Ebony's Fable

Ebony had Xin help draft a message to Sky's Edge. To ask for a Kong Clan member for assistance.

Since this was a problem for the younger generation, they wouldn't step in unless necessary. However, the two of them were of the same age group so they could step in easier without it looking like the Xengs bullied people. In any case, they would help if their descendants ever asked for help. The Xengs were terrible at asking their seniors for help. More so for the troubles and challenges they set out for themselves.

Kong Jing's personal predicament was her challenge to overcome after all and no Xeng would interfere. Unless the problem searched for their descendants and not the other way around. If Kong Jing picked a fight with a God, it was her suicide. If a God tried to extinguish her unprovoked, now that was a different story.

The Second Generations's feast on Divine Flesh was a famous legend all Xengs knew about. The Shi Clan's fleshy body had been refined and mutated so well that it attracted multiple Gods attention. The First delivered the nearly endless feast, and Shi Tao benefited the most. The rest of the generations didn't know about Shi Wu, who also got no less from that feast.

Their digestion differed.

Yet this feast had affected their genetics and the entire line of Xengs, with Shi Tao's descendants showing the most obvious passing down of the benefits.

Ebony should have had it, but all the Potential went to his soul and baseline genetics' resistance to external mutation as the rules and laws of Earth or its dimension dictate. Hence, his normal baseline human physicals throughout most of his life until his recent evolution.

Anyway, with Crystalline Mana Matrix he didn't think he was too far away in terms of durability compared to the average combatant Xeng at the same evolutionary rank.

Sky's Edge had long left Hex Region. Eidolon's reach extends throughout the Supercluster and more, but the tiny thing on their bracelet didn't have that much power. Communication, even through the Spirit Realm, had limitations.

It was hard to say if Spirits cannot track, eavesdrop, modify messages, and all they could trust was that Eidolon had enough power to stop that and the respect living beings and spirits had for the God of Knowledge and God of Order.

The God of Knowledge might not act against tampering, but the God of Order was said not to leave anything that goes against the rules he set. The Nebula Watch rarely misses any form of prohibited acts.

The act of opening a pocket near the ceiling of his liquid mana dome seemed to have attracted other attention.

A surprisingly not-so-smart monster but with great mana perception, thought it was a chance and swooped right into the pocket that opened and couldn't stop itself from entering, drowning itself in his mana.

That was just asking for it. His wife had been hungering for a hunt, but it was merely a fresh ingredient delivery.

King-ranked monsters shouldn't be prowling about this area. At this level of strength, they would've been clearer than less perceptive monsters on the dangers around Xienor.

Ebony was far better at mana overflowing output control than before. Outside of his Domain only had his mental reach which was hard for most mages to sense and track. So monsters and people alike will not notice his mana until their mental reach touches the edges of his Domain. They had to come really close to sense a threat. Unlike before, when his mana blares out everywhere and scares everything away, it was controlled now. He didn't need to charge mana into the earth to dissipate his excess mana. Dusk and Spine takes all of it to grow.

After unlocking the tenth seal, Dusk's mana absorption rate was more than Ebony regenerates, so there was no problem there.

Spine now grew at a proportional rate to the radius of the Domain. Whenever it hits the physical size limit it would either branch out more and hold more petals. Spine constantly sheds leaves, the petals would hit the ground and be recycled back to it. Both as training to level their skill and to refresh the mana used to always be the densest and purest it can be. Not that Ebony was increasing his mana density skill level by the hour.

The key was to recycle Will and not mana to keep Will upkeep at a minimum while still training the potency and efficiency of Will usage.

The lands around his house and garden were obviously free from the blossoms but the rest of the Domain was in constant petal fall. Spine's branching doesn't cover the skyline but the petals would gravitate wherever they need to be. By default, every petal was Sequester saturated.

It doesn't harm, doesn't feel cold, doesn't cause any mana radiation or physical warping. They land, touch and look as if they thaw while actually punching in every bit of mana a petal consists of into the contact area.

Sequester was the most powerful form of removing the effect of that mana he had. The mana itself doesn't know it's there. It would take a much greater perception than his Will to be able to notice something his mana doesn't notice.

Before long, Elcra's evolution was completed and the planet awakened from its slumber.

The Xengs, Elcrians and monsters appear to come to a pause as they waited for what was to happen.

The Nebula Watch's presence has reduced.

The surviving Dungeons 'relaxed'.

The almost constant earthquakes and tidal waves settled.

Elcra, both Elva and Tova continent and Empire of yesteryear were no more."Haha! I win, nothing happened for more than 10 seconds!" One of the Xengs researching the power of acid cheered when nothing world-ending happened immediately as the Worldcore's Essence settled and stabilised.

The Xengs had various bets ongoing.

The most prevalent one was – who and what force or how many of them were going to open spatial warp portals across the skies as the Worldcore's evolution completes.

On a Legendary Worldcore, only Saints and below can physically enter at will.

However, as Elcra was a natural Worldcore that had no owners but the native inhabitants. Emperors had feared Oplot and the Elves and failed to claim them, but now?

Higher Beings can come and claim it. It was hard to say whether a God would care about a single, small Legendary Worldcore, but a Demi-God may be more than tempted for easy pickings—literally a shiny rock on the ground with no protectors for them.

There was one reason for any sort of delay. The higher powers already started fighting, maybe even discussing peacefully but didn't want to harm the freshly evolved planet that converted an extreme amount of Potential to energy to mass and materials.

"Oh, its happening….this is quite extravagant energy." The speaker must have been understating what the purest and densest flooding of mana that Ebony felt from the surroundings.

"Oh damn it! Only 3 portals!" Shang Ru complained. The people who bet 'sky-full of thousands of warp portals opening' cried out at the loss of a bet.

'Oh wow…' Ebony and the rest of them all had superior sight and perception. Despite the vertical and horizontal distance the portals opened from, they could see figures slowly entering Elcra by warp portal.

As for his exclamation, he and Dusk were facing their Domain getting dented inwards. Their Will and spatial control were denting inwards just from the entrance of whoever it was. From thousands and thousands of kilometres away.

"Living beings of Elcra. Today, you are basked in the benevolence of Yggdrasil."

Ebony could tell that an item was being used to transmit this mental transmission. It was relatively harmless but the range of it likely spread across the planet.

Yggdrasil.

No wonder there was no one else here. Which cult can or dare to stand in Yggdrasil's way?

The World Tree had an entire council of Gods serving it. In the broadest sense, they were the biggest and mightiest cult in the universe. While many local Gods here are limited to this Supercluster, Yggdrasil's reach is practically second to none. Just in terms of how widespread They are, they can almost match God.

Elves have rooted here for thousands of years. It wasn't that surprising that Yggdrasil would spread its faith here.

"Which Elves came?" The Xengs also knew this was one of the possibilities.

Concerning Elves and their standard operating procedures when spreading their faith, it was highly dependent on which Sub-race of Elves was sent as the representative.

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While the Empire might have mainly Wood Elves and their lineage here, it doesn't necessarily mean Wood Elves were given the responsibility of nurturing this place.

If the Ash Elves were given the task. Then this planet would be wiped clean by nightfall, and Elcra would be another neighbourhood planet for Ash Elves' temporary living space. In due time, the entire planet and Worldcore would be gone. Fed to Yggdrasil and themselves.

If Frost Elves came, the current Elcrain Wood Elves would be kicked out without question. The entire planet would be terraformed to a world of winter and ice.

As long as it wasn't the Ash Elves, the Empire and all living creatures of Elcra should not be facing extinction today.

"Glyphborn." Shang Ru answered. She was the one with the best eyes.

"I am High Angel Elarith Vareth. By the grace of the Branch of Heaven, the---Empire of Ebbing Waves has been recognised as friendly and shall be free from duties and servitude unless one bends themselves. Shall any do, feel free to be welcomed under the embrace of our God. May I ask if this arrangement is acceptable, Immaculate Ones?"

"Who?" Xin directly asked her seniors. This 'High Angel' seemed to be asking for permission?

"Immaculate One is one of the many ways people refer to the Dryadic Humans that God created. The most perfect race to have existed or so they say." Uncle Wu replied to his niece.

Veronica told them about them before, and that they are on Elcra. Yet they've never seen or encountered them. To the point where both of them had wondered if the older lady was just messing with them. Ebony had spread his Network far and wide and never found any signs of another race.

In fact, many of the Xengs here also didn't think they existed on this planet. Veronica seemed to be the only one who assuredly knew the Immaculate Ones were here. She was also the only Emperor so that might be why.

There was no public reply but the High Angel nodded.

"Now that that is over, we shall uproot the weeds and vile pests."

Ebony's Domain dented in even further. Threatening to pop like a bubble wrap.

As if teleportation, the High Angel was above Xienor in practically no time at all.

"Even the Roots of Heaven will not welcome your ashes, Masked ones."

'Right…' Ebony only thought about his 'enemies' and was a bit late to think that the Xeng haters had a high chance of coming than his personal opponents.

Now that he was here, and also part Xeng. He wasn't exempt from their target sights.

Except, this was much too big a bite for them to chew.

He didn't need Xin's foresight and intuition to tell. Gearhart might as well be a mortal in front of this individual. Every cell of his monotonously informed him.

Ebony studied the Elf.

Pale grey skin. Tattoed with rune-like symbols all over, including half their face and around the neck. Not particularly tall, 2.2 metres, but a little more bulk than the Wood Elves. He had a literally shining halo behind his head, parallel to his back instead of directly above. This blocked Mana Discern completely and even made it hard to focus on their facial features. What he didn't know was that the other Xengs couldn't even see the man's facial tattoo.

'I see, he is not the one giving off such pressure. It's that halo. Is that the link he has to his God or to Yggdrasil?' Ebony first respected the power that the individual had then it dropped a little when he realised it was borrowed power.

High Angel was a title specific for Elves and similar powerful races where Gods served under another God.

For these Elves, their evolutionary progression was locked. Ebony hypothesised from the information that the Ning Saintess leaked to him. If all of them used the same set of Laws, drawing the same Concepts. Then they were sharing power the moment they evolved to Saint, and even before that.

That was to say, an Angel or higher needs to relinquish some Concepts under their control to the Emperor.

It was basically impossible for an Elven Saint to progress if they were not allowed to, or, under the rare case where the Saint was using a different Concept from their lineage and became a new line of Laws.

It was more than possible for an Emperor to evolve into a Saint and not be an Angel. While Concepts were a limited resource, they were also one that could be grown like a plant. But the mature civilisation of the Elves and their long lives made the clear gulf between a Saint and an Angel. Most of them would try to serve under an Archangel or even God to be an Angel.

However, for the Elves who are servants to Yggdrasil. High Angel meant that their Sub-race was no longer important. They don't serve their sub-race's Gods and were directly serving and receiving power from Yggdrasil Themselves. They had a higher status than Archangels and only below High Archangels and the Gods.

There are practically no Elven Gods that did not directly serve Yggdrasil, so there was no need to differentiate them as High Gods.

"Not welcomed? Then get lost." A quiet wooden creak broke the silence.

Cui, who didn't even bother leaving her house for the betting event, showed herself. While Ebony was outside of Xienor, he could still sense the village from afar and hear the soft voice.

Ebony High Angel held his tongue…then gulped.

"You're still alive?"

"As you can see, I have not dropped dead yet."

"…" The sudden alarm that the High Angel felt was not lost on many of them. Xin could feel the emotions.

Everyone else could see his Halo brightening.

"The—Our God has spoken. Today is not a day for bloodshed."

Ebony blinked, as did all of them.

Some weird spell forced his mind to lose focus.

'Did Yggrasil cast that spell?' Ebony didn't think a mental spell would work on him so easily.

No warp portal was left. The people following behind the High Angel also disappeared.

They woke up when a light banging echoed in their ears. Cui shut the doors behind her.

"I'm so curious." His wife muttered in his ears.

"I'll get Sophia to snoop around."

The Xeng gathering included Ebony and his wife, but they just listened to the gossiping.

It appeared like they were very sure a battle would happen. If Yggrasil extended its reach here, it was already certain that they had some measures in place against the First.

Xienor was prepared for extermination the moment an Elf popped through the warp portals. When it was confirmed to be a High Angel, they were secretly even more sure that the First would be distracted somehow.

There was just about zero chance for the Kings here to survive a High Angel. Many Xeng Kings do have the ability to slay Legendary creatures and Saints but local or not, these weren't the average Saint that knocked on Xeng doors for spars.

Surprisingly, no one here, mostly from the fifth generation knew why Cui of the fourth generation was so feared. They did not know about her history or the reason for the infamy she had just shown.

Sophia got back with the results quickly, the same as the Xengs. No results. Cui was unknown to the public information on Eidolon, and whatever information broker source Sophia had.

At the end of the day, all the younger generations hundreds of years older than Ebony, looked at him and hoped he would get an answer from their seniors.

Veronica wouldn't say a word, they've already confirmed that she would just ignore the message or change the subject if asked in person.

Afterwards, the Xengs were making fun of the Elcrian Elves who must be so confused that the patron they managed to influence to come over suddenly left.

Still, the High Angel's words were in effect, and no cultist or direct invasion opened up.

That was not to say nobody set their sights here.

Plenty of people started to enter through various means.

Most of them, sneakily.

Tidal the Capital City of the Empire was closed off by warp. Nowhere else was.

Before long, the hands-off approach that the High Angel just declared would allow others to take their chances.

As long as they continued to wait for Cui to die of old age, Elcra unofficially appeared as having no owners. The less aware ones probably wouldn't even know the Elves declared ownership. The more aware ones would see an opportunity for an unguarded treasure garden. The ones in the middle knew enough and still decided to take their chances.

To summarise, there were no large changes to Elcra other than a slow influx of otherworlders who notice a Legendary Worldcore just sitting in space without any obvious Saints and above in charge.

Tidal should hold up unless a group of Spirit Possession Emperor - Tagen-calibre Emperors decide to lay claim and build their territory here.

Statistically, Hex's Legendary Worldcores that've been drained of resources and hence 'discarded' are home to Emperors and a couple of Saints, depending on the size. 'Discarded' might be too harsh. Perhaps it was more accurate to say inhospitable Worldcores. Such planets didn't have many people tend to have little to no faith spreading for there was no people to spread faith to.

Using these examples, there was a trend of territorial control.

A King-ranked warrior can maintain sovereignty over an area of 2 million square kilometres. In general, a mage can maintain an area 5 to 10 times greater. Almost all of them would be subject to an Emperor unless you could find a Arch Mage with a Domain who can stand their ground against an Emperor warrior's territory claim.

Emperors usually controlled areas in the tens to hundreds of millions of square kilometres if not tens of billions, by themselves. Basically, a range where they can reach one end to the other in a short time to defend their figurative domain. In the same trend, a mage usually controlled larger areas thanks to effective magic support with a Domain or technology like magic towers.

Tidal was bigger than that maintained by a handful of Kings due to Navin's barriers being unfathomably extensive.

Ebony also didn't know how much the continent of Elva's landmass had grown but it could easily allow a few Empires to grow their territories.

A Saint usually controlled entire landmasses. It was hard to put a number to the area they controlled unless there were multiple Saints causing friction and borders between territories to form. Unless they allowed it, all Emperors within their area were subordinates like how Cinderash operated. The only difference was that Gearhart had a long history, martially too. So they were able to absorb and maintain that control even over other Saints.

There were numerous Saints who didn't evolve thanks to praying to a God so there were obviously many planets that aren't under Higher Being control like Elcra.

They were one of many.

Except in this Sector, they were the one and only.

Ebony had a head start, just like the Empire. His Domain was already here. It was going to be hard for the average conqueror to kick him out of this land.

They got busy.

The end of the planet's evolution seemed to have spawned a great deal of newborn monsters force-fed Essence till they went from newborn to King in days without the life experience and intellect to care more than getting food and a shelter.

This happened everywhere on the planet.