonic than mirthful. “If it had been up to me, I would already be halfway through the Enlightened realm.”

She opened one eye to see him peering at her through the corners of his own. With no proper base for his neck muscles to hold onto, he couldn’t turn his head. As such, placing him in such a way that he couldn’t face her now felt a little thoughtless and cruel. Feeling somewhat chastised, she decided to face him fully.

“Well, you are making fantastic progress.” Elder Olg didn’t question her about her need to cultivate and grow so quickly. He was more than intimate with the knowledge that Rieren was in grave danger from the gods, and to face them, she would need great strength as quickly as she could manage. “I am proud of you.”

Despite her cultivation-fuelled inner harmony, Rieren felt herself flushing. “Thank you.”

“Though, you are making mistakes.”

“Mistakes?”

“Yes. I’m going to assume you are waiting to obtain Credits and purchase all the required pills and herbal infusions and whatnot through the System Shop. Well, I am not one to berate the use of what is more convenient, but why not find the ingredients you require and concoct what you need to ingest yourself? I daresay I taught you how to do so.”

“Yes, of course you did, Elder. But I do not wish to go on a wild hunt trying to gather esoteric herbs and hearts from nearly extinct creatures and the like.”

“Don’t use my own tone against me, Rieren.”

She couldn’t keep her grin to herself. “As you wish. But the truth of the matter is that my true goal is reaching the Enlightenment Locale in this region. Once there, I can start properly progressing through the realm.”

“Of course.” Elder Olg was silent for a moment. “That is as it should be. However, are you prepared for the time it will take you?”

“I have done this before, Elder. I know how long it will take me.”

“Perhaps. But you do realize that the world will pass you by while you cultivate, yes?”

Rieren had no answer to that. Elder Olg was referring to his own situation not long ago. Trapped for over a month with no sight of any help or assistance incoming. It must have been a rather horrid time. That he was out without any real mental consequences was an amazing testament to his fortitude.

But it wasn’t like Rieren had known he was alive inside the corpse of his True Summons. And even he had been… she wasn’t sure what she might have done.

She owed him, there was no doubt about it. Had she known of his situation, she would have tried to save him. Eventually. Rushing over to him without enough preparations or the right plan would only have gotten them all killed in the process.

It was much the same about the rest of the world, in Rieren’s estimation. The Elderlands was huge and there was a lot going on. Too many factions, too many people wielding significant power. Especially now that she had freed the system. Rieren couldn’t be expected to keep a tab on everything going on all over the accursed empire. That was the Forborne Emperor’s job.

Even for Lionshard Sect, for Amalyse, and even for her father. If they were in trouble, if they needed her assistance, if there was a way her help was absolutely necessary, she would find a way to assist them. In due time. With the right amount of thought beforehand.

“And what of you, Elder?” Rieren asked. “Are you going to join me on my journey as a disembodied head, there to keep me company for the rest of time?”

Elder Olg snorted. “If only. I ought to find my way back to the Sect, but…”

But he was just a head, and Rieren wasn’t about to turn around and take him all the way back to Lionshard mountain. Not yet at least.

“Could you use the Beast Core to reform your body, Elder?” she asked.

“If there is a way to achieve such a thing, I am unfortunately unaware of how to achieve it.”

“Well, Beast Cores are a source of Essence. A big source. And with Essence, nearly anything is possible.”

“Hmm.”

“What is it?”

“So far, I have used my Ashflame to take in bits of my body, so that when the time came for me to regenerate, I could reassemble myself from the pieces I had stored away. However, it is theoretically possible to do so with any body and use that to restore myself.”

“In other words, use your Ashflame to take over some hapless soul and use their body as your own?”

“You make me sound like a monster, but yes.”

Rieren laughed a little. “Face it, Elder. In your current form, you aren’t that far off from an actual monster.”

“I take great offence at that supposition.”

Perhaps he did, but she wasn’t wrong. Even just looking at him, one didn’t see simply a disembodied head stuck to a Beast Core. All those marks left by the Abyss-Aspected Essence he had channelled, those little scars, pockmarks, and blisters all marring his face, one couldn’t be mistaken to think that he was turning into an Abyssal altogether.

Rieren decided to refocus on her cultivation. With the cloud carrying them where they needed to go and her mood improved by the calm and cold air, she could spend time expanding her elixir field some more. It was going to be a long journey to the Enlightenment Locale.

Though, Rieren hadn’t accounted for the interruptions along the way.

Halfway through the night, Elder Olg suddenly called out. “Company!”

The cloud was slowing down. Rieren opened her eyes to see what the issue was, and needed a moment for her eyes to adjust to the gloom before she could make out… not much more than dark shapes. Except, there were a lot of the dark shapes, spread out all over the landscape.

“Abyssals,” Rieren said.

The mountains were now behind them, but they were still rolling across the eastern highlands. Wide hills and rises ranged over the area for leagues on end. And through the long grass covering the land, hordes upon hordes of Abyssals were entering the Shatterlands.

Mercion and Kerolast had been right to worry. A monstrous invasion of their homeland was imminent.