Defiance of the Fall

Zac had made great progress on his Evolutionary Precursor pathways, even if his private cultivation grounds weren't at the level of what his other body enjoyed over in Kavista. Thankfully, the biggest factors in redrawing pathways were mental persistence, a strong constitution, and pain tolerance, something he had in spades.

The monthly meeting was right around the corner, and there were a lot of things Zac wanted to have sorted out before. He emerged from the cave in the depths of Demon Island, but the Teleportation Array actually didn't show his compound as a possible destination. Zac had guessed that might happen, so he instead used a backup teleporter in a hidden corner of his private forest.

Soon, he was back in his compound, where a chaotic scene awaited him.

"Young master! Be careful; the house just collapsed," Triv said, fussing back and forth in front of the ruins that were once his teleportation hub.

"Nothing to worry about," Zac smiled as he began clearing the rubble.

It only took a minute to find three of the boxes. The last one was embedded deep in the ground, having pushed through the teleportation platform and the building's foundations due to its immense weight. He stowed them away in a spare Spatial Ring before turning to the ghost.

"I'm heading to the island," Zac said. "Make sure no one interrupts me."

"Ah, of course. The puppets who have finished their upgrades have already been sent over to clear out the waters," Triv said. "This matter was an oversight of mine. I will upgrade all facilities to match your grade posthaste."

Zac nodded before flashing away, soon appearing on a small flat island in the middle of nowhere where waves crashing against rook greeted his arrival. The island almost looked like the obsidian finger of an enormous entity jutting out of the ocean. A dense haze of aquamarine mist covered the whole island, a result of the surrounding waters being a sea of death.

He could vaguely sense a few powerful auras deep in the waters. Some were his puppets forming a defensive perimeter, while others were undead aquatic Beast Kings. Zac could see a few carcasses floating on the waters, yet the beasts were clearly unwilling to move too far away from the island.

It wasn't hard to understand why—the place teemed with the Dao of Death, possibly only surpassed by his Cultivation Cave and a few select regions on Elysium—a perfect place for Alea to take her next step.

Zac felt nauseated just staying in this place, and his Void Varja Constitution furiously rebuffed the Death trying to creep into his body. Of course, his human body could withstand much harsher environments than this with its multiple layers of defense. And it was a small price to pay to help Alea break through.

The island wasn't very large, so it only took him a few minutes to reach Triv's arrangements in the middle of the island, where the energy was at its densest.

'I thought you'd leave me with your undead body,' Alea's voice echoed in his mind as Zac transformed [Love's Bond] into its coffin form.

"It's off-world dealing with some matters. I didn't want to keep you waiting," Zac explained as piles of Death- and Conflict-attuned materials appeared around the central gathering array.

Finally, he took out the four inscribed boxes and placed them in front of the coffin, along with a different box from his own stockpiles. "Will these work?"

Exquisite auras spread through the region when he opened their lids one by one. Two of them barely had any aura of Death or Conflict, rather emanating powerful Spiritual Fluctuations. They were rare Natural Treasures that could raise the spiritual strength of a Tool Spirit, though they could also be used on contracted beasts to slowly improve their souls.

The third box contained three crystals that emitted an intensely powerful Dao of Death, and Zac's hand withered from just opening its lid. They weren't something that had been born in the depths of a Miasma Crystal mine, but rather something that had been sent over from the Abyssal Shores. They were actual treasures harvested from the Abyssal Shores called [Blackwater Gems]. The crystals were normally used by Draugr to refine their bloodlines and likely sent to the Kavriel Clan to serve as a motivational tool for their young.

The fourth box held the broken fragment of a shield, and it was this item that had caused his teleportation house to collapse. It had once been a part of a Peak D-grade defensive Spirit Tool, but breaking had damaged its spirituality. A talented blacksmith had managed to salvage this piece, turning it into a top-tier material that could technically be considered Early D-grade.

It was essentially the equivalent of the refined bones Kruta had given him as thanks for the Indomitable seal. It was actually for this reason Zac had picked up the item in the Kavriel Clan rather than any other spiritual Metals of similar quality.

The more he worked on his pathways, the better he understood just how interlinked his two new classes were. An outsider was unlikely to spot any connection between the two sets of pathways, but Zac could see the echoes of his unique Cosmic Core everywhere. One side was almost the inversion of the other, having far more in common than one might think.

That realization had filled him with hope, and it seemed like the key to fusing his bodies back to one in the future. It also made him put even more weight on the aspect of balance between his two sides, which included his Spirit Tools. Their upgrades had been quite random thus far, eating whatever Zac stumbled onto. That had been fine for now, but Zac knew he needed a plan if he wanted to bring them with him to the peak.

Alea was better off, while Verun had very unimpressive origins. But even Alea had been crafted with a mishmash of items he had poured out of his Spatial Ring, mostly things he wouldn't give a second look today. He needed to treat their evolutions as an opportunity to fix these imperfections. It was also an opportunity to tune the weapons with his path and with each other, which should raise their potential and make future upgrades easier.

The fifth box was an item Zac had picked up inside the Perennial Vastness, looking like the figurine of a metal heart. And while it didn't move, it released powerful waves of Conflict like a heartbeat. Zac had already gathered most of what he needed for Alea and Verun's breakthroughs, but he had wanted to add at least a few more precious items. Luckily, he'd found more than he needed in the Kavriel Repository, saving him from having to buy anything from the Limited Merit Exchange.

Just like the [Warstone] became the Nucleus of his Cosmic Core, so would the metal heart become the core of [Love's Bond]. The other half would be the [Blackwater Gems], balancing Death and Conflict.

"These are perfect," Alea said as her projection emerged from the coffin. "I have more than what I need now."

"Then I'll leave you to it. I'll make sure nothing interrupts you. Don't go crazy this time," Zac grinned, but he felt his smile strained.

"Don't worry. I'm ready. You'll be surprised," Alea gently smiled as she touched his cheek. "I will follow you to the end."

"Don't waste your energy on me," Zac urged. "Focus on your breakthrough."

Zac retreated to a safe distance, and it didn't take long before the process started. He soon felt fate gathering while the sky darkened above. Yet nothing happened for the next hour, at least nothing Zac could see. Alea was unmoving in the middle of the treasure trove while the sky occasionally rumbled with forbidding power.

Yet Zac knew that Alea was doing something inside, using the final vestiges of the [Divine Investiture Array] to facilitate her entry into the D-grade. Finally, the next step began as dense runes suddenly appeared all over the coffin. They weren't the System's gold but the familiar grey and black matching his Inexorable Daos.

The coffin lid swung wide open, and it was like the Spirit Tool had become a black hole as everything around her was sucked in at once. The rumble above immediately ramped up to a crashing fury, and crackling thunder spread far and wide. Zac looked up at the churning sky, and a small seed of fear flickered in the depths of his heart.

Thankfully, the Heavens weren't here for him today, even if he wouldn't have minded taking a blast or two if it could lessen Alea's pressure. She had looked calm and confident, but they both knew her breakthrough wouldn't be a walk in the park.

Having made some discrete inquiries with the people in Perennial Vastness, Zac already knew the reason for [Love's Bond]'s powerful tribulation during her last breakthrough. The culprit was Alea herself rather than the Daos or materials that went into it. A living being's soul becoming a Tool Spirit could be seen as cheating death, a shortcut to gaining immortality.

After all, Tool Spirits didn't grow old as they technically weren't alive. Certainly, most Tool Spirits grew insane over the endless years, but even beasts were considered short-lived compared to them. Lova had said that even false immortality came at a steep price, and these tribulations were one aspect of that.

It was yet another reason to quickly figure out how to bring Alea back to life, but Zac still hadn't found any solutions to that problem. The only method he kept hearing about was the conventional one, where the Tool Spirit gained such a powerful spirituality it became indistinguishable from a cultivator. A bit like Brazla, only not crazy.

That wasn't a real solution. In such a scenario, Alea would still be an unorthodox Tool Spirit, subject to Heaven's ire. He had to keep looking. For now, Zac could only help her through the ranks, strengthening her soul as much as possible along the way.

The coffin rose into the air as three golden runes appeared around it, and Zac recognized some pattern from the [Divine Investiture Array]. They were complex beyond compare, but seeing them gave Zac some assurance against the force gathering above. The first bolt soon descended, a two-meter-wide purple pillar of unfettered fury.

Zac breathed in relief, sensing that the punishment was far less intense than his own. Hopefully, that meant that terrifying red lightning wouldn't make an appearance this time around. Dense shrouds of darkness poured out of the coffin, forming a protective cocoon like last time. The first lightning bolt struck, and Zac found his vision replaced by a blinding light.

Zac rapidly blinked and found [Love's Bond] still floating in the air, albeit scorched and slightly crooked. A sphere of crackling lightning surrounded the coffin, having replaced the protective domain. Zac frowned at the scene, sensing that the Tribulation Lightning had dug deep into the materials, and he felt pain being transmitted to him. However, Zac could also sense the lightning being consumed, turned into the catalyst for Alea's breakthrough.

She really had picked up some of his bad habits.

It wasn't solely her own accomplishment, though. One of the three golden runes was gone, and Zac guessed the System had transformed some of the tribulation lightning into useful energy. A clap of thunder shook the whole island, and the obsidian ground was showered in purple as the second bolt formed.

A second cocoon formed around the coffin, this one even denser than the previous one. Zac could even sense the energy signatures from some of the materials that had been swallowed, though none matched the five supreme items. Perhaps Alea saved those for the final bolt?

The protective shell was accompanied by her chains this time. They rose toward the sky, forming a complex seal Zac didn't recognize. One of the golden runes superimposed on the chains just as the second bolt struck, and a shockwave forced Zac a step back. The tribulation passed, yet Zac's worry only grew deeper. The beautiful coffin had been significantly disfigured, looking like something partially melted in a fire.

The scene was definitely not what he'd expected after the previous breakthrough. She had passed that one with flying colors, only getting slightly toasted by the experience. Zac only found solace in the fact Alea's spirit was still in decent shape despite the torrential amounts of lightning raging within her. But the real danger had yet arrived.

Tremendous pressure from above shook the whole island as the final bolt gathered. Streaks of red had appeared, after all, gathering in the heart of the purple. The final punishment would be on a different level altogether, yet Alea didn't form a third barrier. Zac looked on with horror and anticipation as the twisted coffin lid shattered, becoming dense clouds of abyssal Death. From within, a familiar yet foreign figure emerged.

Alea's projection looked like a dark goddess of war, decked in exquisite armor as she turned her deathly eyes to the sky. Her beautiful horns felt like black spears, sharpened to the point they could puncture the sky.

Zac could tell her appearance was different from Brazla's. The Tool Spirit of his Dao Repository often wore armor, but it was all a hollow display of grandeur. Meanwhile, there was an incredible force contained within Alea's form—a hero's aura further augmented by the top-tier treasures that had gone into her breakthrough.

Her aura was completely different from the one she had while alive. There were still hints of the poisonous path she'd tread, but it had been rolled into the superseding concept of Death, just like his Seed of Rot had eventually become the Branch of the Pale Seal. And in the heart of it all was a seed of utter darkness—Oblivion painted in the hue of the Abyss.

Zac wouldn't have been too surprised if that was all there was to it. His companion wasn't just exuding an aura of Death, but also one of intractable ruthlessness you could only nurture from the Peak of Conflict. Sure, the plan had always been to infuse more Conflict-based materials for her breakthrough, but he hadn't expected Alea to gain such an aura on her own.

Normally, the Tool Spirit's nature followed the material that made up the Spirit Tool, just like how Verun's appearance had changed a few times over the years. So changing the spirit's alignment was possible, but you had to be careful not to overdo it. You couldn't just force-feed the Tool Spirit with the Daos you wanted it to have. You needed to slowly move it in the direction you wanted while using materials that wouldn't clash with the current make-up of the equipment.

However, Alea hadn't yet fused the materials for her breakthrough. They had only been transformed into an intangible state ready for absorption, which meant Alea had nurtured this aura of war on her own. Had she managed to cultivate a Dao of Conflict without telling him? Was such a thing even possible in her current state?

The Heavens wouldn't wait for Zac to digest the situation. A huge swirl had already formed in the sky, its center an angry ball of red. It looked like an eye wrought from the cosmos, glaring down at Alea's defiant form. The bolt was already descending, yet Alea wasn't done.

The molten remains of the coffin shattered, turning into a cloud of darkness so dense it felt like a black hole. Most of it gathered in Alea's hand, taking a form closely resembling [Black Death]. The rest created a series of chains, each seemingly filled with enough power to seal the Heavens themselves.

Alea pointed her axe at the incoming pillar of destruction while the chains formed a defensive net, perfectly mirroring Zac's understanding of his Inexorable Stance. It was almost like looking at his mirror, and Zac's heart clenched at the scene. She must have been observing all those years he'd explored his path, toiling away in secret to walk in step. Giving up her path to follow his.

The memories he'd been shown when Alea transformed into [Love's Bond] came crashing back, and the words she'd said just before starting her breakthrough took on a new meaning. The truth he had shut his eyes to for so long couldn't be ignored any longer. While he looked for ways to turn Alea back into her original form, she sought ways to become a true Tool Spirit uniquely suited for him.

If he found a way to turn her back, would she even take it?