Ebony's Fable

“How long have you been here!?” Oplot’s large hands smashed both of his shoulders together but were heavily slowed down by Ebony’s repulsion before the palms finally broke through and touched him.

“Here, I assume you mean Elcra. 9 Elcrian years. It seems like you know me?” The handshake already alerted Ebony but knowing his translated name was unexpected.

“Hey hey, you know me too. Did you forget me?” Oplot released him and put on an aggrieved expression.

“I would remember seeing a giant on Earth.” Ebony would easily recall seeing the tallest human but with the bulk to allow bears to climb on his back.

“What? No, we were the same age. I was smaller than you.” The Emperor’s browless brows squeezed closer together.

“...You are over one or two centuries old. I’m 26.” It was common knowledge that the current titled Emperor was on the same party as the Barrier King and Life Queen when they were younger. They were people in the same age range and generation.

“Were. Surely you’re aware of the time dilation. How was your arrival? Any mishaps?” Oplot spoke as if time dilations were as common as…he supposed dungeons had minor time dilations, which shouldn’t be surprising.

“Let’s sit down and have a talk.” Ebony had a lot to ask.

“AH! Right, I don’t have time. Come, hit me. Mana should be no problem for you.”

Ebony wasn’t disappointed. He had his priorities straight and did not want to hold this man back from the battlefield. His presence would save a lot of people.

Physical contact made it many times easier to freeze something with a strong magical resistance. It made little to no difference when it came to Oplot’s body. It was like he was attempting to push water through a seamless lump of steel.

He surrounded the three of them in a solid bubble of mana to prevent the shockwave that would be about to be unleashed. ‘Xin’s charging up, looks like she’s seriously trying to hurt Oplot and see how ‘indestructible’ he is. He must be able to sense her life force rising but no reaction. I don’t know enough about him to calculate the damage he’ll receive and Xin’s still charging up. So her Intuition must be telling her an attack now would be pointless.’

Ebony took this time to ramp up and stack his freezing spells and capabilities. Dusk was present to provide a small range Domain while he only burned his regeneration without dipping into his pool. Having met the Archduke of Elves, he was sure very few people specialised in mana regeneration.

There must be some condition hampering people from focusing on this route despite how crucial it was for mages.

Humans choose their Archduke by achievements.

Dwarves by their smithing ability.

Beastmen by their strength.

On the other hand, he couldn’t tell how the Elves decided. In his opinion, there must be a lot of elders that were thousands of years old and were stronger than the current Archduke and Archduchess of Elves. That was simply how their race operated.

Ebony managed to spar with the elite squad of the Imperial Army a year ago. They had an impressive combined power. A squad of thirty completely suppressed him but they seemed to judge it as him suppressing them. It took a squad of forty, with enough support mages, before they could harm him.

He estimated that a squad of fifty would be lethal to him. While a squad of forty would depend on which side burned each other out first. He didn’t use visible flames back then.

That elite force’s power increased exponentially with the number of support mages and some ratios changed depending on their opponent. For example, they deemed it more efficient to ultra-buff 1 knight instead of 2 or 3 when numbers didn’t work well against Ebony. Until a group of knights with better teamwork was set against him.

Using that as a reference point, the Empire could deal with huge individual threats using numbers, good equipment and a variety of special skills. Otherwise, he didn’t see why the Elves would play along with the Nobility and join the Empire. So a small number of highly trained and strong Elves did not feel comfortable overpowering the Empire as a whole.

Still, he was disappointed that the elite knights didn’t have an Art for their close combat. It was tier 3 masteries at best. The sword and shield combo was steady and stable but nothing stood out, that’s why it was a technique that depended on how much they were buffed. Till they were significantly stronger in terms of stats. If their opponent had poor technique to begin with they would require a smaller amount of support mages.

It was obvious to Ebony since they swapped a few groups but they swapped out the anti-personnel squads to a mix of an anti-monster one. They needed protection for their mages and mid-ranges from Ebony's spells since he could hold 7 to 8 cast at the same time. Even if their support mages could maintain their spells from a hundred kilometres away, he just needed to slip away and Flicker towards them and he could wipe them out.

It was a practice exercise, so he didn’t do that repeatedly. When they were all within his mental range, he just bombarded their back row while coping with the front rows. Until a squad size of fifty, he could slip away from the knights whenever he wanted dedicated support mages had very few methods of defending themselves against him.

Icicle shot towards him and placed itself within his grip. With Ice Mana Decree, the pitch-black greatsword, now melded and had its composition completely changed, greedily swallowed his mana. Melding and augmenting himself, he ignored that Oplot didn’t require physical forces. The buff would help send his ice deeper and more forcefully.

Two of his clones leapt at him and attacked him, feeding him momentum while he did a defensive sword dance based on his clones' attacks. He had no specific forms.

Battle Hymn switched to Intelligence and Constitution buff. Tempestuous Lull Pelt sharpened Icicle’s edge. Sonic Reverberation readied itself to lodge itself. Torrent Path took its own sweet time trying to latch a point in space close to Oplot’s body but it wasn’t quite succeeding. This man’s magic body was far greater than anything Ebony had seen. He had trouble conjuring any mana outside his body near this man.

And his Domain was present.

It was a fresh experience to see how far a magic body could go to interrupt a mage. ‘It’s practically a natural, physical domain…is that the heights that a pure warrior route should be able to reach? Is Xin trying to reach something similar? But I don’t sense Vitality around us from Oplot, unlike Xin.’

Whenever he couldn’t connect two points, he would just cast a short distance linear line around Icicle’s edge and use repulsion instead of attraction. It carried the same effect.

Tolerant Stalwart Foundation was always going within him but he refreshed the formula’s pathways once again as a habit.

Another habit was Icicle turning completely transparent. It wasn’t always useful, but feints could easily be used if he conjured a few phantoms or ice versions around him.

His Domain didn’t strengthen or stabilise lightning, so he couldn’t even conjure or imbue lightning thanks to Oplot.

“Assist me.”

Ning Xin broke the sound barrier under the effects of Manifestation of Natural Preservation and slashed at him with both swords coming from the same direction. His clones weren’t fast or strong enough to give him more momentum. When she was at work, they didn’t need a second for their sword to clash dozens of times.

‘I’m at 197 stacks, it’s beginning to strain me.’ Arctic Rivertide Greatsword Technique was building up together with Ethereal Fluid Blitz.

On strike 202, Ning Xin launched him into the air with far greater acceleration than all his stacks combined with an upper swing. Not done, she was in the air above him before his body was launched up. Posturing for her best strike, the sword thrust, her large flaming wings flapped hard to counter the force she exerted and pierced at the tip of Icicle mid-flight.

Ebony took that and tried to use as much of the momentum of that strike before landing a Stalactite Sunder on Oplot’s shoulder.

It slid across his wide chest and landed on the ground but Oplot’s body absorbed everything. Not an ounce of energy or force was transmitted to the ground. Ebony couldn’t tell how deep his ice mana went before he lost connection with them. Not a scratch on The Indestructible’s bronze skin.

“Hoho. That got past my passives, got some in the bank.”

‘Of course he didn’t use any active defences if he wanted damage. Bank huh, makes sense. Even if I set ice mana ablaze, it wouldn’t make a difference.’ The contact allowed Calculated Hunch to do its job.

He was already certain, Oplot was as highly combat-focused or had perfect skill combinations with fully maxed-out Fortifications if not more. They wouldn’t be on the same playing field until they were King-ranked as well. He might be the opposite of Ning Xin. No offence and pure defence.

Ebony stood back up, poked Icicle onto Oplot’s belly and just continued the normal freezing while Ning Xin was still on edge. He was getting the jitters, ‘how long is she going to charge life force?’

Her mask had half of her blood halo razoring on the vertical line that grew on it. He suspected it was an external way of cycling blood and energy, raising the amount of life force she could push through her veins or decreasing the burden on her body.

The jitters weren't how he felt. It was his body reacting under the effects of her overflowing Vitality and blood magic mixed. It demanded all other creatures with blood flowing inside their bodies to fear her.

He had been practically immune to most if not all overflowing Vitality he had encountered so for his body to react so strongly was rare. Too bad it was useless against him, his body would move just as naturally when a fight begins through muscle memory alone. If his body couldn’t move, his mind would move it for him. Trying to knock his mind out was not something Xin was capable of.

Landing on the tips of her boot, she dispersed her wings and had her hands on her sheathed swords.

Oplot watched curiously as ten minutes passed. During the ten minutes, Ebony managed to freeze past skin and a palm-sized patch of ice on his target showed his achievement. It was crazy to think that this was just his passive, physical body without any mana-based skills to strengthen himself.

‘By the looks of it, she’s not confident she can deal any damage or find any weak points with her chef profession. Twelve minutes is her limit, any more and she pops like a balloon no regeneration can help.’

Ebony’s mana dome did its job and prevented people around them from waking up or hearing their exchange.

She was originally going to thrust straight at Oplot’s neck but she shifted her blades a tiny bit right after contact. Her swords would snap in two instead of stabbing through. Ebony could estimate that and a swordsman of her calibre understood the limits of their weapon better than he could.

Although their swords received another round of upgrades in terms of runic reinforcements, they weren’t reforged. Suitable materials were hard to find, even for Kong Jing. Xeng craftsmen’s speciality were creations that could grow. Malleability and adaptability over direct strength, it didn’t mean that Icicle or Ning Xin’s swords were any weaker compared to weapons made from materials of the same quality but it wasn’t the crafter’s main aim.

“Scarlet…I remember now, you are Madam Veronica’s granddaughter. No wonder, I did not expect to have my blood drawn today. I’m sorry, I’ve spent more time than I allocated. And thank you, I’ll try to look for you once I get some free time.” Oplot rubbed his thick thumb where two sharp swords pierced up and wiped the drop of blood that squeezed themselves out of the bag of muscle.

‘His heat resistance is far higher than cold. But his physical and pure mana or magical resistance which also relates to elemental resistance like fire and ice is the main key of his defence. How about a soul attack? Never mind, we’re not showing each other everything.’ Oplot took something out from a pouch tied to his waist, under leg guards that were sort of like tassets but only covered the sides and not the front and back.

Seeing that it was a myriad bracelet, Ebony took his out and tapped it against Oplot’s. After a few seconds, he got the contact link with The Indestructible. Most callstones, including his and probably Oplot’s don’t work anymore thanks to the constant bombardment of magic but they could still make new contact links. If one was lucky, they could make a call within the Fortress that was protected with a stable barrier so it wasn’t so bad.

They don’t wear bracelets anymore. It would turn to dust after minutes of proper combat. Since their control was good, overflowing essences weren’t an issue and Ebony did not have excess mana when he was near Dusk.

“Then I’ll see you in a bit.” Oplot had better things to do than catch up and chat with an earthling.

“Mmm.”

Ebony resigned and lifted up the slumped unconscious woman who was acting tough by staying on her feet but was already conked out as a defence mechanism of her body. He tossed her back in Dusk and summoned new bedding and cushions around her.

He cooked up a feast with the ever-abundant ant flesh to prepare for her awakening.

‘It’s not worth the effort to attempt to surface back to Tidal when it’ll be hard to come back down. I can’t go up and going out to fight is pointless when King-ranked ants aren’t worth much but Emperor-ranked ones are too strong and are targeting us in groups. I’ll stick with regrowing Dusk and provide mana and Battle Hymn, let’s try to get Battle Hymn to tier 3 and finish up Marsh’s Grove Conduit editing in the meantime.

Xin would be hungry for battle but could settle for hunting the protected King-ranked Tetramyths meant to be levelled instead of being used as war assets. She can come back safely as long as she stays within the Fortress’ magic towers and traditional weaponry range. I’ll send all the clones out for battle experience so I don’t lag behind. Sounds like a plan.’

Ebony realised how lacking his mana regeneration capabilities were and wanted to get Battle Hymn up to par together with a new skill which hopefully, did not just increase his mana capacity but also regeneration. It was what the skill book promised but he couldn’t copy it one for one with his body’s constitution and physique.

By the skill book’s explanation, it increases ‘base’ mana capacity by a certain percentage of its working capacity and because it increases ‘base’ cap, so does mana regeneration which works on base. This was an incredibly high value skill because skills always worked multiplicatively on top of stats and ‘base’ stats that may or may not be hidden.

Anything that directly increases a ‘base’ effect would be like a Conditioning type skill. Ebony believed that these were the type of skills that refined a Physique the most efficiently contrary to the belief that enhancement magic was the best or fastest way.

As a result, even though Coagulated Mana Repository indirectly increased his mana capacity, he did not receive a mana regeneration boost from it. Or so he hypothesised.

“Hector.” Ebony made a call hoping the prince didn’t jump out to find yet.

By the groaning that transmitted, he had still been sleeping.

“Whaaat-”

“I’ll be sticking around and working as the rejuvenator. Is there a spot most populated with mages? After some time, I’ll increase my range using the piano-the pittaw. I should be able to cover almost the entire fortress if you can get me a good spot near the centre of the fortress.”

“Ughnn, call Mal or -” Hector continued with a snore.

“These stamina heavy fighters are unreliable,” Ebony said out loud. Mages were said to require more sleep but warriors slept harder once they exhausted themselves. The sense of security must be forcing their bodies to stay in a state of rest until they get back to normal.

Mallory didn’t pick up the call.

Ebony shook his head and sat in front of his piano, changing and focusing his state of mind. ‘I want everyone who hears this to be instilled with vigour and inexhaustible energy.’ He wouldn’t say he fully understands what music is, but he mechanically understood Will and emotions better.

He didn’t imbue mana to extend the range of the piano further but instantly felt Dusk being drained. There were too many people within a 200 kilometre radius. Even providing a 0.01% compressed version of Battle Hymn was taking out too much from him with so many people. He pinpointed the strongest 10% and let Calculated Hunch work out who to give a stronger buff and who to give a weaker version.

Everyone past his current mental range of 12.8 km radius got a default of 0.0001% compressed Battle Hymn. He could only decompress to that point with near-perfect precision even though he wanted to decompress further his control with decompression wasn’t as good as compression.

Grandmaster’s were truly different from Masters. He hadn’t even felt his mental range’s growth slow down. It might be thanks to him increasing his Wisdom but even so, the limit was far away. It was only going slow because he demanded perfect control over his mana within this range. A ‘genius’ artillery mage at Master rank had a range of 150 km radius but that was a person with at least 80 years of active experience. Most would have a range of 50 km.

So Ebony had never lied or acted humble, his range was his weak point. Artillery mages never had good control over their spell’s redirection after firing them even within their so-called range limit. It made spells that were already fired easy to dodge. His range was closer to a mage that went past walls or out of a magic tower.

‘I wonder if I can get paid in Purples. I can be considered a working adult right?’ Ebony thought about how he was going to ask for payment. Soldiers get paid. He should be paid and Purples was something he wanted to experiment with but didn’t have access to.