Chapter 25: War Council

-The Arena-

James and Goliath were having a daily training session and exchanging some blows. James was like a blur as he shot forwards, released a few blows then flittered back like a gust of wind.

To Goliath’s great consternation, James had recently been practising his control over two elements simultaneously. After some recent brain scans, they’d figured out that having an unlocked element that wasn’t building with the rest had been limiting him.

After he found and acknowledged his Pride Element, his spirit realm had equalled out rather quickly. Amusingly, his pride energy pervaded everything. Even his lightning had golden streaks through it from his pride energy.

He and Skay both believed the reason he felt so much pressure from having three elements was actually because he had 4 but one was in a constant state of depletion. This also led James to believe that his plasma element had actually been created after his pride element. Which meant that he had pride before he even had the battle with Calso.

Now that his spirit realm had regained equilibrium he felt a great deal more control than before. To the point that he could use two elements without getting any backlash for nearly an hour.

Technically it would be more accurate to call it three elements, because he found he couldn’t actually use his pride individually like the others could with their elements. Instead, his pride was a part of everything, and no matter what element he used, the pride energy would be mixed in with it.

Once James felt the pressure from having an unbalanced spirit realm release, he had no troubles learning more elements. However, he quickly ran into some issues. He unlocked nearly twelve. But they were so weak they got consumed by the other elements.

After some testing and the much-appreciated sacrifice of two interlopers that recently tried using subterfuge to enter the lab, Skay concluded that everyone in the core of the Brotherhood who had an emotional element was limited, or rather helped, in some fashion.

They also found that generally, anyone who tried to unlock too many elements, without an emotional element’s support, would suffer catastrophic backlash. Ordinary people would bottom out after 2 or 3 elements.

In the end, James managed to unlock the 4 elementary elements of earth, fire, water and wind. However, once his spirit realm had 7 different elements, it seemed to obliterate everything else he tried to refine.

Even things he had a better concept of than the four basics, like electromagnetism, got absorbed and refined by his other energies. This phenomenon was already abnormal, because energies in his spirit realm couldn’t usually refine each other. Or they simply chose not to, it was uncertain.

Skay gave it a try and said he could unlock as many elements as he wanted and they all just floated around in his spirit realm getting along great. He quickly discovered a problem once he got to about 16 elements. Once they were all there, he couldn’t get rid of them.

The problem with that being, that they all shared his maximum spirit energy and this meant even his strongest element only had a bit more than one sixteenth of his maximum energy. The only saving grace to this was that the massive number of elements made his alpha waves shoot up through the roof, and his recovery and gathering speed shot up along with it.

When they reached this point, they decided that if an individual emotional element created opportunities and restrictions, then why not get some more?

They even called Fatty down and volunteered him to try and unlock another emotional element. When he tried to unlock something he was rather strong in, namely suspicion, it was immediately gobbled up by his gluttony, not just this, though, any element he tried to unlock was gobbled up. Humorously, similar things happened with everyone else.

Goliath tried to unlock grief only to have it dissolved by wrath. Exsue tried again to unlock love, but of course ... nothing happened, and she claimed her “spirit realm must be broken ... or something”. Jessy tried to unlock something, but she refused to tell the others what. She claimed when it started to generate her lust energy just engulfed it and then it was gone.

Skay’s greed naturally consumed any new emotional element, similar to how Fatty’s had reacted. That only left James. The only other strong emotions he felt he harmonised with were the other sins. As such he tried to unlock all of them. He quickly realised that his pride wouldn’t accept any other elements like itself in his spirit realm and it obliterated them.

The most comical part, was that it didn’t even do it on its own. It ‘encouraged’ all his other elements to take action on its behalf. It was as if it didn’t even feel that the other sins were worthy of it personally taking action to destroy them. James could only give a wry smile as he watched his plasma tornado sucking in his greed element like a puff of smoke into a spinning fan.

They decided that emotional elements truly didn’t like to share. After this day of testing was finished they discovered that apart from James and Skay, everyone else was somewhat more limited.

Fatty couldn’t unlock anything apart from his gluttony. Jessy only managed to unlock wind, which gave a total of three elements including her water.

Goliath unlocked the fire element to join his earth and wrath. Which honestly didn’t surprise anyone.

Skay decided he had plenty enough at 16 but apart from the 4 basics and light he declined to comment on the rest, just saying; “It’ll be a surprise, haha hahaha HAHAHA!” his maniacal laughter spread out through the lab for a full minute after that comment.

Exsue declined to unlock any more elements. She said that having more isn’t better, it just means there’s more to distract you from what you should be focusing on. When she said this, she ended the comment with “like loovvveee.” while making suggestive eyebrow movements towards James.

This whole scene played out over the course of an entire night. Which is why James was now in the arena with Goliath.

Returning from this digression, James had been trying to practice using multiple elements at the same time. His pride element actually seemed to create none of the stress he typically felt using two elements and James assumed it was because of the nature of the energy.

In actuality, it was now far easier than before. He still ended up deciding to fast switch between elements in battle, though. This was for two reasons, it was because this got along better with his breathing technique, which was essentially the action of instant switching between elements like glittering stars.

The other reason was that trying to sustain two elements was still an enormous strain on him over time, and trying to maintain two elements while he was breathing was even harder.

His breathing, by now, was almost entirely subconscious. Although he occasionally altered it, he had gotten to the point he never had to think about it. At first, he found he’d have to remind himself and restart the breathing technique every 5 minutes, then it slowly became 10, then 20 and after 4 weeks had become rarely to never.

He decided after he ascended to True Spirit Realm he’d sit down and re-hash it again. Especially now that he was feeling less backlash with multiple element use.

As James and Goliath started gasping for breath in the arena, a ‘ding’ sounded through the speakers. “Boy, it’s Skay. There’s beast activity in the black forest.”

James reluctantly ended their battle and moved towards the lab. Goliath gave a sigh of relief and made his way to the meditation room. James was getting better much too fast. Now that he was using elements simultaneously Goliath felt a mountain of pressure from their duels.

He hardened his resolve and decided that he would need to double his training. Although James had forbidden them from breaking the barrier yet, that didn’t mean he couldn’t ‘reach’ the barrier.

To his further disgruntlement, that seemed to be taking longer than he thought it would. After he started the star point breathing technique, his energy just seemed to keep building up even after he thought he’d filled his barrier.

-The Lab-

When James arrived, he saw a bird’s eye view of the Black Forest south of Gau City. It was the forest Fatty had been lost in and also bordered on the edge of the Black Forest Mountain, which was a natural habitat for quite a few True Spirit Realm beasts.

The map had a red glow overlayed on it. “What’s going on Old Madman?”

Skay pointed to the live feed from the drone. “The spirit beasts have been congregating in this area for nearly three days. This red glow covering the edge of the forest is the heat map from the drone. All that area is lit up like the 4th of July.”

James cupped his chin for a while. “Harvy, put up a job for some delivery boys. I want every faction in the city to get a copy of this map and an explanation. Tell Hao, it’s time to call a war council. Make sure only the leaders of each faction know about this. No loose lips, or so help me, I’ll start making examples.”

The lifeless form of Harvy gave a nod and began to move towards the elevator. Before he could enter, it gave a ‘ding’ and Anvil walked out. He looked rather excited as he marched past Harvy towards the duo standing at a screen.

“You wouldn’t believe it! We found one of his old caves!” Anvil said excitedly.

Skay and James shared a glance. “His old caves?” James couldn’t stop himself from asking.

Anvil gave them both a sly grin. “You’re going to love this. The Clan Founder! One of the disciples training in the Endless Forest discovered one of the founder’s caves. It couldn’t be worse timing though. Song is supposedly having a 300 years birthday this week. Oh, I was told to invite you by the way. I’ve just been wrapped up the last few days with the cave business.”

James thought for a while and then signalled for Lackey 1, who seemed to be missing an arm now, to go and prepare tea. The armless, scarred faced and tired looking Lackey 1 climbed up from the pattern he’d been painting and moved off to make some tea.

James couldn’t figure out for the life of him why this guy was still coming down here. First was the array accident that left him scarred. Then there was an accident when he was sent to help Norman in the alchemy lab, and the whole fiasco when he was assigned to feed the caged earth lizard they’d acquired from the Gau Clan.

The strangest part was that he had long since accumulated 10,000 points for an Arc Cannon, but still hasn’t spent a single one of them. He just kept coming to the lab day after day and getting injured in bizarre lab accidents.

If James didn’t know better, he’d think the man was a spy. But he could sense his oath was still intact through the Guild Seal that was floating around in his spirit realm, so he knew the fellow wasn’t saying anything he shouldn’t to anyone he shouldn’t.

They’d even posted a drone to follow him around endlessly and track his guild medallion. This turned up nothing and only left them more confused. They never bothered to ask and as long as he kept doing his job they didn’t plan to yet. He was perhaps the most experienced Lackey they had. Certainly the longest lasting one at least.

After this divergence of thought, James turned back to the Elder. “Anvil, I’m afraid we’re going to be upsetting your plans. For both Song’s celebration and your cave diving. As curious as I am to go see it, if we leave the city anytime soon, we’ll be coming back to nothing.”

Anvil made a strange face then it clicked. “You’ve detected something?”

Skay gave a solemn nod then pointed to the red overlay on the screen. “Everywhere that is red has at least one spirit beast to every 10 square meters. So you’ve got an idea, this map is scaled at 10,000 square meters.”

Anvil shot up from the stool he’d just sat down on. “1000 beasts? All in such a small area? It’s ... have ... are they moving yet?”

Skay shook his head then hit a button. It showed a screen that was normal and then the slow build up over three days. “No, they’re just congregating for now. If they don’t move for another day, I expect them to nearly double, that is, if the current trend continues. If they start moving, we will probably only have about 2 days before they reach the city based on their movement patterns while congregating.”

Anvils face was white as a sheet of paper. “Good Heavens, I must return to the mansion. We have to warn the city!”

James reached out and stopped him. “Just wait for a moment. We’ve already sent people to inform the major factions. We can’t let this spread to the commoners just yet. If panic starts to spread the city will definitely fall. The last thing we need is looters and riots and people killing each other to try and run out of the city. Go remind Hao to start the war council. We’ll be there soon.”

After he’d said this, he sent Anvil on his way. As he picked up his fresh tea and turned to Skay. “Do you think we’ll be ready for that many beasts Old Madman.”

Skay just grinned madly. “Why wait to be ready for them to get here? You of all people should know better. Modern warfare is the speciality of our world. We should be sending out some disciples now to start harassing tactics. At the very least we can stir up some trouble, and they’ll move before they congregate too many. It’ll be easier to deal with less with fewer preparations than it would be to deal with more with only a few extra days to get ready.”

James gave a nod. He then opened a draw and started writing up a new Job Card.

Black Class Mission

-Dangerous-

Open to: All members

Assignment by: Guildmaster James

I’m seeking someone brave, courageous or just someone stupid enough. I need 10 or more people in the main hall by high noon. This job requires you to engage in hit and run tactics on an enemy numbering into the thousands. Prior experience with the Air Board Testing will be valued.

You get to shoot Arc Cannons.

James.

Difficulty: No Stars.

Rewards: If you survive. All implants in the School will be free or the equivalent merits.

Any members with family will receive compensation for death in the line of duty should they not return.

When James went to the Main Hall at midday, 50 members were sitting around waiting for him. It was even more than he’d expected. The only members not here were out on other jobs. Most of them had formed little parties and groups, so even though they were only on 8 jobs, it was nearly 40 people.

When he saw the turnout, he gave a smile. He wasn’t sure if these people were here for the opportunity to fire an Arc Cannon or because of the job rewards, but it was a pretty decent crowd.

Of the guild members, a good number of them had joined for the techniques and to be able to train in the arena. After they set up the arrays for the Gau Clan, the only other cultivators that came to borrow the arena were from the Sects.

In total, almost everyone here had completed enough jobs to get the basic guild package. They got the meditation and breathing technique and had done at least one course in the commoner classes at the school. In addition, because they could use the arena for free to train and meditate, almost all of them were in the upper quarter of the barrier realm. They’d even had two or three people that had managed to break through.

James stood in front of everyone with a bitter smile. “Looks like everyone is here for the job?”

After a few affirmatives, James just grew more bitter. “Well, you should all know in advance that you may not survive this Job. I have 12 Arc Cannons at my disposal for this operation. I should warn you now. These are the 2.1’s and can get about 12 shots out of them. Fatty and Goliath will be running this mission, so I expect you to take their lead.”

After saying this much, Goliath got up on stage and started to walk everyone through the core mission outline. He seemed to have a flare for leading troops, and James was not averse to putting him in charge. Fatty was just there because he needed some experience and out of everyone apart from Skay and Harvy, he was the only one who could operate a Big Berta properly.

When he saw that the briefing had started, James gave another bitter smile and left towards the Gau Clan with Skay and Harvy.

-Gau Mansion-

The ‘War Council’ consisted of the heads of all the same factions that had been sitting here when James first came for a town meeting after the monolith incident. There were only three exceptions.

Firstly, the head of the Imperial Branch had changed to the vice head. Secondly, it seemed the Guild Master of the Tailor’s Guild had mysteriously disappeared along with the vice-master, and there was now a young lady sitting in their place.

The final difference was that two new members were sitting at the table. One of them was Emily, and the other was Lucas. James assumed they must have used an Air Board to get here this quickly. How they managed to get the news so fast was something he could only guess at. More questionable was why they were even here, James was sure they probably didn’t care too much about Gau City.

Also similar to the last meeting was Afro-face in his teal robes and Hao in his purple robes standing at the head of the table arguing loudly.

“I don’t care if your little pet guild fucking walked out there and used a recording stone. I don’t trust them, and I haven’t heard anything from anyone else about beast activity increasing in the south.” Afro face was yelling loudly right at Hao while pointing towards the trio that just entered.

Hao’s face grew even more displeased. “It’s precisely because there’s been no reports of activity that I’m inclined to believe. That there hasn’t been a single sighting reported in the South while every other direction has doubled, is the whole reason I’m so fucking worried.”

“Nonsense! There hasn’t been a spirit beast sighted leaving the black forest for years! They’re not about to come out for no reason and furthermore they’re not about to start any fucking Beast Hordes!”

James and Skay sat down while Harvy stood behind them. Everyone in the guilds could already tell he was carrying an Arc Cannon, because the last time he had one, he was covered with a thick black robe similar to the one he wore now.

The Clans weren’t as clued in and didn’t pay too much attention to Harvy. When he was all wrapped up in bandages and smelling of fruit, he looked rather harmless.

As the duo who sat down had some tea served, Lucas gave them a quick glance. He gave a disappointed look then leant forward and looked like he went to sleep on his hands.