Chapter 313 - Final Preparations

Nate sat on a chair carved from the stony ground, the volcano rising up behind him. The heat was palpable and the few times he had dropped the barrier rune to keep the air fresh he’d caught the scent of burnt metal and sulfur. This was definitely not his idea of a holiday location, but then, he wasn’t on holiday was he? The thought flitted through his mind and was discarded. Even after he finished this World Reaping and obtained the Lesser Divine Spatial Spirit from Worldhammer’s vault, he would only have completed the first task. There were still two remaining. Two more targets to collect from the Heartlands simply to deny them to Arikanvil. 

As annoying and tiresome as he found it, he would do it anyway. Not because he wanted to be a hero, but because he wanted to do the right thing, which meant protecting everyone he knew and didn’t know from the unseen threat. The Divine Energy he was drawing in finally filled his body and it was as though his Divine Vessel had grown another layer. It was the third layer added over the last few days and he still regretted finding out the increasing difficulty of raising his Divine Vessel now that he’d broken through the two-percent mark. 

Previously it had taken forty units to raise his vessel a tenth of a percent. Now it took fifty. Much like how Class Core Skills and Levels increased in cost the higher they got. The parallel was obvious and he could see how it made sense from Kali’Terra’s perspective to make sure the cut it got of Divine Energy would remain roughly consistent. Nate was, however, thankful that he could gain Divine Energy far easier than most. The various artifacts that remained were scattered around him alongside piles of dust from the ones he had completely drained.

He had, however, been double dipping. With each new artifact found, whether at the bottom of the rung as a Low-Grade or at the highest levels Nate knew of at the Peak-Grade, they invariably came with a chance of a new Concept. Every new Concept meant more Divine Energy as Nate incorporated them into his understanding of Reality, often painting them inside of his Regalia. In a few cases he even chose to let his Regalia absorb them so the Divine Paint within could express the Concept if needed. 

Nate brought up his Status to see the improvements he had made with his vessel.

Divine Vessel (+41% All Stats) (Permanent, Divine) (Progress: 2.2%) (Form: Creation/Space/Destruction)

Class Core Divine Energy - 3/160 | Divine Vessel Divine Energy - 178/220

Sands of Erosion (Temporary, Divine, Remaining Time: 255 Days)

Progress was slower than he would’ve liked, but it still came. It did however make him wonder just how fast he would progress without a Class Core. While the impact of The System’s Embodiment was far less on him than the Seeds of the Heartlands and even less when compared to someone like Wulfgar, it was still present. How fast would someone like Luci, the solar dragon for which the Solaris had been named, progress? With Ankh looking after the little dragon, she might already be passed Nate in terms of her Divine Vessel. 

It had been almost a year by now and Ankh’aris didn’t seem like the kind of dragon that would choose to wait. He would no doubt want Luci to be able to defend herself from The System and having a Divine Vessel seemed like the best way to go about that.

As Nate thought about Luci and how she might be progressing, his mind invariably strayed to Kiri and the others. Frick was flying the Solaris around with Wulfgar, Jak, and Gwen in ever wider circles as they collected everything they could find. Nate smiled as he thought of how much happier Wulfgar seemed now that he was leading a team again. It was easy to forget that the Bloodborne Executioner was centuries old and had created the Adventurer’s Guild back on Galle. He’d reigned supreme on Galle, one of the three strongest individuals, for longer than Nate had been alive. Yet the old man had never baulked at taking directions from Nate or Kiri. He respected strength, but in turn, wanted to be respected for his strength. From what Nate could tell, Wulfgar got that respect from Jak and the others.

Then there was Fili. She was the one currently doing the System Challenge. Nate had suggested they all go in and just get it done, not including himself in that list. Instead Kiri had advocated for getting more Divine Artifacts, which they were unlikely to get from a System Challenge. 

Nate had agreed with her idea since everyone was basically delivering what they found to him. His points on the Leaderboard were increasing while he focused on other things. Absorbing Divine Energy to advance his vessel was just one of those things and, while arguably the most important thing, it had only a fraction of his attention. 

Kiri was one of those other things. Even now he could sense her within the volcano itself as she endured its searing heat that burned her skin till it was blackened over and over again. She too was farming Divine Energy, in her case by using a volcano empowered by a Peak-Grade artifact that screamed the Concept Molten to the heavens. But even his sister only kept a small portion of his attention. The rest was on the volcano itself.

Below him, the runes continued to grow through the volcanic mountain as Runic Reality carved paths he could sense with Conceptual Sight. To his eyes, the runes looked like red flowers the way the lava seeped into each new one he created. He forged on, carving more and more as though he was creating a field of the fiery blooms beneath the planet's surface. The design of each rune was almost identical. Almost, but not quite. The minor differences he saw made a part of his mind stray back to his reasoning, his planning, and invariably, to Perenthia.

Nate had thought long and hard about Perenthia’s capabilities. She was by far the most dangerous opponent he expected them to meet and her skillset posed a very particular issue. It wasn’t the first time Nate had considered the benefits and shortfalls of probability manipulation. He’d done so previously, after Perenthia’s attempt to capture him beneath the Forest of Blood. 

Those same ideas he’d had then rang true now. The cost Perenthia had to pay to manipulate probability was almost certainly based on how possible it was for an event to occur. To Nate’s thinking, that meant that a single huge rune would be easier for Perenthia to deal with than a multitude of them. So, while the field of red flowers Nate was carving beneath the crusty layers of the volcano looked like a singular rune with multiple flowers to activate, they were instead hundreds of separate runes that were all interlinked. Interlinked with multiple redundancies so they couldn’t be entirely separated from the flows of lava that connected different runes together.

Nate smiled at the fifty or so runes he had already created. By the time he was done there would be hundreds of them. A field of runes connected to the volcano itself and the fiery heart that lay within. He would have days to set it up. Even if Perenthia was a pure mage he doubted she would have the mana to deal with all of them. If instead she used Divine Energy, well, that was why Nate had been building up his reserves. He would counter her directly if needed. The runes he was creating weren’t for dealing with Perenthia anyway. He doubted he could with them alone. No, they were for dealing with the many teams coming to find him.

Nate had expected to face four, maybe five teams in total. He’d forgotten that there were teams that were members of the same factions but without Seeds to lead them. More specifically, he’d forgotten how those same teams might be willing to be subservient to the Seeds of their factions. According to Head Merchant Wu To’sama, Nate could expect no less than nine teams to show up. Some of those teams would be weaker, but that didn’t change the fact that the numbers were being skewed more and more against him. He might have given up on his plan then, deciding the risks were too great, if not for news that he had allies coming as well. The two teams from the Golden Tide were making their way here and their presence would be enough to tip the scales. Or at least so he hoped.

Nate wasn’t sure what to make of it but Wu To’sama claimed that he had been paid by a member of the Golden Tide to inform Nate that they were coming to render aid. Nate wondered what he had done to leave such an impression on Grand Marshal Grommir for the True Divine half-ogre to go so far. Because he doubted such aid would have come without a direct order from the Grand Marshal himself. Nate made a mental note to ask him once this was all over.

With two teams from Golden Tide, one of them led by a Seed, Nate had decided that the numbers weren’t too bad. Not good, but probably doable. If Wulfgar, leading Jak, Gwen, and Fili could handle one non-Seed team, the Golden Tide another, plus a Seed team for Captain Borin, then the numbers should come out at roughly seven teams for Nate and Kiri to deal with. Plus Perenthia. Which was the same as saying seven teams for Nate or Kiri while the other dealt with Perenthia. It was a stretch. But as long as they both got a few more days to prepare and draw in Divine Energy, then it was within the realm of possibility.

With that in mind, Nate bent his efforts back to the task before him. One after another, Runic Reality carved runes into the volcanic rock beneath him, the field of red flowers growing in size and scope. He barely noticed as Frick flitted down next to him to drop off more artifacts before the Solaris flew off again, this time sans Gwen but with Fili back on board as Gwen entered the volcano through a cave that Nate had carved into the side.

Nate felt Gwen’s flinches as she heard Kiri’s screams. As his sister, and Gwen’s lover, tortured herself with melting magma to advance just that little bit further. Then the sense of Gwen was gone as the willowy woman vanished into the System Challenge and Nate was left with runes to carve, Divine Energy to absorb, and Kiri’s screams as the background noise. He hated it even as he accepted that it was necessary.

Three days passed in quick succession, with everyone except for himself and Kiri having completed the System Challenge. At the end of the second day they had stopped searching for new artifacts, having found everything that the Bowl of Divine Seeking could find within the nearest thirty kilometres. Instead, they had started practising fighting together, using Frick as their training dummy, much to the little goblin spirit's amusement. The entire time Kiri’s screams had echoed out of the heart of the volcano and Nate had continued crafting pieces of the plan and absorbing Divine Energy. For the first time ever he was at complete maximum capacity, both in his Class Core and Divine Vessel. So, since he was no longer distracted with such, he was the first to notice the Golden Tide approaching in the distance.

At almost a kilometre out, Nate saw Captain Borin open his mouth and say something. He assumed it was something like ‘wait here’ as the Seed of the Golden Tide approached on his own. The flying device that he used looked like a large surfboard carved from purple wood and the man expertly guided it in, leaping it off at the last minute to land nearby.

In the background, Kiri’s screams continued, and the sound clearly unnerved the Captain.

“Is that Kiri Beaufoy?” he asked.

Nate simply nodded.

“Does she need our help?” asked Borin, a small sign of worry.

Nate tried not to smile and intentionally ignored Wulfgar’s guffaws in the background. He could see why Borin might be concerned and it spoke well of him that he asked. Surely the man knew roughly how many teams would be coming here and so the loss of Kiri could be seen as a tipping point against their chances of victory.

“Not to worry, she’s training,” offered Nate.

At that moment, Kiri’s screams cut off abruptly.

“I guess she heard me,” muttered Nate.

He turned to look up at the cave entrance that glowed with red light from the lava within. It didn’t take long for Kiri to make her way out. The black, scaled armour she wore didn’t look like it had suffered at all beneath the ravages of the molten magma within the volcano, though pieces of the viscous semi-fluid still dripped off her. Kiri herself looked none the worse for wear but Nate knew she’d likely just used a Soul Twin to restore any damage remaining. If she was coming out though that meant that she’d reached the same state as him, both in terms of Vessel development and Divine Energy storage. She had, after all, been in there for almost a week.

“I…I see,” said Borin, a hint of confusion in his tone. “Did my message get through?”

“From Wu To’sama? Yes, I am aware you have come to aid us in our ambush,” answered Nate as Kiri moved up to join him. Everyone else hung back, listening in.

“So it is an ambush. I appreciate the strategic thinking, even if I am concerned you may have spread the net a little wide. Nonetheless, I have my orders. We will assist in any way we can.” 

“Good,” stated Kiri. “Always happy to have a few more people in the fight. What are you thinking in terms of how we’ll distribute ourselves for the coming battle?”

“My advice is keeping our teams separated. There isn't enough time for our groups to train together.  Sergeant Glick's Golden Tide team and mine already know how to work together. I assume that's true of you and your team. Mixing it up now would only cause problems.”

Nate and Kiri both nodded their agreement.

“I know it might seem rude to ask, but is there anything I should know?”

Nate nodded as the sound of a bird singing filled his ears. No one else reacted, unable to hear it. 

“A few things, but first, how far out is your Sergeant Glick’s team?”

“Less than a day, why?”

Nate turned slightly to the left, looking in a different direction as the rainbow light of his eyes flashed brighter with a small application of a Divine Energy. His Conceptual Sight moved to the location where one of his runes had triggered. A simple rune that activated when the mana density in the area around the rune suddenly increased. Once activated, it would send him a simple sound that only he could hear. Now, with his sight firmly on the location he could see the cause as five elves hunkered down making camp, their eyes filled with hunger as they looked towards the volcano in the distance.

“Because the first teams are already arriving.”