Continental Movement

While Lucian spent months meditating and reflecting on the truths of The Shards, and Tess explored a seemingly infinitely large Pavilion filled with the spirits of cultivators, eager to pass on their wills or possess the living, the rest of the world kept moving.

All throughout the Toubia Empire, assassinations, revolts, and battles broke out as Duke Joseph Werich wrought colossal change in the many territories, and named himself Emperor.

On a continental scale, things shifted, sparked, and moved. Every territory of the Toubia Empire lit up with activity, sparking action within the lands of Nalduri too, as they successfully received the Toubian heirs bearing Nalduri blood.

Duke Ludger who held the border of Toubia and Nalduri defected to the latter, issuing a call of resistance against the Usurper, many others joining his cause.

All the while, the great Demia Kingdom lay unnervingly silent. The northern half of the continent it ruled remained still, excluding subtle movements of troops. Like a monolithic tiger, its claws dug into the dirt with lips pulled back to bare fangs, cold eyes watching, waiting.

Tension built among those whose sight encompassed the grandest scale, and the air of anticipation within Demia was contrasted only by the chaos of Toubia and Nalduri.

A climax was approaching, as inevitable as the end of all things. All there was to do was wait.

**

Sitting atop his new throne, Duke– no, Emperor Joseph Werich considered what to do about the escaped heirs.

Duke Ludger had defected to Nalduri, taking the easiest lands to defend the east with him, and protected the second prince and first princess as they migrated across the border.

"Hinaclei will act if you push Nalduri too greatly. He has grown desperate in recent times."

The slow, rich voice of Taedrial, the Great Guardian of Toubia rang out in all directions, as he manifested beside the throne. Taedrial fixed Joseph with a calm, golden eyed gaze as he spoke his warning.

"Over something like this? I refuse to believe the High Patron of Nalduri will act so rashly."

"He will."

Taedrial's voice carried no fluctuation, only absolute confidence in his words.

Joseph paused in thought, considering how to deal with the heirs discreetly, what pieces to move and how to move them, but again, the Guardian's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Take your armies east, I will act against Hinaclei when he shows himself. I can bare to lose far more than the likes of he."

Joseph looked to the Guardian with wide eyes, but did not decline the option. If the Guardian could wound Nalduri's High Patron, perhaps the Patron would not be capable of risking more to defend Nalduri. But why did the Guardian suddenly decide to act directly? He had never done so before, and to Josephs knowledge, no guardian could call on too much of their power without risking the attention of the world. So why take that risk now?

The Great Guardian seemed to know Joseph's thoughts as he spoke unprompted.

"If Nalduri sees fit to break our alliance, it means they have made efforts to ally themselves with Demia; you know this much. What you do not understand is the threat Eudes of Demia poses to us. If he allies with Hinaclei, I cannot protect this place. I will be forced to leave empty handed, or start a sect and hope for a single newborn, actions beneath my station."

Joseph wasn't too surprised by the revelation. He didn't understand just how powerful the ascendants that supported the three lands were, but it seemed common sense to him that if Demia alone could stand against an allied Toubia and Nalduri, then the last thing they wanted was to be replaced in that alliance.

"Alright. We'll do this with force, and when the Patron shows himself, I'll leave it to you."

Taedrial nodded slowly before vanishing once more.

**

Within the royal capital of the Demia Kingdom, a man of intimidating frame with sharp and piercing eyes sat atop his own throne listening to a report on the events south of him.

King Magnus IV.

By his side stood a thin man in robes that did not match this worlds fashion. On his forehead were three small dots a few shades darker than his skin, and on his face, a consistent smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"To think Taedrial would let himself be so impatient. So much for the angelic teachings." Eudes Clarks said with a slightly mocking tone.

King Magnus waived his subordinates to leave as Eudes turned to him and asked:

"What will you do?"

"Nothing." King Magnus' calm but deep voice echoed.

"If they wish to tear themselves apart, then I will wait. No matter the era, when things become dire it is always us they come pleading to." Resting his jaw on his left fist, Magnus continued.

"I will wait, and see exactly how foolish they are, and how much flesh I can tear before acting."

King Magnus had the stark black hair of the Demian's, but his eyes were as much green as they were blue, hinting at Toubian blood of all things.

Eudes smiled, he liked that response.

"How are the 8th?" The King asked.

"Better than I could have hoped. They have already proven themselves more talented than the 7th, and again more so than the 6th. They came at a perfect time. With things growing so tense, my disciple will need a trusted shadow, and the First is still without a true champion."

"You need not convince me, Eudes, I have already decided their assignments. I want to know what they have done in the past year, all of them."

**

Within the Heavensfall Crater, Lucian had spent many months in training, and was swiftly approaching his final month of freedom.

He had improved on a great many things in his time here, polishing his self-created techniques, working on flaws in his martial forms, and gaining new perspectives on the current state of his cultivation, incorporating deathfog into his techniques and polishing any mistakes he made with the reflections of The Shards.

He had not faced any other existential truths, the most personal thing being his confrontation with a loneliness he had not realised Helga's death left within him. But that did not haunt him, he mourned and wished she were alive still, but he would move on.

When he took in the rest of the Shards of Truth within the great crater of Heavensfall, there were still so many he'd not seen, so many things they whispered their need to show him, but he was out of time.

With a deep breath, Lucian decided he would go on a hunt before returning to the estate. Not a hunt for rabbits, or a bounty hunt on a criminal. He wanted to try a monster hunt, like so many independent cultivators did to make a living.

He would not be content with just any monster though, he wanted something that had evolved greatly. Something that could challenge him.

Jumping out of the Heavensfall crater, Lucian turned back to look at one point near the other edge of the massively wide field of shards. There was a person there, sitting before a mirror like shard. There had been none a few days ago.

The man was quite strong according to Lucian's lifesense, and he wondered what kind of truths he faced.

Turning back to the way out, Lucian shot off at a swift pace, looking for wild lands, his senses spreading to detect all lifeforce and deathfog in the surroundings.

Lucian had learnt that deathfog existed everywhere like lifeforce, but in the same way that lifeforce was invisible without the particular ability to sense it, so too was deathfog.

He had always thought that when something died, it's lifeforce left its body or vanished. That's what it had looked like in his lifesense, before he knew of deathfog. But now he knew what really happened. Throughout the aging and/or dying process, lifeforce turned into deathfog gradually, leading to the decline of the body.

Even after death, not all lifeforce would have transformed, but once dead, any deathfog will leave the body, and fill the surroundings, where it takes root and begins transforming to lifeforce once more, facilitating the growth of new things.

Knowing this now, he had confirmed that the aggressively transformative deathfog of the planesfiend he fought in the Valley of Mist was indeed an unnatural, twisted thing. A bastardization of what was truly a natural process in life.

That left the question though, how does he cultivate deathfog? Theoretically it wasn't necessary as he could absorb life and transform half of it to death, but the act of feeling and absorbing energy helped greatly with insights. Insights that played a key role in the development of techniques, qi cultivator or not.

Lucian thought that perhaps, if lifeforce was granted by the sun, deathfog could be absorbed from the moon, it's spiritual opposite, but this had proved incorrect. While Lucian knew the technical fact that the moon was not an "opposite sun", the literal could often not explain the spiritual.

In spiritual and cultivation teachings, the Moon, and Lunar, are the spiritual opposite to the Sun, and Solar. They are called the celestial partners, and many cultivation techniques focus on the harnessing of solar and lunar energies. Even solar and stellar are different things, despite all logic.

But regardless of that, it seemed that lifeforce and deathfog were not a part of those spiritual opposites the celestial bodies represented.

'Perhaps I need to cultivate in graves and places of death? That seems… unpleasant.'

Racing through a large forest he'd found, Lucian went increasingly deeper as he searched for prey. It took hours before he finally laid eyes on a large boulder, cracked all over that lay still as if unliving, despite the bright life he sensed within it.

'Ambush predators…' He thought back to the Deadwood serpent and shook his head. No wonder it took so long to find.

Crimson blood emerged all over Lucian's body to form a shell of plate armor. His bloodbond became a long greatsword, but rather than the usual tapered blade with additional quillions, he made a broad, heavy blade, wider than two two hands and quite thick, with a wide point unsuitable for stabbing. A heavy weapon solely for chopping, featuring a halfblade handle in a cutout in the middle of the blade.

'I've grown sloppy in training, resorting to only longsword and greatsword of familiar builds. I'll try this one today, and perhaps a warhammer tomorrow. It's been a while since I played with polearms too.'

Two extra arms sprouted from his shoulders, each holding a shortspear and a scimitar.

Power circulated throughout his body, but before attacking, Lucian did one more thing. He applied the illusory glamour he often used on his sword, to his whole body. This was something he'd refined his usage of over the months with aid of The Shards.

His armor and weapons became a dark shaded metal, like a dark grey,. Black veins still pulsed through his weapons, but they were harder to see among the darker metal hues.

Jumping off the branch of a treetop, Lucian removed the constant lightness technique and let his ridiculously heavy body plummet to ground, as his battle began.