Defiance of the Fall

Zac sighed as the gates closed, his exhalation creating swirls in the medicinal mists around him. The ambient energy of the Cultivation Chamber, which actually was inside the trunk of an enormous tree, was even greater than the caves he'd used in the Orom World's Blackink Mountain. But while the energy density had almost been lethal back then, it was a welcome luxury to his D-grade body.

The quantities were amazing, and there was a quality to match. Zac had felt there was something different about the energy since arriving in Kavista. It felt more complete than almost any place he'd visited before, likely one of the benefits of C-grade continents. Something like that wouldn't create miracles, but it should make progress through the ranks smoother, and those born in these environments would have greater chances of being blessed with high affinities.

That gift that had been amplified inside the sacred tree through a comprehensive set of arrays, and the dense mists of Medicinal smoke improved the environment even further. It felt like healing rain falling on the parched desert that was his soul, and even his other body benefitted from it as he sat in his cave back on Earth.

Zac's body was already greedily absorbing what the cultivation chamber generously provided, and he even felt some of it entering his Cosmic Core to help push him toward the next level. All his Hidden Nodes were blissfully quiet, indicating there should be no poisons or other dangers hidden inside the medicinal fumes.

The environment left nothing to be desired, but Zac was even more appreciative of the silence. Only the soft, calming crackle of three burning braziers and accompanying incense was a welcome change after six hours of tests and constant questions from both the Kavriel Clan's Healers and experts brought from the Undead Empire.

They had worked hard to ensure he was okay, searching high and low for any damage. Unsurprisingly, they hadn't found much. He had endured all kinds of punishment inside the Perennial Vastness, but the marks from those experiences were mostly on his other body. Of course, the most troubling wounds left by Chaos and Tribulation Lightning had been transplanted along with his Draugr foundation.

But four months had passed since forming the Glimpse of Chaos, and his rapid natural recovery had already dealt with the fallout. The Tribulation Lightning was more recent, and the unfettered assault had caused far more damage than the Chaos Motes. Most of the medicine currently entering his pores was a custom mix meant to deal with the small cracks left by the Heavenly Wrath. The compound was even a custom mix based on his constitution, a luxury only those with private Alchemists and Doctors could enjoy.

Of course, looking for damage to his foundations was not the true purpose of the check-up. Their check-up was mostly an excuse to excavate his secrets, and the experience had allowed him to confirm a few things. His Specialty Cores had the same feature as his old Concealment Array, which led to people not finding anything out of the norm.

They didn't seem to realize he had a Specialty Core at all, instead seeing a Cosmic Core based on his Inexorable Path. Sendor had been able to see the truth, though it had looked like two separate cores to him. So his Kayar-Elu Core did most of the heavy lifting, but the doctors had peppered him with such a number of questions that he'd barely managed to keep his facts straight.

Emerging from the Healing Ward had felt like leaving the courthouse after having been cross-examined for days, narrowly avoiding a death sentence. Even then, it was an even greater relief to finally get rid of the Kavriel girl. She had only gotten more aggressive as time passed until she finally shed all pretenses. Having to physically ward off half-naked beauties wasn't part of the scenarios he, Vilari, and Joanna had drawn up before visiting.

Though, come to think of it, it was something Catheya often warned him off.

Zac hadn't been called back to the meeting room after everything was said and done, which Zac felt was a positive sign. Maybe his performance back on Earth might have helped sell his claims. Forcibly activating [Arcadia's Judgment] just five hours after the battle with the Eighth Army had damaged his human pathways, but it was the most effective way to show that the Zac back on Earth was real rather than a weak clone. Seeing how quickly they'd gotten word of his return the first time, they'd likely managed to enlist quite a few spies among the natives of Earth.

As planned, his outing to Pangea had been short but eye-catching. He'd sacrificed a bit more Faction Merit to step onto the 11th battlefront controlled by Rhuger, who currently held the 19th placement on the local ladder. It was one of the most integrated armies, with representatives from all races. Zac figured that was the easiest way to ensure word reached Kavista one way or another.

While there, he'd adopted the same crude but effective tactics as during his first battle. He shot out from the fortifications like a meteor, crashing into the much-smaller Kan'Tanu Army. Less than two minutes later, he'd returned to the wall walk, having taken out the leader of the enemy army and at least fifty bodyguards in one fell swoop.

Now that everything was dealt with, Zac sat down on the central array. A mysterious sensation filled him, like he'd been connected with the tree itself. Its roots were his roots, continuously drawing pure Miasma from the depths of the world. Its branches were his branches, transmitting the voice of the cosmos to his ear, showering him in the Dao.

Zac spent the next hour resting his mind and absorbing the rejuvenating mist while his human body repaired the cracked pathways around [Arcadia's Judgment]. After that, Zac went to work, both bodies working in tandem as they made their way through one section of his body after another. Zac was tireless thanks to enjoying the benefits of two high-quality environments, and his speed only increased as he formed an instinctual understanding of how his Classes were codified into fractals and runes.

He did nothing but upgrade pathways over the next two days, and the combination of his comprehension and supremely durable body let him reforge more than half his pathways—something that'd take normal Mortals with Rare classes months, sometimes years, if their constitutions were on the weaker side.

No one disturbed his Draugr body during this time, but messages were constantly delivered to his Cultivation Cave back on Earth. Emily had succeeded in her conquest and would return the next day for the monthly War Council. Zac looked forward to seeing her again, along with many of his old friends who had supported the empire in his absence. It also meant he needed to get a move on. He wanted answers from the Undead Empire before convening.

He still had some time, though, and leaving now felt like a waste. Zac had spent the past days gaining a much-better understanding of his Classes, and there was no telling he'd have a moment of tranquility like this next time. He wanted to capitalize on his mental state being this good, which meant it was high time to upgrade [Deathmark].

He didn't immediately walk over to the high-quality Skill Upgrade array installed next to where he was sitting. Instead, he cleared his thoughts and ate a Natural Treasure that helped elevate his mental state. It was in the same vein as the bulbous treasure he'd used to create [Pillar of Desolation], though nowhere near the same quality.

Zac didn't need the treasure for inspiration. He already knew the general direction he wanted to take and how such a fractal should look. However, this was the first D-grade skill he'd create, and he wanted it to be perfectly in tune with his Inexorable Path. Inexorability was control over fate, the relentless advance that overcame any resistance. Resisting inexorability was not a victory—it was a stay of execution.

In that vein, the corrosive domain was very much in line with his path, putting his opponents under constant pressure until they could no longer resist. The problem was the wraiths, the half representing the Dao of Conflict. Their ability to constantly reform after being destroyed was in the right direction, but Zac had long felt they missed something.

Too many of his stronger opponents had been able to simply shrug off their advance like they were nothing but annoying flies. They were like common soldiers trying to take down an Eonic Seed. Zac had ample first-hand experience of the fate awaiting the poor soldiers tasked with such a mission. For those men, he was essentially the grim reaper.

Similarly, his wraiths failed to leave a single mark on Zac's most troublesome enemies. Certainly, they'd managed to kill several powerful adversaries over the years, but that was because Zac had forced an opening with his technique and other skills. That wasn't a testament to [Deathmark]'s power—any skill would have been able to finish the job at that point.

The problem was the reset.

Every time a wraith was destroyed, the skill was pushed back to square one. Only if they managed to land a hit would they leave the lasting mark that gave the skill its name. This didn't mesh with Zac's vision of his path, one that constantly advanced and suffocated the enemy with intractable power. He had to increase the Dao of Conflict to balance the skill, but he didn't want to just make the wraiths stronger.

Rather, he wanted to emulate the winds of war, where the pressure mounted until something gave way. Doing so would impose a time limit on the ability, but Zac was fine with that. A few minutes of downtime between uses, like [Rapturous Divide], was acceptable if it improved the usefulness on more powerful enemies while retaining its large-scale impact on weaker enemies.

The synthetic epiphany helped Zac iron out a few small details he'd intentionally left open until he finished the surrounding pathways over the next few hours. When everything was finished, he stepped onto the platform holding the Skill Upgrade Array.

The setup looked very different from the [Fractal Framework Array] he'd used in the E-grade. A large bowl holding inky-black water was placed atop the platform. It was almost as wide as a manhole cover, and its waters rippled mysteriously despite no wind. Just looking at the small waves filled Zac with impressions of the Daos of Death and Conflict.

Zac wasn't sure how it was powered, but it was clear the Kavriel Clan had infused the platform with Daos similar to his own. Neither Dao held quite the concepts that made up his Branches of the Pale Seal and War Axe, but it was very impressive for a borrowed environment. There were two interlocked magical circles, one surrounding the bowl and the other where Zac sat down.

A small burst of information entered Zac's mind as he infused some Mental Energy into the array beneath him, and he immediately understood how the array worked. While it looked quite different from his arrays, it was functionally the same. Zac began the process by infusing his Daos into the array, and the ripples in the waters subtly changed as Zac branded it with his path.

The process took an hour and cost a surprising amount of Mental Energy. A purely martial cultivator would already have been mentally exhausted, but the expenditure was negligible for Zac. When done, the array began drawing large amounts of Miasma, forming a natural circuit that passed through the two circles before returning it to his body.

The upside of this setup quickly became apparent. It was almost like the inky water had become a part of him, and the Skill Fractal for [Deathmark] barely rippled when it entered the bowl. The waters kept the fractal stable as it entered its malleable state, and Zac could tell the fixed array would give him twice as much time as the portable arrays he used in the Twilight Ocean.

That didn't mean he would waste any time, and he immediately began his work on the patterns. The waters rippled and churned as Zac refined one section after another, sending back incredibly detailed feedback. Every movement on the water's surface resulted from the Skill Fractal within, and the connection with his Dao let him perfectly understand what they meant with greater precision than the warning signals you commonly saw.

Still, the waters were generally quite calm as the hours passed, only predictably crashing against the bowl's edge when Zac performed the necessary realignments to balance Conflict and Death. Sixteen hours later, a shimmering rune pulsating with his Inexorable Path rose from the waters and entered his body. Zac observed the intricate fractal as he fused it with his pathways, almost feeling robbed of his accomplishment.

Zac knew he shouldn't complain that the upgrade had progressed without a hitch, but such an easy process almost made him feel like he'd taken a shortcut or aimed too low. No, things had simply followed the script for once. Between the environment, his Daos, and his theoretical foundations, there really shouldn't be any issues when upgrading his basic skills.

This might be a step that eluded many Wandering Cultivators on the frontier, but Zac was ultimately more similar to heartland elites already. Still, he had carried the nagging feeling that some crisis would strike at a critical juncture, just like when he upgraded his core. He laughed quietly as he shook his head, briefly wondering if all his struggles and setbacks had made him addicted to suffering.

Curiosity soon won over his suspicions, and he excitedly opened the Skill Panel.

[D] Deathmark - Proficiency: Early. Join your foes in an Inexorable dance of Death. Upgradeable.

The flavor text, like the Skill Fractal itself, was mostly the same. The few adjustments he'd made hadn't changed the fundamental nature of the skill. The simplest change was to leverage his Cosmic Core to increase the skill's reach by almost ten times. Since he'd chosen to make it a time-limited skill, he wanted it to consume a huge region before he activated it again in another section of the enemy lines.

It was that first burst of corrosion that would have the greatest effect in either case. After that point, the enemy would adapt and stay clear of the zone of death. He'd already seen a similar response after he activated the [Setting Sun Talisman] in the middle of the Kan'Tanu army. So Zac didn't consider the limited usage much of a downside.

However, bolstering Conflict and making adjustments had undoubtedly reduced the strength of the corrosive domain somewhat. Zac believed that was a worthy trade-off. The domain itself wouldn't be as lethal, but it should still be deadly to E-grade cultivators when powered by his Daos. And the reimagined wraiths should be better at dealing with the stronger enemies caught in his domain.

Zac felt a bit drained, even with everything going according to plan, but not to the point he had to rest. He needed to enquire about the situation outside, so his human body resumed upgrading pathways while his Draugr self stood up and left the Cultivation Chamber back in Kavista.

The exit led to a luxurious living room built atop a branch, where Zac found a graceful silhouette waiting. Thankfully, it was Tavza rather than Kasina Kavriel having returned for another round. A slight frown appeared on his face when he saw a projection of his newly formed Skill Fractal float atop the table before her, but his brows smoothed out as he walked over.

Going in, he'd already figured his every move would be monitored even if his plan worked.

"I didn't expect you to be so free to spy on me forming a skill," Zac commented. "I bet Kator is already out there racking up merit."

"Constantly staying on the battlefronts is an inefficient use of time," Tavza calmly said as Zac sat down. "Ninety percent of a battlefront's merit can be seized in a very short timeframe. The battle you joined on your return is a good example of that. The rest of my time is better spent focusing on more important matters than micromanaging my army. My generals will inform me when a window of opportunity appears."

Zac hadn't expected Tavza to provide such a detailed answer to his jab, but her words weren't without merit. It would be one thing if he had been able to teleport to one lucrative battlefront after another, but doing so would slowly drain the Atwood Empire of its Faction Merit. So he would either have to accelerate his own campaigns through burning money and sacrificing manpower, or he'd have to accept there would be downtimes where his presence didn't add much.

If anything, his roving the battlefront could lead to the enemy turtling up and increasing their defensive measures. During those periods, he might be better off hunting Beast Kings or focusing on his cultivation.

"Your control is lacking, but you more than make up for it with an uncanny instinct when it comes to the Heavenly Patterns. Your theoretical foundations are exceptionally stable for someone with your background. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought you hid a fourth Dao Branch from the Peak of the Grand Tapestry," Tavza commented. "This, together with your apparent inability to explain your origin, has filled certain people with misgivings."

"Are those misgivings enough to attempt snatching my seal or trap me here?" Zac asked.

"No. It would appear that targeting you is much more likely to harm our plans than assist them. But then, you knew that already, which is why you dared accept our invitation."

A smile spread across Zac's face. The harvest was in, and it was time to inspect the crop.