Ebony's Fable

Ebony's initial reaction was how tame and weak the curses were, excluding the unknowns. Thinking that perhaps the curse mage was going easy so that he didn't curse him to death. It was a breed of magic that was harder to control once out of the caster's grasp after all.

He knew that the 'Notifications' were actually different for everyone as it was his own understanding of his state. For example, he is 'notified' about the curses' debuff to 2 decimal point for the percentages but Xin would not. However, there was a chance she would see fewer unknown effects just by sheer instinct about what is happening within her body.

But he misunderstood the purpose of the initial exchange.

The more costly a curse spell, the stronger it is.

The more restrictive it was, the stronger it was.

The more specific a curse is, the stronger its effect.

That was general knowledge about curses that he knew of.

While he studied Navin's barrier and arcane manipulation, the Barrier King was studying the specific properties of his mana.

Now, the curses in his body were strengthening themselves using his mana. It didn't matter how strong his magic body was, or curse resistance was, if the thing strengthening the curse was his mana.

It was quite ingenious.

Instead of a virus, the curse he was placed under was a supportive element that his mana did not naturally reject. There were clear signs of Yvette's influence in this spell. Thanks to the supportive nature, his mana recognised it as helpful and followed along to cycle around the curse. Not only that, the mana that made up the spell directly attached itself to his mana chassis. The mana particles were about the same size as his mana chassis, and the ingraining or embedding in his mana chassis was nearly perfect as far as he could tell.

He can't remove it by manipulation and neither does cutting it off work, as it was merged to his very Chassis.

Ebony raised Preservation within his Mireloom, freezing and shutting down his mana regeneration altogether. Stopping the effects of all the curses trying to affect him from his mana.

The pure mage clearly didn't expect such a fast response that also sealed Ebony's greatest advantage of seemingly limitless mana.

Yet, he wasn't any less intimidating.

Ebony's pale complexion from losing the ability to regenerate a good portion of his blood turned pinkish as he imitated his wife's augmentation by gathering life force within his heart and giving it a good pump.

'About the effect of her Tier 3 version just by sheer volume of vitality.' Ebony wasn't that good at bleeding vitality into his flesh and bones. Bleeding it into his mind was even harder, so the enhancement favoured physical stats for the moment. Xin's version augmented all stats evenly.

It wasn't simply charging up a burst of life force. The energy still had to be dispersed to the relevant parts of him to enhance. This was where the technical difficulty lay in and he was limited by his control over life force.

Navin lacked imagination.

He summoned the same arcane construct of a humanoid warrior that he used against the Emperor. The vanguard for the 3 mages during the battle in Lacuna Expanse.

Reflecting rainbow hues, a transparent giant over ten metres tall that was more like a stick man drawn with thick brush strokes was conjured. It had flat, round feet, and two balled-up fists on a stump of an arm. The spiked fists segregated into layers and started to rotate at incredible speeds. It smashed it against each other and concocted a terrible noise of friction and reversed rotating spiked balls. Then the spikes started to grow around the cylindrical giant's torso and spun.

Ebony held onto Dusk and blankly looked at the arcane warrior charge at him with a spiked ball punch.

He raised Dusk's pointy edge at poked it at the centre of mass of the grinding spiked fist, causing the construct to come to a halt.

Navin did not react, but his mana breathed confusion and a creeping nervousness, as if questioning how Ebony stopped the rotating spikes without so much as batting an eye or not even getting pushed back now that he no longer had most of his physical augmentations.

Mana Discern allowed Ebony to communicate better in a serious exchange than words and conversation.

Dusk's pointy edge that poked at the undamaged barrier-construct was stuck. Frozen stuck.

Ebony raised the construct and lifted it off the ground before slamming it over and over again and finally swiping it back at the caster while Dusk released the freeze at just the right time.

As long as he never trained or understood warriors or close combat in general, the pure mage's vanguard construct will never beat a trained fighter. Not to mention, it wasn't any faster or stronger but even if it was, there were too many weak points to exploit that a mage didn't understand.

Exactly the reason the Ex-Elcrian Emperor wasn't even bothered by this vanguard.

Ebony zoomed over and sent down an overhead Crystalline Avalanche at Navin, who was in the moment of distraction of trying to stop the rotating spiked giant from smashing into himself.

Ebony's hands trembled slightly when the sensation of reverberations from his vibrational reflection actually got reflected. 'Not a scratch on him.' The reflection of impact, gravity and ice ravaged his own body, but was just an indicator to him that the Barrier King was 100% protected. Other than being buried deep in earthen cracks from the overhead slash.

The training field was much too tough to bury the man directly.

Be it Navin's reflexive mana that was defending himself against conjured projectiles and flames at impressive speeds, the man himself couldn't get Ebony off his back.

Leaving the Barrier King to be a punching bag for Ebony.

He kept building momentum while studying the unbreakable barrier skin. At least, Navin's mana was absolutely carefree, taking all of Ebony's flame-imbued strikes by using Dusk as a club or bo-staff. The man was supremely confident that no damage types Ebony was dishing out would get through.

'He's accelerating. His mana also has the Fortification to take kinetic force or energy in general to strengthen itself?' Ebony's rising momentum was facing an increasingly fast target, trying to inch his way out of being a punching bag passed around Ebony and a conjured ice kick or two.

Navin's arcane spells were rather bland. They were fast, they hit hard, but they were simple.

He may be whipping up another curse in the meantime. That might be Ebony's timer.

As far as he was concerned, this was a proper King. He excelled at something to be worthy enough to be King.

The two of their acceleration continued, but the pattern was the same. Ebony put the man in physical sandbag mode, getting whacked around in a tight sphere of space while they constantly tore apart each other's spells.

He excluded plum bombs, but the fact that the gravitational vortex didn't work was helping the Barrier King a lot. It was as if suction or gravity simply passed through the man. So Ebony couldn't even use gravity tunnel to double his power by pulling his target towards him while pushing himself to them. Magnified gravity also didn't hinder the man in any way.

It was more than his mana too. If it were just mana, the man under the barrier skin should still be affected by gravity. It was likely a proper Skill-spell, perhaps even a curse. He hadn't worked out the mechanics yet.

Without any warning, Navin's acceleration died down and Ebony's momentum was contained though it stopped growing.

They were both intrigued by each other's well timed stop.

"Looks like it is my victory." Navin declared.

"I was going to say the same, for myself." The two with unbreakable and comparatively weaker offence had the same thought at the same time.

"I am impressed at how quickly you got around my first curse barrage, but my next has already been set and you won't come out scathe-free this time." Navin flicked his wrist up and pointed his small wand upwards.

"Your barrier's indestructibility and ability to fend off any type of damage I can deal precedes your reputation, but I can't say the same for your curses. In any case, there is more than enough of my mana to break your barriers for sure." Ebony was ready to set off Sequester anytime.

'Was he doing something to me?' Both wondered what they got hit by throughout the duration of the sandbagging.

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Who can activate their hidden spell faster?

Who can survive the unseen attack of the other party?

Will killing the other party first stop the spell?

Navin was the first to put away the threat, "I don't understand how you enhanced yourself to the same degree after you sealed your mana."

"Your curse merged directly with my mana chassis. Maybe you learned about my make-up from your great-granddaughter over there. I presumed if my mana chassis is sealed, your curse is too. It worked."

"Yes, while your compressed mana still gives you the constitution which explains your durability, how did you enhance yourself if you sealed your mana production and mana altogether?"

Ebony gave Dusk a shake. "My Domain cast augmentation on me as if I'm one of my clones. Just because the mana in my body is sealed doesn't stop my mana from interacting with the rest of my body."

"I have to hurry and become a Fourth Order mage myself."

"How are you avoiding gravity mana altogether?"

"One of the curses I prepared specifically against you. Let's just say it changes the properties and traits of me into something of a different race."

"Hmm… it's most similar to a creature I've encountered. The Void Tardigrade, you cursed your humanity into something like a void creature? That would indeed make most elemental magics useless…."

"You've encountered a Void Tardigrade? How unlucky….and lucky to survive."

"Mmm." Ebony wasn't going to counter that. Against the Void Tardigrade, his survival might truly have been thanks to luck.

"Well, you're right, but please don't spread it around."

"Mmm."

He was more curious about the drawbacks. All strong curses relied on strong drawbacks but Ebony couldn't tell if Navin was under any sort of drawback.

Ebony was hit with realisation by Navin's sudden visit. "Do you rely on Yvette's healing to stay normal?"

"…As expected, you could tell."

"Is your curse slowly turning you into a void creature but you retained your human parts thanks to Yvette's skills?"

"Right again."

"Then you must be here for Veronica." On Elcra, there was no one better to ask for someone's location.

"Yes, is she in?"

"She was. I believe she will be back, but you never know when it comes to her." Veronica had been gone for many days with the Spirit Possession Emperor.

"If she wants to meet and tell me, she will come soon," Navin stated.

He was not wrong because it didn't take another minute before Veronica returned with a dejected Spirit Possession Emperor following behind. The 'portal' that appeared was not visible to the naked eye but Ebony learned to sense the mana disruption in the surroundings whenever a connection to the Spirit Realm was opened. Instead of a portal, it was more like a layer of fluid, a film that separates Realms more so than a door.

"Lacuna Expanse. Let that monk deal with it. The Angel's here to disturb him. Other activity is mere noise and a bonus for the underlings." Veronica arced her back and stretched.

Billions of souls weren't important.

High-quality souls from Navin and the Elves weren't important.

But annoying the daylights out of a member of the Wandering Celestial Monastery was 100% the key here.

An Angel's way of getting back was… intriguing.

Unless the Soul Lord Hollow actually believed the Esctasy Lord could kill or take away Oplot's soul. Which according to the Spirit Possession Emperor's assessment, more than possible.

Ebony wasn't certain if Oplot was born on Earth or brought there after birth for training. If it was the first, then the man who was the child of Demi-Gods should---should have a stronger soul than Ebony. He found it hard to believe that the Ectasy Lord was anywhere as close to the assessment of the Spirit Possession Emperor.

Be it mind or soul, Ebony didn't really feel any form of aggressive attack, and the Dullahan had many chances to do something. Anything.

Even brute force with people of the Spirit Possession Emperor's standards would've been way more effective in his books. Yet he still got killed without any sort of resistance.

"I cannot stand still." Navin pleaded.

"Stick with monk boy, you'll find her then."

Navin imitated the Xeng's bow and fist clasping. He then patted Mallory's back, "She will be my successor….if you feel like it, please train her."

The Barrier King zoomed off into the distance after another bow.

The only question Ebony had at the moment was if Navin refreshed the mana for his barrier skin, would he wash away all of Sequester?

He had no way to find out whether Sequester managed to get through unless he activated the Will. As for whether or not he pushed in enough to break the barrier, Mana Discern had let him understand the properties of the foreign spell enough to simulate what was enough and what wasn't.

'The core principle of his style is similar to my current last resort of tanking hits and buying time till our harder hitting spells are prepared.'

Unlike him, Navin ignored technique altogether. All the flashy and confusing moves and spells don't matter if nothing gets through his barriers. So, all he really needed to do was prepare his curse as long as he was sure his barriers defended him from all damage types coming at him. That was negligence and not an excuse for his other spells to be unrefined in comparison. Since it worked, Ebony had nothing to say.

Ebony also found a separate weakness of the barrier skin, but he didn't exploit it. 'Why didn't I?'

It was rather odd.

The same thing happened with the Spirit Possession Emperor. He was purposefully not using some weaknesses he found. That was fine and all, what was more weird was the fact that even the sleeping version of him didn't use the most efficient methods to guarantee victory or a more advantageous position.

Thinking about the inefficiency, he had to get to the bottom of this sudden, weird habit. He entered his mindspace and searched for the region that was his subconscious.

Probing….meditating.

"I'm worried my opponent will learn that I know a weakness of theirs and adapt to it faster than I can find and make use of another weakness. What a useless worry….But I can't shake it off. I'm worried that they adapt and run out of weakness, for me to perfect them as they perfect me…."

"Huh? Where did this worry come from?"

The logical conclusion he arrived at was the existence of a creature, a person that evolved and adapted faster than he did. But if it was only that, he had no qualms exploiting all his wife's weaknesses for her to shave them off and perfect herself.

In fact, that was Seven's aim for their students.

Who else has he met who adapts faster than he did?

It had to be someone he was wary of, not someone he was trying to strengthen.

"This worry. This creature. This person. This…entity doesn't exist. So where did this habit of mine sprout from?" Meditating on it, he figured this was a good thing overall. It might make some battles drag slightly. Even then, that was advantageous fo him. Many races specialised in adaptive growth, so this caution wasn't all that bad.

"Girly. Your path is not here." The Divination mage politely commented.

"…Please advise me, Madam Veronica."

"Go on a trip."

"Where to?"

"No destinations. No plans. No timeline. No goal in mind. Only your questions. When you return, you will be more than the future you hope for."

"Will I have the answers to my questions then? Is that when I return?"

"Haha, you tell me."

"I understand. Thank you, Madam Veronica." Mallory looked more happy then disappointed. As if she expected or hoped to hear these words, "I won't stay long. Ebony, will you take care of little Hec? There's no one else I can trust him with."

"Mmm. If you see me again, you will see him again too."

Mallory didn't shy away from eye contact and they stared at each other for a long second before she broke it off. Luckily for her, when it comes to arcane magic, barriers to be specific, Hyper Lucid Atelier was more occupied with Navin than simulating what she could do.

"Hang on." Ebony stopped her from leaving immediately.

"Yes?"

"…Call Xin once in a while if you can." His Wife didn't have many friends.

Ebony was okay with not having any, but Xin was still affected by Athena's current state of limbo. Unlike him, she cared more. Cared deeper. His presence alone might not cover that gap.

Athena wasn't brought over. Xienor had no healers and Athena was still not in her right mind.

Instead of replying like her usual polite and elegant self does, she smiled and turned before raising her hand to bid farewell.

He wondered who influenced her to act all silent and mysterious.

It felt like he could see chains temporarily releasing her from this place as she walked away.

'I guess she's been chained to the Empire since she showed such skill from a young age.' Veronica's words probably freed her from the Empire as the Crown Princess and successor to Navin. It was likely extremely difficult to abolish the current system of having an individual in charge.

Veronica smirked, "Don't worry, she'll have a trusty bodyguard."

"The pair of Eclipse Guard following her can hardly be considered bodyguards." Ebony wasn't tricked by the Darkness elemental equipment, nor did he feel any intrigue towards their King-ranked status. Their auras were a little weaker than Duke Entras, which wasn't bad for what appeared to be freshly evolved Kings but compared to Mallory, she could likely protect herself better.

It wasn't like these two were useful when Mallory was stuck under her barrier with Hector and his wife. They were half dead somewhere in the city during the attack that Ebony rushed to right after waking up from his evolution.

'Seven months for an evolution is too long and it's going to get longer.' Ebony might even say he feared evolving just due to being defenceless for such a long period of time.

What he didn't account for was that most people complete their evolution in a fraction of the time that he did. When they did, they usually evolved in the safety of a town or city. That would reduce monster attacks to near zero in today's Empire. While they also didn't have to fear people eating them while they evolved….unless they had plenty of enemies that wanted their lives.

Now that more and more people were evolving to King, the Empire was also building new facilities in hopes of renting out a safe space for evolution. Led by the royal family for obvious reasons of their reputation and known skill for barriers.

They were lacking in ideas regarding environmental adjustments for good evolution spaces, but this wasn't even required or done by the general populace. They usually just evolved when they could.

From Unclassed to Journeyman, it might be a nap's duration.

Journeyman to Master could take just a single night.

Master to Grandmaster could take a week.

That was common sense for Elcrians.

The Nobles' common sense just increased that duration by a factor.