The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son' Chapter 355 - Doubtful Eyes Wary Of The Patterns Of Deceptio

A sealed dispatch case erged from the sergeant’s field pack that he extended toward the fad cultivator with both hands. While the soldiers established a temporary periter around the area, Corde broke the seal and assessed several docunts organized by priority markers.

Most were tactical updates from the Void Defense Society, listing overall troop movents, fort consolidation plans, resource allocations, and confird secondary breaches. Standard fare that she skimd through efficiently, knowing where the key bits of information were always placed.

The third docunt caught her attention. A copy of a Continental Army intelligence brief with Void Defense Society verification stamps. Her eyes narrowed as she read the title.

/ Incident Report: Gravity Anomaly Research Site

Classification: Command (Release)

Summary: Research operation compromised by leader-class Voidling incursion. Ritual containnt catastrophically failed, destroying anomalous sigilry. Leader-class entity neutralized by Order cultivator Qatrand er Yecine (Swordsman, Gravity elentalist for project). Second confird leader-class elimination by this sa cultivator within short period. Continental Comndation already approved on First (see Incident Report: Ergency Late Town Evacuation).

Tactical note: Developnt of ’Cynosure Formation’ utilizing unique Physique. Application docunted by Steelbound Tempest Brotherhood. Formation demonstrated effectiveness against remaining hostile forces.

Notable Additional Personnel as Witness: Void Defense Society observation officer Ryder er Phorphor. Coiled Serpent Guild researchers (multiple, see appendix). Elua er Goltbred (support sigilist). Steelbound Tempest Brotherhood martial cultivators (multiple, see appendix).

Recomndation: Priority consideration for mobile response team formation centered around sub-docunted tactical advantage. Forward to... /

Corde read the lengthy passage twice, her expression seeming nonchalant despite her deep surprise. Two leader-class Voidlings by the ti this was penned and released. Confird kills by her own Guild, not just unverified reports and rumors.

’Unusual, even for established veterans. And it isn’t just a matter of skill, but of luck - for the continent is a big place. The strongest of us sotis simply do not get placed where they appear.’

Her thoughts turned to the Yecine heir from the competition grounds. Competent technique, solid fundantals, but nothing that suggested this would happen. Their duel, however, had been primarily one of physical ability and she could recognize how additional variables such as a useful Aspect can turn the tides.

Her own Elent was one such case, and even her Physique was useful against Voidlings - and other cultivators. Anti-Essence made it so that, any ti she did get maid by a lucky blow from the invaders, it ended as no more than a rending tear. Without any of the Void essence miasma taking hold.

Ondue er Goltbred also had a similarly useful defensive Physique, his Anti-Slash working fine enough to prevent so of the barbed shapes from catching on his skin. Pierces were still dangerous, but being able to shrug off a third of the attacks that got through his mid-range fighting style was still... an advantage.

And she did think that an Elent like Gravity, manipulated by one who knew what they were doing, could easily be as beneficial as Fire or Frost. However, it was the Physique ntioned that drew most of her attention... just like it did in that brief mont during their ’friendly duel’ at the competition. A small but tense mont where Corde had lost her ntal control.

The ntion of Elua er Goltbred... triggered the Frozen Duskblade’s suspicions from the ti at that venue. That calculating girl, with eyes sotis too old for her face, had been present for both incidents. A coincidence that felt purposeful - like soone trying to hide behind another’s presence.

Flipping to the attached field sketch of the ’Cynosure Formation’, the swordswoman studied the tactical arrangent. It supposedly centered around a Physique that drew enemy attention relentlessly - creating predictable attack patterns for allies to exploit.

Clever. Effective. And incredibly dangerous for the central figure as well as everyone else if they fell unexpectedly.

’A formation that places the Yecine directly in harm’s way, while others benefit from the ease of attacking. But no ntion of the heiress being required to be there.’

Her lips pressed into a thin line as she considered the implications of the fault in her reasoning. The Goltbred heiress had been fascinated with the Yecine heir from their first eting, it was said. An arranged marriage despite the obvious personality mismatch.

And now that spouse was being thrust into increasingly perilous situations, achieving impossible feats. The sort of things the one who once controlled herself had done. Pushing her forward into danger, the adult she trusted in the other continent she grew up on used promises and Illusions to trick her.

Had done so until Corde’s Shield Astralism managed to prevent it the first ti. And the next. Pretending to go along with everything until she was sure that her guardian was truly irredeemable.

Corde returned the docunts to their case with only a little crumpling on one corner. A mory had surfaced... watching the small brunette whispering to her much taller spouse during the competition. The Yecine’s expression shifting from a sense of uncertainty to determination after each exchange.

’So familiar. How can it not be the sa? Projection... It is very hard to believe that is all her Aspect is. But how do I prove it?’

The sergeant approached, seeing she was done reading. His boots crunched over cobblestones that had grown frost-slicked thanks to the emotionally imbalanced cultivator letting her essence run too wild. A downside to making production of more Frost second nature, was that it often continued when she wasn’t focusing on it.

"Ma’am, our orders are to escort you to your next assignnt if the situation here is resolved."

"Location?"

"Agricultural district west of here."

Corde’s pale fingers secured the dispatch case to the hook on her belt. The administrative center of this region’s evacuation efforts was in that direction. Not where she would typically be assigned, but the Void Defense Society had emphasized her priority was information sharing during this Descent cycle.

And she had been out exploring for three weeks now since the first incursion, looking for signs of breaches or gatherings to destroy. This had just been the latest. If the Guild leaders thought she needed sothing of a break by handling so other task, she would not argue for a few days.

For Corde hez Iralev, the Frozen Duskblade, such monts were often when important things happened that she never expected. Like the older woman in charge of her orphanage slipping in her room, thinking that the illusions had taken hold. After four Descents and countless battles on military and personal fronts, she recognized patterns.

The extraordinarily mundane often ca with extraordinary costs.

And soone was always left paying the price.

⟠ ⟠ ⟠

The journey passed without any major incident other than Corde hez Iralev noting the contrast between this region and the zones she’d patrolled previously. Mostly independent towns with harsher paths and more ’hiding places’ to look through.

Here, despite the conflict, the already harvested fields stood in orderly rows of soil. Stone-reinforced silos that had been emptied into the forts across the continent rose from the landscape, surrounded by their own defensive earthworks. Locations built just in case of too-early Descents when the harvests needed protection.

The main fortress in this area had been a trading outpost before being rapidly expanded for war centuries ago. Old stonework and new construction caused the fort-city to encircle not just the military administrative headquarters but also substantial civilian housing.

’Important families first, of course.’

"Halt for identification!"

After the usual procedures led to the usual one or two guardsn gushing, she was finally let in. Within the fort’s walls, civilian and military activities intertwined in the average chaos that was uniquely more ’warti’ than any other.

Supply wagons unloaded preserved goods to the ration stations while craftspeople repaired equipnt. Healers tended to the wounded in open-air dical tents. Minimal readiness drills were perford by marching mortals.

Before reporting where she was supposed to, Corde’s attention was drawn to an estate in the fort’s deep interior. Unlike the utilitarian structures surrounding it, this property maintained a semblance of refinent that marked it as a residence. High walls with decorative capstones, reinforced gates with a particular insignia.

’The Talcres family mark.’

A particular couple at the competition grounds had seed to be sponsoring two young cultivators. The woman had even been quite vocal in her admiration during Corde’s frost sword demonstration. For that reason alone, she was sowhat hesitant to approach... but these people might have information she did not.

On Qatrand er Yecine and Elua er Goltbred - supposed friends of the two orphan children. Easy proximity and a deep curiosity prompted the detour. The Continental Army escort exchanged glances when she changed direction, but followed without comnt.

At the gate, a steward with the bearing of a retired cultivator examined her credentials with appropriate respect. He looked quite baffled, in the way that people who served her ’fans’ usually were... that she would *dare* approach and subject herself to their enthusiasm.

Within a courtyard that seed to have been converted into a decent training ground, practice dummies and equipnt stood in orderly arrangent. Two young figures moved through specialized martial forms easily recognized as the Continental Army’s hand-to-hand style.

The teenage girl with dark braided hair and green eyes moved with solid flowing movents. Her counterpart, a sandy haired and lanky boy kept up with less refined but passionate execution. Corde recognized them imdiately.

The scholarly young man and the combat-support girl who had trailed behind the heiress at the competition at tis like friends and others like servants. Her probing had suggested they worked under her as assistants, formally, in a way of sponsorship. And through that had t this other older cultivator couple.

As she watched them without any notice yet, a woman erged from the main house. Seeing their steward her expression shifted from polite inquiry to undisguised enthusiasm as her steps allowed her to see that behind him was the fad swordswoman herself!

"F-frozen Duskblade! What an honor!"

Zyris er Talcres approached with barely contained excitent, not quite the highly rapid ’teleporting’ movents of the reincarnated cultivator... but still clearly using a Primalist’s speed effectively.

"Please, you must be weary from your duties. I heard you haven’t been-... I an, uhm. Refreshnt? Rest? Should I just shut up and go away?"

"...Thank you, but I’m here on official business. I can’t stay long."

The swordswoman kept her tone even despite the woman’s excessive familiarity. The one’s that you weren’t sure whether it was ’safe’ to refuse or not were the worst. She began to suspect that the presence of Ondua er Goltbred, despite the man also being soone who looked up to her too much, had *evened* this woman out considerably.