Unfortunately there will be no more revelations; Taylor is only one step away from becoming a Monarch, and that step involves merging body and spirit.
Path of the Immeasurable Swarm [Worm/Cradle]
- Thread starter derivativeoflife
- Start date
- Crossover
Evil Atlas
Inspector of Details
- Location
- Denial
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That was very cute. I like the avatar design, and I can totally see it as the sort of thing Hera would generate in giant form in shardspace or for special occasions. The "dress" reminds me of Bohu.
Teaching Hera not to be a bully is going to be vital, considering her opinions on pride, humility, and the value of human life. I suspect that the comprehensiveness of entity-style messaging will be required to really get the reasoning across. Hera leans a little too hard toward "tremble in awe at my/my host's superiority, small things!" by default.
Teaching Hera not to be a bully is going to be vital, considering her opinions on pride, humility, and the value of human life. I suspect that the comprehensiveness of entity-style messaging will be required to really get the reasoning across. Hera leans a little too hard toward "tremble in awe at my/my host's superiority, small things!" by default.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
And this step is, for Taylor, virtually impossible unless her body and spirit are in alignment and agree, because her Will is insane. Normally this would be fine, but her Remnant also has insane Will, so trying to subdue it with will would be... impossible. Hence, they have to align enough to both go for it. My assumption is it will only be possible when Taylor needs the powerup to protect Mercy, or to keep up with her when she is to ascend.
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- Location
- Pacific Rim
QA want's ^Nth many hugs.
Mercy shows that once again she has the most clue about all things Taylor.
- Location
- Elsewhere
Dross's natural enemy.
Someone who can out-process him, is endlessly patient, and has no concept of bluster.
- Location
- Padded cell with a view
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Can't be a shard with Thinker powers without having an inner Lisa
The interaction between Hera and Dross is just the best! And Hera giving him a full info dump on [PHYSICS] is likely to be a huge boost for his growth and power.
Good to see Taylor advancing, and nice to see her helping others with their own advancement
And Hera giving him a full info dump on [PHYSICS] is likely to be a huge boost for his growth and power. Good to see Taylor advancing, and nice to see her helping others with their own advancement
Meawhile Abidan are sweating profusely staring at a couple billion Shards very interested in Cradle and whatever things Queen Administrator learns from there. Don't forget that The Eye, Keeper of the Dead and all Shards connected to Keeper are also aware of Cradle. Meaning that Network at large is also aware of it even if QA for some reason didn't dump all info on them, which is unlikely.
Like yeah, Abidan can kill the Shards. But will Cradle and a good chunk of the Way around it survive the confrontation?
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
There's a chance that she could step around that by merging fully with Hera's simulacrum. They're both working to make it a spiritual copy of her, and that's basically what Yerin did in canon with Ruby to become a Herald.
- Location
- A rock hurtling through space...
I'm curious what Taylor's bloodline ability will be, since it is tied, lore-wise, to your archlord revelation. Malice's was to protect the Akura family, so the Akura bloodline is their famous armor. Taylor's archlord revelation is similar - to protect the people and things she cares about without sacrifice.
I think it would be cool if it was the ability to create simulacra. At first, it would only be partial simulacra - like an arm appearing to grab an enemy during battle, or a decoy that can't actually fight but has a similar enough spiritual signature to fool someone, but as her descendants grew in power the simulacra would grow to be fully fledged copies that could fight and act independently like Taylor's are now.
I think it would be cool if it was the ability to create simulacra. At first, it would only be partial simulacra - like an arm appearing to grab an enemy during battle, or a decoy that can't actually fight but has a similar enough spiritual signature to fool someone, but as her descendants grew in power the simulacra would grow to be fully fledged copies that could fight and act independently like Taylor's are now.
The author has said explicitly that there won't be a Herald merger between Taylor and Hera. (I was wondering the same thing way back when.)
Hera isn't just a continent, she's an entire hyperdimensional rope bundle of alternate continents origamiing themselves into each other.
The interaction between Hera and Dross is just the best!
Good to see Taylor advancing, and nice to see her helping others with their own advancement
Not just physics as we understand it, but bullshit gonzo shard fuckery physics. Which involves time travel. The sheer level of mathematical foundations it presents would make anything humans have ever conceived of look like accidentally smashing your face into mud on a cave wall.
- Location
- western US
I heard the shards never *actually* time travel, they just use various pre-cog/deterministic shinanagins to do a really good job of pretending to time travel.
- Location
- Netherlands
You have heard incorrectly. One of the explicit reasons (said in a WoG as a response to questions) Phir Se's bomb worked against Behemoth so well (despite, you know, being ENERGY shot at the ENERGY MANIPULATOR) is because time travel was involved. Intergalactic travel specifically involves FTL travel, which is by definition time-travel (because, if observed from an equidistant point of observation C, something going faster than light between A and B is arriving before they depart, because "the speed of light in a vacuum" is just the speed of cause and effect). Numerous instances of precognition from the Simurgh, Contessa, Dinah and Scion featuring an explicit distinction between computationally modelling something to predict it, and perceive the futures it might have as just something that can be observed.
I'd almost go as far as saying that the Entities are so incredibly soft sci-fi that the Abidan are less undefined and vague.
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- Location
- Massachusetts
I'm enjoying this chapter, but also, the sidequests are definitely eating away at wordcount that could be spent on the entire plot; after 18k words in the Moon sect and another 18k words in the pocket universe, I'd strongly encourage you to not spend 18k words on the hunt in the Labyrinth for Beta Penance if you can avoid it.
- Location
- Omniverse #1345
Nah, Wildbow made a silly WoG that it wasn't actually time travel, it was just the shard doing *insert technobabble* to fake it.
Behemoth just played along.
I'm aware this doesn't actually make sense, though.
And they can still do time travel just on there own it's just stupidly absurdly expensive even for the Entities except for probably at relatively small scales
One of the reasons that I find the Entities bullshit believable is having absurd energy budgets to throw at things and the bullshit budgeted for with the context of a 300 year Cycle with the Thinker supposed to be managing things for the planet sized petre dish and then make up the energy defiset by pulling shennangans with the Earth's for energy and lift off
With it being Soft Sci Fi because we are only seeing a Small arbitrary fraction of what the Shards can do calibrated so the little research puppets don't go Pop or the many ways that sort of link can Go Horribly Wrong
One of the reasons that I find the Entities bullshit believable is having absurd energy budgets to throw at things and the bullshit budgeted for with the context of a 300 year Cycle with the Thinker supposed to be managing things for the planet sized petre dish and then make up the energy defiset by pulling shennangans with the Earth's for energy and lift off
With it being Soft Sci Fi because we are only seeing a Small arbitrary fraction of what the Shards can do calibrated so the little research puppets don't go Pop or the many ways that sort of link can Go Horribly Wrong
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Thanks for the amazing chapter, I enjoyed reading it. I liked the spider sage and Hera is great. Also, Miara and Mercy continue to be adorable.
It depends if they decide to use their World Seeds or not as Will has said that using a world seed is the equivalent of being able to add anything you want to the story.
"So you can kind of make anything you want. It's kind of like having access to my notebook, where you can write whatever you want to into the setting. In a way, I do have access to a world seed. "
Go go gadget world seed: kill Shard!
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Event Horizon 5.4
New
As the days passed, I continued working on my conceptual Enforcer technique, ironing out the kinks one by one. I also began a task I'd been putting off for a while. Although I'd manifested the Crown Icon during the battle in Everwood, it wasn't fully mine. It was Khepri who had manifested the Icon, and although Khepri was me, there was enough of a distinction to make things complicated.
This was dangerous territory for me; it would be all too easy to slip back into old habits and ways of thinking. Khepri was both the pinnacle and the nadir of my first life, the ultimate conclusion of my inability to trust others. I'd achieved the impossible, and I'd sacrificed absolutely everything I'd ever cared about to do it. I'd promised myself I wouldn't go down that road again. Khepri's understanding of the Crown Icon, that other people were nothing but tools for me to wield, wasn't one I could accept. I had to find a new understanding, one that reflected who I was now and who I wanted to be.
The trouble was, you had to genuinely embody an Icon to wield it effectively. The Crown Icon represented the absolute ruler, someone who held power over others while answering to no one themselves. There was, of course, an obvious solution. The power vacuum left by Malice's death was practically begging me to fill it. Charity had always seen herself as an administrator first and foremost; a crucial gear in the clan's machinery, but ultimately still just a gear. And even though Malice had named Mercy her heir, she looked to me for direction more often than I looked to her. All I needed to do was act decisively, act like I was in charge, and it would quickly become the truth.
What stopped me was the thought that one day, Mercy might look at me like a superior rather than a sister. That was a line I never wanted to cross. There was a deep well of ruthlessness and viciousness inside of me, and she was the only thing stopping it from spilling out. I knew myself; there was no act so ugly that I wouldn't be able to rationalize and justify it given sufficient motivation. I needed to be accountable to her, but accountability was anathema to the Crown Icon.
Although the heart of an Icon was fixed, there was still flexibility. No two Sages ever understood an Icon in exactly the same way. The Sha family had cultivated their image as benevolent protectors, whereas Malice had ruled through fear. The Dragon King barely ruled at all, mostly leaving his subjects to do as they pleased, but with the understanding that any command he did give would be obeyed without question. An absolute ruler couldn't tolerate superiors, but perhaps they could tolerate peers? A diumvirate, only acting when both rulers were in agreement. I spent awhile meditating on the thought, and eventually decided it wasn't enough. The Crown Icon didn't resonate with it.
To further complicate matters, I had yet to confront a related problem, as well. There was a reason why only Monarchs could manifest the Crown Icon under normal circumstances; it was practically in the name. There were effectively three options in front of me. I could resolve to never advance further, staying at Sage for the rest of my life, but the Crown Icon strongly disapproved of that notion. If I was being honest with myself, I did as well. Even if I'd learned to trust to an extent, my need for control hadn't left me. Leaving myself in a position of weakness against rivals and outright enemies was not something I would tolerate long-term.
I could advance to Monarch and then ascend. But another thing I'd learned was selfishness, or if I was being generous to myself, self-worth. I wasn't willing to sacrifice my happiness for the greater good again, whether I deserved it or not. Even after we won, after Sesh and Shen were dead, even if Eithan succeeded in his scheme to permanently kill the Dreadgods, someone would have to stay behind to lead the Akura clan. If I ascended, I'd be leaving behind Mercy or Charity or both, and that wasn't something I was willing to accept.
That left advancing to Monarch but remaining on Cradle. And that was why it was absolutely essential that I remain accountable to Mercy, because even though my presence here as a Monarch would cause periodic natural disasters and potentially millions of deaths, the thing that bothered me the most was that she would be disappointed in me. Besides, there was no question that she would ascend herself when she reached Monarch. The thought of harming innocent people, even indirectly, was just as intolerable to her as the thought of abandoning her was to me.
Three options, none of them acceptable. But that was an answer in and of itself, wasn't it? No-win scenarios were an old friend of mine. Either I would find a way for all of us to ascend together, or I would find a way to deal with hunger aura so we could all stay here. I didn't know how yet, but I did know with absolute certainty that whatever tried to stand in my way, whether it was the Dreadgods or the Abidan or the nature of reality itself, I would make it submit.
Finally, I felt the Crown Icon resonate. It wasn't a complete understanding yet, but it was the first piece, a foundation I could build on. I knew what I wanted to use my power for, but how did I want to use it? The answer to that question seemed obvious as soon as I considered it. I'd ruled once before, after all, as Skitter, not Khepri. It didn't matter that my rule had never been officially acknowledged; it had been real. I'd left the civilian government nominally in charge to keep the city running smoothly, but the power had been mine. In short, I'd ruled from the shadows. Of course my first Icon, more central to my identity, would shape how I saw my second.
The situations weren't the same, of course. I had no interest in turning anyone into a figurehead. But exercising power subtly and indirectly, acting through intermediaries, taking the field myself only after it had been perfectly arranged to my advantage… That felt right. The extent of my power should be something speculated on in whispers, not something displayed openly with spectacles and shows of subservience.
Power had always been a means to an end for me, never something I craved for its own sake. For my friends and family, my allies and my subordinates, I wanted my power to lift them up, not dominate them. I wanted them to be instruments of my will because they chose to be, because they trusted me and believed in me, not because they were forced. A gentle hand, rather than the crushing fist reserved for anyone and anything that opposed me.
There was still a piece missing. I spent more time considering it, and eventually decided that my understanding of the Crown Icon needed to be embodied in a technique, like my understanding of the Shadow Icon was embodied by my swarm. It would, of course, need to be a Ruler technique. Although the Immeasurable Swarm technique was the foundation of my entire Path, it used aura of only one of my two aspects. I'd intentionally avoided techniques which controlled dream aura; the similarities to Khepri had made me uncomfortable. But that was a line I'd already taken half a step across. It was time to confront that part of myself directly. I'd never flinched away from doing horrific things to my enemies. If stripping them of their free will was necessary to achieve my goals, then I would. But I would never, ever subject people I cared about to that again.
Unlike the conceptual Enforcer technique I was still struggling with, this technique came together almost effortlessly, as though it had just been waiting for the opportunity. I was deeply familiar with Charity's Dream of Darkness technique, which inflicted supernatural terror on the victim. But the technique I crafted had far more in common with the Silent King's mind-dominating Ruler technique, and the inferior version practiced by the Silent Servants.
The difference was that mine didn't dominate. The weakest Lowgold could throw the technique off in moments. But if they let themselves be guided by it, they would share as much of my senses as they could handle, and they would be perfectly coordinated with everyone else under the technique. Power could be shared in both directions; I could lend anyone under the technique a sliver of my authority, or I could reinforce the authority in my own techniques with the combined wills of millions.
The technique needed a name. I'd never been the best at naming things, but this one felt important. Many species of insects had queens; perhaps something related to that? No, that didn't feel quite right. The entire point of the technique was that it couldn't compel obedience. It required trust to be given freely, and in return, it let me bind a group together into something greater than the sum of its parts.
"The Strands of Unity," I said aloud. The words resonated, and I felt something shift. It wasn't quite manifesting an Icon, because I'd already done that, but my new understanding was now fixed. It was, in some ways, a weaker understanding than Khepri's had been. I would never be able to use the Crown Icon for many of the things it was capable of. But unlike Khepri's understanding, this new understanding felt like a piece snapping perfectly into place, complimenting my understanding of the Shadow Icon rather than clashing with it.
There was something deeper there, but I couldn't quite grasp it yet. Although the Crown and Shadow Icons represented quite dissimilar things, the parts of them which I'd taken for myself were somehow tied together. It was like I'd taken two separate jigsaw puzzles and combined their pieces into a single, larger puzzle. But there were still many pieces missing; I could sense that there would be a single, coherent picture when it was complete, but not what the picture actually was. At the very least, I was going to need a third set of pieces, a third Icon. I could almost feel where it was supposed to fit in with the other two, a gap that I wasn't quite capable of filling yet.
We'd been in the pocket world for just short of half a year when we received word that the Weeping Dragon had left Everwood and was heading towards Ashwind. At the speed it was traveling, we still had more than three months before it arrived, but it still brought a sense of pressure that hadn't been there before. None of us had exactly been slacking off, but everyone's efforts became just a little more focused. Even Ziel finally began sparring with the rest of us once or twice a day, his spirit now feeling almost like a full Archlord.
Lindon was the next to advance after me. It seemed the Consume technique he'd learned from Northstrider was every bit as effective as he'd hoped; stealing power from an Archlord had given him the boost he needed to overtake Yerin for the first time. Yerin reached Archlord herself just a couple of months behind him, though, her own fast advancement fueled by the many prizes she'd received for reaching the semifinals in the Uncrowned King Tournament.
Mercy waited to advance until we had just a couple of weeks left. More time would have been better, but if she failed, there was at least a chance she'd be able to recover from the damage and attempt the advancement again before we were forced to leave. She sat in the middle of the arena, surrounded by a powerful script circle which would prevent her remnant from escaping if she lost control of it. I tried to stop myself from worrying. Her spirit was stable enough to attempt the advancement, but only barely. There would be absolutely no room for error.
She knew not to rush, taking the time to be absolutely certain she'd established perfect control over every single part of her spirit. After an hour of meditation, she breathed in deeply. When she breathed out, a shadow flowed out of her, forming into a figure seated just in front of her in a mirrored pose.
I stared. Like all remnants, it resembled a distorted version of the sacred artist which had produced it, but I'd never seen a remnant distorted in quite this way before. Its body was significantly smaller than Mercy's, with shorter and pudgier limbs, but its head was proportionally much larger and rounder, with exaggerated eyes. In short, it was chibi Mercy. There was absolutely no other way to describe it.
"Wow, are you me?" asked Chibi Mercy. "That's so cool!"
"Oh!" said Mercy, startled. Even at the Archlord level, it was uncommon for remnants to be fully sentient immediately after manifesting. "I guess I am," she said eventually. "Um… It's nice to meet you, but aren't you going to fight me?"
"Why would I want to do that? Seems kind of silly to fight myself. I guess I can if you want me to, though? If you feel like it wouldn't be a real advancement without it?"
"No, no, that's okay," said Mercy, shaking her head quickly. "But… Are you sure you're alright with this? Everyone told me you would try and eat me, so I never really thought about your opinion. Sorry!"
"It's fine! It's not like I'm going anywhere. We're already the same person, right? Getting to talk to myself like this is kind of fun, but being in two different bodies would just get awkward after a while, wouldn't it?"
Mercy laughed. "I guess it would, yeah. Um… Whenever you're ready, then?"
"Okay," said Chibi Mercy. Then she turned to me and waved. "Hi, Taylor! I'll see you in a second!" Feeling slightly surreal, I waved back.
Then the spirit flowed back into Mercy's body. Both lost coherence, becoming a vaguely Mercy-shaped blob as her remnant became partly physical and her body became partly spiritual. After just a few seconds, she began solidifying. She'd barely changed at all, except that her hair had become a cloud of drifting shadows, the same as Malice and Fury's had been. Even though it was no longer physical, the rainbow hair ribbon Miara had given her had no trouble holding it a ponytail.
"Uh… I did it!" said Mercy, standing and smiling brightly.
"Congratulations," I said, my voice dryer than the desert. I was actually extremely proud of her, but it was also slightly exasperating to have worried so much for nothing. I found myself wishing Malice had lived to see this, just so I could have seen her completely stupefied for once.
"Bleed and bury me," muttered Yerin. "If I'd known reaching Herald was easier than trimming my fingernails, I would've started with that."
"It won't be," said Ziel flatly. "Remnants can be unpredictable, but I'll just give up the Sacred Arts completely if you don't need to fight yours with a sword."
Yerin considered that for a moment, then shrugged and nodded. "S'pose you have the right of it. This one's just made different," she said, jerking her head towards Mercy.
Our final days in the pocket world were spent preparing for the arrival of the Weeping Dragon. It was going to be a delicate fight. There was relatively low risk of it actually breaching the defenses of Moongrave with the Empire defending them, but we couldn't afford to let the battle drag on for too long. If the defenses were sufficiently weakened or the Empire sufficiently exhausted by the time we drove it off, there was a real threat that Sesh, Shen, or both would take advantage regardless of anything else that happened.
It was Mercy who was going to play the key role. I wasn't happy about it, but her plan was objectively the most likely to succeed. The only objection I could make was that I didn't want her to risk herself, so I stayed silent. I had to trust her to handle herself.
We left the pocket world with an hour to spare, at least in outside time. The sky was still clear for now, but I could clearly sense the Dreadgod's approach even from a thousand miles away. Charity was there to welcome us back; Mercy immediately hugged her hard enough to send both of them flying dozens of feet backwards, forgetting that she outmatched Charity physically now. Congratulations had to be kept short, though, and Charity quickly whisked me away to a private room higher in the palace.
Emriss looked as serene as always, but to my newly sharpened senses, there was an undeniable feeling of exhaustion around her. The battle against the Silent King had cost her a considerable amount of strength, and she'd had no time to recover since then, instead being forced to evacuate one city after another in the face of the Weeping Dragon's relentless advance. I doubted she'd be able to help much in the coming battle even if she wanted to. Still, she smiled warmly as we entered. "Shadow Sage. Congratulations on coming into your full strength."
"Thank you," I said, nodding. "Has Charity informed you of the plan?"
"She has. It will be difficult, but not impossible now that you've advanced. Although…" She paused, and I felt her examining my spirit. "Perhaps less difficult than I'd thought. How interesting," she said, glancing quickly between Charity and myself. "I won't press for details, but I would be quite curious to hear them if you were willing to share."
"...I'd consider it in the future," I said eventually. Emriss was a genuinely good person, but that very fact made me unsure how she'd react to Hera. I was certain she wouldn't outright betray us, but she might pressure me to ascend immediately after Shen and the Dreadgods had been dealt with. "Now isn't the time, though."
"Agreed," said Emriss, nodding. "Let us begin, then. Silver Heart, your assistance will likely also be helpful."
The process wasn't long, taking only a few minutes, although it was rather unpleasant. Both of them examined me carefully after we were finished, and Emriss finally nodded in satisfaction. "It should do."
"Our thanks for your assistance," said Charity, bowing.
"It's the least I can do," she said. "You should be aware that the Dragon, and I assume the other two as well, have been fully empowered from the Titan's death. Its strength has surpassed the strength of any Monarch, and it is entirely awake and aware. Don't underestimate its cunning."
"We won't," I said. "In fact, we're counting on it."
"Very well. Good luck, then." With that, she vanished in a flurry of leaves.
Charity opened a portal as well, and I followed her through. We arrived near the south western wall of the city, with a hint of the ocean visible in the distance. The horizon was just starting to darken with storm clouds. Again, I was reminded distinctly of my first battle against Leviathan. It was funny, how far I'd come since then. Here I was, preparing to face a threat that utterly dwarfed the Endbringer both figuratively and literally, and yet I felt… confident. I wasn't out of my depth. This wouldn't be a desperate struggle for survival, but a carefully orchestrated dance.
The others were already here. The Eight-Man Empire stood (or lounged) together on a large thousand-mile cloud, their golden armor sparkling. The Akura clan's Archlords, including Ziel, were spaced along the city's wall. Yerin had been accosted by a tearful Winter Sage, while Lindon stood by looking uncomfortable. Mercy zoomed over as soon as she saw us.
"Did it work?" she asked immediately.
"It did."
She examined me closely for several seconds, then smiled and nodded. "Good."
"Mercy…" I started, hesitating for a moment. "Be careful, alright?"
"Don't worry. I'll be fine. After all, I'll have you keeping me safe." I nodded. There wasn't really anything else that needed to be said.
The storm swept towards us, moving many times faster than any natural hurricane. It surged over Moongrave, the barrier surrounding the city flickering into dim visibility as it blocked the howling wind and pounding rain. The lightning followed barely a minute later, the barrier flashing brighter as the Dreadgod's living techniques began shattering against it. It could hold out against this level of attack almost indefinitely, as long as the city's populace could supply it with power. A serious attack would break through much faster, but that was what we were here for. Although the Weeping Dragon's breath could probably annihilate both the barrier and the city in a single shot, it couldn't use it without getting an arrow straight down its throat courtesy of the Bow Sage.
I took a deep breath, then released the Strands of Unity. The technique swept over the city, attaching to the dream aura produced by millions of minds. Hesitantly at first, and then in swiftly increasing numbers, sacred artists accepted the link. Instead of a white halo, their eyes glowed purple, taking on a slightly compound appearance. In the back of my mind, Hera made something like a pleased hum at being in her element.
"A fine technique," commented Charity beside me. "Not one that most high-level Sacred Artists would find much value in."
"It's easy to underestimate the power of coordination if you've never seen it in action. A single insect is barely a nuisance, but a million insects working together is an entirely different matter."
"You have command of the city's defenses, as planned. I look forward to seeing what you can do with them," she said. "It's nearly time."
I nodded. "Go. And be safe."
"Always." Then she vanished.
With a titanic roar, the clouds split open, revealing the Weeping Dragon's enormous maw. It paused a dozen miles from the wall, allowing the echoes of its challenge to fade, glaring at us with malicious intelligence. Although it was a predator, it no longer killed merely out of instinct; it clearly enjoyed the pain and fear it inflicted. I was unmoved. The most dangerous enemies were cold, pragmatic, and efficient. Excess emotion was a nothing but an invitation to be manipulated.
The first to strike was the Herald of the Ghost-Blades. He crossed the dozen miles in the blink of an eye, leaving his comrades behind the city's defenses as he borrowed their power. A heavy two-handed sword Forged of grey-green madra and nearly two miles in length came crashing down on the Dreadgod's head. It met the blow with a similarly sized claw wreathed in lightning, and the two techniques detonated in a shockwave that blasted the torrential rain away for miles.
Then the battle began in earnest. The Dreadgod attacked with its massive claws and teeth, moving far faster than something so large had any right to. A constant barrage of deadly lightning flashed from its body and from the storm surrounding it. It was met by mile-long swords of blue ice or silver tinted red, lances of black fire that left patches of scales blackened and charred, and volleys of arrows that phased out of existence to bypass defenses. Purple mist gathered around the Dreadgod's head, and a legion of phantom soldiers sprung into existence, hacking at the massive body with blades that cut the mind and spirit instead of flesh.
I remained behind the city's defenses. Although the Weeping Dragon would no doubt be delighted to devour the entirety of Moongrave if it could, I'd foreseen that its main target was me, the person who had briefly dominated one of its brothers and grievously injured the other. The moment I stepped beyond the walls, it would target me relentlessly until I was dead. But I could still contribute. Under my guidance, the city's massive launcher batteries fired with perfect precision, each shot landing just as the Dreadgod was distracted by a more dangerous technique.
It was a battle of endurance. We were landing a steady stream of hits, but although each was powerful enough to devastate a small city, they did no more than superficial damage to the Dreadgod. The only blows it made sure to block came from the Empire. Meanwhile, a single direct blow from it would kill or cripple any of the Sages present. Mercy was significantly more durable, but even she wouldn't be able to take more than a few before her armor broke. They were forced to flit around the edges, taking shots and withdrawing, while the Empire drew most of the Dragon's attention.
Fortunately, the Empire was extremely well-suited to this sort of battle. After several minutes, the Ghost-Blade's Herald withdrew, falling back behind the walls to catch his breath while the Mountain Sage took his place. So long as they could continuously rotate their members, the Eight-Man Empire was a Monarch who would never grow exhausted or injured. In a battle of attrition, it was simply impossible for them to lose.
The Dragon quickly realized this, and its strategy changed. First, it focused more attacks on the supporting Sages, forcing them further back. With less pressure, the Mountain Sage was able to land the first real blow of the battle, his spear piercing deeply into the Dreadgod's shoulder. It roared in pain, but didn't seem overly inconvenienced. Ignoring him, it surged forwards towards the city.
I had only a few short seconds, but that was plenty. In perfect synchronization, millions of Golds stopped pouring power in the launcher batteries, directing it into the city's barriers instead. It flashed brilliantly purple as a claw the size of a skyscraper slammed into it like a meteor, but it held. Still, the scripts began cracking, unable to repel that kind of assault completely.
The attack didn't come for free. As the Dragon came close to the city, the Empire swapped again. From inside the walls, a flaming whip miles long lashed out and wrapped around the Dreadgod's leg. It tried to jerk back, but the Herald of Warband Flame-Gift held it in place for several seconds, and it again roared in pain as the burning whip bit into its scales. Half a dozen weaker but still powerful techniques slammed into it from behind as the others took advantage, and a moment later, the launcher batteries opened up on it from below as well.
Then the whip snapped, the Dragon whirling around and lashing back with lightning. Once again, I had to divert every scrap of power the city could muster to the barrier as its miles long tail slammed into it with continent-shattering force. The Empire sent its power back to the Mountain Sage, who summoned an enormous slab of stone to block its attacks as the others fell back.
The battle continued, but the Dreadgod remained close to the city. Every time the pressure on it faltered for a moment, it would turn and attack the barrier again, with blasts of lightning or its overwhelming physical strength. But the city's defensive scripts weren't just powerful, they were also massively redundant. At the current rate, I guessed that it would take the Dreadgod more than an hour to break through. Meanwhile, its aggressive posture meant it was quickly accumulating injuries, and although each of them were relatively minor, eventually they would start to add up.
If our goal was only to drive the Dreadgod off, maintaining the current strategy would probably do it. But the Dragon wasn't a mindless beast any longer. It knew we couldn't afford to actually kill it and further empower the remaining two. And even if we did kill it, we didn't have Penance; it would eventually be reborn. There was a real chance it would choose to stay and fight to the death. Better to give it an alternative now.
Mercy and the others began pressing the Dragon harder, coming in closer and staying longer. For a few minutes, the battle shifted in our favor as it was forced to spend more time defending itself and less time attacking the barrier. But then it managed to catch the Mountain Sage with a blow that sent him flying miles into the distance. It was hardly a lethal blow for a Monarch, but it meant the Empire was out of position for a few crucial seconds.
The Dragon surged away from the city, unleashing its full power on the others. Lindon surrounded himself and Yerin with the Hollow Domain as dozens of titanic lightning bolts struck at them from all directions, weakening what would be a lethal blow into a mere injury. The Winter Sage met the assault with a howling blizzard of razor-sharp ice, but she was also struck by a weakened bolt. She faltered in the air, leaving her unable to avoid a blow from the Dragon's claw that sent her flying away as well, still alive, but in much worse shape than the Mountain Sage.
Charity was forced to catch a lightning bolt on her shield. The Divine Treasure stopped the technique, but it still sent her slamming down into the ground. The Dreadgod turned to her next, its massive claw coming down to crush her. For a moment, my breath caught. Then the claw was caught and stopped by a giant in amethyst and obsidian armor. The blow drove Mercy to her knees, cracking the ground beneath her, but it gave Charity the moment she needed to slip away through space.
The Dreadgod let her go. Its focus was now on Mercy. Her form wasn't as large as her mother's, small enough that the Dragon could wrap its claws entirely around her torso. It lifted her entirely off her feet as it turned to block an arrow from the Bow Sage, now the focus of the Empire. Through the Strands of Unity, I could sense it pitting its will against her, preventing her from using the Moonlight Bridge to escape. It lifted her up to its enormous jaws and bit down.
Her armor cracked, clouds of violet essence pouring out of it as it began to disintegrate. I acted with no need for thought, stepping through space, and nothing blocked me. The Dragon wanted me here. Even as I unleashed my swarm, lightning bolts were already coming for me. I dodged down, avoiding all but one, which I blocked with my shield bracers. Now able to make full use of them, I focused the shield into a circular barrier rather than a sphere. The bolt still shattered it instantly, tendrils of lightning tracing painfully across my skin as the weakened technique came through.
Then my swarm manifested, and it was massive. The Weeping Dragon was an azure serpent over a dozen miles in length, but my swarm still nearly reached its tail. Still, the power in it was too weak to stand up to the Dragon's storm, which immediately began ripping into it. I brought it pouring in, transitioning to the Devouring Swarm. My authority slammed into the Dragon's will like a brick wall, and the technique failed to form. But that was expected; the point was simply to divide the Dragon's attention. I tried to step through space again, just to force it to keep more of its will on me.
Still, Mercy couldn't escape. The Dreadgod was still sawing at her armor with teeth the size of buildings, and it couldn't be more than a few seconds away from failing. My swarm was dwindling just as quickly, and could do absolutely nothing to harm the Dragon. But for the short time it lasted, the Dragon was blind.
An arrow struck the Dragon in its left eye, and it screamed in true agony. Its will faltered, just for a moment, but that was enough. In a flash, Mercy was gone, leaving her armor behind to disintegrate. I tried to escape as well, but I was the one it wanted more, and my spacial manipulation was still weaker than the Moonlight Bridge. Even through its pain, it managed to keep me where I was.
More lightning burst from the storm, and this time it wove itself into a net. The Dragon didn't know exactly where I was, but it knew I was close. The net surrounded me, preventing me from escaping physically, and toasting the remainder of my swarm as well. Then it began shrinking.
Attacks hammered the Dreadgod from all sides. Lindon and Yerin had already recovered, and were hitting it with everything they had. So had Charity, and she was attempting to break the net from the outside. Now a safe distance away, Mercy was firing arrows at its head along with the Bow Sage. The launcher batteries on the wall, still under my control, also joined in.
The Dragon fell back, blocking only the most dangerous attacks, but it didn't let the net break. In the space of a couple of seconds, it shrunk from over a mile wide to half that. I didn't bother trying to break free from the inside; that would only tell the Dragon where I was. I was thoroughly trapped, with absolutely no way out. Invisible, I allowed myself to smirk slightly. Then the net snapped shut, and my body and spirit were torn apart by the Dreadgod's full power.
I let out a breath and opened my eyes, my real eyes, feeling utterly drained. I'd put every scrap of power I could muster into the simulacrum the Weeping Dragon had just devoured, even portions of my blood aura and lifeline. It had been the only way to make it sufficiently convincing. But unlike the injury I'd suffered before, this one could be healed purely with rest and elixirs, albeit expensive ones. They were already waiting for me next to the bed I was lying in, still in the room where I'd met Emriss.
That had been much closer than I liked. The Weeping Dragon had waited until the perfect moment to strike, coming dangerously close to killing both Charity and Mercy. We'd used its cleverness against it, its presumed knowledge from either Shen or the Silent King that the only way to draw me out would be to threaten one or both of them, but I'd intended to have more than a handful of seconds to step in. Still, it had worked. Even now, I could sense the Dreadgod in full retreat, thoroughly battered. Hopefully it would take at least a couple of months to recover and become a problem again.
In the meantime, I was wearing a veil of incredible power, which I'd crafted together with Emriss. As far as Fate was concerned, the Shadow Sage had died during the battle. It couldn't last forever; the more I acted, and the more people who learned the truth, the harder it would be to conceal my survival. Shen would doubtless be suspicious anyway since I'd faked my death against him before, so to sell it, the clan would attempt a poor coverup of my supposed death. Most of the burden would fall on Mercy to play the part convincingly. It would have been safer to let her think I really had died, but that was one line I absolutely refused to cross.
Fortunately, the charade only needed to last until my next task was done, and that task would take me off the face of the earth as thoroughly as if I really had died. I just wished I'd have slightly less irritating company for it.
This was dangerous territory for me; it would be all too easy to slip back into old habits and ways of thinking. Khepri was both the pinnacle and the nadir of my first life, the ultimate conclusion of my inability to trust others. I'd achieved the impossible, and I'd sacrificed absolutely everything I'd ever cared about to do it. I'd promised myself I wouldn't go down that road again. Khepri's understanding of the Crown Icon, that other people were nothing but tools for me to wield, wasn't one I could accept. I had to find a new understanding, one that reflected who I was now and who I wanted to be.
The trouble was, you had to genuinely embody an Icon to wield it effectively. The Crown Icon represented the absolute ruler, someone who held power over others while answering to no one themselves. There was, of course, an obvious solution. The power vacuum left by Malice's death was practically begging me to fill it. Charity had always seen herself as an administrator first and foremost; a crucial gear in the clan's machinery, but ultimately still just a gear. And even though Malice had named Mercy her heir, she looked to me for direction more often than I looked to her. All I needed to do was act decisively, act like I was in charge, and it would quickly become the truth.
What stopped me was the thought that one day, Mercy might look at me like a superior rather than a sister. That was a line I never wanted to cross. There was a deep well of ruthlessness and viciousness inside of me, and she was the only thing stopping it from spilling out. I knew myself; there was no act so ugly that I wouldn't be able to rationalize and justify it given sufficient motivation. I needed to be accountable to her, but accountability was anathema to the Crown Icon.
Although the heart of an Icon was fixed, there was still flexibility. No two Sages ever understood an Icon in exactly the same way. The Sha family had cultivated their image as benevolent protectors, whereas Malice had ruled through fear. The Dragon King barely ruled at all, mostly leaving his subjects to do as they pleased, but with the understanding that any command he did give would be obeyed without question. An absolute ruler couldn't tolerate superiors, but perhaps they could tolerate peers? A diumvirate, only acting when both rulers were in agreement. I spent awhile meditating on the thought, and eventually decided it wasn't enough. The Crown Icon didn't resonate with it.
To further complicate matters, I had yet to confront a related problem, as well. There was a reason why only Monarchs could manifest the Crown Icon under normal circumstances; it was practically in the name. There were effectively three options in front of me. I could resolve to never advance further, staying at Sage for the rest of my life, but the Crown Icon strongly disapproved of that notion. If I was being honest with myself, I did as well. Even if I'd learned to trust to an extent, my need for control hadn't left me. Leaving myself in a position of weakness against rivals and outright enemies was not something I would tolerate long-term.
I could advance to Monarch and then ascend. But another thing I'd learned was selfishness, or if I was being generous to myself, self-worth. I wasn't willing to sacrifice my happiness for the greater good again, whether I deserved it or not. Even after we won, after Sesh and Shen were dead, even if Eithan succeeded in his scheme to permanently kill the Dreadgods, someone would have to stay behind to lead the Akura clan. If I ascended, I'd be leaving behind Mercy or Charity or both, and that wasn't something I was willing to accept.
That left advancing to Monarch but remaining on Cradle. And that was why it was absolutely essential that I remain accountable to Mercy, because even though my presence here as a Monarch would cause periodic natural disasters and potentially millions of deaths, the thing that bothered me the most was that she would be disappointed in me. Besides, there was no question that she would ascend herself when she reached Monarch. The thought of harming innocent people, even indirectly, was just as intolerable to her as the thought of abandoning her was to me.
Three options, none of them acceptable. But that was an answer in and of itself, wasn't it? No-win scenarios were an old friend of mine. Either I would find a way for all of us to ascend together, or I would find a way to deal with hunger aura so we could all stay here. I didn't know how yet, but I did know with absolute certainty that whatever tried to stand in my way, whether it was the Dreadgods or the Abidan or the nature of reality itself, I would make it submit.
Finally, I felt the Crown Icon resonate. It wasn't a complete understanding yet, but it was the first piece, a foundation I could build on. I knew what I wanted to use my power for, but how did I want to use it? The answer to that question seemed obvious as soon as I considered it. I'd ruled once before, after all, as Skitter, not Khepri. It didn't matter that my rule had never been officially acknowledged; it had been real. I'd left the civilian government nominally in charge to keep the city running smoothly, but the power had been mine. In short, I'd ruled from the shadows. Of course my first Icon, more central to my identity, would shape how I saw my second.
The situations weren't the same, of course. I had no interest in turning anyone into a figurehead. But exercising power subtly and indirectly, acting through intermediaries, taking the field myself only after it had been perfectly arranged to my advantage… That felt right. The extent of my power should be something speculated on in whispers, not something displayed openly with spectacles and shows of subservience.
Power had always been a means to an end for me, never something I craved for its own sake. For my friends and family, my allies and my subordinates, I wanted my power to lift them up, not dominate them. I wanted them to be instruments of my will because they chose to be, because they trusted me and believed in me, not because they were forced. A gentle hand, rather than the crushing fist reserved for anyone and anything that opposed me.
There was still a piece missing. I spent more time considering it, and eventually decided that my understanding of the Crown Icon needed to be embodied in a technique, like my understanding of the Shadow Icon was embodied by my swarm. It would, of course, need to be a Ruler technique. Although the Immeasurable Swarm technique was the foundation of my entire Path, it used aura of only one of my two aspects. I'd intentionally avoided techniques which controlled dream aura; the similarities to Khepri had made me uncomfortable. But that was a line I'd already taken half a step across. It was time to confront that part of myself directly. I'd never flinched away from doing horrific things to my enemies. If stripping them of their free will was necessary to achieve my goals, then I would. But I would never, ever subject people I cared about to that again.
Unlike the conceptual Enforcer technique I was still struggling with, this technique came together almost effortlessly, as though it had just been waiting for the opportunity. I was deeply familiar with Charity's Dream of Darkness technique, which inflicted supernatural terror on the victim. But the technique I crafted had far more in common with the Silent King's mind-dominating Ruler technique, and the inferior version practiced by the Silent Servants.
The difference was that mine didn't dominate. The weakest Lowgold could throw the technique off in moments. But if they let themselves be guided by it, they would share as much of my senses as they could handle, and they would be perfectly coordinated with everyone else under the technique. Power could be shared in both directions; I could lend anyone under the technique a sliver of my authority, or I could reinforce the authority in my own techniques with the combined wills of millions.
The technique needed a name. I'd never been the best at naming things, but this one felt important. Many species of insects had queens; perhaps something related to that? No, that didn't feel quite right. The entire point of the technique was that it couldn't compel obedience. It required trust to be given freely, and in return, it let me bind a group together into something greater than the sum of its parts.
"The Strands of Unity," I said aloud. The words resonated, and I felt something shift. It wasn't quite manifesting an Icon, because I'd already done that, but my new understanding was now fixed. It was, in some ways, a weaker understanding than Khepri's had been. I would never be able to use the Crown Icon for many of the things it was capable of. But unlike Khepri's understanding, this new understanding felt like a piece snapping perfectly into place, complimenting my understanding of the Shadow Icon rather than clashing with it.
There was something deeper there, but I couldn't quite grasp it yet. Although the Crown and Shadow Icons represented quite dissimilar things, the parts of them which I'd taken for myself were somehow tied together. It was like I'd taken two separate jigsaw puzzles and combined their pieces into a single, larger puzzle. But there were still many pieces missing; I could sense that there would be a single, coherent picture when it was complete, but not what the picture actually was. At the very least, I was going to need a third set of pieces, a third Icon. I could almost feel where it was supposed to fit in with the other two, a gap that I wasn't quite capable of filling yet.
We'd been in the pocket world for just short of half a year when we received word that the Weeping Dragon had left Everwood and was heading towards Ashwind. At the speed it was traveling, we still had more than three months before it arrived, but it still brought a sense of pressure that hadn't been there before. None of us had exactly been slacking off, but everyone's efforts became just a little more focused. Even Ziel finally began sparring with the rest of us once or twice a day, his spirit now feeling almost like a full Archlord.
Lindon was the next to advance after me. It seemed the Consume technique he'd learned from Northstrider was every bit as effective as he'd hoped; stealing power from an Archlord had given him the boost he needed to overtake Yerin for the first time. Yerin reached Archlord herself just a couple of months behind him, though, her own fast advancement fueled by the many prizes she'd received for reaching the semifinals in the Uncrowned King Tournament.
Mercy waited to advance until we had just a couple of weeks left. More time would have been better, but if she failed, there was at least a chance she'd be able to recover from the damage and attempt the advancement again before we were forced to leave. She sat in the middle of the arena, surrounded by a powerful script circle which would prevent her remnant from escaping if she lost control of it. I tried to stop myself from worrying. Her spirit was stable enough to attempt the advancement, but only barely. There would be absolutely no room for error.
She knew not to rush, taking the time to be absolutely certain she'd established perfect control over every single part of her spirit. After an hour of meditation, she breathed in deeply. When she breathed out, a shadow flowed out of her, forming into a figure seated just in front of her in a mirrored pose.
I stared. Like all remnants, it resembled a distorted version of the sacred artist which had produced it, but I'd never seen a remnant distorted in quite this way before. Its body was significantly smaller than Mercy's, with shorter and pudgier limbs, but its head was proportionally much larger and rounder, with exaggerated eyes. In short, it was chibi Mercy. There was absolutely no other way to describe it.
"Wow, are you me?" asked Chibi Mercy. "That's so cool!"
"Oh!" said Mercy, startled. Even at the Archlord level, it was uncommon for remnants to be fully sentient immediately after manifesting. "I guess I am," she said eventually. "Um… It's nice to meet you, but aren't you going to fight me?"
"Why would I want to do that? Seems kind of silly to fight myself. I guess I can if you want me to, though? If you feel like it wouldn't be a real advancement without it?"
"No, no, that's okay," said Mercy, shaking her head quickly. "But… Are you sure you're alright with this? Everyone told me you would try and eat me, so I never really thought about your opinion. Sorry!"
"It's fine! It's not like I'm going anywhere. We're already the same person, right? Getting to talk to myself like this is kind of fun, but being in two different bodies would just get awkward after a while, wouldn't it?"
Mercy laughed. "I guess it would, yeah. Um… Whenever you're ready, then?"
"Okay," said Chibi Mercy. Then she turned to me and waved. "Hi, Taylor! I'll see you in a second!" Feeling slightly surreal, I waved back.
Then the spirit flowed back into Mercy's body. Both lost coherence, becoming a vaguely Mercy-shaped blob as her remnant became partly physical and her body became partly spiritual. After just a few seconds, she began solidifying. She'd barely changed at all, except that her hair had become a cloud of drifting shadows, the same as Malice and Fury's had been. Even though it was no longer physical, the rainbow hair ribbon Miara had given her had no trouble holding it a ponytail.
"Uh… I did it!" said Mercy, standing and smiling brightly.
"Congratulations," I said, my voice dryer than the desert. I was actually extremely proud of her, but it was also slightly exasperating to have worried so much for nothing. I found myself wishing Malice had lived to see this, just so I could have seen her completely stupefied for once.
"Bleed and bury me," muttered Yerin. "If I'd known reaching Herald was easier than trimming my fingernails, I would've started with that."
"It won't be," said Ziel flatly. "Remnants can be unpredictable, but I'll just give up the Sacred Arts completely if you don't need to fight yours with a sword."
Yerin considered that for a moment, then shrugged and nodded. "S'pose you have the right of it. This one's just made different," she said, jerking her head towards Mercy.
Our final days in the pocket world were spent preparing for the arrival of the Weeping Dragon. It was going to be a delicate fight. There was relatively low risk of it actually breaching the defenses of Moongrave with the Empire defending them, but we couldn't afford to let the battle drag on for too long. If the defenses were sufficiently weakened or the Empire sufficiently exhausted by the time we drove it off, there was a real threat that Sesh, Shen, or both would take advantage regardless of anything else that happened.
It was Mercy who was going to play the key role. I wasn't happy about it, but her plan was objectively the most likely to succeed. The only objection I could make was that I didn't want her to risk herself, so I stayed silent. I had to trust her to handle herself.
We left the pocket world with an hour to spare, at least in outside time. The sky was still clear for now, but I could clearly sense the Dreadgod's approach even from a thousand miles away. Charity was there to welcome us back; Mercy immediately hugged her hard enough to send both of them flying dozens of feet backwards, forgetting that she outmatched Charity physically now. Congratulations had to be kept short, though, and Charity quickly whisked me away to a private room higher in the palace.
Emriss looked as serene as always, but to my newly sharpened senses, there was an undeniable feeling of exhaustion around her. The battle against the Silent King had cost her a considerable amount of strength, and she'd had no time to recover since then, instead being forced to evacuate one city after another in the face of the Weeping Dragon's relentless advance. I doubted she'd be able to help much in the coming battle even if she wanted to. Still, she smiled warmly as we entered. "Shadow Sage. Congratulations on coming into your full strength."
"Thank you," I said, nodding. "Has Charity informed you of the plan?"
"She has. It will be difficult, but not impossible now that you've advanced. Although…" She paused, and I felt her examining my spirit. "Perhaps less difficult than I'd thought. How interesting," she said, glancing quickly between Charity and myself. "I won't press for details, but I would be quite curious to hear them if you were willing to share."
"...I'd consider it in the future," I said eventually. Emriss was a genuinely good person, but that very fact made me unsure how she'd react to Hera. I was certain she wouldn't outright betray us, but she might pressure me to ascend immediately after Shen and the Dreadgods had been dealt with. "Now isn't the time, though."
"Agreed," said Emriss, nodding. "Let us begin, then. Silver Heart, your assistance will likely also be helpful."
The process wasn't long, taking only a few minutes, although it was rather unpleasant. Both of them examined me carefully after we were finished, and Emriss finally nodded in satisfaction. "It should do."
"Our thanks for your assistance," said Charity, bowing.
"It's the least I can do," she said. "You should be aware that the Dragon, and I assume the other two as well, have been fully empowered from the Titan's death. Its strength has surpassed the strength of any Monarch, and it is entirely awake and aware. Don't underestimate its cunning."
"We won't," I said. "In fact, we're counting on it."
"Very well. Good luck, then." With that, she vanished in a flurry of leaves.
Charity opened a portal as well, and I followed her through. We arrived near the south western wall of the city, with a hint of the ocean visible in the distance. The horizon was just starting to darken with storm clouds. Again, I was reminded distinctly of my first battle against Leviathan. It was funny, how far I'd come since then. Here I was, preparing to face a threat that utterly dwarfed the Endbringer both figuratively and literally, and yet I felt… confident. I wasn't out of my depth. This wouldn't be a desperate struggle for survival, but a carefully orchestrated dance.
The others were already here. The Eight-Man Empire stood (or lounged) together on a large thousand-mile cloud, their golden armor sparkling. The Akura clan's Archlords, including Ziel, were spaced along the city's wall. Yerin had been accosted by a tearful Winter Sage, while Lindon stood by looking uncomfortable. Mercy zoomed over as soon as she saw us.
"Did it work?" she asked immediately.
"It did."
She examined me closely for several seconds, then smiled and nodded. "Good."
"Mercy…" I started, hesitating for a moment. "Be careful, alright?"
"Don't worry. I'll be fine. After all, I'll have you keeping me safe." I nodded. There wasn't really anything else that needed to be said.
The storm swept towards us, moving many times faster than any natural hurricane. It surged over Moongrave, the barrier surrounding the city flickering into dim visibility as it blocked the howling wind and pounding rain. The lightning followed barely a minute later, the barrier flashing brighter as the Dreadgod's living techniques began shattering against it. It could hold out against this level of attack almost indefinitely, as long as the city's populace could supply it with power. A serious attack would break through much faster, but that was what we were here for. Although the Weeping Dragon's breath could probably annihilate both the barrier and the city in a single shot, it couldn't use it without getting an arrow straight down its throat courtesy of the Bow Sage.
I took a deep breath, then released the Strands of Unity. The technique swept over the city, attaching to the dream aura produced by millions of minds. Hesitantly at first, and then in swiftly increasing numbers, sacred artists accepted the link. Instead of a white halo, their eyes glowed purple, taking on a slightly compound appearance. In the back of my mind, Hera made something like a pleased hum at being in her element.
"A fine technique," commented Charity beside me. "Not one that most high-level Sacred Artists would find much value in."
"It's easy to underestimate the power of coordination if you've never seen it in action. A single insect is barely a nuisance, but a million insects working together is an entirely different matter."
"You have command of the city's defenses, as planned. I look forward to seeing what you can do with them," she said. "It's nearly time."
I nodded. "Go. And be safe."
"Always." Then she vanished.
With a titanic roar, the clouds split open, revealing the Weeping Dragon's enormous maw. It paused a dozen miles from the wall, allowing the echoes of its challenge to fade, glaring at us with malicious intelligence. Although it was a predator, it no longer killed merely out of instinct; it clearly enjoyed the pain and fear it inflicted. I was unmoved. The most dangerous enemies were cold, pragmatic, and efficient. Excess emotion was a nothing but an invitation to be manipulated.
The first to strike was the Herald of the Ghost-Blades. He crossed the dozen miles in the blink of an eye, leaving his comrades behind the city's defenses as he borrowed their power. A heavy two-handed sword Forged of grey-green madra and nearly two miles in length came crashing down on the Dreadgod's head. It met the blow with a similarly sized claw wreathed in lightning, and the two techniques detonated in a shockwave that blasted the torrential rain away for miles.
Then the battle began in earnest. The Dreadgod attacked with its massive claws and teeth, moving far faster than something so large had any right to. A constant barrage of deadly lightning flashed from its body and from the storm surrounding it. It was met by mile-long swords of blue ice or silver tinted red, lances of black fire that left patches of scales blackened and charred, and volleys of arrows that phased out of existence to bypass defenses. Purple mist gathered around the Dreadgod's head, and a legion of phantom soldiers sprung into existence, hacking at the massive body with blades that cut the mind and spirit instead of flesh.
I remained behind the city's defenses. Although the Weeping Dragon would no doubt be delighted to devour the entirety of Moongrave if it could, I'd foreseen that its main target was me, the person who had briefly dominated one of its brothers and grievously injured the other. The moment I stepped beyond the walls, it would target me relentlessly until I was dead. But I could still contribute. Under my guidance, the city's massive launcher batteries fired with perfect precision, each shot landing just as the Dreadgod was distracted by a more dangerous technique.
It was a battle of endurance. We were landing a steady stream of hits, but although each was powerful enough to devastate a small city, they did no more than superficial damage to the Dreadgod. The only blows it made sure to block came from the Empire. Meanwhile, a single direct blow from it would kill or cripple any of the Sages present. Mercy was significantly more durable, but even she wouldn't be able to take more than a few before her armor broke. They were forced to flit around the edges, taking shots and withdrawing, while the Empire drew most of the Dragon's attention.
Fortunately, the Empire was extremely well-suited to this sort of battle. After several minutes, the Ghost-Blade's Herald withdrew, falling back behind the walls to catch his breath while the Mountain Sage took his place. So long as they could continuously rotate their members, the Eight-Man Empire was a Monarch who would never grow exhausted or injured. In a battle of attrition, it was simply impossible for them to lose.
The Dragon quickly realized this, and its strategy changed. First, it focused more attacks on the supporting Sages, forcing them further back. With less pressure, the Mountain Sage was able to land the first real blow of the battle, his spear piercing deeply into the Dreadgod's shoulder. It roared in pain, but didn't seem overly inconvenienced. Ignoring him, it surged forwards towards the city.
I had only a few short seconds, but that was plenty. In perfect synchronization, millions of Golds stopped pouring power in the launcher batteries, directing it into the city's barriers instead. It flashed brilliantly purple as a claw the size of a skyscraper slammed into it like a meteor, but it held. Still, the scripts began cracking, unable to repel that kind of assault completely.
The attack didn't come for free. As the Dragon came close to the city, the Empire swapped again. From inside the walls, a flaming whip miles long lashed out and wrapped around the Dreadgod's leg. It tried to jerk back, but the Herald of Warband Flame-Gift held it in place for several seconds, and it again roared in pain as the burning whip bit into its scales. Half a dozen weaker but still powerful techniques slammed into it from behind as the others took advantage, and a moment later, the launcher batteries opened up on it from below as well.
Then the whip snapped, the Dragon whirling around and lashing back with lightning. Once again, I had to divert every scrap of power the city could muster to the barrier as its miles long tail slammed into it with continent-shattering force. The Empire sent its power back to the Mountain Sage, who summoned an enormous slab of stone to block its attacks as the others fell back.
The battle continued, but the Dreadgod remained close to the city. Every time the pressure on it faltered for a moment, it would turn and attack the barrier again, with blasts of lightning or its overwhelming physical strength. But the city's defensive scripts weren't just powerful, they were also massively redundant. At the current rate, I guessed that it would take the Dreadgod more than an hour to break through. Meanwhile, its aggressive posture meant it was quickly accumulating injuries, and although each of them were relatively minor, eventually they would start to add up.
If our goal was only to drive the Dreadgod off, maintaining the current strategy would probably do it. But the Dragon wasn't a mindless beast any longer. It knew we couldn't afford to actually kill it and further empower the remaining two. And even if we did kill it, we didn't have Penance; it would eventually be reborn. There was a real chance it would choose to stay and fight to the death. Better to give it an alternative now.
Mercy and the others began pressing the Dragon harder, coming in closer and staying longer. For a few minutes, the battle shifted in our favor as it was forced to spend more time defending itself and less time attacking the barrier. But then it managed to catch the Mountain Sage with a blow that sent him flying miles into the distance. It was hardly a lethal blow for a Monarch, but it meant the Empire was out of position for a few crucial seconds.
The Dragon surged away from the city, unleashing its full power on the others. Lindon surrounded himself and Yerin with the Hollow Domain as dozens of titanic lightning bolts struck at them from all directions, weakening what would be a lethal blow into a mere injury. The Winter Sage met the assault with a howling blizzard of razor-sharp ice, but she was also struck by a weakened bolt. She faltered in the air, leaving her unable to avoid a blow from the Dragon's claw that sent her flying away as well, still alive, but in much worse shape than the Mountain Sage.
Charity was forced to catch a lightning bolt on her shield. The Divine Treasure stopped the technique, but it still sent her slamming down into the ground. The Dreadgod turned to her next, its massive claw coming down to crush her. For a moment, my breath caught. Then the claw was caught and stopped by a giant in amethyst and obsidian armor. The blow drove Mercy to her knees, cracking the ground beneath her, but it gave Charity the moment she needed to slip away through space.
The Dreadgod let her go. Its focus was now on Mercy. Her form wasn't as large as her mother's, small enough that the Dragon could wrap its claws entirely around her torso. It lifted her entirely off her feet as it turned to block an arrow from the Bow Sage, now the focus of the Empire. Through the Strands of Unity, I could sense it pitting its will against her, preventing her from using the Moonlight Bridge to escape. It lifted her up to its enormous jaws and bit down.
Her armor cracked, clouds of violet essence pouring out of it as it began to disintegrate. I acted with no need for thought, stepping through space, and nothing blocked me. The Dragon wanted me here. Even as I unleashed my swarm, lightning bolts were already coming for me. I dodged down, avoiding all but one, which I blocked with my shield bracers. Now able to make full use of them, I focused the shield into a circular barrier rather than a sphere. The bolt still shattered it instantly, tendrils of lightning tracing painfully across my skin as the weakened technique came through.
Then my swarm manifested, and it was massive. The Weeping Dragon was an azure serpent over a dozen miles in length, but my swarm still nearly reached its tail. Still, the power in it was too weak to stand up to the Dragon's storm, which immediately began ripping into it. I brought it pouring in, transitioning to the Devouring Swarm. My authority slammed into the Dragon's will like a brick wall, and the technique failed to form. But that was expected; the point was simply to divide the Dragon's attention. I tried to step through space again, just to force it to keep more of its will on me.
Still, Mercy couldn't escape. The Dreadgod was still sawing at her armor with teeth the size of buildings, and it couldn't be more than a few seconds away from failing. My swarm was dwindling just as quickly, and could do absolutely nothing to harm the Dragon. But for the short time it lasted, the Dragon was blind.
An arrow struck the Dragon in its left eye, and it screamed in true agony. Its will faltered, just for a moment, but that was enough. In a flash, Mercy was gone, leaving her armor behind to disintegrate. I tried to escape as well, but I was the one it wanted more, and my spacial manipulation was still weaker than the Moonlight Bridge. Even through its pain, it managed to keep me where I was.
More lightning burst from the storm, and this time it wove itself into a net. The Dragon didn't know exactly where I was, but it knew I was close. The net surrounded me, preventing me from escaping physically, and toasting the remainder of my swarm as well. Then it began shrinking.
Attacks hammered the Dreadgod from all sides. Lindon and Yerin had already recovered, and were hitting it with everything they had. So had Charity, and she was attempting to break the net from the outside. Now a safe distance away, Mercy was firing arrows at its head along with the Bow Sage. The launcher batteries on the wall, still under my control, also joined in.
The Dragon fell back, blocking only the most dangerous attacks, but it didn't let the net break. In the space of a couple of seconds, it shrunk from over a mile wide to half that. I didn't bother trying to break free from the inside; that would only tell the Dragon where I was. I was thoroughly trapped, with absolutely no way out. Invisible, I allowed myself to smirk slightly. Then the net snapped shut, and my body and spirit were torn apart by the Dreadgod's full power.
I let out a breath and opened my eyes, my real eyes, feeling utterly drained. I'd put every scrap of power I could muster into the simulacrum the Weeping Dragon had just devoured, even portions of my blood aura and lifeline. It had been the only way to make it sufficiently convincing. But unlike the injury I'd suffered before, this one could be healed purely with rest and elixirs, albeit expensive ones. They were already waiting for me next to the bed I was lying in, still in the room where I'd met Emriss.
That had been much closer than I liked. The Weeping Dragon had waited until the perfect moment to strike, coming dangerously close to killing both Charity and Mercy. We'd used its cleverness against it, its presumed knowledge from either Shen or the Silent King that the only way to draw me out would be to threaten one or both of them, but I'd intended to have more than a handful of seconds to step in. Still, it had worked. Even now, I could sense the Dreadgod in full retreat, thoroughly battered. Hopefully it would take at least a couple of months to recover and become a problem again.
In the meantime, I was wearing a veil of incredible power, which I'd crafted together with Emriss. As far as Fate was concerned, the Shadow Sage had died during the battle. It couldn't last forever; the more I acted, and the more people who learned the truth, the harder it would be to conceal my survival. Shen would doubtless be suspicious anyway since I'd faked my death against him before, so to sell it, the clan would attempt a poor coverup of my supposed death. Most of the burden would fall on Mercy to play the part convincingly. It would have been safer to let her think I really had died, but that was one line I absolutely refused to cross.
Fortunately, the charade only needed to last until my next task was done, and that task would take me off the face of the earth as thoroughly as if I really had died. I just wished I'd have slightly less irritating company for it.
sooooo, is she a Shadow Crown Sage, Crown Shadow Sage, Shadowed Crown Sage, Crowned shadow Sage or just a Shadow Sage who's also a Crown Sage actually are Crown Sages even a thing? since apparently only monarchs can get the crown icon and no monarch has been said to be a sage