313. Training Montage (V)

That night around the campfire, the Barbarian Sage threw Zane a little celebration feast. He took out some strange-smelling green legs of meat, a rare drop of some True God chimera. It was some of the most essence-rich stuff Zane had ever tasted.

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟜𝟚𝟝 -> 𝟜𝟚𝟞

Slaying that first Monster Lord marked the first big checkpoint of what the Sage had planned for Zane's first stint at the Steelheart Conclave. They were about halfway through.

"Sure goes fast, eh?" sighed the Sage.

Most of the Conclave specialized in physical training. Their essence and Law backed up their bodies. Their attacks tended to be straightforward explosions of physical might—just enhanced. That was why the Barbarian Sage wanted Zane to focus on physical, gritty combat while here. To build his body up the Steelheart way.

Zane's essence and Skills weren't Steel-based. But he found they helped his body a surprisingly great deal.

For Zane, having the explosiveness of Stormfire helped his raw power in all kinds of ways. It made his essence a great fuel.

His Asura State could be even better. It let him push past his physical limits—that was what really helped him fight up level gaps, the Sage thought. There was a certain bull-headed aspect to Zane that worked well for him there.

One thing he didn't have, though, was the higher-level Steel Concepts most Steelheart Conclave folk had.

Zane was quite strong now in terms of durability. But that was mostly off the strength of his Bloodline and all the treasure he'd integrated into his body—there were still a few Ascendants in history who were harder to wound. Folk who had integrated certain Steel Concepts into their bodies—Everlasting or Unscathed. Zane might be able to last just as long as they could, but that was mostly on account of his vitality. He was tough to put down, but strong Monsters could still make him bleed.

It was a trade-off. Firepower for a little durability.

Zane would lean into it.

The Barbarian Sage's hope for him was to challenge the Minor God steles on every all-time power metric by the end of the season. Zane was pretty sure he'd already been fed a small treasury's worth of Spirit Steel—and the Sage wasn't stopping anytime soon.

"First things first. We've got to max out that Titan's Body, First Form," said the Sage through a mouthful of bone.

Zane had some hard months of work ahead of him.

Some of the folk at the top of that stele had Godbeast bones grafted in. They'd have double the Bloodline Zane had, being Minor Gods—Law-wise, a few were at the Great Circle of Tier 5, or even Tier 6, when they did their tests. And all were legendary talents to boot...

"It'll be a damned hard thing" said the Sage cheerfully. Even the Sage wasn't sure it was possible.

But with a fully maxed First Form, and Zane's Asura State, and his pure Heavenly Stormfire essence fueling his body…—the Sage had hope.

"Give it a damn good shot, at least, eh?" He chuckled.

"I will," said Zane, nodding.

He heard a rumbling coming up the mountain. Then a giant horrifying head came to a rest next to him. It made a screeching sound which Zane had come to understand as 'please.'

He stripped the meat off a giant bone with his teeth, then tossed a baseball bat of a bone up high. Fluffy soared majestically—or at least, as majestically as a thousand-ton mile-long eldritch serpent could soar—caught the bone—and vanished down the other side of the mountain, causing a minor earthquake as she did.

A few moments later she came back up to Zane's side. "No more bones," said Zane, showing her his hands. Fluffy made a sad noise and went to go bother the Barbarian Sage.

"I'll tell you one thing." The Sage waved his own giant bone at Zane which he'd just finished eating. "That was a tune-up fight. So rest up this weekend, but you get ready! The next half of the season, we're turning up the heat. Training'll get tougher. The Monsters'll come bigger, badder, faster… we're coming down the stretch. I'm proud as all hells of what you've done so far, lad—but it's time to finish strong."

Zane nodded.

Before that, though—it was time for a little break.

***

Reina arrived late that weekend, which was quite unusual for her—she was almost always exactly on time, if not a bit early.

There were dark circles under her eyes. But she was still put together well and looked as gorgeous as always.

She was still quite pleased to see him too, which she showed the moment she saw him.

They went for a little night-time walk, her happily nestled into his chest.

"What's on your mind?" said Zane, concerned. He could sense it was weighing on her.

She let out a little sigh.

It'd been a bit of a stressful weekend for her—even moreso than usual. There had been a dungeon break in World Tree Faction territory. A C-Tier dungeon on the galactic scale had broken, unleashing True God-level Monster Princes and Princesses—she had to go send out Core Disciples and a few Elders to go contain them.

"This Chaos Cycle's ramping up faster than we projected," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked up at him wide-eyed. "There's something darker at work here, Zane—there's been too many breakouts lately, and the yin readings are off the charts… We think the Monster Overlord's breaking loose early this Cycle. Its name is Malzareth."

She bit her lip.

"That's... bad. Aiwë, ruler of the System, put some huge restrictions on it when he imprisoned it—but those loosen more and more as the Chaos Cycle peak gets closer and closer."

"Monster Overlord," said Zane, remembering. "Like that eye that watched us in the Superdungeon?"

Reina shook her head. "Even stronger," she said. "It could be the single strongest creature in the entire Dragonspire Galaxy, Zane. Last Chaos Cycle, the record say it slaughtered several Patriarchs and Matriarchs. If they're to be believed, it wiped out an entire Great Faction before they could contain it—there used to be a Wind Great Faction, the 'Auspicious Winds Clan.' Gone, like that."

That stopped Zane cold. "…Huh."

He'd thought Grand Elders, Ancestors and Patriarchs were the strongest folk there were.

"I thought so too," said Reina. "But as far as we know, Malzareth stands alone. And it's mostly dormant right now—only a fraction of its soul wakes for the First Wave. If it manages to break free entirely, it'll only emerge during the Final Wave—in about a century. For now, we've got to prepare for what's coming first."

He nodded. It made sense.

Still—just when he figured he knew where the peak was… a creature that could wipe out an entire Faction.

He couldn't really imagine that kind of power. But just knowing it existed made his heart beat faster.

Nine years wasn't a whole lot of time to prepare for the first wave. But Reina was already busy putting measures in place there too. She'd already got plans in motion. It warmed Zane somehow to think of her at work.

She'd realized they were going to need a lot more Alchemists, especially as the Chaos Cycle got deeper. There always seems to be a shortage of essence and soul rejuvenation elixirs half-way through the wars, in the records.

She was doing a big recruitment drive for Alchemist training. Until now, it'd been an exclusive discipline only for nobles. She was making it so anyone from all over the many kingdoms on the World Tree Faction's lower branches could join in, drawing from a talent pool of tens of billions.

She was sending them to a network of academies she was opening called the 'Institutes of the World Tree.' She was hoping it could help her massively ramp up production.

It was too much to train them all on all the parts of Alchemy, so she was putting production lines into place—splitting up the discipline into smaller specializations too. Some folk would specialize in preparing ingredients, others just in brewing—there was a specialized discipline for just the last step, stoppering or pill-making, which was surprisingly complicated, as it turned out. She was setting up for mass production.

The truly complex elixirs would still be left to the Grand Alchemists. But shortages of common elixirs was inexcusable to Reina.

"It's going well so far," said Reina. She put up a smile; she seemed optimistic.

But Zane could tell something about it was stressing her out a bit too. "Those nobles aren't happy with you," Zane figured, frowning. Those fellows hadn't left a very good impression on him last visit.

"They're not," sighed Reina. But she felt she'd gotten a solid enough grip on the Faction she could push through some necessary changes. It would strengthen the Faction and the Galaxy—and her own position—long-term.

"The Arandors think they see an opening," she said, eyes narrowing. "They're trying to use it to sow dissent behind the scenes with the other Great Houses. If they're bent on testing me…well, they can certainly try."

There was a dangerous glint in Reina's eye. Zane felt a bit nervous just standing next to her.

But it was gone as quick as it'd come. In a blink she was all cheerful again. "How does a picnic sound?"

***

While they were picnicking out in one of their Pacific islands, Reina showed off her new powers.

On top of all that, she'd also somehow found time to finish off her Concepts and make it to Ascension. She showed off her Great Circle of Tier 4 Laws, which gave her powers over whole living ecosystems. Those Concepts sharply boosted all her healing powers—letting her heal internal wounds at a touch, cure Tier 5 corruption poisoning—even soothe bad soul damage.

She summoned a field of flowers and there she lay on him under the sunlight for a bit. By then all her stress had melted away. He could feel she was perfectly peaceful, happy.

Then she looked up at him, and there was a mischievous glint in her eye.

Now she'd showed him her new powers, she wanted him to show her his. She heard he'd been working on his body, and she was quite curious.

Zane was happy to oblige.

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟜𝟚𝟞 -> 𝟜𝟚𝟟

***

Evan and Avery arrived the next day too. Both had Ascended with all their Concepts, and were quite eager to share too.

Avery could now cast entire worlds of mirrors—you could wander into a field of them and be utterly lost, and all your attacks would bounce back at you. It felt like wandering into some circus trick room.

"I'm going off on a voyage!" she declared. "Out there, there's a giant blob of water—I'm talking several star systems giant!—there's this place called the Endless Sea. There's all sorts of crazy big fish there, lots of teeth."

"Why?" said Zane, baffled.

She grinned. "'Cause I hear there's a Godbeast Bone there up for grabs! If I get it I'm gonna graft it into my umbrella."

She was hoping it would help her unlock special powers. Such as the ability to explode people with her mind.

"Ever since I saw you punch people, I always wanted to explode people," she told Zane.

"…It is pretty fun," Zane admitted.

"That's what I'm saying!" said Avery, throwing up her hands.

Zane wasn't sure her logic held together. But things seemed to work out for Avery when she followed her whims, so he left her to it.