“What is that thing supposed to be doing?” Kalvia asked. She had likely begun to sense something strange going on with the Essence.

Rieren opened one eye. “It is coagulating Divine-Aspected Essence away from me so that I have access to other Aspects.”

“Why? You don’t like the Divine Aspect?” She placed a hand under her chin. “Does that have some kind of connection to the gods you want to avoid?”

“Nothing so dramatic, though yes, the gods and their servants are great proponents of it. I simply want to channel a different Aspect so I can use it later. Lighting Aspect.”

“Oh! Interesting.”

Rieren intended to return to her cultivation but she couldn’t hold off her question for long. “What about you? The Aspect you channel is wood, right? I doubt you can find it here. Are there other Aspects you seek to gain here?” She frowned. “Is it Divine Aspect?”

“It actually is,” Kalvia said.

She didn’t look at Rieren while answering. Her camp was almost done, with its little tent and bonfire and other paraphernalia set out in a neat order.

Rieren wasn’t surprised by her answer. She had already shown that she was channeling much the same Aspect that her father did. It was the imperial clan’s signature Aspect—using a wood-Aspected Domain and techniques to subdue all who stood against them.

Divine was just one related Aspect. As far as Rieren had been able to find out, there was water, earth, wind, and the most powerful of the whole troupe, Creation, as well. Altogether, they made a powerful repertoire from which to pull from. It was no wonder that Kalvia was doing her best to master all of them.

“Then you might wish to sit closer to the little brazier over there.” Rieren pointed to where she had set down the Inverted Essence Smoker. “Though, take care not to fall over the edge. I doubt I could reach you in time if you did.”

“Yes, I think I will do that.”

“I admit… I am a bit surprised.”

This time, Kalvia did look at Rieren sharply. “By what?”

“That you are channelling the same Aspects that the Forborne Emperor and his clan does when you seemed to be so against him.”

“Ah.” Kalvia began walking towards the Inverted Essence Smoker. “I can despise the man while still admitting that he has some redeeming qualities. No one is truly good or evil. It’s a spectrum, a mix that is unbalanced on the wrong end for a lot of people.”

“Fair enough.”

There was a political bent to using the Emperor’s powers against him. It would help establish Kalvia’s legitimacy when she finally made her bid for the throne. Fewer people would question her legitimacy when she used the Forborne Emperor’s techniques.

Rieren and Kalvia separated to properly begin their cultivation for now. It was good that Rieren had used the Inverted Essence Smoker. Not only had she concentrated the different Essence Aspects so that they wouldn’t interfere, she had also ensured that Kalvia would be cultivating far enough away from her not to distract her on occasion.

Lightning-Aspected Essence funneled into Rieren. She couldn’t use it right now, of course. For one, she didn’t have any techniques that used lightning yet. For another, her Domain hadn’t improved enough to add another Aspect just yet.

But it would before long. When the time came, she would be ready.

More importantly, she could feel the first dregs of the world’s Vital Essence slowly coming in towards her. It wasn’t enough to trigger any sudden visions, or even minor understandings yet. But they would come.

The only potential issue was the presence of the Aether so close to them. As they continued channelling, Rieren spotted Kalvia more than once looking around them as though she was sensing something strange was coming. Which was what Rieren felt over the next few days as they cultivated. The Aether was all around them, waiting to close in like stalking predator.

Rieren paid it no mind. She had been here before, had performed the same cultivation in the last timeline. Yes, the Aether had interfered the last time as well. In much the same way the Abyss had pulled her in when she had been using the last Enlightenment Locale, the Aether here was integrally connected to the potential Enlightenment.

What concerned Kalvia—and to a lesser degree, Rieren herself too—was the potential for Aetherians to interfere. She didn’t want to have to deal with monsters while she was cultivating. Unlike the last Enlightenment Locale, this one wasn’t so secure.

Mostly because Aetherians didn’t need Abyss Rents to enter the Mortal Realm. They had their own, varied means.

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While Rieren cultivated over the next week, occasionally pausing to chat with Kalvia who kept telling her to take breaks more often, Batcat had gone off. She had once more sent the kitten to scout around the area. Of course, direct threats to herself here on the Stannerig grounds were unlikely. What she was actually curious about was what was going on outside the city.

It was a while before Batcat returned. In fact, Rieren had experienced the first visions of her Enlightenment by the time the little Spirit Beast came back.

The Aether took a hold of her, just as she knew it had been about to.

With the way the Aether was pressing in all around Rieren, it was no surprise that at one point, she was no longer in her world. It was the same transitory feeling as she always had when she was advancing through a cultivation stage. Her environment turned disconnected from her corporeal body, her senses no longer remaining in the Mortal Realm, only watching it distantly.

Now, she wasn’t even in the Mortal Realm. Instead, Rieren had been transported to a world filled with darkness and glimmering stars.

Rieren shouldn’t have been able to stand in free space, but that was what it felt like at the moment. Despite there being no ground, she was upright in a star-strewn void with a platform under her feet. It was… pretty, she had to admit. Fiery comets shot past her like streaks of light. Stars twinkled like gemstones. Here and there, brilliant nebulae shone with gleaming colours.

She would have enjoyed the scenery if she hadn’t been expecting some sort of understanding to come along with it. There was an expectation to learn something, though Rieren wasn’t quite sure what. Her last life had taught her about the origin of things, about the bloom and transfer of energy from cosmic to microscopic proportions.

But as with the Abyss, things would likely be quite different here.

At least there were no Aetherians just yet. Though, she supposed she wasn’t in the Aether proper either. The outer cosmos was merely the doorstep into the Aether. She wasn’t—

Rieren had thought too soon. With no warning, the stars all grew too bright, turning the entire cosmos into a blanket of light shining too brightly to look at. She was forced to turn her eyes to slits. Ah, so now she was being dragged in. Well then.

The Aether appeared in all its golden glory a moment later. Brilliant and relentlessly luminous. Rieren hadn’t been here in ages, and it took a good while for her eyes to adjust.

When she could finally see, she was momentarily entranced by the way her senses were overloaded with stimuli. It felt as though she was on her personal little planet, its surface curving away sharply but not giving the sensation that she would fall. Her steps clacked on the hard rocky surface and the planet rotated with a grinding noise like it was turning on gears. She could even smell a riot of strange, oily odours coming from somewhere underneath.

Beyond Rieren, the world looked much the same. A vast, sky-like expanse stretched out in all directions in a blue and purple canvas, filled with more little planetoids like her own. Hers wasn’t alone.

They were all different. Some red and metallic, some looking like they were made of sand, and others not even fully solid, appearing more like ghostly afterimages of the first one. Rieren squinted, sure she could glimpse distant figures on all of them, though each planetoid had a singular being, as far as she could tell.

Just as she remembered. Each astral body held a singular Aetherian. One of the reasons Aetherians were so much smaller in number than the Abyssals was because of the circumstances of their birth.

Each planetoid that filled the Aether gave birth to a singular Aetherian. As numerous as the little worlds looked from Rieren’s point of view, there were actually a limited number of them. As such, the total number of the Aetherians was small. Not that Rieren felt sorry for the monsters’ strangeness. The fewer Aetherians in the world, the better off everyone was.

Rieren turned to face the main direction, where all the monsters were staring as well. Just as she remembered, the planetoids were orbiting a strange glimmer in the far distance.

Two gleaming masses were orbiting each other at the very centre of the Aether’s solar system. They were massive, easily as big as if not larger than the sun. One was the sun’s colour of white and gold, while the other one was a darker, bluish hue that still gave off too much light to look at directly for too long.

The cluster of planetoids was denser nearer the gigantic, gleaming masses. Rieren recalled well how one of the Aetherians had mentioned something about Higer Aetherians. That was what the planetoids closer to the twin starry masses indicated.

What strange society the Aetherians followed had a sense of hierarchy to it that corresponded to the closeness of one’s planetoid to the centre of their system. The closer one was, the more respect one could easily earn. Rieren wasn’t entirely sure what happened at the exact centre, but something told her that the Aetherians would no longer remain in the Aether.

“You’re a strange one,” someone said from farther off.

Rieren turned to see an Aetherian passing her by on his tiny, moss-covered world. The monster had the shape of a person, if a person had a diamond for a head and instead of a torso and limbs had a stone column with several broken wooden beams jutting outwards from it.

“When were you born?” the Aetherian asked her.

“Not here,” Rieren said.

Strange that it could see her. She was supposed to be in a vision, where she was observing things as though they were moving images. Not literally transporting herself through time and space to arrive at this weird location.

“When will you be dying then?” the Aetherian asked, undaunted by her short response.

Rieren considered for a moment. “Soon, I think.”

Even as she said it, she could feel the tug back to the regular world. Things were fading. Too fast, in truth. Rieren hadn’t learned anything yet. She hadn’t understood anything of note yet. This would all be worthless.

She was pulled off the planetoid by some strange force. Hurtling through the cosmos-like space, she accelerated towards the centre of the system with no way of stopping herself.

“Well, farewell for now, then,” the now-distant Aetherian yelled at her, somehow making itself heard. “Just remember that we aren’t parting for long! We’ll all be coming down soon enough. See you later!”

Rieren didn’t even get to ponder what that might have meant. She was sucked straight at the twin starry masses orbiting each other. As she approached at ever increasing speed, she did manage to catch what was going on.

The planetoids weren’t simply orbiting the enormous masses faster and faster as they got closer. They were quite literally diving into them like… her eyes widened.

Like meteors.

And then Rieren was pulled into the blinding brightness.