Defiance of the Fall

Zac sighed as he sat down to face himself. He'd check in with the creators for a shipyard-upgrading quest later, but he had too much on his plate to worry about that matter right now. He'd have to survive the war and Ultom before worrying about heading into the Endless Storm. Perhaps he could trade the Primo's item inside the Hollow Court for a vastly superior ship. Perhaps Ultom would provide him with another solution. Worrying about it now wouldn't do him much good.

The real question was, what should he do going forward? Too much had happened too quickly, and he hadn't had the chance to sort everything out.

"I guess you'll be Arcaz for now," Zac said, and his Draugr self wryly smiled as he transformed into the usual appearance of his alias.

There was no point in telling even his closest confidants the truth of his shared existence. What they didn't know couldn't hurt them. The official story would be that he was really split apart during his breakthrough. Both were him since they came from the same soul, but they were their own people who would gradually diverge in the future.

It had been a relief to rid himself of the constant worry of his duality being exposed and becoming a test subject of some desperate Monarch. Unfortunately, it looked like one secret had been replaced with another. Some would likely think he was lying, but if Sendor couldn't figure things out, how could some Monarchs in the frontier? That uncertainty might actually provide some protection. Would the Undead Empire dare target him, unsure if his Draugr self even had Ultom's seal?

Zac stood up and started swinging his axe, but he frowned as he felt the moves sluggish and crude. Part of the reason was that he no longer had his [Thousand Lights Avatar] to channel his Daos through his bodies. That problem was easily solved, but it wasn't the main issue. The real interference came from the shared consciousness.

He'd already guessed as much, but it became increasingly apparent when trying to use his Evolutionary Stance while Arcaz looked on. He tried repeatedly, but Zac failed to enter that ethereal state when both bodies were next to each other. They were hearing the same things, seeing the same things, though from slightly different vantages.

The difficulty of keeping the impressions separate created a delay which made it impossible to become one with your weapon and Dao. Only when Arcaz closed his eyes and entered a Void State to block out the surroundings did Zac manage to use his technique to its fullest. Both bodies simultaneously activating skills was easier, but Zac believed he was better off keeping his personas split up for the time being.

He could send one body to the battlefields while the other worked on upgrading skills or cultivation, or perhaps send both to different battlefields on different worlds. That would at least let him rack up wartime merit at twice the speed while improving his cover.

However, his top priority was reaching a point where he could freely control his bodies, whether they were on different worlds or fighting side by side. It was the key to pushing his strength to the next level before Ultom, and it might even help him with one of his long-term goals; fusing his stances into one system utilizing all three Daos.

In fact, reaching that step didn't necessarily require him first putting his bodies together. He had access to all Daos in both bodies and could freely use all three energies his Cosmic Core produced. Of course, he'd have to learn how to walk before he could run. How would he fuse his techniques when he couldn't even use them simultaneously?

Zac believed he would eventually grow more accustomed to his new form of existence, but there should be some ways to speed up the process. He didn't want to waste his free points on Intelligence, but there were undoubtedly some training methods for cultivators using beasts, puppets, or clones. They all required splitting one's attention, sometimes into thousands of avatars. He just needed to figure out how to do so with two.

How hard could it be?

Zac shook his head and sat back down, where he began dividing his items between bodies. Each side would have to keep some opposing materials on hand for Soul Cultivation, but it'd otherwise be easy enough to split the assets. The last item he took out was Alea's necklace, which he'd stowed away in a reinforced spatial ring to protect her from the Tribulation Lightning.

He'd already noticed his Spirit Tools were linked to both bodies, but Zac still handed [Love's Bond] over to his Draugr side. A surge of spiritual energy poured out of the necklace the moment she was out of the ring, and Alea's avatar appeared between his two forms with a huge smile on her face.

"You did it! I knew- Wait, what's going on?" Alea said as she curiously looked back and forth. "There's two of you now? Why do I feel connected to both?"

Zac wryly smiled and explained the situation through their mental connection. Alea was one of the few he could let in on his secret. He doubted he could keep it from her even if he wanted to.

"That's great!" Alea laughed as she hugged Arcaz from behind. "I was getting annoyed by having to share you with that mutt, and then you even got a copycat plant. Now I get one of you all by myself."

"I'm still going to fuse back together eventually," Arcaz commented as he equipped the necklace, bemused she was more annoyed with Verun and Vivi rather than Catheya. "How are things on your end?"

"I can break through any time as long as you provide the materials," Alea smiled.

"And you really don't need any arrays or other preparations? The [Divine Investiture Array]'s enough?"

"It'll help me through one final time. Oops, I have to go now," Alea said before she turned into a streak of energy that returned to the necklace.

Zac looked at the necklace for a few seconds before sending a message through Communication Crystal. It only took a few seconds to get a response, and its content made him frown. He flashed away, leaving his Draugr body to prepare for Alea's breakthrough. It wasn't the only thing that needed to be dealt with now that he was finally a Hegemon.

He also needed to expand and refine his pathways. The System only provided the initial expansion, and he would have to fix the rest himself. He'd begin with his Draugr form while his human side went and got to the bottom of things. Vilari's message couldn't wait.

Port Atwood was mostly the same, though Zac didn't check things thoroughly as he made a beeline for the enormous administrative building. He flew the first stretch but soon switched to [Earthstrider] upon realizing the Peak Quality E-grade skill was still faster than his rough application of flight.

Vilari was already waiting for him in the lobby along with Joanna and Ilvere, and Zac breathed in relief upon seeing that all of them were fine. Joanna sported some new scars, but her aura had grown significantly stronger since they sparred last.

"Congratulations on your successful breakthrough," Vilari smiled. "I hope everything went well?"

"Well, things took a weird turn, but I'm fine," Zac grinned. "I'll tell you about it later. What's this about the war starting early?

"There was a sector-wide announcement around three months ago," Vilari said. "We were fighting our first battle within three hours."

"So it really happened," Zac sighed, incredibly relieved he didn't waste an extra decade mastering [Essence Union] for his core. "How are things?"

"For the Atwood Empire? Mostly fine," Joanna said. "We're still in the war's early phase, and things are kept on a smaller scale. Our losses in the first couple of battles were on the higher side, but that's to be expected when so many of our warriors were untested recruits. Those veterans and wandering cultivators you managed to scrounge together were a huge asset, but with those nasty Heart Curses in the mix..."

Ilvere spat in disgust when Joanna mentioned the curses, and Zac understood the sentiment. Even he had found the things difficult to deal with back in the Void Star, and he was immune to their influence. They had to be a huge threat to normal cultivators.

"Luckily, our enemies thus far have been quite weak. Most seem to be captured warslaves, ill-organized and equipped," Ilvere said. "Our resources have allowed us to compensate for our shortcomings in experience."

"So things are fine," Zac breathed in relief.

"The Atwood Empire is winning, but Zecia is not," Vilari sighed. "Many established factions have suffered significant losses in these few months. The Kan'Tanu have already formed multiple beachheads in our sector. A few factions have collapsed already, their members turned into more warslaves."

"So fast?" Zac exclaimed. "How's that possible?"

"Follow us," Vilari said, leading Zac to a congress hall that had been transformed into a command center.

There were over fifty people inside fast at work, sending messages or analyzing the data appearing on a mix of large screens and arrays. There was also a huge star chart projected in the center of the room, which Zac assumed showed the current state of the war.

"This thing was delivered when the war officially started. It currently shows a three-dimensional map of Zecia," Joanna explained. "We're the blue dot, and the red spots are lost territory."

The map was an almost incomprehensible cloud of white. Zac could only recognize a few pieces, mostly the large empires. For example, it wasn't difficult to find the band of lights representing the Undead Empire since they emitted a weak hint of Death. However, one thing was quite clear and very troubling.

"There are red dots all over the place," Zac frowned. "How's this possible in just three months?"

The scene made him think of the Void Gate and the Kan'Tanu scheme to infiltrate the Zecia Sector through the Void Star. They'd pop out from Mystic Realms all over, wreaking havoc on regions that were supposed to be safe. But hadn't they ruined that scheme when they blew up the Stellar Ladder?

It hadn't been his main objective back then. He had simply wanted to destroy the connection to the Lost Plane before Gemmy, Billy's pet Realm Spirit, died and took them all with her. Blowing up the Kan'Tanu's backdoor entrance to the sector was just a welcome bonus. But looking at the map, it felt like his actions weren't as permanent as he'd thought. Had the Kan'Tanu managed to restore the ladder?

"The inter-sector war has innumerable war fronts," Vilari sighed. "We have thirteen arrays across our two planets, eight of them on Earth. Each will activate independently, though we cannot figure out any pattern. At that time, our command center receives an order of minimum deployment."

"We can't send less than the minimum, but we can send more," Joanna added. "We've done that so far to make sure we won't get overrun, but it's not a sustainable method. It increases our total loss rather than reduces it."

"We can also activate the arrays on our own," Ilvere said. "We haven't done that so far."

"Have any enemies ever stepped onto our soil?" Zac asked, having a pretty good idea of how there was so much lost territory.

It looked like the System was the cause of the chaos rather than some Kan'Tanu scheme.

"No," Joanna said, looking a bit disgusted. "It's part of the rules of this 'game.' Each array is considered a battlefront, so we have thirteen. The first battles all took place on neutral territories. Probably dead worlds the System has sourced from somewhere. We get extra merit and advance if we win a decisive victory."

"Into the Kan'Tanu Sector," Zac surmised.

"Exactly," Ilvere added. "At first, it's at remote unimportant worlds. But if we keep winning, we'll get sent to more powerful planets where the resistance is fiercer. Of course, each succeeding victory also snowballs our battle merit, and we get the chance to loot more flourishing worlds."

"So when you said whole forces have collapsed already, it means they suffered a series of disastrous losses until their main worlds were conquered?"

"Exactly," Ilvere said, looking at the shimmering lights with a frown. "We can only see our side of the map, but our intelligence channels indicated there's a lot more red in our sector than theirs. The Kan'Tanu are fewer in number, but their warriors are all incredibly fierce. No matter if it's attacking or defending, they fight to the end."

"Not like they have a choice with those disgusting things inside their bodies," Joanna spat.

"Can we reclaim those planets?" Zac asked.

"We can," Vilari nodded. "You can spend merit to shift a certain array's battlefront. It's very cheap if you've got the advantage but very expensive if your enemies are bearing down on you. Sometimes, you'll shift to a local battlefront where the goal is to rebuff the invaders. Those give bonus merit and are quite lucrative. Of course, the opposition is quite stiff."

"What if we just fly over?" Zac asked.

"It's possible, and it apparently gives huge bonuses. But it is very dangerous," Joanna said.

"Dangerous, how?"

"For one, it splits our forces. Any soldier we put on a fleet of Cosmic Vessels is one we can't send through the teleporters. It could lock up our resources for years, considering the level of our vessels and the distances involved," Joanna said. "It might be different now that you're back, though. You could teleport a strike squad to a nearby planet and fly over."

"It's still fraught with danger," Ilvere interjected. "These dots are updated with at least a few weeks' delay—the invaders will have dug in by the time you'd arrive. And while the arrays send us toward forces of matching strength, anyone could be waiting on the other side in this kind of mission. For example, we can teleport to a few worlds in the Kan'Tanu Sector at a very favorable price. What if we run into a Monarch? We'd be sending our warriors to their deaths."

Zac slowly nodded. You could likely control the risk by picking the right worlds to target. For example, a Low D-grade world would have been ruled by a Middle Hegemon at most, so the attackers were unlikely to be stronger than that. Monarchs were strategic resources, and the Kan'Tanu wouldn't send one to guard some random planet.

"There's more. I hear an enormous army is making its way through the Million Gates Territory, which will only increase the pressure. The chaotic region acts as a natural defense, but it will only delay the inevitable. The peak factions are already asking for reinforcements, even talking about forced drafts to shore up the physical battlefront. We'll be at an even greater disadvantage then."

"The war's barely started, and things are already so grim," Zac grimaced.

"It's bad, but not quite as bad as it looks," Ilvere said. "They have the advantage of unity and being more accustomed to bloodshed. Meanwhile, Zecia has quite a few declining factions who's maintained their status by bluster and hollow strength. These factions snapped like dried wood when the Kan'Tanu descended on us, but the rate of losses is already slowing down."

"Zecia has a huge advantage in terms of population," Joanna added. "The Kan'Tanu's cultivation method has an extremely lethality rate. Some estimates put their population at less than a third of ours, even if their sector is reported to be larger. And while Zecia has suffered huge defeats early on, we've also been tempered by the bloodshed."

"So time is the key," Zac muttered. "The Kan'Tanu wants a quick victory while we need to slow things down. We can use the war to transform our population into a superior army if we endure long enough."

"That seems to be the case," Ilvere nodded. "But it's easier said than done. Those Heart Curses are as troublesome as the Undead Empire. Zecia's growing stronger, but the Kan'Tanu are constantly adding new warslaves to their ranks, replacing their losses. And even if the plan is a success, it will have been paid for with rivers of blood."

"There have already been reports of factions surrendering," Vilari sighed. "Whole factions defecting and implanting themselves with Heart Curses to avoid battle. Luckily, the System heavily punishes those traitors, making it a relatively rare occurrence for now."

"Punished how?" Zac asked.

"I hear they stop getting wartime merit, though I'm unsure if it's a permanent punishment. They also have to keep stepping onto battlefronts, where they are given more dangerous enemies. Some Clan in the Dravorak Dynasty defected and was matched against an elite regiment of the Dravorak Imperial Army the next week. There are recordings of them being cut down to the last man, butchered like pigs."

"Intentionally spread to quell those kinds of thoughts, I guess?" Zac asked, getting an affirmative nod.

"There's more," Vilari added, surreptitiously looking around. "Should we adjourn to a meeting room?"

"I'll check the latest reports," Ilvere muttered and lumbered off.

"Is it about the inheritance?" Zac asked after he, Vilari, and Joanna were alone. "Have you figured out how the System will award the final pieces?"

"In a way," Vilari said as she shared a screen.

[Call of the Soultaker (Campaign, Inheritance (1/?)): Rise two ranks through War Merit. (0/2)]

"A multi-step quest," Zac muttered. "With seal pieces hopefully waiting at the end."

There was no other way to read the quest, considering Vilari was a Soultaker of the Anima Court. Zac had no idea how hard it was to rack up enough merit to rise two ranks, but it couldn't be too hard for a talent like Vilari. The real problem was that the quest didn't say how many steps it had, making it difficult to estimate how quickly these tasks needed to be finished.

"That's the assumption," Vilari nodded. "Every sealbearer has been awarded a quest, though our tasks are individualized."

"I haven't gotten one," Zac frowned.

"You should get it as soon as you register," Vilari said, and there was a flicker of anticipation in her eyes.

She wasn't alone. Joanna looked at him with expectation.

"Register? For the war?" Zac asked.

"Exactly. Before that, you can't even enter the battlefields or check out the Merit Exchange. You won't believe the things the System has put up for sale," Joanna said with a wide smile. "I can't wait to see what rating and designation you'll end up with."