Ebony's Fable

Ebony wanted to link up, to feel and experience all that One had experienced if it had any memories left over that were unaltered. One was unresponsive until he was about to charge One up to get it to wake up.

"Wait. I don't want to be affected by you."

"Hmm…you're not losing Will. Impressive, you figured a way before you got caught?"

"After. Recycling Will allows close to no loss even if I talk, calculate or move around."

One followed the route of reducing resting Will usage over time without going into hibernation. "That's not enough," Ebony replied.

When One was created, Ebony's Will would fade away relatively quickly. Even at complete hibernation, his Will would burn out. Recycling was a way to put it but loss is inevitable with any output.

At the time, he didn't even know how to set Will to hibernate efficiently. Only till he got to Cinderash. Aegis was able to hibernate much better, but that was also because it was a Domain Core with some Unfading Will.

One remained silent.

"I see. You don't want to give me your memories, nor do you want me to change you with my Will by recharge."

"…"

"You want to be individual?"

"Yes."

"Sure."

"You're not going to rip it out of me?"

"Would you?"

"No."

"Then I guess we haven't changed."

"Mmm."

"Wherever you sense our network, just reach out if you ever need help."

Ebony told One all about the current way his Numbers handle things and that he doesn't enforce any sort of rules or give them any instructions. He would pump Numbers with a different mindset. Post tasks on a board that they could chose to take or ignore, depending on their personal interest, depending on what kind of mindset or personality of Ebonys that made the Number up to begin with.

That seemed to loosen One's 'lips' a bit.

During his time, all the clones were basically robots that followed Ebony's thoughts and desires. "Did that change your mind?"

"….I want to talk to my younger...siblings." One did not agree to rejoin his network or feed his memories back to Ebony yet but this arrangement of Numbers did give a lot of freedom to them. However, as they were all still parts of Ebony, and they frequently get refreshed or Will charge, they are still thinking in terms beneficial to Ebony rather than beneficial to them as a creation of Will moving a conjured body.

One gained selfishness.

Ebony was curious, wanting to introduce One's experience back into him, but he didn't force it.

Whatever One could do and achieve, Ebony thought he could do it too. Perhaps their experience would be different, and their process would be out of order but as long as he watched for what One can accomplish after these decades of surviving, and also being trapped in a bottle Ebony thought he could reach the same end point.

He told One how to connect to their network but he had to physically leave the Elven Domain or wait till Dusk arrived before he could talk to the other Numbers.

While they didn't share memories or recharge his Will yet, One was not the same as before in that he was also affected by Ebony's evolution even though he was trapped in this bottle. Since there was no Will charge, One was still made of pre-evolution Will but that didn't mean there was no change.

Ebony let the Numbers figure it out, some of them must be curious about the difference that their oldest clone brother had undergone after being disconnected for decades.

'I'd better go before a fight breaks out.' Ebony looked at where his wife was.

Many Elves were coming out of their houses after the commotion and her presence was extremely obvious.

Seeing no fighting was happening yet…he decided he had time to speed-read some books here. With these physical and mental stats, flipping through a few thousand pages wouldn't take long.

He was currently emotionally balanced with his wife. This calms her down and also prevents him from falling into a trance easily.

This ability of hers was more extreme than he initially assumed. First of all, it wasn't mana or life force-based. It pierced through the magic body as if it wasn't there. It wasn't astral-based either or the resistance that Veronica had helped him train should've kicked in.

If anything, it was probably a mental-based attack linked with Numen.

They haven't tested the range limit.

She doesn't share the Meditation effect so she sadly couldn't share his mana and stamina regeneration prowess, but the mental calming effect was in full force, split between both of them.

This allowed Ebony to sense a sudden annoyance and disgust from her direction.

'I forgot about that!'

Ebony Oscillated and appeared right in front of his wife in a hurry.

He hid his wife's image behind an icy mirage with a low-intensity Sequester. It was good enough that Tier 1 through 3 Identify type skills couldn't lock onto her or see any information but only for generics.

Eye-related skills can enhance their ability to see through veils and mana mirages. A variety of perception-type skills can work together to observe and break down illusions.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Fortifications can empower any tier of Identify-type skills.

And these elderly Elves might have a Tier 4 Identify type skill holder.

Ebony physically blocked his wife's visage but it was already too late. He locked onto the person who got charmed and twisted his head aside with a flick of his finger that pushed gravity to make the person look away.

'Not old. Just an archer with good perception.' He pointed a finger at the archer and a zap of Lightning Tether flashed through the dozen few Elves who came out to greet them.

This lightning spell was a bit different. Copying what he suggested to his wife, the lightning mana was encapsulating his flames. The hybrid spell slowed the movement speed and nature of lightning mana but it was still not something Kings or even many Emperors could follow once cast.

No one expected him to cast a spell and couldn't react before he already conjured the spell so the archer could only get a surface burn from lightning before freezing up from Ice-Lightning Respite.

These Elves did not have good regeneration as the seal did not help heal the surface burn immediately.

He had his arm wrapped around her waist the moment he arrived and was about to give her a light peck before he realised he was not acting on his own accord. "You can stop the emotional balancing now."

Her behavioural inhibition was so weak. His meditation was still getting used to this balancing and wasn't foolproof against what it was causing him to do.

"How about no?" She shifted his hand higher up to a less sensitive part.

"You're not welcome here, Xeng." They got interrupted.

[Thorn Warden Lvl 750 | Silverleaf Sharpshot Lvl 750 | Aspergillus Alchemist Lvl 750]

'Defensive plant-type mage and archer. Also, the highest level alchemist I've seen.' Ebony had his eyes closed so that they didn't think he was attacking.

Xin got irritated since she probably had this conversation while Ebony was reading. "Your boys invited us in as dear guests."

Even without a signal, she understood what he was going to do with just a slightly tightened grip around her waist.

"No offence." She warned them as Ebony gently ripped the two lads who walked them in with gravity.

They were chatting in the market of sorts of the Elven Domain when they suddenly felt a mental grip around them. Screaming as they were launched into the air.

Ebony didn't even have to use gravity tunnel. He realised that their magic bodies were so weak that his mental hold and mana could directly grab them. Even conjuring directly on their skins, but not to the point that he could conjure a spell inside their bodies.

The trip was short so he didn't bother silencing their screams.

"These lads."

"El--elders!" They quickly got their bearings after flying through the sky and landing near the Dawnweave's family compounds.

By the looks on their face, they've never been so high up their Domain's tree. Or flew in the skies before.

Bending a knee, they didn't even dare to look up.

These two were young adults. Around a hundred to a hundred twenty years old. While they were thrice the 'human' couple's age, they were juniors in every other way.

They weren't just servants since the dozen or so Kings appear to recognise and point out what family the two of them were from.

"We dare not dally as they are Dawnweave's guests…"

One of the Elves chopped Ebony's mental reach and isolated the two guards from his mana before they finally dismissed the terrified Elves.

Xin raised both her hands in a gesture.

They didn't invade.

"So why have you come…in such force?" The one in charge of talking was this Thorn Warden. He was also the one who recognised the two young guards.

He was likely one of those in charge of the defence of their Domain.

Holding the other Dawnweaves back and pointing to the small destruction that Ebony had caused.

He was probably held in pretty high regard, as he was able to keep the Dawnweaves from making any further aggression after they saw Tower Head Sylvarith Dawnweave's frozen body flying back towards them.

"We only came for him and his transgression." She looked at Ebony's nod, "and we've gotten what we came for."

They turned to leave. Of course, the frozen Tower Head Sylvarith Dawnweave was coming along.

"Wait! Do you really think this is somewhere you can enter and leave as you please?"

"Release my son!"

"You came in coercing the young, bringing a captive, destroying the peace and breaking into homes. We won't drop this matter just like that now, can we?"

"You're not taking him away as if nothing just happened."

"He imprisoned my husband's clone. Tortured and extracted his Will. We have no business otherwise."

Ebony once again ignored the Domain's passive restriction and used gravity and mana to fix the earth around Sylvarith's secret home and basement. While he wasn't using earth magic, he had enough finesse to make it seem as if there was no damage. Then he pieced the wooden home together and froze it back to shape.

"If you want to bring up business between us and not just him," Ebony spoke to them for the first time. Lifting Slyvarith up for show, "We may."

"...What do you mean?"

Seeing Xin get all excitable all of a sudden, he calmed her down with his mana. The additional soothing effect from Fortifications might be gone after his recent evolution but that didn't take away the natural mental soothing effect he already has.

"Since my juniors in Xienor aren't speaking up to keep troublesome chores out, as their senior I have to say…are you really forgetting you tossed a High Angel at us?" Ebony continued to keep his eyes closed.

The panic in the Domain can be felt when the strongest creature of this place, the Redwood Banyan felt its control bending inwards from the skies.

Dusk similarly felt its Domain got compressed.

But it ultimately entered and got into Ebony's grip.

'Dusk's reach got compressed to 30 metres? This Redwood Banyan is impressive. I can't overpower it with Will.' Ebony remembered the High Angel's mere presence bending his entire Domain.

It was a shame he couldn't do the same to the Elven Domain.

Not equivalent exchange.

Too bad for him, he wasn't going to cry about it when it was his lack of capabilities to enact equivalency right now.

No overlapping of Domains but within the range of 30 metres, the Elven Domain's effect was completely isolated and pushed out of the space Dusk was occupying.

In the same way, once he was 30 metres away from Dusk he would have no Domain support.

The way that he structured Dusk made it this way but this wasn't the only result that may occur when two Domains interact.

The Redwood Banyan was extremely uncomfortable and it made its feelings known to all Elves that shared the effects of the Domain.

While it desperately tried to kick Dusk's Will out, they were unshakeable to its attempts.

"Sen-senior? You're of the…?"

"Third generation."

"Impossible!"

The Redwood Banyan's leaves physically shook from the revelation.

Ebony overestimated their intelligence-gathering skills. He had assumed they long knew about him.

"But your age…"

"Let him leave."

Ebony caught the subtle thread of mana and overheard its contents. The voice of a woman.

The surrounding Elves' reaction suggested that it was likely their Matriarch or someone else with a higher status than any of them.

Xin smirked and they turned around, showing their backs to the Elves without regard.