The Ninth Prince was dead.


And apparently even death couldn't save you from itchiness.


Seriously, what was the point of a heroic sacrifice and then rules-lawyering your way around a prophecy, in the process becoming an immortal revenant spirit doomed to wander the desert until your friends literally nail you back into your corpse with your own Dao Pillars if you had to deal with itching while you do it?


The worst part was, he couldn't even do anything about it. The itchiness was a soul thing, but his soul body didn't have the physicality needed to scratch his soul itch. If that made absolutely no sense to anyone else that may or may not be reading the Ninth Prince's hypothetical memoirs, welcome to the club. Meetings were the fifth of every month and snacks were free.


Implausibility of that explanation aside, there was one thing that might be able to scratch the Ninth Prince's really itchy back. Well, nine technically. His Dao Pillars were both physical and spiritual in nature, like one of those really annoying monks that may or may not have reached enlightenment but were stuck on the 'mortal plane' because they were so sanctimonious about it. So theoretically, one of those could scratch his soul itch.


And the only one of those Dao Pillars that worked for his purposes was the one at Liaogai Village. The rest were either in the hands of various experts of the clan (including the Clan Leader himself) that he really didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of, or just pretty far away and out of his reach. The Laogai Village one however, was stationary and completely out in the open, so he could just invisibly walk up to it and use it to scratch his back.


This entire long winded tangent was, well, fully unnecessary really. It wasn't like there was someone the Ninth Prince needed to explain this too, but there he was, explaining it in an internal monologue that literally nobody other than him could hear. If it did have any sort of purpose though, that purpose would be to explain why the Ninth Prince was walking/flying/ghosting/whatever the term for spiritual locomotion was/moving through the desert in order to get to Liaogai Village.


...This was really getting out of hand.


ANYWAYS, that was what the Ninth Prince was doing currently, going to Liaogai Village in order to scratch his back with a Dao Pillar. It wasn't going too well honestly. Partly because of the itching, partly because it was really taking far too long to get to Liaogai.


Like seriously, normally it should've barely taken twent-


-The Ninth Prince recognized that sand dune, or more accurately the snake that lived under it.


He was three li north of his destination. The Ninth Prince had been walking from the south.


There was something weird going on.


The Ninth Prince ignored his itchiness, racing back south, using Qi and secret arts to navigate to the exact location of his home, trampling dust and sand and what few remnant spirits existed in his path.


Finally, after a few short minutes of moving at full speed, the Ninth Prince reached the exact geographical location where Liaogai was.


And in its place was an enormous pit, as if a giant hand has reached down and scooped up the village, relocating it to somewhere else.


Dimly, the Ninth prince realized there was no trace of violence, not even death, no ghosts and no qi and no signs of any sort of injury coming to the villagers. To all his senses, even the secret ones unique to the Naag, it seemed as if someone had just up and moved Liaogai Village.


After processing this for a second, the Ninth Prince opened his mouth, closed it, processed for a few seconds more, and then spoke. "What the F-"


------------------------------


"-uck, you actually got scouted by one of the Thirteen?"


Katha nodded as she laid on her back, looking up at the sky in her family estate's courtyard. It was supposed to be a carefully tended bonsai garden, where plants were cared for and expertly placed to facilitate 'good fengshui' or something like that. For the moment, however, she cared little for all that nonsense and had made herself a pit by the stone garden so she could dip the back of her head into the creek that ran through its middle. If her grandfather was going to scold her for this, well then he should have mentioned something about what Aretaphilla Myia was actually like.


If he was even going to come out of the library anytime soon. Seems that her brother's nerdiness is, unfortunately, in the blood.


Rathos Theodoros looked at his sister for a while longer, then shook his head sadly. He had also been tempered in the past twenty years, and now standing in the Eighth Heavenstage - on the cusp of the Ninth! - he was almost ready to face the lightning and cross into the formation of his Dao Pillars. The reinforcing qualities of Qi had brought forth more of the qualities of Bronze into him as well, and he seemed to have the attributes of a senior a hundred years older. And it was this quality he tried to express as he nudged Katha's ribs with the lip of his sandals, tut-tutting with all the elderly disappointment he could muster. He had a great deal of disappointment, but sadly five minutes is not much of an age gap and so his twin sister remained proof against his blandishments.


"...No but seriously, stop making a mess of the garden. I keep thinking about the impression your fat ass is going to make in the pebbles and that nauseates me more by the second, so get up while I can still erase these mind images."


Katha shook her head, her glassy eyes looking past him and right at the sun. It burned her eyes, but so did a great many things, and seeing nothing but a white hot ball of fire would be much better than everything else she could still see. Rathos, growing more irritated by the second, kicked her lightly in the side again. Still no response. Finally in a fit of rage, he kicked her with proper strength and sent her rolling onto the other end of the garden. It was like kicking an iron pole, a far cry from the firm-yet-human texture she had only twenty years ago, but to someone who had been bronze from the day he turned five that was nothing.


Finally, Katha rolled onto her feet and glared daggers at him with one hand on the scabbard at her hip and the other hovering over the pommel. Rathos flexed his hands and balled his fists, ready to beat some sense into his sister, who has clearly left a great deal of sense back at the Great Battlefield.


Then, anticlimactically, Katha fell over like a sack of Mind Numbing Tubers and this time laid face-first into the grass, only propped up by the curvature of her cuirass. Which only made Rathos even more nauseated and thus prompted him to pick her up and hold her upright instead.


"Is she alright?" A soft voice called out from the hall, and a young woman with lilac hair peeked out from the doorway. "Should I find a healer, Rathos? Or your father?"


"She's just pissed that she got suckered into joining a paper Legion," replied Rathos. He had one of Katha's arms looped around his shoulder now, and limp as she was he was being weighed down on her side, forced to contend with her full weight. "Imperator above Katha are you literally made of iron now? Stop eating so much, you aren't actually a Centurion yet."


"It's not a paper Legion we're recruiting right now," Katha mumbled, the first words she said that day. Rathos looked at her, eyes wide with surprise. Then he shook her, as if more words would tumble out. He clicked his tongue when her head lolled and she returned to unresponsiveness, then he sighed again.


"Yeah… Apparently there's something about the 501st that makes her want to kill herself," Rathos explained, though there was a common understanding that killing herself was not a literal suicidal tendency but a desire to be free of torment. He looked back at the young woman, a wry smile on his lips. "Sorry about this, Marlisa, I was hoping that your first visit here would have more dignity, Katha."


"Dignity died with that carriage," Katha said, true horror seeping into her voice.


Rathos and Marlisa both looked at her now. That was new information, at least as far as Rathos had gleaned. Her twin brother hoisted her up and held her upright with both his hands gripping her shoulders, and Marlisa stepped out and joined his side. "What carriage," the both of them asked.


Katha seeped in air through her teeth, a long hissing noise. "That carriage," she mumbled, then looked at them in the eyes. "That carriage. That carriage. That carriage. That carriage. That carriage. That Carriage. THAT--"


"Right, that's quite enough of that." Her eyes had gone mad and wide and frightening by that point, so Rathos had spun her around and put her into a sleeper hold. He glanced sheepishly at Marlisa, who nodded in sympathy, only taking the time to sweep her bangs out of the eye they habitually covered over. "I'm really sorry, she's usually more composed than this."


"No I'm not," Katha said, clearly not at all sleeping. Rathos applied more pressure, his arms visibly trembling and bulging with strength. Despite that, she tapped his forearms lightly. "That's not going to work dude, just let go."


"...Right, crap, you aren't squishy anymore." He scoffed, a terrible joke coming to him at the worst possible moment - and one so clear that Marlisa's eyes darted briefly to them, then right back at him. "Most of you, anyways. Did they get bigger?"


That earned him a kick straight to the face, courtesy of enigmatic Centurion XXI of the DI Legio, a punitive measure that he accepted wholeheartedly and received without so much as moving an inch. He barked a laugh now that his sister had recovered some of her normal fire and got ready for another brawl, knowing full well that the girl of his dreams - and quite literal girlfriend - was right next to him and due to get caught up by all this, when abruptly, suddenly and oh-so jarringly…


A ghostly chime swept through the Estate.


Katha and Rathos both froze. Rathos' grip weakened and Katha slipped out of it with ease, hopping onto her feet that left her sword rattling against her cuirass. They each looked around while Marlisa looked at them with surprise.


"Isn't that just the gate?" She asked innocently. "I thought your home had a defensive array that notified you of visitors?"


"I've never heard that chime in my life," Katha said, now on edge.


"It's pretty obscure," Rathos explained. "I've only read hints of it, but apparently it's a variant of the 'a superior Cultivator has invaded the household' alarm."


"That's not foreboding at all," Marlisa said blandly.


"Isn't it just?"


----


The Ninth Prince was hurt. He was very foreboding, thank you very much. Nowadays, all he did was forebode. 'Ninth Prince' was being used as a synonym for 'foreboding' now!


Okay maybe that last bit was a lie, but it was going to happen, even if the Ninth Prince had to enlist the help of Elder Detasia (who would totally go for it).


But that was enough being annoyed at not being considered sufficiently foreboding. Also he'd just realized that Marissa (or whatever her name was) was being sarcastic. So that was kind of embarrassing.


Anyways, the Ninth Prince actually had a reason to break into the Theodoros estate.


Probably.


Honestly, he couldn't really remember why he was here. Probably something to do with the girl who was stuck in the middle of that whole beetle debacle, Katha.


As he mused on his forgotten reason for committing approximately 12 crimes at once by breaking into this estate, the Ninth Prince slowly drifted over to where the kids were talking.


Then, about a few dozen paces from them, lost in thought, he realized he wasn't invisible.


"RATHOS IT'S A FUCKING GHOST CHIME!"


"We have a ghost chime?! What the hell did our ancestors--"


"Shut up with your nerdery nerd THERE'S A GHOST RIGHT FUCKING THERE!"


...Well, there wasn't really much he could do at this point. Might as well just lean into it.


The Ninth Prince casually walked over to the panicking children (compared to him anyways), fully visible. For fun, he flared his qi a few times, Venom and Steel and Snakes and Death and Justice mixing into a potent whole, just to push his entrance over the edge from good to great.


Then, the Ninth Prince waved. "Hello there. Ninth Prince, pleasure to meet you."


"If you don't mind, I'm just going to be taking the short one for a bit. I hope that's okay with you but I don't really care if it isn't."


Silence reigned for a few short, blissful moments. Katha turned to her brother, Rathos turned to his sister, and Marlisa clung tightly onto her boyfriend. Down the hall, an old man emerged from the dusty histories of Clan Theodoros, saw the spirit that lingered in the middle of his home, and turned right around back into the archives. The wind blew, a set of normal wind chimes rang in its passage.


Then, Rathos turned back to him. "Wait, do you mean my girlfriend, my sister, or me?"


"He's not that much taller than me," Katha explained. "We're twins, you see. He's just cut, not tall."


"Yeah, and she's just fat, not short."


"Rathos, I really don't think this is the time," Marlisa said in a small voice.


"Rathos you fucking nerd if you clown on me in front of the scary ghost again I will cut you in half," Katha said, louder than the soft-spoken Mechanikos' daughter.


"I'd like to see you try fatty."


"You insolent fuck--"


The Ninth Prince was actually enjoying this way more than he thought he would be. It reminded him of his own siblings, dead though they may be. And weirdly the thought of dead relatives didn't send him into a spiral of brooding. Must've been the fact that he himself was technically dead.


Eventually though, he clapped his soul hands, trying to restore some semblance of order to the bickering.


After he failed miserably, the Ninth Prince shrugged, waited, and after approximately five seconds clapped his hands again, this time imbuing it with Qi.


The resulting noise broke twenty seven windows, scared three sheep into rampaging, and got his juniors' attention.


"Alright, so. I'm going to be fully honest, I didn't think this through. I was just going to kidnap the sist- wait what the fuck am I doing, I know all of your names. I was going to kidnap Katha since she has the highest cultivation."


"But."


"This does provide an interesting opportunity. I could go with my original plan and kidnap Katha, get her to help me out with my unfinished business of someone stealing my fUCKING Village, and go on with my day. Or. I could kidnap all three of you, teach you some Qi techniques to buy your silence, and have three times the minions to assist me. Also apologize to Tomenos, he's had a rough time of things, and I think he also got punked by Aretaphila recently."


"So, are all of you okay with that? Wait, no, I don't care."


The silence that followed thereafter was definitely a good sign. It had to be. Nevermind the incredulous looks all three of them were giving the Ninth Prince, the fact that none of them were screaming bloody murder was in itself a triumph of will over instinct, and testament to good negotiations. Stories might yet someday be written of the affable spirit, Anush Naag, who successfully convinced three children not to scream in terror at his presence.


Until Katha Theodoros, who somehow became the most gifted scion of her generation, raised her hand. "Uh, question?"


"Answer."


"Why did you want to kidnap me? Actually, why are you kidnapping all of us? I'm not sure if we'd be very good at being minions, you see."


Rathos scoffed. "You're not a very good one. I actually listen when people talk to me."


"I will rip your balls out and stick them in your eyes little man. You're going to scream so hard you'll turn into a little girl."


"I didn't know your hands were that freakishly big, sis. And I do not scream like a little girl!"


"You kind of do," Marlisa said quietly. "A-Ah, but please stop fighting! You're in front of a guest!"


"He's technically a home invader!" Katha pointed out.


"That's true and also fair," the Ninth Prince nodded. "I did, in fact, invade this home."


"See? He even admits it!"


"But," he continued, "I could also teach you techniques worthy of the Twelfth Heavenstage. All for a little bit of minion work and maybe a promise to take it easy on Tormenos. It's a bargain you know, usually my lessons cost significantly more! At least five years of demeaning and useless busywork worth!"


Rathos paused. Then, he pondered. "That's a pretty good deal, sis," said the young Mechanikos. "Even if he made you work for five years doing dumb nonsense, it's still lessons from someone who crossed the third Olympian Keystone. And we both know you've got trouble with techniques."


"My techniques are fine!" Katha turned to Marlisa, the shieldmaiden, standing testily in front of Rathos. "Tell him, Marlisa! I've got perfectly good techniques!"


"I-I'm not sure what I could say, I just met you today..."


"And I've known you all your stupid life," said her twin brother with a nod. "What can you even do right now? I'm gonna say… You can light your sword on fire?"


Katha's face turned red, though whether from embarrassment or rage none will ever know, for she will never admit to either. "I'll have you know I killed a Foundation Building Expert!"


Rathos scoffed. "Yeah, because she's stupid."


"Well you're a nerd!"


"Yeah, so listen to the nerd and do something good for yourself." Rathos blinked at the same time as his sister. "Yeah, I'll own it. I'm a nerd. Now go on your stupid adventure with the scary snake ghost hero of Pleuron now."


The Ninth Prince blinked. "Well, thanks for the help in convincing your sister, but just to be clear, I was planning on shanghaiing all three of you."


At the looks of disbelief on their faces, he shrugged. "I mean, I could just take Katha and leave. Frankly that would probably be the smartest and most reasonable thing I could do. Despite his, well, Tormenos-ness, your grandfather is still kind of a good guy, and I don't want to make him too mad. Also I just feel bad about what Aretaphila did to him. Also, the two of you," the Ninth Prince said, gesturing to Rathos and Marlissa, "are kind of…"


The Ninth Prince paused, trying to figure out a way to say it nicely.


After a few seconds, he gave up. "...Well, you're weaklings. I mean, to be fair, Eighth Heavenstage in twenty years isn't bad at all. It's not powerful, but you got talent." He said, looking at Rathos.


Then, the Ninth Prince turned to Marlisa, and winced. "And you! Sixth Heavenstage in twenty years is… above average? I'm going to be fully honest, I don't really know how slow cultivation is supposed to be for normal people. Still, assuming it is above average, you're doing pretty well for yourself. I know you're just a branch member, but if everything goes well, the main Qui-"


And here the Ninth Prince stopped. Not because he realized that maybe talking about how if someone tried hard enough she might get familial acceptance was kind of rude. Not because he was rethinking calling a girl who was barely forty weak.


The Ninth Prince didn't stop talking because of anything stupid like rationality or his 'better judgement'.


No, the Ninth Prince stopped because he was interrupted.


Specifically, interrupted by a crossbow bolt to the face, shot by a trembling Marlissa, though whether she was trembling with fear or with rage, not even Marlissa could say.


"Shut the FUCK up!" Marlissa said, shaking and gripping her array-crossbow hard enough to crack it.


While the Ninth Prince was reforming his face, Katha turned to Rathos. "You know, I'd normally bully you for your taste in women, but this time, I gotta say, you picked a good one."


Rathos looked at his sister, eyes both dead and full of adoration for his girlfriend. "Sorry, you say something? I was just thinking that I picked a good one," he said, before laughing dumbly a bit.


Eventually, the Ninth Prince finished reconstituting his facial bits, and Marlissa realized she'd just shot an immortal seemingly unkillable Foundation Building ghost in the face. Before she could stammer out a terrified apology, the Ninth Prince started laughing, bent double and clutching his stomach. "Holy shit! That was amazing, you just shot me in the face. Me! The Ninth Prince!"


Eventually, he stopped cackling, and, waving his hand in Marlissa's general direction, decided to throw her a metaphorical bone. "Alright, if that's how you really feel, I won't talk about your family."


"Oh, thank the ancestors, I am so sorry that I shot you I was just really really--"


"That being said," the Ninth Prince said, smiling evilly, while Marlisa shut up with a squeak, "I am definitely kidnapping all three of you now."


"Actually, you know what? Why wait? Let's do this!"


With that, the Ninth Prince produced an enormous blanket from somewhere, grabbing it and walking menacingly towards the children.


Then, with one fluid motion, he expertly captured Katha, Rathos, and Marlisa in the blanket, wrapping them up and binding them tightly into a shape reminiscent of a human burrito.


"What the fuck?!" Katha exclaimed. "What the fuck?!!" She exclaimed, louder this time. Marlisa had degenerated into an endless muttering of apologies by now, convinced that all this was her fault - which, being fair, it might have been - but none of them were in a position to change it by now. They had been snagged in the coils of the snake, and they were left at his absolute mercy.


Which was naturally why Rathos Theodoros, a man who ever since he was a boy had been the subject of much bullying and teasing, was merely completely po-faced and accepting of his fate.


"My only regret is that someone's hogging all the blanket again," he said softly, a small smile on his face.


"You fucking what?!" his sister, who had often hogged the blanket in their early days, cried out like a woman scorned.


"No no, it's fine and completely understandable, you have a lot to cover up."


"I will actually eat you!"


The Ninth Prince, of course, ignored all of that, picking up the blanket burrito and sticking it under his arm before walking off away from the Theodoroi compound unimpeded, even as his free arm created a paper airplane, which he threw with pinpoint accuracy at a certain grumpy Foundation Cultivator.


--------------------------------------------------------------


Tormenos Theodoros was having a bad day.


Really, it was a bad decade, owing mainly to that demon straight from the netherworld that had forced him to give up his granddaughter, but even beyond Aretaphila Myia, he'd had a string of remarkably bad luck.


Nothing overt, nothing crippling, just minor annoyances and the like. Stubbed toes, spirit beasts attacking him out of nowhere, his son-in-law being a disrespectful little shit (though that one was both normal and expected by this point), and other such things.


But things were looking up for Tormenos Theodoros. He'd just closed a lucrative trade deal with the Quintia, owing to, well, the obvious, and all of those spirit beasts he'd been killing had netted him both a tidy profit and quite a few contribution points.


Things still weren't the best for him, but if all went well, he'd be si-


And then a paper airplane hit him in the head, because of course it did.


Whirling around to find the bastard who threw that, Tormenos, well, didn't find anyone. But he did notice that the paper airplane had things written on them.


So, of course, being a meddling old man, Tormenos opened the letter.


He almost wished he hadn't.




Ancestors above, it would have been better if they had all died.


Well, perhaps not so dramatic. But Tormenos broke out the six hundred year old whiskey anyways.


-----------------


"...You know, I've been noticing something strange while we've been moving, guys. It might be nothing, but I thought it was worth pointing out." Wrapped in a blanket with his sister under the arm of an incorporeal Senior like they were pretending to hide from the Trial Hunters as kids (and one time for real, for the two weeks of the actual trials), Rathos Theodoros was still completely po-faced, buddha-like in his total apathy towards the circumstances surrounding him.


Travelling at high speed close to the ground while nearly parallel to the ground and able to see the way the ground just got swallowed up by the Ninth Prince's speed? It was nothing but a noonday stroll to the young man. It takes a great deal to provoke a reaction out of the dead, after all. "The further we go, the more snake spirit beasts we seem to have around us," the young man astutely observed.


Katha, who was not quite as dead on the inside, especially as recent events had served to liven her up substantially compared to her more bitter younger self, was meanwhile moments away from screaming herself faint, held back only by the understanding that if she screamed first, Rathos would get to mock her. And she had left him with no ammunition so far in their life, she was not about to give him any right now. But opening her mouth would have risked a scream, so she simply glared at her brother. As best as she could anyways; rolled up like they were, they were facing different directions entirely.


Lesser men, or siblings with lesser bonds would have disregarded the glare or assumed it was coming. Rathos felt it, because he knew his sister well. He did not chuckle, frown or deflect, he simply continued. "If I were a guessing man - and I am not, but I am balancing the probabilities in my head - it would be because we are in the presence of the Ninth Prince, who is either consciously controlling the snakes in the area to provide some sort of screen or is unconsciously drawing them to him. Which can bode poorly in either case."


Katha made no further response, because she was already aware of the point he was about to make and had no desire to dwell on it. At all. In the slightest.


It was Marlissa, who was tucked under the other armpit in an entirely different blanket that she was blissfully able to keep all to herself, who would be nice enough to try and engage her boyfriend despite being absolute mortified. They were all in this predicament because she shot a ghost in the face after all, and not just Katha. "S-So… Either the Ninth Prince is getting this sort of cover because he wants to move really quickly… O-Or he's moving so quickly he doesn't notice or care about what he's doing?"


"Possibly," Rathos nodded. "It bears some thinking. Where are we going?"


"...Rathos, did you just take several hours to wonder where we are going?"


"No, Marlissa," said the heir of the Theodoroi. "I took several hours to come up with many ways to wonder where we are going. Because I am bored and we have no way of actually changing the outcome of whatever we are being swept up into, so I might as well keep my mind sharp."


Katha, nonplussed and now more annoyed than terrified, spoke up first. "Hey! Ninth Prince! Where are we going?"


The Ninth Prince turned to the tiny people he was keeping rolled up like a breakfast food. "Oh, did I not tell you? Sorry about that."


"So, you know Liaogai Village? Out of the way, near a Spirit Snake pit, absolutely filled with criminals?" he asked.


"Yeah, it's gone. Someone stole my village." The Ninth Prince briefly looked vaguely murderous, before his face smoothened out into a smile. "And obviously that's not gonna stand, so I'm bringing the three of you over to the site of the heist so we can figure out who took an entire village and why."


"Any other questions? I have nothing but time."


"Yeah, uh." Katha wiggled, which was as close to raising her hand as she could manage. "How… do you steal an entire village?"


"That's what I'm trying to figure out!" The Ninth Prince laughed, before getting more serious. "Getting more serious, either a spatial treasure of some sort, or just a single Core Formation cultivator really. Some earth based Dao Magic would probably be enough."


"After all, it's not like it's a big village. Liaogai's best defense was me, and after I died, well…"


It went unsaid, though both Rathos and Katha exchanged looks with Marlissa about it anyways. Mentioning 'hey maybe have someone keep an eye on your village after you're gone' might not be the wrong thing to say, but it definitely isn't the right thing to say either. Especially not while they were being literally carried by him.


But Katha, after a moment of consideration, decided that no, some things needed to be said. "Senior Prince, you knew you were going to die, right? In advance?"


The Ninth Prince gave her a thumbs up, briefly dropping Marlissa to do so, but catching her before she hit the ground. The girl squeaked, shuddering in her blanket like a leaf in the wind. "Yep! It was this entire thing, had a prophecy, killed a dude, the whole works."


"Why do you ask?"


"Well… If you knew it was coming… Years in advance?" She looked up and Prince nodded back. "Years in advance… Why didn't you ask someone to look after your village while you were gone?"


"See, the thing you gotta realize about Liaogai Village is that it's a village full of criminals. And obviously, introducing a protector force into a village whose main export is crime, well crime and really bad potatoes, is probably a bad idea." The Ninth Prince smiled. Checkmate, liberals.


Katha frowned at him, her mind tearing through the bullshit like a scythe through wheat. "But it is a village full of mortal criminals, isn't it? Cultivator Law largely doesn't care about that, and anyone you appoint as protector in your stead is going to have their support anyways, considering how much they idolise you. I think you just fucked up." She blinked as she realised what she had just said. Ah, crap, this was where she was going to get dropped into the ground. "I-I mean, that is to say--"


The Ninth Prince raised a finger, this time managing to not drop Marlissa. "Ah, but there's one key thing you're forgetting here! On one hand, you might be right, but on the other hand!" He lowered his finger. "...You're completely right, I fucked up massively. My bad."


Katha flinched. "I'm sorry! I'll accept any--" She blinked, then looked up furtively. Behind her, Rathos closed his eyes as he awaited the sweet embrace of the earth. "...Ah. Uh, it's alright? A-Are you going to drop me a little bit to punish my impudence, senior?"


The Ninth Prince smiled, all teeth. "No."


"Imperator be praised," sobbed Marlissa. "I-I can't handle these heights anymore! I don't wanna be dropped, I can't handle these kinds of heights!"


"Marlissa, we're barely three feet off the ground."


"Less," Rathos corrected, his eyes clenched shut. "But she is right to be afraid."


Then the Ninth Prince let go of his tiny people-burritos, and Katha, Rathos, and Marlissa dropped to the sandy desert floor with a harsh thud, the blankets doing nothing to protect them.


As the children (relatively anyways) groaned, the Ninth Prince stood over them, still smiling, looking for all the world like a cobra who had just found a litter of defenseless mice. "I will however drop you because we're at our destination."


"Welcome to what used to be Liaogai Village!"


----


"...Well?" The Ninth Prince clapped his hands. "Get to it. Chop chop. We're burning daylight here, and I didn't drag three minions all the way to the remains of what used to be my village for them not to help out. I mean seriously, what are you all doing standing around and waiting, the work ethic of this generation is horrible. Why, back in my day, we had to work for our techniques, and you arent-"


The Ninth Prince paused. Something had struck him, something vital, something that he forgot to do. "...Did I ever tell you all how I wanted you to help me?"


Three (relative) children looked up at him, deadpan expressions on their faces. "Nope." "You did not." "I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to be doing."


Well fuck.


The Ninth Prince really had metaphorical egg on his face this time. "...Alright, sorry about that. But not really because I'm the Ninth Prince and thus perfect and so I never make mistakes. Anyways, I brought you here because my village was seemingly scooped out of the ground by something, but you already know that part. What I need from all of you is, well, unique perspectives."


"See, the three of you each have something I lack. You, Rathos, you're an array engineer, and while I dabble in that myself, you have a theoretical and book-knowledge education that I never got. You, Katha, you have some weird fucked up Dao Magic thing that seems to let you see Qi Flows, or at least gives you the same amount of information being able to see Qi Flows would give you. And you, Marlissa, well, I'm going to be honest, you have a vast capacity for violence and I just want to see what happens if I let you loose."


"So, to that end, here's what I want each of you to do." The Ninth Prince, by this point had brought out a paper and a pen and was writing things down. "Rathos, go check the crater for arrays or geomantic anomalies, use whatever monocle or spyglass you have to do so. Katha, go around, follow your instincts, and just see if anything looks weird, if the Qi in the air or in the ground feels different somehow. Marlissa, just go and kill some stuff or, really, just do what you want. Make sure to record it so that I can use whatever incredible carnage you're going to commit in order to traumatize a Blood Path villain later."


"Everyone understand what they need to do? Perfect. Have fun and get to it."


"As for me, well" The Ninth Prince had pulled out a parasol and lounge chair and was comfortably lying down. "I'll just be supervising."


"C-Capacity for violence?" Marlissa looked genuinely distraught. "I-I would never, I'm so sorry that I shot you in the face with the crossbow I didn't know what I was thinking--"


"This way, Marlissa," Rathos said gently as he picked her up by the waist and put her over his shoulder like a bale of hay. "We'll talk about your tools of destruction later. For now, I need your help with something."


"...It's not dao nonsense," Katha muttered glumly. "It's just qi sense stuff. You have it too. It's not anything… Oh, whatever…"


"Kid. I've seen qi sense. Remember, I know Tasos Basilakos and Achille Adeptos, and more than that, I know Aretaphila Myia. They have Qi Sense, damn good Qi Sense too. You have some weird fuckery that's either because of a giant beetle or because of you." The Ninth Prince paused. "Probably. It could be a bloodline, or it could be you just being that damn good at Qi Sense. Either way it's better than mine, and I have Qi Sense that extends into the Infrared spectrum."


"...That doesn't make any sense, though. Centurion, twenty years ago I couldn't even feel my own meridians. It was a miracle I even took to the blood of bronze. What I have is just a sharper sense for it now, not some incredible technique that surpasses the geniuses of your generation!" Katha crossed her arms. "Besides, if my Legate knew I had better Qi Sense than her, she'd tell me."


"No she wouldn't," Ninth Prince said in reply.

"...No, she wouldn't," Katha admitted. "But what I went through wasn't much different from what you all went through anyways! Just filling the meridians to their absolute limit to get a better sensing for your own fullest extents!"


...Bruh. The Ninth Prince just. You know what, no. "Kid. Back in the Fifth Sea, people used to do that to torture prisoners of war. And, like, the bad prisoners too, the ones that committed the atrocities to your mortals that you were going to commit to their mortals, but they did it first."


"Do you know how bad those atrocities had to be in order for us to use that kind of torture? It was Blood Path shit. You know Old Cannibal? Of course you do. We wouldn't have even done that to him unless he actively like, torture-farmed our cities. And only if it was a big city too, otherwise we'd just have killed him."


The Ninth Prince sighed. "It's just… It makes me angry. Kids shouldn't have to go through that sort of thing. You shouldn't have had to go through that sort of thing. But you did, and I can't exactly fight a giant Nascent Soul beetle yet, now can I. Maybe if I was in my prime, but…"


Katha blinked. "Wait, you guys didn't do that in the Archgetes' lecture? The one my mother died in?"


"Oh, god no, that was for like maybe three hours. Also I didn't go. Heard about it from a friend though."


Katha paled. Then, she trembled, fists clenched until the knuckles went bone white. "What the actual fuck?! I could have had the same experience without the excruciating torture?! What the fuck!" Then, suddenly, as quickly as it came, the rage went. "...Hold on, you're from the Fifth Sea?"


The Ninth Prince blinked. "Oh. Yeah. I did say that like twenty seconds ago. Yeah, I'm from the Fifth Sea. Didn't plan on sharing that with you, but now you know."


"Like the hunters? The hundred year trials? The people literally hunting us for sport? That Fifth Sea?"


"Yep. You know, funny story, the Clan that runs the trials nowadays? I used to be best friends with their heir. Then we fought and tried to kill each other over something I'd prefer not to talk about, and now I'm in the Third Sea. It's quaint here. Very nice, but the Qi Flow is atrocious."


Katha nodded. She clicked her tongue. Then, promptly, she turned about on the heels of her feet and strode off in search of any qi traces she can observe. Almost at the same time, Rathos returned, packing his mechanikos tools back into his satchel. "Hey, so, there might be something around here, not too sure but they have the signs of Jingshen array work. What's with Katha?"


"Oh I told her I was from the Fifth Sea and she got a b-Wait I just did it again. Yeah I'm from the Fifth Sea. So that's fun." The Ninth Prince processed the rest of Rathos' sentence. "Wait so, Jingshen Array work? So the Jingshen took my village?"


"Let's not jump to conclusions. They're merchants, and we aren't the only array game in the region, just the best. It could still be merchants." Rathos blinked. "So you're a Fifth Sea native? Cool."


"Wow, you took it well. Your sister thinks I'm going to eat her or something."


"If you were going to murder all of us you'd have done it somewhere else. Anyways, I try not to think about my impending doom. There's just too many of them." Rathos nodded. "Anyways, Marlissa ran off somewhere, so we'll have to wait and see what she coughs up. So, what have you found?"


"I'm glad you asked!" The Ninth Prince produced an enormous roll of paper, packed to the brim with diagrams and drawings and notes on the Dao. "Whoever did this had a potent Dao, one relating to Earth and the displacement thereof, meaning Core Formation, but the strength of their Qi leads me to believe it's only (well, 'only') an Early Core cultivator. Whoever did this was able to spare a Core Formation cultivator for some random fuckery with a tiny village in the ass-end of nowhere, and they didn't even take the Spirit Snake Pit. That level of expenditure for that little reward means a Great Power. And, with your notes on the Jingshen arrays, it… could still really be any Great Power. After all, they all know that the Devils and the Jingshen don't have the best relations, so this could be an attempt to provoke war. And any great power can buy from the Jingshen."

The Ninth Prince sighed. "For now, we'll have to wait and see what Katha and Marlissa rustle up before we can draw conclusions."


Katha, who walked back halfway through his long spiel, simply wore a look that mixed discontent and mild terror. Her sword hand continued to drum on her xiphos, a new one forged from new material, while she ground her teeth. "There," she began, "There is no way in hell you figured all of that out while I was talking to you. That's insane. You're insane. What the hell."


The Ninth Prince simply smiled. "Well, I am the Ninth Prince."


"...Right. Anyways, I saw the direction Liaogai went in. Wasn't easy, needed a tall vantage point, but I think I can track them. Or, well, give a general direction to begin walking in. Hey, where's Marlissa?"


Rathos shrugged. "You think he's going to eat us?"


"He's from the Fifth Sea! For all you know he murdered hundreds of our kinsmen!"


"And that's the guy you want to antagonise?"


Katha scowled and crossed her arms. "Shut up."


"Well, to be fair. I did kill a lot of people back in the Fifth Sea. But that just comes with the territory of being a Nascent Soul." The Ninth Prince said, lounging on his chair, thoroughly entertained.


"Are you hearing this, Rathos?! FORMER FIFTH SEA NASCENT SOUL! RIGHT THERE!" Another blink. "Wait, you can turn back from being a Nascent?"


"Some curses have a similar effect, if the archives don't lie," Rathos nodded. "Usually they die of old age, though."


Then, before the conversation could progress any further, a hearty thump. The ground shook once, then again as the body of a giant desert scorpion hit the ground between them. Marlissa landed on it three heartbeats later, aspis shield and xiphos in hand, chest heaving with exertion and half her face covered in white ichor, hair wild and expression ironclad. Rising to her full height, she saw who stood around here, blinked meekly, then quickly sheathed her sword and retracted her shield.


"A-Ah! Uh, I thought I saw something and decided to follow up on it! It was this scorpion! I followed up on the… the scorpion!" She nodded quickly, pointing at the scorpion that was at least three times as long as she was tall, from head to tail, while she tried to wipe the scorpion blood of her face. "Anyways! I found the village bucket! Right here! The scorpion had it! And I think it has a…" Pulling it out, Marlissa squinted as she spun it about slowly in her hands. "...A message for the Ninth Prince? Here, you take a look."


The Ninth Prince stopped for a moment, and just stared at the tiny girl who'd killed a Great Circle Qi Gathering Spirit Beast while in the Sixth Heavenstage. Then he started laughing. "Oh my god, this is the best thing I've ev-Alright that's a lie, the best thing I've ever seen was Bhrigu getting his face punched in, but damn if this doesn't come close." Wiping tears of laughter out of his metal eyes, the Ninth Prince stood up. "Seriously, what did I tell you. Capacity for great violence. It's great. I'm gonna need that recording for later, so…"


The Ninth Prince grabbed a bloodstained jade slip from Marlissa's hair, dived into it, and blanched. "...Dear god woman. That… Well damn."


"ANYWAYS" The Ninth Prince said, trying to keep his mind off of, well, that. "A letter? For me? The dead Ninth Prince? Oh I have to see this."


The Ninth Prince opened the letter, and read it. Then, moments later, the ground under his feet started dissolving in a slurry of green acid.




The Ninth Prince was going to find Jingshen Jianggu. He was going to find this 'Uncle Li'. And then, Jingshen were going to die. "It's the Jingshen."


"Wait, didn't you say that there wasn't enough evidence? What do y-" Rathos was cut off by the Ninth Prince forcing the letter into his hands. "Wow, okay. Rude," the heir of the Theodoroi pouted, though he would vehemently deny it later.


"I mean, this is a village of thieves, but purely mortal thieves whose only claim to fame is the Ninth Prince." Katha shrugged as Rathos came to a realisation, finishing the letter as he hummed inconclusively. "And, frankly, it's in the middle of nowhere. The only people petty enough to actually try and go after a dead man would be the Jingshen."


"That's correlation, not causation," Rathos pointed out.


"Probably. But am I wrong?"


Before Rathos could say anything, the Ninth Prince began to talk. "No, she's not. And this Jingshen Jianggu is going to die. Now, if anybody has a problem with that, I can just drop them off at the Theodoros estate, but I personally am going to go and fistfight a core formation cultivator."


The rage on the undying serpent lord was all too evident, for even as the light did not capture every contour of his brow and every dimple by his mouth, the simple terror that the world seemed to display about him, to the point of approaching deference, could not be mistaken. He cast a simple glance around, and the world shirked. Even his juniors seemed startled, for they knew this was not him.


"So," Anush Naag asked, in simple, clear tones. "Anyone want to be dropped off?"


The three juniors looked at one another, breathless as they stand in the jaws of a serpent. Simple logic told them never to stand between a Senior and vengeance. To simply walk away, keep their heads down, and continue with their lives. That this was not their battle.


They answered in unison. "Nah." "Nope." "Not really. We're stuck in the desert either way."


The ghost of the Ninth Prince, Terror of Jharkhand, Lord of Ten Thousand Serpents, a Nascent Soul in fullness if no longer in power, looked on, dumbfounded at these juniors. He sighed, anger momentarily abated. "...You know. I really did expect you all to just do the smart thing. Stay out of watching a ghost fistfight a core with his mind, get a technique or two for the help you've already given me, and go home."


"Instead, the three of you chose the stupidest option possible." He continued, voice perfectly calm and level, like the clear sky before a storm. "You're going to follow me into near-certain doom. Oh, I'll try to keep you all unharmed, but a fight is never certain, and it's a massive risk for all of you."


He looked up at the sky, and laughed once, like a thunderclap. "But that's what being a cultivator is about, isn't it? Defying the odds, defying the heavens, defying the natural boundaries of mortality. And that's what I've been doing since I was much weaker than all of you. It's not really fair to leave you out of something I'd have charged headfirst into at your age."


The Ninth Prince clapped his hands. "Alright, fuck it, this speech has been about ten times more dramatic than I intended. You all may be helpless compared to me, but you aren't actually helpless, so let's do this."


"Follow me! FOR GREAT JUSTICE!" With that, the Ninth Prince went roaring across the desert, kicking up miniature sandstorms with every spiritual step, just barely going slow enough that three Qi Condensation juniors at full speed could only just make out a grey-and-green dot on the horizon.


The force of his righteous purpose was enough to cause minor spirits to spontaneously create themselves in his passing, to give whatever caravans, mortal and cultivator alike, in the area a story to tell for generations, to inspire all who saw him to higher and higher heights in the name of GREAT JUSTICE.


And then, approximately two minutes and 200 li later, the Ninth Prince reappeared right where he'd began, in front of a dumbfounded and mildly embarrassed group of juniors.


He smiled sheepishly. "So." The Ninth Prince said. "Anyone know where the Jingshen took my village?"


Silence. The wind blew, a haunting note that dragged on until nothing. A cough. Looking around, the Ninth Prince saw Katha raise one hand and point with the other.


"That way, senior," she said, her expression put-upon. "If you promise not to roll us up in a blanket I'll even give directions in mid-flight."


----


It came like a whisper on the wind, a single letter that meant nothing to anyone else and could be seen by nobody else. Atop the ravine, a young man stood, arms crossed as the letter came to him, whistling and twisting as it came. It floated before him, ensuring that he knew full well what it was.



Taking it into his hand, the young man clenched his fist and thrust it skyward. He cackled, jibbering laughter like a child watching a trail of ants climb into a pool of water, or into a searing beam focused through a lens. The fool had bought it. The trap had been sprung. The Ninth Prince was on his way.


"He's coming! HE'S COMING, UNCLE LI!" Turning about, Jingshen Jianggu smiled with malicious glee at the Elder who deserved respect, yet received none from the petulant junior. "And you thought it was too obvious! Oh how little do you know, to not realise that the Ninth Prince is but a mere limp-brained simpleton, and I a hardened master baiter!"


Jingshen Li, who had slaughtered armies in his time but now desired as quiet a life as a physical god could hope for, sighed in resignation.


When his brother's son, fool that he was, had come to him with a harebrained scheme to lure the Ninth Prince out of 'hiding' by stealing an entire town from the Golden Devils, it took all of Jingshen Li's superhuman patience and tact to not simply call Jianggu an idiot and move on with his life.


Instead, he'd merely tried to inform his nephew that the Ninth Prince was dead, and so any attempt to 'lure him out' was impossible. Jianggu, convinced of his own genius, simply ignored him.


Then, he'd changed tack, pointing out that even if the Ninth Prince was alive, something like stealing a town of mortals was far too obvious for the Ninth Prince to fall for. Jianggu, who never listened to his long-suffering uncle's advice, ignored him. Again.


So, despite the utter stupidity of the request, Jingshen Li, who had dueled three Cannibal Elders to a standstill at once, decided that the best use of his time was to help his nephew kidnap mortals. Jingshen Li spoiled his nephew far too much.


But family was family, and after his brot-


-Dear heavens his nephew was still talking.


"--Thousands of Spirit Stones primed to detonate! Not even the Ninth Prince could survive such a devastating blow! And even if he did somehow find a means to evade such a blow, his people will not! He will have to choose between letting his people die or DYING HIMSELF, AND--" Abruptly, Jianggu stopped. Then, he turned about, looking his uncle in the eye. "Uncle Li, are you listening?"


Uncle Li made a conflicted noise. "Jianggu, the Ninth Prince is dead."


His nephew scoffed. "No one ever really dies, uncle. He'll show up, who else would possibly bother going back to where a podunk little town like that?"


"...The Ninth Prince's--"


"Exactly! Glad you agree, uncle! Now, I need you to go into this hole and wait until he shows up. If this trap does not catch him, then you'll destroy him once and for all! My truly hidden blade, a scheme within a scheme!"


Blinking hard, Uncle Li considered whether it was too late to rescind this relationship. Alas, family was family. "Jianggu, you addressed be by name, did you not?"


"Yes?" Jingshen Jianggu, a Foundation Establishment Expert who had not progressed one bit since the day he cheated his way through the lightning, asked. "What does it matter? The Ninth Prince is unrivalled within Foundation Establishment. He knows this, naturally I know this, and surely even you must know this. Therefore, only a Core Formation Elder could defeat him. Therefore…" Gesturing with his hand, Jianggu pointed at his uncle. "...You are here. In the hole. Waiting."


"He's going to know a Core Elder is going to come fight him, Jianggu," Uncle Li sighed. "As you said, he knows he is at the peak of Foundation Establishment. Only a Core Elder can defeat him. And you did address me by name."


"Yes, uncle, I know you're struggling to grasp the concept but that's why you are in the hole! It's a trap inside of a trap! You know, in case my other flawless scheme becomes somehow cruelly subverted," Jianggu said, as if there was no chance of that happening.


"...So. If the Ninth Prince knows I must exist, you know I must exist, and I know I must exist… How am I, exactly, a useful trap? Something that must, by definition, be hidden?"


Once more Jianggu scoffed and waved off his uncle. "This is why I scheme and you fight, uncle. You have the muscles and I have the brains. It is the natural order of things, as I've said many times before already."


Truly, his brother must have failed greatly on some level. But, family is still family. If only he could ignore such bonds.


Instead of crushing his nephew's skull like a grape, Jingshen Li, warden and protector of his own personal hell, sighed and spoke again. "You didn't answer my question Jianggu. How am I a trap if the Ninth Prince knows I am here, waiting?"


Jianggu laughed and brushed off the question again, though this time his smile was slightly smaller. "Isn't it obvious uncle? There's no possible way the Ninth Prince could see through a trap within a trap! Hiding means he won't notice you!"


"That wasn't an answer, Jianggu."


Jianggu smiled again, brittle and barely an inch from cracking. "...Come now uncle, I know I'm a genius and my schemes are hard to comprehend, but this is just ridiculous. There is absolutely no way that the Ninth Prince will find you, and I mu-"


Before his brother's son could finish, Jingshen Li, who used all of his willpower and mental fortitude to not smile like a madman, spoke, face serious as the grave. "Jianggu. That. Is. Not. An. Answ-"


Before he could finish, Jingshen Li, Core Formation Cultivator and fully finished with this ridiculousness, was himself interrupted, as Jingshen Jianggu, deemed a fool in every mind but his own, shook with rage and screeched like a banshee. "Because-BECAUSE IT JUST WILL OKAY? I'm not sure how you can't grasp it, but I am A GENIUS, I'm much smarter than some SNAKE PEASANT, and it-IT JUST WILL! GOD!" With that, Jingshen Jianggu tossed his hands up into the air and stormed off to sulk and cry at the unfairness of the world.


Jingshen Li, long-suffering uncle of the twelfth most idiotic member of the Jingshen Clan, simply smiled, siren song of his nephew's rage wafting through the air like a light summer's breeze.


One had to take the small pleasures where they could.


A/N (Kaboomatic): Holy hell this took so much longer that I thought it would. And we're still not done. This is literally only part one, and the reason for that is because we had so much stuff to cover that we couldn't put it into a single omake without leading to an absurd amount of bloat. Seriously, when I started this collab I expected the entire thing to reach five, maybe 6 thousand words at the high end. Instead I got this. But it's done now, and hopefully we'll get part 2 out before the turn ends. Fingers crossed, right?


I still can't believe it's finally over, this took so long and it really shouldn't have, we should've finished this a month ago. Admittedly, most of that is my fault, writers block and all, but the point still stands. Anyways, I'll stop rambling and pass it over to Swordo, albeit after two last things.


The first is that this took place in early t12, right before the Jingshen War. Keep that in mind


The second is less plot relevant, but still really important. Both of us spent an absurd amount of time and effort on this, and I hope you enjoy.


(Swordomatic): The second meeting of the -matics is, perhaps, more comedic than the first one - unless my sense of humor is broken, which it very well might be! This time, instead of watching from afar, the Ninth Prince personally torments the not-quite-yet-crippled-by-Qiguai unlikely scion of the Theodoroi in person. And also her twin brother. And also his girlfriend, who will be turning more plot relevant in the future, fingers crossed!


This omake was the result of a whole lot of trying and failing to find time to work on the omake. Between Kaboom's search for a place at a University and my own coursework, there was a looooooot of stuff that kept conspiring to keep us from finishing this one. Honestly, if I could have worked on a second 20k collab omake, I'd have happily done it. But I think it does neither of us a service to delay it any further, just because we'd like to dethrone the current two-player collab length record (as of writing held by Chron and… me, huh) because this is something that, more than having plot relevance to both the Ninth Prince and Katha, is also just something we both had a lot of fun writing and also really want to be over and done with.


Enough rambling. Hope you enjoy!

Oh shit, a wild omake.

This one's technically my first Omake for Turn 13, so... I'm getting a Healing Treasure for this one.

Abel Builder collab Blood fight

The second builder was finally ready to bring the rest of the brotherhood to work with Zeno Angelus and the overseer. The rest of the core members finally calm down after all those close encounters with death in the secret realm. And those damn talking worms.

Some brothers had informed him of the last creation of Abel Angelus, the air tank.
There was also a talk that he was on a mine. Since they work so well in the other angelus mine, maybe one of them can convince the senior of helping to get one of two of those air tanks? They had worked well in the past.

Xxx

Entering Abel's grand office was disconcerting. The place was full of ostentatious decoration and had a distinct lack of taste. Gold inlays covering the wall seemingly at random and bunched together to such an extent that as to seem crowded. The walls were full of stained glass windows despite the underground nature of the room meaning they didn't have another side.

The brotherhood really appreciates the door. It was not one done in the style of the clan. But they need to check later since Zeno's wife probably would appreciate new kinds of woods and trees.

"Welcome, always nice to see you." Even the desk Abel was behind was inlaid with gold and jewels.

Respectfully bowing to Abel, the second builder and the rest of the (living) 'five sworn brothers' answered as one "And always nice to meet you and listen to stories of your new creations". They commented and waited for their host.

"Sorry to say that lately I haven't been doing that many projects on my own initiative. Been busy with administration. Just about everything has been commission work lately."

"My juniors comment that the computer they built using your invention helped a lot, otherwise we always have more hands to help with administrative matters" then the second builder looked at the giant bag that he had in his back. And show to his host a single paper and an entire book.

"There even a clan approved format for using the computer in paperwork"

"Nice! I Haven't been able to use one here. Lack of convent rivers to use for power. Still it's nice that it is helping other people."

Frowning his eyebrows, the second builder did a quick check with his brothers. But they seem to be in the same line of thought. "And what about using your bike's pumps? We have learned that it is a quick way to use a lot of strength for a long period of time. To complete a lot of problems". "They can work to move water relatively well, so long as the person using them has the stamina like those of our clan".

Abel looks a little sheepish "Considering how much trouble it is to organize all that it has just seemed easier to do all the math in my head. I have been cultivating a math-based mind art."

Nodding to that and understanding the difference between a genius and the brute approach that he and his family do. The builder tried to move on "we admit that we had come here. Because we already know of a new creation of yours, the air tank. There any work we can do for you to get some of those air tanks?"

"The tanks themselves are simple. I have no doubt that the expertise of the brotherhood can craft them by the hundred if needed. It's the air pumps that are more tricky."

Nodding once more to that. "Still, to get one of those, is there any work you need?"

"Honestly just hearing that you have been putting my computer project to good use warms my heart. Also I have loads of prototype air pumps from the design process. Giving you one would be no hardship."

The brothers were happy about that, but still a qi pulse was sent from the first builder's amulet to the second brother.

"We also had some progress with your computer disks. But the ones we are using are far larger" the entire brotherhood present nodded to that. Yeah those things show why the clan should favor a genius like Abel.

"Larger? Are you having trouble making the miroincriptions small enough?"

Looking a bit embarrassed, the second builder talked after a second flash of qi from the amulet. "We are using your standardization of arrays to make a simple formation to collect qi in those disks, and we are using what we learn from the amulet of living will to transfer the life's experiences of some of the oldest members in the same disks. Only a disk that large did not break from the qi or the process." he gathered some air. "We are sure that's what the first builder did. The transference of power can be repeated with other people in the brotherhood."

The five brother enter the talk in a brusque way "we are trying to have less dumb wills, and trying to help the next generation to when we inevitably die. So far none have died to test the transference of power".

Abel did some quick rough mental math "That would take at least 5000 standard disk-worth to encode. Assuming perfect encoding. Just how big are these disks?"

The third 'brother' moved with all the gentleness she could. And show a giant disk. Made of platina and gravebronze. That thing was larger than a mortal back. And emite a small amount of Qi.

She opened her mouth and said "We name this one 'hunter dream' " and she continued "since the older hunter was the one that shared his live experience in this disk and provided the power".

The room darkens and is filled with the smell of blood and a feeling of pure anger.

Abel's eyes turn red. He starts drooling. Staring at the second brother. He lunges forward kicking over his desk, sending it smashing into one of the stained glass portraits and cracking in half itself. Abel tears into the second brother, punching him into a gold inlaid wall which cracks under the force.

There was a collective breath, then three people that use breath art to gather Qi in the desert yelled some animalist. A sound that would make mortals bleed and breaks all the remaining glass. The flying shards of glass bounce off all the bronze cultivators' skin.

Then the fifth brother made an explosion of air. The cultivators in the room are unharmed, but any mortal would have brust from the overpressure. The remaining glass shards in the room fly once again creaking into even smaller shards, but still bounce uselessly against the skin of bronze.

The remaining brothers try to jump on Abel's back. Abel twists, grabbing the 4th brother and throwing him into the 2nd brother, who is busy climbing out of the hole he has made in the wall.

There were lots of qi pulses coming from the amulet. But none cared.

The second builder stomps the ground, followed by all of his brothers and tiny gold pillars start to rise from the ground, from the walls and the roof. Make lots of gold engraved rocks fall off all over the room. That would be dangerous. If the people fighting were not faster than mortals by some significant degree.

With everyone dodging the rocks and the gold, the fifth brother throws a bottle. Which made a mist quickly cover the vision. But all present were too experienced to fall for such a trick. All that water did was destroy some paperwork.

With a roar Abel jumps forward and slams into the recovering 2nd and 4th brothers, hitting them both with a drop kick.

There More Qi being thrown around by the amuled, to the point that the choker that hides it was turning red. But that only made the groggy second builder shake his head. And made him angrier.

Seeing Abel hitting her brothers, made the apparently fat 3th 'brother' get even angrier. And she started to grow, and became really muscular. The fifth brother's left arm starts to become huge too, followed by both of his legs. Then they tried to hit Abel, but they put too much focus on power and just broke the room further. The higher in heavenstage cultivator was way faster than them. But whatever style they were using sure made break stuff seem really easy.

There is a pulse of pure WILL that touches a hammer in the second builder's hands. That booster said WILL. and resonated with all present. The disk turned red and a second WILL manifested itself.

Legacies like wills are normally used for defenses or to make superior weapons, but the living will was used to advise the user. And the will of the first builder had enough Qi and certainly enough willpower to breakthrough from those limitations for a second.

[ENOUGH!] The will said using it's QI. not only for the second builder but all in the room. followed by a giant pulse of QI that was almost an explosion that hit the room. That Qi interacts with the hammer of the brotherhood. Made using the iron from hundreds of brothers from voluntary donations of blood, which made it really useful to interact with those that have the blood of Golden Devils running in their veins.

Really HARD. Cracking the walls. But not a single hair of the people present was moved. Abel's eye's turned back to normal. He looked around at his once well appointed luxurious office with mixed feelings.

___________________________________
And so we see Abel's slap fight during the blood rain.

@Alectai, @TehChron, @Humbaba, @ReaderOfFate, @Kaboomatic, @no.

When you theardmark could you put this before my collab with Gaius? It comes first chronologically.

Abel Builder collab Blood fight

Witness the horror and witness the glory of the fight of Abel in bloodlust and any brotherhood member fighting (that is not The Breaking doing the vs)

edit. link broken. one moment. (maybe summoning The Breaker was not that great idea)
edit2: doing the ping. @Alectai, @TehChron, @Humbaba, @ReaderOfFate, @Kaboomatic, @no.

So it turns out the anxiety was right all along and Lipp needs to get his act together. Well, that's fine. There is no shame in being weak. There is shame in failing to seek strength. Lipp will have to find his strength, at least enough to survive when facing his peers. Which means he will first have to find his weakness.

Looking back, the only thing that really worked was brute force. There is still time to retrain with that in mind, de-emphasizing combat sorcery and really focusing on body cultivation. But to do that is to fully embrace mediocrity. Deep down Lipp disdains combat too much to focus on mastering just one aspect of it. Lipp's current style, flawed as it is, takes advantage of Lipp's boundless curiosity and willingness to spend a long time performing tedious tasks if it secures the slightest advantage. It will grow as Lipp grows, each new technique and odd skill complementing the others - if they can be brought into harmony.

Lipp has an inkling of what he's missing, but working it out for himself would take time. And that's now a premium commodity. Lipp's entrance into the Secret Realm is mere decades away, and he has to achieve basic competence before then. And with the revelations about the Turtle Young's Dao Protector fresh in Lipp's mind, a new quest beckons. So it's time for drastic measures.

Lipp will have to talk to his Centurion.

That's something he's generally avoided, and not only because many of the 499th's members are legionnaires in name only, spending most of their time on research or crafting. When it comes to training juniors Centurion Scamandros takes after Elder Duca, except that he lacks her apparent prescience. He embraces radical experiments that are equally likely to bring out a legionnaire's fullest potential or permanently stunt their progress. Up until now Lipp stayed away, believing his quest was too important to jeopardize. Now that he has the Note of Despair to remind him he'll fail anyway, he's willing to take the chance.

Fortunately, there isn't a line to see Scamandros, since most legionnaires feel the same trepidation Lipp does. The centurion is eager to tackle the problem. He makes Lipp describe the fight in painstaking detail and demonstrate a few techniques to show that he knows how to perform them correctly, so that isn't the problem. Then he comes out with a verdict:

The problem with Lipp's style is that it lacks flow and timing. The lethal attacks don't connect because Lipp leaves the enemy time and space to dodge them. The immobilizing attacks are launched in an obvious manner. The stunning attacks lack proper followups. And the merely damaging attacks are employed haphazardly so the damage they do isn't enough to turn the course of the fight.

There are ways to fix this. The ideal way would be accumulated experience in actual combat, but that's both time consuming and dangerous. Lipp won't always be able to count on simply out-muscling the enemy when all else fails. So this calls for a more radical solution.

Proposal: isolate the segment of Lipp's soul responsible for combat and swap it with a random past life hoping that they have better battle instincts. The combination of soul manipulation and time manipulation would just barely be achievable, but the end result is a gamble, and there is no guarantee the stitches holding the parts back together would hold. Never mind, bad idea. Needs more human testing, but possibly not now.

Proposal: create an effective counter to a particular sequence of attacks, then focus all efforts on developing ways to push enemies into attacking in that specific way. Not as bad an idea as it initially sounds like, but perhaps better saved for someone with a specific affinity towards mesmerism.

Proposal: create an extension to the Technique Palace that lets it create artificial opponents so legionnaires can have practice partners that feel like actual combat. No idea how to actually do that. Maybe a network of Wills working together or some kind of a shared dream realm. Would have to get Elder Duca personally interested and even if it's a wild success, it would at the very least need to be a proposal to the Grand Elder. Not a bad idea, but it doesn't exactly help Lipp right now.

Proposal: develop a supernaturally perfect sense of timing and use it as basis for future training. Learn how long every attack will take to connect, estimate how long an enemy of given strength will take to react, and use that knowledge to instinctively weave attacks together. This one will be really unpleasant, but actually doable. Best idea so far. Time to do it, no need for a backup plan.

And so Lipp is locked in a room with a great glass clock that is one of the Clan's minor treasures. The clock never needed to be cleaned or wound, and it measured precisely one second per second. And it would continue measuring it, in any secret realm or liminal space. Even if the elders of the Heavenly Time Shatter Sect came down and applied all of their arts the clock would continue measuring one second per second, even as its owner aged to dust in-between heartbeats. Clan experts spent countless millennia trying to get some use out of the thing, but to no avail. The closest they came was using it as a minor torture tool by setting it up in a soundproof room where its regular ticking would reverberate and enter the victim's ears no matter how much they tried to cover them up. It isn't the most effective tool the Clan's torturers had in their arsenal, but it's still something.

And so Lipp is to be locked in the room for three days and nights - precisely 259200 seconds. The idea is that after Lipp is forced to mark the passage of each and every one of those seconds, he will continue to carry the ticking of the clock within him like he carries the Note of Despair. It's an unpleasant and chancy endeavor, but so is cultivation.

At second 117592 something goes horribly wrong.

There is a game young cultivators like to play, similar to 'would you rather' or 'bed, wed, or dead.' In this game you imagine that an enemy cultivator falls down in front of you, brain dead. How powerful would they have to be for you to eat them?

Usually the answer is an emphatic denial that any level of power would tempt one to blood path, so the game becomes about reaffirming shared values. But that's a lie. Very, very few juniors can honestly say they wouldn't consume a Spirit Severing cultivator if given the perfect chance. More than half would probably consume a cultivator in the Great Circle of Core Formation. For Lipp the line has always been drawn at Nascent Soul, and it's only that high because his grand quest would benefit from Heaven's favor.

But suddenly something changes, and not only would Lipp eat a Qi Condensation cultivator, or even a mortal, but he desperately wants to. Blood-frenzied, he throws himself at the door, trying to force his way out. Frustrated, he tries to eat his own flesh, but an experimental bite not only hurts but also fails to satisfy. He pounds his fists at the walls and gnaws at the glass clock, trying to crack the perfectly-shaped tubes with his bare teeth. It's all for naught.

Then suddenly something changes. The demonic hunger is gone, and a feeling of fullness replaces it. As if something Lipp was missing his whole life and never knew about is suddenly returned to him. As if the sky opened up and a giant finger descended and pointed to Lipp and a voice to shake the mountain proclaimed You are worthy. Lipp weeps with joy as the air around him is saturated with Qi.

Second 259200 comes and goes, and the door doesn't open. It's a cause for concern, but not yet panic. With the inflow of Qi bolstering him, Lipp can create enough water to sustain himself. Food is a bigger concern, but even Qi gathering cultivators take a long time to starve to death, especially ones who never go anywhere without highly concentrated soup ingredients. The feeling of acceptance serves to counteract the creeping madness of the ever-ticking clock.

And so it is that when Lipp is finally let out around second 1,988,385, he remains mostly intact in both body and mind and is more upset to hear that Centurion Scamandros died during the Blood Mist than he is at his own predicament. Still, one of the Centurion's final acts was to gift Lipp a measure of insight, and Lipp plans to put it to good use.

-------------------------

A/N: 1483 words.

NAME, COGNOMEN
LEGATE (Legate Auxiliary for Foundation Experts in Charge)
MOTTO
SIGIL
DESCRIPTION (Headquarters, Composition, Specialties, Responsibilities, Notable Persons, etc)

3rd Legion, Farflung Death
Legate Chu Yuzi
"Our spears lay low all, our fury felling even the mighty"
A pale tower in the middle of a brown field surrounded by impaled figures on stakes of ruddy brown
The 3rd Legion are responsible for the maintenance of the Glass Javelin Array that provides widespread artillery support for the Golden Devil Clan. Their headquarters are in Epitiritis Tower beside the Bronzewall but the bulk of their strength runs throughout several nodes in Clan territory where the Grand Array reaches. Their Legate is a Grand Mechanikos nicknamed Monkey No-See, sitting on the council of the Array-Engineer Corps, who drew regard for creation of the Vile Blood Array. The legionnaires of the 3rd are currently stretched, leading the effort to extend the reach of Burning Glass Javelin towers to the newly gained territories.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1, 2]

7th Legion, Mountain-Shattering Spears
Legate Althea Dulcea
"If you see Mt. Tai, measure its slopes for your strike"
A golden spear piercing a range of mountains in silver, all upon a white background
A storied legion from the very first offensives into the Nine Seas, the 7th have been lost and refounded innumerable times before. The latest incarnation is a vigorous force with a bitter memory of the wounds of the Clan from the Righteous Path in relatively recent times. Legate Althea is one of the best polearm users in the Clan, and possibly the region. Her halberd, Fulgrim, has defeated peak beasts, cultivators and stranger entities
[Credit Humbaba]


21st Legion, the Imperator's Own
Archegetes Manuel Konstantinos
"The Blood overcomes all"
A braid of four colors in a wreath: bronze, silver, gold, iridescent
The 21st legion is not a legion, not anymore. It is a legacy of the Sea Conquering Army at its height when the superlative experts of the Imperial Optimatoi lay low every foe. Now it can be said to represent the leadership of the clan, the core strength of the clan. The Grand and Second Elders are the only two proper members though the Council of Elders would fall within its ranks if one squinted. Its headquarters is the Optimatoi Koinon, the Clan Hall within the Dawn Fortress.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

27th Legion, the Inkhands
Legate Manus Tiande
"Our words carve through history"
A set of four characters black on white, 書法法書
One of the triune Legions that make up the Array Engineering Corps, the Inkhands are a venerable force. Skilled talisman makers as well as array crafters, they are well known for their love for calligraphy and the art of the written word.
The beauty of Legate Manus' writing is only matched by the repulsive aroma that perpetually surrounds him forcing him to rely on written correspondence hence his moniler of Monkey No-Speak.
[Credit Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

33rd Legion, Ardent Prosecutors
Legate Evaristus Ingerinus
"Seize the jaws of defeat and crush them underfoot"
An black upraised fist ablaze in red upon a background of white
The Prosecutors have spent the last several decades deployed to secure the Clan's gains from the Cannibal defeat, first manning the Burnished Crags and then the Blighted Lands. They are quick hitting, determined combatants. First in and last out is their creed. A young legion, they are suffused with the passion of their legate. Evaristus is fiery, angry, and obsessive. Reaching Mid Core Formation at a mere 360 years old, he is quite competent, but incredibly bullheaded and rushes into things, and then sticks to what he has chosen. Patience is not his strong suit, and once he has made a decision he will stick with it. He is likely to double down on any bad decisions he makes, though he will rarely be struck by indecision. In training, he has pushed his troops to the limit bringing out the best in them, but leaving some broken, unable to withstand the intensity. Genius and inexperience in leadership have led the legion to great feats of derring-do but also failure in more basic areas on occasion. Discipline in the ranks is excellent although sometimes there is chafing at what seems like an inability to distinguish honest mistakes from failings.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

35th Legion, the Wonder Workers
"Inscribe upon the world your vision a d bend it to your will"
Legate Flavia Sarantapechos
Largest of the three component Legions of the Array-Engineer Corps, the 35th Legion serve along the width and breadth of the Clan's territory. Arrays are the lifeblood of the Golden Devil Clan, arrays which need repair and updating. Individually and in teams the Mechanikos of the 35th serve at home and in vassal lands, maintaining the infrastructure that provides the quality of life mortals enjoy in the Organ Meat Desert.
Perhaps the breadth of her subordinates activity and the vital nature of their activity is what motivates Legate Flavia's bullish manners but it certainly doesn't win her any favors among other Mechanikos from other legions who have to resort to quite flagrant displays to remind Monkey No-Hear that she is not their direct superior. The rise of the Second Elder has not helped any.
[Credit Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

43rd Legion, The Best of the Best Men.
Legate Seneca the Physician
"Bronze when polished, shines brightest."
A bronze silhouette with a fist raised high on a field of black.

Revived by the Legate Alcaeus the Strong, it was originally a legion of body cultivators. Under his vision, he forged a legion that sought perfection of the blood of bronze, in both a physical and philosophical sense. While the resultant legionnaires are primarily warrior-philosophers, they have also developed a unique culture of nutritionists or health-focused food cultivators and bloodline-focused bronze-smiths.

Every smith and nutritionist is also expected to maintain enough fitness to participate in battle and every combatant is expected to know enough to take care of their own bodies. The members of this legion generally lack any distinctive arts instead focusing entirely on the clan formations and when alone, their physical strength. This along with their focus on discipline and self-mastery has led to a culture that favors soldiers over warriors. They are highly militarised in battle and even during training, disputes tend to follow a well-established pattern of debate and formalised duels.

With Alcaeus focusing much of his attention on training his legion, many of the less spectacular graduates of general training are often sent here. With his death however, the legion has been taken over by his late teacher - the thousand year old physician Seneca who only broke through due to Elder Duca's attentions. He is much more hands off compared to his predecessor and while much of the previous culture is still maintained, the competency has fallen except in the field of medicine as expected with a physician as Legate.
[Credit Quest 1 2]

54th Legion, Grudgebearers
Legate Ionnina Staurakia
"Let no slight go unmarked or unpaid"
A set of silver scales on black
The Legion has spent quite some time deployed to hunt Blood Path rebels in the Clan's core territories. The original assignment came after Hundred Year Trials of 100 E.K. and they've been on suppression duty ever since. The assault by the Blood Path fended off by Jin Muyi saw the cordon on the Blood Bask weaken leading to more work for the legion and the Blood Mist barely two decades later wrecked all efforts at restoring the status quo easily. Ionnina is a cold woman, with a powerful manifestation of the Blood of Bronze. Early Core Formation at 440, she is meticulous and calculating. She is also easily slighted, and fumes over those slights for decades before returning them tenfold. She is a competent trainer, and the legion is excellent at planning and drawing up good regimes for its recruits, but the future prospects of several legionnaires who managed to offend their legate have been ruthlessly crushed. The Grudgebearers either work well with other legions or not at all since relations between their legate and her peers have been characterized by a commitment to wreak vengeance on those who slighted her, manifest in an exercise of any power she wields being bent to sabotaging the legions of those she hates in an effort to gain revenge. The legion as a whole abhors Blood Path as a corruption and betrayal of Clan identity, viciously executing their suppressive responsibility.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

63rd Legion, Ever-Seeking Sojourners
Legate Samus Aurelian
κανείς δεν έχει χαθεί που αναζητά τον πάντα μακρινό ορίζοντα, "None are lost who seek the ever distant horizon"
A vertical path of golden bricks upon a field of scarlet terminating in a half set sun
The Sojourners are an interesting group that are more akin to explorers, tomb raiders, and delvers than your standard legion. Their structure is a loose arrangement of eclectic personalities of varying specialties. Their latest deployment was to the Blighted Lands, clearing out Cannibal remnants and uncovering what might lay hidden therein.
[Credit Insane-Not-Crazy. For in-story mentions see 1, 2, 3]

67th Legion, the Mapmakers
Legate Aristides
"Dusty feet and quick hands make good work"
A ruler, drawing compass and pencil form a six spoked star
Currently deployed to the area of the Peng Kingdom for survey. They are a survey legion, assessing the territories of vassals mostly to account for changes in settlements, resources and terrain
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

77th Legion, The Watchers
Legate Aanya Surve aka Selene Scala
"Vigilance and Valor"
A blazing star overlaid upon embossed concentric circles.
The Watchers are an old legion, formed long before the Clan's current predicaments. They are typically employed as guards, guides, or scouts and can generally be found protecting roads and settlements, investigating old sites of interest, or securing new finds. The times when this legion has been at full strength can be counted on one hand, however this matters very little for their true and rarely discussed purpose: a testbed for cultivation practices aimed at fully utilizing the blood of bronze. This Legion rarely sees heavy action and its movements are firmly coordinated by its enigmatic Legate, a person who has been met only by a few due to the stresses of her cultivation technique on the surroundings. The Resounding Bronze Choir is one of the more totemic techniques of the legion, mastery of it is required for every Centurion.
[Credit Falconis 1, 2]

95th Legion, the Compass Rose
Legate Calliope Delphi
δείτε πέρα από την ομίχλη της άγνοιας για να αρπάξετε τη δόξα, "See beyond the mist of ignorance to seize glory"
A 16 pointed compass rose of bronze upon a field of utter black
The 95th Legion is the epitome of a 'Family Legion' stuffed to the brim with members of the Delphi family. Ordinarily the Aspirant bidding process after Induction would prevent such a concentration of a single bloodline in one legion but the persistent curse of the Harrowing that dogs the Delphi leaves other legions reluctant to bid for legionnaires who require specialist training and accommodation. After successive generations of Delphi dominance, the family and legion are inseparable. Members joke that the compass rose is in fact a caltrop wedged in the eyes of an unfortunate, referring to the Harrowing. The legion officially focuses on production efforts from the three hubs within the heartlands. Traditionally the more martial inclined have joined scouting and gathering corps. Recently the legion joined the settlement efforts in the Blighted Lands.
[Credit to Insane-Not-Crazy. See 1]

96th Legion, House Taurus
Legate 'Matriarch' Ariadne Taurus
"Blood above heart, but none above bronze."
A bronze spiral with a bull's head at the centre on an earthy field.

The 96th legion has been under the control of the Taurus clan for millenia despite the mark-up for recruiting relatives into the same legion. They maintain a fund that is added to by each member that allows them to ensure that any blood relative or promising candidates are added to the legion. They are assigned to one of smaller cohorts within the legion - each dedicated to a specific speciality of the family. Members work here and are taught the advanced skill-sets necessary for their art. Legion members are assigned their speciality during an aptitude test before general training and upon graduating are allowed to take a second name that better reflects their ideals.

Much of this is tolerated due to the family's traditional devotion to the clan as a whole and the usefulness of their family techniques. As long as it's led by an elder in Core Formation, the Labyrinthine Thread technique practised by the Taurus family can create a metaphysical web of qi that allows sharing of power akin to the clan formations but put to use in the creation of arrays. Though it is most famous for its use in battle, it is most often used outside of that due to its vulnerability to the slightest tremor in one's dao heart. Primarily, its use is during array creation and maintenance where it allows incredible feats of productivity that are often crucial in the wake of one of the Hundred Year Trials.

Outsiders are sometimes recruited based upon talent and potential and are then added to an appropriate cohort. Originally treated as auxiliary vassals, the most loyal and skilled were further tied to the family through adoption or marriage. In its modern form, former matriarch Wilhemina has refined it into the Specialist system. Members of the House who don't show interest in their specialities or similar outsiders who were considered promising but who didn't fit with her family's arts are labelled specialists who are kept separate from the legion's traditional cohorts and allowed to operate freely. So long as they tithed a degree of contribution points to the legion funds, they were free to take any work they wished.
[Credit Quest 1 2 3]

98th Legion, 1st Mobile Infantry
Legate Auxiliary Gui Hua, succeeding Jin Muyi/Xiao Yi
"Lance forward, break them before our charge"
A centauroid figure in black racing on background of gold
Hero of the Indomitable 13, Jin Muyi took a shattered legion and transformed them wholly. No more were they the messengers and couriers of the legions, tasked to aid in communicating to assist in the Clan's strategic goal. They were now meant to be the Clan's Arrow, the first into any conflict to buy time for the Clan to muster it's forces.
He provided his force with a rare Cultivation Art meant for Beast Tamers allowing them to include bonded mounts into the Clan's iconic formations. He also introduced a novel variation of his own making to the Kataphraktoi Formation, the Philoctetes modification, emphasizing mobility and harassing fire.
With the passing of the hero, his daughter has stepped in to manage the legion in his absence.
[Credit Mochinator, Insane-Not-Crazy 1, 2]

99th Legion, The Hydra
Legate Ninth Prince
"Who dares face our venom?"
A nine headed hydra of greyish green on white
The aftermath of the Trials of 100 EK were a massive blow to the strength of the Golden Devil legions, particularly the loss of Core Formation leadership. An emergency measure was launched to put a stopgap to the bleeding, raising up particularly promising Foundation Experts to the rank of legate, to be reassessed after things settled. Along with Jin Muyi, the foreign adoptee from the Fifth Sea the Ninth Prince, was selected to participate in this effort. The 99th have gone on to justify the risk of their founding, fighting well on the Great Battlefield and at home. Currently the legion is in a bit of limbo with the death of the Ninth Prince and the promise of his resurrection preventing a permanent succession.
[Credit Kaboomatic 1, 2, 3]

111th Legion, Darksouth Legion
Legate Thanatos
"All face death's inevitable end"
A horned skull in white upon a field of black weeping crimson tears
The Darksouth have been one of the most actively deployed legions in the last couple of centuries. After their deployment to the Xin Kingdom to face off against the Battle Blood Cannibals, they were in the vanguard at the climax where the Archegetes forced Sun Diaxing to abandon nearly a hundred thousand troops. Again they were with Second Elder Sarantapechos when she assaulted the Heavenly Beauty Palace and faced off against Jingshen Junjie himself in defense of his harem of concubines. Being at the epicenter of Nascent conflict has seen them savaged, almost extinguished this last time but the embers grimly fight to stay alive and reconstitute. They are one of the more martially organized legions, favoring conventional Clan doctrine and formations. The recent introduction of Scorpion based mobility rankled certain traditionalist elements in the legion but their efficiency in delivering the legion to the battlefield against opponents has won over the leadership to the new Protostrator.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy See 1, 2]

137th Legion, The Forge of Bronze
Legate Augustus
Motto: "To forge the motes of dust into unyielding bronze".
Centurions: Diomedes Cestus,??,??
Sigil: A stream of dots entering a forge and bronze blooded exiting from the other end.
Situated near the Dawn Fortress, the Forge of Bronze are a small sized legion and are responsible for assisting in the training of many of the raw recruits that lack anything to make them stand out before they leave the dawn fortress for their legions .
The Legion's legionnaires tend to take the less glamorous jobs such as patrols,farming,and the mass of the lower tier alchemy,and array crafting that the specialist legions would be wasted on.
The members of the 137th are considered to be highly skilled trainers and their services are highly sought after to assist in the training and growth of new legionnaires.
Once a batch of legionnaires is considered by their legions to be of adequate skill level and might leave the Dawn Fortress to do their duties under their legions elsewhere.
[Credit Moonllama]

217th Legion, Everburning Phoenixes
Legate Xie Jun, succeeding Xie Xinya
"A thousand times fallen, a thousand times arisen"
A scarlet phoenix bursting free from a pyre of grey ashes
Every legate shapes their legion around themselves, and the Phoenixes are no different. Before her ascent to the post of Parakoimomenos, Xie Xinya instilled into her forces a character of hard work, loyalty and disciplined corruption. Never one to let go of power once grasped, she ensured that a scion of her family within the ranks was maneuvered into the best position to inherit her post. Now the 217th are often deployed to the Scorpion Road, a posting well amenable to sideways enrichment as well as monitoring foreign travel into and out of Clan territory. Nepotism runs deep in the legion even still.
Update: The Legion sent out a detachment of 2500 troops together with 10,000 Hong Xuan Cultivators (1 Core and lessers). Force butchered. Combined survivors 650, experts and juniors.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1, 2]

302nd Legion (Legion CCCII), Silverine Bracers
Legate Rina Callista
"For Justice and Honor, we fight"
A bundle of six silver spears pointing in six directions
A sign of the changing times the 302nd are an odd fit in the conventional structure of the Golden Devils legions. They are the first trial of a new paradigm, forming a legion's structure around the idiosyncratic nature of a Single Pillar King rather than a Core Formation elder. They've proved themselves since their founding, fighting commendably on the Great Battlefield and proving the validity of the concept for subsequent efforts
[Credit Alectai 1, 2]

303rd Legion, The Beast-Blooded
Legate Nicara Rantakos
"Seize the strength of the mighty, walk in the shadow of Beasts"
A bronze figure of legionnaire with upraised spear who cast the shadow of a tiger, scorpion and snake
The 303rd are a newly constituted legion formed around their Legate who had risen by her own ability into Core Formation, establishing her Beast-Blooded Legion. Their signature techniques are arts of fusing beast blood into the body to facilitate transformations. They are a quick-striking Legion, and one that has often become companions of Lady Yao.
[Credit Occipitallobe 1, 2]

313rd Legion, the Old-Blood
Legate Auxiliary Megaera Callista standing in for the late Hektor Callista, succeeded Aikaterine Callista
Motto: Through millennia, unbroken.
Sigil: A Two-Headed Eagle clutching bronze spears.
Currently under reconstitution after being the focus of a personal strike by Jingshen Jiao during the Jingshen conquest. The legate is deceased at the hands of the Nascent Soul and a wide swathe of the troops as well.
The Old-Blooded have been hard hit these past centuries losing multiple legates in succession. Now they are returning to active duty after their mauling
[Credit Occipitallobe, Alectai 1, 2, 3]

353rd Legion, Defiant Slayers of Giants
Legatus Potorius Rex, succeeding Legate Alypius Lucaenus
"Those Great Heights We Topple" (Official), "Enjoy the view while you can" (Unofficial)
An indistinct legionnaire in bronze holding up a giant's head of jade
The Giantslayers are a familiar sight to any making use of the Colossus Footsteps Path. Deployed to guard the entrance into Clan territory they maintain a fortified camp in the foothills of the Hard Shell Mountains where almost a hundred thousand mortals live, serving twenty thousand cultivators. Outsiders aren't allowed in, but there's a small shanty town outside where you can sell things to the Legions. They are the first true bulwark against invasion and also the first tax collectors, monitoring the Grand Mountainwall.
[Credit Occipitallobe, TehChron 1, 2]

433rd Legion, Stargazers
Legate Gaius Antonius
A brand new legion, freshly formed by a newly-ascended King. As such, their heraldry and motto are still undecided, and their battle prowess is untested.
In theory, the Legion is intended as an elite group of fast-moving outriders, scouting deep into enemy territory to swiftly attack priority targets rather than participating in pitched battles and sieges. As such, they prioritize quality over quantity - Fifth Heavenstage Legionnaires are not allowed in the Stargazers, only Sixth and above. Even the Aspirants who perform the menial labor are all in the Fourth Heavenstage. An Aspirant who rises into the Fifth in the Stargazers is given the unofficial rank of Senior Aspirant, rather than Legionnaire.
The founding members include Gaius, Special Officer Abel Angelus, the hundred-strong Engineer Corps, thirteen Centurions and their accompanying Centuries.
[Credit DblDtchBs/no. 1]

461st Legion, the Coinpurse
Legate Tyche Ploutos
"Our hands transform lead into gold"
Five stavratons on a string, gold coins on black
The 461th is an economic development legion with an unassuming Core leader. They are currently deployed to the Former Cannibal Lands on economic development duties, and taking secondments of other legionnaires for that purpose although like many others they sent detachments to the Jingshen offensive.
They are mostly based around the Dawn Fortress but are often present in most larger Golden Devil settlements, particularly the waystations. They handle a mix of trade, admin and industry, with the array expertise to keep it running but are not a heavily array focused legion.
Currently the rising star of the legion is Konstantinos whose Bucephalus Times is expanding the influence of his home legion along with his personal wealth. Legate Tyche is keeping an eye on this promising junior as well as another Expert who has managed the feat of defecating wealth.
[Credit nothingtoseehere, Insane-Not -Crazy 1]

465th Legion, Defiant Amazons
Legate Atalanta Gynos
"The Maiden weaves, the Mother measures, the Crone cuts"
Three female masks of bronze upon blue
Not many legions in recent years can claim to have furthered the rise of a legend of the Clan, much less two. Euphrosyne Sarantapechos, and Kleisthenes Sarantapechos, the martyr of Tribulation of the Trials and the Second Grand Elder once called this legion home before they ever sat upon the Council of Elders. They led it for a time before moving on to higher responsibility and the current legate, Atalanta, feels burdened by the legacy entrusted to her. The Amazons are not a unisex legion but women are heavily represented in its ranks. The legion maintains a shrine cult to a three faced ideal of femininity linked to secret arts of fertility, mortality and seduction.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

499th Legion, the Promethean Philosophers
Legate Aristotle Onassis, succeeding Destasia Duca
"Knowledge is the flame that banished the darkness of ignorance"
A metal grey torch lit with a golden flame on a black background
Being at the epicenter of genius at work is in turns glorious and utterly terrifying. The Philosophers were previously under the mandate of the current Elder of Disciples known as much for startling intellect as her flightiness and her influence remains. Legate Onassis inherited a legion whose command structure resembles more a herd of pontificating cats than anything else. Experimental formations, prototype artifacts, revolutionary techniques, all these and more are endlessly generated and discarded within the legion. For all their research, the legion is a solid fighting force though best deployed around fixed fortifications to best make use of the technical and material resources of the legion. They are also one the most well traveled legions, having been deployed in the Hua Empire against the Devil Bees near the Night Devil Fortress, Twelve City Alliance lands and Fortune Stork Clan territory in just a few decades. Destasia maintains a close link with her former legion and still picks up interesting specimens and material from time to time.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

501st Legion, Fist of Dawn
Legate Aretaphila Myia
"Glory with every Sunrise" (Official), "Our fists shine where the Sun Doesn't" (Unofficial)
Heraldry: A silver fist wreathed in golden flame, backed against a blood red banner
Raised in emulation of the ancient Iron Legions of the Theodoroi and to be as suitable a vessel for the powers of the Heaven Shaking Song, the 501st Legion is an elite Heavy Shock Infantry formation capable of forcing breakthroughs and holding the line, destroying their foes as an all-encompassing grinder. Owing to the eclectic personalities of its founding members, the 501st is also used to conducting unconventional operations, both deep within enemy lines and with unusual objectives. Officially, the calling card of the Legion is its indomitable endurance, both physical and mental. Unofficially, it is the most dysfunctional functional Legion the Optimatoi have. The blatant book cooking that the Legion conducts has been disregarded for the moment, owing to their successes and relatively benign intentions. The Legion is currently barracked at Waycastle Myia, though in light of the recent conquests to the east this trend may not continue.
The 501st was founded by Legatus Aretaphilla Myia, Pilus Priors Lampo Vatatzves, Alexandria Drakos, Aegus Sideros and the enigmatic 'Centurion XXI' (actually Katha Theodoros in a mask), Pilus Auxilia Li Wei of the Sorrowful Blacksmiths, and Principales Katha Theodoros.
[Credit to TehChron 1]

525th Legion, the Stalwart Redoubt
Legate Eustachius Kerularios
"So long as there is breath in us, the walls shall never fall"
A closed portcullis of iron within gray stone
Legate Eustachius Kerularios is a true cultivation talent, managing to reach Late Core Formation within a mere 600 years. Eustachius is known to be a somewhat offensive man, but he is an excellent soldier, and commands the respect of the Legions. His lack of interpersonal skills may cause parts of his command to suffer, but strategically and logistically he is a genius, and is one of the best commanders in a siege in the entire Clan. He was known to be arrogant, however, suffering through the Tribulation of the Trials has softened his edge somewhat. His pride still stings over being passed up for consideration for Protostrator a second time in favor of Olympiodora and Sheng Yu. The 525th legion is strongest on the defense, well suited to reinforcing sagging walls and holding fortifications.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

555th Legion, the Five Element Painters
Legate Auxiliary Yuri Maras, succeeding Matthaios Panagellis
De hoc mundo in aeternum, "From the eternal to the world"
5 paintbrushes each dipped in a different color ink to represent the 5 elements forming a 5 pointed star
The 555th was formed in the first millennia after the arrival of the Sea Conquering Army. It was first founded by Elder Veniamin Salliades, an Array Master famous for her skill in arrays of illusion and mystery.
Current headquarters is still under construction in Apoikía Bucephalus, a large cave complex under renovation. The 555th despite its artistic tendencies is a very tightly organized and regimented legion. Every member is expected to meet a quota of array commissions and legion standing is largely based on customer satisfaction.
[Credit fictionfan 1]

576th Legion, the Bulls that Shook the Heavens
Legate Asterios Crete, succeeded Heraclius Staurakius
"Forwards, ever forward! Trample all that would stand against the Bronze!"
A bronze bull's head lowered in a charge on red background
The Bronze Bull of Itola, Heraclius, made the Heavenshaking Bulls a force to be feared before handing over the reins to take up the post of Protostrator. He was one of the best commanders of the Clan in recent years by a significant margin, and the most experienced, a little more skilled than the late prodigy Aikaterine Callista, even. Legate Asterios inherited a legion deeply imprinted by the legacy of a long-lived warrior who held his lance aloft at the fore of his legion till his 900th year. The Bulls are a well-balanced force, good on offense and defense. They excel however in the charge of the Kataphraktoi, their lances blasting away all that stands in their path.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Kaboomatic, DawnOfBloom, Insane-Not-Crazy 1, 2]

607th Legion, the Forlorn Ambassadors
"Honey soothes many wounds but it is the possession of stinging bees"
A caduceus of amber on black
Legate Kenpachi Unohana, succeeding Casia Zimisce
The former legion of the current Stratopedarches, Casia Zimisce, is a support legion, rebuilding arrays and healing cultivators, and is often deployed to the vassal territories. Previously split into several sections among the Clan's northern vassals, raising money and goodwill amongst them, they are currently deployed to the conquered Jingshen lands to assist in the assimilation of the newly sworn into the Golden Devil Clan. Good friends with the 1034th as fellow support legions, they are often seen as soft by their more martial colleagues, characterized as well trained but not fully tempered for adversity. They are surprisingly unbloodied amongst the ranks though they do appreciate the necessity of the scalpel's edge. They are sometimes a bit too generous for the desert, overly accommodating mortal interests and suffering incompetence much longer than usual. The current legate is an odd pick, a skilled healer with a reputation for tyrannical bloodlust.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

616th Legion, The Liminal Guardians [Designation: Damnatio]
Legate Zhi Zimisce, Succeeding Brutus Apion
Motto: "Dream of hope where none would dare!"
Sigil: A brown chest overflowing with blood and a golden star sticking out on a jade green field
Description: Founded by Monima Angelus long ago when the Seas barely knew of the Sea Conquering Army. The Legion has a long history of dealing with the more esoteric threats the clan faces. They are often seen tending to the wounded -as well as the ghosts- of the Clans conflicts and in times of peace the legion searches the lands for hidden danger through scrying and conventional means. As a damned legion they may no longer receive less of the Clans grace for their efforts after so long, but the fact of their missing banner since the fall of Ares Angelos and his wretched 500 into Blood Path 3000 years ago means they are still not seen as a redeemed legion by the Clan at large. Only the steadfast resistance by the Auxiliary of her time Maria Dialis allowed this legion to continue its service, even as the Banner went missing in the fighting between hidden realms.
Headquarters: Former: N/A, Now: Waycastle Zimisce near Spirit Oasis Road, Composition: In times of war, they function as a siege support unit and in times of war, they split into cohesive platoons, patrolling the spiritually important parts of Clanland. A proper Field trip into the unknown has not been undertaken since the Fall. Apart from every legionnaire possessing at least decent divination arts, every Squad contains at least one mechanikos able to assemble a combat functioning ballistae.
Specialties: Scrying, Purification, Scouting, Tomb raiding, Arrays
Responsibilities: Counterscrying, Scouting for spiritual problems, Tending to the dead wherever they are.
Notable Persons: Ares Angelos, Maria Dialis,...
[Credit: Occipitallobe, Juugo, 1 ]

698th Legion, the Three Starred Furnace
Legate Auxiliary Cassius Panopolis, succeeding Furnace-Mistress Amelia Panopolis. Founded by Zosimus Panopolis
Per Ignem ad Lucem, "Through fire to the light"
A silver pill furnace surrounded by three bronze stars on a black field.
Currently headquartered in the Argent Pinnacle, a fortress and refinery in the Pill-Forge Forest. Possess a specialised sub-section of the Clan Contribution Board from a rare and treasured Division Anchor that is kept in the Argent Pinnacle allowing legionnaires access to a 'Private Board' from terminals anywhere in Golden Devil territory for discounted access to supplies and curated missions.
[Credit to Katana1515. For more detail SV, 2]

716th Legion, The Windswept Ten Thousand
Legate Yi Hoshuan
"Storms above, bodies below"
A black racing chariot leaving a brown dust cloud on a while background
Description: The Windswept Ten Thousand are a reformed Legion led by one of the new Early Core Formation cultivators. Primarily standard cultivators equipped with the largesse of the Clan - flying Spirit Beasts, artifacts, and endless funding of Spirit Stones, they are explicitly designed to be easily redeployed. They are not shock troops, but rather might be considered analogous to mortal mounted infantry. The Clan brings them to the battlefield with their superior strategic mobility and then deploys them into battle in the usual way.
Numbers: 10,000 Qi Condensation disciples, 100 Foundation Establishment experts, 1 Core Formation Legate.
Morale: Superb. Some of the best Legionnaires the Optimatoi have to offer unified with the best equipment, the 716th feel invincible at this point in time.
A dedicated logistics expert, Legate Yi spent most of his time as a scribe and administrator in the Contribution Board department of the Clan. However, it is his keen skill at moving troops and supplying them that led him to be the Legate of the Windswept Ten Thousand. Despite being only a mediocre battle commander, his excellence in ensuring that the 716th will be able to move wherever they are required meant he was the obvious choice for command.
[Credit Katana1515]


721st Legion, Desert Raiders
Legate Korsarro Khan, succeeding Sheng Yu
"Strike first, strike fast, strike hard"
A lance of bronze held aloft on a field of blue
The Desert Raiders have always been an aggressive legion, eager to go on the offensive and meet their opponents on the battlefield. With the introduction of the Scorpion Cavalry they were wholly transformed into an improbable combination: fast attack legionnaires. The very first adopters of the new resource, they are the fastest conventional force available to the Clan comparable only to peers like the 1st Mobile Infantry. Always with an appreciation of the novel, they were one of the first legions to adopt the Century Oasis Formation en masse and were key contributors to its development into the Millennium Oasis Formation for Clan-wide use. They have participated in the most recent wars for the clan against Jingshen, striking the first blows in a series of raids under the leadership of the current Protostrator, further going on to form the tip of a southern offensive under the Second Elder. Legate Khan is a speed aficionado, racing with his favorite scorpion mount beneath him to reach the enemy first.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

801st Legion, the Dogs of War
Legate Lu Bu, succeeded Ioannes Vatatzes
"Loyal unto the end"
A dog's head in black upon gold
Not many legions work with spirit beasts, since Beast-Taming Arts are not the Clan's forte but the Dogs of War are a rare exception. The legion has maintained a kennel of varied dog breeds, optimized for pursuit, attack and security. Squads work with assigned dogs under a Centurion, not individuals. The current legate, unusually enough does have a personal beast companion though not a dog but a spirit horse ruddy in color and vicious in temperament.
[Credit Occipitallobe, ninjastar, Insane-Not-Crazy 1, 2]

828th Legion, the Bloodsworn Fellowship
Legate Angron Spartacus, succeeding Staurakios Palaiologos
"My blood for my brother's, my sister's life for mine"
Two clasped hands of crimson on black
The Golden Devils have contended with the depredations of Blood Path in the desert for centuries now. Over this time, the depraved competence of Old Cannibal proved its mark in the slave farms of the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect. Several clashes between the two factions led to the liberation of numerous mortals, some who joined the Golden Devils to fight against the horrors they'd endured. This is the genesis of the Bloodsworn Fellowship, born from an elder who rose to Core with a sworn band of fellow slaves. His successors continued the traditions laid by their founders, taking in many escaped slaves and forming a reputation of consummate discipline and unity. Legate Angron is the latest bearer of the Heartsblood Shackles, an artifact that allows the legionnaires of the 828 to willing yoke themselves together, heightening synergy, sharing health and enhancing formations.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

855th Legion, the Night Wraiths
Legate Hassan-i-Sabah, succeeded Nikephoros Theophylaktos
"Masks beneath masks and knives enough for all the world"
A human skull in white with a crimson blindfold on a black background
Some problems require more subtlety than an armored column and shining legionnaires. The Night Wraiths are an intelligence and counterintelligence focused force. Infiltration of vassals, monitoring border regions, assassinating troublemakers: these are all the remit of the 855th. A small legion, each member is handpicked for affinity in subterfuge, sabotage, espionage and more secretive arts. Legate Hassan-i-Sabah is a superlative killer, an odd figure with roots from a distant sea. It is whispered that the Archegetes himself spent time in this legion before his ascent, after all his handpicked apprentice once headed this group. These rumors are fanned by the legion's possession of the Umbral Shroud, a mask said to be infused by the Dao of the Grand Elder himself that turns night to day and peels back at hidden secrets.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1, 2]

869th Legion, the Brazen Shields
Legate Olympiodora Rhangabe
"In the Imperator's name, we stand defiant eternally"
Two crossed spears across a Hoplite shield, bronze on scarlet
The Brazen Shields are the epitome of the legions of the Imperial Optimatoi. Resolute in defense, accomplished in formations, competent if not masterful array-crafters; they are the image the Virtuous Flipper Region holds of the Golden Devils. Legate Olympiodora is a quiet woman, and has grown quieter over the years. She is more than 500 years old, and in Late Core Formation already. Her talent is undeniable, and where her skills are unpolished, the Clan's leadership believe she is more an unpolished jade than anything else. She picks up every skill she has with relative ease, and has been considered for the post of Protostrator twice before. She is competent in all areas of traditional Clan warfare, having excellent defensive skills, and is a skilled logistician. She comes from a more traditional school of thought, however, and is not so talented at the notion of projecting power past the Clan's borders
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1, 2]

903rd Legion, Storm Chasers
Legate Agathangelou
"The fury of the tempest is ours"
A golden whirlwind winged by two thunderbolts on each side on a black background
Not many of the Legions are fast moving so when Sheng Yu began developing the Scorpion Cavalry, the Storm Chasers were at the top of his list. They are one of the few legions to still make use of the Bronzemaned Horses. They have not retired their old companions but expanded the legion to take on new arachnid riders. Legate Agathangelou is satisfied with her forces showing during the northern Jingshen offensive, raiders under her command handily countering an equally mobile force using low-flying ships fueled by Spirit Stones.
[Credit Occipitallobe, Insane-Not-Crazy 1]

1034th (MXXXIV) Legion, the Reliable Hands
Legate Asclepius Apollos
"Even in war, the hearth needs tending"
An axe and sickle crossed, gold on red
The MXXXIV is a support legion focusing on construction, fieldworks and logistics. They can hold their ground well enough but are often in the tail end of legion deployments. They are currently understaffed for medics, though certain promising juniors have caught the idea of the officers.
[Credit Occipitallobe, wrecksalot 1, 2]

1112th Legion, the Daring Buccaneers
Legate Auxiliary Jason Aeson, succeeding Theodosis Pentekonter
"Catch the wind and seek your fortune"
Three white sails in red on brown
In his youthful wanderings the late Theodosis Pentekonter had the fortune to journey along the coast of the Green Scale Plains. The majesty and power of the watery expanse enraptured him such that even centuries long afterwards he sought to sail those waters. Unfortunately the lands of the Golden Devils lie within the Organ Meat Desert and the southern reaches of their territory that border the sea are a lethal maelstrom of distorted qi currents. Old Pentekonter long campaigned for the Clan to form a Navy to little success. While he could never take the Golden Devils upon the sea, he did manage to create a facsimile upon the sands. Expensive and complicated to build, the sandships of the Buccaneers are unique sights. They are not flying boats or airships, those requiring far more wealth to procure and maintain but they are akin to landships, hulls inlaid with jade and sails woven from spirit beasts to propel them fast across the dunes. With the passing of Theodosis, the future of the legion is in jeopardy without the wealth of the Pentekonter family to back them. Legate Auxiliary Jason Aeson wonders if the Heavens have maliciously answered his prayers for the renewed qi in the atmosphere has reduced his operating costs in this Great Era.
[Credit occipitallobe, Gajoti, Insane-Not-Crazy 1, 2, 3]

1178th Legion, The Unbowed
Current Legate: None
"Through Innumerable Deaths, Unshaken"
A Bronze Skull with a Banner of Black

An ancient legion that was known to resort to sacrificial rituals, using their deaths to harm their enemy or empower their allies. It was wiped out in the Hundred Year Trial that occured two centuries before Archigetes Konstantinos took control of the clan in a last stand that allowed others to escape against a powerful group of hunters. The current likely inheritor of the Legion is one Centurion Xiao Yingzi should she make it to Core.

She has found two artifacts of the Legion - a Banner turned Spear that contained fragments of the wills of many former legates that had been lost in the Qiguai Secret Realm before the clan was forced into the desert and a Ring found in the site of the Legion's Last Stand that can feed on the willing death of legionnaires to empower centurions and store lives as a form of life-saving treasure.
[Credit occipitallobe, Quest, 1, 2, 3]

1313th Legion, The Followers
Legate Nero Cagulia
"Follow your training. Follow your guts. Follow your hearts."
A golden spoked wagon wheel leaving behind a trail of stars
The Followers are a relatively obscure legion with past records filled with large gaps and inconsistencies. On paper, its members are tasked with spreading themselves out across clan territory and generally attaching themselves to other legions as auxiliary support and maintaining surveillance over key figures. In reality, the members of the Followers are generally self-sufficient cultivators who have little incentive in going under the command of more orthodox legions and are told to go make themselves useful by supporting other legions. The exact origins of the Followers are unknown. Whether it is a new legion that was formed recently or an ancient legion whose history goes back to the early days of the clan is unknown. What is currently known about the Followers is that it is maintained by the efforts of the Cagulia, a family of merchants, soldiers, and performers. The current Legate, Nero Cagulia, has a very hands-off approach towards commanding the Followers, allowing its members to do as they pleased as long as they do not intentionally hinder or damage the clan. Due to the scattered nature of the legion, the actual numbers of Followers are unknown.
[Credit to Shibosho 1]

1444th Legion. The Punished.
LEGATE: Maggot. Had lost the privilege of a name (bottleneck as early Core)
MOTTO: "Look at our works, ye mighty, and despair!" (official). Oh, the hubris! (unofficial).
SIGIL: The original was lost, the new one was sealed. They can use their own spears as their sigil or a single coin.
DESCRIPTION: Their headquarters is a beautiful mansion, truly one of a kind. None that are alive, in the legion, had ever stepped inside said headquarters.
To be in 1444th the legionary needs to be either: unlucky, have a problem, have some to prove and/or the legate paid you to get in his legion.
Their Legate is being punished, he tried to escape that punishment by dying in an experiment. He failed to do so.
Their mission is to make each and every single road in the control of the Golden Devils be pristine. They have timed quotas to do so. They have never met their quotas; those are literally impossible. But there is still hope in madness.*
Notable Persons: Legate Maggot; Centurion: Praesentinus Diogenus; Legionaries: the builder and The Brotherhood.
[Credit to adamashield]

AN: (3500 words) So I thought it would be interesting to collate a list of all legions the clan could have and fluff them. The rule was explicit mention of Legions by occipitallobe, then Legates before moving on to Good Seed contributions. This is intended to be a living document, really a community collaboration, where writers sketch out legions for their Good Seeds or update main story mentions. Have look around, if we're missing any references please chip in. Here's the Google docs link Legions. Please threadmark @Alectai, @ReaderOfFate @no. Current wordcount is 7821.