Ebony's Fable

"It's starting." Veronica's clone muttered.

That was a weird way to say Xin's evolution was ending. Ebony was a bit disappointed that the other event was happening first.

It was hard to notice, but his Will Relay Buffers started to sense a slight drop in mana densities. Throughout the entire continent.

It would take some time before he felt the same from the nodes in Tova but the same was probably happening.

Elcra, the Worldcore was beginning to evolve.

"You don't know which creature it is going to be?" Ebony asked the obvious rhetorically.

Though not exactly common knowledge, it was no secret that the evolution of a Worldcore also means one creature – one monster would evolve too. In this case, one of the level 1000 Emperors somewhere on the planet would evolve together with the Worldcore.

"Shocker, I don't know. That boils it down to two possible places, The Garden of the Deceased or the Chaos Band." Veronica's clone sarcastically shook her head.

The Chaos Band was the name for the area of sea that could be reached from Hoarfrost Glade's edge, where everything, including mana and air was consumed. Ebony who had his clones mapped out a good portion of the route from Elva to Tova also couldn't map the Chaos Band.

If Hoarfrost Glades and Fragadal's Sea were forbidden lands for the Empire, then the Chaos Band and Garden of the Deceased were the forbidden lands for them. For one, entering the Chaos Band was suicide. Not because of dangerous creatures within but the energy itself would erase everything touching it.

The Xengs called it the Chaos Band while the Empire thought it was an area of void. Not that the Empire knew much because they don't really travel to the Glades and have no reason to travel to that part of the sea. They had had enough of the sea from their First to Fifth Tides, their coastal Cities. Their coastal Cities had become a lax place, demilitarising due to the lack of Trolls.

They only fended off the occasional sea monster from coming ashore but the only reason sea monsters would go there was that the people who lived there were plausible prey.

Since even the Xengs didn't think there was anything alive inside the Chaos Band, Veronica was basically suggesting that whatever was going to evolve into a Saint, it was going to be something within the Garden of the Deceased.

Ebony would love to try entering that place now. All that would stop him would be a level 500 Grandmaster Ghast. In the past, his wife was terrified of it because the Ghast was supposedly fire-, ice-, gravity-, wind-, and blood-resistant to the point of immunity. Not to mention, they did not have a way to physically touch a Ghast. With Will and Intent, this was no longer an issue haunting them.

Using himself as an example, he didn't think there was an urgent rush. Surely an entire planet evolving from Ancient to Legendary would take longer than him…It should take decades even.

"Those lazy shits. The Nebula Watch already dismissed some of their eyes." Shang Ru openly complained and all of them had good ears to overhear that claim from anywhere in the village.

"I've seen Worldcores' evolve. This is much too fast." Cui commented.

"It wouldn't take more than two months." The Divination Mage's clone claimed.

Navin must have been so happy about the good news that the creature evolving to Saint is within the Garden of the Deceased. Just like how people don't really enter and come out alive, nothing comes out of the Garden of the Deceased either. The Ning Clan excursion was a bit of an exception but even Veronica doesn't enter alone.

Sadly, what came next would be the ultimate headache for the Empire's King.

That was the planet physically expanding and pulling its Cities further, even destroying some. Should the Worldcore's Will decide to put Potential into size that is.

Without question, it would happen even if it didn't choose to do that.

Just like how Ebony's baseline would be improved subconsciously during his first few evolutions, where he couldn't manually decide.

Size was a baseline trait, even for, especially for a Worldcore. Precedents on how much expansion the Worldcore undergoes were useless since every Worldcore was unique. It could increase by 5% in radius or 500%, even 50,000% was not impossible since this was not an evolution within the 'mortal' ranks.

The unknown factor was too big. They didn't even know how Worldcores get Potential and how much did Elcra managed to accumulate.

Navin was a busy King.

Ebony wondered if all those years back, when he was a Journeyman Navin had already been trying to bring all his citizens into one mega city because he already knew this was going to happen?

Likely.

It was not recorded within the Empire's short history. The Worldcore had already evolved once or twice with people inhabiting it. The Seers. Veronica. Oplot and his descent. Introduction of Eidolon.

Navin had to know it was coming long ago.

His preparation with the town and city barriers was the only gift he left for his people.

Worse yet, if this happened over the course of decades the highly skilled mages could do something. To compress that into a month?

Depending on HOW, planet expansion happened, many people will probably die. Where do the new mass come from?

How will it appear?

How would the very earth beneath them expand?

Ebony was intrigued to study this as much as any academic. The educated guess he had was that within the core of the planet, Potential would be turned to energy, then energy to mass. And from the centre, mass would push out causing the plane to balloon. Cracks will show on the surface, and the earth would split for new material to surface.

The Frost Elves should be more than fine. Perhaps this was also the reason Vent was busy.

Vent, in Ebony's eyes was stronger than many of the King-ranked Xengs in Xienor. The Frost Elves were in good hands. Especially since all of his Numbers except Five, Seven to Ten were there. Seven to Ten were at Tidal with their students.

Ebony was going to get so much data from his Will Relay Buffers. If the expansion was from within, his Will Relay Buffers would probably spread and disconnect should the distance or expansion be on the extreme end.

It was beyond any of the Kings to save every individual. As wide control or numerous multicasting Ebony was capable of, he could not move and protect hundreds of towns and cities, billions of people from the unknown changes that were going to happen.

While it didn't weigh heavily on him morally. It did hurt his…pride?

That he couldn't achieve the feat despite becoming one of the strongest mages on the planet, especially in terms of control and reach.

'I mean….I technically could. He hypothesised ways he could save people. The immediate answer he had was to use his Will Relay Buffer and seal every single individual below King-ranked. That would encase them in an ice shell that could take more damage than most of the skills a Grandmaster could use. Then, when the Worldcore's evolution was over, he could unseal them.

Except he couldn't, should Elcra decide to expand drastically these people would get out of his reach and then it would be his fault that there would be hundreds of millions frozen in random parts of the planet with quickly evolving and strengthening monsters roaming about. And if he wanted to imbue Will with a timer to unseal, there was no chance he had enough for so many people. He wouldn't even have enough for a hundred people, much less billions.

This was excluding Tidal which already had protection.

"I'm just curious if this is enough to affect the lake." Uncle Wu muttered.

The Xengs then made bets on whether the evolution would help the Worldcore recover from the Spear Saint's attacks. Veronica was the broker and was not allowed to bet since she probably knew the answer.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Ebony took part in the fun and bet on the Worldcore being able to recover and remove or weaken the Spear Saint's skill effect from thousands of years ago. The value was inconsequential to him but all in good fun.

Everyone returned to their homes after the small bet since nothing was going to happen immediately. And they seem to really want to get away from Ebony before he asked them to train with him.

Butcher Pang remained. He gave a respectful bow for helping him achieve a significant improvement to his Intent. He was here to bid farewell, stating that he was going to leave and was ending his vacation for a trip. Once he was back from this trip, he wanted to evolve.

"Good for you." Ebony patted his shoulder before both their hair blew. Butcher Pang is considered from the same generation as Kong Jing but was quite a bit older, at around 3 centuries old. He'd spent more than enough time accumulating Potential. He spent 4 decades healing from a wound from a group of Saint monster he tried to hunt at level 680. Putting aside the fact that he successfully hunted them all, he'd been put out of commission for a long time.

Since he never wore a Clan Emblem, Ebony wasn't certain but using common traits, the man's parents were likely from the Kong and Shui Clan. He simply couldn't tell which was the father and which the mother.

Looking back to Xin's house with a tinge of anticipation, Butcher Pang dismissed himself.

Ebony was at a loss.

Veronica actually used the Worldcore evolving as a distraction to get to her granddaughter before he could.

Fortunately, he anticipated intrusion of all types. Dusk had long wrapped the house within their Domain with Will thick enough to stop all entry. This affected even Veronica's clone and bought just enough time for Ebony to Oscillate over.

He opened the door victoriously when a flash of steel stabbed through his neck.

The ambusher suddenly fell when his stabbed figure faded. Appearing right beside her to tackle hug her back into her house. She already had the blanket wrapped around her so she wasn't butt naked.

'Now that's extreme speed.' The 250 levels he had on her seemed not to matter when it came to speed. He wasn't surprised she would go heavy into baseline stat increment. It made a lot of sense when she could gain stats by eating.

He almost chuckled when her face dug into his neck. He quickly drained the mana around the neck before her teeth cracked.

"Hmm, this is not just hunger or excitement is it?" He tipped her chin to lock eyes, sending Aura Layering directly into her to wake her up from her stupor.

He cocked his head when she actually sent back bloodlust at him. It was not comparable to Cui's unaimed Killing Intent but this was leagues above what she used to be capable of. Especially when aimed at him.

To compare bloodlust and killing intent was unfair but they were similar in many ways.

Ebony changed his mindset and simulations from martial to food and sent another blast of aura back. Her immediate response was confusion, then he slowly flooded all his memories of food and feasting into his simulations and confused her even more.

Finally, she let go and looked blankly into the ceiling while salivating. Her eyes unfocused.

'This is quite dangerous….' Ebony now knew how much mana was safe to use. He drew a bit of his blood and made it into a frozen lollipop and fed her before he scooped her up.

The entire floor and most of the walls was sticky with black blood and she was also practically caked up in dried black…substance.

When he did reach the bathroom, as expected it was in the same condition. He relented and took their trailer out from his bracelet and used the smaller facilities.

Ebony touched his neck while she slept in the tub. 'That wouldn't have pierced my flesh but I would've gotten hit if I wasn't in my Domain.'

That was good. Her speed was deadly. The stronger she was, the more at ease he was.

The best part about her evolution was her surprising ability to take his mana. Needless to say, she was the creature most attuned to his mana since she literally drinks and eats his mana since evolutions ago. It would not be far-fetched to find her refining her Physique because of his blood, in the same way the Phoenix's Heartblood essence could help her.

Just in this regard, no creature could match her. Her body wasn't warping due to mana radiation, and she didn't appear affected in any way. Veronica's clone had to wrap herself in their mana within his Domain to stay unaffected. Xin was not doing anything, her natural body simply wasn't affected.

Things may be different if he tried to inject literal billions of points of his mana but that would not be an immediate concern till they tried mutual Augmentation once more. By then, he hoped she could withstand trillions. Not just that, he was curious if she could handle solid-crystal mana.

His skin was not getting pierced by a cute pair of teeth no matter how bloodthirsty his wife was.

Crystalline Mana Matrix was deceptive as he still had coagulated mana coating these solid blocks around his mana chassis. After some tests, coagulated mana had 1000% + 25.0% effective intelligence. Still scaling off when he levels. Ebony also no longer needs to 'break it down' for use. He could directly use coagulated mana for any spell.

Crystaline mana on the other hand, couldn't be used for spells like Resolve's Cadence.

As of now, only ice magic could make full use of crystalline mana. A block of solid mana could not manipulate gravity smoothly but it could very well sit as a shield or any conjuration.

In reality, crystalline mana was a gem. A metal. An ore.

Just like a natural mana ore, should his crystalline mana be emptied out of energy, the ore remains. It could be refiled and reused.

Ebony did not need Kong Jing's industrial mana compressor for his mental power was sufficient to compress his mana into the same form. He could create as many Power Source that she made for him as he wanted, without the spatially compressed runic formulas she crafted of course. The manual ore he can make now was also purer than that of the 'Purple' mana ore and could be considered universal 'Red' or Ancient in quality.

However, one of his conjured 'Reds' cannot contain more mana than a Purple that Kong Jing crafted into a Power Source. Not even close and the purity increase wasn't worth the volume difference. Crafters still beat his conjurations.

Not that he had the Power Source with him now. He already sent that along with Five to Teheil.

Some Numbers chose to be made of solid mana. They were not capable of morphing solid mana in an instant. This made them even more like the original Ebony and less like an ice golem-elemental creature. Even with their greatest effort, they could not morph the solid mana at a reasonable speed until Ebony increased the Will that each Number carries around. This was where they hit a technical limit.

Unlike Dusk, his Numbers' Will limit was the saturation point of his mana. The solid mana's saturation point still did not give his Numbers enough mental power to morph the solid mana.

So those who decided on a solid body was stuck with it. They could still send themselves away through the Will Relay Buffers but they would lose the body of solid mana.

On that note, Will Relay Buffers requiring crystals might be a thing of the past when he could generate his own crystal through sheer force of will. No better container of Will than his personal mana after all.

A loud crunch pulled his attention back and he took the ice stick that broke under crushing jaw strength and stuffed another blood lollipop into his wife's mouth. Except her blank eyes were cleared up and she was staring straight at him. "Morning."

"Good morning."

"Yo-your hair?"

Ebony thought she was questioning why it was cut, "it was a rough greeting, battle."

"Who—thinned your blood?"

"Me, I drained a quarter to give Five. He went to Tidal to get more cubes for me."

"So—am I more charming?"

Ebony conjured a reflective ice sheet since this wasn't their home but Xin's maiden home. Their no magie rules did not apply here.

"Bwah!" She exclaimed when she saw cracked black layer of substance all over her face, hair and even her irises were bloodshot. Reflexively dunking her head into the dirty water. "You bully!" bubbles floated up, "water!"

"I need another candy! I kinda want to sink my teeth in you so bad right now!"

"Anything else you need?"

"No! but you smell super delicious and I really can't stop thinking about tearing your skin blood bag apart!"

"Hmm, did you evolve to increase how thirsty for blood you are or is this a side effect of evolving with Her blood?"

"Side effect….I think? I didn't choose this."

"What did you choose?"

"Uhm—let me wash up in peace."

"Mmm, shall I leave?"

"Noo—I actually can't move properly…"

She was getting increasingly embarrassed which had been getting more uncommon as they got more comfortable with each other after they got married. He helped her wash up, "No need to be, even I wasn't able to control my body properly when I just evolved."

Just like him, the two of them appear to be oddities amongst the Xeng for their physical size was increasing quite a bit every single evolution, including this one.

She was almost 2.2 metres tall, about the same as he was but just a tiny bit shorter. Her overall frame was bulked up along with the increase in height. Proportionally.

Compared to her 1.7 metre tall grandmother who was used to hunching her back, she was a giant.

"Where's your mask?" He brought anything he could up because her stare was rather intimidating for some reason. It was no longer just bloodthirst.

"Inside my bloodstream."

"Interesting."

"Surely there is something more interesting right now?" Only her forehead and eyes were above the water level.

"Interesting like your grandmother watching from the ceiling right now?"

"Oh my, was I disturbing something?" Veronica's clone muttered coyly.

Xin dunked herself into the water again, "GRANDMAA!" the water evaporated from her outburst.

"Hmph! Flirting in MY home. My little girl has gotten bold!"

"Get out!!"

"See, my granddaughter is asking you to get lost," Veronica claimed triumphantly.

"She was clearly talking to you."

"BOTH OF YOU!"

Then, the astral clone and Ebony found themselves heading for the same destination.

The kitchen.