Defiance of the Fall

Zac had scoured the endless list of treasures in the Limited Exchange every time he returned from a campaign. There were thousands of items that could improve his strength, but he needed something that could improve his odds of victory within the restrictions of the duel. That cut down his options drastically.

For example, the Attribute Fruits would give him a cost-effective boost, but Kator's attributes would match his. So while he'd need to buy the fruits sooner or later, they currently served no purpose. The same was true for the [Early D-grade Tool Embryo Array] he'd spotted before. The battle wouldn't depend on equipment quality, and he wouldn't even use his [Ossuary Bulwark] when fighting the reaver.

He also didn't want to waste his merit on something he could accomplish on his own before entering the Left Imperial Palace. For example, there were soul-strengthening treasures that would speed up the reformation of his [Thousand Lights Avatars], but he already had a Moss Crystal for that. And seeing how expensive soul-strengthening treasures were, the cost return wasn't too good.

Ultimately, Zac had landed on the item within the boxes before him, and he'd even sprung for two of them. It was called [Wargod's Sagacity] and was a form of epiphany treasure targeted at combat. It didn't improve Daos, but using it was supposedly akin to fighting a thousand battles in an enlightened state, which was exactly what Zac needed right now. Better yet, the more life-and-death experience you had, the more effective the treasure would be. And few people Zac's age trumped his experience in that regard.

Upgrading his two mastery skills had been easy, but incorporating their teachings was another matter. There was no end to the variations hidden within the D-grade trajectories, and he'd only reached initial success after a month of effort. The realization was initially exciting since it meant there was still a lot of room for improvement to his techniques that didn't rely on upgrading his Daos. However, time was a resource he desperately lacked.

The E-grade skills had taken him a couple of months to push to Peak Mastery and incorporate into his technique, but Zac felt the D-grade versions would take at least ten times that long. As things stood, he'd have to spend a couple of years on [Axe Mastery] and [Armament Mastery] before the fundamental teachings could be considered fully infused into his two stances.

A few years was nothing for a Hegemon who counted their lifespan in millennia, but he had the trial right around the corner. The goal was still to enter Middle Hegemony in a year or so, at which point he should be focusing on the Middle D-grade teachings of the Mastery Skills already. He'd have to rely on some outside assistance if he wanted his techniques to reach their limits before entering the Left Imperial Palace.

Zac also hoped that [Wargod's Sagacity] would let him find other ways to refine his techniques. He'd worked hard for decades, methodically building and rebuilding his stances from the ground up. But his stances were ultimately created by an E-grade cultivator with a limited understanding of the Dao and combat. Small weaknesses were bound to be hidden within what felt perfect to him.

It was also a while since he'd had a real spark of inspiration regarding his techniques. The last time was inside the Gates of Reincarnation, but that experience was built on the foundations of his arduous work. His techniques had never benefitted from the rare enlightened state that birthed his [Void Vajra Sublimation] or [Pillar of Desolation]. Zac wasn't sure if these treasures were enough to bring such benefits, but they cost 65,000 merit, and he'd gotten two. Even if they didn't revolutionize his technique, they should save him years of effort.

He moved to the death-attuned half of his cave while his human half sealed himself in a cultivation chamber at the heart of the recently conquered Kan'Tanu world. There was still a bloody atmosphere in the capital after the fierce battle, and it was as though the whole region had temporarily become attuned to the Dao of Conflict—perfect for pondering on his techniques.

When everything was in place, both bodies opened their boxes, exposing the treasure within. Zac wasn't sure whether [Wargod's Sagacity] was a Natural Treasure or something manufactured. It wasn't a physical object but a shimmering rune held in place by a small array within the box. A Natural Treasure seemed more likely since it didn't look like a fractal based on the Apostate of Order. It was more closely related to the preceding primordial patterns he'd seen on the Stele of Conflict.

Opening the box was enough to make the surroundings stir, and Zac's hearts hammered like he was desperately fighting in the middle of a battlefield. The mysterious rune couldn't stay exposed for too long, so Zac grabbed them with Mental Energy and pushed them against his foreheads.

The effect was instantaneous.

Zac felt as though he'd eaten multiple Berserking Treasures as the fires of war coursed through his veins. However, while normal treasures had occasionally sent him into a state of grandiose delusions or bloodthirsty hunger, [Wargod's Sagacity] brought unprecedented clarity. The uncountable battles he'd fought through the years played through his mind, and new clues and lessons were extracted from the memories.

The runes soon reached his Soul Aperture, stopping right between the two Soul Spirals. They were like radiant suns, showering his mind with the secrets of battle. Another one who got a front-row seat was the Apparition for his Branch of the War Axe. It was like treasures and miniature Zac formed a feedback loop, and the avatar began swinging his shifting axe.

Zac couldn't sit still either, and axes appeared in his hands as he began his destructive dance. The Miasmic mists swirled in the Death-attuned half of his Cultivation cave as Zac activated [Armament Mastery]. The trajectories and impartments merged with the endless stream of memories before being woven into the Inexorable Stance.

Chains, feet, and axe moved perfectly in sync with the almost dizzying number of lines that showcased the thousands of options a warrior had at every moment. Tempo, angle, strength, and speed. Slash, grab, kick, or reposition— everything could be adjusted to birth endless permutations. Adding the truths of the Cosmos into your swings would let you resonate with the Heavens and borrow some of its power.

But fusing theoretical knowledge and the Dao into a technique wasn't as simple as infusing a skill with the Dao. It required a far deeper understanding of how your Dao affected the universe and yourself. The Dao wasn't something as tangible as the Attuned Mental Energy or even the Avatars floating in his mind. The Avatars were just his comprehension expressed in a way that made sense to his brain, thought made real.

The Daos were the truths that made up the fabric of reality. You could see hints of it in everything, even the mundane. Even the "unattuned" theories of the Mastery Skills were based on a wide array of Daos—under the Heavens, there wasn't really anything that could be seen as truly unattuned. Except for himself, perhaps.

Integration meant stripping the mottled truths of basic existence and replacing them with your own Daos. You became an expression of your path, focused and free from distracting Daos that restricted your movements. When every action fully resonated with your Daos, you would have reached the peak of the Integration Stage. Of course, a Dao Branch wasn't profound enough to fully carry a comprehensive technique.

His Draugr form smoothly entered a Void State, turning him into a dry sponge soaking up the truths laid bare before him. His human side faced some resistance, but he pushed down the discomfort and let Death spread through his body. Meanwhile, the rattling of chains echoed through the sealed chamber in the Kan'Tanu world. It wasn't Alea, but rather [Chainbox Two], a spare armament he'd picked up years ago.

It wasn't often that Zac released Death in his human form, considering it didn't bring anything to the table for his class or the Evolutionary Stance. But there wasn't anything physically stopping him, especially now that his awakened Draugr Bloodline had drastically improved his resistance to any opposing Daos.

Still, there was a slight discrepancy between his two bodies for the first couple of minutes, like two instruments lightly out of tune. But their movements converged until their movements communicated the same thoughts and concepts. Surrounding his human form was a second set of trajectories generated with [Axe Mastery], doubling the number of lessons he incorporated into his Inexorable Stance.

Zac fought through his experiences, bloody struggles against everything from hordes of beasts to powerful adversaries who pushed him beyond his limits. Every swing was slightly more refined than the one before it, and the mountains of information he'd tried to digest over the past month no longer felt so overwhelming. But a frown appeared on his faces as the endless battles replayed in his mind.

Each fight had been an important lesson that made him stronger, but having thousands of them superimpose into a broader picture gave him an upsetting sense of premonition. Something was missing.

The more he filled in the blanks using experience and the light of [Wargod's Sagacity], the more he felt his techniques weren't at the standard they could be. It wasn't like they had huge defects for their grade, but that they were akin to something like a Middle- to High Quality Technique rather than something at the limits of what was possible. Zac briefly hesitated before rattling chains were replaced by creaking vines in the Kan'Tanu chamber.

After reaching perfect sync, Zac's bodies diverged, with human Zac moving from Death to Life. Meanwhile, Draugr Zac mirrored the journey, fighting his way from the deathly forest in his cave toward the threshold of Life and Death. It was an intentionally slow and measured transition to let him feel the shift it brought. After a few minutes, he'd fully entered the Evolutionary Stance with his human body.

Using both stances to their fullest simultaneously was normally very difficult, even when his bodies were separated, but the still-glowing runes let him accomplish it without a hitch. His bodies were moving independently, each following its own concepts and Daos. But as time passed and his understanding broadened, Zac felt his swings sync up again.

Their movements weren't identical this time, but it was more like they were partners locked in an intense battle between Life and Death. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say they had formed a symbiotic connection where their actions depended on the other.

When one advanced, the other stepped back. When one moved left, the other moved right. One's actions complementing the other, forming one half of the whole. They pushed and elevated one another, and Zac felt how the speed at which he incorporated the lessons of his mastery skills more than doubled.

However, no matter how hard he tried, Zac couldn't perfectly line up his two stances. There was an unbridgeable gap between his techniques, and he was once more filled with that uncomfortable feeling of deficiency. This time, it wasn't only the Inexorable Stance that created the feeling; it was both of them. And he could tell that it wasn't a problem that could be fixed by fully integrating his two mastery skills.

It wasn't hard to understand what was missing. A technique only using two Daos of his trinity path could never be considered whole.

Zac had been aware of this issue for years, but he figured it was something he could fix further down the road, when the two sides of his path became one. However, Zac vaguely sensed that wasn't an option, or at least not an optimal one. He hadn't even come close to hitting the ceiling of his current stances, but he felt they risked becoming flawed the longer he waited. He didn't want to rebuild from the ground up, like when he was forced to spend years reworking his stances in the Orom World.

Fixing the issue was easier said than done—no one knew better than him just how difficult it was to fuse Life and Death into a working whole. Chaos was the gatekeeper that barred progression on this broken peak, a paradox that required the Grand Dao before comprehending its subsidiary components. However, Zac had already found a workaround.

He believed the solution hid within the light of [Wargod's Sagacity]. Vague connections formed between his technique and other parts of his cultivation system, but the radiance was already fading. The impression grew blurry and distant, but Zac barely grasped a few clues just as the flickering runes in his Soul Aperture winked out.

The answer was within the Void.

Zac didn't move for a while, slowly digesting the experience as his mind returned to normal. He could tell that he'd mostly incorporated the insights of the mastery skills. He'd need a month or two to fully consolidate everything on the battlefield, but it wouldn't take up much of his time. It was hard to tell with techniques, but Zac believed his stances had become roughly fifteen percent stronger and more flexible.

Such a boost would be a huge help in the upcoming duel, yet it didn't feel like the biggest gain of the day. The insight at the end was the real prize, even if it had yet to become concrete. Sometimes, you needed a spark of inspiration to broaden your vision and begin the process of growth. It turned an abstract dream or aspiration into a goal that could be pursued.

Zac took a steadying breath as he slowly opened his eyes. It felt like he'd been in an enlightened state for months, but a mental check indicated he'd only been swinging his axe for five hours. That meant there was still some time before he needed to leave for Kavista. He let his Draugr half continue digesting the inspiration while his human side emerged from the former World Lord's cultivation chambers.

He found Vilari waiting outside, having taken up a position as Dao Guardian.

"How's the situation?" Zac asked.

"Still stable," Vilari said. "One of the Kan'Tanu armies returned from their battlefront, but they're on the other side of the planet. They dispersed upon returning, so we didn't bother with them. We're not heading that far for resources anyhow."

Zac nodded. Usually, the armies of conquered planets hid within the neutral battlefronts as long as possible. Who'd want to return only to be slaughtered? The neutral ground at least provided a chance of survival since the conquerors couldn't enter the other battlefronts. The conquerors could settle in, continue to the next world, or return home. In other words, two out of three options would let the hiding armies return home after a few weeks.

"Are you okay? Your soul seems agitated," Vilari asked with worry after seeing Zac's distracted state.

"It's nothing," Zac smiled. "I just ate a treasure of enlightenment."

"Are you confident?"

Vilari was one of his closest confidantes, so she already knew everything about the situation with the Undead Empire and the upcoming duel.

"I made some progress, but I don't know if it's enough," Zac sighed. "I've only managed to gather rumors rather than hard intelligence. But there's a reason Kator's holding the top spot on the Middle D-grade ladder. He's a tough opponent."

"Be careful," Vilari said. "Winning or losing ultimately doesn't matter. It's just a small stop on your path. The real danger is the hidden threats of the Undead Empire. Commandments or not, there are bound to be conflicting goals and deep undercurrents."

"I know. I'll be careful," Zac smiled. "I need to head back for a bit. Can you deal with everything here?"

"Of course. Do we need to delay the next campaign?"

"No," Zac rejected. "I'll only be a couple of hours. I probably won't fight in the neutral battlefronts, though. I need to put all my attention on my other body."

"Focus on your matters, and don't worry about us," Vilari said. "We've worked hard so that you don't have to carry the whole burden alone."

Zac said his goodbyes before flashing away, using [Earthstrider] to head to the Battlefront Array. It had taken his army an hour to cross the distance, but it only took Zac ten minutes before he appeared back on Earth. Soon after, he stood before his Draugr half, who handed over the box with the Court Cycle Token without opening his eyes.

Zac took it and left the cave, teleporting to a desolate island. In contrast to many of the islands in his archipelago, this one had extremely sparse energy. It was right on a fault line between two Nexus Veins, which meant all the energy was directed to neighboring islands. Yet, the island wasn't empty. A huge, forbidding structure took up most of its surface.

The Imperial Prison.

His unannounced visit caused a small stir, and hurried steps echoed on the stone floor before Zac spotted a familiar face. It was Julia Lombard, the former member of the New World Government and current Minister of Justice of the Atwood Empire.

"Emperor Atwood, we didn't expect to see you today," Julia said with a small bow.

"You're here?" Zac said with surprise.

"It's an important facility of the Ministry of Justice. I work from here one to two days a week," Julia explained. "Either case, welcome to Purgatory."

"Purgatory?" Zac said with a raised brow.

"That's what the prisoners call it," Julia said. "We just keep digging deeper as the need for more and stronger cells is endless. They say we're halfway to hell by now."

"Hopefully, we'll be able to close down some of those floors one day," Zac sighed. "How's the situation?"

"It's stable. The prisoners are too drained to do much of anything," Julia said. "Are you here for an inspection?"

"No," Zac said with a shake of his head. "I'm here to see the special prisoner. Stormstar."