Ebony's Fable

Ebony looked at his resting hand 'I suppose using two hands would…hmm, this is a tough material, I'll refine a Tier 4 whip mastery right now. Maybe tier 5.'

He tugged at the soul puppet, no longer weaponless. The rope extended from a neck leash to tie around its torso and centre of gravity. Seeing every movement path of his targets and their attacks, the whip that he could control the length of was an excellent weapon. The Demons felt like their attacks were gravitating towards the soul puppet, which was being whipped around. He was not manipulating gravity to do that; it was simply a matter of pure timing and positioning.

The whip was one of the closest weapon handling techniques to the spear. In a spearman's hands, a spear was not much different from a whip.

'This is more like a flail than a whip.' The hardy soul puppet crushed into the fist of the most troublesome [Demon of Clay Lvl 782 / Clay Marble Chimeric Gargoyle Lvl 782]

A fighter of perfect level balance is a good indicator that this fighter had many skills compounding and used together for a single attack. It was not important to Ebony if this was a marble gargoyle that gained a class, or a person who demonised him or herself into a marble gargoyle. It has wings, always goes back into a squatting posture and goes for burst charge and swiping attacks. The style was simple enough to understand and read, but its augmentative skill set was what set it apart from the others.

It wasn't an Aspect-user and used elemental magic as far as he could tell. The clay elemental augmentation, a combination of earth and water absorbs impact extremely well. If it wasn't for Mantle of Reservation, Ebony might have had his feet stuck inside the gargoyle after kicking. Either some level of transmutation was at play, or Mana Discern was correct, and this Chimera he was looking at was a conjured marble body. Its real body was a lot smaller and hidden under this armour of clay.

The mixture of clay could go from soft and moldable to harder than any normal porcelain. No amount of sonic impact helped to get through the clay so far.

It even had good tactical sense. After it saw Ebony evading and countering with the whip art he was…whipping up on the spot, it flew around and coordinated its allies' attacks without speaking, quietly moving in others' paths to guide the flow of their attacks more concentrated.

'The rest have no troublesome skills, the 3 magic users are no problem as long as I continue to suppress their magic within my Domain. The warriors using Intent to stay at peak condition are more troublesome, but my Numbers can keep spawning, I'm not lacking mana.' Ebony only had to focus on the clay gargoyle.

The group was a lot weaker than he was prepared for. 8 hours was unnecessary to beat them, but capturing was a lot tougher. All the close-range combatants as Intent users can rid themselves free from the magnified gravity, but not against the invading chill.

'So my shields and constructs are getting torn apart thanks to their Intent, the power boost is small, but it greatly increases a technique's purpose. Piercing attacks pierce better, slashing ones slice better.' Regardless, it didn't mean anything when they weren't hitting him. His Numbers would have to suffer a little, but they weren't feeling any pain. Within his Domain, they didn't even need him to recreate them and could store themselves before taking over a newly constructed body.

That said, their attempts to guide attacks towards Oplot had been getting foiled. The monk had to move himself, Ebony did not need to swing him around. The monk was good enough as a shielder to read attack paths and stand in their way with his golden bronze skin being unharmed.

'Is he even taking any damage….' This was enough to tell him that Oplot has defences a lot tougher than his own with Coagulated Mana Repository.

He did not sense Will or Intent from the monk, but he was subtly aware that even if he set his Domain to treat Oplot as a hostile, he would still be free from direct effects and would have to be weakened through active spells and a lot more mental effort.

The claw gargoyle targeted his extended cable but the cable slacked, and it couldn't slice it clean.

'I'm having this much trouble with your run-of-the-mill Emperor?' He was without a proper weapon, with no good robe, but that shouldn't be a limiting factor.

'I can't quite punch in my flames.' The cautious gargoyle was refreshing its clay after every point of contact. It shouldn't have known about Sequester, but it might be the demon's gut feeling. Ebony's flames probably didn't go deep enough before they expelled clay and reforms with a new mixture. He wasn't about to let foreign mana sit around in his Domain as traps on the floor and had to spend the extra effort to compile and destroy all the clay that got expelled and spread around them.

He changed things up once more, moving the rope to tie around his ankle and shortening it. He still had to keep the soul puppet's resistance down and continue pumping ice and Will to keep it sealed.

Moving his two hands together as if pulling noodles, he made dozens and dozens of invisible wires about 1/100,000th Spine. Then he randomly swiped to spread them around.

'This reminds me of the time I formed my Domain with millions of threads to perceive every inch of space. I should reincorporate them, invisible wires….wires of Sequester. All in my Domain will get in contact with the wires of Sequester.'

Performing an awkward noodle dance, pulling and kneading at nothing, he didn't use mana manipulation any further and shifted all the wires from his hands around the predicted paths he saw.

The Demons' instincts were rather amazing, even if they couldn't see it a few of them had their bodies react by pure instinct and dodge spots he gently swung his wires past.

Oplot the shield still did not draw his shield and used his body. His movement skill was slow, carried by timing and very good positioning and allowed Ebony to experiment.

The gargoyle cut through the Numbers and slipped past Oplot while he was busy with other demons, its claws were short of teleporting into Ebony's eyeballs.

All that aura, not much power.

Ebony's wire tied against a conjured ice pole stood strong, cutting all the way through the clay and hitting something solid.

He didn't go the slow way of pumping Sequester and directly blasted flames without spending the Will to hide it.

The loud screech of pain was a sign that his attack finally worked.

He even managed to get his wires tied around the whole marble body under the clay armour. It hardened its clay to porcelain and snapped his wires off soon after, but the damage was done.

A brief second of information transfer later, all the deployed Numbers conjured dozens of wires from their arms and legs. They were not limited to holding them and directly made fine ice wires from everywhere on their icy bodies.

The mages were the first and only ones that got trapped by the Numbers. The rest was too fast and strong to be tied down by thin wires made of ice. The fiery demon with bull horns didn't even bother dodging. He had the highest destruction count of Numbers and was Oplot's main focus to tanking hits for his Numbers to keep the others busy.

Neither side was hurting the other decisively.

Ebony continued to refine this wire style while his Domain strengthened. The Demons seemed to think they could get both of them sooner or later. They operated under the assumption that they had larger resource pools, even if disadvantaged in a foreign Domain, they just had to run the two Kings dry.

A simple prospect for any Emperor.

Ten minutes in, Ebony was in a tug of war with the marble gargoyle. He was using 1/10,000th Spine wires and they didn't snap, but he was losing a tug of war even with gravity on his side. They had too much physical strength, and this marble gargoyle was also too tough for his razor-sharp wires to sink into.

They started to notice Oplot getting faster, and Ebony's mana pool remaining at an all-time high.

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'Still don't have enough Will to put them all down at once.' He was slowed down in his plan of using Preservation Coreflame on all of them thanks to the amount of Numbers he had to upkeep but even then, his simulations needed data to work with. The mana wasn't an issue, but the amount of Will required to seal all of them was higher than his initial expectations.

For one, the soul puppet could still struggle. Taking extra ice and cold-resistant demons like the fiery horned one into account, he needed to expect active resistance even after they were sealed in ice.

If Dusk were here, he would've gone home already since there was sufficient Will charged within Dusk. Still, it was good that he didn't have to use Dusk. That would leave less Will becoming Unfading, and Dusk's growth held priority over capturing some subordinate.

"Need some help?" Oplot offered a hand.

Ebony looked at the 11 ropes he held and passed 5 over before they dragged the rock-solid demons.

Oplot imbued his golden light into the ropes and reinforced the mana.

'What kind of spell is that?' In any case, the ropes Oplot took over stopped requiring his mana and Will.

"Hang on. We forgot that one." Ebony pointed outside his Domain. The soul puppet Tower Head Sylvarith Dawnweave was being beaten by was still on the loose.

Ebony snapped his fingers and brought it along. This Domain crumbled from the loss of Will.

'That was a good Domain refinement session.' 3 hours wasn't even that long, but he was nearly out of Will anyway.

One thing he noted was how fast he was levelling up. He might have put more Potential into his Classes than he imagined for making it so easy to level even without any hunting.

As a King, he was gaining 25, 20 and 10 stat points per level in his Class, Sub-Class and Profession, respectively. As an Eminent Arcanum, the ratio of stats he was getting that he couldn't control the allocation of was 3:7 Intelligence to Wisdom. He left the unallocated stats alone for now.

"Can you keep them all?"

"Navin's barrier will contain them. Once they're in Tidal, they can't die either." Oplot handed the ropes over to Navin the moment they crossed the portal.

They should've just let the others join them earlier, should he have known the demons weren't all that. Navin and Truewater should be capable enough.

The two Elves were too drained and might not have had the reaction speeds fast enough, but the two humans would've been great support. Navin had survivability that didn't lose out to them, and his curses would've sped things up as long as the anti-curse and the Emperor they fought didn't join in the battle. These two stayed out of his Domain and even retreated soon after the Demons came by.

And one dissatisfied wife who was pouting. "I already told you there's no interesting fight for you. Now that you're all mighty, you toss me aside..." she almost fake sniffed.

'The Clay demon was interesting enough…' Was something he didn't say out loud.

Flexible clay that could take impact, infused with Intent to resist gravity and natural resistance to freezing was one thing, the way the demon used clay gave Ebony new insights and even 'forced' him to create a wire-weapon mastery. Since he was at it, he also created the base frame for a whip mastery and treated them as one. In any case, they would all subsume as Phantasmal Shade Sovereign Arts.

The Path of the Formless was also known as the Path of All Forms. Instead of trying to become more formless, it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to incorporate as many arts as he could. It would bring a fresh perspective to his movements.

The Greed/Gluttony Aspect-using demon prevents Mana Discern from working, so he never found out what type of demon they were. They could even absorb Sequester and break it down somehow. Clay demon can slice his domain with intent, and it would take effort and time for his Will to recover control over the space. It hadn't been a waste of time.

"Hmm, wait till we settle with the armoured guy."

"You're gonna seal him too huh?"

"?" Ebony cocked his head, questioning her for real with his eyes.

Looks like she was not a mind-reader after all.

She should know him better.

Tower Head Sylvarith Dawnweave reallocated a forest to Lacuna Expanse's entrance, and the Painter of Animation animated the plants to mobile life. Ebony wondered if they were going to send more elders here to solidify a Domain to resist an Angel.

Ebony had already sensed the re-expansion of the Angel's Domain before he left. She didn't just have one or two statues inside. Each individual group seemed to have a statue of her to provide their 'offerings'.

He watched Yharnu get 'interrogated' by Truewater for a moment, but decided there was nothing to worry about. Truewater shouldn't drown her without reason. She might be a higher level, but he had no doubt Truewater could kill her rather easily, all things considered. She got too stuck up on increasing stats to cover gap between her and the Nobles to understand that that alone didn't cover the gap combat experience served.

Interestingly enough, there were a couple more people that followed her. Since they were all commoners, ex-Elcrian and had been convinced by the highest level member of their group, they came back for a chance.

Unlike Yharnu, they had little to offer. As far as the Empire was concerned, they were just rebels who surrendered. However, with Yharnu's assets that she could bring to the table she could probably convince the Empire to let them go as long as they didn't have too much Imperial blood on their hands.

In any case, this was a small group of Kings and Emperors that Elcra didn't have many of.

"Invite me when you're ready to enter again."

"It shouldn't be long. Within the week." Oplot replied.

Navin was currently too laser-focused on the demons to speak. His state was understandable since his wife was missing.

"Give me a minute if you're going back to Tidal, I'm gonna open a portal anyway." The Painter of Animation rubbed her back as if she was that old.

That was convenient.

Before he knew it, he was back with his students and sipping tea, munching biscuits with an Emperor Tetramyth. All his students were alive. That was a nice plus.

'Only the Unclassed left.' He received reports that all his students passed except the Unclassed.

His students were trying to gather and support each other while waiting for fellow students to pass or they couldn't leave either.

"It seems like our complete defeat." The Emperor Tetramyth stated.

"A little early to say, don't you think?"

"We have good precognition. Are there any ways we may extend this deal of ours? We always need more food."

He shook his head, there was nothing more they could offer that he was interested in. Except maybe studying the anatomy of their Saint but that wasn't happening.

'All my scout pigeons in Lacuna Expanse disappeared at the same time. Looks like we got out just in time.' The Clay Demon was a cut above the Power Demon, but that was it. The Ecstasy Lord hadn't sent an aggressive counterattack to retrieve his men. Though they might just assume everyone is dead.

Just how many levels does their hierarchy go?

The Tetramyth's mental transmission proved true as it took a combined effort for the Unclassed to each take down a leader-type ant within the next day. It was almost dramatic how they were just in time before a Tetramyth chomped through Raika's neck as she ran out of mana and stamina long ago.

Ebony Flickered and flicked the mandibles about to chomp through her neck, frozen the moment his last students passed the test.

'Now they've seen real combat. Next step to refine what they know and cut out all the useless movements they've been made aware of for those Skills they've learned before they used them in a proper battle. That two dungeons have just the right monsters for each of them to hunt before I can cycle them to fight all sorts of monsters...hmm, they need experience fighting people too but…how do I give them a real one.' He couldn't exactly ask them to go to fight a life and death battle with a stranger or pick a fight to achieve this purpose.

As for creating clones to fight them, as long as he never has the intention to kill them. That edge he is looking to sharpen them with wouldn't be there. And if he did create a clone with the intention to kill, he would have no students left before the end of the day.

"Tidal is holding their tri-annual tournament, they asked to join." Seven chipped in.

There was no need for a reply; that was up to his students. He wasn't bothered by their win or loss, only their growth. At this rate, he wouldn't be creating a rival for himself any time soon from amongst his students. This place was too safe even though a couple of his students had the necessary drive.

'Maybe the tournament can give them some rivals of their own, that would be nice too.' Seven caught his drift and went to study the students who may be good rivals for their students.

With that put aside and his students no longer in mortal danger, Ebony retrieved Dusk and left the Tetramythian battlefield with the little ones in tow. Ushering them to their dorms and homes in the middle of the night after the long journey up to the surface.

No planning, no appointment. His wife was waiting for him nearby. After a few weeks without sleep, it was time to return home.

'My sleep requirement is not any worse than my time as a Grandmaster, maybe even a little better. The increase in sleep required is probably cancelled out by Constitution increase and the overall increase in all baselines after my evolution.'

The overnight journey took a toll on his sleepy partner who took the chance to exercise her flight ability. Arriving to a cold, quiet home in the Glades that was in one piece they took a hot bath and plonked themselves onto the bed immediately. He expelled every bit of his mana into his house to toughen it up, and it trickled out to Dusk. Making his flesh a hard sponge instead of a solid rock and a suitable bolster.

His feet almost hung off the edge. A bigger bed might be in order since he has grown in size.