Chapter 299: Chapter 299

Jake and Sati’s tantric lovemaking had continued for some time, and they had been brought near the core of the moon. It became like their honeymoon, where they enjoyed each other for more than an entire day.

He felt a little bad that his wives toiled on the surface of the world in a battle that was a lot of hard work while he effectively enjoyed himself, but their task had numerous benefits. And of course, utmost importance.

[Void Cells Upgraded: A large percentage of your void cells have now stored an immense amount of higher-quality Yang flames, granting your body enhanced properties matching the energy they have stored. The Yang Flames of Life grant resilience against adjacent flames and additional vitality, radiance, and purification properties.]

Jake felt energized despite the intense session he had with his lovely new wife. And it was difficult to tell as he floated in the fiery sea that was The Great Flame, but it was almost like his skin glowed a little.

It previously had a very odd, purplish hue, but the Yang flames had a red or orange hue, like that of the sun. This completely counteracted that, putting him at a more normal skin tone with a healthy glow.

He wasn’t fully sure, but he thought it was like his very body put out a similar effect to his Hearthian Presence all on its own, increasing the overall effect. His wives were excited to test this out.

It was a surprise. There was no question that Jake had done the Voidborne Soul Harmonization with Fhesiah and his other wives numerous times, with both high-quality yang flames and of large quantities.

However, it definitely couldn’t compare to just how much of the moon’s flames had passed through his body in the last several days, and then there was another factor: his void flame within his furnace. He now had a completed system, and so it was possible that it wouldn’t be difficult to replicate this feat.

He would need to do his best to repeat this with yin flames somehow. There was a concern about him becoming imbalanced, which was important for his Voidborne Soul Harmonization, and he wondered what the limits of his void cells truly were. Could he get more properties? Did he waste a slot, essentially?

His void flame also grew from the small candle’s worth of flame to quite a bit more substantial amount, a handful of flames that took a long time to recover from his breathing. He still had a small pool of void energy to play with too, and he was happy that he had a means of growing what was essentially a second hearth and that the flames would be so powerful. Because he didn’t have a doubt that they weren’t amazing, and he already knew he had several ways to use them that were extremely deadly.

The changes to Jake’s void cells and the growth of his void flame were interesting, but they didn’t even hold a candle to Sati herself.

The woman in question had become more powerful, her body purified and improved through their union. Her Pure Heart Flames had grown, and really, he could see why the yogini had said what she did–that phoenixes and dragons envied her flame.

She had absorbed a lot of the special flames of the moon, just like Jake’s bloodline improvement, and this meant that the rest of her body was made up of flames of a higher quality. Not only that, but she was now the highest level in their party at level 46, and Jake had gained another level from their tantric session.

As she was essentially the funnel for purification, it seemed she had consumed or merged with the flame, absorbing the fire Qi within it even as she rejected or perhaps even converted the immense amounts of mana within. Her Hearth had essentially transformed the moon into cultivation materials.

They had improved their hearth bond to the third level in one go, and Sati seemed to be unique among his wives. The flames that entered into her hearth, she was able to accumulate them and make them become a larger part of her and store a larger amount of them.

It still wasn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it allowed her to accomplish more interesting things because she could store double or triple his other wives thanks to her unique body. She could form an appendage entirely made of his wives’ flames, and he was sure that he wanted to enhance this with her state in some way.

He had already performed hearth enchantments on her on the way to this world, and perhaps this was why all of this had even been possible in the first place. It may be a good idea to finish off the enchantment now, though he didn’t like the idea of rushing her State and linking it to him, even if he could change it later.

However, it seemed they had run into a bit of a complication. Jake watched Sati as she was floating deep within the core of the world and testing out her spiritual appendages. As she did, however, the moon copied her. A large spiritual appendage rose from the sea of flame in the distance, and it matched her flame.

In all, the moon had shrunk once again, but it had also brightened. The purity of the moon was shocking, the purified corruption granting the moon a large boost in its spirituality. Because while the evil god had tainted the moon, it also represented a higher power, its energy a higher quality beyond where it started. This was largely why Avalara had gained so much from her struggle, and she had slingshotted beyond where she originally started.

Sati looked thoughtful as she manipulated her special flames. But he could also feel a bit of melancholy over their bond, and he understood on some level why and what happened already. He was just concerned about what this meant for her. She had received a Divine Trait, like a child of the Divine.

[Divine Trait: Mirrored Soul]

[Your soul has been mirrored and bound to the celestial moon of fire on The Burning Steps. This connection allows you to control the moon while present on the world and grants you Resonant Amplification, Shared Resilience, Celestial Perspective, and Flame Reservoir.]

Each of the items was both interesting and exciting. Resonant Amplification made it so that every attack or ability she did was amplified just by her mirror existing. This made her attacks around fifteen percent stronger just as a baseline, like a smaller attack being added onto hers for free.

Shared Resilience reduced the spiritual damage she received, which was effectively all the damage she could even receive in the first place, given that she was a living flame. And the Flame Reservoir was what it sounded like; she had what was effectively a second dantian to store her flames for usage that refilled at a slower pace–within the moon itself. This also appeared to be around a fifteen percent benefit.

However, the Shared Resilience came with a downside. Destruction of this moon would cause her to suffer a significant spiritual backlash that could very well kill her, depending. And damage to the moon would accomplish something similar, in that she too would be wounded. Lastly, if she suffered a death to an enemy Champion or equivalent, the moon would be heavily damaged.

The Celestial Perspective was unique to this world. Thanks to her and the mirrored moon’s purity, she could sense the corruption and flame anywhere in this world, giving her a sort of omniscience when it came to sensing the corruption and the followers of The Great Flame. It was just like what she could do normally, but on a planetwide scale.

She immediately knew where the betrayers on this world were and submitted their locations to Valtor, allowing their people to move on the few operatives left, as well as eliminate any statues that remained on the world.

The other statues of Balor were meant for recruitment and conversion, it appeared, and some did exist throughout the world. There were even some left over on the water continent, where nearly zero people still lived. Very little rain still fell on the world, and few pools of rainwater persisted, most evaporating into the air from the fire mana dominating. In those areas, those that required mana to live had managed to survive for all of this time.

It really was like Sati became a goddess overnight–at least, on The Burning Steps. Rather than be happy about this, though, she was sad. And he could understand why.

The Great Flame, such as it was, was dead. Its ego was replaced with hers, erased as it was purified. Based on the prompt saying it was a mirrored soul, its soul was also subsumed, or as it was all shoved through the container that was Sati, it ended up in her precise shape…maybe.

This was all guesswork from Jake and what he could see using his Umbral Gaze. Now that they were near the core, he was able to see what was effectively its soul and how it was linked to both her and him because of his Hearth Bond with her.

It was unfortunate, but the reverse would have happened if Jake wasn’t there with Sati. In the end, there were only a few outcomes Jake could imagine. Sati’s soul and ego being replaced, hers destroyed, and becoming essentially an avatar of the moon.

That, or the corruption not being purified, so The Great Flame would have died an ego death to the corruption of Balor anyway. And ultimately, just as Jake thought before they… did the deed, the will was ancient and not truly sentient and sapient. It was much closer to that of an animal or a drive than a true thinking being. It was sad that it was gone, but he would choose Sati over it any day, especially assuming that the world was saved thanks to what they accomplished.

Sati flew over to him in her usual lotus and prayer pose and replied to his thoughts, her voice resolute. “It grieves me…but in truth, I do not see it as a death. The Great Flame’s love for the world flows through me now, and so its purpose remains. That is Dharma. I just wish it hadn’t suffered so. It had cried out to me for help.”

“Our enemies will cause endless suffering wherever we go, and we prevented this world from falling by their hands. You weren’t sure the moon’s ego would die from our actions, right? Especially not the mirrored soul thing being the result.”

“No, but I suspected it might die, at the very least. And perhaps, there may have been a way to save the moon’s ego, had we taken our time little by little. However, I could not gamble with your fate, or the world’s, for a mere chance to preserve what was already lost to evil. To follow Dharma is not to save everything but to choose rightly when the path is clouded.” She gave him a small, wry smile. “And at the very least, for a fleeting moment, I could feel that it was…happy to join with me. Fulfilled.”

“I do believe we made the best choices we could make with the information we had available to us. All we can do is march forward.”

She smiled at him and nodded, embracing him in a hug.

It was pointless to think about the many what-ifs in this situation. Their enemies likely used some form of foresight, even colluding with Tartarus to achieve their goals. If they thought Clan Hart was going to arrive last month, then they would have expedited their plans to have them come to fruition at that time instead.

Perhaps using Hestia he might have been able to finish the purification of the moon without destroying the ego of the moon–if it were possible, she certainly could have managed it. However, doing so and then losing to their enemies because one of their most potent resources was consumed might have served their enemy instead.

Sati interrupted his thoughts, “More importantly, should we not hurry, my Ishvara? Evil moves.”

Jake nodded, smiling at her. “I think we should have some time still as the conflicts come to a head, but I do think you’re right. Let’s get moving.”

Sati looked at the world up in the sky, a hole parting in the fires that held the moon with a mere flex of her will. “Where would you like to head?”

Jake took a look through his bond’s connections and checked with Sati on what might be possible before he came to a decision.

He chuckled. “This should be interesting. It’s about time we flip the board on the enemy for once.”

“It’s a wonderful plan. Your will shall be done, my king.”

“That’s it! You can do it, Garona! Push it down that hill and kill those jerks!”

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The giant turtle groaned, shoving the rock down the slope, and gave a bellowing cry when she succeeded. The giant, spherical-shaped stone rolled down, picking up speed, until it sloped upward on the ramp they made. The rock launched through the air in a perfect arc and then crushed a Boss-level monster before continuing on and crushing various golems and more. The rock was massive, nearly as large as the massive turtle itself.

And the rock wasn’t just an ordinary rock–it was chock-full of earth mana, and the turtle had enhanced it to move forward even faster and have greater momentum than it should. It continued rolling and hardly slowing down, crushing enemies and shredding the rock trees and obstacles in the way. There wasn’t much left at this point, what with Berri’s crazy plan continuing for hours now.

Several others rolled down at the same time, Bloodberri, Avalara, Bree, and various trolls launching theirs too. The storm of boulders took out a large number of monsters and stone golems, completely thwarting their enemy’s assault.

Berri had finally accepted Blood’s name offering after tricking her into believing it meant ‘Snake’s Cousin,’ but in actuality, it meant something closer to what the natives wanted to call it, ‘the earth mother’ in some languages.

Bree suddenly said, “Looks like now should be the time to move.”

Fhesiah replied, “Yes, you’re right. Go ahead, and I will keep up.” She didn’t look up from their confiscated communication disks on the ground, her kitsune flames obscuring what she was doing. Using her Qi, she was unraveling the tokens one by one to reweave them into her special token, adding onto their listening network.

Having enough of them, she was able to hijack their enemy’s magical communication method. Some of the idiot Obsidian Blades had shown up to their defense of the turtle and were antagonizing the trolls. They only added a token defense, and they knew they were just the eyes and ears of their enemy.

And they had the communication devices still on them. So, using her kitsune flames to hide herself, she stole a few of them without them realizing. Fhesiah had gathered enough of them intact that she managed to figure out how they worked.

They were Seiðr fate-woven disks of carved wood, and were able to send and receive communication containing sound or images between the master disks and the recipient. The magical threads in the tokens formed a woven web across the nearby area, allowing her to intercept communications across them from the echoes on this web of fate.

It was difficult for her to work with, but she thankfully had just enough materials and know-how to piece them together. Her mother had been a diviner, and while she never personally had a talent for it, she had listened to her mother’s musings on fate and destiny, and on how those like her manipulated it.

It appeared their enemy never considered that they could be stolen and used in this way. Considering the Framework essentially protected this from happening and fate-related magic often took higher-tier beings to even pull off in meaningful ways, she understood why they were confident.

And Fhesiah got a hit.

It wasn’t quite enough to put Avaron and Cassius behind bars, so to speak, as those speaking and giving out orders didn’t do anything so foolish as to name themselves before they spoke. But if she obtained their tokens, she’d have them dead to rights from the previous things they had said alone, in how they corroborated with the enemy.

Each moment that went by, more orders went out over the network, which she recorded, and soon she and Nessa would have their entire guild done for with or without their disks.

They confirmed Calix was on the wind continent, recently arrived with his people. And Avaron and Cassius were waiting to ambush Team Earth as they struggled during the Fortress Assault and faced the two Aspects.

In all, the communication disk theft wasn’t all that helpful at the moment, because that was what they predicted anyhow. It was mainly to confirm that more or less the entire guild was in on it and that the leaders had planned on this to build a stronger case for presenting to the Sector Council.

However, they continued to keep collecting more. Because the more ‘threads’ they had, the larger piece of the web they could eavesdrop on. She had already heard a few murmurs and whispers across the threads about other worlds. Soon, overhearing communications on other worlds and recording them too, might be possible. It wasn’t just this world they wanted the Obsidian Blades and their allies off of.

They wanted all of those that held these communicators to pay the price, as nearly all were complicit with serving the enemy and collusion with it in some way. This was a deep betrayal, one that the enemy guild and its allies should get a lot more than a slap on the wrist for.

And preferably, all those within the Sector should be convicted. There were some not even involved in the Guild War that they were hoping to trap, eliminating as many betrayers as possible before the upcoming War Trial.

Because facing Tartarus and its plots was difficult enough without having enemies on their own team. And the Obsidian Blades and Radiant Glory had Tier 3 Adventurers that could cause a lot more damage in the higher conflict.

Unfortunately, whatever method Cassius and Avaron used to speak with their Tartarus allies to coordinate, it was not a part of this web, as she hadn’t overheard anything. Valtor had already received their recordings, and he only waited to submit them so that the enemy wouldn’t be aware they had them until everything was too late.

Fhesiah put the tokens away in her special sack, but kept the master token she created out to continue listening. Floating into the air, she joined Avalara and Bree as they began moving down the mountain. Their fun launching rocks was over with.

Berri shouted, “Let’s go, Garona! The enemy is weaker now, so now is the time to hit them. Lead the way, and we’ll crush these jerks. If we don’t, they might shake your house up again!” Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮•𝕟𝕖𝕥

Garona’s eyes narrowed, and her low-pitched growl shook the valley. She began stomping down the mountain, the earth trembling with each step, and the alliance forces began their march, doing the same.

Even the trolls joined reluctantly, following the child of their divine moon, hoping to protect it against the enemy. The forces had grown over the past few hours, with many blimps arriving and more.

There were numerous Asian warriors, complete with their supporting women. It wasn’t Yiming and Longwei, but various large and strong human warriors joined the fray, their Valor-infused bodies increasing in size. The talismancers and battle maidens and various beastkin who joined their families came along, the alliance blimps delivering quite the strong force.

And it wasn’t just them. Elemental cultivator warriors from Aetheris, along with some Nords from Love and Justice and some Roman-themed warriors and clergy from the Sons of Rome. Nearly three hundred warriors in total reinforced them, not including the several hundred useless Obsidian Blades.

On Ariminum, the Fortress Assault challenge the enemy chose was very much designed like an MMO-style battle, where each stage had proper numbers of participants and limitations. But it seemed the enemy had selected a different style this time.

It was more like a spawned defensible position, like Tartarus got their own city or HQ. The longer the Alliance left it standing, the more it could grow, and the more they could spawn new enemies or get other options for their conquest of the world.

And the fortress shaped like their cities, a stepped fortress built in the side of the mountain in the distance, looked like a tough nut to crack. Or at least, it normally would be.

The arrival of the alliance members meant that their array flags had all been planted. The leylines of the world, which carried the densest earth mana, were now being redirected to their desired location:

The turtle’s shell. On its back was the mana font, which was linked to the array flags, the energy of the earth being drawn up through the turtle itself through her connection. As a conduit of the energy, it was easy for their formation to make the last hop even with it moving such as it was.

Fhesiah smiled at the fruit of her and her husband’s efforts. They spent a significant amount of effort to recreate the power of Brother Zhuge Liang’s array flags, which were based on Taoist principles such as feng shui and mixed with properties of mana. She thought that with enough time they might have been able to match it more precisely, but Jake found a path that fit their needs well enough.

Using Nordic and Demonic Runes, he imbued principles of Advanced Energy Manipulation he understood and mixed them with cultivator principles.

Each flag bore his series of etched runes, the materials including a harmonium and amberwood pole, as well as a special, harmonium-silk threaded cloth. Alone, each flag hummed with drawn-in energy from the surrounding area faintly.

But when planted in formation or in the correct locations, like on top of leylines, their lines could mirror the truths of the Dao, shaping the flow of energy the way riverbanks shaped a water’s flow toward a desired location. Mana, pliable as the first breath of creation, filled the channels between them and tuned the whole array into harmony with the world’s pulse.

And thankfully, they had their Eternum brethren to help guide their allies to place the array flags in the most effective locations. The multipurpose flags were powerful, and the only thing lacking was probably their stealth feature. The cloth of the flag had one, making it difficult to see from far away, but it wasn’t quite sufficient against determined enemies. Instead, they sought to place duplicates and to monitor any changes in the flags, but so far, their enemies hadn’t been countering them.

Perhaps they hadn’t realized just how powerful they were or that they could have such an advanced magical technology at this Tier devised by themselves. That just may change after today.

The empowered turtle marched more rapidly; its vitality from the dense earth energies arriving at the font on its back had increased. And what Fhesiah found funny was that the enemies were not all that smart, despite having two Aspects with them.

They had drained their target of earth mana over the past few hours thanks to the array of flags, their leyline redirected to supply their forces with energy instead.

Even if they were a crazy Aspect of a Divine, they could not have limitless energy. Many of their Divine abilities felt truly gamelike, having rules that defied reality, but their idea appeared to be influencing it all the same. In the past few hours, the spawned golems had noticeably slowed, even if Fhesiah was sure they were hoarding a few back for their defenses.

On the inner keep walls, various monsters of stone lurked along with numerous annoying snakes, many of which were capable of spitting nasty venom or deathly hazes, and many could cast their own spells besides. They would likely rain attacks down on them as they pushed through the outer walls. They were intelligent snakes, even if not fully sapient, most likely.

She rose up into the air with her long snake body and overlooked the front gates. “This is wrong! All wrong. Snakes should be the good guys, not the bad guys! I declare that all of you are worms! Icky, gross worms.”

Annoyingly, this keep had multiple layers, and it would be a pain to even climb the ‘stairs’ of it–there were none, each level extremely high up. Each stair toward the peak would be hard fought and won.

In all, it would be a tough nut to crack, as they surely had some hidden traps as well. The giant worm centipede had crawled up the mountain, wrapping itself around the upper reaches of the keep. They would have to push through the second or third level in order to even fight the damned thing.

Garona growled again, its voice shaking the mountain.

But on the other hand, they had rescued a very useful ally. The enemy had two enemy Champion equivalents, but this juiced-up turtle with all its worshipers just might be able to compete with one.

Just not in a straight fight.

The army stopped the march a ways away from the outer wall, and immediately archers began firing their bows, the casters flinging spells at the fortress walls above them. Fhesiah began gathering flames with her torch, but it was a mere token effort until things truly came underway.

The largest boulders sat nearby near the base of the outer walls, having just barely crashed into them. These would make breaching the outer walls easier thanks to their plan, but the enemy had already surrounded the allied forces with stone golems of various types as they crawled down the cliff faces.

Bree said from next to Fhesiah, “Can’t say I ever enjoyed sieges; I much prefer a straight-up fight or a hunt. But there was always something about getting inside their defenses and dealing that death blow after all that hard work. Rewarding.”

Avalara chuckled. “I know what you mean. I’m looking forward to really getting into a good fight too! This body hasn’t truly had a great challenge yet. We do have those betrayers on the way, though, so you can also look forward to that. They should make the fight more exciting for you.”

The Obsidian Blades who were following them, already started slinking off into the rock jungle, half of them preparing their ambush. Some of them started noticing that their tokens were gone, looking around for them, confused.

Bree scoffed. “Cassius was trash as a fighter, and I didn’t get much from beating him. Sure, a little bit of something that I added to my flesh and wove into my vines, but it felt rather minuscule thanks to his weak chaos.”

Fhesiah chuckled. “And I don’t think Avaron was much of a fight for Ruby either. Though, they should bring their A-game this time. If they’re desperate, they might even use some corrupted artifacts.”

Bree grinned. “Now you’re talking. Well, with how sieges go, we've got a bit of time before the main event. I guess I’m either becoming a crummy druid for a while, or maybe it’s not too late for Berri to teach me this baseball thing.”

Berri clapped. “Yay! Let me show you. I got some super balls that you can use once you get the hang of it!

Bree sounded surprised. “Oh…how generous of you. I figured you would want to hit them all.”

Fhesiah chuckled. “She does love to share her joy for hitting balls, but I bet you she’s mostly just hoping that you’ll like it so that you’ll reserve some space in your spatial ring for extras.”

Berri cleared her throat. “Yeah, because someone says she needs all her space for some nonsensical clutter, you hoarder! It wouldn’t kill you to remove some of that.”

Fhesiah narrowed her eyes at Berri. “If it weren't for my hoarding, I just might not have had the amberwood dew or the chronomoth cocoons to make this master token. In fact, next time, maybe it might be better if you bring more of my lab. That way, we can ensure vital resources are available to us.”

Blood hummed. “Hmm, maybe our husband could engineer some kind of ammunition creation device. That way, if we don’t or can’t bring enough…”

Berri’s eyes widened. “Yes! What a great idea. For now…Garona! Could you be a dear, and…”

Fhesiah settled in to watch their surroundings with her Divine Sense and continue working on the token. Unraveling the current threads knotted into the wooden token required the dew to keep it from snapping. And then the silk from the cocoons allowed her to reweave them with her Qi and her changes, allowing her to increase the sensitivity of the token. It was still buzzing with all sorts of communication, which she continued to record.

She chuckled as she realized that those who lost their tokens were the ones who didn’t slink away into the rock trees. Whatever Cassius and Avaron had planned for them, he just lost a third to a half of his forces for it.

It was only a matter of time before they had their enemies all dead to rights, but the keep’s siege would certainly be dangerous. Fhesiah noticed Jake was waiting until the last minute to decide where he wanted to arrive on the battlefield, and she knew he would do what he could to make the biggest impact and upset.

And both teams were doing everything in their power to win on their own.