Stifling a yawn, I greeted Shiro as she appeared in the Boundary. There was o be ed about the prote of her Material body, with Haru, Ginneka and my sis there, but she must have been thinking along simir lines, as she stretched zily, arms above her head, and grinned. “You know, I’m damn envious of you Aki. Being able to be in two pces at once is pretty awesome. If I could do that too, we could go on two dates at once.”

  Laughing, I disagreed. “Maybe physically, but it’s not like they’re es. If I was ing myself I’d rust them. It’s just perceiving two things at once. So it’d still be oe, just in two pces at ond much more stressful on the mind.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think any of us would like es either.” Shiro smirked, sitting down and crossing her legs. “There’s only one Aki, thank all the Gods. But it’s kind of cute how predictable you are. Wouldn’t want to let another version of yourself get close to us. But I think it would still definitely have its perks, being in two pces at once. Oh well… time to get down to business.” Her bck eyes lit up with excitement. “So what’s the verdict? eak freely here.”

  “Yeah. So it’s like this…” I expined about the Favours I had obtained, and Shiro nodded.

  “Yeah, setting aside that st oan has something to say regarding Jarovid’s Blood. I’ll let her take the stage.” Her eyes and hair burned red, tongues of fme lig at her long locks. “Yes. I do indeed have a matter to discuss. However…” Taated, which was unlike her.

  “Is it something you ’t say? I don’t want to get you into any trouble, though of course we are endlessly grateful for your help up to now.” I fttered her, but it was the truth. Sometimes what Tan didn’t say and how she refused to say it allowed us to get information she cimed she wasn’t prepared to provide.

  “It is… plicated.” She said at st. “I find myself in quite a quandary. I did not expect things to fall into lihis way. I believed I could seize this world with the strae I entered here in the princess. I do not believe I was wrong. Now it surprises me that my surest path to victory here seems to be triumphing in a simple wager.”

  “It’s not a win or lose thing.” I said, though I admitted to being rather troubled about the agreement, even if I uood it. Tan’s an ally, and orust, especially with Shiro’s safety. But we have some flig goals, s her into a true rade, one following our lead, would offer reassurance. And if we lose… she will do her best for us, and even if it ties us into following the lead of Tan and her Pantheon, at least we’ll still have a good ce of helpih survive. Even so… “The winner won’t forsake the loser, right? We ’t, we?”

  “True.” Tan said, after a long pause, and seeing her mencholic expression on Shiro’s face was odd, yet somehow fresh. I had seen a gloomy Shiro many times, but seeing Tan’s take on the emotion was a rather intriguing experience. “However, while this certainly does tou a matter I ot speak of nor expin properly, both because I am forbidden by our pacts and also you would not be able to prehend it anyway, I am more flicted because it has some influen your side of this wager.”

  “Wow…” Shiro suddenly spoke, aping my sister. They’re already starting to copy each other’s quirks a little. That gives me a headache. “…Tan, you’re so fident yoing to win, but… you do think highly of Aki, I see. You wiving him some ideas might help him succeed, even though what Aki wants to do is if not impossible, the province of a very few skilled individuals, in your mind. Damn, that’s almost cute.”

  Tan actually flushed, dyeing Shiro’s face a faint red, before curling her lips into a wicked smile. “You think you tease me, mock me, princess? Then know, if I am to offer my aid, I will o desd once more.”

  “Oh shit. Damn, hoist by my oward there, I see.” Shiro rattled off a British idiom, and I wondered where she got it from. Mom maybe? She really likes Shiro, and no wonder… “I’m already so damn tired and ag after before, and I know you wao hand out buffs like dy, and now a sed Divine Possession too? Damn, you pair are ruthless. Hmm, I need pensation! Eri’s getting her holiday, right? I’m not so greedy, but at least a date night like Kana got seems fair.”

  “Fine.” I ceded happily. “But it might have to wait a while, as we’re going to be busy. Anyway, Tan, if you think you’re disadvantaging yourself, we amend the terms of the wager…”

  “You think I… Ta?hā the Thirst, daughter of great Mara, a Divine being from far above, should be intimidated by you?” She sounded offended, and I could almost hear Shiro iserating me. “You think very highly of yourself, I see. Though I do cede you have several ued advantages, and have unpreted growth. So I shall not be careless. But do not insult me. I am not one of these Fae, uo break given word and tell lies… nor you.” She noticed shrewdly. Of course, I avoided lying to Chae Cho-Hee as much as possible, especially when it came to promises. As a Faedui doesn’t sit well with me, and leaves me physically unfortable. “But to do so would be to admit I am beh you. And you may have impressed me a number of times, again this day, but I am not ready to cede unless I must. My sisters would mock me endlessly, just as they did when the Buddha walked on by. So if you wish to pity me, first subdue me, Akio.”

  Akio, huh? Tan rarely used anyone’s actual name, so that surprised me a little, but I guessed it was a decration, of sorts. Nodding to show I uood her i, I apologised. “Sorry, yeah, if I’m going to beat you I ’t be stupid enough to refuse charity. So, what did you want to discuss about Jarovid’s Blood? It’s kind of broken at the moment…”

  “Indeed, I felt the corruption when we frohe feeble brat who was misusing it.” Tan agreed. “But more to the point, the underlying gift… it is perfect for you, yet also not. But also perfect for the princess here, and also not.”

  “I see. You mean… we have no patibility, but we would be able to use the power effectively? I get it. I use a lot of Body Enha, and Shiro is basically a buffer…”

  “Hey, I’m badass DPS too when Tan takes over.” She interjected, only for Tan to silence her.

  “This is not the time for jokes, princess. This is a time for… ambition.” Tan was deadly serious. “Your perception is keen, and your Eye, that sweet, delectable Eye, it shows you much. I still hardly believe the foolish Valkyrie whht down such a thing. If the leaders of the World Tree discover that, I expect her to be soundly punished. Yet perhaps she was right to risk a treasure upon a bold strategy, much as I did. Perhaps we are kindred spirits, and would have much to talk about over food and drink.”

  That would be quite the restaurant bill, I’m sure. Occasionally, Tan would take over Shiro and ge herself, and she could eat as much as twenty or thirty people, easily. Though Shiro didn’t like me to be around when that happened, feeling embarrassed. “What you’re saying is, if we repair it, either Shiro or I could use it? But then…” With all my Split Thoughts, including my newly acquired threads, now trated here in one body, I rapidly ed my brain, s possibilities. With my high Intellect, I was able to simute things well, and while it didn’t help with emotional intelligence much, being as I was still the same me I had always been, muy embarrassment at times, when it came to puter-like calodelling and so forth, I erputer. Hell, I’m even running multi-threaded right now.

  Realisation dawned on me, and I said to Tan what my clusion was, sparked by her words from before. If it help me with my wish to replicate my Eye for my sis… and holy, when it works once, Shiro, Tan, the others… “You mean to split the Favour apart? Each of us taking the part that we are suited for? Is that… even possible? Wait…” I ran more simutions, and realised I perhaps had one of the keys to unlock this massively difficult problem.

  “Possible?” Tan snorted. “Of course it is possible. The Favours are created, are they not? It is hardly a stretch to assume they be ged, maniputed. For you? I am almost certain not. Even I ot create a Divine Favour of my own, I brought the Favour of my father with me. It requires a great deal of talent and skill, honed over long years auries. You have but what… months? No, just as to be Divine requires a suitable League, and to be called a true God would also require great trol of and focus of an adherehat was suitable… you ake a Favour with just that, though without ether and adherence you craft nothing, of course.”

  “The missing element.” I surmised, getting a hint from her words, and also the mess of a Favour that was Akoman’s Well Of Blood, Water And Despair. Even holding it was causing me a lot of disfort, and made my Eye bour to perform properly. The description itself was fragmentary and garbled, question marks, strange symbols, letters in various Earthly and likely uhly alphabets all in a tangle. All I really decipher is … Increases strength of the bearer by… erodes the mind of those afflicted by the Blood and Water… gathers the Adherence of Chaos and verts it to… plus the odd word here and there. Not nearly enough to make guesses based on my Eye alone. But…

  “Indeed. Surely you see bestowing abilities on others is the province of those with great power and authority. It is not like granting someone armour, or a sword.” She tapped Shiro’s Brigandine-cd chest. “And it does more than merely that.”

  “Yes, the Anchor. I did wonder. Most of the lower-level Territories and even some stronger ones seem to have no Anchor.” I agreed. “Yet from the start we create one. Every Chosen seems able to do this.”

  “Indeed. An Anchor is not just the fulcrum of a Territory in this case, but also of the spirit of the owner.” Tan said, and that made me frown, eyes narrowed. Okay. I see.

  “So, looking at the Favour…” I studied Jarovid’s Favour while splitting my thoughts and examining Morana’s and Akoman’s at the same time, my Eye shining amber brilliantly. “…I see that the adheren Akoman’s seems rgely cribbed from Morana’s. It has the same… resonance… or frequency, maybe? No, that’s not quite right either, but it’s close enough. Then there’s some of Jarovid’s crammed in, and what I assume is Akoman’s, but that stuff resists uanding.” Sharp needling pains ran through my eye and brain as I tried to decipher all this.

  Ta out a long breath. “You should not uand that. Not so.. simply!” Tan sounded almost offended. “Worlds such as yours are rare, those that progress teology so far, for their League is insuffit in the end. Yes, against some invading forces, your ons of war would easily subdue aroy them, but against spiritual beings of power… the fi of arrows will not piere of your tanks, no? The reverse is clearly true when it es to a mighty League. And worlds where teology grows unchecked often rebuff the more nebulous iions of ether, aether and adherence.”

  “Yes, it’s painfully uific at first ghough I holy think the principles are all entirely sistent, if we go deeper.” I agreed. “But I think you’ve been with Shiro long enough to know one answer. Us humans, we’re zy creatures, who seek escapism aertai. I’m no different. So even though we didn’t believe in magid fantastical creatures…” I paused, grinning ruefully. “…even though it turns out they did exist in hiding… we dreamed of it, made stories, anime and games about it, so it became accepted and uood. Sure, it’s not the same, but a lot of the cepts we grasp without too much difficulty. Ask any kid how to cast a fireball, and you might get a dozen different answers, and sce will give you another one, but… it’s not like we don’t uand the cept.”

  “Yes, I will not say your world is unique, but it is certainly abnormal, in a number of ways, as I have pined about before. But that makes it all the more tantalising a prize. A prize we test.” Tan said proudly. “I am arrogant, but with good cause. Your strength, the might of the princess here, and even my own glory, limited as it is here, bees more freely accessible, and not only that, but you gather and empower others too. Now, there are great dangers, such as the might of the Orue Throne, who will have left many poisohorns behind, as they always do. More than just that woman and her false Angels. This predator from the higher Astral is a great threat too. And…” she paused. “…I have listeo the ese girl, and tales of her try. Unity is strength, the same strength you seek. And there are always those with great talents reat Fortuhat grow strong uedly. But…”

  “…but we grow stronger all the time too, and hopefully faster. We started on the back foot, but now we’re sprinting.” I agreed. “And I think… even if I ’t do this, I at least salvage the Favour for a breakdown, strengthening myself at worst. But then…” Would it be better tthen Shiro? Her buffs are basically the differeween us taking several years and a couple of months to properly enhance ourselves and the Territory…

  “Yeah.” Shiro spoke up again. “You take it, Aki. I heard what Aiko said, and she’s right. You first, and then those that don’t have what we have. I wait my turn. I have Tan, anyway.”

  “No. It’s not about who, it’s about the right piece at the right pce at the right time. Like Chess or Shogi, right?” I disagreed. “But anyway, we aren’t defeated before we even start. Sorry to do this, but…”

  “You want a buff, right? Whie?” she asked, and I tapped my Eye.

  “Don’t worry, I hahe upti Rank, at least to Rank five, I’ve e before. But above that…” No point w about it, although is would be at the first bottleneck… “…after my Eye is done, I’ll need you to switch it to Chirurgery.”

  “A girls’ work is never done, is it?” Shiro sighed. “Everything aches right now, I just want to lie down, but… you’re doing this in part for me, so… let’s go for it.” I felt a surge of aether and a little adherence, as I was straining so sensitively for it. My Eye fred and the message saying I had received Anesidora’s Blessing From The Box burned in my vision, and I had my skill reach Rank 5. Suddenly the information blurring affect of Akoman’s Favour had diminished, and I could see a little more information. …Increases strength of the bearer by mirr existing… and gathers the Adherence of Chaos and verts it to an Adherence of Strengthening and Maddening, fortifying the…

  I see. So that’s how it works. It’s a guess, but… “Hey, Tan, do you know how you measure the form of something you ’t see, feel or touch?”

  “No, but… from the princess I read the answer you are seeking.” Tan answered. “You are talking of magic fields and iron filings, no? Or… some cepts I do not uand. Gravitational waves? rinos?”

  “Yeah, I don’t get them either. Arisu loves that sort of thing. She’s actually oddly nerdy, though not an otaku like us. The gap sure is cute though… uh, fet I said anything.” Shiro cmmed up, looking nervous, but I set that aside. “So, your point, Aki?”

  “Simple. I know there’s a gap in Akoman’s favour, and I know there isn’t in these others, so… I want to probe what’s not there. It’s like high-energy physics.” I know a bit about these things, but I wish I’d studied these things now… “Unless I uand more, there’s no way I split it.”

  “And for that, you need?” Shiro pressed, and I bowed politely, surprising her.

  “Sorry Tan, this is impudent, but I have no adhereo spare, I’m burning my reserves. But if you could release some as I direct?”

  Ta out a long sigh. ”I said you should not reject my good iions, but now you are simply greedy, Akio. Do you wish to win so desperately? No, I am being unfair. You wish tthen the princess and the others, and this is a sure path to power, one her here is surely taking, though the odds would require miracle stacked on miracle. However, I do not wield my adherence lightly, for it is strong, and difficult to replenish for me, away from the Pantheon.”

  “Yes, I guessed that.” I agreed. “But you are the only one I ask. If there’s a price you need?”

  “I will instead have you owe me.” She decred finally. “I suspect that will be more valuable, in due course. Besides…” Shiro’s lips curled into a smile as Tan spoke boldly. ”I do wish to see if you achieve this. And perhaps I may even learn something myself. Now. I Desd!”

  Shiro groaned as her skin darkened and her features slightly shifted. “So much heavier this time, and I’m already so easy…” The Boundary around us trembled, but it held.

  “This is as much as her body bear. Even if the princess could hold more of my Thirst, this fragile Boundary would suffer. So… expin. What am I to do?”

  I used my slowly rec light element to shape some images, and expian nodded, beautiful ruby eyes distant, as she pondered. Finally she bowed her head a final time, having uood. “I see. I force my adherend the surroundiher into these packages, that which you call quanta. Like light. I believed light was simply light, not… these waves and particles, yet both aher at the same time.”

  “It’s even more fusing when you discht element act the way we thought light used to, before all that. After all, I’m creating stationary images, which should be impossible with a fixed speed of light, without stantly refreshing it and having the light scatter.” I pointed out. “Again, knowledge helps shape power. So that’s why I think we have a shot here. Because we have ways of gaining knowledge others may ck.” Though of course, the Pantheons draw on multitudes of worlds and their knowledge, as well as beings who have lived for hundreds, thousands or hell, maybe even millions of years. Just because what I do here is unpreted for Earth, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen elsewhere. After all, the Favours were made by others to start with. But that means if we want to protect Earth, we have to go beyond the rules of this game, the Kodoku ritual they’ve set up for us.

  “I shall begin. Watch carefully, for I ot abide wastage of my precious strength.” Tan warned, and a shimmering, near-invisible cloud of adherence like a hungry fme formed, before splitting into a thousand small particles, thehousand. The manipution she was dispying was far beyond my skills, and as ether around us respooo, f simir numbers of tiny probing particles, I watched on in eager awe. No matter how good my skills, I’m still no match for Tan. Nor would I expect to be, holy. But when you see a higher peak, as Daiyu would say, then you know you climb it if you only have the will and put in the effort. She’s the highest peak I’ve seen, so it’s only natural to want to look down on her in triumph from on high.

  “This is… intensely challenging.” Tan managed. “Such fine trol would be unnecessary in battle, but perhaps for tasks I am unsuited for, such as creating a Favour… it is, perhaps, excellent training as you might say. I have been corrupted, but whatever happens, at least I wish to return to my father stronger, so he will not se.”

  “No kidding.” I managed. Most of my Split Thoughts were running calcutions, while my Eye observed what I could. One was direg my remaining elements to etch a perfect copy of what I was seeing in the solid rock of the ground, preserving it for ter. I’ll get Gio move it to the Material once we’re do was fasating, and the Favours I was holding, while not being tangible, existed attached to me, drawing on my adhereo sustain them, and therefore I could present them for Tan.

  There’s three distinct patterns. Morana’s and Jarovik’s Favours are showing a response in pces simir to Akoman’s, which is pletely abnormal pared tia’s Favour and Jumong’s. As I suspected, just as ether gathered into a densed form, as evidenced iimes my Silos had overflowed, leaving great clouds of silver and prismatic material behind, adherence had form too, it was so thick as to be visible uhe Tower of London. And while that didn’t mean it would react with things, just as rinos could pass through a p without stopping, there were the rare instances where tact would still happen. And it seemed that ether and adherence were not as ghostly as rinos, more like ic rays, eid active.

  “I feel great chagrin that I am learning much from this.” Tan decred, though her tone was weary, and silver sweat beaded her beautiful, chocote-skinned face. “How disappointed you must be in us.”

  “Hardly. It’s the Elf dilemma, sometimes called the Immortal’s Paradox.” I shook my head, trating still, abs every detail of the pattern, feeling the differences, and more importantly, the areas where ether and adherence reacted with something I couldn’t perceive or ceptualise. “Any long-lived species should be impossibly wise and knowledgeable, but there’s reasons they aren’t. Lack ency, for one…”

  “The prihinks the same.” Tan admitted. “Elf dilemma. I see. How very… apt. Yes, I have lived far in excess of your years, and I have learned mud grown strong, but… pared to the endless hurry you are all in, your progress… I have zed around in my own bitterness, and pursued my own enjoyments. Though now we have some troubles to motivate us all. Perhaps that will ge.” She tio deftly manipute the energies around us. “Yes, with endless eternity, motivation is hard to grasp, for what be dooday also be done in one of the innumerable tomorrows. That makes me curious.” Her eyes met mine. “You are not mortal now, your lifespan is ierminate, but will be perhaps ihousands of years, even without further growth. Will you too lose your drive? Your passion?”

  “I ’t say for sure what the future holds. But no, I don’t think so. Not for now, anyway. For as long as everyone I care about has a finite, short human life, I want to grasp every moment. So I still have goals that I o achieve. And sure, today I’d rather be on a date with Shiro rather than having to see this horrible school and push her through this Divine Possession, but… I’ll do today what we must, so that we enjoy those leisurely tomorrows.”

  “I see.” Tan snorted. “I am indeed a fool.” She refused to eborate at my questions, and her adherence surged, magnified, and more of it was striking the Favours.

  “I see. So, disregarding the tre, Tan, your adherence is thirst and fme, right?”

  She agreed, and I asked my question. She looked at me in shock, before her eyes narrowed. “Yes, I iaste the difference. I am quite the gourmet. As you well know.” She licked her lips, which were now cracked and dry. “But to think that could be a method of discrimination. Very well.”

  The frequency of her adherence ged, and we were now probing something slightly different. The images I was carving ged, and soon, we had the answers I sought.

  “Akoman’s Favour is a jumble, but it has pieces of the adherence from the other two Favours within, and they too have his dirty crap mixed in. Though I don’t think that Akoman’s Well be sidered an actual Favour. Not without the missing piece. All it is seems to be a linked receptacle, passing crap both ways. Then it accumutes adherence, of a fvour of chaos, I guess… and sure, this Academy was the epitome of chaos. And then it uses that tthen Cho-Hee, but in exge, erodes her sanity. Hmm…” I frowned, and Tan pinched me sharply, the pain making me look up, shocked.

  “Do not think what you are thinking. The princess advised me you would be musing on pointless foolery. That girl was itting atrocities before she was ever tainted, such is clear. And a fake, fragmentary piece of garbage like the Akoman here would not be able to achieve much without her enthusiastic agreement. So feel no sorrow for her.”

  “It’s hard, but you’re right. In the end, what matters is her victims. Shit, those tw together could have been a real force food in Korea, for the world. So… we have to make their failure matter, and the sacrifices of the dead and traumatised worth it.” It was arrogant of me to say such, but to be Astral Emperor was to carry that weight, and the more I saw, the more I was sure I could only trust myself to take that role. Although… Tan is not nearly as bad an option as I first feared, I think. But I won’t lose.

  My perception was sharpening. I could now see shades of green and blue oher, and even some fshes of darker indigo and violet. Ether was not created equal, I already khat, but just like Etherites, there were fvours, and while ether was ether, I tried drawing in the scattered purple motes that didn’t meet resistance as Tan probed, and attempted to feel the differences. Yes, like that. Uherites, which tained a greater density of ether as the colour shaded towards blue, the darker ethers seemed simply more reactive, eager to break into aether that would obey my will. Fasating. It’s so much easier to tell when you have red and indigo to pare… so logically, adherence…

  Tan tilted her head, seeing I wasn’t examining the Favours as closely. “I am not willing to waste my efforts. Please trate.”

  “Oh, I am.” I agreed. “But… adherence has fvour too, though uhe mimented colour type of ether aherites, it’s…” trasting the adherences I had collected, looking at Tan’s in parison, I started feeling the difference. P only the fi of ether to my Eye, I tried to extract the maximum possible information on each fvour. No… actually I’m wrong. Adherence has an underlying colour too, I think. Does it depend on the fvour, or the purity, or the strength? I ’t quite grasp it…

  Your skill, Mystic Eye Of The Tree Of Knowledge, has increased from Rank 4 to Rank 5. Your Eye sees deeper into the fual forces that govererial and Astral Worlds. You perceive all fvours of Ether, and trol it and the Aether created from it with greater ease aerity. You have the ability to perceive the underlying principles behind Adherence. Due to the temporary strengthening of Anesidora’s Blessing From The Box, your Mystic Eye Of The Tree Of Knowledge has reached Rank 6, and the first bottleneck has temporarily been breached. The weight of the Tree of Knowledge is…

  Suddenly I could see so much more clearly, and the adherend aether was revealed to me, and I could even see a shadowy something within the voids of the favours. Yet at the same time I was ected to su overwhelmi of knowledge, I could feel my sciousness crumbling, and my perception being pulled upwards. Desperately deying with my Split Thoughts, eae sting merely moments before shattering, I unleashed my elements, searing my thoughts and insights into the ground as quickly as I could, before only a sihought was left…

  ShipTeaser