Chương 272: Precedence

"Heavens, Soul. That… that sure was something," Kite murmured where he sat in the guild's section of the stands, watching the celestine head for her assigned exit. The way she carried herself - bloodied and seared, yet still with that easy confidence that radiated strength beneath the grime - made her indeed seem like the very epitome of a warrior.

If the first of the two rounds fought beneath had Kite at the edge of his seat, the second almost had him lean back as if the sheer ferocity of the clash threatened to wash over him even through the protective arrays. The aftermath though…

"- amazing. She's like a goddess of the arena-""- serves those bastards of the Thunderous Soul right in being shown up by an outcasts-""- I wonder if she'll take me on as a disciple-""- if she can do it, then we can too. Let's act tonight, when all the duels begin -""- that she's even allowed to be here is enough of a slap to our traditions. What was the King thinking when-" The murmurs and discussion of the crowds were still rising in volume, the sentiments as varied as the groups of people there.

Jibes, plans, hopes and wounded prides… There would be consequences to Soul's victory, of that Kite was sure. But given what Wander had reported, it was probably just one of many factors at play in the capital at the moment.

"Come, we need to go to her. Both for congratulations and for strength in numbers," Kite said to Will, Dragonfly and Laevyeth who had joined him in the arena. River and Amica were currently following a few fainter leads that Wander had received while Little Crow was carrying messages for his family and the branch director, leaving it to those present to go and show their support while Walker and Braid went through the gathered information that Wander was constantly throwing at them.

Once out of the sections meant for spectators, Kite and the others followed a now familiar path only to find the entrance to Soul's quarters thoroughly crowded by other warriors from different sects and walks of life. From the gathered auras, Kite only caught some minor negative sentiments while most were simply emanating different flavors of awe and adoration, especially as light started flowing out of the open doorway through which none of them had yet dared to cross the threshold.

And when said light was colored by a faint streak of gold, the crowd went silent before the murmuring started up again.

"Truly, the blessed of Warrior!"

"Such insights!"

"I remember how that fist felt when it impacted my left cheek. Haven't washed it since…"

"Maybe it would be worth joining that guild of theirs… At least see what all the fuss is about…" Due to said crowds, Kite and the others initially had a tough time getting through the packed essence-users before some aura nudges combined with them wearing the mark of the guild eventually caused a path to form that let them cross that invisible threshold that none had so far dared to, earning them many jealous glances as the group rejoined their comrade.

"Congratulations, Soul!" Dragonfly called as she rushed over, managing to grab the otherwise so vigilant celestine in a hug before she had the time to rise from her seated position.

"And another power to gold to celebrate that victory of yours too! Which one was it?"

"Dragonfly-" Kite began to chide, as asking such a question before all these witnesses might be giving away information that Soul would prefer kept quiet. At least he thought so, but it seemed that Soul disagreed.

"Perfected Strike," the celestine replied calmly, apparently uncaring of the witnesses.

"Really? So close after your perception power? A proper homage to how central it is to your path then. The warrior to be feared is the one who has practiced a single strike a thousand, thousand times, no?" Will chimed in as he and Laevyeth joined the congratulations.

"And I shall do so a thousand, thousand more until it can sunder the heavens themselves and let me step beyond," Soul agreed, rising to her feet.

"I am, however, done with my meditations, and I assume you mean for us to return?" she finished, the question directed at Kite.

"I would suggest so. There is always business to attend to, after all," Kite agreed, before looking towards the gathered small crowd outside Soul's preparation chamber.

"Unless you mean to receive the adoration and respect of the people, of course." It was only then that Soul looked towards them, seeming to notice the gathered warriors for the first time.

"I know some of you," she stated calmly.

"Anyone here who intends to provide me with a challenge and some more tempering?" The question seemed to take the gathered people aback, before one burly leonid close to the front broke the silence.

"I… honored blessed one, we are not allowed. The rules of the Proving…"

"Ah, yes. How tiresome…" Soul replied, eyes panning the crowds before looking back to the leonid who had spoken.

"Well, it will have to wait then, I assume. Did you manage to learn something from watching this bout?"

"Oh, yes, blessed one! Truly, each of your strikes was divine inspiration in and of themselves."

"Good. Then meditate upon and practice those insights and then come find me at my arena in the north. That goes for all of you. You have already proven yourself before Warrior by merely competing in this Proving, but only the weak and complacent will let it lie there. Seek tempering and then test yourselves against me in the future," she finished, before making her way to exit as if the crowd wasn't even there. And unlike when Kite and the others had first arrived, it parted like a school of fish before the shark.

Being so soon after the clash, the crowds - of whom the majority were essence-users - were still flowing out of the arena. Some of them clearly noticed Soul once she emerged from the main gates along with Kite and the others, but the celestine simply ignored the whispers as she and the others started making their way across the plaza. But they had only passed around halfway across when a sudden shout had them all halt in their tracks along with almost everyone else present.

Or rather, it was due to the furious gold-ranked aura bursting out like an oppressive storm cloud along with similarly ominous words.

"You bastard! Say that again and I'll-" Like a moth to flame, it was almost impossible not to fix one's attention upon the shouting man; a runic man with dark skin and pale green runes flaring in anger. Even without his telltale staff adorned with the crystallized skulls of a few odd kinds of alien creatures, Kite recognized him as Dust of the Blooming, a grand elder of the Singing Grove sect.

It was another of the heartland sects, although one that wasn't overly covetous of a spot in the capital itself given the solid and dependable riches and resources they could regularly harvest from their holdings, and this particular grand elder had a fierce reputation in the defense of their lands.

A bit further away on the plaza, where anyone caught between the pair had quickly hurried out of the way, an elf woman upon whose shoulder rested a vicious familiar looking like a bird of prey made from jagged metal edges had turned to regard the irate man with an aura of obviously feigned confusion. She wore the colors of the Eternal Embers Sect, and if the descriptions Kite had received was correct, her name was Voice Like Rain.

"Why, Grand Elder, I merely congratulated your sect for becoming stronger," she said, not even needing to raise her voice in the silence that had been pressed upon the plaza by her own gold-ranked aura colliding with that of the runic.

"Such is the case when weaklings do us the service of dying early, even though I wonder what the young Disciple Hawk did to infuriate his fellow students so? I would have thought that you could at least keep order within your own halls."

"That is my nephew you are slandering, witch!" Dust of the Blooming bellowed in response to the obvious barb, aura flaring even further as he took one step closer.

"Is nothing beyond you and your vile sect that you have to desecrate the memories of the innocent dead?!"

"The dead are nothing but burdens that need to be fed to the flames of those still living, Grand Elder," Voice Like Rain retorted matter of factly, as she turned as if to continue to walk away.

"You should-" She halted and turned though, the metal raptor at her shoulder screeching with a grating metallic sound at the other man who had taken another step closer, clearly fuming at her nonchalance.

"Careful now. I wouldn't want to think that you would attack me, Grand Elder. Because I will gladly defend myself." Dust of the Blooming seemed to become somewhat cognisant of his actions at that moment, and looked about to perhaps back down when another voice from the crowd suddenly called out.

"The Singing Grove Sect stands eternal, harlot! One of our grand elders would never fear the likes of you!"

"What, you dare?!" Came the response from somewhere else in the crowd.

"Grand Elder Rain would crush this old man!" More and more such voices started joining in, seeming to put some fire back in the eyes of Dust of the Blooming as he drew himself up.

"I will have an apology from you," he all but growled.

"Never speak ill of my nephew again, and we can chalk this down to a mere lack of decorum and common sense by a dog of the Eternal Embers." In the short moment of hesitation of the other grand elder, Wander took the opportunity to scuttle close to Kite's ear and whisper.

"This is bad, Kite. I can't find the speakers in the crowd. Not sure there even are any there beside disembodied voices…~""Not good," Kite swore, turning around as he spread out his own aura senses to see what he could find while he started pushing his way forward through the crowd towards the two elders squaring off, even if that felt like pushing against a strong wind in the face of the two rising gold-ranked auras.

"See if you can't find the person using the sound magic, then. Because at this rate, they'll-""I don't apologize to dead failures, Grand Elder," Voice like Rain spoke just then, even smiling slightly as she had apparently decided to not lose the slightest amount of face in the verbal provocations that had become a full-blown standoff.

"They-" Her next words never came though, as quite a lot of things happened very quickly in the next moment. The mana of Dust of the Blooming suddenly surged as several huge, spectral and clawed appendages suddenly burst from the different skulls of the man's staff before all converging on Voice Like Rain in a feral display of magical violence.

As Kite was now in the upper reaches of silver himself, he found that he could still follow the attack somewhat even if it just served to further highlight the qualitative leap between silver and gold rank. The target did not seem as impressed though as a wall of blades rose to cut off the incoming attacks while the jagged familiar turned into a streak of screeching, cutting death that curved around the barrier its mistress had created before shooting straight towards the other grand elder.

This was in turn intercepted by a flurry of vines that the Singing Grove grand elder's left arm had dissolved into, several strong and fibrous tendrils cut through in an instant before their rapid regrowth quelled the bladed bird's onslaught. All of this happened within the span of a second, the nullified attacks and counters leading to a brief stalemate, with the two combatants regarding each other with open, vehement hatred.

"Honored elders! Please, you have to listen! This is not-" Kite tried shouting as he continued to make his way towards them, but among the terrified shouts and people suddenly very keen on getting away from the sudden, high-powered violence, the pair did not seem to deign to register what to them was probably just another voice in the crowd.

"This has been a long time coming, I suppose," Voice Like Rain said ominously even though a tense smile played on her lips.

"Finally time to put the Singing Grove in its place." Then, as if by some unspoken agreement, both of them shot up into the air with enough force to cause some nearby windows to crack.

The two had barely reached above the roofs of the buildings beneath before their clashing continued in earnest, with a storm of jagged edges along with an animated sword the size of a building that started tearing into a much smaller but still potently resilient frame of vines flanked by an increasing stream of conjured spirit beasts.

"Oh sweet heavens," Kite breathed as he looked up at the unfurling violence as the pair of gold-rankers began fighting in earnest, Soul, Will, Laevyeth and Dragonfly joining him in looking up at the conflict whose viciousness only seemed to be rising. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"At least they had the sense to take their battle to the skies. But what of any stray attacks?" Dragonfly said, her thoughts apparently having followed the same line as Kite's own.

"Let us hope they have gone far enough outside the city's defensive arrays if one of them fails to control themselves properly. Because they still seem to be holding back at least somewhat," Soul replied after taking in the duel for a few moments longer.

"We need to get back to the others," Kite said, having pondered several potential plans of intervention and found them all wanting. As a silver with less than stellar standing among many of the golds, there was simply not that much he could do at the moment besides hoping that other elders or sect leaders would step in.

The others seemed to agree, and the group quickly started making their way back through the city towards the temporary district of the contestants while stopping at times to gauge the battle in the skies. They had just passed a few city blocks at speed when hope surged slightly in Kite's heart when he saw another figure appear in the skies close to the battling pair, his excellent vision revealing it to be Tempest Throne, the celestine grand elder that had somewhat defended Kite not too long ago.

She seemed to release some kind of dimensional apertures that swallowed a pair of attacks in order to get a moment to speak, but with the din of the city Kite could not pick out the words. What he could perceive though was the other, glowing form of Grand Elder Crowned streaking in like a beam of searing sunlight.

While he did not directly strike Tempest Throne, some other kind of heated exchange followed that left the two squaring off in the air while the clashing pair were allowed to continue the violent settling of their differences.

Another two city blocks later, the first blow was exchanged between the new pair in the sky as tensions had apparently not lowered the slightest in the days past, leaving Kite's hopes well and truly quashed as there were now not just one, but two pair of golds breaking the truce of the Proving. And he had the sinking feeling that many more would follow this precedent.

"And you are sure that I should not go intervene?" King of the Pure Firmament asked Ametrine, the pair standing at the windows of his personal suite in the palace and looking out over the cityscape where impressive levels of violence were being unleashed in what was at least a relatively controlled manner. Ametrine in turn made a show of pondering the question again, even though she had no qualms about the course of action she wished for.

"No, my King. I would counsel you to let them clash and find a new balance on their own. Your role is not to enforce their hierarchy, but set a precedent of power for them to strive towards. Stepping in now might be harming the future we hope to see for our kingdom." The King seemed to think some more before eventually nodding.

"You always had a better eye for these kinds of situations, and your decisions enforced by my sword have gotten us this far. And I suppose that this will give rise to new strength within the kingdom, along with the Proving. Although the rumors of other, less savory elements in the capital do frustrate me somewhat. Like cockroaches they come seeking the scraps of true strength from their shadows, unable to muster the strength to stride out in the open.

That little guild is doing us a favor in handling some of them at least. Perhaps that is where the attention of the sects should be pointed?"

"I have received the reports as well," Ametrine confirmed even as she schooled her spirit in a well-practiced manner in preparations of the lies that were to come.

"Isolated incidents of weaklings attempting to grasp at what power they can, as you say. The little crusade of the guild seems to have handled most of it. They will return, of course, but that is inevitable in a city as grand as ours."

"All too true again, Ametrine," King agreed, turning to her while reaching out to pull her close to him by the waist.

"Fortune blessed me thousandfolds the day our eyes met. Your way of seeing the truth of things keeps astounding me. And while I would like to partake of you this very moment, I am afraid that other endeavors will call me away for some time. Meet me here again at sundown," the monarch said as he turned and left for the exit.

"Of course, my King. Anything special you wish for me to wear?" Ametrine called after him, needing not feign the sultry tone. It would be a pleasant distraction given everything she had been part of setting in motion lately. And with the hours until this planned rendezvous, she would have the time to set that final little pebble of possibility in motion too, although that particular plan was done for her and her alone.

A quick return to her chambers to change and a quick portal trip later had Ametrine emerge in an antechamber leading out to a set of very secluded gardens that only a few people in the capital knew existed and even fewer knew the location of. Right now, it was empty, but one very carefully planted informant - acquired through spending quite a lot of resources and taking some risks - had indicated that her target should be here at this very moment to report to Ametrine's so-called peer.

If he was not, then she had a few more ideas, but in the end this plan was simply one of many. If it worked, that would be most pleasing. If it did not, the cause would continue, with Discord's growing garden being the very reason for most of them even being there. And as it turned out, providence had once again rewarded Ametrine's calculations as a human man emerged from the gardens outside the antechamber, having just closed the door when he noticed Ametrine's presence.

"Honored Porcelain Mask," Steps Marked in Fallen Fate greeted, not having had the time to don his own mask yet and finding no reason to before his superior. Not his direct one, of course, but one of the inner circle like Fallen would not be allowed to remain an unknown to the others of the council. Ametrine herself had no one she was nurturing that closely as that was, according to her, a potential asset waiting to be exploited.

"Agent. You have done our deity a great service in these past few days. Even with the interlopers, the factions were pushed close enough to the brink for the transition to more open hostilities to have been initiated," she said, Fallen bowing in response.

"Thank you, honored Senior. It is still at a critical stage though, given certain… interference," Fallen said, hiding both slight chagrin and some wariness towards Ametrine in his aura with impressive deftness. She could still pick it out, of course, but Ametrine was an experienced hand at it, after all.

"If you will excuse me, I will go and continue with-""Of course, but first -" Ametrine interrupted while retrieving a small box from her dimensional storage that appeared in a puff of shimmering smoke.

"- a reward for hard work, fresh from the church's craftspeople." While still wary, she also saw a clear note of curiosity and greed light up in the unsmiling eyes of the otherwise seemingly pleasant silver-ranker, as he opened the box to reveal the crystal ring inside.

"It's based on an ancient artifact of our church. Lesser than the original, but that is perhaps for the best," Ametrine explained.

"It is power, but at a cost as you use the spark of our God to consume your body. But it is quite potent, and an option when you feel that victory has to be secured at any cost." She was thankful for the mask that hid her features, allowing herself a smile as she felt the greed and ambition rising in the silver-ranker as he regarded the ring with new eyes and, after touching it and apparently recognizing the spark of their deity inside, Fallen put it on.

"Thank you once again, honored Porcelain Mask," he said again, bowing more deeply this time.

"An undertaking such as ours is walking on a knife's edge for years," she replied, turning to continue towards the door as she finished.

"We need every advantage we can for the cause, and to seize power for ourselves in the world that Discord wishes for. Use it as you see fit, and continue breaking the ground for Discord's growing garden." Fallen bowed again before he too took his leave, and as Ametrine entered the sanctuary of her fellow council member, she felt the satisfaction of a thread and bait well-placed.

Having an option such as the ring at one's fingertips when things seemed dire might be enough for a pressured mind to choose fight over flight after all. And from that…

"Well, we'll see in the days to come."

"Please, most honored Grand Elder, I do understand the history you have with the Thunderous Soul Sect makes this harder, but I beg you to consider that Discord-" Kite tried anew, but his words were interrupted by a firm push of gold-ranked aura as Tempest Throne kept walking, disciples and inner disciples of her sect in tow and giving Kite glances varying from outraged to embarrassed to pitying.

"Your words are proof that you do not, in fact, understand anything, outcast," the celestine with the jade hair so much like Serene's replied, not even sparing Kite another glance.

"This has been in the making since before you were born, silver. Do not try to push the folly and dishonor of those bastards onto hidden threats like the dark gods. That worm struck me, and neither I nor the sect will stand for such a sleight. Now, be gone and do whatever you outcasts do without proper loyalties."

As she finished a portal opened up before her which Tempest Throne pushed through, followed by her honor guard of silvers before it vanished, leaving Kite feeling despondent as he looked after where the members of the Pinnacle Zenith Sect had disappeared.

The first conflicts between the golds of the varied sects had not gone on for overly long before eventually leading to the battling parties disengaging, though the tensions that seemed to be lingering in the very air of the city after the event had hinted at the ceasefire only being a temporary one.

"Good try, Kite. But it seems that not everyone is susceptible to that earnest face of yours~," Wander said consolingly while patting him on the cheek with a tiny forepaw.

"But if you hurry a few blocks over, you might be in time to stop a few bronze-rankers from following their elders' examples aaaaaaand there they started fighting. Okay, new plan. Hurry over there and stop things from escalating~?"

"On it," Kite sighed, already hurrying along the city streets while following a trail of rats indicating which turns to make. While the hope of actually convincing Tempest Throne had been slim, the grand elder had at least seemed somewhat accepting the last time Kite had encountered her. But the truth of the matter had unfortunately remained; that the built up resentment trumped any other sentiments she might have, leading only to derisive dismissal.

"What about the others?" he asked Wander in an attempt at refocusing. Given the ambushes of their foes in recent days, Kite had been the only one to make a short detour alone while the others moved in two groups for more safety. But if their earlier efforts had felt like a chase with too many targets and only so much time, it now suddenly felt like a wildfire threatening to grow out of control.

"River managed to unmask one of their sneaky, disguised ones and subdue him before he could strike at a few initiates in another of those… what did you call them~?"

"Back with Gauntlet, Ryker used to call them 'false-color operations'. As in disguising yourself as some other allegiance to create strife and chaos through misdirection."

"Ah, yes. That. Seems to be a favorite of these bastards. I hate it already," Wander grumbled.

"It feels like for every one we get, half a dozen others are completed~."

"At least we're not alone. The Crows are apparently hard at work too- Wait, is it them up there? I can feel the auras," Kite interrupted himself as a few bronze-ranked auras became more clear to his spiritual senses in the turmoil of the city that felt like a haze to his spiritual senses as more than one grudge was to be settled. He stepped up into the air to circumvent the last of the crowds, with plenty of people still out and about despite the rising tensions as life in the capital had to continue nonetheless.

A few rooftops over, he found what Wander had indicated as four bronze-rankers were embroiled in a chaotic double-duel. So far, it remained contained to an inner courtyard of a mercantile center, but given the frustrations of some involved, Kite suspected that some more reckless powers might soon be brought out. And he currently had little patience for that." Wall!"

"Wha-""Who-" Boxes of force appeared around each of the four like small prison cells of half-transculent barriers as Kite himself touched down among them.

"Cease these hostilities and return to your sects. Grudges are to wait until after the Proving or at least be taken to the arenas outside!" Kite called sternly, doing his best to put his aura into the rebuke against the four, causing their collective attention to snap to him.

"A-apologies, Senior," one of them began, but another seemed to have the presence of mind to actually take a good look at Kite. Or, more precisely, at his lack of sect colors.

"Wait, he's just an outcast!" the other woman called, straightening in her cage while trying her best to look unaffected by Kite's more powerful aura pressing in on her.

"How dare you impede us finally finding a moment to teach these curs a lesson? You may be a silver, but touch us and the might of your betters will come crashing down upon you!" This caused the others to start drawing themselves up as well, giving voice to similar complaints, while Kite in turn felt that his patience seemed to have run dry in that very moment. A lesson was probably in order.

"Ah, I see. Well, their judgment wouldn't help any of you overly much if I just decided to simply end things for you here and now, would it?" he noted with an outward calm politeness while part of his mind shifted focus as it took control of the barriers while three hungry vortices appeared above him.

"What? You wouldn't dare, trash! Now- gah!" The protests of the woman were cut short as the barriers around her suddenly closed in, pressing up against her while similar scenes played out around the others. And then, the panes of force started to apply force in earnest. Rising Lightning sighed as he looked forlornly out over the city in the distance. His brothers and sisters were out there, representing the sect in reprisal towards increasingly bold and dastardly moves from some of their rivals.

There were even rumors that the sect leader himself would step in soon if things continued like this, lighting up the sky with his might as some gold-rankers had done earlier that day and probably would again soon, but here Rising found himself stuck with guard duty.

"At least the tea is good," he thought to himself while idly reaching for his cup, only to find that it had moved and was now grasped in both forepaws of a lone rat that sat not far away on the edge of the table in the guard station of their temporary compound.

"Nice tea, my thanks~!" it squeaked in a sing-song voice, putting the cup down before Rising who in turn could only stare dumbfounded at the rodent. His first instinct had been to strike at it instantly, but its silver-ranked aura had made him find his senses quickly enough.

"I… I'm glad you like it…" was all he managed, but the response seemed to please the rat.

"Ooo, manners. Surprisingly rare these days. I just wish that these guys might have been as wise as you, little Junior~" the rat said, gesturing to where Rising could now see the limp forms of two people being carried towards him upon the backs of several more brown, furred backs.

"I- what?" Rising said, standing up in alarm as he recognized a pair of his fellow disciples, the bronze-rankers lying completely still. He could feel their auras though, marking them as alive but unconscious.

"These guys found it wise to insult a silver-ranker that was having a bad day," the rat explained as its fellows deposited the bodies outside the guard station.

"Fortune smiled upon them though, because they at least chose to do it to perhaps the only silver-ranker in this kingdom with more mana-draining powers than sense. Wouldn't even let me nibble, so I'll just leave them here with you. Sort them out, please? Thank you, byeeee~!" Without waiting for either answer or response, the rats then disappeared out into the gloom of the early evening, leaving Rising Lightning quite concerned. And with so, so many questions.