Chapter 598: Nayra |
Heading Out
Preparing an army for a march was an arduous task. There was a lot to think about, a lot to get ready. The last war that the Twilight Melody Sect was involved in hadn’t required as much, they weren’t sending as many people, and they were moving fast, had little time to plan. In many ways, this war was far larger in scope. The Exalted Empire was a far different enemy than the Dome monsters and the taken.
And Nayra was in charge of it all. She would be at the head of their army, would command the armies of all the other sects. Coordinating all of that was far harder than she had anticipated. She was in almost constant contact with Anrosh who was still at the Dragon’s Peak.
The biggest issue were supply lines. During the last war all of that had been taken care of by the other sects, the Twilight Melody Sect wasn’t in charge, they were just another of many sects joining in the offensive. Now, not only were they in charge, many sects were unable to provide that kind of support, on the account of currently fighting invaders.
Carrying enough supplies to feed and support an army wasn’t the hard part. They had enough spatial storage to hold a month's worth of supplies, the issue was with re-supplying. Sending people back to restock then back to the front would carry risks. They didn’t need to have caravans and large supply convoys, but they still needed to send guards along with people carrying supply storage. Sending them alone might work, but then if the enemy decided to hit their supply lines and ambush the couriers it could go bad. A single person against an ambush was unlikely to survive. So they were forced to either send larger groups, or send stronger people, which then impacted their forces on the front.
The sects didn’t rely on countless lower tier people to serve as an army. They relied on the few powerful individuals. Every one of their high tiered people was a champion needed to fight.
But they had to make decisions, so smaller teams of people flying the few airships they had would be carrying supplies to and from the front.
Nayra walked through the camp, overseeing her underlings organizing the fighting groups. More warriors were coming every day, both from their sect and those allied with them that were close enough to come to this staging point.
She saw the banners of the Midnight Reign Sect, and undead warriors standing around in the dark. There were no lit braziers in their camp, they didn’t need protection from the cold.
Nayra cycled as she walked, something she had learned from Ryun, it had helped her accelerate her cultivation significantly. She pulled in the Heat Essence from the fires, putting it into her core. Cultivating was easier now, ever since she hit the end of her focus she had felt different. Nayra had stepped onto that final stage, glimpsed what all was possible, had even gotten ideas from watching Ryun and his wives.
She had chosen to continue advancing her current Paths. Her secondary was Ryun’s Path of the Final End, which she believed to be closely related with the meaning of her own Soul—Death. If there was anything she had learned over her life, it was that everything in the Infinite Realm was up for personal interpretation. The Soul had the power to influence and shape reality, to give form to what it believed.
For her, the Final End was the end that came at the moment of Death, the Final End to the life led in this Realm. She embodied Death in its transitional aspect, the change from one state of existence to another. Death of the life on the mortal plane and a step into the afterlife, the divine.
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And both of her Paths could be shaped to embody that. The Path of the Lotus dance, like all paths, could be interpreted in various ways. The Lotus represented purity, strength, and rebirth. And in a way, Death was a rebirth and it was strength, a Soul had to be strong enough to reach the afterlife.
Advancement went easily enough. She had no need to ponder on her inspiration, she already knew herself, her Soul was known to her. Advancing her Cultivation felt like she was reinforcing the pieces of her Soul from within. Not that there weren’t things to watch out for. Her Paths weren’t the perfect for who she had become. She had considered removing her Cultivation and starting from scratch, from Ryun she knew that she would be granted a Path that was greatly aligned with her Class. But somehow, that felt like giving up.
The Infinite Realm rewarded struggle, rewarded perseverance. And she worried that she would be losing something in the process. The sensation of reinforcing her Soul as she advanced made her think that she was on the correct path. Having a Cultivation that was fully aligned with her Class would be like she was painting over a house, pushing forward with her current Cultivation felt more like she was building up on it, filling in the cracks, expanding it even.
She didn’t think that she was wrong. She had started her advancement by following all three focuses, she would continue forward that way.
Her Cultivation Immortality had of course been the only Cultivation perk that had been a bit disappointing, just a flat bonus perk, with some slight improvements to her Soul. But she had continued on, leaning into the Heat Aspect of the Scorching Mist filling her core in preparation for her second Aspect, which was going to be Death.
Merging the two would push her core and Qi fully toward her Class and her Soul’s meaning. Thankfully the Sect had approved her resources to help push her Cultivation quickly, her own wealth was spent buying enough Essence Crystals to advance in one go, but she still wanted more aids in order to stabilize her accelerated advancement.
She didn’t really need to pull in the Heat from around her in order to cultivate, but she was needed to oversee the assembly of the army and just didn’t want to waste her time. At least she had managed to secure a day to focus only on advancement before they were set to head out.
Nayra was so lost in her musings that she almost didn’t notice someone walk up right to her.
“Lost in thought, huh, step-mom?”
Nayra turned her head to stare at the pale blue skinned woman with pure white hair. Kri grinned at her from just a step away, wearing her full sect combat robes, black and violet, with silver trim signifying a higher position in the sect.
“You are far too old to be calling me that,” Nayra told her.
Kri rolled her eyes, then gave her a lazy salute. “All sect warriors have been assigned their groups, we’re just waiting on the last of our subordinate sects to arrive and we’re ready to go.”
Nayra nodded. “Good, that means I can take the day and go cultivate. You’re going to watch over the camps for me.”
“As you say, Sect Leader,” this time Kri managed to give her a proper sect bow.
Kri had come a long way, her cultivation had leapt forward diverging from both her mother’s and Ryun’s, despite following the same Path of the Final End that they and Nayra herself did. Like any great Cultivator, she had taken it and made it her own, the same as she had with her secondary Path of the Empty Dominion.
Her training had been thrown off, her teachers had always been Tali and Ryun, and without Tali… Ryun had little time to instruct these days, even if he could find the words to explain what was second nature to him.
And… Kri had sought Nayra out for lessons too. Death was close to Kri’s Aspect as well, and the closer she was to it, the more powerful her Absolute Cold became. Kri was still unsure if she wanted to pick up a second Aspect, but Death-related ones were something that she was considering.
Nayra could feel Kri’s power, she was in the Evolved Realm now, there was always a stillness around her, a cold silence that followed her around. She had focused all of her advancement on the Absolute Cold Aspect and her insights about it. It amazed Nayra sometimes that it was Kri who had first managed to reach out and touch a Plane of Aspect. But perhaps it shouldn’t have, she had grown up surrounded by monsters.
“Go,” Nayra waved her away. “You’re responsible for the army, I better not find the army frozen while they’re asleep.”
Kri rolled her eyes, and Nayra smiled, then turned and headed away from camp. She had already scouted a secluded space for her purpose. It was time for her to advance her Cultivation. Then the armies would march to war.