[B7 END] Chapter 830 – Shaking the universe (Patreon)

“Join the Order as a god?” Percy repeated in disbelief.

While the swarm was difficult to move around and the March of a Merciful Spring wasn’t easy to deploy, Percy and Micky could still defeat the average demigod using their original Extreme spell. It wasn’t that strange that Phoebe had invited them into the Order. Besides, Green-borns were invited into the organization as children based on their potential alone, long before they were powerful enough to attack the Concept realm. Not to mention that Percy and his fellow aspects had plenty of other ways to contribute outside of their personal power. However, Percy was still shocked that the titaness was willing to treat him as one of their deities when he was only at Green.

“Don’t look at me like that. The things that you’ve done for our world are more valuable than most Decrees. If we went purely by your contributions, I would have made you my second-in-command decades ago. And you’ve finally grown almost strong enough to justify a seat among our deities – at least if we use your new spell purely for defence,” Phoebe explained with a shrug.

Percy nodded, carefully considering her offer. Having dreamt of attaining divinity ever since he could remember, he had often fantasized of walking up the steep slopes of Mount Olympus as a child, invited to feast and train among Remior’s gods.

Learning that Red-borns like him were destined to die without ever reaching Green had gutted him, while discovering his bloodline had briefly revitalized his hopes – up until he’d pissed the Divine Root off, fled from the Fungal Spire and spent the next couple of decades living as a fugitive. To think that he would finally be given a chance to realize that childish fantasy a mere half-century later…

For all his complaints about the Divine Order, Percy had always respected Remior’s gods for achieving what only a hundred or so humans in history had ever achieved, and for everything they’d done to protect their world. The fact that he could finally see himself surpassing them hadn’t changed that view.

Still…

“Not yet,” he sighed.

Phoebe frowned, clearly surprised by his refusal, but didn’t interrupt.

“There are things I need to do first,” Percy explained. “I promised my friends that we would rebuild Remior together. That we would turn it into a place for everyone, not just nobles and Green-borns. To give the commoners and Red-borns who have been suppressed by the Great Houses and suffered through endless wars a shot at a better future. Besides, I don’t think I’m ready to properly involve myself into cosmic matters. I’m still too weak and too ignorant to do anything but sneak around in the bodies of others. Give me another century or two.”

The titaness shrugged. “A century isn’t that long in my eyes, but I never took you for a patient man. Haven’t you only been alive for a fraction of that time? And how many things have you accomplished in just a handful of decades?”

Percy nodded. “That’s precisely the problem. I’ve been rushing into situations I hardly understood without even stopping to digest my previous gains. My friends and I have so many ongoing projects that we should probably take the time to complete before undertaking any new risks. That will also give me a chance to gather more information about the greater springs before I make my next move. Waiting for another round of natural promotions won’t hurt either.”

Phoebe nodded as well, a smile returning to her face. “A wise decision. Combat and danger can do – and have done – a lot for your strength, but there are other avenues of growth that you shouldn’t ignore. Taking things easy for a while and working on longer projects will be good for you.”

“I can still give your Green-borns new cores, affinity-granting treasures and the rest of the Percy package if you want,” he offered. “I’m planning to do that for a lot of people anyway, so we might as well prioritize those who could attain divinity in the foreseeable future. I can even grant artificial advancements or Gloomy Dawn to the most talented among them, but I won’t be able to do that for everybody.”

“I’ll take you up on that,” the goddess replied. “I’ll pay you back by giving you all the information the Divine Order has collected about other factions. It’s not much more than what you already know, but we do have the locations of a couple of greater springs. That should give you a few more starting points to accumulate intel from. Just be more careful infiltrating those places from now on.”

After reaching an agreement with him, the titaness rose to her feet and pulled the glowing cap of the giant mushroom directly into her internal world to prevent it from tumbling down onto the settlement before vanishing to she-knew where.

Examining the severed stem of the colossal fungus, Percy noted to himself to not let Micky step on anything but flat, solid ground while at full size. Despite his gravity mana having offset a large part of his weight, the crow had still clearly grown heavy enough to damage most structures.

Peeking through their connection, Percy realized that his friend had already flown over a handful of provinces and likely visited the headquarters of over a dozen noble families during his little chat with the goddess.

The survivors of the battle hadn’t even returned home yet – and likely wouldn’t for a couple of days at the earliest. Micky and the group of allied Violets and Whites riding on his back had probably given the low-borns in those territories quite a few heart attacks while delivering the news of their defeat and the corpses of their higher-ups.

Deciding to let the Huehuan and the others do as they pleased, Percy finally floated down to the settlement, expecting to answer a few questions before returning home.

He didn’t get very far.

The first cheer erupted before his boots even touched the cobblestones. More followed from every direction as nobles and alchemists poured into the street, waving at him, shouting congratulations, and occasionally trying to shake his hand.

Percy found himself surrounded within seconds.

Tables had been dragged out of nearby buildings, while people carried benches, uncorked bottles, and argued cheerfully over where everything should go. The smell of roasting meat drifted from somewhere ahead, mixing with the sweeter aroma of freshly baked pastries. Archibald stood beside the growing crowd, watching his grandson with a proud grin.

“I thought you were just going to tell them we’d won,” Percy said.

“I did, but half of them had already watched you beat the crap out of the attacking army. And they seemed rather pleased about it,” the patriarch of House Avalon explained.

That was putting it mildly, judging by the reception.

The people who had spent years trapped in the settlement were celebrating more than the end of a single battle. They could return to their territories and make plans that didn’t depend on whether they would be alive tomorrow.

Freddy pushed through the crowd to place a warm Honey Roll into Percy’s hand. “Let the poor guy eat something before you drag him all over the settlement,” the once-humble vendor commanded, and nobody dared to object.

Percy took a bite, too hungry and tired to resist.

The gathering only grew livelier as the day wore on. Percy wasn’t generally a big fan of large crowds, nor being the focus of so much attention, but he tried his best to enjoy the festivities as much as his enthusiastic allies seemed to. He knew that everyone needed to vent their pent-up feelings and, frankly, so did he.

Percy and his friends would have to work very hard in the coming days, but at least they could do that without enemies breathing down their necks for a change.

That was enough.

With a bright grin, Percy pulled his Status up one final time, allowing himself to bask in all the recent changes before commencing what promised to be his busiest, longest, but also calmest training session to date.

___

The Lone Wanderer

Aspects [3/7]:

·         [Percival]

·         [Mictlantecuhtli]

·         [Nephthys]

Concepts:

·         [Mind – Foundational]

·         [Cognition – Auxiliary]

·         [Connection – Auxiliary]

·         [Illusion – Auxiliary]

Mana Cores [8/9]:

·         [Mana core 1P – Green – Soul]

·         [Mana core 2P – Green – Pure]

·         [Mana core 3P – Green – Mind]

·         [Mana core 1M – Violet – Beast]

·         [Mana core 2M – Green – Ice]

·         [Mana core 3M – Green – Gravity]

·         [Mana core 1N – Violet – Beast]

·         [Mana core 2N – Blue – Acid]

Domain:

·         [Dead Winter – Empowered]

·         [Merciful Spring – Empowered]

Bloodlines [1/3]:

·         [Clone] – Create a copy of yourself. Effect varies by affinity.

Blessings [3/8]:

·         [Blessing of Permanence] – Enhance the durability of your soul.

·         [Blessing of Connection] – Enhance your ability to link multiple minds together.

·         [Blessing of Frost] – Produce colder ice.

Mutations:

·         [Saint’s Eye] – Draws from the cumulative knowledge listed in the Status to enhance one’s senses, allowing them to discern details previously unseen.

·         [Divine Spark] – Grants endless inspiration when developing one’s magic.

·         [Twin Heartbeat Physique] – Massively enhances one’s physical strength, agility, flexibility, toughness, endurance, metabolism, reaction speed, natural regeneration, as well as resistance to extreme temperatures and toxins. Grants Thermal Vision, Night Vision, and Internal Sight.

·         [Dead Winter Elemental] – Uses ice mana to regenerate, shapeshift and sustain one’s body. Allows every part of one’s body to interact with souls.

·         [Grey Panoply] – Selectively reinforces the most rigid of one’s body parts.

·         [Giant Body] – Uses gravity mana to counteract one's weight, allowing their body to grow denser and larger without becoming any heavier.

·         [Merciful Spring Monarch] – Allows one to efficiently generate, utilize, and convert various magical resources, interact with and preserve the souls of others, temporarily project the stored minds into compatible vessels, or permanently infuse their souls into special eggs.

Spectral traits [5/6]:

·         [Weaving] – Boosts one’s proclivity in manipulating one-dimensional structures.

·         [Insomnia] – Eliminates the need for sleep.

·         [Scribing] – Boosts one’s proclivity in expressing meaning onto any written medium.

·         [Mimicry] – Boosts one’s awareness of their physical appearance, as well as their ability to maintain or modify it.

·         [Command] – Boosts one’s proclivity in directing any entity that can be perceived as a subordinate.

Mindsets [90,250/2500]:

·         [Percival’s Inverted Compass] – Automatically tracks your movements over the last twenty-four hours. Set a mental checkpoint to permanently save any part of the stored route.

·         [Heavenly Tapestry] – A comprehensive restructuring of a mind too complex to be contained within a single body. Some functions require the consumption of mind, dream, or lightning mana.

Spells:

·         [Basic Pure Control – Refined]

·         [Basic Air Control – Refined]

·         [Basic Ice Control – Refined]

·         [Basic Sound Control – Refined]

·         [Basic Gravity Control – Refined]

·         [Advanced Water Control – Masterful]

·         [Advanced Lightning Control – Masterful]

·         [Advanced Acid Control – Masterful]

·         [Advanced Soul Control – Masterful]

·         [Spectral Art: Soul Surgery – Masterful]

·         [Spectral Art: Cauldron of a Myriad Screams – Masterful]

·         [Spectral Art: Cradle of the Savage Gods – Masterful]

·         [Hybrid Art: Core Bestowal – Masterful]

·         [Ultimate Art: Symphony of a Dead Winter – Extreme]

·         [Ultimate Art: March of a Merciful Spring – Extreme]

Alchemic principles:

·         [Extraction] – Separate and condense an ingredient’s essence.

·         [Pacification] – Delay an ingredient’s activation rate.

·         [Redirection] – Adjust an ingredient’s effect.

·         [Deattunement] – Prevent multiple conflicting ingredients from reacting with one another.

·         [Bonding] – Enrich an ingredient with crystallized pure mana.

·         [Restructuring] – Alter an ingredient's phase.

·         [Scaling] – Brew a greater volume of ingredients at once.

·         [Compression] – Elevate an ingredient to the next grade.

·         [Consolidation] – Infuse multiple similar ingredients into a concoction while eliminating the redundant alchemic steps.

Mental-type Decrees [4/5]:

·         [Phoebe’s Decree – Reserved] – Grants access to your Status. If the mental-type limit is exceeded, an attempt will be made to consolidate existing and new Decrees such that they occupy fewer slots. Additional functionality will be added in the future. This Decree cannot be discarded.

·         [Ea’s Decree – Ea’s Gift] – Grants the Saint’s Eye. This Decree can be discarded at will.

·         [Obatala’s Decree – Obatala’s Approval] – Allows you to effortlessly hold and deploy your domain in its strongest state. This Decree can be discarded at will.

·         [Ningirima’s Decree – Ningirima’s Mercy] – Grants resistance to demonic infestations. This Decree can be discarded at will.

Active-type Decrees [2/3]:

·         [Metatron’s Decree] – Open a one-way portal to the Vault of Magic at will. This Decree can be discarded at will.

·         [Kerfyl’s Decree] – Establish a spectral contract between two willing parties. Infringing upon its terms will result in the destruction of one’s soul. This Decree can be discarded at will.

Core-type Decrees [2/2]:

·         [Moirais’ Decree] – Grants the seed of a second mana core to your aspects, familiars, clones, and hosts. Life and/or mind mana may be required to germinate the seed. The acquired affinity cannot be controlled.

·         [Void Decree] – Can be activated to grant a third mana core to any of your aspects. Seventy-three mana cores and eighty percent of the corresponding aspect’s remaining lifespan will be consumed. The acquired affinity will be restricted to the consumed elements.

Bloodline-type Decrees:

·         [Iapetus’ Decree] – Grants a bloodline.

Free-type Decrees:

·         [Penitent’s Decree] – Allows one to shed small pieces of their soul to infuse into their bloodstream, producing spiritual blood.

___

***

It was late by the time Percy entered one of the most isolated caverns in the depths of the hive. The excited cheers of his allies still rang in his ears, but he knew that it was just his imagination. The only sound that he could truly hear was the distant buzzing echoing through the tunnels.

Tuning everything out, Percy made his way to the back of the chamber, where a thick layer of pale moss coated the rough wall. The yellowish-white glow of the magical plant reflected off the few exposed crystals that still jutted through the growth, softly illuminating the cavern.

Percy had harvested the moss from the goblins’ den in the Whistling Woods, before brewing it into eyedrops. He hadn’t needed another dose of goblinsight potion since he had internalized and even amplified its benefits during the Thess’kalan ritual, but he’d never abandoned this little garden.

There had always been another reason to keep it. A second ongoing experiment – less urgent than upgrading his physique and all the chaos that had followed Baphomet’s attack, perhaps, but no less important.

Walking to the section where the plant was densest, Percy examined a patch that he’d watered with spiritual blood at least once a week for over a decade. The moss there had advanced from Orange to Yellow years ago.

More interesting than the small improvement in the reagent’s magical properties was the silver sheen permeating it. What had once been a barely perceptible trace within Percy’s Soul Vision now spread across the wall in a dense, continuous layer. He could follow it through individual growths without straining his senses, though the plant’s soul still fell a little short of what he would need to possess it with a clone.

Placing his palm against it, he gently brushed the soft, slimy strands with his fingertips.

‘Still not enough,’ he frowned, though his expression shifted to a subtle smile not long after. ‘But it’s close.’

His bloodline needed something substantial to latch onto. The moss had come a long way, yet feeding it more spiritual blood was unlikely to solve the problem. Its improvements had slowed to a crawl years ago, and he doubted that it would ever advance to Green or develop a stronger soul.

But what if he were to start with a plant that already possessed a stronger soul? Could the same treatment carry it the rest of the way?

Percy felt that his idea – one that he’d been playing with for some time – might be viable.

He intended to spend the next few decades scouring the greater springs for another way to accelerate his core cleansing, or a better means of extending his life, but he had to prepare himself for the very real possibility that there was nothing out there that could help him.

There were hundreds of developed worlds to search, yet he already knew that most had attained their current status using the cyan powder or the World Tree’s saplings – methods that Percy had already exhausted. He couldn’t afford to place all his hopes on other people. Percy had already solved his lifespan issues once through his own efforts, thus he felt confident in doing it again. His new plan involved a series of obstacles that he would have to tackle during the following few decades, but if it worked…

Percy was going to shake the universe in ways that would make even his three cores and artificial advancements look like jokes.

[END OF BOOK 7: DAWN OF THE GREATER SPRING]

[END OF THE SPRING SAGA]