Chapter 851 – Innate domain (Patreon)

‘Aje wasn’t kidding about him,’ Obatala realized upon sensing the dense blob of willpower enveloping Percy’s borrowed fist.

The ability to perceive another’s willpower without coming into direct contact with it was rare even among powerful deities, though Obatala had slowly learned to estimate its strength after hundreds of millennia of working on a relevant Decree. There were always faint clues in how a domain imposed itself on its surroundings or distorted the air it flowed through.

‘Tenth Circle for sure,’ he concluded. ‘More than strong enough to incorporate into an internal world.’

Obatala was quite impressed already, because he knew that Percy’s actual grade wasn’t nearly as high. The young man was a Red-born who was climbing through the Colour realm a lot faster than he had any right to, but he couldn’t have advanced past Green in a mere century, could he?

His eyes only widened further when Percy stacked yet another domain onto Kunlo’s hand, no weaker than the first one. The titan’s first thought was that Percy’s host had lent him at least one of the two domains, but the Blue Gallimian couldn’t have produced anything that powerful.

Still, Obatala swallowed his question and raised his own palm invitingly, prompting the mortal to attack.

The ground collapsed beneath the Favoured One’s feet as he shot toward Obatala, though the destruction produced by his jump paled in comparison to that unleashed by the impact itself.

A shockwave pulverized everything within a hundred metres as soon as the mortal’s knuckles struck the titan’s hand, replacing the thorn-covered hills with a deep crater. A wave of dust and shredded bushes kept travelling for another kilometre beyond that, as the clouds parted above the Green-borns’ heads.

Obatala and Percy’s host remained entirely unscathed, of course – except perhaps for Kunlo’s pride.

“Wow, not even a bead of sweat on your forehead? I thought I’d at least push you back a step or two,” Percy groaned.

“It’s only natural. The gap between us is still wider than that separating a demigod from a Red. The fact that you’ve crossed a similar gap in a mere century and a half is more likely to make me sweat than your willpower.” Obatala chuckled. “What’s your current grade, if I may ask?”

Percy scratched the back of his borrowed head, seemingly struggling to answer. “That’s actually a more complicated question than it sounds. I suppose it would be fair to call me a Violet, on average.”

Obatala’s eyelid twitched, though he wasn’t even going to try making sense of that response. “You’re even closer to developing an Innate domain than I thought. I assume that you’re already strong enough to fight three grades above your own?”

“If we say that I’m a Violet and we’re only talking about my domains... probably,” Percy replied. “Isn’t that the same level as a Blue-born?”

“More or less,” Obatala confirmed. “The gap between their willpower and core is typically around four grades, as it is for you, though their overall combat strength is held slightly back by the rest of their abilities. For all of their natural gifts, most Blue-borns hail from backwater planets that lack bloodlines, blessings, or any other advantages to combine with their willpower.”

“So, then... shouldn’t my Status have registered my Empowered domains evolving into Innate ones?” Percy asked.

Obatala frowned, pondering over what he knew about Blue-borns.

“The truth is that I’ve never actually met one of them in person,” he admitted. “I created my Decree based purely on what I’d heard about Blue-borns and what I knew about domains and willpower. I can’t be entirely sure, but I think that your domains are slightly weaker. Individually, at least.”

“Individually?”

Obatala nodded. “Each is probably only a step away from an Innate domain, though I wouldn’t be surprised if you could beat a Blue-born with the sheer quantity of your willpower by stacking both domains together. In fact, I suspect that your body only partitioned your willpower into two separate domains because it couldn’t push either of them to the next stage and didn’t know what else to do with the excess. Have you been struggling to hone your willpower lately?”

“More than I used to,” Percy said. “Back when I first obtained my Empowered domain, each promotion would contribute more to my willpower’s strength, causing the gap between it and my actual grade to keep widening. But my most recent advancements haven’t strengthened my domains that much. It feels like the gap between them and my grade has hit some kind of ceiling.”

“I see. Then it’s as I suspected. Your domains are already on the verge of evolving, but you clearly need something more than core promotions to cross the final threshold,” the titan explained.

“It doesn’t sound like I’m missing out on much power,” Percy pointed out.

“You aren’t. Not as a mortal, at least,” Obatala agreed. “Each of your domains seems to only be five or ten percent weaker than a Blue-born’s – maybe less – and you more than make up for that by having two of them. However, I don’t think you’ll be able to comprehend the external concept without an Innate domain, which will cost you an extra grade of power once you attain divinity.”

The mortal smiled wryly, looking more disappointed about potentially failing to comprehend the concept of Willpower than he had when they had talked about how powerful Blue-borns were. Percy clearly felt confident that he could eventually surpass anyone and everyone, though he couldn’t bear the thought of any branch of magic permanently eluding him.

“In your professional opinion, what would it take to evolve my domain?” the mortal asked.

Obatala shrugged. “Not to pry into your secrets, but it’s hard to advise you without knowing how you got this far.”

Percy furrowed his host’s brow, seemingly weighing his trust in the people of Gallimus against the sensitivity of the information he was about to share.

“Nine cores,” he eventually muttered.

“Come again?” Obatala asked, thinking that his ears might have failed him for the first time in two million years.

“I have nine mana cores,” Percy reiterated, “spread evenly across three bodies and personalities. I only manifested my second domain when the third person permanently fused with me. The individual advancements of my cores used to contribute more to my domains, but it now feels like I need to promote all nine of my cores for my domains to grow by a grade.”

Obatala’s jaw nearly hit the ground – which was quite impressive, considering that he and Percy’s host were hovering dozens of metres above the crater. Even Kunlo paled, his face turning a lighter shade of brown.

It was only several moments later that the titan managed to calm himself down enough to respond. “I’ve no idea how your bloodline works, but I suspect that linking yourself to another body would only create an additional domain. If you want to upgrade the ones you already have, you’ll have to either give a fourth core to at least one of your bodies or – and I think that this might be easier – figure out how to merge your existing domains.”

“I see.” Percy sighed. “I guess that’s another thing to add to my pre-apotheosis to-do list.”

Hearing the exasperation in the young man’s borrowed voice, Obatala felt the urge to slap a mortal for the first time since his own ascension.

“What about your Decree?” Percy asked. “Any chance you can make it stronger? Just a little bit, so that you can give all of us a slight push?”

“I would if I could,” the titan admitted. “I don’t think that I’ll be able to help you strengthen your domain, but you might be able to help me, if you somehow succeed by yourself. Then again, you’ve already done way too much for my people. It would be wrong of me to ask for anything else.”

“We can turn it into a trade if it makes you feel better,” Percy replied with a shrug. “Would you be willing to cast your Decree on my planet? We have a mental-type Decree of our own, but I’ve already proven that they can merge under the right circumstances. I can bring the topic up to our gods if you’re interested.”

“I’d be willing to, if I could set foot on another world, but casting my Decree requires too much concentration to do it from afar,” Obatala explained. “I’m also hesitant to leave Gallimus unprotected for decades. We don’t have many deities who are as powerful as me.”

“What about our moons?” Percy asked. “I was told that moons are typically dead fragments of destroyed Ancients that don’t lash out against foreign deities. We could send our people to receive the Decrees with teleportation platforms, and we could solve the other issue as well with an interstellar teleportation network. Establishing a connection between our solar systems might be a good idea regardless, as I’m sure that our people have a lot more to gain from each other than a mere Decree or two.”

“I’m open to that, if you can build those platforms.” Obatala nodded. “Aje has mentioned that you have a rather developed branch of runecrafting on your world. Unfortunately, we’d need deities with a space affinity to draw the runes, and we don’t have any of those to lend you. It might be millennia before we’re in any position to help you with that project.”

“Fair enough. I’ll figure something out while working on merging my domains,” Percy said, sounding quite confident that he could solve both problems.

And for once, Obatala found it difficult to doubt him.