Rieren did her best to make sure her cultivation was as fast as possible. For that to happen, she had to gather as many of the needed resources as she could. The number of Credits she had in store had decreased greatly, so she wasn’t able to get too many, unfortunately.

There weren’t as many acupuncture needles piercing her skin, or as many ginsengs and pills she wished to consume to speed up her Essence channelling.

Whining wouldn’t help, however. Rieren focused on the act of cultivating itself. Distantly, she wondered if she could somehow use Batcat to empower her cultivation. Its power was related to memories. Could it, for instance, conjure a memory where she was drawing in a great deal of Essence and superimpose that summoning onto her current form?

That sounded so fantastical, Rieren wasn’t even sure where to begin with it. She threw the idea away and instead, focused on regular cultivation. Yes, the timing was precarious with the monsters getting closer, but she would have to put her faith in others for now.

As the days turned to a week, Amalyse eventually had to leave. It seemed the Dreadflood had indeed arrived.

While Amalyse—or any cultivator who wasn’t at the Ascendant realm at least—could be expected to handle an S-Grade monster, they were required to deal with the weaker monsters. All the B-grades and below were theirs to kill, while the more powerful cultivators focused their efforts on stopping the Dreadflood from reaching Falstrom.

Rieren had learned that the clans were withholding their judgment about the matter of the Stannerig Clanmistress’s guilt in murdering the former Ordorian Clanmaster. She wasn’t certain how they had all managed to put aside such a grave act and work together.

Maybe she had underestimated just how much people resented their defeat and subsequent eradication in the previous timeline. Maybe this time, they really wished to survive.

And the best way to do so was by working together.

Of course, Rieren wasn’t exactly satisfied that all dissenting voices had faded away. Hopefully, they wouldn’t arise at the worst time possible. Though, she wouldn’t put it past one or more of them to try to exact vengeance against the Clanmistress in the middle of Falstrom itself falling apart.

But the worst news came a few days after the first week of cultivating. Rieren had been getting closer and closer to another vision of the Aether, but then Silomene paid her a visit.

“I haven’t been able to find Lord Mercion yet,” she reported morosely. It had been a while since her search had begun, and she had been pulled away to the frontier to assist in the battles. At the moment, she was sporting an injury on her arm, thanks to a lack of free healers, which was the only reason she’d managed to get away for the time being. “But there’s worse news.”

“Well, get on with it, then,” Kalvia said.

Rieren glared at her, but she only stared at Silomene, who flushed under the intensity.

“The Clanmaster has fallen,” Silomene said. “Praise be his valiance.”

Rieren’s spine was tingling with a creeping sensation she couldn’t identify the source of at first. But it became clear enough before long. Yes, the news was terrible, as was the fact that the vacuum of power it had left behind had come at the worst possible time.

However, worse than all that was Rieren’s suspicion of how Clanmaster Merolk might have died.

“Praise be his valiance,” Kalvia echoed. “How did he perish?”

That felt a little insensitive to ask, but then, when one was to be the Empress, insensitivity came second to assuaging one’s curiosity.

“I wasn’t there,” Silomene said. “But from what I heard, he was battling the Dreadflood before he finally fell.”

The tingling sensation along Rieren’s spine intensified a hundredfold. The fear she’d been holding back now solidified into reality.

“This is not good,” Rieren said.

Kalvia turned to her sharply. “What do you mean?”

“The Dreadflood… absorbed him,” Silomene said. She peered at Rieren too. “You knew?”

Rieren nodded. Of course, she had known. She had seen it cause so much chaos in the last timeline. There were others who knew well enough as well, so it had never been a point worth discussing. At the very least, she assumed Gorint Malloh would have impressed that danger upon the Clanmaster and all who would have fought the Dreadflood directly.

“How is it even able to do something like that?” Kalvia asked. Her eyes widened. “Unless…”

Rieren nodded. “The Dreadflood is only the colloquial name for the monster due to its appearance. In actuality, it is one most of us have encountered before—a Life Stifler, albeit the most powerful one to exist.”

That was how the Dreadflood had absorbed the Clanmaster. Rieren recalled well how the first Life Stifler she had fought in this timeline had absorbed the body of an unfortunate Sect disciple. The Dreadflood had no doubt used the same technique to take possession of the Clanmaster’s corpse, and now Merolk’s reanimated body was likely wreaking havoc on the frontlines.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“It’s reanimated him, hasn’t it?” Kalvia had come to the same conclusion as Rieren. “How are they dealing with it?”

Silomene’s face professed that they weren’t dealing with it. “Things have become more perilous. Even the Clanmistress is about to head into battle, though… I do not know what state that will leave the clans in.”

“They need a firm hand,” Rieren said. “Now more than ever. She cannot simply leave.”

“I believe she knows.”

Rieren was letting her own mind twist itself into too many knots over the problem. She had entrusted the others to find a solution and deal with the monsters on the ground. Her task was to deal with the Aetherians. She would have to trust what their performance and focus on her objectives.

“I wish I could find Mercion,” Silomene said quietly after a moment’s silence.

Rieren patted her shoulder. “I am sorry. I know he means much to you.”

Now that Mercion had been missing for quite a while, she was starting to doubt if he was even alive. There was a possibility that he was severely injured, which was forcing him to stay hidden until he had recovered.

Rieren supposed that Yonvig would be able to provide them a lead, but he had stayed silent on the matter so far. All he had said was that he had fought back the second scion of the Ordorian clan during their meeting on the night of the assassination attempt, leaving him in a dire, but still alive state.

He had never gone back to check, and when others had inspected the area, they had found no sign of Mercion.

“I am on the verge of making a breakthrough,” Rieren said in an attempt to bring some more positivity into their little meeting.

Silomene smiled, recognizing her intent. There was little happiness on her face, though. “I will leave you to it, then. I know you’ll find a solution to the Aetherian problem soon, Rieren.”

“Take care, Silomene. Remember that you have done a lot already.”

Silomene flexed her injured arm with a wince. “Once the healers can get to me after everyone else, I should be able to get back to the field.” She nodded her head in farewell. “See you later.”

Rieren waved at her departing back.

“Do you really think you’ll be able to find a solution to the Aetherian problem in time?” Kalvia asked.

“I was not lying when I said I believed I am nearing a breakthrough,” Rieren said.

“I wish I had your confidence.”

Rieren paused her Essence channelling and glanced at Kalvia. She had her eyes tightly closed, as though opening them would make her insecurities real. So long as she didn’t see them, they wouldn’t exist.

“You always seemed to me to be one of the most confident people I have ever known,” Rieren said. “Do you admit that it was all an act?”

Kalvia laughed mirthlessly. “I only emulate what I’ve seen…” Her eyes opened, if briefly, to stare right back at Rieren. “What I keep on seeing. In truth, I have no great power of my own, and I am certainly not intelligent enough. My confidence has nothing to base itself on. It’s only an act. And… I’m not sure how long I can keep it up.”

“If you have no power and no real intelligence, what is it you do have then?”

Kalvia opened her eyes again but with a glare this time. “Aren’t you supposed to be reassuring me by pointing out all the great qualities I possess despite what my depressed state of mind wants to claim?”

Rieren shrugged. “I do not believe one needs to excel in any one thing to matter.”

“Not even when one is to be the Empress?”

“Not even then. Perhaps, especially then.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” Rieren faced her directly. If Kalvia truly wanted to be Empress, then she might as well know what Rieren thought of the whole thing. “We already have an Emperor who stands at the peak of all there is in this Mortal Realm. Our current system already promotes the ascension of one who is the greatest. And that does not work.”

Kalvia visibly swallowed. “Of course, that doesn’t work. But there still needs to be something everyone can rally behind. Some quality that stiches the whole thing together.”

“One who seeks to be at the peak of our social hierarchy must look down far more often than up. The position of Emperor should not be a springboard to climb even greater heights, like godhood and whatnot. When you are the Empress, you must understand that you now serve Elderlands, and that service comes first and foremost.”

Kalvia looked a little conflicted. Rieren couldn’t truly blame her. For someone trapped for her entire life in this one social system where strength begets all, where power stood highest, it was difficult to think of a scenario or a world where such was not the case.

But then again, they lived in a world where people could turn into beasts and channel other wonderous powers, where meteors brought down rapacious otherworldly beings bent on destruction and annihilation, where the world itself was but one of several.

In light of that, was a shift in the priority of the supreme governance so outlandish?

“Think on it,” Rieren said. She closed her eyes, signaling that she wasn’t up for debating the matter. “Perhaps it will help you find your confidence.”

Kalvia’s hand had closed to a tight fist. “And here I thought I already had my way ahead figured out.” She attempted to relax her posture, shaking her head with a sad little laugh. “That I at least knew what I had to do, regardless of my real feelings.”

Rieren hadn’t expected her to come around to such a different way of thinking on her own. Though, it was a tiny bit disappointing that her own reason for ousting the current Forborne Emperor wasn’t because she envisioned a new way to rule the Elderlands. She just thought she could do his job, but better.

It was time for Rieren to reclaim her internal harmony. Over the next few days, her channelling drew in more of the Locale’s Vital Essence. The first hints of a vision were at the edges of her mind. It wouldn’t be long before she could reach the Aether.

And through it, the Peak-Enlightened stage.

When the vision finally hit her full force, Rieren once again found herself in the exact same spot as she had been previously. On the tiny planetoid surrounded by dozens—no, hundreds­—of others all orbiting and slowly circulating towards the same location.

The connection between the Aether and the Mortal Realm.

Batcat meowed on top of her head.

“You came with me?” Rieren asked. She felt on top of her head and found the kitten’s fuzzy body there. “How is that even possible?”

Batcat answered with another alert meow that explained nothing.

Perhaps it was their Spirit bond. She had advanced through the ranks with Batcat in her vicinity before, but it had never been a part of her transcendental experiences. Strange that it was here now, keeping her company in the Aether. Not that she minded. Though… Rieren felt upwards again. She could touch the cat.

Did that mean she and the cat were here more physically now, instead of just as spirits? Or could she only touch the kitten because it was a fellow spirit in this vision of the Aether like her?

As much as she would have liked to find answers to those questions, her attention was soon peeled away by the reason she had come here.

“Ahoy there!”

Rieren looked around and found the same Aetherian who had accosted her during her last visit now waving in welcome.

“Welcome back,” it said. “To the beginning of a new world!”