Chapter 811: Entangled
“No!” an exasperated scream echoed through the sealed chamber, prompting an avalanche of guards to come running.
“Mistress?!” the captain shouted with worry as she activated the dozens of arrays that sealed the whole planet, preventing even Autarchs from breaking in.
Space was seared she unleashed her domain through the surroundings, but her demeanor soon softened as she turned to the young mistress with confusion. “Is something amiss?”
“I’m sorry to startle you. The connection is getting bad again,” Iz sighed as she waved her hand at the blurry screen in front of her. “No point in staying here now.”
“Please, wait! The impartment is not yet complete!” the captain urged with horror, seeing that her ward was attempting to leave her cultivation session early again. “I will call for Lord Valderak. He will have answers.”
“Alright,” Iz muttered as she sunk further down into the shimmering liquid.
A few seconds later, scorching flames broke space apart as a densely inscribed golem stepped through the void.
“Uncle,” Iz smiled from the pond.
“Little girl, what’s wrong? I had almost fallen asleep when arrays suddenly covered the whole planet,” the golem sighed.
“You guys keep overreacting every time I so much as yawn,” Iz muttered with a roll of her eyes.
“Your grandfather worries,” Valderak smiled before he turned to the flickering screen. “Oh, the Divine Mirror is blocked again?”
“It’s those stupid remnants,” Iz frowned as she rose from the pool again. “I already missed the last one. I’m going in person this time.”
However, a gentle pressure stopped her from rising too far, and Iz once more sunk into the liquid as she glared at her uncle.
“There is only a finite amount of Everflame Bloom remaining since the birth of the era,” Valderak said with a shake of his head. “Few can stomach its cost. More importantly, your grandfather once risked his life seizing it in the Endless Storm. You cannot discard it.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” Iz sighed. “I just... I’ve been sitting here for years, absorbing this thing. Now, Mr. Bug is about to do something stupid again, and I can’t even watch it in the mirror. This isn’t life. I want excitement like he has.”
“That brat sure knows how to attract trouble,” Valderak said with a bemused shake of his head. “I thought he was trapped inside that mutated Voidcatcher? Or did he escape?”
“He tried breaking out with those remnants, but it failed,” Iz giggled. “You should have seen his face. But now it looks like there is another set in that stupid fish.”
“His destiny has really become entangled with those things,” Valderak muttered. “No wonder, no wonder...”
“I can still see what’s going on, but the reception will only get worse as Chaos creates ripples across the river of time,” Iz complained. “I should have been there for the last one. I don’t want to miss it again.”
“How about this,” the golem eventually said after looking at the shimmering mirror for a few seconds. “The interference of Chaos is still weak. By the looks of it, we have time. We’ll ask Master to divine it for us. If you’ve finished absorbing the primal essence of the Everflame Bloom by the time the brat gets his hands on the next set, I’ll take you there in person.”
“And you won’t trick me into going to some trial or mystic realm this time?” Iz said with a raised brow.
“No tricks, I promise. So work hard on your cultivation,” Valderak grinned. “This is an opportunity every fire cultivator in the universe would dream of.”
“Alright,” Iz smiled as she sunk to the bottom of the pond, throwing a final look at the hazy image of the silly Draugr in the mirror. “I’m coming for you Mr. Bug.”
———————————
Having made his decision, Zac wasted no time.
“I want that splinter. I’ll take the challenge,” Zac said.
“Brat, I think I have an idea of what you’re planning to do with that thing, but you should know that it is as much a curse as an opportunity,” the Izh’Rak Reaver grunted. “Don’t sacrifice your future for some short-term benefits.”
“I’m aware,” Zac nodded. “I still want to give it a try.”
“Some advice, I guess,” Zac said as he organized his thoughts. He had clearly contacted her already, so he simply decided to jump straight into it. “Commander Kaldor said I need to conquer the fourth band to have a decent chance of surviving his challenge. I think it’s doable, but I want to avoid any pitfalls as I train over the next years.”
“Well, let’s see what we’re working with first,” Pavina said as she stood up.
Zac got right back on his feet with some surprise, mentally preparing himself for a tough challenge.
“With or without weapons?” Zac asked.
“I have heard of you,” Pavina slowly said. “You are making rapid progress from what I am told, but you are not yet at a stage where you can showcase your prowess without your weapons of choice.”
Zac simply nodded and took out one of his training axes, wasting no time as he rushed forward. He swung his axe in a ruthless underhand arc as the chains of his coffin aimed to pincer and restrict Pavina’s movements. However, it was like Zac was trying to trap a cloud as she effortlessly weaved through the restrictions Zac set up as her finger moved toward his forehead.
Once more the feeling of inescapable death threatened to overwhelm him, and two chains slammed into the ground, pushing him back dozens of meters to avoid the strike. That simple movement had been too terrifying, making Zac move away on instinct. Pavina was a Silver Attendant, but he could sense that she didn’t even use the equivalent of 1,000 Attribute points when countering his opening salvo, and neither did she use the power of her inner world.
It was pure suppression through technique.
Still, the first swing had only been an attempt to get a sense of her strength, so Zac wasn’t deterred as he shot forward again. He was trying to perfect the Inexorable Stance, so he had to be unstoppable, intractable. An army of death that would never stop, that would inevitably quench all hope and life.
The air screamed as he rushed forward, once more unleashing a barrage of strikes at the stationary revenant. The swings of his axe aimed to kill, while his chains aimed to maim. All strikes were designed to force a response that would open up weaknesses or prevent Pavina from attacking, allowing him to control the momentum until he could launch a killing blow.
It was just a duel, but Zac didn’t hold anything back, confident that the Monarch in front of him wouldn’t succumb to his attacks. Zac wanted to showcase all he had to get the most incisive advice. But he had to admit there was also a part of him that wanted to prove himself, to trip up this powerful warrior who walked a similar path as he did.
However, no matter what he tried, he kept finding himself at a disadvantage. Her movements were minute but sublime, and Zac hadn’t even managed to push her off from her prayer mat even after a full minute of trying everything in his repertoire. She simply avoided his attacks with pinpoint precision or deflected them with flicks of her hands that almost felt lazy.
The chains that were supposed to bind and restrict her somehow became fetters that kept getting in the way of Zac’s swings. Zac furiously pushed forward, but he couldn’t help but feel like a marionette that played out a stage fight that was directed by Pavina rather than himself.
“That’s enough,” Pavina eventually said as she suddenly took a step forward, her left hand redirecting Zac’s axe as her right stabbed right for his throat.
She stopped her attack right before her nails broke the skin, but Zac’s hair still stood on end as he jumped backward. Throughout the fight, she had never used her superior attribute pool, and neither had she used the two spikes that seemed to be her weapon of choice. She hadn’t utilized any of her Daos either, though every movement of hers was obviously in tune with the Dao and the truths of the cosmos.
And Pavina was just the disciple. He still had to fight her master, who no doubt was many times more skilled than she was. He still had a long way to go.
“What are your Daos?” Pavina asked as the two sat down on the mats again.
Zac hesitated a second before he decided to answer truthfully, considering his Daos weren’t some big secret. “Early Branch of the War Axe and Peak Fragment of the Coffin.”
“Pure death through coffin. Death and conflict, restriction and destruction. Nothing groundbreaking, but an interesting application,” Pavina nodded as she looked at him with a mix of curiosity and confusion. “It is a solid path, but why is your implementation so chaotic? Your bloodline is as pure as they come, yet you seem to have no Heritage to fall back on? What are your elders planning, having you derive everything on your own?”
“It’s a bit complicated, but I don’t have any masters or elders. I was born outside the Empire, and I kind of got trapped here before getting the chance to visit,” Zac explained. “As you can tell, I’ve mostly cultivated on my own with the occasional feedback from outsiders.”
“Huh, you’re not an imperial?” Pavina said with interest. “Well, I’ve heard that the empire occasionally stumbles on small tribes who were lost during the great migration.”
“Do you have any instructions for me?” Zac said, eager to turn the discussion away from his unorthodox background.
“At first I was worried I’d ruin some old ancestor’s plan by meddling with your training, infusing my understanding into your path,” Pavina slowly said. “But if what you say is true, then I think I can help clear some things up. Master told me to help as much as I can.”
“He did?” Zac said with surprise, remembering all-too-well how he was essentially thrown out of Kaldor’s castle.
“Don’t let his demeanor fool you,” Pavina smiled. “Lord Kaldor has worked hard for millennia, teaching and helping the undead warriors in this place. Many even believe he can leave any time he wants but chooses to suppress his cultivation for our sake.”
Zac was surprised to hear that the brusque Izh’Rak Reaver spent so much effort on the undead cultivators who were caught by the Orom.
“So what should I do?” Zac asked eagerly, not wanting to waste the opportunity that Kaldor had presented him. “I only have so much time, and progress will get harder and harder. Should I evolve my Dao Fragment before anything else?”
“Not unless you need the Contribution Points to survive the first shuffle,” Pavina countered. “A breakthrough now would hurt you more than it would help.”
“What?” Zac blurted. “Since when is evolving your Dao a bad thing?”