Chương 273: A lesson

Crowned Flame Upon the Mount of Dawn enjoyed the thrill of letting his mana surge properly once more after a few weeks of nothing but management and politics. While there was a decent number of gold-ranked manifestations around some of the heartlands regions, there were not enough to satisfy every gold-ranker among the sects and prominent families. Some of these domains were also under the direct control of the King, with access to them used as a way to show favor to sects and individuals both.

That was why it felt cleansing to finally let loose, if only somewhat, as he wove through the skies above the capital while exchanging motes and lances of sunfire with the dimensional shifts and lightning-spewing sub-spaces of Tempest Throne. Not only did Crowned actually get to test his mettle and find some tempering, but he could do it while causing the upstart Pinnacle Zenith Sect to lose face with every exchange.

Three times in two days he and his grand elder counterpart had clashed, and each time it had been the celestine woman who had been forced to retreat before the fighting grew fierce enough to truly force commitment.

This time she did seem a bit more determined though, currently braving more of his assaults than previously in order to at least score a proper hit with that crackling lance of hers that she kept launching through the flickering dimensional openings that she had spread around the battlefield, only for it to appear from unexpected angles or sometimes from multiple ones at once before exploding into cascades of forked lightning. Still, it had not been enough before and would not be now.

"Your path truly seems to have turned into a rusty sword!" Crowned called as his flames incinerated even the lightning itself in his counterattack, motes of sunfire like a massive cloud of destructive fireflies at his command.

"If this is the pinnacle of your sect beneath your leader, then your dreams of seizing ground in the capital are truly a fool's errand!"

"Arrogance like that has already hollowed out your foundations for decades, bastard!" Tempest Throne called in reply as she wove to avoid the counterattack.

"The days to come will prove it. Starting now!" With a flash, she then turned into a streak of lighting that entered and exited multiple dimensional openings in an instant before suddenly appearing at an unexpected angle to Crowned's right. In the silence of his mind Crowned had to give it to her; the dizzying display had actually thrown him off as it seemed like the attack would strike true. Or at least, if he did not fortunately have an answer which would save him the shame of actually suffering proper injury.

A thought and a quick gesture caused his armor of sunfire - one of the most iconic powers of his path - to detonate in an incandescent wave of light and heat that spread like a temporary second sun in the skies above the capital, causing the arrays below to glow beneath the strain. Tempest Throne wisely chose to abort her attack, only being slightly singed before managing to slip away through one of her dimensional openings after giving Crowned a look that clearly conveyed that this was not over yet.

Not even close. Still, her not appearing anywhere nearby again spoke volumes enough too, and after a minute of wary readiness, Crowned let himself bask in the sensation of yet another victory. Sure, Tempest Throne had forced him to detonate his armor, a move that would have been costly to him had the fight continued in earnest. But as he had counted on, she had chosen to retreat rather than take such a risk, which was probably the reason for her still languishing in mediocrity.

"Such an interesting turn of events this Proving has taken," he thought to himself among the cloud of sunfire motes while regarding the city below. His aura senses revealed plenty of spots where the warriors of the kingdom tempered themselves on one another without the constrictive rules of the Proving.

Honestly it felt like a more efficient way of actually separating the wheat from the chaff than the tournament itself, even though it officially was still underway although the focus of the crowds was a lot more split than before. Crowned had even heard that some of the lesser sects without gold-rankers of their own were considering pulling out of the capital early and slinking back to whatever rural holdings they managed. Honestly, he thought that for the best too, leaving only those with quality and honor.

Those who walked the proper path and followed tradition. Those- At that moment, Crowned found his thoughts interrupted as his gaze had happened to land upon the temporary district housing the visitors without their own permanent compounds in the capital. And, more specifically, at a pavilion at its very edge that was dwarfed by most of the structures around it. Some people apparently would not see the truth as laid out before them, keeping up their struggle against convention to an irrational degree.

And given the state of things here in the capital at the moment, perhaps it was time for someone to actually teach them a lesson. Crowned himself had a perfectly good spell going here, after all; one that it would be a waste to just let dissipate back into the ambient mana without doing some good for the kingdom. A thought and a surge of mana activated the spell's secondary mode as all of the motes of sunfire started converging to form a glowing sphere of flaming destruction.

Crowned marveled at his creation for a moment, remembering the puny thing it had been back at bronze rank even though his younger self back then had been plenty impressed. Then, when every mote of sunfire had gathered, Crowned Flame Upon the Mount of Dawn sent a mental command that released all that condensed power as a meteor of destructive power that would cross the distance in but a few heartbeats. A lesson would be taught this day indeed.

"-and so the branch director's people will cover the eastern part of the city while asking us to look north for the time being," Little Crow said as he stood in the center of the pavilion's common area while relaying the latest missive from Anasta.

"She also told us to keep up the hard work, as the people we've caught and conflicts we've settled help to reveal a clearer view of the wider picture as well as leave a lot fewer headaches for when the Proving is over," he finished, folding the missive and putting it away.

"Between us though, the honored branch director looked quite tired, and she's a gold-ranker. Things are apparently not going as she'd hoped overall."

"Well ain't that the truth?" Dragonfly muttered in response, eyes forlorn. She, Amica and Little Crow had tried intervening with a group of quarreling initiates the evening before that Wander had identified as possibly manipulated by the agents of Discord. But thanks to some clever traps from their true foes, they had arrived too late and one of the iron-rankers had died in the quarrel; an elf girl who seemed young enough that she must have just gotten her essences.

From his wife's description of the scene, it wasn't hard for Kite to imagine it being Sprite who lay there before Dragonfly's mind's eye.

"Still, there's just one day left until Soul's next clash, and if - or rather when - she wins it then the finals are two days after that," Dragonfly continued.

"I honestly can't wait to leave this place now. I just… Hope we made a difference."

"I'd like to hope so," Kite said while squeezing his wife's hand.

"At least we can make a difference for every individual we pull from Discord's grasp. And thanks to Soul's impressive showing, Uncle Walker has gotten a surprising number of people coming to either join or who want closer ties with us. Hopefully, this is at least a faint sign that there can be some good that came out of the chaos that this Proving seems well on its way to becoming."

"Then we'd best get back to it!" Will stated firmly as he and Laevyeth rose as one, hand in hand as usual.

"Wander, where do you need us? My Heavenly Shaft is eager to plunge deep into the heart of this chaos and do all the good we can!"

"Now that's the spirit!" one of Wander's bodies chimed happily while others started pouring over some of the copious notes that she and Braid had made. I think that- Wait, what is he- OhgodsKitedothebarrierthing~!" Everyone present started as Wander's words were suddenly interrupted by all of her bodies screaming simultaneously in a barely coherent warning of some kind while they flew into frantic motion to throw as many notes as humanly - or rather rodently - possible into the nearby dimensional satchel.

Kite did not even have the time to begin asking what was wrong though, because the next moment they were all showered in light as the woven protective arrays of the pavilion suddenly lit up all at once in an almost blinding white light. Instincts screaming of danger, Kite's expanded field of vision let him glimpse the hints of a more ominous red-orange glow to one side of the grand tent, and so he acted." Void!"

No more had the dark aperture that was Gate of Nihility formed than the arrays around them went out in a bright flash, overloaded by what turned out to be a torrent of potent fires that then tore through the side of the pavilion just after. It struck his barrier like nothing Kite had ever felt before, flames spilling out to consume everything around it at their magical momentum was simply too great for Kite's most potent barrier to completely pull in what did not directly hit it.

Furniture burned and turned to ash in moments while everyone else present reacted in their own way, mostly by diving closer to Kite and deploying whatever defensive means they possessed that might be of use beneath the sudden calamity that had befallen them.

By the grace of Fortune, it seemed that whatever force the destructive attack had possessed had been somewhat dimmed by first impacting the arrays, but there was still enough left to cause the flames spilling in from the sides to sear all of them quite thoroughly before Kite's second layer of force walls and Little Crows potently enchanted parasol could help pick up the strain.

Then, just as things seemed to stabilize somewhat, all the flames around them flared and surged in a single final explosion, turning the world white.

"Honorless craven, what do you think you are doing?!" Frost Among Morning Dew shouted as she struck, appearing from a conjured ice crystal to the side of Grand Elder Crowned while swinging a fiendishly sharp longblade trailing icy death. This forced the elven man to swerve out of the way before turning to regard Dew where she now stood in the air upon the same mass of ice that had been her means of entrance.

"Something that someone should have done long ago," Crowned replied with some satisfaction as the light of his spell winked out as its destructive potency had been spent.

"There are no golds there for you to justify some kind of grudge, only those weaker than you."

"Then perhaps they shouldn't have dared come here if they did not have the strength to protect themselves and their ways that spit upon our traditions. And I should warn you, Sect Leader. Because I've found that those who sympathize with them and their ilk deserve the same treatment. And this-" Crowned said while looking pointedly at Dew's raised blade," - does very much come across as someone taking a stance."

"You claim they spit in the face of tradition?" Dew retorted, voice reclaiming its usual icy chill.

"Yet I would say that not using your power to sow death among your lessers is one much, much older than either of us or our sects. Convenient scapegoats do not even begin to excuse your actions here." Crowned's eyes thinned dangerously at the accusations, especially as he did not find a proper retort of his own right away. But a flicker in his aura-senses provided an opening.

"Quite irrelevant when the lecture was not fatal, wouldn't you say?" he asked, glancing down towards the smoking remnants where silver-ranked auras were appearing as the last traces of the concealing arrays faded.

"As you know, cockroaches do have a way of surviving. This shall hopefully bless them with some sense, as I or my fellows might not be so tame in our response should they displease us again. I hope that the honored Sect Leader will convey that to your little allies." Then Grand Elder Crowned turned and flew away in a streak of sunfire, leaving Dew to stare daggers at his back before she conjured another ice crystal far below and teleported to it.

While she had already seen it from a distance, witnessing the destruction that was the guild's assigned living space for the Proving up close was a more grim sight. The pavilion itself lay in ashen tatters only held together by some threads that seemed much more durable than the cloth itself. Even those were completely charred in places though, as were the occupants that all seemed to have been present at the time of the unexpected attack.

Fortunately though, the Grand Elder had been correct as Dew quickly counted the survivors and noted that all of the guild members seemed to have made it through. As soon as she emerged, a frozen domain enveloped the area while Dew carefully manipulated the magical chill to freeze and still the swirling dust and billowing smoke while not extending to the silver-rankers that were making their way out of the impact site. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent.

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"Mistress Dew!" Kite called, one of the first to emerge; weapon in hand and armor having enveloped his whole body in a flash. His relief was obvious, and even more so when seeing that no other enemies awaited them outside.

"I am sorry, Kite. I did not sense his intent in time to intervene," Dew replied, managing to keep the anger and self-recrimination from her voice.

"It seems that Grand Elder Crowned has chosen to up the pressure on you now that violence is becoming more accepted in the collective mind of the warriors present."

"So it was him then? Wander did report of him fighting earlier, but the following moments were a bit… intense," Kite finished, looking back to his sooty and seared companions and the devastation behind them. Dew could sense that her former student was doing his best to keep a straight face, but that this sudden attack had shaken him. Or rather, all of them.

"He sounds like a most uncouth individual," Glint remarked while busily reconfiguring her clothes of glittering gems to cover up any wounded parts of her scales that the bottle of crystal wash she had just emptied would not be able to remove. Water bubbles had started appearing around them to further help douse the lingering flames and keep the smoke and ash down.

"Having just spoken with him, I agree," Dew said.

"But this… We need to talk about it. Properly." The gold-ranker then extended her wide privacy screen around them, with the guild members crowding in to listen while sharing healing pills and other magical aid. The girl River seemed especially on edge, constantly scanning the surroundings with senses both mundane and spiritual like a vicious beast that started to feel cornered.

"So… They finally did it then…" Kite sighed.

"Threw honor to the wind and just struck down at us. I… Heavens, what can we even do against that? Without your arrays, Braid, things would have been worse. A lot worse."

"Assuming that the attack was one from a gold-ranker, and not just any weak middling spell either, I will honestly say that they performed better than expected. It might even spark some new ideas, depending on what I can find here," the masked weaver replied while busily using his odd artifact loom to take in the lingering fires and any other remnants of the potent spell or the arrays that had partially withstood it.

"I regret to be the bearer of bad news, but it does seem like it will in fact get worse if you choose to remain in the city," Dew said, before retelling her conversation with the grand elder upon confronting him.

"And while I would like to claim that my path is strong enough to defend both you and my sect, I am not that blind to the realities of this world. With me as the only gold, it would just be a matter of time. So while it pains me, I shall soon announce our decision to withdraw from the capital. While Petal is one of the finalists, the risk of remaining isn't worth it given the chaos that has sprung up around this competition. It is my advice to you that you do likewise."

The final words, while directed against all of them, seemed a bit extra intended for Kite and Soul, who both took in her words with differing reactions. Kite's face and spirit both winced in clear frustration and dejectedness, especially as he also seemed to acknowledge the truth of her words. Soul, on the other hand, surprised Dew by simply shrugging and nodding.

"You do not seem overly upset, blessed one?"

"While I would love to test my paths against these grand elders, there will be no such opportunities to be found here anymore," Soul stated calmly.

"A warrior must always be willing to take risks for tempering, and I will gladly fight any gold-ranked being that I feel might provide that. But a full-fledged gold-ranker, and experienced ones no less? That is simply beyond my path at the moment, no matter my skill."

"And you, Kite. Would-" Dew began, before tensing briefly and conjuring an icy katar on one hand in response to something beyond the rest of those gathered. The weapon vanished as soon as it had appeared though as they all managed to sense what had happened. Or rather, who had arrived.

"I apologize for the intrusion, but I could not sit idle once the news reached me," Branch Director Anasta Temren said as she appeared through teleportation.

"But when I saw the privacy screen, I also had a chance to do so unnoticed by most watchers. What's your status, Kite?"

"We… we are in decent condition, Branch Director, especially given the circumstances," Kite said, looking to the others and getting affirmative nods from most of them.

"Well Fortune be praised then. While you may not be on my official payroll, this is still something that happened in the city I am responsible for. I promise you that the Thunderous Soul Sect will feel the repercussions of this," the elven woman almost growled as she looked back towards the city.

"As for now though… Well, you already know the situation. You've done good work so far, but things are escalating."

"Personally, I would like nothing more than to march up to the Thunderous Soul Sect and demand satisfaction by combat," Will stated with vigor, even though it deflated somewhat by Laevyeth laying a hand on his arm.

"But as my Lord and I know, not even our combined path is a match for their golds now that the craven hath decided to strike at us so," she stated with absolute surety, and given that Kite knew just how close a connection Laevyeth could get to a person through contact, he trusted her words.

"Indeed," Kite agreed, turning to look at the devastation around them.

"This, Director… If this happens again without any protection, one or more of us might die. We always knew that was the risk, of course, but that was when we were only facing direct assault from our enemies. Now, the sects have sent ample warning, so unless you have a way of constantly shielding us then… Then I am not sure for how much longer we dare remain. Had this been an isolated incident, we would already have been out there again. But… I think we both know that something has changed within the city."

"Speak for yourself, annoying one," River added from the back of the group where she had been lurking, deciding to speak up even in the presence of the gold-rankers.

"My purpose in this city is not yet finished. Not until the very last traces of Discord's schemers are stamped out." Anasta looked over them all and then the smoldering remains of the pavilion, before sighing.

"It is in times like these that I wish that the Adventure Society would take a more active role in things, and faster too. I've long since kept our continental council apprised of developments here, but even with these new developments, I fear that any response will either be too little or too late. The global politics of the Society are, unfortunately, more complicated than most of us know.

That mostly leaves me with what I can accomplish with the resources and connections at my disposal, and you of the Autumn Wanderer's Guild have been both too helpful and - to be frank - too useful to risk further here. I will not hold it against you if you choose to retreat from the city now.

Because I fear that I will have much need of you in other matters in the years to come, while openly bringing you under our protection as part of our organization might only risk more reprisals or undermine your further efforts."

"Is that it then, annoy- Kite?" River snapped, turning to him as anger leaked into her otherwise flat voice.

"This was all that was needed for you to abandon the hunt? A bit of danger?" Kite, on the other hand, let her say her finish and fall into a tense silence as River stared defiantly at him.

"Is that really what you think this is, River?" he eventually asked her, his voice somber. It seemed that River wanted to give an angry retort, but eventually her scarred face scrunched up in frustration.

"I- we can't just give up now. We've never been this close to them. To their people that really matter."

"I know, River. I know," Kite agreed.

"But you heard Mistress Dew and the threats against us that are no longer mere words or fighting by proxy," he continued looking out over the city in the distance while stretching out his aura senses.

"This city has changed just over the past two days, as if something has started straining at its boundaries. Feel the conflicts out there. They're not the same as we felt before, but something more… vicious. Spiteful. And with a genuine threat of gold-rankers actually making moves against us… Without at least one gold of our own among our number, I fear that we will have a hard time acting openly in any meaningful way here again in the near future. Perhaps ever."

River took in his words, mulling them over for a while, but just as it felt like she would protest again, Director Temren spoke.

"You know, I might have an offer here that might be more satisfying to you," she said, addressing River.

"With some arrangements, I should be able to make a place for you among my personal assets. Cards on the table though, it would mean that you would be a completely deniable one for me. But with your frankly freakish aura strength for your level of advancement and your power set, you would be able to go where some other of my assets can not and do much needed work even in this volatile keg of alchemical explosives that seems to be the capital these days. What say you, 'Bright Day'?"

Anasta finished, pointedly using the fake name arranged for River in the footnotes of the Adventure Society's logs. Kite was surprised that River even looked to him before answering, not to ask permission but to somehow gauge his reaction. And seeing that as progress, he weighted his next words carefully.

"I have never been officially in command of you, River. You have cooperated with us well on this task, and while I do feel that retreat is the best option for the guild here, I do not by any means intend to give up this struggle. While your talents would be missed, this will let you stay and work from the inside with at least some modicum of support."

The priestess regarded Kite for a little longer while seeming to search for something in his words or spirit, and while Kite did not know if she found it or not, River soon turned to Director Temren.

"Then I will accept," she stated simply, to which the gold-ranker nodded.

"I will start making the arrangements. What are your plans for the upcoming few hours?" At her words, Kite looked back at the mess that was their pavilion.

"While we haven't discussed it properly yet, I would suggest that most of our number stay here and salvage what we can and prepare for our departure. Mistress Dew, would you mind us joining up with your sect for the withdrawal and first leg of the trip? We don't wish to impose, but having at least one friendly gold-ranker nearby might work as a deterrent to someone noticing our departure and fancying a fun little hunt as a distraction for themselves."

"Of course, Kite. Our connection already seems to have been discovered, so we might as well lean into the benefits of a somewhat joined cause. I'll start making the arrangements now and gather the students. Petal will have to suffer the loss of this opportunity," Frost Among Morning Dew said before turning to the branch director.

"And as for you, Director, know that at least one of the sects here will be acting in support of your cause, even though the extent might be limited depending on what happens after the Proving is over."

"Good, thank you, Sect Leader. I shall take my leave then," Anasta said, looking to the group.

"This might not have ended the way we hoped, but you still did good work. May our future cooperation go as smoothly." Then, with a 'snip' of her fingers, the branch director disappeared, and Mistress Dew made her departure soon after too. Turning to the others, Kite asked:"Any other suggestions? Or regrets, beyond the obvious?"

"While I am unsure if my pride will be able to recover from this blow, I shall endure," Will stated grimly.

"But those cretins will suffer the cost of their transgressions in the future and things shall be righted anew. I swear it."

"Yeah, sticking around with some golds just pining for a reason to swat us feels like a bad move," Wander agreed.

"So as a purveyor of not being splattered on a wide scale as well as all things comfortable, I definitely second getting out of here. Managed to save most of our notes too, which should be of great use for the right people~." There was a general, if reluctant, agreement among most of the others as they shared Kite's sentiment. Oddly enough, Soul remained the most at peace of them all when she joined the others in picking through the remnants and salvaging what was possible.

The exceptions were Glint, who apparently had some messages and responses she needed to convey to her surprising number of would-be suitors who kept up a constant stream of invitations, Little Crow, who would make a trip back to his clan to report before joining them, and River, who went out to keep scouting. And, as it would turn out, soon two more.

"Hey, guys…" Wander said soon after beginning.

"Shouldn't we get Vista too? He's so associated with us by now that we should at least give him the opportunity to tag along? And- wait, crap! Hasn't his round started by now~?"

"Heavens, you're right," Kite said, realizing the time as he turned to Dragonfly.

"I believe you're right, Wander. Love, will you accompany me there? With all that has happened, we should perhaps watch over him no matter what he wishes."

"You're right," she replied.

"Besides, with Amica here we're probably superfluous anyway. The utility of telekinesis…."

"Let's just say that Little Crow agrees," the telekineticist in question answered with a smile from where she was sorting through debris at an impressive pace.

"It was a pain at iron rank but really came together at silver. You go get that young master of yours. We'll sort out the rest." Steps Marked in Fallen Fate looked to his two companions as they drew close to their goal. With the illusions already in place, they had no need to hide as they looked like disciples clad in the colors of the Heavenly Shadow Sect.

One of the operatives nodded and split off from them with a pleasant wave as if going about his business, while Fallen knew that he would find a good perch to keep watch and aid with pinpoint arrows if need be. While it hadn't made enough of a difference against the Pathbreaker, Fallen knew not to underestimate that particular ally. As for his other one…

"Stay close. I'll take the lead," he murmured even while keeping up his genial facade.

"Oh, please. I have served Deceit for longer than you've been alive, little minion of Discord," the other 'man' replied, the cheaper privacy screen around them at least keeping sounds from escaping.

"I know what I'm about."

"Then you should also know which one of us is taking charge here. The mirage arena might have at least some guards though my sources tell me that very few seem to give these particular matches much attention now with the tensions rising. The contestant we're targeting is named Victory Carved in Storm and Stone. She should be helpless as she's already within the illusory round. We take out any other contestants present as well. At this juncture of our plans, every seed we can sow will be of help."

"I'm a silver-ranker too, you know. I can remember just fine."

"Then show that you and your people are worthy of your spot in the haven we are to create," Fallen snapped just as they started ascending the stairs to the mirage arena.

"It is time to create some more fertilizer for Discord's garden."