Analyzing Titania’s soul was a challenge, which was why I invested most of my Purified Spark into my stats.
[-8,645,700 Purified Spark]
[+45 All Stats]
But, even with my increased capability, analyzing it was a challenge.
As we studied the mysterious elemental energy — which we decided to name Elemental Spark — that had been infused in Titania’s soul, we reached a conclusion.
For all its similarities with the Divine Spark, It was impossible to remove, and almost as impossible to control. Worse, it didn’t react to Tantric, removing most of my tools from the play.
Luckily, Titania was still stabilized, preventing a potential disaster. But, it was only temporary.
“It looks like I’m going to have to take the risk,” I said to her with a sigh.
“Are you sure?” Helga answered. “Her situation is still stable. Maybe we could find a solution.”
“Maybe, but I’m not as hopeful,” I admitted. “For all the similarities, the Elemental Spark has none of the features that make it easy to bond with the human soul,” I said. “It’s clear that they come from the same source, but without the filtering that the Divine Spark receives during its creation process, it’s far more volatile.”
“Still, we’re making progress —” she started, only for me to silence her.
“No, you’re making progress,” I admitted. “Let’s be honest, without the Tantric working, I’m not exactly a good researcher. It’s far more efficient for you to stay here while I finally try to infiltrate the Eternals,” I said.
“How are you going to do it?” she asked.
“Easy, I’m going to infiltrate one of their recruitment teams,” I said. “The other soldiers that I tracked already revealed a few bases, and infiltrating them is very easy. I had already walked around the bases easily,” She looked at me doubtfully. “Well, it’s easy if you can fake soul spaces instantly,” I corrected. “Most of their access points are reliant on checking a specific soul-space signature, and I can fake it easily enough.”
Which was a big security gap, but I didn’t blame the Eternals for it. After all, who would have guessed that their unique achievement would have been invalidated?
“Are we sure that we’re going to find the answers about the Elemental Spark there?” she asked.
“Inevitably,” I answered. “There has to be a reason why the elementals are desperately trying to invade this plane while not bothering with the others,” I said, revealing my approach. Then, after one last kiss, I teleported away.
Right in the middle of one of the recruitment bases, an illusion already covering my face perfectly. After my improved stats, the illusions I used looked real … not that it mattered. The guards at the teleportation room just checked my identity through their artifact, and a tendril of mana touched my fake soul space, which perfectly copied the soldier I had replaced.
I didn’t care much about the base itself as I moved forward. A turn through a corridor, and soon, I was at the room where the new recruits had been held. A little adjustment to the paperwork, was an illusion, and I was among the crowd.
No one even noticed it. After all, the new recruits consisted of hundreds of people, all waiting to be transported into the main base to expand their soul space forcefully. And, once they leveled up, they would be brought to one of the trial grounds — like the one I had stumbled on when I met with my dragon friend — to see which ones would survive the transformation without going berserk.
A journey I wouldn’t be joining them.
I needed to reach their base.
I stayed at the base for six hours before the guards ordered us to visit a teleportation array. Of course, the base didn’t teleport that many recruits every day. Some of the recruits had been waiting for her for weeks … but I had already known the delivery date for this base was close. It was the reason I picked the timing.
I stayed in the middle of the crowd as we were led to our destination, finally about to visit the main Eternals’ base, which I failed to discover despite how much I worked.
I stopped at the teleportation array, and the world shifted… I found myself in another closed room.
Ironically, the moment I stepped into the base, I discovered the reason why I wasn’t able to find the location of the base.
We were flying, which was obvious from the location of both Helga and Oeyne.
Not just flying, I noticed after a moment, that I felt a smooth flicker, and our location changed significantly. The base was not just flying, but also teleporting in some frequency.
No wonder I wasn’t able to pinpoint its location during my searches.
The new recruits had gone through a very detailed process, checking our soul spaces three different times to make sure there was nothing wrong. Unfortunately for them, that proved to be ineffective. I stayed undetected, and was soon directed to a room with all the others.
It was a fascinating room. A huge, impressive tower, one that gave me the first glimpse of their base through a large window.
I ignored the speech one of the Eternals delivered — one that included a long story about the honor and mission, laced with a lot of mind-altering spells to develop a subconscious sense of loyalty — in favor of examining the base.
The first thing: it was not a base, but a fully-fledged city, one that easily housed tens of millions of people, which made me change my impression quite a bit. A fully-fledged, flying city, one that could teleport fully. Not exactly a simple enemy.
At a distance, I could see the Eternals were a far more egalitarian crowd. At a distance, I could see angels, dragons, phoenixes, and many beings I didn’t recognize flying, and on the ground, and on the ground, I was able to recognize many races, elves, humans, and many others that were supposed to be extinct.
A far more egalitarian crowd than I expected. Worse, in many of them, I could see the signs of Divine Spark, far better integrated than the corrupted angel I killed — though none of them looked like they were trying to mix two types.
I wondered if the gods they had been trading with were aware of the truth of the matter.
However, as I watched them, I understood why the elementals were constantly trying to invade the area as well. There were huge four artifacts, one at each corner of the flying city, and in each, an elemental was trapped, each taller than a mile.
I didn’t know their function. Maybe they were there as trophies, or maybe they were generating the force that allowed the huge city to fly. Either way, they looked far stronger than the other elementals that attacked the plane.
I had to admit, at this moment, I questioned my whole plan. I had expected to face a formidable enemy at the base … but what I found here was far too strong. Not something I could fight even if I pushed my stats ten times higher.
Even sneaking around felt dangerous.
Maybe Helga was right. Slowly exploring Titania’s affliction was the better option. I would have turned and left, but it would just alert my enemies. So, I stayed, waiting for the process to end so I could escape.
The speech was over soon. “Prepare for the enlightenment!” the speaker shouted.
And the building was filled with mana. A very familiar form of it.
Tantric Mana.
I stretched my own control to the nearby recruits, examining their soul spaces to fake my own. I was shocked by the process … as it was far more aggressive and incompetent than I expected. The Tantric mana felt forceful and uncontrolled, damaging the soul spaces it targeted even as it left many problems.
At first, I thought it to be accidental, that whatever Eternals using to control the mana lacked control, but the more I examined, the more I realized the problem had a different source. There were two controllers for the mana.
One controller did its best to stabilize the flow, while the other did its best to turn it into a destructive mess, trying to destroy every single System user.
I already had a feeling about the identity of the second controller … but, I realized that it was not a one-way process.
YOU’RE HERE, SAVE ME! FREE THE ELEMENTAL LORDS!
The words echoed in my mind, showing that I had been detected. That would have been bad enough … if it wasn’t accompanied by a sudden shift. The city teleported again, but this time, we weren’t anywhere at the main material plane, but floating in Primordial Aether directly.
The creatures rushed forward, while at the same time, a huge army of elementals rushed from all directions, flooding from the primordial aether, and forcing the city to defend.
Fuck.
{Strength: 160 Charisma: 160
Precision: 160 Perception: 172
Agility: 160 Manipulation: 170
Speed: 160 Intelligence: 220
Endurance: 231 Wisdom: 192}
{Purified Divine Spark: 725,291}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Twilight - Chosen 30
Nature - Chosen 10
Knowledge - Chosen 10}
{GODDESSES
Elven Goddess
Goddess of Knowledge
Twilight Archangel
Goddess of the Forge}
