The Ice Citadel was solemn and silent, the ice cold and uncaring. Still, the only inhabitant liked it like this. Less distractions.
Pef Xi sighed sadly at the latest development in his cultivation. Devouring souls. The potential for abuse was enormous, as was the temptation. Still, it was fast, much faster than anything else he had tried.
'These messengers...they are alive, aren't they?' he asked inward.
'In a sense. The words you speak are the same. Ideas and concepts, given form and shape. If you were a poet...' the glove replied with a bit of sarcasm.
Pef nodded and continued his exploration, not really satisfied.
Strands of divinity, and memories of old beings who had ascended to the first tier of godhood.
But packed and assembled into a working construct, like a poem made while musing on a lost love.
'So it's like reading a book. Except with divine pages...' he mused inward, while refining the last messenger, strand after strand.
The glove remained silent, and watching. The Aspirant was creating a new cultivation method, purifying and incorporating the bits of divine soul from the Tier 1 godlings into himself.
It was possibly blasphemous and heretical to the Legion manual, and yet not. The General did the same thing, only with a more complicated and circumventing style, extracting bits of souls and upgrading the cultivation levels of her Soldiers, once they had killed an enemy.
There was another way to obtain ascension and energy after, the classical approach. Create a religion and be fed the results of the worship. Lady Winter's method.
The concept of winter included the cold and harsh weather as components of her mythos, while snow and ice were presented as defenses and protection against outside forces. It even worked, to some degree. If you had millions of years to waste.
The glove checked its own energy reserves, now holding steadily at over 1 percent. The recharge occurred during the heavenly tribulation on the moon, but it wouldn't last a million years. Not if the Aspirant kept indoctrinating thousands of new recruits, every year.
'Like any book, most information will be redundant and even harmful. The information is filtered and distorted by a different intelligence, and imbued with concepts poorly understood.' the glove said after a long pause.
Pef smiled as if he understood, but continued refining the messenger, day after day, until a month later it vanished completely.
More energy coursed through his meridians, strengthening and nourishing his body and his cultivation.
His left hand tingled, for some reason, and he glanced at the sword tattoo. With a thought, the sword sprite flew out and danced around him, then stopped, in front of his eyes.
"You want to be used, don't you, little guy?" Pef asked curious.
The Legion knife flew out of the glove and started chasing the other sword in a mock fight.
Sparks and noises filled the Ice Citadel, as the two minions fought their duel, exchanging move after move and parry after parry.
Lady Winter's sprite was much more skilled though, winning every bout with ease, even if the Legion knife was faster and a higher tier construct.
Pef checked his inner map, looking around to locate his family. Lady Yuan was still at Etna, doing whatever with her grand-grand father, while Lady Mia was doing a tour of the Patriarchy, searching for more recruits.
Lady Xie and Aria were constructing a railway along the coast, aided by a thousand Guardians. At the other end, a new port was being built a dozen kilometers away from the ruins of Port Li. Lady Lin and Blossom were there, with another thousand Guardians.
And his dear oracle Lia, wasn't anywhere on the planet.
Things were going well.
He checked his own status after, checking for disease or injury, finding none. His cultivation was progressing slowly now, lacking enemies to kill. Or rather, lacking means of actually killing them.
He held his hands out and the minions flew back. The sword sprite was a one-use card, while the knife still needed to heal and grow.
A woman made of golden light appeared next to Pef, her face beautiful but stern.
"You finally came out of your trance, husband. And it seems you have succeeded." the oracle spoke in a soft tone, while checking Pef from head to toe.
"Yes Lia. I can devour souls now, if you care." he said with a sad smile.
"At least you don't need worms for that. Come to the moon, and bring the glove." the light clone said in an urgent tone, then disappeared into thin air.
Some experiment gone wrong? Or maybe gone good? 'You know what's all about?'
'Yes, I do.' the glove replied in a superior voice.
Pef gritted his teeth and flew away, accelerating to his maximum speed while decreasing his mass and shielding himself with an ice barrier.
In ten minutes, he arrived at the Lunar Energy Labs in the Rabbit crater. A dozen spacecrafts of various types were parked next to the labs, and hundreds of Guardians in spacesuits were working inside and outside them, preparing the ships for launch, or repairing them.
He ignored the activity and entered the airlock of the pressurized lab of his wife, the one marked Light Emission and Modulation. Made of ten centimeter thick steel plate, the walls of the lab were rated to with stand most micrometeors.
The inside of the walls were still lined with Sky ranked leather, just in case something worse managed to pierce the outer shell.
The airlocks were adapted from Lara's palace doors, since those survived intact even the horrors of the worm invasions. Unlike Lara herself, or the palace walls.
Then, he took an elevator and descended a hundred meters towards the experiment cavern.
Here he at last met his wife, and her staff, who were going over some instruments and notes. From various rulers and telescopes, to microscopes and precision forged mirrors, the labs did have the best technology the Monarchy had at this time.
Light came in from the sun, again via orbital mirrors and various lenses making the interior of the cavern bright as day.
"Hey everyone, don't salute. Just tell me the news." Pef said in a pleasant tone, while his senses expanded to map the entire cavern.
Nobody would have saluted anyway, but it was nice to pretend.
"Okay people. Let's start it up again! You, my beloved husband, go up the stairs and stay on the platform." Lia demanded in a commanding voice, which was immediately obeyed.
The technicians ran in a shuffling way to their posts, their Gecko leather shoes making crackling noises as they returned to their stations. They looked awkward, but not everyone was a Sky rank, able to manipulate gravity. In fact, none of the lunar scientists were even cultivators.
Pef suspected that smart people were much too rare in the cultivating community. Thus, he ignored the metal stairs and just flew up on the platform above, and looked down on the level below.
Then Lia glowed brightly and shot a beam of light into a ruby, and then somehow condensed her glow into that single beam, reducing the cavern to darkness while the beam of red light bounced off various mirrors and prisms.
In front of the platform the beams intersected, creating a grid on a metal panel. There was a small triangular distortion in there, messing up the pretty lights.
Pef blinked and then scratched his head, pretending to understand. 'So, beams of light. Not quite lasers but close enough. The pattern is almost perfect, but there's an imperfection there. Like there's an obstruction of some kind...' he mused inward.
'Well...yes. That's exactly what's happening, Aspirant. And since the beams are powered by entangled qi and soul source, the obstruction is also of the same nature. Ask her how big it is.' the glove answered in a wary voice.
"How big is the obstruction?" Pef spoke after a minute. This science thing wasn't so hard after all. He'd managed to reach the correct answer on his first try.
The red light went out, and Lia flew up on the platform. She hesitated for a second before answering. "We are not sure. But at least the mass of a galaxy, if it's very close. If it's further away, like say in another galaxy...then it's the mass of a universe."
'Any idea what it is?' Pef asked his glove, while going over various possibilities in his mind. Triangles with the mass of a galaxy? He drew a blank on that.
'It could be many things. Like a damaged Legion glove or mentally defective Tier 5. But it's most likely a translation formation array. Or as you humans call those, a door.' the glove replied after discarding a thousand less probable answers.
Pef grinned. 'You mean a gate, to another universe? That's great!'
The glove didn't bother to reply, as it was busy constructing a workable plan to deal with this problem. It was a universe gate, but why did it have a signature? On the inside.
In this tier 1 universe, there was nothing capable of emitting so much metaphysical mass, unless it was brought from outside.
"So, my glove says it's a gate array. Like a door." Pef said in a cheerful voice, hugging Lia and twirling her around.
For once, he was happy. A door! Leaving the universe and rejoining the Legion was on the table now.
"Hmmm. A door constructed by someone. Leading to some place we know nothing about. The materials to build such a construct..." the oracle said in a soft whisper, and poked the orange glove with a thoughtful finger.
"Yeah. It's most likely made from the other glove. These things are very durable." Pef said in a concerned voice, patting his glove and his wife's hand.
"That's not the real problem, Pef. These gloves are very, very strong. And someone managed to unfold one and remake it into something else." Lia remarked in a more frightened tone.
Pef stopped grinning. He glanced at his own glove with a frown. Not many beings could refine a Legion glove.
<< Index >>
Aug 9, 2019Report
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<

PefVersed in the lewd.
The glove mused to itself, waiting for the user to finish the current introspective meditation.
Sadly, there were no more snacks to be gained with ease. The divine messengers had learned to run away as soon as Pef opened his eyes.
Spying was a risky business when your target would eat your soul.
Meanwhile, the glove amused itself in creating a chart depicting its user and his stats.
For now, it looked like this:
Veritas Legion Adjutant-User data file
Name: Pef Xi
Alias: Monarch, Emperor, Saint.
Rank: Local universe CIC, Legion Soldier: 3rd class
OS: Standard Veritas Legion Indoctrination method: compatibility 0.063
Race: Homo Sapiens Immortus (improved +14%)
Body stats:
-Strength: 1200.
-Agility: 1677. (~ Mach 17)
-Endurance: 988. (Entangled Soul/Body. Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Intelligence: 144. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Wisdom: 97. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Charisma: 151.
-Ki force: 6300.
Cultivation stats:
-Spiritual affinity: Water 4%, Sword 3%, Void 1%. (Fire, Wind, Thunder, Metal and Earth under 1%)
-Core size: Minor. (1.677 cms radius)
-Core inner volume: Medium. (Ocean world. Ki ingestible pill +2)
-Ki purity: 4%. (~2% transdimensional injection)
-Soul Aspect: Binary-White/Silver. (Combat/Exploration affinity)
-Soul defence: 570. +90% bonus (open meridians 1+11)
-Soul attack: 178. +10% bonus (Veritas Knife modifier +1000)
-Sword Ki abilities: 3%. (One with the Sword stage. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)
-Water Dao abilities: 4%. (Minor Water Domain, ~100 kms radius)
-Void abilities:1%. (Voidsplitter skill. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)
Divine stats:
-Ki sense: Minor. (~2000 kms radius)
-coresense: Negligible. (~900 meters radius)
-telekinetic field: Negligible. (Divine strings manipulation, 2%)
-add-ons: Icesword rune(~1000 Ki), Arctic-ice rune(~5000 Ki)
-sword intent: Negligible. (Swordforce stage 1, 14%)
-transmutation/alteration: Minor. (water creation stage 3, fog and ice creation stage 2)
-divination: None/???. (transdimensional injection/soul aberration)
-heartforce: Minor. (Iceheart stage 2. 43% complete)
-kharmic luck: Minor. (Minor reincarnation)
-logopedic dao ability: Negligible. (Soul digestion stage 1, 7%)
-Extra abilities: water clone: stage 1, dojutsu: stage 1, mindforce: Negligible.
It wasn't much, not yet complete, but it did serve to show in clear terms where there was work to be done. And there was plenty of improvement to be made, especially in the decision-making areas.
Sure, the user made plenty of mistakes and those were fun to watch, like observing a cute kitten stumble about...but.
Once they left this cushy planetary cradle and began their journey, these kinds of mistakes would not be so easily solved. They may in fact jeopardize the mission. Well...not really. Not until they opened the cosmic door.
Pef was smart enough to realize he wasn't smart enough, so he got himself a command staff, in the shape of his family. Lia and Yuan did make decent advisers.
Still, only his ward could unite the planet under a single ruler. On a planet as tribal as this one, family ties were the most important. Pef should have enough personal ties to draw the druids, the Patriarchy and the Volcanic Cult under his rule. And once that happened...
Pef opened his eyes and glanced around the frozen castle. Then his attention shifted to the vitruvian man drawing, and the attached stats. 'My orange glove...are we in a game?' he asked a bit confused.
'Tchhh! I'm not orange!' the glove replied in an annoyed tone. Maybe it should have kept the user stats for itself.
A weird silence ensued. A minute later it replied in a dignified tone: 'For one such as me, everything around us is numbers. Including you. It's called a numerical reality.'
'Okay. Makes sense for a computer, I guess. So...my Wisdom is kinda low...' Pef replied in a thoughtful voice.
Slowly, he went through all the stats, comparing them with his own image of himself. And he didn't like what he saw. So many things about himself, which he was proud of...and they meant only a minor note.
Often, literally a Minor note in the checkbox.
'You have a lot to work on, Soldier. Luckily, you're pretty much immortal now.' the glove said in a more amenable tone.
Pef nodded, to himself and to glove as well. The drawing looked familiar for some reason, as if he had seen it before, in a dream. He didn't doubt the data in the chart either, as he mostly knew the range of his abilities.
It just...ached...to see his life and achievements so harshly graded.
Water Dao. His proudest achievement was so puny. And he did in fact know how to improve on it.
Condensate to Ice to Liquid. Then Gas and Plasma. There were five states of matter that he already knew about. With a few years of experiments and training he could achieve them all...and complete the Dao of Water. Or at least the initial stages.
He could delve deeper into molecular bonds, and extract hydrogen and oxygen from the ocean, like his stupid friend had done. Improve his telekinesis and transmutation by a rank or two.
Gah. No wonder he was still building castles of ice. Damn Wisdom was under 100!
Also, the concepts implied in the chart were concerning, especially those involving the divine.
Coresense should be his new Saint ranked ability, the one allowing him to detect divine messengers.
But telekinesis? The implications were...amazing. Sure it was a godly ability, and he didn't have any clue how to use it...but it was still very promising. For his future.
Not to mention that swordforce, which was not the Force at all.
And then, heartforce? Was that a degree in being cold-hearted? Why? What for?
Lastly the mindforce was a clear, if subtle, indication of future mind tricks. Compulsion, domination and so on. Not that having your brain eaten by mind worms wasn't scary anyway.
With a grim determination the Saint summoned the Artus Icicle and observed it for a minute.
"Water Dao, here I come!" he exclaimed then shattered the construct in his fist.
A deluge of insights flooded his mind and soul, a million years of concentrated dao flowing into his meridians and then condensing into his dantian. The sensation was similar to his prior experience of digesting the fire sprite, only this time Pef had a huge advantage.
His inner mind kept an eye on his chart, while the divine insights of Artus were not that foreign. He knew water and knew it well. What he needed was perspective, like a scientist experimenting not for a decade, but for a million years.
Years passed, day and night cycles flickering above him. When Pef opened his eyes and returned to the world, the chart had changed significantly.
-Wisdom: 99. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Ki force: 11000.
-Spiritual affinity: Water 9%, Sword 3%, Fire 1%, Thunder 1%, Void 1%. (Wind, Metal and Earth under 1%)
-Ki sense: Medium. (~6000 kms radius)
-Water Dao abilities: 9%. (Dao Water Domain ~600 kms radius)
-transmutation/alteration: Medium. (water creation stage 5, fog and ice creation stage 4, plasma creation stage 1)
-logopedic dao ability: Negligible. (Soul digestion stage 1, 9%)
-water clone stage 3.
"No way! How can I be still under 100 Wisdom?" Pef yelled in outrage.
'One good decision doesn't make you a sage. You're still the same idiot. But a more dangerous one.' the glove replied with a snicker.
'A dangerous idiot, eh? I can live with that.' the Saint mused to himself.
A quick qi sweep promptly demonstrated his new improved range, encompassing the entire Monarchy at once. Pef grinned. Continental ranged abilities were the hallmark of a true Saint, and now he finally obtained one.
The Monarchs of his family duly noticed being scanned and frowned towards the Tian Mountains. Lia was missing as always, possibly still decrypting reality in her lunar lab as always.
The construction of Port Wong was finished and the city already populated with 3 million people. And...Hero was being carried home by an airship.
In a flash, the Saint took off towards the approaching airship.
In a couple of minutes he made visual then tactile contact with the ship.
As he busted into the nacelle he was confronted by a mutilated Guardian, missing one arm and his jaw, standing watch over the body of his son.
"Monarch! We... I'm sorry for your loss." the man said in a surprised then mourning voice.
Pef took note of his wounds, right arm partially chewed off, just like half of face. He will heal in a year at most. But death was harder to heal.
Hero's Monarch ranked helmet was sliced cleanly in half. Nothing a beast or assassin could have produced this type of cut. Divine skill then. He nodded to his son's comrade then swept the nacelle with his other senses.
His eyes swept left, where the bodyguard stood camouflaged by wooden wall, his cloaked signature only visible to his coresense.
'Report!' he demanded in a coded qi burst.
'Locust beast wave, Sir. Orange Base is gone as well.' the man replied in the same code.
A pang of pain and sorrow almost overwhelmed the Saint, before his heart compressed a bit more. With a last look at the body of his dead son, Pef turned and left the nacelle. Nothing the Sovereign ranked bodyguard could have done against a god, or a Monarch ranked messenger, so no use blaming him.
'His mother will be devastated. You better figure out a solution, and soon.' the glove advised him in a flat tone.
Pef nodded. 'A solution is still being formulated.'
He also noticed the glove didn't mention anything about himself being devastated. A quick check to his chart also showed him why. A couple of changes had occurred during last minutes.
-Wisdom: 100
-heartforce: Minor. (Iceheart stage 2. 51% complete)
He would have preferred not to figure out what heartforce did. Not like this. At least he was wiser now.
And then, it was time for retaliation. He had his own skill after all.
<< Index >>Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Pef wasn't a rash youth anymore and his plans were somewhat more well-thought. Or maybe not.
Anyway, once the body of Hero was burned, he retreated into his sauna and didn't come out for a month. Only Lady Lia would visit him once a day, and never for more than a few minutes.
When he did leave the solitude of his wooden sauna, he took off at speed, first towards Green Gea, then towards Vesuvius. Lastly, he arrived at the Patriarchy, and remained there for a year.
Then, he flew around the planet, sometimes diving deep under the ocean, sometimes smashing through mountains and glaciers, looking for exotic ingredients.
'I have found a thousand tons of platinum and gold. What else?' he asked his glove as he emerged from a ruined mountain.
'Steel and silver should be plenty in the Monarchy, Soldier. Now you become an Ardent. It may hurt a bit.' the trusted glove whispered to his mind.
Becoming an Ardent was mostly a matter of managing heat. And then becoming immune to it.
Over then next month Pef suffered under Firali's ministrations, getting baked into a metal cake. It wasn't pleasant, but at this point Pef didn't mind pain, or at least physical pain.
Having 4000 tons of various metals melted into his dantian was supposed to upgrade his core. Or so the glove said. He opened his eyes and tested the new ability with some hesitation.
His qi core had indeed increased in radius, while his body and soul got stronger from the ordeal. Keeping an eye to his inner chart, he flexed his powers.
Body stats:
-Strength: 1475.
-Agility: 1733.
-Endurance: 1087. (Entangled Soul/Body. Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
intelligence: 145. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Wisdom: 102. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Charisma: 152.
-Ki force: 11500.
Cultivation stats:
-Spiritual affinity: Water 9%, Sword 4%, Fire 5%, Thunder 1%, Void 1%, Metal 1%. (Wind, and Earth under 1%)
-Core size: Medium. (1.871 cms radius)
-Core inner volume: Medium. (Ocean world. Ki ingestible pill +2)
-Ki purity: 5%. (~2% transdimensional injection)
-Soul Aspect: Binary-White/Silver. (Combat/Exploration affinity)
-Soul defence: 598. +90% bonus (open meridians 1+11)
-Soul attack: 199. +10% bonus (Veritas Knife modifier +1000)
-Sword Ki abilities: 4%. (One with the Sword stage. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)
-Water Dao abilities: 9%. (Medium Water Domain, ~600 kms radius)
-Fire Dao abilities: 5%. (Minor Fire Domain, ~120 kms radius)
-Void abilities:1%. (Voidsplitter skill. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)
Divine stats:
-Ki sense: Medium (~7000 kms radius)
-sword intent: Negligible. (Swordforce stage 1, 15%)
The rest of his stats haven't changed or at least not significantly. But it didn't matter. He was ready now.
'I am ready now, right?' he asked, just to make sure.
The glove computed a suitable response for half a second. In truth, the Fire Saint beside the magma plate was much stronger in divine abilities than his ward. But in the end, that didn't exactly matter. 20% extra skill in manipulating divine strings was nice, but every new Divinity would start at 20% anyway.
Just like in manipulating gravity strings or heartstrings, a higher cultivation level would automatically grant a minimum of ability. And that measly minimum would equal a genius of a lower level.
'You're in no way ready, Soldier. But it doesn't matter. You will ascend and exterminate these pests anyway.' the orange glove said in a command tone.
"Get ready Firali. And snap that silly ice sword as well. They are meant to be used, not kept as pets." Pef told the older Saint. In his palm, the gift from Cellia appeared, a tiny dagger made of perma-ice.
Pef's fingers closed into a fist, and he began digesting the lessons left behind by the Lady of Winter.
As he expected, her insights into the Dao of Water were way below his own, but she did have a solid background into the Dao of the Sword. Stances and katas, attacks and parries, energy constructs and swordforce thoughts were layered in a birthday cake, easy to ingest and then deposit in his soul.
An eternity passed inside him, while our hero began his own Ascension. Outside however, in the underground hall used to prepare Ardents for Volcanis, it only took a minute.
Reality wobbled, divine strings scattering and dissipating into gas. Then, unexpectedly, the gas coalesced back into a human form.
"Errr. I don't think you've done it right, Lord Pef. You're still here, in the flesh." the Fire Saint mused while searching himself for his treasure glasses.
'Uh? I failed at Ascending?' Pef wondered a bit confused. He did feel himself much stronger though.
With a thought, he brought back the user stats chart.
-Veritas Legion Adjutant-User data file
Name: Pef Xi
Alias: Monarch, Emperor, Saint, God?.
Rank: Local universe CIC, Legion Soldier: 1st class
OS: Standard Veritas Legion Indoctrination method: compatibility 0.477
Race: Physical God (improved +28%)
Body stats:
-Strength: 4577.
-Agility: 5866.
-Endurance: 4335. (Physical God. Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Intelligence: 197. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Wisdom: 133. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Charisma: 387.
-Ki force: 414000.
Cultivation stats:
-Spiritual affinity: Water 10%, Sword 9%, Void 2%, Fire 5%, Wind 1%, Thunder 2%, Metal 2% and Earth 1%. (Life, Yin, Yang and Entropy under 1%)
-Core size: Large. (3.149 cms radius)
-Core inner volume: Large. (Ocean giant.)
-Ki purity: 11%. (~2% trans dimensional injection)
-Soul Aspect: Binary-White/Silver. (Combat/Exploration affinity)
-Soul defense: 1170. +90% bonus (open meridians 1+11)
-Soul attack: 985. +10% bonus (Veritas Knife modifier +1000)
-Sword Ki abilities: 9%. (One with the Sword: stage 2. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)
-Water Dao abilities: 10%. (Large Water Domain, ~3000 kms radius)
-Fire Dao abilities: 5%. (Medium Fire Domain, ~500 kms radius)
-Void abilities: 2%. (Voidsplitter skill. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)
Divine stats:
-Ki sense: Large (~41000 kms radius)
-coresense: Minor. (~40 kms radius)
-telekinetic field: Minor. (Divine strings manipulation: 20%)
-add-ons: none
-sword intent: Minor. (Swordforce: stage 1, 28%)
-transmutation/alteration: Large. (water: stage 7, fog and ice: stage 6, plasma: stage 2, condensation: stage 1)
-divination: Negligible/???. (trans dimensional injection/soul aberration)
-heartforce: Minor. (Iceheart: stage 2. 80% complete)
-kharmic luck: Minor. (Minor reincarnation)
-logopedic dao ability: Minor. (Soul digestion stage 1, 20%)
-Extra abilities: water clone: stage 5, fire clone: stage 1, dojutsu: stage 2, mindforce: Minor.
A wave of his hand condensed some water into a mirror. Then he stared at the reflection for a minute.
"Okay. At least, I'm gorgeous now. So there's that. My wives will be happy." Pef spoke while making faces at the mirror.
Firali instead kept examining him through his wonder glasses, while grumbling in his beard.
"You're still an idiot, boy. But a divine idiot of some sort. Almost like you ascended laterally, instead of up. Guess the heavens do care, after all..." the old Saint muttered after a long examination.
'Physical God?' Pef asked towards his glove.
'Well. You did try to ascend while carrying 4000 tons of metal in your dantian. Kept you grounded, I guess.'
'You guess? I am allowed to make mistakes, since my brain is human and such. But you knew!' the new godling exclaimed in outrage.
'Actually, this is not bad at all. You can Ascend again and bypass Tier 1 entirely. It is possible that Loose Divinity stage is for failures, and keeping your body is the normal result.' the glove said to ease his mind.
It was indeed possible, like anything in the multiverse. Just not very likely.
'Oh? So I am genius as well? Ha! Take that Cellia! I have a body and you're only gas.' Pef exalted inside.
With a simple step, Pef arrived next to the work bench were Firali had been smithing his mysterious formations. His senses were so keen now that he immediately spotted the mistakes made by the Fire Saint, and then he proceeded to repair them.
Took him half an hour, but he've done it. The gold bracelet shone triumphantly in the red light cast by the nearby magma.
"Take a look, old man!" Pef demanded while throwing the bracelet towards Firali.
The grumpy Saint examined it for 10 minutes before giving up. "The formation is perfect. As good as I can make it. And twice as durable..." the man admitted with a sigh.
"See! Why waste a million years? Any idiot can make them, once they reach my level." Pef proclaimed proudly.
A tiny ice sword appeared out of nowhere and smacked Pef on top of his head. Cellia was keeping an eye out too.
<< Index >>Ever wondered how it feels to kill a God?
Don't worry, we'll get to that soon.
"Hey Cellia! Don't let envy eat your tongue." the new godling exclaimed, after rubbing his head. That sword kinda hurt. A little.
"Here we go, again..." the Fire Saint muttered and vanished from the room at speed.
'I actually prepared a nice dimension cubicle for you, just next to my own. Only to see you failed your ascension, somehow.' the winter goddess whispered through her messenger.
'Hmm, let me see...' Pef answered while testing the new divine powers.
Space enfolded in his mind, his coresense extending 40 kilometers, in all directions. As in, all.
A ghostly Cellia was holding the handle of the ice sword, her being made of tiny unreadable letters. Or perhaps runes described the components better. They were glowing with divine energy.
'Huh, you can see me, after all. That's new.' Cellia remarking upon making eye contact.
'How far can you see, with your senses?' he sent.
'About 200 kilometers, in clear weather.' the goddess replied with a confused blink.
'Grrr' he growled in annoyance. 'I only have 40 kilometers view range. But it should suffice. Let's go hunting!' Pef demanded, accelerating towards low orbit. Took him a single second.
The gas-like goddess kept pace with ease. She had no mass to accelerate, after all.
'Looking for something?' she asked a bit amused.
'Yes. Seen Locust around?' the new godling sent, in a mild tone. Much too mild and restrained.
'Bind the icerune. Then follow me.' she replied, flicking a tiny sword toward him.
As soon as the new tattoo appeared, Pef could sense the intent of the winter goddess through it, almost like having her voice in his ear.
They took off at speed, Pef struggling to keep up with the immaterial goddess. In a minute they reached a completely normal area, with a few islands underneath. But deep underwater Pef could sense a dozen divine messengers, and all of them belonging to Locust.
He clenched his fist, willing the water to constrict and freeze the beasts into ice cube prisons.
A second later, he saw him. A ghost-like man, dressed in bloody leathers and holding a hatchet in his right hand.
Instantly, Pef's knife sprang out of the glove and began glowing with sword ki. As the godling turned and his eyes began to widen, it was already too late. A beam of swordforce splashed over his divine body, destroying his clothes and weapon, as well as most of his skin.
Locust screamed something and turned to flee.
'What are you doing, Soldier? Use your pistol to shoot. Wait... You need to stab him!' the glove advised him in a giggle.
Pef gritted his teeth and speed after his fleeing quarry. He didn't have a Legion pistol!
Cellia sped ahead, and managed to head off the godling, slashing her own light-made sword left and right.
Locust yelled something and tried to flee outwards, away from the planet.
'Here it comes. The leash...' the glove whispered in an amused tone.
And soon, its words became true, as Locust slowed down, almost like being caught in honey.
Pef caught up fired a blast of soulspike from eyes. The godling scream again, but nothing else happened.
He slashed the Legion knife through Locust's chest, while willing 'sever' to the knife. The impact felt strange, like trying to cut through an unbreakable pillow. The blade remained stuck inside the godling's chest, and then it was over.
Locust exploded into millions of divine confetti, floating aimlessly. Finally, the bastard was dead.
'Huh, this hunt was kinda easy...' Pef remarked with a frown. A surge of energy flew into his meridians, but it didn't do much. Something more was needed. Like making use of the scattered strands of divine insights left behind by the dead godling.
'Well...you could have killed him as a Saint just as easy, if you had a tracker to lead you to his lair.' the glove explained smugly. Well, maybe. Catching a fleeing Tier 1 did take skill or speed.
"Well done Pef! Want to hunt another?" Cellia asked him, while grabbing scattered bits and munching from them like it was a turkey dinner. Almost the same as dismantling a divine messenger...
"Yeah. Sure." Pef replied while trying to copy her actions. A sweep with his glove collected a thousand divine fragments, and he began ingesting them as well.
Bits and pieces of divine insights and memories filtered into his dantian, each bite worth years of slow meditation.
"Hah, I'm stronger than Artus already. I have to say, you always serve the beast meals, my friend." Cellia commented with a mouthful of divine intestines dripping from her chin.
"Yeah, I did do that. If only I killed him before he killed my son, Paragon. And my wife Kira. And Di. And thousands of my Guardians." Pef replied while chewing on his own portion.
It wasn't really eating guts, but it still felt like it. But he had to get stronger, and this way was faster. If he had to, he would eat Locust's real guts and brain. Even if they were in outer space and it was freezing out here. Revenge always tasted better cold.
The winter goddess eyed him with a wary look for second, but stayed silent. In the end, the world of cultivation was a dog-eat-dog world. And only the strong survived. And she planned to live forever.
A few days later, the last remains of Locust were digested and Pef glanced towards his friend.
"Next! And we'll start with Arachne." he demanded in a cold voice. And so they did. The puny godlings stood no chance in a fight, all they could do was run and hide. And that wasn't enough.
It took half a year to hunt most of the godlings, and they both grew in strength and expertise.
Now, only Harvester was left on the menu.
Cellia glowed vibrantly in his coresense, her own Dao now becoming as strong as his. Except he was real and she was not.
"Pef, once we kill him... I should be ready. It's too soon, but... I'll get my body back. What do we do then?" she asked in hesitant tone.
He glanced at her with a frown. Sure, she was friendly, and helpful. But she wasn't in the Legion.
'Glove? Any advice?' he asked his adviser.
'She's of no use to us, Soldier. We can't take Cellia with us. A civilian? Not possible. The Legion doesn't do camp followers. Perhaps hire her as a swordmaster for our planetary troops?' the orange glove mused in a thoughtful voice.
Pef nodded, considering two steps ahead. It was true. Sure, Cellia was a friend, but she wasn't a comrade.
"You can teach. And watch over the planet. Immortality is boring without a job." he answered raising an eyebrow.
Cellia stared over the distant horizon, deep in thought. "I see. You're leaving..." she said in a soft whisper.
Pef nodded. "Not right away, but yes. But enough of future things. Let's go and harvest this Harvester of Souls."
It took them a week to corner the wretched lich and sever his soul, as this guy was old and crafty.
However, faced with a Legion knife his soul defenses were found lacking. One strike, and the godling's soul shattered.
Over the next week, they both Ascended again, driven by the gains of combat and dao insight.
This tiny blue world lost in the void now had two Tier 2 Divinities, one of them a bit stronger.
Pef looked over his new stats and smiled.
Veritas Legion Adjutant-User data file
Name: Pef Xi
Alias: Monarch, Emperor, Saint, God.
Rank: Local universe CIC, Legion: Soldier
OS: Standard Veritas Legion Indoctrination method: compatibility 1.0011
Race: Physical God, Tier 2 (improved +31%)
Body stats:
-Strength : 5877.
-Agility : 6760.
-Endurance : 5435. (Physical God. Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Intelligence : 255. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Wisdom : 151. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)
-Charisma : 479.
-Ki : 927000.
Cultivation stats:
-Spiritual affinity: Water 15%, Sword 10%, Void 3%, Fire 6%, Wind 2%, Thunder 4%, Metal 4% and Earth 2%, Life 1%, Entropy 1%. (Yin, Yang, Order and Chaos under 1%)
-Core size: Large. (3.774 cms radius)
-Core inner volume: Huge. (Ocean giant. Livable)
-Ki purity: 14%. (~2% trans dimensional injection)
-Soul Aspect: Binary-White/Silver. (Combat/Exploration affinity)
-Soul defense: 1570. +90% bonus (open meridians 1+11)
-Soul attack: 1285. +10% bonus (Veritas Knife modifier +1000)
-Sword Ki abilities: 10%. (One with the Sword: stage 2. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)
-Water Dao abilities: 15%. (Greater Water Domain, ~30000 kms radius)
-Fire Dao abilities: 6%. (Large Fire Domain, ~1200 kms radius)
-Void abilities: 3%. (Blink radius: 1 km, Voidsplitter skill. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)
Divine stats:
- Ki sense: Greater (~130000 kms radius)
- coresense: Medium. (~195 kms radius)
- telekinetic field: Minor. (Divine strings manipulation: 40%, Gravity generation: 9%, Quasi strings: 1%)
- add-ons: Icesword rune.
- sword intent: Minor. (Swordforce: stage 1, 31%)
- transmutation/alteration: Greater. (water: stage 8, fog and ice: stage 6, plasma: stage 3, condensation: stage 1)
- divination: Negligible/???. (trans dimensional injection/soul aberration)
- heartforce: Minor. (Iceheart: stage 2. 90% complete)
- karmic luck: Minor. (Minor reincarnation)
- logopedic dao ability: Minor. (Soul digestion stage 1, 40%, Soul restoration 1%)
- Extra abilities: water clone: stage 6, fire clone: stage 3, dojutsu: stage 3, mindforce: Minor.
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