The Lone Wanderer

Chapter 673 – Backup plan

‘You can’t be seriously planning to possess Zurvanai!’ Kassorith yelled internally, and not for the first time.

‘Will you pipe down already?’ Percy replied with a mental eyeroll as they stepped onto the teleportation platform. ‘She needs to agree first but, either way, this isn’t any of your business.’

‘Not my business?! We had a deal! Forcing me to pick a Decree I don’t like is one thing but you can’t just ditch me for a different host the first chance you get!’ the Thess’kalan insisted.

After getting beamed back to Maradion, Percy took a break from the internal conversation to thank and bid Nawko farewell. The woman had helped him a lot during his stay, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever see her again, so this was the least she deserved. Only after he and his host set course for the nearest terminal did he bother addressing Kassorith’s outburst.

‘For the hundredth time, my deal was with Metatron, not you. I’m sure that he would prefer that you get a third core too, but I’m the one he ultimately cares about. Me getting the Void Decree might result in an unlimited number of three-cored test subjects. If hopping onto a host with better odds is my only way of accomplishing that, you’ll just have to count yourself unlucky.’

Kassorith seemed about to say something, but Micky jumped into the conversation before he got the chance. ‘It’s not like we chose to screw you over. We gave it our best shot. It just wasn’t enough. Right now, it’s either us and Zurvanai, or nobody.’

The Thess’kalan snorted. ‘Best shot my ass! The only reason we’re in this mess is because you still refuse to use Circulation or unblock my second core! Care to explain how giving the Moirais’ Decree to one of the alliance’s most talented mortals is any better?’

Percy sighed. ‘Sure. If we give up Circulation, everyone will be able to use it. Millions – if not billions – of mortals, ranging from the founding factions’ strongest demigods to the last Thess’kalan child will functionally be half a grade stronger, from now until the end of time. Zurvanai may be talented but she’s just one person.’

What Percy left unsaid was that he wasn’t only worried about sharing the Refined spell. Had it been just that, he might have even relented by now. The problem was that Circulation was only a single step away from the Dance, which might be a step away from something even greater – something outside of his own Carnival or artificial advancement.

It didn’t look like Metatron had figured out the next level of the boosting art yet, but it was probably just a matter of time. Not to mention that the Void Hand had thousands of times the population of the enchanted cube, so they would have countless brilliant people experimenting with the technique.

Based on how Micky’s ancestors had resisted Rhaziel’s invasion – at least for a while – the boosting art likely still held secrets that even Percy wasn’t yet privy to, such as a way for deities to use it.

On the other hand, sharing the Moirais’ Decree carried more of a personal risk for him. He wasn’t worried so much about strengthening the alliance with it, since the extra mana core was something that nobody but him could pass along. The issue was that the Void Hand was at odds with the Moirai, so revealing the Decree might get Percy chased down with pitchforks.

The good news was that Zurvanai had just ditched the mental-type Decree of her people, in favour of one that no surviving deity should be capable of spying on. Percy had also recently acquired a method to ensure the woman’s secrecy. Navigating the negotiations would still be tricky, and it was very likely that he would have to open up to the Denyte in stages, but at least the option was there.

‘When it comes to magic, quality is often more important than quantity. Zurvanai was already going to have two rare affinities, a blessing, and a ridiculous bloodline. Now, you’re planning to make her even stronger,’ Kassorith said, clearly not one to give up easily. ‘It’s entirely possible she ends up being a larger threat than the rest of their gods combined.’

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‘There’s no guarantee that she’ll reach the Concept realm,’ Percy said, metaphorically shaking his head. ‘Even if she does, it’ll be a million years before she’s capable of any serious damage at a cosmic scale, and I might even be capable of stopping her by then. Besides, the only reason I’m entertaining this idea is because she doesn’t seem like the sort of person who would do anything nasty to begin with.’

‘What are you basing this character assessment off? A single conversation? Even if she was honest with you earlier, a person can change greatly in a million years,’ the Thess’kalan pointed out.

Percy mentally shrugged. ‘Well… I was going to give you a third core, wasn’t I? And you’re already a piece of shit. At least Zurvanai hasn’t slaughtered any villages or stabbed me in the back.’

‘That you know of.’

‘That I know of,’ Percy conceded, though he still had no intention of backing down.

Had it been up to him, he would have tried to strike a deal with the Denyte right away. Unfortunately, they’d lacked the time to get everything sorted out before her match, and none of this would matter if she ended up disqualified before reaching the top eight anyway.

‘If you’re done crying, let me focus on the terminal,’ Percy said. ‘Technically, you still have a chance to earn the Void Decree, so you’d better not waste it.’

Kassorith begrudgingly dropped the matter, helping Percy figure out the location of the venue where they would be fighting. They only had about ten minutes left, which might or might not be enough time to fly there – depending on the distance.

Truth be told, Percy considered this battle a mere formality by now. If he had harboured some remote hope of winning earlier, he was now a lot more willing to fall back to his significantly more promising backup plan.

That said, he was still going to do his best in the fight, if only to placate Kassorith. On the off chance that they did win, he could avoid the hassle of dealing with Zurvanai, or he might even channel that opportunity towards a different goal.

Roughly eight minutes later, Kassorith arrived at a stadium that was thankfully located even closer than the previous one. Since there were still sixteen participants in the competition and only eight buildings to host their matches, all the stadiums should currently be in use.

However, the organizers would presumably select the better-looking structures to house the next round of battles, and this one definitely qualified. It wasn’t any larger than the stadium that Kassorith’s group had used in the second phase, but it did appear to be slightly newer and cleaner.

Ignoring anything unrelated to the fight, Percy and his host slithered onto the stage, finding their opponent already waiting for them, a confident grin plastered all over his amphibian face. He was wearing a set of dark robes that painted a sharp contrast against his pale skin.

“Let the fight between Kassorith and Lohkrat commence,” the stadium’s cold voice said.

The words were still echoing across the vast arena when the Maradorian used his bloodline to teleport behind Kassorith, pressuring him with a barrage of spectral projectiles. Funnily enough, Lohkrat seemed to favour small knives, not too dissimilar from Percy’s Parting Gift. Maybe this was simply the most direct way to accentuate the sharp lethality of their affinity.

Percy was forced to pour every drop of his willpower into a generous layer of metal that Micky produced, allowing it to barely stop the projectiles. Unfortunately, the ethereal blades still dug several centimetres into the material before coming to a halt.

Not satisfied, Lohkrat added a rain of plasma into the onslaught, the scorching projectiles whistling shrilly as they homed in on the Thess’kalan. Defending against them caused the scaled man’s core to empty at a scary rate, and he could only even tolerate the rising temperature of his superheated barrier due to his mutation.

Percy didn’t get the chance to stamp more than the most basic structural integrity enchantments onto the bulky armour, since he and his companions had their hands full defending against not just one, but two of the deadliest affinities in existence. The fact that both of the Maradorian’s mana types were at Blue certainly wasn’t making things any easier. Even escaping was out of the question, as there was no outrunning a teleporting mage.

It soon became clear that Kassorith’s core would dry up less than a minute into the battle.

Percy didn’t feel like waiting that long, having already seen more than enough. Their opponent hadn’t even deigned to fuse his affinities, yet a few of his soul constructs had nearly cut into the Thess’kalan’s body, making Percy fear for the integrity of his wisp. Even if he hadn’t been in danger, he just couldn’t see himself counterattacking effectively.

“I surrender!” he shouted, hoping that the arena’s enchantment would hear him through the barrage of plasma bolts splashing against his host’s red-hot cocoon of molten steel.

“Contestant has conceded. Victory goes to Lohkrat.”

Percy sighed, half relieved and half bitter about this outcome. With this, Kassorith’s participation in the void tournament had officially come to an end, though Percy hoped that his own work in this city wasn’t over yet.