Percy already had too many questions. The titaness had ntioned that they didn’t have much ti, so he didn’t hesitate to start voicing them.
“You said that the Moirai were only the second faction to succeed? Who was the first?”
“The people of Lai Tae,” Ishkuria said. “They chose a more direct approach. Why bother with all the hassle of learning to fuse elents from multiple cores – which they don’t even have a Decree for – when they could simply address the fundantal problem with calamity affinities right at its source?”
“I’m not sure I’m following,” Percy admitted.
“Their most famous free-type Decree strengthens their cores, allowing them to house a third common elent. For the Lai Tae, using a calamity affinity is as simple as absorbing an extra affinity-changing treasure. The rest is done automatically inside their body – no understanding needed.”
Percy drew a sharp breath. Such a Decree might not be quite on par with the Moirais’ or Void Decrees, but it was definitely better than every other free-type Decree he had seen so far in the tournant. Didn’t that an that every Lai Tae deity without a rare affinity would basically skip over half of the Elental Acquisition stage?
Leaving aside how helpful this would be for mages in the Concept realm, those in the Colour realm would benefit even more. Wouldn’t a calamity affinity essentially make a mortal unbeatable before their ascension?
Needless to say, Percy already made a ntal note to visit this Lai Tae place – or faction – one day.
“It’s not perfect. Their children still cannot awaken a calamity affinity randomly, though I believe that they do have a small chance of inheriting it from their parents. Also, those with rare affinities have nothing to gain from this, and those with common elents have a lower ceiling as gods, so the Lai Tae rely produce a greater number of deities of mid-to-high strength rather than any truly exceptional figures. If we had to choose, our Decree is definitely better, though it’s admittedly a personal goal of mine to try and replicate theirs as well.”
“Wow. That’s still quite a powerful Decree,” Percy said. “How co the peak factions haven’t bullied them into sharing it?”
“Believe , everyone wants to, but it’s not that simple. Lai Tae might not be quite at the level of the Moirai or our alliance, yet they are not far off. They are considered one of the top ten most powerful factions in the universe – probably stronger than the founding mbers of the Void Hand are individually. A peak faction could still destroy them, but the losses would outweigh the gains, which is why our alliance has adopted a softer approach, trying to recruit them into our ranks.”
“I’m guessing they said no.”
“Sadly,” Ishkuria confird. “Another way to master calamity affinities would be to send our mortals to the corresponding Elental Sources.”
“Do such things even exist?” Percy asked, having never heard of them.
“Calamity affinities are stable, so there’s no reason why there wouldn’t be Elental Sources for them. However, nobody has ever seen one, so the current hypothesis is that the higher-order Sources have all sohow ended up in the unexplored regions of the universe. We aren’t sure how that happened, yet that’s the only explanation that makes sense.”
“That’s probably a good thing,” Percy said.
If the Elental Source of a calamity affinity found itself on a populated planet, it would spell disaster for its inhabitants. Assuming that such Sources behaved like the rest, they would basically force their affinity into the mana core of every mortal unlucky enough to be born on that world. That would be deadly for any faction but the Lai Tae.
“Well… if we did control one such Source, we could just keep the planet empty and only sent our mages there to ditate, but I suppose there is no point in even discussing such arrangents before we locate the Sources,” the titaness explained.
“Okay. So subjugating, recruiting, or stealing from the Lai Tae is a work in progress, and the Elental Sources are missing. That ans that the only way to master calamity affinities at the mont is to throw mortals with two cores at the problem until one of them gets lucky,” Percy summarized.
“Pretty much. Unfortunately, the Moirai have a vast nurical advantage of two-cored mages over us, and it doesn’t help that nobody who receives the Void Decree would willingly select anything but a rare affinity for their new core.”
Percy couldn’t help but frown. “I’m guessing that this is the sacrifice you want to make?”
Ishkuria nodded. “I know that it’s a lot to ask – I’m basically asking you to cripple your future potential as a god to aid in my research. However, know that you will be helping our entire alliance trendously if we succeed. I’ve been trying to convince the others to lend a research subject or two for a long ti, but nobody is willing to listen.”
“Hold on.” Percy raised his host’s hand to stop the titaness. “Leaving aside whether I’m interested in contributing to your project, I still don’t understand why you need my help. You’ve mastered all the combinations of common affinities already, haven’t you?”
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“Correct. Every god at the peak of the Elental Acquisition stage has mastered not just all the common, composite, and calamity affinities, but even the four- and five-elent fusions.” The titaness sighed. “However, there are certain nuances that I can only explore by studying a mortal wielding a calamity affinity.”
“How so?”
“Kassorith, do you know what the difference is between a mortal and a god who possess the sa affinity?”
Percy considered the question for a mont. “Comprehension? A mage in the Colour realm doesn’t necessarily understand how the elent works. They were just born with it, and the mana type is generated automatically inside their core. anwhile, a god has to actively understand and incorporate the associated concept into their internal world.”
“Precisely,” Ishkuria said. “The sa is true of blessings, actually. The child of a deity may be lucky enough to inherit one of the concepts the parent has mastered, or they may absorb one into their core from a Ring of Sacrilege, but they still need to comprehend that concept during their ascension if they wish to keep it. On the other hand, deities who use the Rings have to actively comprehend the associated concepts to absorb them – not just circulate mana through the artifacts.”
Percy creased his scaled brow. He would have to put in so work if he wanted to retain his own blessing of permanence through his ascension, otherwise he would have to waste more ti acquiring it again.
‘No, wait. That’s not even an option for ,’ he reminded himself.
If he lost the blessing even briefly, his four spectral traits would tear his soul apart. Imdiately planting the concept of permanence into his internal world was arguably going to be even more important than retaining his elents. Failing to achieve the forr would directly kill him, while failing at the latter would only turn him into a weaker deity.
Great… as if the Lone Wanderer’s apotheosis wasn’t going to be complicated enough already.
“What’s your end goal though?” he asked again. “Let’s say I agree to your request and pick a composite affinity for my new core. How do you know that I will succeed in mastering a calamity elent if it’s so difficult? And even if I do, how exactly will that help you?”
“You will succeed for two main reasons: because anybody capable of casting a Refined spell inside my Decree with a composite elent that they do not possess is, undoubtedly, the most promising candidate I could have ever hoped for. Furthermore, I’m also prepared to sacrifice a lot to help you.”
“And then what? You’ll have one mortal capable of casting a couple of calamity spells,” Percy pointed out.
“That’s more important than you think,” Ishkuria replied. “Studying you will hopefully allow to upgrade my Decree, so that it simulates calamity affinities on top of common and composite ones. I doubt that my colleagues will be convinced to let our mortals create non-rare second cores – even with such a tool at our disposal – but at least our gods will have an easier ti climbing through the Elental Acquisition stage. Furthermore, my long-term project is to cast my own version of the Lai Tae’s Decree, which will have an even greater positive impact on the alliance.”
Percy fell silent upon hearing the titaness’ explanation. He now understood what she wanted from him and why, though that didn’t an that he was ready to volunteer.
While he had no intention of selecting anything but a rare affinity for his new core, he technically didn’t need to make any sacrifices. Between the ice and acid mana he could borrow from Micky and Nephthys, he already t Ishkuria’s requirents. Hell, even Kassorith did – through his tal and lava cores.
The thought of receiving guidance from the Inimit deity was tempting, but could Percy agree to her request without exposing his secrets?
‘Depending on how the Void Decree works, we might be able to avoid activating it imdiately, or we could use tatron’s sludge to block it while clearing Kassorith’s second core and pretending it’s the new one,’ Micky suggested.
‘Not a chance,’ Kassorith protested. ‘Even if we can do that without getting caught, Ishkuria is going to wonder why I picked a lava affinity when I could have selected one that doesn’t partially overlap with my first core.’
‘Maybe we can claim that it happened by accident.’ The Huehuan ntally shrugged. ‘We still have no idea how the Decree actually works, so there might be a loophole we can bla.’
‘Forget it,’ Percy interjected while taphorically shaking his head. ‘We’ll leave as soon as we get the Void Decree. Not up for debate.’
Every second they spent in the alliance’s territory was a risk. Staying longer than necessary would only increase the odds of them or Lanthaniel getting caught. They couldn’t afford to lose everything they had gained in the tournant just for this, and they wouldn’t be able to receive Ishkuria’s guidance anyway if they weren’t here.
Besides, helping the titaness ant helping the Void Hand grow even stronger. Percy would rather avoid that, which was the only reason he had made his life difficult by not taking advantage of his boosting art.
His companions didn’t argue with him, clearly agreeing with his decision. He was about to turn Ishkuria down, when she spoke first. “Which calamity affinity would you pick?”
Percy frowned. “Lady Ishkuria, I’m truly honoured by your offer, but I–”
“Please humour this. You don’t have to agree to anything. Just… which combination of three elents would you choose to work on if you only had the chance to focus on one?”
Percy smiled helplessly, though he didn’t want to offend the goddess. “Eh… What can I say? I like the ice affinity, so I guess I would have tried combining it with lightning.”
He chose his words carefully, so as to smuggle his friends’ affinities as sothing that Kassorith could realistically select. The fact that Percy had used ice during the event only made his interest in it more believable.
Percy could tell that his host wasn’t happy with an elent that he couldn’t actually wield, but this was just a hypothetical anyway. Even if it wasn’t, it was Percy and Micky who had won the competition and earned this eting, so Kassorith wouldn’t get a vote.
“Storm it is, then,” the titaness said with a nod, the certainty in her voice giving Percy a bad feeling.
“Lady Ishkuria? Like I was just trying to tell you, I’m afraid that I’ll have to decline. I just don’t think I want to give up on a rare aff–”
The goddess wasn’t even listening to him. A colourful vortex blossod in her sternum, reminding Percy of when Lanthaniel had invited them into his internal world. He only caught a fleeting glimpse of Ishkuria’s, though it was enough to tell that it was far larger and more complete.
Oblivious to his thoughts, the titaness jamd her fist into the portal, causing her whole body to spasm violently. Percy hadn’t known that gods could enter their own internal worlds and, from the looks of it, they weren’t supposed to.
“Lady Ishkuria! What are you doing?!”
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