“I had just noticed someone triggering the planar wards, and it’s not the undead,” Seldanna muttered, but considering she was locked between my body and a Tree of Life — one of many we had grown during our attempts to erase every sign of undead invasion — each hit of our bodies allowing Seldanna to resonate stronger with it.
A fun method to enhance the plant growth of the area we had discovered.
“Talk about horrible timing,” I murmured, blur tare then stopping, I quickened the movement of my hips, hastening our journey to the explosive end.
It had been three months since the end of the battle and my latest discovery … which had some interesting outcomes in terms of my stats.
{Strength: 45 Charisma: 45
Precision: 45 Perception: 45
Agility: 45 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 45 Intelligence: 45
Endurance: 60 Wisdom: 45}
Pity that, after three months, Seldanna’s connection to the plane had reached a state that wasn’t easy to improve further, which meant that the gains I received from that hit a limit after a month.
Still, that didn’t mean the other two months were a waste. We had caught several attempts of undead incursions, some blunt, the others subtle, suggesting that they had no intention of stopping to target the region.
Considering they weren’t dissuaded by their earlier decisive defeat and still dared to probe a plane that hosted two divine beings — at least from their perspective — it meant that they had a plan.
It didn’t take a genius to guess it had something to do with the Eternals.
It was why I stayed with Seldanna for two more months even after realizing I had hit a limit in terms of my direct benefits.
The most visible benefit I had generated for her was to help her with the revitalization efforts. While that, in her current state, she had no trouble converting any type of mana into Nature mana, she was still limited by the amount the plane could generate by slowly breaking down Aether — which in turn was limited to the slow decay of the primordial aether that slipped through the planar barrier.
The greatest advantage of my unique skillset was to break down Primordial Aether into mana directly, hastening the process that would normally take years into days.
The other benefit was subtler, but still useful. We have studied a lot — though with frequent breaks to … revitalize the land — to integrate some of the principles of Arcana detection wards into Nature Spells she could cast, so that she didn’t have to rely on the Arcana wards I cast.
I wasn’t going to be here for long.
I still needed to return back to my home. I could still feel that my girls were alive and well, but that was the only thing I could feel, the rest of my connection already faded. I would have been afraid that it was targeting something outside my control … but then, it coincided with another effect.
My original System, disappeared.
When it happened, it came as a shock, and only the fact that I could still feel the presence of my girls — through a far more faded manner — prevented me from panicking badly.
Still, no matter how much I expected it to happen, it still came as a shock. Luckily, I still had Tantric completely embedded into my existence, still with me even as the System faded.
The loss of the skills was unfortunate, but that was the only practical challenge. With my stats already at a point that could rival the earlier state, and with the chance to improve more, I was not in a position to miss it.
I couldn’t be more glad that I had designed my own System, impossible to be taken from me, or I would have returned to my earlier meaningless existence … and not for long, not with the enemies I had collected in the process.
While my mind wandered, my body continued its steady movement, and soon, I exploded into Seldanna, filling her to the brim once again.
“Do you really have to leave?” Seldanna murmured. “Can’t you just stay here and we can defend against them.”
“I have to,” I answered. “Our enemies are too strong for us to stay in a fragmented plane forever and hope we can resist them. Just look at the things we could do because I managed to steal mana storage from them…” I said. “We can’t afford to wait until they realize I’m not just an old, feeble god.”
During those three months, I explained some things to Seldanna about my power, but during that process, I also made sure to conceal some fundamental aspects. Ironically, this time, it was to protect her rather than myself.
The secret I was hiding was immense, and if it was discovered, I could run away … but bound to the plane by her nature of existence, she could not.
And, I strongly doubted a small, fragment plane could resist the full attention of the Eternals, who seemed to pull yet another interesting trick whenever I encountered them.
“Still, I don’t want you to go,” she said.
“I don’t want to leave you either…” I answered as I caressed her hair. “But that’s the only option we have.”
And, unlike my earlier misdirection, that was completely true. I had to travel outside the planar border several times during that journey, but no matter how much I tried, I failed to find a way to navigate the Primordial Aether.
I could not only survive but also thrive in the Primordial Aether thanks to my limitless mana generation — though without a plane to base myself, it was rather boring — but the same thing didn’t work to my benefit.
There was only one thing that worked to my benefit, and that was my ability to return to Seldanna. With my connection to her, no matter how far I traveled in Primordial Aether in our expeditions, I was able to return back easily, allowing me to take a daring step forward.
So, I stayed to help Seldanna strengthen the plane — while avoiding some of the crazier ploys I had planned not to alert the others — waiting for the Eternals to make another trip.
I was confident that they would visit to understand what was going on at a minimum. Not to mention, I had made such a big show of capturing and imprisoning all the Divine Spark from the undead army, which, to their knowledge, was completely useless for me, so I should have been willing to trade it.
Trying to sneak into their ship was a risky plan … but it was the best way for me to find the way back home … and if all went well, maybe even discover a way to navigate repeatedly.
With a sigh, I cast a spell, activating the giant avatar I had created for that purpose. “Ready for teleportation,” I asked her.
“Not yet,” she said, fixing her hair and changing her dress into armor — well, a wooden, grown equivalent of armor, with rose thorns growing, making her sexy yet dangerous at the same time.
“You remember the plan,” I asked. It was unnecessary, of course. We had gone through several times, but I was feeling tense as well.
“Yes, once your confrontation is over and you sneak into their vehicle, I’m going to bring the avatar back to the valley you prepared, and make it look like you’re meditating to further adapt your power, while I act like I’m intimidated by you.”
“And, what will you do if the Eternals come to you with an offer to help you defeat me,” I asked.
“Can’t I just kill them,” she pouted, and I looked at her with a teasing glare. “I’m going to do my best to look like I’m tempted with the idea, but still intimidated by the process, while I’ll use the treants you prepare to destroy any ship that tries to sneak in, so they’ll assume you’re the one destroying them. And, if I face anyone that I’m not confident in defeating, I’m going to trigger the emergency beacons you prepared.”
“Good goddess,” I said with a chuckle as I leaned forward and kissed her, amused that, after all that time, it still made her blush spectacularly. “Now, are you ready to confront our uninvited guests?”
She nodded, and we teleported…
{Strength: 45 Charisma: 45
Precision: 45 Perception: 45
Agility: 45 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 45 Intelligence: 45
Endurance: 60 Wisdom: 45}
{Purified Divine Spark: 32920}
{Pseudo-HP: 1103 Mana: 2410}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
GODDESSES
Elven Goddess}
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