Ebony's Fable

At least the rider could sense the reach of a foreign Will and were smart enough not to enter a foreign Domain.

"Hmm." Ebony received the words through Dusk. Spine was vibrationally insulated for their home theatre, but he had his perception constantly working.

"They're here? What got you confused?"

"He says the Ecstasy Lord is surrendering and is asking us to put our spell away." To be fair, maintaining the spell was eating into Dusk's mana pool since the upkeep exceeded his regeneration.

Xin licked her fingers clean, used an alcoholic wipe before her fluid bodysuit covered them. She put her gloves on over them, but these gloves didn't have any defensive purpose. It just made it feel like she was holding her swords without a bodysuit covering them. Her divination coin was out and flicked into the air. "They are serious about surrendering."

"Nuclear deterrent is more effective than I was hoping for."

Ebony was more interested in the horse than he was in the messenger. A [Lightning Tempest Mare Lvl 855] that was so fast, his network and Scouts lost track of it while it was moving. Excluding Ning Xun, it was the first lightning elemental creature he saw that could infuse lightning so well with a physical body and not kill themselves, copying a good fraction of the speed of lightning.

If this messenger was set on running away, he might just be able to do so with the Mare.

If his wife wanted to pursue speed, she needed to up her game with the lightning element. Her lacking Potential due to dilute Xeng blood should be solved with her next evolution. From the materials they got, she would probably veer deeper towards blood and fire. Especially blood.

They walked through Spine without opening any doors, just melting through with ice manipulation.

Flickering right in front of the messenger spooked him, but not the Mare. The Mare didn't react other than mentally slowing down after the close exposure to his mana. He was sending all of his mana to Dusk so they shouldn't feel the direct brunt of his overflowing Wisdom.

Xin was a step behind him, and she leaned directly beside the Mare and caressed its blond furred neck. Lightning sparked upon contact. The Mare's eyes started to waver; it was sensing every bit of bloodlust she had contained. It could see the predator's throat gulping. The gentle moistening of lips. The piercing…. hungry eyes.

It should've run the other way the moment it saw them coming, not waited till they've literally put hands on it.

Ebony gravitated the plum bomb into his hands and placed it into the messengers' hands. Patting his shoulder, the man frozen in flames of Preservation gently held the icy fruit.

Xin had both hands clasped around the tall Mare's long face and stared into its eyes. "Bring it where you came from and maybe I won't eat you." The intention seemed to transmit properly.

Ebony wondered if this was Intent, or her subconsciously using mind magic to a very minute degree. Perhaps that's why she understood animals quite well, and animals seem to understand her from time to time. Her very words might have contained more mental mana than the average Joe ever since she was born.

He caressed its well-kept short fur, another mistake for the stunted Mare. With a small amount of Sequester fitted for Preservation attached, the Mare no longer had a choice to run.

'This Mare has a stronger magic body than those Demons…monsters still have the advantage.' Ebony was outside his Domain, sure, but he was actually having a harder time mentally punching Sequester in. In fact, it was only surface-level. The Mare had a semi-passive, semi-active lightning elemental augmentation over its skin.

Sequester should hide itself from Ebony, but he could tell after touching that his mana was warded off. He added a remark column to his internal Sequester list of chibi images, stating that the numbers will be inaccurate due to target's abilities.

The Mare zapped away.

"Its entire body, especially legs is not 100% flesh, bone and blood," Xin commented.

"Mmm, it probably ate or was born with a thick amount of lightning elemental genes that changed its Physique. Can't quite copy that with a random spell." Ebony replied. Mana Discern could tell that he hadn't just touched organic skin.

To a certain degree, the Mare could be considered part Lightning Elemental. If only it didn't have the weakness of flesh, it shouldn't be afraid of a little Sequester.

The Mare's terrifying speed cut through the lands and passed by his Scout Pigeons by the dozens. Ebony was able to find the weak point of this movement. It had trouble turning and always slowed down for 2 to 4 milliseconds before every extreme bursts of galloping speed. Easy enough to interrupt and cut its movements short. Its erratic gallop had an identifiable pattern that Ebony can easily take advantage of.

Surprisingly, the Mare did not find another portal to exit. It went into a crater hidden under an illusion spell. Items were used and no active Will or mage's mental strength was used to power the illusion. The illusion showed a waterfall. The crater was hidden in an illusory cave.

Anyway, the crystal he tapped onto the Mare for an extension of his Will Relay Buffer was noticed pretty fast but not immediately destroyed. They could see a frozen man holding a purple plum that radiated immense energies after all.

"Gwa! Get out of here!" The feminine voiced laughed and smiled wider, her hands never got off her chest.

"Hahahahaha. Why did you bring that here, idiot!" The happy humanoid Demon scrambled to his feet after pushing the goat off his legs.

"You betrayed us bastard! Hahahaha wonderful!" The mages were fast with their defensive spells, but most of them scrambled to create distance at the same time.

"Shut up. He's frozen." The calm voice that called them to shut up was likely the Ecstasy Lord.

Unexpectedly, the man…Demon was headless. An armoured knight sitting on another Lightning Tempest Mare. Heat rose from the headless creature's neck. Ebony couldn't sense a head with gravitational or vibrational sight, and he couldn't 'see' if there were flames from his neck. The armoured knight was carrying a head without a helmet on its chest.

Why no helmet?

Anyway, the face had an expression of sadness. The wrinkles on them made the frown look sadder.

Ebony did not expect to find all sorts of sexual deviants at their camp. They didn't even stop fully when they sensed a literal mini sun of mana near them. It was literally dragging gravity mana away from them to make them float in the air and maintain its internal energy. Many of them could ground themselves, either with a spell of their own that increases their mass, a rope toss, or never floated to begin with, as they attached a weapon to the ground and held on.

Flipping gravity tends to give better effects than magnifying it in a fight. Most, if not all creatures were used to gravity, different levels of gravity. They were evolved for it. But landbound creatures losing their footing was more than enough for Ebony to take advantage of.

At the ranks of an Emperor, most should have found a way to manoeuvre in the air, yet it wasn't always the case.

"This mana, the pristine soul. Your power is…out of my expectations. As my messenger hopefully conveyed, we surrender." The Dullahan-like creature shed a tear.

At that sign, everyone in the camp started to laugh harder, louder. More estactically.

Ebony's main body didn't move from his Domain, and he obviously didn't want his wife getting close to this emotion-based magic user.

"Intriguing. Mana based spell that massively increases dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins and other feel-good chemicals at the cost of your own? Something along those lines I suppose. Does it work on creatures without a brain?" Ebony did not expect that his brain would be under attack over this range, over just the connection through his Will.

But chemicals in his brain?

He had control over that, and this attack didn't override his control, so once he found out he was being attacked, it practically stopped working as he stopped his brain from overproducing chemicals by the foreign mana and mental mana-based attack. Even if he didn't have control, the chemicals might not even bother his Meditation.

Should the attack shake his Meditation, it was questionable if any of his emotions would be meddled with as Adamant Mental Tolerance wouldn't let it through.

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Worst comes to worst, he could knock himself out and shut down his mind. His body can fight, and Dusk can cast spells for him.

The mental attack didn't even break through his physical control over his brain.

His greatest takeaway from the attack was that mental mana can attach to Will a lot more efficiently than any other mana. It must be their similar nature and that they were from the same source.

"One more attack and I'll drop this." Ebony had the frozen messenger raise both his hands with the plum in it.

"My men are innocent. You won't harm them because of me."

"I see." He replied over the Relay Buffer.

Then he turned to his wife, "I'll be back, don't follow me"

"Or what? You're gonna bite me?"

"Sure." He flickered away and didn't look back.

She didn't chase.

'Should've rode the Mare….' He was so much slower that it was taking him time to travel.

The tense group stopped backing off after what their leader said. They seemed certain Ebony wouldn't blow them up.

There weren't many Demons around the camp, mostly humans. Very few of them in total. Less than 30, and there were even 4 who were only Kings. Yet not even one was free from the Ecstasy Lord's control.

When he finally got there, the Dullahan already had the plum in his hands. He'd slain the messenger…well, decapitated, but Ebony's seal kept the man alive temporarily. The man was also an Emperor who could survive a decapitation for dozens of minutes, maybe more.

"I don't recommend putting that in your myriad bracelet. The loss of gravity mana would not let it hold the energy inside." Ebony eyed the Dullahan's head.

The Dullahan made a happy reaction for once, but it was like the emotion drained out of his face immediately.

'Shock turned positive, are his reactions flipped?'

"ahhh~you're here! You're even more beautiful in person!" His expression somehow warped with more wrinkles, somehow becoming sadder than it was. If this meant he was happy, then he must have thought Ebony served himself up on the platter by coming here.

"Please tell me soul and mind magic is not everything you are capable of." The two most useless magics against him.

Ebony was not excited for a battle because of that.

This was the worst possible match-up for the Dullahan. Hopefully, that dark green broadsword in his hands wasn't for show. From its menacing aura and literal glow of green flames, the same as the Dullahan's neck, it shouldn't be a prop.

'He has a gravitational signature,' Ebony had to confirm that he wasn't looking at an optical illusion. He didn't rule out that he was already under the effects of mind magic despite his confidence in his mind, hence he hasn't attacked anything or anyone.

"You—can see our true forms, hear my real words….I don't feel any mental interference. Why can you see me?" The Dullahan's facial expression turned neutral after a full minute of Ebony looking at its face.

"Was I supposed to see and hear a different…view?" Perhaps another would see a different sight, a normal one with people in a camp and not demons of debauchery.

"No matter. Your soul is worthy of more than Soul Lord Hollow's attention. I shall directly offer you to Her Grace."

'The Angel's Will is present, but she doesn't know what's going on? I suppose the distance of Superclusters limits a lot of abilities. Perhaps some kind of offline pre-programmed Will that is packaged and sent to whoever gives her souls as offerings.'

"Which one of you is the space magic user?" Ebony couldn't Mana Discern any of them. They were using some advanced item to obscure their Classes.

There were muscular shifts, but no one replied. The muscular shifts of the people, their attention shifts, were enough for Ebony to determine who had a good chance of being the space magic user that moved his wife to Fragadal's Sea and separated her from the 3 Frost Elven Kings.

Comfortable in his own skin now, a full blast of augmentation boiled within him and he blinked in front of the humanoid Demon who had snake scales instead of skin but otherwise, completely human. A tap of his finger on the unreactive Demon's chest overlay and broke through its magic body, all the gravity he could muster without sacrificing his plum's integrity was punched into the Demon's chest.

Its body held and wasn't pierced through by the concentrated bullet of gravity. He was sent into the distance without any form of resistance in its limbs or mana. It was out of the picture until his gravity mana stopped sending it further. It was also flying towards Dusk and Xin.

Ebony gravitated the plum into his hands and all the slow Demons stopped in their tracks to land their claws or aim their staff at him.

"Don't fall for his deception. He won't unlease it. It'll kill him too."

Ebony side-stepped and created a Shade before side-stepping back to his original position. While the gravity mana of his body wasn't augmenting him yet, it seemed to delay the Shades from catching up to his main body and even gave him more control over the Shade, rather, the mana traces that form a Shade.

Two Ebony's stood before them. Where is he really?

Now that payback for falling for an optical illusion of a purple-skinned demon that was what the Ecstasy Lord previously showed up as, Ebony fooled around no longer.

'Their reactions are weirdly stunted.' From one body came tens of Shades, each overlapping over a conjuration of himself without a Number in control. For Emperors…these people's reflexes suck, and most allowed his attack to get through.

Ebony's main body Flickered. His hands that were about to touch the Mare's neck touched nothing as the Dullahan's ride zapped forward. He managed to crossblock with his arms just in time when the Dullahan's raised blade was about to decapitate him using the Mare's forward charge.

'The Mare is the most troublesome one, I can't catch up.' He'd realised that those affected by mind-control had stunted reactions but the Mares weren't mind-controlled. They didn't have the expression of ecstasy running through their veins.

'Lure's speciality is still monsters despite being under a Saint who specialises in souls. They must have a wonderful collection of monster information.'

His sleeves were unharmed but he sensed something on his soul.

'That green flame affects the soul after all. Is it boosted by his racial trait?'

"Nothing?" The Dullahan tightened his legs around the Mare and had it turn to keep it facing Ebony at all times.

"That was…feeble?" Ebony didn't even get pushed off after he crossblocked. All the specialisation into soul and mind magic must have made it physically weak, and the Mare's speed might have helped more than the Ecstasy Lord's personal strength.

'I've never done this before, but it's a perfect opportunity.' Ebony saw the Mare's intention and had open palms ready for the faster creature. Letting the Ecstasy Lord swing at him yet again, he leaned in and hugged onto the Dullahan's arms. The Mare was fast, the rider, not quite. At most, a singular Augmentation running didn't help against Ebony's intense self-augmentations.

Before either of them knew, he was riding on the Mare sitting behind the Dullahan with both palms on the chest plate of the knightly Dullahan. He blasted Soul Basilisk's Pseudo Imitation Roar after a burst of Resolve Cadence.

The inhumane scream distracted all the other demons. A few of them even recovered a gleam of clarity in their eyes for a moment.

Ebony's resting mana regeneration of 2 million boosted up to over 500 million per second and drowned the Ecstasy Lord's soul with his essence attack. The noise was harsh on his ears, so he silenced the vibrations. Letting all the demons watch the Dullahan's face turned happy for the first time they've ever seen. An ecstatic expression the Ecstasy Lord had never felt on his own face, screams turned into laughs….yet no sound could be heard, and they could only see his excited visage.

He'd always used it as a stun and rarely used it against creatures to begin with. Most of its levels could be said to have been gained when he trained his wife and his Soul Tolerance, not from attacking.

'Hmm? His heart stopped." Ebony did not expect this, but a moment later, he received the kill notification.

'Ting' 'You have killed [Riven Joy Archon - Weeping Soul Reaper Lvl 1000], enemy 400 levels or more above your own. Experience concentration too high to dilute completely, additional experience gained.'

'That can't be right...Tuffock trio said he rules over a few Worldcores.' He barely held the Soul Basillisk's Pseudo Imitation Roar for 3 minutes. Roughly 90 billion points of mana were drained from Dusk to do so. That was enough to kill a specialised Soul user?

While he couldn't sense other people's souls, he was aware that this 'kill notification' was based on the soul. At higher evolutionary ranks, not to be trusted at all. Famously, soul users can just divert a portion of their souls at their death to their 'killers', which would induce this 'notification' while not being fully dead.

Also, when someone was stabbed to death, but their souls were retrieved by a soul magic user the stabber would not induce any notification, while the soul user may eradicate the soul. This was not even considered a partial kill for the stabber. It would 100% be the soul magic user.

'Why is his soul so fragile for a soul user? Is this a clone of some type with only a portion of his soul? The notification is a bit weird. Sub-Classes aren't usually displayed that way. I'll assume he's not 100% dead.' Ebony did not let overconfidence take over when it came to these individuals with unknown capabilities.

Ebony noticed that Soul Basilisk's Pseudo Imitation Roar was limiting the attack. It couldn't handle his essence output. The skill had to be improved as soon as possible to make full use of his essence. While he did force over 90 billion points of mana, it felt like less than a tenth was being converted into effective power. This made it even more questionable as to how the Dullahan popped.

Resolve's Cadence dialled back to zero, and his resource regeneration dialled down accordingly.

As a partial mana-being, mana regeneration regenerates his vitality partially too, so all 3 of his resources were boosted with a boost in Wisdom as his Meditation Core depended on it. Making essence attacks – Auras particularly fitting for him. He had tried to infuse Will into the attack, but he didn't even get enough data before the Ecstasy Lord died. Hence, he wasn't sure if he succeeded in making the essence skill an Aura.

'Gotta figure out this Aura Layering Condensation Fortification sooner or later.'

The demons slowly regained some clarity, but their reaction speeds to the Shades only slowed down. They failed to dodge attacks they could've and stopped moving. No, they were trembling.

All the conjurations melted, their Shades disappearing.

Another opportunity arose. For some reason, they were all staring at his face.

He held the Will to concentrate on his Priming's Aura and flipped Resolve's Cadence back on to intensify the volume of essence he had. His Martial and Simulative Aura soared.

One by one, he made eye contact with the staring Demons.

He did not appreciate when they excreted waste right there and then. It did not help that some of them were not clothed, much less armoured.