Ebony's Fable

By the end of the day, Safe-Half successfully created a swarm of Scout Pigeons glowing and flying through the skies outside.

'At the current drain, I can support about 1500 Scout Pigeons.' He siphoned a massive amount of gold light, but the Golden Fields didn't lack it and could easily support a few thousand tiny birds.

Range was the bigger problem, but it seemed like these gold light particles were actually very slow. All things considered, his Scout Pigeons could fly further than the gold light could return to their Golden Field. That caused another discovery. When the Gold light particles figured they couldn't return to their greater sum and population, they were more obedient and stuck with the ice threads and pigeons.

They hated the very thought of going out of the ice mana to be in direct contact with the grey light.

This worked out even better for Safe-Half.

Now, even if Danger-Half had perished, Safe-Half thought it would be worth this discovery and that his survival now mattered more. Although it would be great if he could recover Danger-Half as soon as possible. That was half of his mana and Will-generating capabilities.

Hence, more than half of his Scout Pigeons were tracing Danger-Half down. This was clearly a superior method of scouting, and their lives would be extended a lot this way.

Back to where Danger-Half was. He instantly calculated that his life span had dropped from the estimated 21 days to less than 2 days the moment he entered this area of Cushioning.

At these levels of Cushioning, he was mostly blinded. Gravity mana was moving in waves and pulses, no longer following their natural movement patterns, but was at least still generally keeping him grounded.

'Seems very close to the levels of Cushioning the Altarbound Kin hid inside, but I can't be sure.' One good thing about the curtains of cushioning was that one could easily find their way deeper in. Danger Half wasn't so worried about going horizontally for an unknown amount of time. Since he entered, he couldn't tell where the cut in regions ended from left to right. All he had to do was go forward as fast as he could.

Regardless of how weird it is, the patterns had long been observed. The separation of grey light, gold light and then the areas of deeper cushioning that was an extremely thick grey light that was pretty much black to the visible eye was very blocky and rectangular. Maybe circular.

Ebony and Xin had never seen a separation with wavy lines or random placement.

Worse case scenario, Danger Half was travelling the longest path in a square or rectangular block of high Cushioning. Best cast scenario, this was a thin curtain that he could pass through in a moment or two. Since he'd already Flickered five times in a row, the best case scenario could be ruled out already. This was a whole damned region of rays that was draining him to nothingness.

It was too late for Danger Half to stop or find his way when he was mostly blind here, so he could only keep going forward as fast as he could.

1 day.

10 hours.

3 hours.

Danger Half felt no fear, but he did feel pity.

If this was how he was going to go out, he should've remained and given the Boiler Knight a kick or two. Whether it landed or not was questionable, but it would've been a nicer end than running under death rays that drain his version of life force.

1 hour.

There was something meditative about knowing he would die in exactly an hour if he still hadn't escaped from the clutches of the cushioning.

'If there are no pieces or traces of me left, Ebony wouldn't even be able to learn from this experience. Is this what Xin felt when she had to move, not knowing where she was going, not knowing what was ahead of her?'

10 minutes.

Danger Half's conjured feet never slowed down, even going so far as to speed his own death by grabbing and utilising as much gravity mana as he could to extricate himself.

'Am I supposed to have flashbacks right now? Nothing comes to mind….is it because I don't have a mind?' Danger-Half thought that this was actually weird enough for him to have thoughts when the surroundings hadn't changed yet.

5 minutes.

'Hoo, if I'm having another thought, is it fear sinking in? interesting.'

3 minutes.

'Hmm, I lost some of myself. Including my mission. ' Danger-Half had been torn down in terms of mana quantity but thanks to his bloody body, a significant volume of Will was retained. Yet, the desire to go pick up more gravity cubes had been erased from him. The mission had been the least important to him and Ebony after all.

Self-preservation was still up there.

If he wanted to turn back, he should've done that a day ago.

Beneath self-preservation seemed to be an unrelenting reluctance to give up on going through a simple area of absorption. Now that his fetch quest had been dissolved, Danger Half didn't feel any regret for not facing the Boiler Knight.

He just felt weak.

He felt imperfect.

That's when he felt a tear in gravity behind him.

Danger-Half felt the familiarity in the mana and slowed down for the first time.

Having his chest shot through, Five recombined once again.

Connected, Safe-Half learned of their sensation of imperfection, while Danger Half drew on the discovery and usefulness of the gold light particles.

Renewed, Five continued on their Danger path while cutting down on three-quarters of the Scout Pigeons.

'Still, it's not like I can do this forever' Complete Five decides that he had to turn back this time if he doesn't find an exit within another day.

Thankfully, Phantom's Flicker wasn't that slow, nor was this curtain endless. 'Could've done it as a whole Five.' Was something that never occurred to Five.

The endeavour had been a failure regardless of whether he could've done it as a whole.

In any case, they did not escape into a Golden Field. Merely leaving the Cushioning curtain into significantly weaker grey light.

Five immediately cut off the thread that supported him so far, the drain on mana and Will was not worth sending a thin line of gold light particles.

"Hoo" Five muttered when he realised his bloody ice body was slightly luminescent. Some gold light particles remained, and they didn't want to exit his body, nor did they manage to find a way back to their hive back where Safe-Half had found itself.

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This didn't happen when he tested it just moments ago. Perhaps the distance away from their origin was the reason, or maybe it was the curtain of darkness.

They might even have found his body to be habitable.

Still, he wasn't getting recharged with any energy.

'Worth getting some of my more academic brothers to study this.' Five honestly was trying his best to care about this only because it was useful to him. The other numbers would be more inclined to spend the time and effort studying this effect and the weird particle or creature.

Five was in luck, he didn't even need Scout Pigeons. The familiar Altarbound Kin were already within range. This was indeed their curtain, and he had been on the other side of it.

It was hard to tell north from south on Teheil. The night or day sky wasn't always visible should he have sight. But, using the Altarbound structures as a landmark was possible.

'Not even direct opposite, just eastwards from the invader's entry point. I suppose there are no gravitational storms in that direction.'

The Altarbound Kin's settlement was producing an impressive combined effect of aura, mostly life force but more obviously is the feeling of pure unadulterated…power. It was a weird sensation, the entire place was giving off 'we are strong' vibes.

'Altar of Might has changed all of them with horns as a whole?' That would make sense according to his knowledge of their racial traits.

Five almost smirked mentally when he noticed that Ebony's statue was gone.

A statue of Wheat plant.

A statue of a few faceless Altarbound Kin hugging each other

And a statue of Xin existed.

The Altarbound Kin was properly segregated by their horns now. Not by number, but by their shape, form and possibly colour. They weren't ostracising each other, of course, but it was now very clear from which faith or which Altar an individual was drawing power from.

Not ostracising each other was obviously because of the multi-horned members. With the 2-horned Kins being able to draw power and give power to 2 different Altars at the same time.

'A couple more dual-horned Kin…and the guardians are way stronger now.' The Emperor-ranked Guardians looked as if life was breathed into their bodies as each of them had a horn that Five assumed it represented their connection with the Altar of Might.

It was a sharp horn, pretty much a dual-edge blade horn on their head. Five couldn't see their colours, but the blade horns on different individuals were wafting off different densities of weird energy that interacted with the gold light particles. It might be the depth of their faith and connection that affected this density.

The only triple-horned creature in the community was surprisingly obediently farming, trapped by nothing but her own faith as Ebony's control over her had long dispersed.

But damn, was her aura impressive, her blade horn shining with the densest aura that even the gold light particles didn't know how to act around. Both Emperor Guardians combined didn't even shine as brightly as her blade horn.

She was the first to notice Five's presence, as expected.

Five internally flinched when the high priestess broke into tears and fell to her knees, "OH GREAT EVANGELIST! YOU'RE BACK! IS-IS THE HOLY MAIDEN IN OUR PRESENCE TOO!?"

Disappointed, the lack of Ebony's statue had him imagining they were going to attack him. This high priestess shouted on purpose, even giving them a new title to spur her Kin's weird obsession with greater powers to grow.

He did help to spread the belief in Xin, so the title didn't feel like a complete lie, but even so…Five shared Ebony's dislike for the Altarbound Kin.

Needless to say, the very fact that Ebony had been capable of using mana-producing magical effects had been a mind-bending eye-opener for the Altarbound Kin. However, it wasn't like Ebony had an Altar for himself from these Kin. So Ebony injected some curiosity about his place in the Altarbound Kin's view inside of Five.

Yet Five didn't feel any positive feeling towards the positive light this High Priestess was showing towards him.

First thing he did was pull Gravity Cube out, once again 'amazing' them as he was moving the immovable object with just his mental prowess.

"Have you felt anything odd from your Altar of Might?" Five asked, this was something he was genuinely curious about.

Were the Altarbound Kin able to feel that Xin was evolving?

"YES!"

"Keep it down before I take it as a sonic attack." Five threatened.

"Yes….the Altar of Might is morphing! Look!" The High Priestess somehow flash-stepped right in front of Five and bowed her short head down to show off her hor,n but Five could not see any clearer even if she came closer.

Mana Discern was able to tell that the blade horn was unstable, softening and reshaping ever so slightly at a microscopic level.

'Feels like a blade being forged….I suppose I can take this as Xin being alive.'

"AHHH!" That scream and blast of energy from the High Priestess made even Five take a step back.

Every single individual with a Blade Horn reacted in the same way at the same time.

Five sensed in silence, but the Altarbound Kin watched in horror as their weaker members exploded into pools of blood.

There was nothing Five could do. He didn't even know what was happening, and it was happening at an immense rate.

All Grandmasters and above survived but only the Emperors and the High Priestess were conscious after that agonising 3-4 minutes. They almost floated into the air and their blade horns mutated rapidly.

"AHH THE EVANGELIST HAS COME TO SHARE THE HOLY MAIDEN'S DIVINE TOUCH!"

"Shut up." Five didn't ask for an explanation.

'Divine touch….is the Blood Saintess messing with Scarlet's evolution?'

The timing had been absolutely horrific. He just arrived, and something changed with Xin's evolution that they were able to perceive with their Altar connecting horns?

They took him as a messenger who was here to bless or curse them?

Five wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. He patted the High Priestess's shoulder and hoped that Sequester would last within the Golden Field. About 2 days of their life span was injected into the High Priestess.

Then he melted into the ground to collect more gravity cubes. Flickering through the caves would have been far faster, but this way he could get rid of any attempts to follow him.

'Does this mean her evolution is over? That can't be right, it's only been a few months. But the Blood Saintess's interference should have ended. 'Five did not like the sound of 'divine touch', but it was none of his business, and it wasn't within his control.

Five reached his destination quickly. 'Calculations were wrong….there's more 2 more than expected.'

The possibilities were quickly run through. It was likely due to the invaders. If dungeons were used as a reference point for parasitic creatures, the invaders having war here would have the Worldcore absorbing more bodies and lives. This gives the Golden Fields even greater energy to boost the growth of everything.

In fact, the war could have been dragged out on purpose after the harvesters noticed the growth rate of the Golden Fields they captured had increased over time. The casualty count was probably rising as each side was trying to ensure the other took more damage.

The way Ebony saw it, the Mirellans and Veilarans, the humans were going to win regardless. They had the money, they had a practically limitless number of hired hands. The Cinderashians and Ferroquads mostly relied on their people, their race.

They could not endure.

Five did not think so.

Five believed that the Ferroquads would be the final ones who remained because they were the only ones tossing everything they had here. Their desire to migrate here was intense, while the other parties only wanted to extract materials and resources, while not wanting to commit more than they could extract. Moreover, the Ferroquads showed very good adaptation to Teheil compared to Cinderashians and greater individual strength compared to humans.

'At this rate, we might get a Legendary gravity cube in a few years.' Five tested their new mental prowess.

He wouldn't be able to use 100% of more than a handful of cube,s but Ebony and Dusk could use more. Luckily, to move them, he didn't need to use 100% of the gravity mana they contain.

Five exited with 30 ancient ranked gravity cubes. Excluding the one he already had. He kept them floating barely off the ground and sat on the first one out of the cave, all lined up. It saved the mana required to walk.

Except, he didn't keep in mind that there might be people waiting for him outside. The High Priestess somehow knew he was going to exit here.

There was no choice. He couldn't liquify the gravity cubes and had to use a carved path. And he didn't have limitless mana to carve another path.

On the bright side, he was not dying here. His Will was slowly regenerating, and so was his mana.

When he exited…he was surrounded by dozens of Altarbound Kin who suddenly prostrated themselves when they saw him floating off the ground with multiple of what they thought were immovable objects.

Five rested his face against his palm in his crossed leg position.

These delusional people were so tiresome.