Chapter 273 - The Ties that Bind

A/N: Penultimate Chapter of Book 5! Nate stared at the window of the top floor of the Adventurer’s Guild Headquarters. The snowy rooftops o

A/N: Penultimate Chapter of Book 5! Nate stared at the window of the top floor of the Adventurer’s Guild Headquarters. The snowy rooftops o

A/N: Penultimate Chapter of Book 5! Nate stared at the window of the top floor of the Adventurer’s Guild Headquarters. The snowy rooftops o

A/N: Penultimate Chapter of Book 5!

Nate stared at the window of the top floor of the Adventurer’s Guild Headquarters. The snowy rooftops of the mountain village relaxing him after a long day as the dark of night slowly crept in. Fires and magical lights already flickered across the city below as people hurried home or to taverns where they could soak in the warmth of heat and companionship.

The last two days had been a grueling effort, working with Wulfgar’s top administrators to plan and design how to shift the current culture of the Severed Empire from the use of slavery and elitism into something that Nate could tolerate. The Guild administrators had been clear that to get the Severed Empire to a state that Nate was happy with would be the work of decades. The next few years would set the groundwork for that future state. The abolition of slavery, restructuring of the mana pipelines, allocation of dungeon and mana-resources along with a host of other smaller pieces of work, like improved infrastructure, were all on the table. 

The problem was, they all came with a price-tag attached and Nate was concerned he was spreading the Artist’s Emporium too thinly. To try and make sure that wouldn’t be the case, he had handed over half of his mana gems to the Guild to add to the Emporium’s coffers. Thankfully, since he owned the business, Reciprocity was silent on the matter. Nate expected Luc however would be ecstatic. New markets should mean new opportunities and his old mentor had proven that he had a head for business.

There was a shining light though that might offset a lot of the growing pains as the Severed Empire transitioned. Nate had of course gotten access to the Empire’s vaults. The stockpile within, coupled with multiple Mythic and Legendary Orbs from the fallen elites, and then a few of Nate’s own rewards from the Wild Realm that he had no need of, should be enough to pay for the Guild's assistance in managing the Empire.

In the end, most of Nate’s worries stemmed from the fact that he wouldn’t be here to oversee the development and management of the Severed Empire. That, and he was still waiting for Kiri to return. He wasn’t worried about his sister's survival. Only the lack of time remaining before they would need to answer Arikanvil’s call. When Kiri had left to face Jemima in her seat of power, audaciously named The Dominion of the Heavenly Throne, she had taken a coterie of Guild members who handled setting up new locations for their portal network. Unfortunately, those enchanters worked with inferior quality Sigils and materials and as such, couldn’t connect portals at the same distances that Nate could. Thus the delay in Kiri’s return, though Wulfgar seemed confident she should return today.

Moving back to Wulfgar’s office desk, which the man had graciously gifted to Nate for the duration of his stay, Nate took a seat and waited. Less than a minute later Wulfgar entered, just as Nate had sensed he would.

“Spoke with the communications team below. They said the portal has been built and they’re just finishing charging it. The language seemed a little shifty if you ask me but they were clear that Kiri’s fine.”

“That’s good to hear,” acknowledged Nate.

Wulfgar shifted and Nate could tell that something was bothering the man.

“What is it?” Nate asked immediately.

“Wanted to ask you a favour, lad.”

Nate motioned with one hand for Wulfgar to continue.

“You can paint things and then make Reality change right? Like how you painted me shooting into the mountain or painted those elementals into existence?”

Nate nodded, noting how Wulfgar had refrained from mentioning how Nate had also painted something out of existence.

“Well… I was just wondering… can you make the things you paint permanent? Like they won’t just fade away over time?”

“I can. It comes with a cost, but it’s possible.”

He could’ve hedged and not revealed the information but he didn’t really see a point to denying it. After all, he was already trusting Wulfgar and his organisation to assist in managing not one, but two Empires.

Wulfgar shifted again, clearly uncomfortable, before speaking in a rush.

“Could you paint my balls back into existence?”

Nate blinked a few times as his mind replayed the words in his head.

“I could… how were they not fixed earlier though?”

“I mentioned they got crushed before I evolved to Lesser Divine. What I didn’t mention was that it was much earlier than that. Happened during my time wandering the wilds searching for Dungeons, before I developed a self-regeneration Skill. By the time I had, my Soul had shifted, believing this was the new norm. Couldn’t grow them back and I kept putting it off because the cost of advancing was just so high. Then, by the time I was ready to give it a go, I was Lesser Divine. And you know why that made it hard to cross that line.”

“Reciprocity,” agreed Nate. “If you wanted it the cost would’ve been high and I imagine there aren’t many people who could grow you new ones that easily.”

Nate thought about it for a moment before shrugging, “Sure. Strip off.”

“What? Here? Now?” asked Wulfgar in surprise.

“Kiri will be back soon and then we’ll both be busy and we’ve only got a couple of days left before we leave. So yes. Here. Now.”

Wulfgar shrugged, the bald Lesser Divine starting to strip off his crimson armour as Nate extracted an easel and canvas from his spatial zone. The painting shouldn’t have taken long but Wulfgar was a backseat painter. Nate couldn’t blame him though, as the old Lesser Divine was the one who was going to have to live with the results.

“Can you make them a bit bigger?”

“Bigger? If I make them much bigger you’ll clench your thighs and pop the bloody things!”

“Just a bit lad. Me old pair were a bit bigger.”

Nate sighed and the paint shifted under his command, “Big enough?”

“Aye, but maybe put a bit more hair on ‘em!”

“Grow it yourself you old fart!” countered Nate in annoyance.

Wulfgar held his hands up in defeat, “Alright, no need to get testy now!”

Nate glared at the old man as he drew on Divine Energy and formed his own runic version of his Skill, “Life Imitates Art.”

He sensed a moment of resistance before Wulfgar lowered his own defences, letting the small amount of Divine Energy go to work, reknitting the man's body to match the artwork.

“Ha! That’s the stuff! You’re a godsend lad! An absolute miracle worker” yelled Wulfgar, laughing for joy before scooping up his equipment. “But I sense you got a visitor. We’ll talk more later. I owe you one!”

“You owe me two,” Nate commented, with a pointed nod at the pair between the Wulfgar’s legs.

Wulfgar exited the office laughing as Kiri walked in, with a pointed glance at the man's bare ass, before closing the door and giving Nate a cheeky smile.

“I thought you preferred older women? Am I just now learning that your preference is just ‘old’?”

Nate rolled his eyes, “Just helping him fix something he lost long ago.”

“Yeah,” Kiri agreed, smirking as Nate failed to rise to the bait. “I did notice a couple of things bouncing between his legs. Maybe now the old bastard can have a few actual kids.”

“How’d it go with Jemima?” he asked.

“About that… I may have made her an offer she couldn’t refuse,” hedged Kiri, shifting in her chair.

The roar of anger from the bottom floor had Nate and Kiri rushing over and leaping out the window. The moment they were free of the wards they both teleported, appearing just outside the bottom floor of the Guild where an angry Wulfgar held a small woman by her throat. Without the golden paint and green jewelry Nate wasn’t sure he would’ve recognized Jemima from their first meeting. But the sense of power still washed over the area, suppressed by the scent of blood as Wulfgars Skills gathered.

“An offer she couldn’t refuse?” Nate asked, glancing at Kiri with raised eyebrow.

“The Dominion of the Heavenly Throne is ours,” agreed Kiri. “And Jemima has graciously agreed to serve me if I spare her life. I thought a Lesser Divine alchemist might be of use to us where we’re going.”

Wulfgar looked surprised at the admission, the expression crinkling the tattoos on his bald head. Nate was less surprised. Kiri seeing an opportunity and seizing it was quite on-brand for his sister and he found it hard to argue with the usefulness of having a Lesser Divine alchemist serving them in the Heartlands. There was just one problem.

“How do you plan to prevent her from poisoning us?” he asked.

“She’s quite attached to her life. Very much so. And after a little discussion, and a bit of a hunt, I think I have proven to her that while she might manage to poison you and maybe even Wulfgar, she’d never manage to do so to me. So she’s under threat of death if she doesn’t behave, aren’t you Jemima?”

Kiri shot a forceful stare at the Lesser Divine Alchemist who immediately ducked her head, “Yes, Mistress!”

Nate frowned a little but Kiri immediately reacted to his changing reaction, “Don’t feel sorry for her. She is a horrible woman. The things I saw in her castle… she deserves death. The moment she ceases being useful she will pay for her crimes. Until then, she can work to pay back the debt she owes to this world.”

Nate bit his lip but nodded his agreement. He didn’t like it, but he could see Kiri’s viewpoint. Just one more thing he might need to tolerate for the time being.

“If it makes you feel better, I put Frick in charge of her,” Kiri added.

“It really doesn’t,” Nate said with a sigh. Who knew what his lunatic of a Familiar would get up to with a Divine-level Alchemist at his beck and call. Actually, he did know. Frick was almost certainly going to start considering ways to wage biological warfare. Nate would just need to make sure the little blue goblin didn’t get out of hand.

A couple of hours later, Nate was sitting with Kiri around the fire in his temporary office. Wulfgar had locked Jemima up in one of the cells for the night while Frick had dropped in to check on things, agreeing far too readily to Nate’s restrictions on alchemicals before vanishing off into the town to do Nine Hells knows what. 

It had taken far less time to get the administrators aligned with what they needed to do to start changing the culture of the Dominion of the Heavenly Throne. He supposed that was because he’d answered most of their questions on his goals over the last few days and they just wanted to make sure he approved of their short-term plans. Kiri had added a few points around shifting their economies that he hadn’t considered but as per usual, the pair were mostly on the same page and of the same mind.

All that was left was to advance their Divine Vessels. With these battles out of the way they were both keen to start pushing their Divine Vessels forward. By Nate’s calculations, without outside assistance in the form of defeating Lesser Divines or acquiring naturally forming Divine Artifacts, they would be able to progress their Divine Vessels by a tenth of a percent once every thirty to forty days. That was without dipping into the Divine Energy in their Class Cores and without sequestering any Divine Energy in their Divine Vessel for processed mana. 

It took the better part of an hour to grow their Divine Vessels but by the time they were both done they had added another tenth of a percent, growing the capacity to seventy units and slightly improving their entire bodies.

“It’s a lot slower,” commented Kiri, breaking the comfortable silence as she communicated with him through a soul connection.

“Developing the Divine Vessel?” Nate asked, making sure they were talking about the same thing.

“Yeah. Like, we just spent forty Divine Energy. That’s enough in the System to raise a Skill forty times. Or get like thirteen levels if you had enough processed mana as well.”

Nate nodded, “True. But then, how fast do those using The System generate Divine Energy? It costs us ten times as much to advance basically, but we also generate it almost ten times faster than even the Seeds of the Heartlands, if Ankh’Aris is to be believed. And the power ceiling is much higher. I thought you’d think of it like an investment.”

“I am. Really, I am. Was just a thought. I suppose it’s like Ankh said. Kali’Terra lowered the price of entry basically. Without The System most people would never be able to even consider Ascending. But the price of that ticket is that, like you said, the ceiling is much lower. Does that make even True Divine just big fish in a little pond? Ankh fought five of them and won. And that was like a thousand years ago. Who knows how much he’s advanced since then?”

Nate thought about her words, and the worries that he suspected were behind them, “You’re worried about what you’ll be in a thousand years?”

“I’m worried about who I will leave behind. My parents, anyone I have ever loved other than you. Who else is going to keep up? Who else will still even be alive by then?”

“Isn’t that why we’re trying to change this world?” asked Nate. “So that we can make sure your parents can live for as long as they want. So that even if the ones we love can’t keep up, they’re not automatically consigned to our memories?”

Kiri smiled sadly, “I suppose you’re right. Assuming I can convince mum and dad to let us help them.”

“Don’t you just mean your mum?” teased Nate. “Let’s be honest, your dad will do whatever she tells him to. And I for one want to still be enjoying Rania cooked meals in a century or five.”

Kiri laughed, “Yeah, Dad will do what he’s told. Hopefully mum can be convinced. I guess I was just getting into my own head after seeing Jemima and what she was like after four hundred years. I don’t want us to become that. Untethered from the rest of the world and the things we once cared about.”

“We won’t,” stated Nate confidently.

If there was one thing he was certain of, it was that he would not let power or the desire for it corrupt him. Even if he needed to put protections in place against himself. Because ultimately, he didn’t want to rule. He just wanted to imagine a better world, and then make it a reality.