The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 531 - ’Survival Of The Fittest’: Identifying Threats
"The cult itself doesn’t interest me."
Sevra blinked a few times at the non sequitur from the heiress, as Elua had just been describing the function of the printing tool. Detailing how she was willing to build another small one like she had given to Dima... if the scout wanted. Before dropping that statement fully knowing how it would land.
Transferring all of the probability maps onto pages took time, even if turning the information into a spiritual fragment took almost none for the former Demi-god. Talking about other things while the partially essence fueled laser printer did its duties, the brunette kicked her feet from atop the library table as her friend browsed the filled in shelves.
’She didn’t even bother to question how many of these books I made myself. How boring she has become.’
"Destroying spiritual knowledge, undermining cultivation advancement - I understand why you’d assume I’d find them compelling enemies. Their philosophy is my antithesis, yes... but they’re boring. They’re always the symptom of an infrastructure put in place by someone at the helm."
"The damage they have done is real."
"Irrefutable. Does not mean they are not tools being used that will fall apart the moment the compelling force of power they are guided by is lost."
Because she liked to show off, she included a few sped up examples of this from memory. Tweaked in little three-dimensional scenelets spanning the central table of the library. Infighting and assassinations of the tops of the few cults she’d been present for.
As Uvraneht, she rarely went out of her way to kill - defending herself or avenging her beloved at the time notwithstanding. Yet, she had teamed up with ’friends’ more than once to use her Illusions to sneak in those who considered themselves noble intentioned executioners. The woman worked with assassins plenty of times in the past to the point she became an untouchable existence to their organizations... for the most part.
The words of others were worth less than she would have liked, in most cases. But the history with cults was still a reason she found herself not caring at all about the aftermath - or the former employment history of her friend. Elua er Goltbred was content to get along with someone looking forward with a good heart, even with a checkered past.
"You think focusing on the reincarnator from the prophecy will fix matters."
"Precisely. When dealing with like-minded vermin such as them, they are rather like certain insects. If you remove the queen, you often remove their ability to function at all."
"People aren’t insects, Elua. They function differently in the absence of a hierarchy. And these people... no, I don’t really understand them. How they work. Maybe you’re right."
Challenging the outlook of the Acid Tongued Villainess was something she still found strange to do without worry. The fact that she had spent more than three of those back on the continent almost made her feel she could have grown sensible enough to start fearing the ’young’ cultivator again. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
"It is true that occasionally the power vacuum creates an opportunity for someone else to take the leadership, but from everything I’ve been told this would absolutely not be the case here. They already seem to hate functioning together. Their sole link is their identity as purifiers paving the way for their Promised one."
"And if someone can convince them that a new one will rise? What then?"
Mint eyes closed as the young woman leaned back to lay on the table, chuckling the whole time. It was very un-ladylike for the eldest daughter of the Goltbreds, but she didn’t see talking to Sevra who knew so much about her past as someone she needed to play the part of a good, respectable member of the affluent class for.
"I would bet more than anything they would try to organize in such a case. Which would be their own undoing. Too much has come out into the light in the years I have been gone. The Guilds would destroy them, as they always do when it becomes clear others are poisoning the path up the realms. However, I would be lying if I said there was nothing about this I was interested in."
"You began talking about the Ouras situation again by saying you didn’t care."
"About the cult. I *am* interested in how a supposed reincarnator could both be related to some prophecy and still be exerting control over their people. That’s the first thing I’ll investigate once Qat inevitably tells me I should help solve this matter."
Rolling over to grab the finished documents, Silver dress floated up with its occupant inside it - righting her position from laying flat back up to a vertical state fluidly, without the use of anything more than an oscillating density essence field. The Adhesion technique brought masterfully toward the fine control of Levitation.
Unfortunately, it didn’t startle the Shadow Whisker member like she was hoping it would. Which was bad for the scout, as it meant the mischievous brunette would have to seek out ever more surprising things to keep up a necessary part of their friendship... in her mind.
"For what it’s worth, which I understand is nothing next to the desires of your ’fortress’... I would also appreciate your help on this when you return in a few months."
"No desire to be the hero that solves everything?"
"I’ve already been accused by some members of the Void Defense Society as being a glory seeker. I merely want my family’s goal... more specifically, Thelassi’s, to be achieved. That means that this situation resolves with the inhuman cultivator from the past destroyed. Not that I do it myself."
Humming while floating down to the floor, Elua walked toward the bookmaking area at the back of the library and selected a piece of leather to use as a new folio for anything she might send back with her friend. A few glances at the one that Sevra had brought out at her dining table offended her sensibilities.
"Speaking of your once missing elder... would you like to talk about that? You received a Memory implantation before he died. We haven’t discussed that yet and I think we very much should."
"It’s... a lot. I learned to compartmentalize them - the way you suggested I do for my own experiences, but cleanly pushed aside to divide them. Though I doubt my method is as elegant as yours."
"Wasn’t bringing it up to be flattered. I genuinely wanted to know how you are doing. After being burdened not only with failing to rescue him but his knowledge of events outside of your own. Keeping inherited knowledge distinct from your own is important."
Making quick cuts and stitches, the hobbyist leatherworker began to casually begin her project in front of the recipient. Usually she didn’t do that, preferring to keep private until the entire thing was done. Especially as she became more and more experienced in any craft... because making things *look* simple to do devalued it in the eyes of others and made those people expect excellence for cheap.
"Failure is a harsh word to use. Even if you didn’t mean anything by it."
"The truth is always harsh. I’m sure Qat sent my condolences already And knowing what the other person meant actually means everything, I would say. To that point... not that I am changing topics exactly, I would love for you to confide in me more about your feelings... but you’ve used that phrasing twice now and I’d like to clarify how literal you mean that term. Inhuman."
Monsterous, inhuman, ancient, reincarnator... a lot of these terms had been in the initial report sent by Qatrand, in regards to Sevra’s provided knowledge. But all of them were generic enough - and had been spoken by the scout frequently when talking about cultivators from the past eras.
’She trembled when saying that this time. In a different manner than only adjective as appellation. The word *meant* something.’
A line written on a piece of paper was different from one spoken while their body and spirit were right in front of you. Sevra stared at the younger woman long enough to understand the source of ’uncertainty’, then stood straighter before parting her lips again.
"Literally. They are a cultivator, but they are not human. Not anymore."
Coincidences that were more like clues began to lock into place. An item she dismissed as a curiosity, despite it being more intriguing than another piece of leatherwork that once offended her, became the keystone to it all.
’All the way back at my wedding! I can’t believe while she was trying to fight me because I was her boogeywoman, a piece of the real threat snuck past her notice.’
It also snuck past hers! Yet, she wasn’t willing to admit the idea that this person possibly still existing in the first place had escaped her net of worries. A still living owner of what she’d pegged back then as five thousand year old scales, just like the fall of the ruined city... she’d made assumptions she regretted now.
"Reforged. Significantly so. Until it became more creature than human. I understand. Where was it supposedly found? Does anyone know?"
"...Teovar is the most suspicious link because he disappeared around the time the Realmshard was being transported across the continent. The artifact trade patterns he engaged in that we have uncovered suggest significant investment to the Saltfire Storm Alliance’s former territory."
"I see. They disbanded officially to erase the stigma of their name. I’ll have to see what we can do to officially gain the rights to that Acid drenched place. I’ll send letters back with you for my mother to get things proceeding on that end, but I believe I know what you are looking for now."
Somehow, despite it being exactly the sort of thing she would want to hear, the scout couldn’t believe it enough to follow up on. For a short while, it merely sounded too good to be true. Then again, most things sounded too *something* out of that set of lips... but Elua er Goltbred consistently proved them anyway. A ’strange’ behavior from someone who claimed to be untrustworthy.
"You know what we are looking for? Was it someone you’ve met before after all?"
"Hardly. I’ve never encountered this specific person, we lived in different ages. However, I was given a certain gift at my wedding. Journals with scales as ornamentation. From that very territory and Guild we were talking about."
"Scales?"
El began using her Astralism to project their appearance when the word was repeated back. Other than being large, reptilian, and an almost black grey... they were not all that noteworthy - from an aesthetic sense.
"As far as I can tell, they just thought they were unusual beast materials. But the signatures were unmistakable to someone who knew what to look for. They retained trace amounts of the three energies - and, most importantly, some innate pathways dug into them laboriously that allow for excellent Shadow Element control."
"That’s not reassuring... this only raises more questions. How was it reborn into that region? Or was it simply resistant to the conditions and hid there because of that? Why had no one heard about whoever it is other than the cultists?"
"Well, I don’t know about any of that, nor was I trying to reassure you. However, I can tell you that, at the time the scales themselves were shorn off, this enemy of ours was a fully peak-state Triple Breacher. So everyone might want to be very careful and not work alone anymore."
From the paling face and the way that Sevra’s hand was held in the palm of her own hand, the brunette came to the conclusion that power differentials of someone other than herself were still plenty shocking. Just like it was to see the two Defier realm threats. She would remember this fully, to tease the other woman with later.
"You look scared. Want to stay in the Exclave until I can leave with you? I’ll even hold your hand if you need, instead of tossing you through the Gateway like last time."
...Or now. The heiress did love to twist a little further once hooks were lodged inside her target. It was a good reason she had no lasting friends in her last life!
