Ebony's Fable

Tagen's Palm of the Possessed shouldn't even scratch the current version. Thinking about the strength of his Domain, Tagen's Palm of the Possessed must be quite horrifying if they were within the Emperor's Domain.

'Seeing Tagen's Will strength, Tier 4 Domain is probably the best he can do but what if his Domain is like the Elves and all his Spirits are required to pump all their Will into strengthening their control over their territory? Would that be enough to push a Domain to Tier 5 Budding Realm...nope.'

"Do you think you can achieve the Domain equivalent for Intent?" Ebony and Xin used to talk about Intent Domains but that simply wasn't a thing.

There were numerous area of effect, life force control type skills, but the equivalent for Domains for Intent was Singularity. Warriors who can achieve Singularity were parked higher amongst warriors compared to mages who achieved a Budding Domain amongst mages.

If mages having a Domain was to control all within their territory of mana and Will.

Then, warriors who achieved the state of Singularity were to be free from all control. Separating themselves from the rules of the place they stood. The only rules that mattered were their own.

They were thousands of times rarer than a Domain Mage.

In the visions the Ning Saintess showed him. Shi Tao and his mother Shi Wu, were free from his father's Domain because both their Intents were unable to be suppressed by his father's Domain and Will.

The definition was broad but to sum it up, calling Xin a warrior that achieved Singularity was similar to calling Mark with his area of effect runic control a Domain Mage. It just wasn't right.

This exercise wasn't a duel, just a rehabilitation. Most of her skills were not working properly, just like his when he just woke up into a remade body and mind.

Not to mention, completely new abilities were not easy to grasp. So this focused desire combination skill of hers was not really showing its best result.

'Amongst the 6 Boiler Knights…the youngest one may have reached Singularity. I'll have to assume Gearhart himself is also a warrior of that class if not greater.' With Gearhart being the person wanting to chase him down, Ebony had to consider what kind of opponents wanted to take him.

This time, they would be prepared. Thinking about the spirit that was sleeping within his Myriad Bracelet he knew that if there was a new prison, it would be much tighter. As for wanting to kill him, there was also a chance of that after what he did on Cinderash.

That was far simpler for Ebony.

Ebony knew there were a few other powers on Cinderash that might be seen as sufficient force for to kill him but it was questionable whether Gearhart could or would command other Saints to come for him. That left him with the Boiler Knights, Ezekiel, Mr Guru and Gearhart himself.

Perhaps other secret elite forces.

Gearhart's children were objectively weak, and he doubted that man would send his children to him once again. Not to be overconfident, Ebony still recalled Gearhart's offspring and simulated them with improved abilities. He couldn't discount that they trained hard after being used as hostages by a Grandmaster.

Sage Lysara. If the teacher of his clone had been somehow convinced or forced by Gearhart to come after him since she was one of the people who saw through Ebony's Clones yet still taught him. As the only person whom Ebony thought of when he found that his Class also had 'Sage' in the title, she was no joke either.

It was too bad Ebony never knew the heights of her capabilities because his clone was limited in their perception, and it wasn't like the Emperor had reason to show off her powers to the weak Grandmaster clone.

The definition of Sage was clear to him but since it was in his Class Title, he tried to study what this world, this universe defines as a Sage.

Ebony couldn't find anything specific, but there were a couple of individuals known as Sages, only in legends. Living Sages were exceedingly rare. Sage Lysara was the only one with some fame throughout multiple sectors.

A Sage's words held veneration for whatever field they were a Sage of. Whatever they spoke of for their field was taken as the truth. Using an exaggerated example, a Demi-God wouldn't argue the fact that water is grey in colour if a Saint Sage says so.

Sage Lysara's official and public title was the Sage of the Ashen. Ebony couldn't find any public information about her powers. She used to work outside of Cinderash but spent most of her life in Cinderash.

Sophia managed to find some rumours about her powers being centred around decay.

That was enough for Ebony to form a rough outline. Aether sorcery, ash and decay. Not to mention, she taught his Clones her art. She was a warrior, as with the majority of Cinderash.

She is likely more dangerous than the Boiler Knights.

The latest Boiler Knight may give her a run for her money, but Ebony wasn't sure. He had been a bit too weak to judge them while he was imprisoned. The way a Boiler Knight came into existence was to beat all other existing Boiler Knights together. In their case, older didn't mean stronger but the latest generation will always be the strongest.

The sixth Boiler Knight was already heralded as having an extremely good chance of evolving into a Saint.

If there ever was a seventh, that individual will basically be seen as a future Saint the moment he steps up to the mantle of a Boiler Knight.

Of course, that would be different if one or more of the Boiler Knights died before the seventh arises.

6 was and is the highest concurrent number of Boiler Knights to exist in Gearhart rule's history.

The state of Singularity, in effect was more than being outside the debuffs of a Domain.

For example, if a Domain buffs the owner's earth magic's impact or kinetic force by XXXXX%, the moment a projectile or even a closed ranged weapon made of earth buffed by this effect were to touch the fighter who achieved Singularity, the 'buff' would be ripped away and/or ignored. It wouldn't remove the effective Intelligence's strength of the spell or attack but it would remove all Will's impact on augmenting the attack completely.

As usual, when it comes to Intent there was no in between. A Domain either completely suppressed a Singularity or was completely ignored.

In the first case, that would leave the Singularity user as anyone else treated as hostile within a Domain. In the second case, it would be as if the mage had to fight the Singularity user as if his Domain excluded the Singularity user. Their Domain would still be up and running, leaving them more options than simply fighting directly.

If a Singularity attacked Spine with Dusk present, it would treat all Domain effects as if they weren't there but it wouldn't remove the strength of Spine itself. Coreflame of Preservation was made possible thanks to Will and it was now enhanced by Authority of Will. Without the enhancement, the Will of Preservation would still be in effect excluding Authority of Will's enhancement.

Ebony obviously asked, but amongst those in Xienor…well, Butcher Pang just achieved the first step. Hence, his new life force screen was completely trapping Ebony's mana with no issue.

Purely guessing, Cui was the only other possibility.

The rest had shown to be vulnerable to his Domain. It was hard to say if Lei Xia the ghost or living soul was affected or not.

It was highly convoluted between Domains and Singularity as he had no idea how Concepts and Laws would play a part at that level. Still, it was not something for him to consider yet.

Ebony tried not to force it, but he did his best to put Xin in training mode to quickly get used to her new evolutionary state before a possible attack or kidnapping attempt. 'She doesn't regenerate by mana chassis…gotta let her into rest cycle to recover.' He argued to himself.

He'd been overseeing her using the training field to rediscover a suitable Priming method by modifying the previous regime that she used to get to Priming.

Ebony, for one knew this was a long process. He could help speed this up after analysing her movements, stats, physique and simulating more efficient methods.

Without enough gravity mana, Ebony's Priming regime was currently limited. There was not enough weight to restrict and put his muscles into strain for it to wear down and rebuild.

It was true that with Priming and youth, even if he never trained for a few years he probably wouldn't lose a significant Prime Rate but without a stone hard enough to grind against he wouldn't be able to push his Prime Rate up.

As this training field wasn't their personal one, it wasn't optimal. This was Veronica's and her daughter's training field.

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With Xin awake, Ebony considered going back to their home so Dusk and Spine could settle more permanently. They would both be able to use their training field and he just wanted to be back home.

His home was parked within Xienor on the banks of their lake but was outside the life force screen they were inside. Butcher Pang left without taking it down.

While his wife turned to the showers, Dusk got into his hands.

It was time to release more seals on it. That should increase the staff's mana absorption rate and when it can handle Ebony's regeneration rate, his radiative mana wouldn't destroy the environment outside.

Ebony wanted to meddle with excess mana and never found the rush to strengthen Dusk's capabilities since Xienor was safe.

Dusk's next seal wasn't merely a mana puzzle but also one for Will.

The prior seals tested his mana volume, purity, then manipulation to solve intricate puzzles.

The pattern seemed to repeat for Will. Maybe the crafter underestimated his Will. He had no problem with the 8th seal that was as simple as pounding a door with Will. He previously used Will to 'cheat' the mana purity test.

His current mana purity didn't need further purification to enter the next seal's 'keyhole' so the matter of punching through with Will was simple enough.

'This one is so much easier than the previous one.' With his evolution and improvement to his mana, Will and mental power the 8th seal had been easier than the 7th seal that caused a small commotion.

The 9th seal seems to require his Will to be moulded to carry out tasks. That was no difficulty. He had various Numbers who carried out complex tasks as if they were part of him for a long time.

The 10th seal forced his mana to slow down. Already starting to feel pressured by the mana purity test, meaning this was supposed to be for the average baseline human Emperor's mana purity. The Will test merely increased in task complexity.

The only aspect of these tests that was easier than the Will complexity test was probably the mana volume required since Ebony didn't even know he needed a certain mana volume till Dusk sent him the data recording his seal-breaking attempts.

The data seemed to point to requiring an exponential increase in mana each seal before he should even be able to interact with the seal. The 8th seal required 3 times that of the 7th, 9th required 10 times that of 8th, 10th required 90 times that of 9th.

Mana volume was the easiest since it could be quickly accumulated over time. It did not require him to pump out by regeneration. This probably tested how much mana a mage can handle concurrently rather than just pure volume. Since the entire volume would have to be moved to unlock these seals.

Yet, the 10th seal only required him to be able to manipulate 3 million points of his mana in a single lump. The number would balloon but Ebony didn't foresee an issue any time soon. He would be limited by other locks and not the control of a large volume.

The 11th seal was an immediate clogged pipe.

'Mana purity failed already.' Ebony used the same method to cheat mana purity using Will and still managed to reach the Will test. It was no longer just the complexity of the task. His Will did not have both the volume and the potency to punch through this door.

This included all the Will that Dusk had accumulated over time.

'I should be able to break this over time. Seems like mana purity is the hardest test, but how much purer does mana get?'

Dusk with ten seals unlocked:

Casting speed: + 2900%

Mana purification: 880% mana compression equivalent

Multicasting mana efficiency: +55%

Multicasting mental processing: 25%

Spell Intensity: + 1220%

Spell cost to max intensity: + 4200%

Will Adaptability: + 2.5%

Will Potency: + 8.4%

Will resistance to mutation: + 20.8%

Will Regeneration: +82%

'Finally, useful information.' He mentally thanked Xu Ru, the crafter, for leaving this mental wave of information that came with the seal unlock after the 8th seal. The 8th was the first that gave any help to Will while the 9th and 10th added more and strengthened the first few.

It seemed like according to the crafter, Xu Ru, the natural progression of Will was first to have one's Will capable of doing various actions of increasing complexity. Ebony had no issues with that at this level. His Will was so flexible and adaptable with its capabilities that this help wouldn't have made a significant difference even while he was a Grandmaster.

Of course, he was more than happy with any improvement but things probably wouldn't change for him with or without it. Dusk might feel its use soon enough. Potency was simple enough. Running his Will through Dusk would strengthen it. It should include his Coreflames and Domain itself.

Resistance to mutation was as advertised. His Will would not bend to stronger Wills as easily.

Finally, the best part was Will Regeneration. However, it doesn't help with his own. Only Dusk.

This single improvement was evidence that Xu Ru had always meant for this staff to be the Core of a Domain. Only Unfading Will can benefit from this effect.

Casting Perennial Everfrost Armament over Dusk makes it a much stronger weapon than Icicle.

"He-hey, so—it's been quite long since we—can we…"Fresh out of the water, Xin didn't even have to try for a random motion of hers to be considered suggestive to him. The inexplicable charm effect was working.

"If you open this screen, we can go home." Ebony tapped Butcher Pang's seal around Veronica's house.

At the mention of that, it was as if she moved before he finished speaking.

He got the chance to once again see her active skill, the trusty piercing attack

Ebony knew he could break this screen if he really wanted to. The screen wasn't meant to trap him after all, just his mana. Since it wasn't constantly recharged by an energy source, Ebony had the option to wear it down.

But Xin poked a hole that shattered the screen a lot easier than he thought she was capable of. 'Is her Core Skill building up or is she recovering from the evolution's atrophy?'

Being dragged home by an increasingly red-faced wife, he relocated Spine and Dusk where they were supposed to be before they enjoyed each other's company for the first time in almost a year.

It appeared that she had a lot of pent-up desire.

If her new ability was to combine desires into one, to sharpen her Intent then emotional distress powering Intent up might explain the drastic increase in her Intent's potency. Will needed more logic, more structure. Emotional distress tends to disrupt that.

All emotions into one directed Intent does sound good, but Ebony had nothing similar to copy for Will since his mental compartmentalisation already does that for Will.

Anyhow, putting aside the usual evolutionary beautifying treatment, he was able to tell that whatever this Charm concept it was potent stuff. It was probably what helped her shake his Meditation off. A very strong mental effect.

'Tier 6 Mental tolerance might not work on Concepts that meddle with the mind at all.' Ebony hypothesised that his lack of concepts and ability to deal with them was likely why the Ning Saintess couldn't push his Mental tolerance even further.

Shaken not stirred.

If this could disrupt a Tier 5 basically passive Meditation, he had to make sure she didn't walk around without it under control. It didn't work on an astral clone of Veronica. Of course it wouldn't. That was hard to say for anyone else.

While checking the Will information for Sequester to see if it could hide her charm, he checked their basement.

Miss Wiggles was out cold but no longer floating in the pool as all the water had dried up. She must have drunk it all.

The creature of hibernation sleeps for decades at a time, so it wasn't surprising for it to continue its hibernation cycle.

Ebony had Mana Discern check the pig's skin. The external layer of her skin was mostly healed, but he was not sure if she was healed completely after taking the skeletal Saint's attack. Either way, Miss Wiggles' bodily toughness was way higher than Ebony and Xin in their natural state. Even with his Domain and Augmentation, he wondered if he could take that sandblasting for as long as Miss Wiggles did.

Then he left the pig alone and went to prepare the ingredients. It was clockwork at this point and it was quite meditative to be able to get back into this routine.

In the middle of prep, his wife should have woken up and recovered enough strength. By the time the tables were full, she would have washed up and then they would swap out and he would get to reading or watching her from the living room.

This time, he just watched her cook instead of studying. To begin with, both of their Myriad Bracelets no longer passed through their door. It would be sealed or stored with Spine, in a special box that the Xu gave them. This was basically standard procedure for the base levels of privacy. One can't truly be hidden if they are constantly connected to Eidolon.

"Should we invite grandma?" Wearing only a simple oversized t-shirt under her apron, she tilted her body slightly to get her bangs out of the way, she served the stir fry from her heavy-duty wok with one slender arm and asked.

"Her clone left," Ebony stated. The clone didn't need to eat.

"You haven't eaten for some time."

"Ran out of food."

"…I prepared 2 years of meals for you."

"Essence regeneration has been increasing my energy needs." It wasn't just mana. All the vitality and stamina were a problem too. He could control vitality regeneration to a degree, settling it down to decrease his energy needs. However, training with the Tagen and the Xengs forced him to heal, as getting hurt had been guaranteed with those opponents.

"Is transport for food still stable?" She carried on.

With the ongoing planetary evolution, that was indeed a good question.

They had the energy output of dozens of Kings, maybe hundreds. Their food requirements were also much higher.

His crops from Tidal would probably be too much trouble to transport for now. The last delivery he got by literal airdrop was fine. With the expanding atmosphere, there might be some issues with the next batches. Even orders by warp, from the warp station might have issues with accurate delivery.

And the fact was, the station already stopped all warps into Elcra. Impossible for others not to notice what was happening.

Sophia was actually back in Ordina, his brother of a dungeon. Ebony made sure to inform Na, but the Dungeon actually knew about the event before him because it felt a change in the essence from the Worldcore before any human or elf. Unsurprisingly, a dungeon feeds on a Worldcore's essence.

Dungeons had a few common fates when this happened.

Most of the time, they would benefit. After all, the strengthening of the Worldcore would only mean a better food source for the parasitic lifeform.

There was a chance the essence turned 'toxic' for the Dungeons, but that was simply the Worldcore being able to cleanse itself from these parasites. Destroying the Dungeon was not uncommon. There was a good chance for the Dungeons to survive because they could grow stronger while the planet evolved and resist the cleansing.

In Elcra's case, Dungeons were having a bad month because Elcra was evolving at an immense rate. Na already kicked out Sophia, just in case she died within him. It was questionable what would happen to her and other inhabitants.

"I've stocked up enough for a century." That was already more than certain preservation magic could keep the ingredients fresh for.

Within his home, his garden, his basement, Spine. All had a few spatial storages for food.