Chapter 677: – Zurvanai |
Zurvanai let Kassorith into her room before sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor. To her credit, she didn’t seem very worried that Percy might hurt her, her face appearing as still as a lake.
‘I suppose that she trusts the terms of our contract to protect her,’ he reasoned.
Reaching out to his main body, Percy waited for confirmation that a new clone was on its way, flying in the direction of the cord. He had done his best to bother the original as little as possible over the past several months, but he hadn’t been able to avoid disturbing himself entirely.
Marking some of the Void Hand’s most important planets had been worth the interruptions, and so was possessing Zurvanai to acquire the Void Decree – the primary goal of this entire trip.
The main body hadn’t always had a spare cord at hand, since he hadn’t wanted to keep a piece of his soul idle for over half a year. However, he’d always had the option of retrieving the clone inhabiting his familiar’s body. Pausing his training with Nephthys for a few hours every now and then had been a small price to pay.
As soon as a trickle of freshly-fused phantom mana reached the clone, he gathered some to his host’s right hand and shaped it into a small knife. He used it to carve a series of precise incisions across Zurvanai’s body with practiced ease, keeping her injuries stable with Kassorith’s other hand.
The woman winced, though she didn’t let out a squeak.
Percy wasn’t sure whether she had experienced soul injuries before or had simply primed herself for the ordeal, but he definitely approved of Zurvanai’s grit. Thankfully for both of them, her suffering didn’t last long.
The new wisp arrived about half an hour later, slipping into the largest cut he could find in the Denyte’s soul. The two versions of Percy worked together to stitch up Zurvanai’s injuries, placing her on a fast track to a complete recovery.
***
‘What an interesting bloodline…’ Zurvanai muttered through their connection. ‘Do you go around stealing stuff from random people around the universe?’
‘I prefer the word “trading”,’ Percy replied with a mental shrug. ‘We have a contract and everything, don’t we?’
The truth was that this version of Percy had only been briefed about said contract recently – an agreement that he wasn’t personally bound by. In fact, this was actually his first meeting with Zurvanai, though the other clone had brought the main body – and thus him – up to speed.
Percy already felt like patting his counterpart on the back for his brilliant decision to pick Kerfyl’s Decree. Having the option of shooting White- or Clear-grade spells at Machaon would have been nice, but the ability to establish soul contracts with his hosts was already paying dividends.
Oblivious to Percy’s feelings about his new Decree, the woman rolled her eyes. ‘That’s only because you failed to reach the top eight without my help. I’m sure that you would have been more than happy to grab the Void Decree and everything else within your reach without asking for anyone’s permission, had it been an option. Besides, something tells me that Kassorith didn’t exactly volunteer to get possessed.’
‘He definitely did the second time,’ Percy corrected her. ‘Even the first time, he wasn’t exactly against it, since the alternative was certain death. It was only after I saved his life that the ungrateful prick decided to renege on our deal.’
‘Whatever you say…’ Zurvanai sighed. ‘Well… I’ve let you into my body, as agreed. Time for you to pay up.’
‘I already have.’
The female Denyte frowned, standing up and stretching her muscles for a few seconds, seemingly examining the changes in her body. Eventually, she paused upon noticing something.
‘This omnidirectional vision of yours… it’s… wow. A lot of the things you did during the tournament suddenly make a lot more sense,’ she said, though she shook her head the very next second. ‘It’s not a bad ability to have in a vacuum, but it’s not enough to pay for a new mana core.’
‘Good, since you won’t get to keep my Sage’s Eye after I’m gone,’ Percy replied with a spectral chuckle. ‘Your prize is actually the very first thing I ever obtained through my bloodline: the Moirais’ Decree.’
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Zurvanai’s eyes widened, a wave of shock rippling through her with enough force to nearly tear some of the freshly-woven stitches holding her soul together. ‘You’re not joking.’
‘I promised compensation on par with the Void Decree. How about something that is widely considered to be even better?’
The female Denyte had to spend the next minute or two calming herself down before she could speak again. ‘I can see why you refused to tell me what it was until now. Had I been in your shoes, I’d have been too scared to utter the words in this city too. I can’t believe you stole from a peak faction and then had the balls to steal from their rivals too. Though “greed” or “madness” might be better words.’
‘Call it what you want, but I’ve upheld my end of the deal. I suggest you start heading towards the location of the ceremony before you miss it and the contract rips your soul to shreds.’
Zurvanai nodded grimly, exiting the inn and walking towards the building with the short-range teleportation platforms. However, it didn’t seem like she was done interrogating Percy just yet.
‘How is the Moirais’ Decree supposed to work? I don’t feel my new core.’
‘It takes a lot of life mana to repair the seed in your abdomen. Possibly mind mana too, once I’m no longer in your body, though I don’t think that it’s going to be difficult for you to acquire either. I would have provided you with a bunch of healing potions, but this might not be the best time for you to activate the Decree,’ Percy explained.
The woman creased her brow, clearly realizing what he meant. ‘Shit. How am I going to explain this to anyone? Wait… how did you hide Kassorith’s second core? And how do you even know that the two Decrees will stack?’
‘You go first. Tell me what you actually know about the Void Decree, since it’ll greatly affect how we approach this,’ Percy replied. ‘I’ve been able to piece together a few details by myself, but I still don’t understand the full picture.’
Zurvanai appeared to consider it for a few seconds. ‘It’s not an accident that you weren’t able to learn more. The alliance tries to keep the details confidential, to prevent our enemies from using the information against us. I know that the Void Decree is also granted in a somewhat incomplete state and has to be manually activated, but I’m not familiar with the method. We are supposedly free to select any affinity we want, though most people pick pure mana and use a rare affinity-changing treasure to upgrade it.’
‘Why not pick a rare affinity directly?’ Percy asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ the woman admitted. ‘It must have something to do with the price that has to be paid.’
‘What could be more expensive than a rare affinity-changing treasure?’ he asked again.
Zurvanai mentally shrugged.
Percy fell silent for a few minutes, trying to come up with a plan that would work for both of them. During that time, his host reached the building with the teleportation platforms, where she found a male Ollorian with a single Blue core waiting. Apparently, Zurvanai and the disfigured man were the only contestants who had reached the top eight this year and didn’t have the Void Decree already.
There weren’t any Violets or Whites, as anyone talented enough to earn the Void Decree would usually do so long before advancing. Percy wouldn’t be surprised if a Violet who had failed repeatedly in the previous grade occasionally got lucky after their promotion, though it probably didn’t happen often.
An attendant led them to a room at the top floor, and onto an enchanted platform which would presumably beam them somewhere else on Marador Prime. Right as Zurvanai was about to step on the device, Percy finally gave her his answer.
‘Okay… here’s what we are going to do. We’ll grab the Void Decree and hope that it plants a third seed inside your body. If it doesn’t, this whole thing has been a waste of time and there’s no reason to discuss anything else. Whether or not it works, you’ll repair the Moirais’ Decree to activate the core in your abdomen and pretend that it’s from the Void Decree. As for your third core… it’ll have to wait for now.’
Zurvanai didn’t seem happy about that. ‘I can’t control what affinity I get, can I? What if it’s a common one?’
‘Not the worst that could happen. If I were you, I’d be praying I don’t end up with another time core,’ Percy said.
The female Denyte gasped. ‘Is that a thing?’
‘Well, the odds of that happening are extremely low, but not zero. To be perfectly honest with you, I’m still not sure why the Moirais’ Decree is held at a higher regard when it doesn’t give you a choice, but I suppose that there’s something else that we don’t know.’
‘But what am I supposed to tell my people? Nobody intentionally picks common or composite affinities – especially one of the few candidates who has a chance of becoming a seven-elemental goddess in the future.’
‘I’m sure you’ll figure something out.’
Percy knew that he was coming across as an apathetic jerk, yet he genuinely struggled to feel bad about Zurvanai potentially “only” having two rare affinities rather than three, or having to keep one of them hidden for a while. The randomness of the Moirais’ Decree was something that his main body and all of his hosts had always had to deal with. Not to mention a given when it came to the first affinity of almost everyone in the universe.
‘Say that you wanted a head-start in the Elemental Acquisition stage or something,’ he suggested. ‘It’s not the most convincing excuse, but what are they going to do about it? It’s only temporary anyway. Feel free to reveal your third core whenever you want and to whomever you trust. I don’t care if you want to admit that an outsider helped you obtain the Moirais’ Decree, but wait until after I leave and don’t say anything else about me.’
‘Wait. If you pass it automatically to your hosts, Kassorith must have had it too,’ she realized. ‘How did you…?’
‘We used a concoction to conceal his second core, but I don’t have any to give you,’ Percy explained.
His counterpart in Maradion did have the recipe and a bunch of seeds inside his spatial seal, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to cultivate them yet, and he wasn’t going to request an extra set of ingredients from Metatron for Zurvanai’s sake.
Percy was broken out of his thoughts when the attendant activated the enchantment on the teleportation platform, beaming the trio to a new location.