The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop

It was a gaudy environment in his opinion. The parlor he was in, meant to host all manner of opulent gatherings, tea parties and important people. Dazzling chandeliers of gold hung from the ceiling, the walls were made of sparkling marble and inlaid with jewels and the curtains and banners lining the room were of the finest make. All while the sunlight filtered in and created a scene the old Orodan couldn’t have even dreamt of.

It was a stark contrast to the dreary and haunting landscape of Narictus in which he’d died in the last checkpoint loop. Beauty and luxury at the start, destruction and the end of his loop at the finish.

“Still, I’m of half-a-mind to call this entire venture off… I was not aware the enemy had that vile weapon prepared,” Zhou Shan said as the High Sovereign stared at the ground in thought and a bit of worry. “Should that weapon successfully hit you I’m not sure there’ll be much left to salvage even within a time loop.”

“Absolutely not,” Orodan immediately rejected. “If the beam hits me, I’ll find some method of countering it. Besides, with how quick Zaessythra is to kill me, you needn’t worry to begin with.”

Zhou Shan shook his head.

“You don’t understand, Orodan. That thing… the records we have suspect that it’s not of this world or any that we know of. The ancient records state that it’s been brought out quite sparingly, however whenever it has… the victims have had their souls damaged in some irreparable way, unable to access the System at all! This is no casual matter!”

“It was the weapon used against me,” Zaessythra said. “My memories are still partially jumbled, and I cannot recall exactly why the Hegemony saw fit to use such a thing on a mere Transcendent. Regardless, it worked frighteningly well, and my access to the System and my Status is still tenuous.”

“Define ‘tenuous’,” Orodan stated.

“As you know, skills are a product of our own understanding and that of the System’s coming together. It’s why people suddenly improve at level thresholds and how skill levels don’t exactly have diminishing returns even as you advance to high levels,” she explained. “That however… can be taken away…”

Just how much of his skillset was reliant upon the System? True, he made advancements in many skills and was rewarded with subsequent level gains, but the corresponding benefit from such advancements weren’t just his own. Especially when advancing past tier thresholds. The sudden jump in power couldn’t be explained away as just his own understanding.

The two skills he could be certain were purely his own understanding… were his Celestial skill, and Eternal Soul Reactor.

“If they even recover from the mind and soul shattering that the weapon causes,” she added. “Before you found and assisted me, I was bound to a book, pitifully attempting to recover for hundreds of thousands of years. My memories were mostly lost, my personality in tatters and my day-to-day was filled with naught but the struggle to remember something, anything.”

Orodan winced at the thought of that, and it must’ve shown for she gave him a reassuring smile as though saying she was fine. He was stubborn as a bull and had the willpower of a mountain, but the thought of spending hundreds of thousands of years as a mentally broken shell of himself made even Orodan respect the scale of that struggle.

And most importantly…

“Then, your current skill levels, aren’t they affected? Your performance during our spar was rather impressive,” Orodan praised. “What part of your System is different?”

“I never said my skills weren’t affected,” she answered, an airy and smug smile on her face. “I have access to the System once more, but my connection is still shaky. Aside from my core skills I have a difficult time maintaining the connection to the System for more ancillary ones. Frankly, I’m surprised my detection spell went off and gave you as good of a picture as it did.”

Well… damn.

She claimed to not know why the Hegemony utilized the weapon on her, yet given how powerful she was with an unreliable connection to the System… just how mighty could she be if the weapon had never struck her? Orodan didn’t like tricks and skullduggery, but he could see the logic in making sure a dangerous enemy couldn’t re-join the afterlife and potentially reincarnate.

His powers over time weren’t absolute. Chronomancy wasn’t all-encompassing, he couldn’t roll back changes to the inner soul core of an individual. Reverting skill level gains or removing subtle marks of the System deep within was still beyond him. He’d heard of no one capable of such a feat.

Hence, curing Zaessythra fully hadn’t been possible. In fact, Orodan didn’t have much to do with repairing her soul, he’d simply guided her to the moon, helped recover her memories and Zaessythra had done most of the work herself.

Which meant these weapons were dangerous, as their effects would persist through the loops. Just what were they?

“Do they have a name? Referring to it as ‘the weapon’ is getting a bit old,” Orodan remarked.

“The oldest mentions of them come from outside our galaxy, and they’re simply referred to as the ‘shards’,” Zhou Shan answered. “Shards of what? We do not know. But they’re an amplifier, a lens through which power is funnelled and then the resultant beam is capable of causing irreversible damage to even the sacred soul core. An act which causes even Administrators to descend whenever the weapon is deployed.”

“Using it is illegal? If that’s the case, the Hegemony don’t fear punishment?” Orodan asked. “How has the scale of galactic power not changed with its usage?”

“It’s not a miracle weapon which changes the tide of battle. It’s only a devastating blow if the attack connects. Beings of sufficient power can block or deflect the beam, it takes a long time to charge up and is expensive to maintain,” Zhou Shan explained. “But for those unable to defend against it… not even an Embodiment-level soulmancer can heal the damage. The soul itself is indestructible, but through that weapon, it can be broken to such a state that it may as well be a true death. As for the punishment, the last time it was used a few hundred-thousand years ago, the Administrators descended, and some sort of accord was reached. An oddity, given that the other documented uses of them throughout the records indicate that Administrators have razed entire star-systems to the last atom to root it out.”

“If they’re against its use, why allow it at all? And how the hells did the Hegemony get a hold of it?”

“That, we do not know. History points to an accord being reached, but to so flagrantly violate it… they must be taking you very seriously to risk it,” Zhou Shan said. “Prior to the current times, the last usage was a few hundred thousand years ago, but before even that there was a rather notable inter-galactic conflict a few million years ago where a number of the shards went missing in the void between galaxies. They’ve presumably wound up in the Hegemony’s hands from there.”

In other words, the politics and power struggle behind these shards were incredibly ancient. The question remained as to where exactly these shards came from and why the Administrators were vehemently against their use. Still, Orodan’s current concerns lay not with the history behind these weapons, but how to counter them.

Brute force was an option, yet it wasn’t one he could rely on during this loop. And from everything he’d heard and the terror the intrinsic parts of his soul felt… it wasn’t the kind of weapon one should test themselves against wantonly. Much as his warrior’s heart demanded he face it in honest battle, he had others relying on him not to die. At the very least, he would try other options first.

“Alright, I won’t lie and say that I haven’t thought about attempting to take the beam head-on,” Orodan admitted even as Zaessythra wearily sighed. “But I’m not reckless enough to endanger your lives by acting how I usually do when a lot relies on me. However, I do still intend to work on a method of resisting these shards, to that end, once we steal the one from Narictus, I intend to experiment with it.”

“I must advise against that, the sheer danger involved would still be high, even if you subject yourself to a little bit of it,” Lady Sujana, Knight Commander of the Holy Conclave said, speaking up. “And given what everyone says of your methods… even riskier.”

“I’m not one to remain idle and leave the outcome to chance,” Orodan countered. “If I’ll be facing this weapon anyways, best I get to preparing myself against it. Fate and chance won’t bring us victory, hard work and the willingness to embrace danger will.”

The Knight Commander’s face scrunched up as though wanting to offer rebuke, yet she gave a begrudging nod of respect. It seemed the prickly God had some values which were in line with Orodan’s own.

“I must concur with Lady Sujana. Yet, despite my disagreement I don’t dispute your results and all you’ve achieved for us thus far, Orodan,” Zhou Shan said. “Let us speak of more pertinent matters, however. We now know you’re walking into a trap. They’re not only waiting for you, but have the shard primed and ready to use across dimensional layers. A prohibitively expensive attack to use under ordinary circumstances… yet when facing a time looper, they would of course be willing to commit their all. It was a good thing the Conclave loaned us one of their holy weapons, otherwise your first attempt would’ve ended in unmitigated disaster.”

“The spirits are an issue, our point of entry onto Narictus is within the Fraakshal Forest and it’s swarming with wraiths and ghosts,” Zaessythra said as she hovered her hand over the mental projection cube, zooming into the finer details on the projected display. “Is there no other infiltration zone?”

“Try as we might, that forest is one of the few areas with enough distance from a major city that the dimensional ripples won’t be detected,” Lady Sujana answered. “Our foes are neither foolish nor complacent. The planet seems relatively normal and relaxed from our distant scans and divinations, however beneath the surface, the Hegemony and its affiliated forces are on high alert, their spies and wards emplaced at all key locations. Our infiltration involves sending you into a multi-layered dimensional bubble and then inserting this bubble in as small a form as possible into Narictus. This bubble then unfurls layer-by-layer until you’re dropped off into the material plane at your location. It’s a highly advanced technique, however the problem is that the Midnight Court also has dimensional specialists, one or two of them better than I. Performing entry anywhere else would lead to your immediate discovery.”

He couldn’t even create a dimensional bubble yet. To make a multi-layered one… Orodan was nowhere near the skill level required to pull off such a feat of dimensional finesse. Yet, despite this advanced and precise application of the art, the enemy could still detect them if they appeared too close to a city. Each faction within their galaxy had its own bag of tricks. However, specialties inevitably arose. And given how the Hegemony could field a planet-swallowing dragon who drew worlds into a separate dimension… it was only natural that their affinity for dimensionalism was quite high.

That they could make an unannounced entry at all was impressive enough.

“Information: Planetary denizens on high alert. Likelihood of unknown travellers being reported: high. Solution: stealth-oriented infiltration operation,” W78 intoned.

“Against that many wraiths?” Zaessythra asked. “None of us have relevant infiltration skills. Any attempts to harm or eliminate the wraiths will cause their masters to take notice. Spells or obscuring magics also risk detection by any wards or specialists that may be nearby.”

“Why not?” Orodan countered. “We have many attempts, and most importantly… we need not go to the same village every time.”

As he spoke, his hand went towards another hamlet on the mental projection cube’s display. Small, perhaps less than ten buildings overall compared to the hundred or so he’d seen in the first village. But… it was quite secluded, and rather far out of the way. Without Zaessythra’s scan they might not have even known it was there.

“What would visiting some run-down group of huts bring us?” Zaessythra asked, but then even her eyes narrowed as she looked closer. “That’s…”

“Yes… a hamlet where the denizens seem to hunt the ghouls and wraiths of the forest,” Orodan remarked.

Her scan was incredibly detailed and caught everything within a two-thousand-mile radius. This was what allowed them to zoom in on the detailed projection of a wild-eyed woman with a musket and pitchfork facing down a pack of three wraiths.

A far cry from how he’d seen the denizens of the first village act towards the supernatural. Furthermore, a closer look at this particular hamlet revealed another telling feature. There were no banners in sight demarcating which noble house it belonged to. Every other village and town in the radius of her scan had some sort of banner, standard or uniformed guard denoting who the village owed allegiance to. Not this one though.

If the wraiths were spies for the enemy, and the first village they set foot in held hostile forces… then perhaps it was time to aim for a different destination. One not as closely aligned with the Midnight Court and their overlords in the Hegemony.

#

“Pay attention, we’re within a mile of where the first of the wraiths are,” Zaessythra said, nudging Orodan whose gaze was locked onto the contents of the scroll he was reading. “If you’re so intent on studying, then perhaps waiting for a few days before launching this operation would’ve been better.”

“First, I am paying attention. If you recall, I have multiple minds, and with how my body now works, I can see from my forehead or my hair, so needing to look up isn’t necessary,” Orodan replied.

“Information entered into database. Hypothesis: Lowered effectiveness of flanking assaults on subject,” W78 said as his friend was in scroll form strapped across Zaessythra’s back.

“Indeed, one could even say I have eyes in the back of my head,” Orodan said.

“And these eyes of yours are a bit covered given the re-purposed rag you have over your head,” she reminded.

“Not at all. Every cell in my body can see, as long as I don’t have clothes over it, I can see from there just fine,” Orodan said. “As for my studies, I find I work better under a bit of pressure. The gains are better and the insights more profound.”

The half-dragon simply shook her head and grumbled something unflattering under her breath.

Regardless, they were close, and she was right. Orodan put away the scroll on chronomancy and they proceeded onwards.

All conversation was brought to a halt as the trio began to consciously lower the blinding luminosity of their souls via dampening the natural soul emissions they produced. Orodan through his naturally high skill levels in Soul Mastery. Zaessythra through her own methods, and W78 through a specialized module he’d brought along.

The golems he’d seen on Alastaia didn’t have souls, but the fact that his friend not only had some sort of personality but also a connection to the System? Orodan never doubted for a second from their first meeting that W78 had a soul. A somewhat sarcastic one at times, but overall, a friendly and gentle one.

As they trekked, Orodan reflected on what he’d read of Narictus and its ethereal denizens.

All souls produced soul energy; however untrained people simply weren’t in-tune with their souls to the point that all of the soul energy was utilized. Soul energy naturally converted to mana and vitality, however whatever was wasted ended up as minor emission. An emission that could be detected.

Particularly by wraiths and ghosts, which were supernatural and ethereal creatures themselves.

He’d never seen wraiths on his home world, they were something novel he’d seen only upon Narictus so far. The necromancers back home raised corpses, but the ones here could do not only that… but also bind a soul to their servitude through magic rituals. It was the soul’s natural tendency to be drawn towards a soul nexus upon a person’s death, however a necromancer could stop this process through binding the soul to a physical item, which in most cases ended up being the tattered rags and haunting robes most wraiths were known for.

On Alastaia he’d grown up hearing stories of how ‘fell spirits’ and ghosts were supposedly immune to physical damage but were vulnerable to magic and the holy power of the Gods. It was in fact, the opposite with wraiths. Destroying the physical object binding them to the material plane was a quick method of banishing them to the afterlife. A sword stroke could do this just as easily as a fireball. As a result, necromantic circles upon Narictus widely agreed that wraiths were the inferior form of ethereal minion. The only thing they were good for was bypassing conventional physical defenses such as armor as the blade of a wraith was known for its ability to pierce even the thickest of shields and armor. Provided they weren’t ensorcelled, enchanted or empowered by any other energy source. Melee combatants going up against one were advised to bring magical equipment, not to deal a killing blow, but to protect themselves. After all, stories abounded of wraith blades simply passing right through ordinary swords when the warrior expected a clash of blades.

Wraiths were the far more common sight in the Fraakshal Forest, still, they were a trifling matter for any fighter at the Adept-level and above.

Ghosts, however, were the preferred ethereal minion of necromancers and far deadlier. Through ritual magic - or in rare cases… natural hatred and emotion - they had their very souls tethered to something in the material plane and simply couldn’t depart for the nearest soul nexus. Sometimes this was a location, other times a person or object. In any case, ghosts were the deadlier of the two by far, to the point that even an unprepared Elite could find themselves killed if they didn’t have the preparations to face one.

After all, ghosts were essentially a soul. And trying to swing a regular sword at a soul was an exercise in futility. Ghosts could materialize and de-materialize upon the material plane, flitting in and out to do harm and evade attacks. They were capable of passing through walls, descending into stone bunkers and floating out of the ground as though physical obstacles were but air for them. Furthermore, when a ghost materialized to attack someone, even if the ghost was then struck and scattered it could simply reform and return with a short bit of time. Magical or soul attacks were required to harm them, that, or a physical attack so grossly powerful that it caused quite some collateral damage.

Ghosts, he had heard of. Supposedly the Cathedral of the Prime Five back home had exorcists who were trained in dealing with them, however Orodan hadn’t encountered any during his time there.

Not that they, or wraiths, would’ve been any threat to him after he’d acquired Eternal Soul Reactor.

The main concern, however, was sneaking past them in a densely wooded forest where the wildlife had already been scared away at the sight of them.

“The closest of them are a half mile east of us, which is the direction we’re headed,” Orodan projected to Zaessythra through the psionic portion of Domain Of Perfect Cleaning. Zaessythra couldn’t use her scanning skill for fear of discovery, however he could use Vision Of Purity as it didn’t exactly send a pulse of anything out the way a conventional scanning skill did. “The wildlife has all been scared off, are you sure they won’t notice?”

Orodan had oft marched the road between Ogdenborough and Scarmorrow during his days in the county militia. That and the occasional ranging out into the wilds near town to clear out wolves and weak monstersthat came too close to the borders. From those times he knew, the first sign of an approaching foe was whenever the sounds of wildlife and birds quietened down. An approaching wolf or monster would oft scare them away.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Just be quiet and continue flitting in-between the trees to avoid their line of sight for long,” Zaessythra said. “Wraiths and ghosts lack a physical body and consequently their regular senses are extremely dulled. Their minds are also clouded, and they aren’t too smart given all the years they’ve spent without a brain.”

A fair explanation.

As they got closer and closer through sneaking about, Orodan received a message.

[New Skill → Stealth 1]

Orodan wouldn’t say he was happy to have such a sneaky skill in his arsenal. It irked his warrior’s pride. However, sometimes sacrifices needed to be made.

Even with just the first level, he felt his movements become naturally quieter, as though he was subtly doing better. He hadn’t dwelled on it much before, but his discussion with Zaessythra had made him hyper-conscious of the fact that the System itself empowered people and their skills. He didn’t naturally know good sneaking technique, yet here with a single level up he’d somehow improved. Something to dwell on for later.

True enough, the ghosts and wraiths weren’t the most observant of watchers. With the party’s soul emissions tightly controlled and lowered to the level of the local flora and fauna, they didn’t have any issues sneaking past them. Even quite close to them, as long as they quickly flitted from tree to tree, not remaining within their line of sight for too long, the ethereal spies of the Fraakshal Forest were rather slow on the uptake and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. If anything, they seemed quite tormented and stuck within their own minds.

Vision Of Purity allowed Orodan to see right through the trees while the watchers of the enemy couldn’t see him. Using this, they hid behind trees and moved expediently.

Up close, it also allowed him to see the various tethers leading to and from each of these creatures. Wraiths had a tether to some physical object on them, typically the robes, but some had a piece of jewelry as their binding object too. The ghosts though, had a tether to the forest itself, which given the history of warfare and mass slaughter within the Fraakshal Forest, made sense.

However, what really interested Orodan, was the fact that almost all of the ghosts and a majority of the wraiths, had a tether connecting to something far away. It led to something, or someone, well beyond the range of Vision Of Purity.

His Stealth skill levelled up to 9 over the next fifteen minutes until the trio were finally past the last few. Then, past the distance where he was certain he wouldn’t be overheard, Orodan spoke.

“Almost all of them have a tether connecting to somewhere beyond my sight. A common source… perhaps that is the spymaster who watches us.”

“You said it was a vampire that came out and confronted us in the last attempt? Perhaps it’s her,” Zaessythra posed.

“Perhaps. I’ll keep an eye out to confirm if she has any tethers going from the spirits to her if I see her again,” Orodan replied. “Honestly… can’t we just climb to the treetops and jump to wherever we need?”

“Information: Presence of enemy reconnaissance units. Likelihood of detection - 100%.”

“It was but a suggestion… no need to shoot it down so badly…” Orodan mumbled.

“W78 is right, the skies of Narictus are full of crows who undoubtedly serve as watchers for the Midnight Court,” Zaessythra remarked. “And unlike the wraiths and ghosts, they have excellent eyesight and are quite keen to pursue any movement they deem unnatural.”

Fair point. Their circumstances weren’t ideal, but the forest was still the easiest path they could take to avoid detection.

Some further progress was made towards the hamlet, until finally…

“I see combat up ahead,” Orodan said. “A woman fighting a ghoul and a wraith.”

“Which means we should be nearing the hamlet,” Zaessythra said.

“Excellent, let’s go and help her out, I’ve been itching for some combat!” Orodan declared.

Yet before his hands could go to his weapons, Zaessythra’s slap to the back of his head stopped him.

“No, you idiot! If that wraith sees us the attempt ends in failure!” she scolded. “If we’re to help, it shall have to be from a distance and with no indication that the battle was won by anyone other than that woman.”

Orodan sighed but agreed. His desire to leap into the fray had nearly led to disaster for this attempt.

The interrupting crack of gunfire ended their conversation. The shot sounded far louder than any firearms he’d seen on Alastaia.

Orodan hadn’t come from the nicest of upbringings, but his clothes at least didn’t look like he’d gone trekking through a swamp for a week. This woman’s attire was quite tattered and very mud caked. A basket of herbs lay on the ground next to her and she had a manic look on her face, pure ferocity and hatred in her eyes.

On Alastaia, the elves and then dwarves sometimes looked down on humans, particularly on the common working men and women of Inuan. Against the various monsters and other races of the universe, what good was a common human? The answer was rather evident in front of him.

The woman’s technique and skills were unrefined, but she had a ferocity to her that was clearly taking the wraith aback. The ghoul had a gaping hole in its gut from the small handheld firearm, and it was trying but failing to flank her as her pitchfork was moving with an impressive zeal backed by her rage. Two against one, and she was doing admirably. Orodan would put her around the peak of the Apprentice-level, soon to become an Adept.

The dwarven magical guns he’d seen on Alastaia were made of mostly metal and meant to be wielded with two hands. This woman held a smaller firearm in her left hand, the frame composed partly of wood, and a pitchfork in her right. And she fought with an unrestrained anger and hatred for the foes arrayed against her.

“Bloodsucking monster! Evil spirit! You won’t have me today!” she roared as a thrust hit the wraith’s rag, causing it to unravel even further.

Good! Orodan approved!

Techniques and skills could be refined, tactics could be learned. But unless one had that raw heart and drive for violence, a warrior would never emerge.

The only issue was that the wraith she was battling was tethered to not just its rags, but a small pendant hanging from its neck. It was a difficult target to hit, and the battle seemed unfair even as the woman angrily battered away at it.

Which was why Orodan decided to use a skill which was almost purely physical.

A twirl of his fingers, and the Whirlpool Whirlwind, which was under the purview of his Celestial skill, was activated. The pendant wasn’t yanked off, as that would be far too apparent, but it was pulled forward enough that the woman’s eye was drawn to it and held in place for just enough of a moment that she managed to reach out and rip it right off the wraith’s neck.

It unravelled immediately afterwards, and the ghoul fell in short order as it was speared to the ground by a pitchfork and had its head stomped in.

While Orodan wanted to go out and praise her for a good fight, he knew now wasn’t the time. Especially when three more wraiths were showing up.

“This must be what my scan picked up in your last attempt,” Zaessythra said through a quick telepathic message.

It was a similar scene for sure. It occurred to him that the woman must’ve been good enough to beat the first wraith and ghoul by herself, but likely fell to the pack of three.

Well, not if he had anything to say about it.

His Celestial skill undoubtedly gave off soul emissions, but certain facets of it didn’t. Whirlpool Whirlwind for instance, was entirely physical. And the Psionic Assault for another, when used at a very low-level when the target wasn’t aware and not resisting… might go unnoticed.

With that, Orodan reached out to the woman’s mind. Not to control, dominate or read it… but to subtly influence her. To guide her pitchfork and musket true. Orodan wasn’t telling her how to fight or altering her combat style. He simply directed her existing aggression to more… efficient outcomes.

The first of the wraiths approached, and the aggressive thrust of her pitchfork somehow managed to perfectly hit the jewelled ring on its finger, causing it to immediately fall apart with a shriek. A quick switch was flipped on her gun, and Orodan realized that it was a repeater and had two shots per reload.

Her hand was subtly guided and at the last moment corrected slightly to hit the necklace it wore with square precision. The last wraith was then dispelled through brutal work with the pitchfork which destroyed the rags upon its ethereal form.

Even the woman herself seemed a bit taken aback at how well she fought. Perhaps, Orodan had guided her hand a bit from a distance, but she had the makings of a fine warrior all the same.

For a moment, he thought the battle over, the crisis averted. He thought wrong.

His Dimensionalism was now high enough to recognize when anyone else was intruding upon the material plane from elsewhere. And just like before, a familiar vampire stepped out. Which was very, very bad news for the unfortunate herbalist.

The vampire was a Transcendent, and this poor woman was but a mere peak-Apprentice. Even if she’d somehow risen to the Adept-level, expecting her to face down a Transcendent was impossible.

“Hmm… I thought I felt something odd around this area,” the vampire spoke, and Orodan cursed to himself as even that minor usage of his Celestial skill had drawn her notice. “How does a little savage like you manage to kill four of my wraiths and a ghoul?”

The trio were behind a copse of thick trees, visually hidden, but no chances could be taken. Immediately, they lowered their soul emissions to nil just to be safe. His left hand remained extended out and constantly drew in the air around him and Zaessythra for purification.

Vampires were naturally good at sniffing out blood. Hence, Orodan drew in and purified the very air around them to avoid the risk of her catching their scent.

“Vampire… I… I won’t give up where my people are, I won’t!” she declared and gripped her pitchfork tightly in hand as her gun was pointed towards her foe.

“How quaint and adorable. Little lamb, do you know who I am?” the vampire asked. “Do you realize how outmatched you are? I could’ve destroyed your little tribe of savages millennia ago; you remain alive at my mercy… and for my entertainment.”

“I- I care not! My people will never bow to the Midnight Court!” she angrily shouted.

“Perhaps a few millennia of being drained and healed over and over as you pay the blood tithe will change your mind?” the vampire asked, and the woman’s face went pale, and her hands trembled in raw terror. It wasn’t a pleasant fate, and no amount of subtle guidance from Orodan would save her in this coming confrontation.

Damn this attempt. He easily broke free of Zaessythra’s warning grip on his arm and reached for his weapon. They could try again if needed, but he refused to stand by as this bloodsucker terrorized some poor woman many tiers beneath her. Vampires were detested on Alastaia as well, and Orodan’s perception of the bloodthirsty ones hadn’t gotten any better since he encountered and meted out a fitting end to the one in the Ogdenborough jail and the True Vampire upon the moon.

Yet, before he could act…

…was that a flying broom?

The poor herbalist was yanked backwards by telepathic force, thrown out of the line of fire. And at the same time a cavalcade of elemental destruction rushed towards the Transcendent vampire.

Women sitting atop flying brooms wearing floppy, pointed hats like old wizards did wasn’t what he expected to see. Orodan wasn’t sure who they were, but he could approve of their decision to ride flying brooms. Why hadn’t he thought of that?

“Ah… you lot again. Have the witches of the Fraakshal Forest come to learn their place once more? How many times must I humiliate you and slaughter your sisters before you get the message that the Midnight Court has won the war?” the vampire said and then had a sadistic smirk upon her face. “Your sisters still scream for mercy in my dungeons.”

“We will pay back every grievance tenfold, Isadora,” the leading ‘witch’ said. “You will die, and House Evgaros will fall soon enough.”

“Hahah! Come then, entertain me. Struggle and fight as though you have a chance so that I might savor the moment you break all the more sweetly.”

The battle began in earnest and many spells were cast. And while the addition of the witches was a good thing… Orodan began to understand that this was a lopsided battle.

The witches were all merely Grandmasters with not a single Transcendent among them. The strongest witch was but a quadruple-Grandmaster, and her battle-power was nowhere near this Isadora, the vampire who’d discovered him in the last attempt.

Furthermore, he could sense no tethers between Isadora and the wraiths and ghosts of the Fraakshal Forest. Which meant she wasn’t even the spymaster watching over the forest. Engaging and killing her wouldn’t even solve the issue of the enemy’s surveillance capabilities.

Flasks of bubbling acids and poisons were flung, elementally destructive spells cast, and the trees came alive to whip at the target alongside flocks of crows which all rushed towards the vampire. Yet, it was for naught as a simple, yet powerful shield of blood blocked all assaults and waves of crimson power shot out, grievously wounding two witches with just the first strike.

Isadora was clearly some sort of attack dog for whoever this unknown spymaster was. She had no tethers towards the ghosts and wraiths of the forest… but she did have a tether herself, likely leading back to her master.

And all this time Orodan had spent trekking through the forest and closely examining the tethers, it had borne some fruit. The tether was essentially a link between master and servant. The wraiths and ghosts were the servants of this unknown spymaster of the Hegemony… but so was Isadora.

The link was essentially a connection to share information and the senses through. However, like all connections… it could be disrupted, tampered with.

Breaking it entirely would simply cause immediate alarm and the descent of the Hegemony followed by the end of the loop. Yet… what if one tampered with the very information being sent through the connection? And what if the recipient assumed that their servant had been defeated not by Orodan… but by these witches? The vampire getting killed wouldn’t be nearly as much of a concern then.

The battle was going poorly for the broom-riding spellcasters. As a result, the leading witch brought out a final gambit, a long and sharp piece of wood. Piercing a vampire through the heart with an enchanted weapon wasn’t a new concept, the Cathedral on Alastaia was known to do such things during vampire hunting. What was new, was the fact that the witch wielding it sank a full four-fifths of her vitality, mana and soul energy into the weapon.

It was an all-or-nothing attack. One that was doomed to fail as the vampire knew it was a weapon lethal to her and would defend herself accordingly.

Of course, neither side of the battle had accounted for a slight helping hand from Orodan Wainwright.

Orodan had two targets. The tether, and the vampire Isadora herself.

He hit both simultaneously.

The vampire screamed in horror as her mind was assaulted. At the same time, Domain Of Perfect Cleaning shot out and the Psionic Assault portion of it smashed into the vampire’s mind and altered her very senses to make it so that she perceived a defeat at the hands of the witches, that they’d employed a powerful ritual to successfully attack her mind.

[Domain Of Perfect Cleaning 91 → Domain Of Perfect Cleaning 92]

It wouldn’t hold up to close scrutiny, and this vampire’s master would question how a group of Grandmasters had managed to best a decently strong early Transcendent. Yet, the evidence was undeniable. It would be by the hand of the witches that this vampire died.

The leading witch holding the vampire-killing weapon looked confused yet proceeded with the attack, her broom streaking towards the vulnerable Isadora, until finally, the sharp piece of wood pierced her heart. With one final scream, Isadora exploded into tiny motes of dust, even as Orodan saw her soul be pulled far away in the direction of the tether.

The leading witch’s gaze suddenly turned in the direction of where they were hiding. A fireball blasted apart the copse of trees the trio were hiding behind and she gazed sharply at them.

“We see you, outsider, we… we must flee immediately,” the leading witch said. “We were not expecting to actually slay her today, yet against all odds we’ve succeeded. This will doubtlessly anger her master into arriving soon.”

“How soon?” Orodan asked.

“It could be any moment now, we must flee!” she exclaimed.

“We must go with them, Orodan. Them being caught is one thing, but if we’re spotted the entire planet will be destroyed as the Hegemony descends!” Zaessythra yelled.

“Information: dimensional scanning detected. Unit is shielding against hostile scans. Solution: exfiltration alongside allied forces advised,” W78 said.

Orodan hadn’t even known that his robotic friend was preventing enemy scans from picking them up all this time. W78 had more useful abilities than he knew, no wonder it had been sent along on this mission.

With a final look around the haunted forest, the trio followed the witches through the portal they created.

#

It wasn’t the hamlet they’d been taken to, but someplace all the more secretive, farther to the east. Zaessythra’s scan hadn’t picked the location up, mainly because there were no enchantments or magic obscuring it at all. Just an expert usage of camouflage, blending in and the concealing properties of being very deep underground.

It wasn’t a natural cave entrance either. It was a genuine living tree which opened up and led downwards. They were essentially within its deep roots, each root being the size of a hallway and branching out into many rooms. Even with a scan, such a thing was incredibly difficult to make out. Magic scans would see nothing out of the ordinary as there was no active spell craft involved. And physical scans would simply see a large tree.

Now, they were sat at a table, after having finally explained their situation to the woman before them.

Her floppy and pointed hat comically dropped down to cover one of her eyes, even as the other one had its eyebrow quirked upwards.

“In other words, your presence here is for the purpose of stealing a dangerous weapon from the Midnight Court, but in actuality, it’s a weapon which serves the Hegemony,” she stated, and Zaessythra nodded. “No offense meant to you, after all you’re our saviours, but this all sounds far above our station.”

“Yet, the Hegemony are overlords of the Midnight Court, the very rulers of the night who oppress you and those who refuse to submit to their rule,” Zaessythra countered. “Will you not consider lending us your aid? Together, we could usher in a new age of freedom from the night.”

Orodan wasn’t one for speeches or impassioned attempts at persuasion, yet he had to admit that Zaessythra clearly was.

“I… we-”

“Zaessythra, it’s fine,” Orodan interjected. “We don’t need them to directly help us. How about this, if you simply give us information on where the weapon might be or where the bases of power for the Midnight Court are, then we’ll be on our way. Hells, we can even kill a vampire or two that’s been bothering you.”

“That will not be necessary,” the witch spoke. “You’ve helped us enough, and the fact that Isadora Evgaros’s master did not descend unto the battlefield in utter fury the moment she was slain is proof enough of your story.”

It had been a full day since they’d killed the vampire and neither House Evgaros nor the Hegemony had descended in fury to their location. Or rather, nobody powerful had anyways. According to the witches’ crow scouts, there were plenty of roving patrols and small armies that had marched through the location of the battle, but these were more so investigative and meant as a show of force. There had been pairs of Transcendents that had also come by, but nobody any stronger than the slain vampire herself.

The implication was that the higher-ups and powers of the Midnight Court were simply too preoccupied with the risk of an attack by the allied forces. Sending a powerful Transcendent to immediately respond could leave a very real vulnerability in Narictus’s defenses elsewhere. Orodan wasn’t the only person they had to worry about. The Conclave and the reformed Celestial Court led by Zhou Shan were of serious concern too. In fact, it had been a strategy proposed by Zaessythra, to bait and draw out the powerhouses of the enemy to one location of the planet and then striking another.

However, as seen, it wouldn’t have worked. With the assumption that Isadora had been killed by the witches, the Midnight Court didn’t consider it something worth sending a truly powerful Transcendent or God over. Far as they were concerned, Orodan Wainwright was still on Xian. The Hegemony had many star systems under their rule, and Narictus wasn’t the only place which hosted one of the shards, the Hegemony’s core world was another.

From their perspective, Orodan and the allied forces could just as easily be plotting an attack there or on some other world. While a Transcendent’s death was exceedingly rare and would doubtlessly cause some serious scrutiny upon the planet, it was difficult to justify sending a very mighty individual to check up on it immediately. Patrols would be increased, Transcendents wouldn’t go out alone any longer and security measures would be increased.

All in all, their task had gotten more difficult, but it was a successful attempt thus far.

They spoke for a little bit more and the elder witch, leader of the coven gladly provided the trio with information on where they might strike at to acquire more information on the location of the shard. Zaessythra had insisted she create a memory packet and ferry it into his mind. After all, with just that information alone the current attempt was a very successful one.

The coven of witches was a holdout from the elder days of Narictus, when the world wasn’t just ruled by the Midnight Court but by many factions, of whom the Midnight Court was just one of many. A few hundred-thousand years ago there was a civil war on Narictus when the vampires decided to conquer it all. The witches and their people were the losing side from that conflict and had taken it upon themselves to preserve as much of their culture and history from the old days as possible while protecting the small groups and communes of non-subservient humans.

At last, as they made to leave, Orodan ran into a familiar herbalist.

“M-my lord! Wait! I wanted to thank you for saving my life!” the woman cried.

“Lord? Does this common tunic of mine make me look the part?” Orodan asked. Frankly, the fanciest thing he’d ever worn was likely the outfit House Firesword had forced him into so long ago for some social function. That aside, he much preferred the basic tunic of the county militia. “Anyhow, thanks aren’t necessary. You fought a good fight, keep it up and you’ll go far as a warrior.”

The woman looked quite pleased with the praise and looked ready to babble his ear off if not for the leading witch coming out front and shooing her away.

“She’s young, but overly excitable… and perhaps a bit too eager to get into a fight,” the witch said.

“Heh! That’s a good thing!” Orodan declared. “She wouldn’t have even gotten into trouble above her head if not for my presence. Speaking of… weren’t you lot a bit too conveniently nearby to save her?”

“She’s my personal apprentice. And it’s no great secret… but she’s the youngest descendent of the ancient line of our house, from before the civil war which tore us apart,” the witch said. “In her veins runs the blood of the ancient ancestor who was an Avatar of the Sun Goddess. Yet, it is a cursed bloodline which also bears the taint of the betrayer and his night lord ilk. The duality grants power yet must be closely monitored to prevent the descent into madness.”

“Is that why she fights with such zeal?” Orodan asked, and the witch nodded. “As for the betrayer, who’s that?”

“A foul man who accepted the blood kiss directly from the Lord of Night himself to become a True Vampire. A stain upon the noble line of the sun… he was the spouse of the Goddess’s Chosen, yet in the end he slew her and caused the ruin of our entire nation,” the witch said. “No matter how desperately he rejected the blood after, he will never absolve himself of his sins. Even the vampires exiled him into the void, and it is better that all forget the name of Aherozam.”

Orodan stared for a long moment, and even the witch began to look a bit perplexed. He then shook his head and sighed.

The vampire… or now, the man, known as Aherozam, had floated through the void between stars until he’d at least been found by Alastaia, and then… cured of his vampirism by Orodan when he’d descended to conquer Alastaia’s world core. It was a sad tale which even Orodan found to be quite depressing. And while these people didn’t seem to have it in their hearts to forgive him, he hoped that the man himself found a measure of peace. Once the current crisis with the Administrator and the war were settled, he wouldn’t mind returning just to bring the man’s wife back. He wondered how the True Vampire would feel about meeting his descendents.

Still, this trip to the remaining non-subservient humans on Narictus had yielded great results. Who knew how long he would have had to search around until he found someone with useful information otherwise?

Most importantly, the elder witch of the coven had given them the obscure location of the Palace of the Eternal Moon, the Midnight Court’s centre of power and where the Lord of Night himself was rumored to reside.

Orodan wasn’t sure if he was yet up to the task of fighting and overpowering a Transcendent at level 149 and numerous vampiric Gods and other monstrous creatures of the night. But he would have to try. Mainly because if anywhere on Narictus held the shard he was looking for, it was of course the enemy’s strongest base of power.

He looked forward to it, a joy tempered by the thought that Zaessythra and her fail-safe weapon would make it as un-fun for him as possible. Still, now that he had an actual goal in mind, it was time to break into the home of Narictus’s first vampire. A being widely hailed as the progenitor of vampirism in their galaxy.

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