Bonded Summoner

Fhesiah had more or less pounced on him the moment he had arrived in her spiritual temple, having synchronized their minds much closer using the Temporal Chamber. After fulfilling her… needs, they were laying on the bed, snuggled up against each other under the covers.

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

Fhesiah sighed in happiness. “I am now. Lia really called that thing a booty call chamber, huh? A booty call once every 70 days for me…”

Jake chuckled. “It’s really ten to one in here? If so, then not quite. It’s slightly less efficient, but we could do two three-hour sessions per week instead together. Less total time, but more frequent. Once every 35 days for you then. It might even be better this way for emergencies. If you send the signal to rush, I’ll be able to hop into the chamber to help quickly.”

The energy within the temporal chamber was limited, but he had enough upon entry into the chamber that through her hearth, he could shove quite a bit of his energy over their energy sharing. In all, it was actually a huge cheat.

To make sure, he tried transferring all his energy types without problem–except the Divine Energy. It refused to flow across this connection, something blocking him.

Fhesiah groaned, but nodded. “I’m mostly in my kitsune form, so it doesn’t bother me as much there. Still, I’ll take that instead, unless it’s too hard to find a safe place for a long period.”

Jake looked around, and did his best to sense outside of the bedroom, to observe the changes of her spiritual temple. With a thought, she shifted him into the living room instead, making it easier for him. He now wore some kingly-looking red and gold robes, and Fhesiah had her mother’s cultivator robes once more.

“This place has really changed.”

He marveled at the runes and scripts going up and down the walls, and leading to the hearth in the rear-center of the room. The chairs depicting a warm living room rather than thrones in a throne room appeared inviting, and he sat, with her joining him on his lap.

On each side was a lifelike image of the two versions of Fhesiah, with the many demonic runes surrounding them. The formations, glyphs and lines led over to the hearth, where somehow the bloodline bricks fed into the flames.

Fhesiah joined him in his observations. “I have actually learned a bit how to improve this, and it might help me while I form my core. Those old ghosts truly have taught me a lot, and ignited my passion for these things–even if I was driven just as much for another reason.”

Jake laughed. “The power of the booty call, huh? It’s a desire that transcends space and time, gender and culture.” He smiled at her. “Have you gotten any closer on your core situation?”

She grinned. “You got that right. I think I have the fire stuff mostly handled at this point, now I just need to figure out if there’s a way to incorporate the claw into the system. I think I already have what I need to abandon it–I can make my flames of yin and yang find the perfect balance without it.”

“Is including the claw really stronger? I suppose objectively, it’s great to have as an option for enemies strong against flames. But as your daos get stronger–you grasp more of the heavens and make them your own, aren’t you able to change the laws of reality to match? That something strong against fire would be weak to it, you said?”

Fhesiah smiled. “You’ve been paying attention. I do think it’s stronger–and not just for the reason you mentioned. While I said perfect balance, they would not really empower one another, just coexist. My goal with the claw is to combine them and make something more. I have glimpsed the bronze or golden flames, an embodiment of chaos. But my goal is to make it one that I can control, a flame that destroys anything in its path.”

“Much like the prismatic flames of our family, but different. This way, you keep the claw, and you can bring more power to the family? I will do everything it takes to support you.”

Fhesiah was moved, giving him a heartfelt smile. “That’s exactly right, and that means a lot to me.”

“What’s it like in the Battleground, anyway?”

Fhesiah filled him in on how the Battleground worked, and what happened to her. She even talked about all the treasures she gained, and how she was trapped.

“Damn, they really tried to get you with the dying old spirit trick? Even I know about that one from stories. How can a Nascent Soul be in the Battleground? I thought it was Tier 1 and Tier 2 only?”

“I guess the Framework allowed it, since they were both weakened to our potential levels. Lacking their bodies and starved for energy, they were about an early to mid Core cultivator level–and, not specialized in combat. An alchemist and formation master are fearsome in the right situations, but they were trapped in these odd spatial realms for thousands of years and starved of energy. While I got their treasures, they were really junk compared to what a Tier 3 Cultivator covets. The best thing I got was a shuttle, and a dozen information crystals and cultivation methods.”

“A what now? A flying device? That does sound useful for the battleground. You said they were flying boats and swords and stuff before, but this shuttle will be better?”

“Yeah, it’s really great. It can fit hundreds inside the spatial pocket, and it can even fit inside a cosmos sack or my storage ring. There’s more.”

It seemed there was a disadvantage to forming a core early in the Battleground–the Core cultivators could not enter all of the spatial realms. Sometimes the portal would destabilize when they attempted to enter. It was for this same reason that the Nascent Soul cultivators couldn’t escape on their own.

Odds were, the castle near the top was meant only for the elites of the event among the entrants to duke it out over the ultimate opportunity.

“But the alchemist and the formation masters were part of some heritage or inheritance event?”

Fhesiah nodded. “When we unlocked this shrine on the first floating mountain we managed to reach, it was a special reward. It was a shrine with many entrances within, and those that mastered professions had archways pulling them in, of various qualities. Not many of those Radiant Flame Sect guys had them, but a few did. Elder Wang I told you about had actually gotten a different alchemy heritage, coming out with many benefits.”

“But why were yours malicious in intent? Did anyone else get anything like that?”

“A few were challenged, but most just walked in and got something decent, with no old ghosts there to try to steal from them. However, none of them got the tutelage of Nascent Soul cultivators. I guess with the great reward required great risk, or maybe the Framework could tell I could manage it somehow? It’s weird that it has so many of these just lying around.”

Jake chuckled. “So I had contacted you just before you got sucked into one, and then somehow, you got pulled into another right after? To think two years passed.”

Fhesiah groaned and nodded. “I was so excited to get back to you when you reached out to me the first time, but I had to wait until we were done with our exploration. It’s not safe to have our fun unless we can set up camp, where I have illusion and defensive arrays setup–and the Adventurers well rested.”

“What are your plans now?”

Fhesiah grinned. “My team is actually quite ahead of the game. We might be the first among the Alliance to reach the main mountain. Our Adventurer allies, many of them used the Nexus Node and entered the second Tier, their placement up to now acting nearly as good as a solo Trial. Some of them have held off, as the Node stated that the result would be better if they did near the end of the event. After that, we were lucky and the first floating mountain had drifted near us, so we went for it. Otherwise, my goal was to gather allies. For… reasons.”

Jake knew what kind of reasons those were. While she was excited to shop around for additional wives for Jake, she did take her job as Bastet’s Champion seriously. She was meant to help the potential followers of Bastet, and being capable like she was, it was her duty to help all those around her.

Not only that, but this appeared to be nearly a zero-sum game against the evil entity. Points she and the Alliance earned and enemies defeated meant points the enemy couldn’t earn, and worlds freed from Tartarus’s grasp. The treasure could be stolen, but seals released and enemies defeated were counted.

There was a finite time limit, and only by doing her best to raise her allies up could she save millions–or billions, of lives.

“How about you, husband? How are things on your side?”

Jake got her up to speed on the sandreavers.

“Huh, like a Cernunnos’s beast avatar, some kind of cultist? What are your plans for now?”

“We’re going to check out the Concordia Republic next. There might be some betrayers in their midsts, but we’ll be meeting leaders and recruiting for Hearthtribe. I hope Ira wakes soon to help ferret anyone out, since you won’t be there. We’re kind of seeing it as a dry run for Earth’s recruitment event.”

“Aw, that sounds like it could be fun too, huh? And I’m going to miss it…”

“We’re already missing you. I’m happy I got to see you, and that you’re okay.”

Fhesiah smiled and hugged him tightly, able to feel how strongly he meant those words. Their lips met once more, the two sharing their love with one another.

She gave him a sultry smile. “Hmm, we should have a bit of time left, no? Even if we’re cutting it half-way.”

“You know what, I don’t think I’ve had my fill yet either.”

Fhesiah looked at him with a bit of surprise, but also delight as she twisted on his lap to face him. “Those girls are taking care of you, right? How about Ava? Not yet?”

Jake chuckled. “Of course they do, but I still miss you. In truth, I haven’t really moved forward with Ava much at all yet. I’m still getting to know her.”

Fhesiah raised her brow. “Well, don’t take too long. I think she’s waited long enough for love–and you never know. If you hearth bond her with me in here, it might help me.”

“I’ve been spending time with her. When we arrive at Concordia Republic, I’ll take her on a date.”

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Fhesiah’s smile grew wide, and she kissed him hard as she imagined Jake and Ava together. “Good. Now, I want to spend every minute we can…”

***

Fhesiah opened her eyes from her meditation, finally in a good mood. While it wasn’t her actual body within her spiritual temple, it fulfilled her all the same. She…cleaned herself within her robes and deactivated her arrays surrounding her portable hut, and was surprised at what she found.

Weiyan was waiting for her.

She looked at him with a bit of confusion. “Is something amiss?”

Weiyan nodded. “The mountain we’re on continued to drift, and we’ve now spotted another party. They move slowly, lacking better than personal flying treasures. We can tell they haven’t joined the Framework, but we’re not so sure if…”

“If they’re unorthodox cultivators, huh? Have you been spotted?”

“We don’t think so–your arrays are just so effective. That they don’t travel with Adventurers is a point against them, but something could have happened and they suffered losses, or they are merely scouting ahead. Their numbers are less than ours.”

Fhesiah thought about the issue for a moment. “It’s hard to know how the Framework balanced the teams, or the challenge itself. Providence is mentioned too, so the challenge for reward could be very different across the entire event.”

“This is true. We outnumber them, so we were thinking of just requesting to parlay.”

Fhesiah snorted. “And then what, if they’re unorthodox, just kill them? How will you find out?”

Weiyan’s cheeks reddened in shame. “We are not used to this type of situation, where we must work together in an event with unknown allies. Cultivator challenges and events pit us against one another, our fates clashing with other’s. What is your plan, Senior?”

She smiled. “We’ll bait them and see what they will do–that is, if we can’t just sense their nature when we get a little bit closer. Either way, baiting them should both help us gather more information about them, but also prevent them from fleeing if they’re unorthodox.”

Weiyan looked a little worried. “How do you plan on baiting them? I don’t know that any of my men are–”

Fhesiah laughed. “Your men are not very inviting. No, we’ll use the best bait–me, of course.”

Weiyan chuckled. “I suppose I shouldn’t worry about you, and you seem to be in a good mood, Senior. Did you have a breakthrough? It’s hard for any of us to fathom you becoming stronger aside from forming your core.”

“Breakthrough? Something like that. Get your men ready, they’ll be riding in this.”

She withdrew her new shuttle from her cosmos sack. It appeared behind her, an ostentatious, oddly-shaped ship. Powered by heavenly energy, it was actually quite fast despite its large size, and could carry their entire Battlegroup together.

Weiyan was shocked as he looked on at the shuttle. “What… where did you get this? Why does it look like…”

“Like a pretentious asshole that loved stars wanted to fly one? I got it from the formation master that tried to steal my body.”

“W-What? Steal your body? I can see… wan–” Weiyan cleared his throat as Fhesiah narrowed her eyes at him. He was just a few words away from being scorched, but she was in a good mood so she’d let it slide.

“I’ll tell you later. I’m going to move the illusion arrays onto this, it just requires a little tweaking. Then you guys will follow me, ready to aid me if these guys are bad news. I’ll send a signal if I want you to help out, don’t rush to my aid unless I signal you–my goal is to collect information, even if they attack me.”

“We trust your wisdom, Senior, but will you truly be okay? Unorthodox cultivators are dangerous. As the Framework warned, they use curses and horrible methods, to take over your body or steal your cultivation. It could be that if they attack you, you may be unable to signal…”

“Do not worry about that. Even if they are an early Core cultivator, I should be able to manage it. I may need to pretend I have been converted to get details from them. If it doesn’t look good, I will signal you using this talisman–I promise. Otherwise, keep your distance and await my message if following becomes difficult or dangerous.”

Fhesiah flew down on her flying sword with the Battlegroup of tribal warriors and Radiant Flame sect members flying in the… nearly invisible shuttle trailing behind her. The idea that the large ship made of black and gold covered with stars was invisible was a bit funny to her. The truth was, someone talented in sensory could spot them, but likely would need to be relatively near to do so.

Of course, she was not flying at the cultivators–she took a circuitous route, one made to look like she was careful and hiding her solo path. Thanks to the route she took and her speed, their paths crossed and they eventually spotted her.

The group made a near beeline for her, some even altering their paths to surround her. Clearly not behavior of friendlies against a lone cultivator. And as Fhesiah got closer, she noticed that several of the cultivators had already broken through to become Core cultivators, but it was clear there was something wrong with them. Their auras were unstable, and the scent of blood filled her nostrils as she neared.

She felt who appeared to be the leader or second in command’s divine sense wash over her, then she heard with her sensitive ears, “We capture her. As a beast descendant, she is worth more as a vessel for the curse than a blood bag or cultivation resource.”

Another man responded, “Tsk, another to compete with resources for.”

The men’s auras surged, a red film expanding and covering their bodies. Red claws grew from their arms, and several slashed out toward her, sending waves of red energy.

Fhesiah made herself to look worried, but inwardly she smiled. She would make them work hard for it. Withdrawing her fan of the sun and moon, she swung it and sent out a wave of black and purple flames of hunger in return.

Her flames did not merely just block the blood-like oncoming energy, but consumed it and continued toward the enemy cultivators. Covering the two weakest with her flames, they did their best to snuff them out with their heavenly energy. Their efforts would not be enough.

Seeing their allies burning, the remaining dozen cultivators redoubled their attacks, and Fhesiah took evasive action as foxfires flickered into the air behind her. Twisting the light around her and weaving an illusion made it all too easy to dodge the next red wave of claws.

The cultivators continued their approach, surrounding her further as they closed the net around her. Fhesiah shot several foxfires at them like arrows, hoping to thin their numbers even further. A Core cultivator drew up a wall of blood in defense, a grotesque mixture of blood and faces of the deceased blocking her attacks instead of hitting their intended targets.

Gathering up a large percentage of her resources, an illusionary moon appeared behind her as her tails danced. Her powerful black flames encircled the moon as she lifted her fan above her, the flames taking on its shape. The ball of flames surged toward their leader, forcing them to prepare his own defense.

Her speed at forming such quantities of energy was shocking, and it took many of them to match her efforts. Several sent blood into the leader’s wall of blood, while others created spears of the sickly red energy in counter.

The spears shot at her, but she had already moved–her illusion making it difficult for her to be targeted in truth.

Her ball of flames crashed into their barrier, and consumed much of the blood–but then her attack exploded through the wall and sent darts of black flames in all directions, igniting four of them and setting them aflame. Others successfully guarded against the attack with their red claws, but even those were having difficulty expelling the energy.

For a moment, she thought her attack might be too much for them to handle–before the two she had originally covered in flames expired, and their bodies exploded in a shower of gore. Two more exploded at the leader’s gesture, and streams of blood rushed toward those wounded to snuff out the flames, while other streams joined and formed an into the manifestation of some kind of talon.

Fhesiah had almost felt bad for killing the two weakest links, but now she realized they were little more than ‘blood bags’ and meant to be sacrificed in order to defeat more powerful foes.

A wave of sickly, malevolent energy washed over her, the amount of energy contained within the talon was immense. It weakened her aura just being in its mere presence, and several of the Core cultivators built the attack up further. A deathly domain had been formed by the blood of this tainted creature, whatever it was, and it dispelled her illusion.

Stirring her Qi, she had difficulty drawing it up into a meaningful attack. In truth she could counter this with her hearth and her own dao, but if she drew this fight out further, she’d really have to kill them all and learn nothing.

Several spears were also formed, and she sent what little efforts she could to block the oncoming talon. She mustered up her dao infused flames to make the fight look good, making it look like she was going beyond her limits. The talon was stopped by the flames of her path, but the spears passed her defenses.

Impaled by the spears, they pierced into her stomach and left shoulder. The blood then invaded her bloodstream, heading straight for her heart. As expected, it meant to infect it.

And she would let it.

The heart beating in her chest was twisted and defiled, and a corrupting energy attempted to wash over her dantian–but she just erased it with the power of her hearth. The flames just burned the entity’s encroachment within her body, the curse unable to do anything truly meaningful.

The man sneered at her. “I see you fight it, but you will succumb eventually. In order to live, you must obtain the heart serum and feed the curse, or you will be consumed–something only the leader can give you. You must join us, or you’ll become nothing more than a beast of blood hunger.”

Fhesiah did her best to sound worried, her breaths filled with exhaustion. “Where do I… get it?”

He grimaced. “We were supposed to scout the fifth spine, but running into you… we don’t have the manpower any longer. We’ll have to take you back to the legion camp.”

Another man, a much younger Core cultivator with burn marks on his face from her flames was more than a little angry. “We lost half our men, and we only have this one to show for it. She better have some useful resources. Give me your cosmos sack and your body, and maybe I’ll let you have a little–”

“You don’t get to decide that, though you are right.” He turned to Fhesiah, “You must give up your cosmos sack and come with us, or else we leave you with the curse. The contents will be up to the captain to disburse.”

Fhesiah shrugged, and handed over her cosmos sack. Of course, she had transferred the contents into her Framework storage ring before she came, something that cultivators had little understanding of.

It rested in a concealed pocket in her robes, where she had used some more advanced techniques to cause divine sense to distort around it. It wouldn’t work against anyone thorough like her, but these people appeared to have hollow strength–strength provided by the curse. Not their understanding of the heavens.

The burned man’s aura became unstable, bloodred energy filling his veins, and showing heavily in his scarred face. From what Fhesiah could tell, he was losing control of this curse.

“No! We don’t have to tell the captain. I will have–”

The leader sighed, and activated some form of talisman within his robes. A wave of energy washed over them, and the man froze. The heart within him stopped beating, and the blood within his body went still.

The leader reached out, grabbing the back of the man’s head.

“Wait–no, I can control it–”

An apparition of a red beast appeared behind the leader, and it sucked the blood within the scarred man’s body. Steams of reddish black blood entered the apparition, its aura rising as it did. The man was drained like a juice box, his body becoming nothing more than a dried husk.

The leader sighed, though he had a pleased smile on his lips. “Lost control. He was promising, too.” He narrowed his eyes at Fhesiah. “This is what happens if you lose control, or you don’t prove useful to the Bloodbeast Sect. This Battleground is a tremendous opportunity, that you haven’t formed your core but your strength is so high bodes well for you.”

“Would the Bloodbeast Sect value an alchemist? Because I have talents in the dao of alchemy.”

His eyes lit up. “An alchemist? Truly?” The man scanned her cosmos sack, finding various alchemy supplies and even some inferior pill furnaces and cauldrons that she had staged–of course, she was leaning on alchemists getting preferential treatment. The man’s eyes widened.

Fhesiah nodded. “Between my flames and my alchemy, it is hard to say which is better now. I received an inheritance from an event here, a mysterious method.”

“We must get you to the captain right away. This may be better than finding more blood slaves.”

The other men nodded in agreement, and they took out their flying treasures for travel.

The leader motioned for her to join him on his…magic canoe. Better than standing and balancing on a sword flying like an idiot, she supposed.

It looked like Fhesiah would be meeting a middle manager. She was heading straight for the enemy’s den, just like she had hoped. It was sort of as a prisoner, but one she could break the shackles of at any moment.

Their divine sense had scanned her, but they were actually quite poor in their search, and didn’t catch her hidden ring. Thankfully, the pill furnace and the mysterious lamp still functioned as normal within her ring, just like they did within a cosmos sack.

The sect trusted the curse to more or less do their work for them. Any attempts to flee would just be trumped by the curse, and in the end, anyone who fled would either die by becoming a blood beast, or would be forced to return and beg for more of this…serum.

The curse ate away at her heart, currently. She didn’t truly need the heart to live exactly, but it was a bit annoying that the corruption kept trying to taint her dantian.

Still, judging by how this sect captured people, there may be many unwilling ‘blood slaves’ at this camp for her to potentially save. Fhesiah may be able to kill two, maybe even three birds with one stone here.