This new development left James in a rather tight spot, unsure of what they could do to continue. Once his energy recovered, there were likely means at his disposal with which he could destroy the elemental swarms. However, he would not be able to confirm their effects with the same energy that he had used to help Tsubaki test her own theories.
When peering through fate, he could only observe the futures that were deemed as ‘possible’. Meaning that as long as he was determined to look into the future, he would see himself looking into the future. In order for him to try out one of his powers, he had to resolve himself to stop looking into the possible futures, at which point he would no longer be able to observe.
Unfortunately, using this energy consumed too much focus, so he could not simply create another avatar to handle it while he attacked. It was not easy to peer through so many possibilities at once and try to discern the smaller details.
Do you have any other tricks? James asked, looking towards Tsubaki. You won’t be able to use that method a second time. Not with that level of cost. And sacrificing yourself to deal with only two swarms would save nobody.
Tsubaki was panting, more a reflexive action than serving any real purpose, as she was still in the vacuum of space. I have… one. I just don’t know if it will work.
Isn’t that what you have me for? James reminded, earning a small nod from Tsubaki. Get some reserve energy from the Keeper. You’ll be no good for the next swarm in your current state.
As he said that, James himself sat down atop the ship, closing his eyes and entering a state of deep meditation to try to recover his own energy reserves. Tsubaki, meanwhile, looked conflicted at his instruction. Nonetheless, she knew that he was right, and prayed to the Keeper to bestow some of his energy upon her.
Divine energy, while incredibly powerful, had a relatively slow recharge rate consistent with the amount of followers a deity had. Personally, there were many people that respected Tsubaki, but only a small percentage ‘worshipped’ her. On the other hand, all beings were the creation of the Keeper, who stood above even the Greater Pantheon. Even though he did not actively grant blessings, most people worshipped him to at least a small degree. It was no surprise that he would receive far more divine energy than Tsubaki.
Thankfully, Tsubaki had followed the Keeper’s advice to set up a few trusted priests in the different worlds, which increased her own divine energy flow. For a False Divinity like herself and the Keeper, establishing those priests would drastically increase the energy she gained from the people when compared to the simple wishes of the masses.
After Tsubaki made her prayer, she felt her energy being returned to her, quickly filling her to the point she had previously been at. Closing her eyes, she mentally thanked the Keeper for his help, before standing up. What she saw caused her to stagger, however. Floating before the ship was another flaming cloud, much like the one that they had recently destroyed. In fact, it appeared almost identical.
I had the Metong take us to the next swarm while you were recovering. James informed her, still sitting next to her and focusing on his own recovery. Are you ready to act? I only have the energy to test out one strategy right now, so make whatever your plan is count.
Tsubaki nodded, pulling out a scepter with a green reality gem and causing it to slowly hover in orbit around her. Then, she did the same with a scepter that had a blue gem, one with a green gem, and one with a red gem. These four hovered in matching orbits, only one ever in front of her at a time.
Seeing this, James had an idea of what she was trying to do. These four items were four ‘options’ that she would use based on the timing he gave her, and she was not entirely set on just using one in particular.
However, James could not feel much from the scepters, aside from the fact that they each contained a terrifying level of power sealed away. Now that Tsubaki had her plan in motion, it was time for him to test it.
James ripped open a hole through space, watching the ripples spread out. He watched himself issuing commands to Tsubaki at different times, at which point she would grab whichever scepter was in front of her. However, she did not use the power of the scepter itself, but rather threw it at the cloud.
Such strong items shouldn’t be disposable products, should they? He muttered inwardly, before his eyes widened in shock.
When he saw the scene, and played through which scepter showed the greatest effect, he shook his head. Silver. He transmitted the word to Tsubaki, whose eyes snapped open and grabbed the scepter with the silver gem.
As soon as she threw it, James transmitted an immediate order to the Metong crew, telling them to put some distance between themselves and the cloud. As the engines flared to life, Tsubaki retrieved a long-barreled rifle from seemingly nowhere, aiming it forward. It took more than just the heat of the swarm to shatter the gem atop that scepter, after all.
She waited patiently, watching as the scepter closed in on the cloud in the distance. Through the scope of the rifle, she could just barely make out the miniature forms fluttering in the flames, seeming to perfectly blend in with one another.
The moment that the scepter touched the cloud, or at least the moment she perceived it doing so, she pulled the trigger. Due to the distance, even with her Light domain, there was a solid minute between the moment she pulled the trigger and the time the effect became visible to them.
Tsubaki’s aim was incredibly precise, not to mention the fact that her holy weapon itself had a homing function. The shot she fired struck precisely at the heart of the gem, which had at that point fallen a fraction of the way into the cloud. The scepter was already growing red-hot, and the magical carvings on it were starting to degrade.
But when she struck, the gem cracked. Just a small crack at first, a whisper of silver light streaming out of it. As the crack spread, that light became more intense. James felt his chest tighten, hoping that they had moved far enough away as the gem shattered in its entirety.
Sound does not travel in space. That said, there was a piercing wail that echoed within the very soul of the Metong crew, a silver nebula appearing and engulfing the flaming cloud. Under the rapid expansion of compressed spiritual energy, the gaseous spirits of the solar sprites were snuffed out. Only those that remained at the very furthest edge of the cloud had a moment to react before that silver wave swept over themselves as well.
It really was a spirit-based perpetual motion engine… James muttered in astonishment, looking to the other three scepters floating around Tsubaki. Perpetual motion engines were things that were still entirely theoretical in his own world, but also an outdated theory at that. Before anyone managed to achieve their creation, they had learned to harvest energy from the void. Thus, nobody pursued such an outdated field anymore.
James had the urge to study these scepters, but knew from Tsubaki’s hesitation to use them that they were not meant for public use. After a moment of consideration, he could understand why. Just one of these spheres, when destroyed, had the power to shatter a planet or detonate a star. This was a type of item that could only be handled with extreme care, and was simply too risky to hand out to a large group of people.
Are you able to make more of those? He asked, unsure how difficult the creation of such a perpetual motion engine was for Tsubaki. To his surprise, the kitsune nodded her head.
One week… give me a week, and I’ll have a hundred prepared. They won’t be as strong as the ones that have been building energy for years, but I’ll make sure that they aren’t too lacking. James was briefly surprised that she needed such a short timeframe, but immediately nodded his head. No doubt, she could use her existing scepters to fuel the creation of new ones.
In fact, after watching the explosion, he realized that the scepters themselves were merely limiters to stop the energy from pouring out. The real power was always in the gems themselves.
Dana was aware of Tsubaki’s return to the Sky Citadel. She had even helped Tsubaki find the blueprint file to create the spirit gems. However, she still had her own goals. The training of the three ‘shadow soldiers’ had reached its final stage.
Although Hollevin could not create third tier spell diagrams simply from his imagination and cast them in a battle, he had taken up the path of enchanting and scribing. His staff was imbued with a number of spells that he could quickly cast, while he similarly kept a number of scrolls on his person. As such, he was able to bring out the power of a top-class third-tier mage, while also showing great promise as a melee fighter.
Dana did not force him to master fourth-tier magic, as even she herself had to rely on a program to help model fourth-tier spells. Such magic was clearly not meant for one person to memorize and deploy on the field of battle with only their imagination.
Sanct, meanwhile, had reached an almost frightening degree in his defensive power. His final goal was to protect a great tree from an army of fire-wielding monsters. The more of the tree was burned, the lower his score would be. This test took him hundreds of attempts to pass. Yet… he did not stop simply because he had passed it. He was determined to repeat it again and again, asking Dana to increase the score he needed to pass.
In the end, he forced himself to continue until not a single leaf had been harmed by the monsters. Despite his heavy armor, he found the path of an elemental monk, blessed by the dual elements of wind and earth. His speed on the battlefield made him look almost like a blur, the shield he had formed from his pledge weapon rotating around the target of his protection.
Finally, there was Despir. His training was perhaps the most harrowing. His final trial seemed to be something straight of an invasion from a foreign Keeper. With no information on his surroundings, he had to identify the characteristics of the land he was in, and kill a local lord without ever being identified.
In order to prevent Despir from simply memorizing the details of the training level, she set it to randomly change key details every time he failed. Poisonous plants might not always have the same appearances. Secret passages might be moved, or require different entry methods. Sometimes, the enemies were even alert to a threat before he appeared. Despir learned the trade of the ninjas as he advanced, understanding how they performed their great feats and incorporating it in his own tactics.
Now that their individual training had been completed, Dana was preparing the next stage. It was time to teach them how to operate as a single unit. This way, they could become the core of Udona’s guards. Although not members of her Holy Knights, they would be the counterpart to that organization, the Shadow Knights.
The only problem was creating a training method to force the three of them to work together properly. Each of them had only ever acted alone in their training, so they were somewhat set in their ways. They all knew how to attack, how to defend, and how to kill, even if they each had their strengths and weaknesses in these fields. Dana had to increase the difficulty considerably to make this work, to the point where their only hope of survival would be cooperation.
