Reivan heaved a long sigh as he unraveled the qi and mana that had fused with the literal cells of his body.

  There was always a risk of messing up and killing himself, but he felt as if he'd done this enough times for the chances of essence deviation to become negligible. It wasn't strange to think so because he did this just about every morning after returning home from his infiltration of the Spirit Tower. And every time, he got just a little bit better at maintaining the state.

  Apparently, if he did it long enough, his body would undergo an evolution of sorts. Flesh and bones would melt away and become a higher form of essence in a process known commonly as Ascension. The time it took for each was different though, so each person would have to strive for the capability to maintain it for varying lengths of time. His mother, for example, had taken a few months. Others had taken years, which was a tremendous hurdle that few ever truly overcame.

  It was unfortunate that there was an element of luck involved even in something as delicate as this.

  'I feel as if it was easier this time... I can definitely maintain it for longer if I want to.'

  He simply couldn't afford to do so because he had stuff to do outside of meditating for days on end.

  Reivan let the soaked robe covering his body fall off him as he purged the sweat on his skin by freezing it and bsting it off. With a pained grimace, he rolled his shoulders and smiled at the satisfying crunches they produced. Even his fingers cracked when he flexed them.

  Wondering how his new training companion was doing, Reivan looked to the side to find his father in a simir cross-legged position.

  Rodin frowned as he swept his hair back and opened his eyes. "This isn't working, son."

  Reivan nodded, noting that his father hadn't changed much from when they began. "Yes, Father. But we have to try. We have to."

  A sigh escaped the former king's lips as he nodded. The man looked defeated, but not broken. "I know, son. I know."

  There was not a bead of sweat to be found, or the familiar red tint spread out on parts of the skin that didn't accept the essence well enough. It had been like this for the past few days that Reivan forced his father to train with him in the early mornings, far before roosters started crying.

  'No progress, huh...?'

  "Vianna has already told me much and she oversaw my training sometimes," Rodin confessed. "Nothing worked. I can fuse mana with my qi and produce essence, but I can't quite understand how to fuse essence with my body."

  Reivan shrugged. "We both love Mother to death, but we must acknowledge the fact that she's not a very good teacher."

  "Well, yes..."

  His mother was a genius in her own right, and so she found it hard to understand the point of view of an ordinary person. Or at least a person closer to average than she was. Reivan became a lot more familiar with this aspect of his mother because he studied under her when he was a child, and also recently learned some more difficult ice-attribute aetherbde arts from her.

  Sometimes, she expined things in confusing ways while expecting others to understand underlying concepts that she never expined—not because she was trying to be mean, but because she thought those were obvious. There were also a lot of expnations that went entirely by feeling, which could never be deciphered by anyone. Even Uncle Viktor had given up on learning from Vianna when she could only expin things that way.

  But that made sense.

  To someone who was born with paranormal senses and capabilities, the supernatural was natural to them. They would inherently find it hard to distinguish between the two. Vianna was arguably a lot more talented than others, so her normal was super for others.

  Helen was simir, if not exactly the same, so Reivan was even more used to this.

  Of course, he was a bit different from both of them. Because once upon a time, he was a completely ordinary boy with basically no supernatural powers whatsoever. It was entirely different after being reborn, though—he'd been granted entirely better biological hardware that allowed him to sense things that a normal person never could.

  That, he felt, gave him a new perspective on things. He could easily lock down on aspects that a more ordinary person wouldn’t rete to.

  In light of that, Reivan had started training with his father in the hopes that he could assist in the man’s attempts at Ascension. Whether it worked or not, it was better than doing nothing at all.

  Rodin still didn’t have a three-digit age, so he had a lot of time before he really needed to worry about his own mortality. But at the same time, they also didn’t know how long it would take for him to complete his Ascension. So they had to start as early as possible to better his chances at success.

  ‘I finally have a good dad. I am not letting him die that easily. Especially if he doesn’t particurly want eternal rest and all that.’

  Of course, it hadn’t been going very well. But then again, it had only been a few days since they began. Not even a week had passed yet.

  After those few days, however, Reivan understood that his father didn’t know what he didn’t understand about the process of harmonizing body and energy. Which, again, made sense because it was a subject that stumped many half-ascendants. Reivan himself was lucky that he somehow figured it out way before he even hit his growth limit.

  So for now, Reivan would just train together with his father in the hopes that the tter could draw some sort of inspiration by watching. He also took it upon himself to keep his father’s motivation up for this, as the man was clearly not liking his own chances.

  Reivan wanted to push harder on that front, but he couldn’t take it too far.

  Even he understood that he was quite abnormal. Maybe it was partly because the body he reincarnated to had plenty of innate talent as well, but the results didn’t change. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that the things that came naturally to him were simply impossible for others. It was easy to grow frustrated with others when they just wouldn’t learn.

  Reivan was careful not to fall into such a trap.

  “We’ll try again tomorrow,” he said as he stood up. “Alright, Father?”

  Rodin grunted as he stood up. “Very well, son. Here’s hoping your old man doesn’t end up wasting all your efforts.”

  “You’re not wasting anything, Father. Now, c’mon. Maybe pying with Arthur will cheer you up? You can have breakfast with us in my chambers.”

  “Hm. That certainly sounds nice. Would I not be a disturbance, however? I’ve been intruding every morning.”

  Reivan waved his hand casually as he slipped into a fresh white tunic, fastening it at the hip with an ornate belt. “Not in the slightest. Somehow, Arthur seems to like it when there are lots of people around him. He goes quiet when it's quiet or not a lot of people are talking.”

  Talking or just generally being there was enough to excite the baby, it seemed. Arthur was a lot more energetic when it was noisy in the room. However, he did recently start getting cranky when he was roused from sleep by hunger. Gradually loudening ambient noise was an arm clock that incited a fair bit of baby giggles and filing around. Almost as if Arthur wanted to join in on the fun.

  “Oh, that’s perfect then,” Rodin said with a grin as he also slipped into a fresh tunic, though this one had a royal blue color that very closely resembled the Aizenwald bloodline’s eyes. “I’m sure Little Arthur is going to have plenty of younger siblings soon. Given how many pretty young dies have moved into the pace in recent days.”

  Reivan groaned. “Father, please stop trying to attack me with facts. We had a pleasant atmosphere going there for a few moments until you ruined it.”

  Rodin scoffed and rolled his eyes. “My half-warbeast son, who is notoriously frivolous with women, is so forlorn about the steady increase in the pace’s concubine popution. Oh, poor him.”

  “… Let's please talk about something else.”

  The former king merely shrugged. “So? I don’t believe you’ve put your hands on any of them yet, seeing as you aren’t coming from that part of the pace every morning.”

  Samsara’s pace was nowhere near the size and scale of the one in Aizen’s capital, but it was still ridiculously rge. After all, it wasn’t just a residence for the country’s ruler and his family, it was also the heart of administration and the bureaucracy.

  It wasn’t even merely a single rge block of a building. Rather, it had one absolutely massive rectangur building that served as its front or face. Then a whole bunch of big and small ones within its grounds. Inner courtyards and gardens sometimes filled the spaces in between as well.

  For the Samsaran Pace, however, an incredibly rge portion somewhere in the back was reserved for Reivan’s concubines and the children they would eventually birth. And no, it wasn’t in the back because of some kind of statement or discrimination.

  Reivan’s actual residence was more to the back as well because that was simply where the residential part of the Samsaran Pace was. The front was the business end, where tons of officials would be constantly going in and out of.

  It was purposely segmented off because Reivan would eventually have children, and children were notoriously prone to wandering off where they shouldn’t. They might get in the way of all the officials and whatnot, who would not know what to do—after all, they couldn't very well scold the Hierarch’s brats, lest they risk their careers and their necks.

  Of course, Reivan wasn’t the type of person to take it out on an innocent employee when all they did was scold his child, especially when his child was in the wrong. But they weren't sure of that.

  And besides, the point still stood. These were his kids and people were going to be reluctant to offend or do anything to them. As such, he was better off simply segmenting the residential areas and the parts that were open to administrative tasks.

  In any case, the portion of the pace reserved for concubines was steadily getting filled up.

  “You have been meeting with them, right?” Rodin took on a severe tone. “They’ll think they did something wrong if you don’t show up at all.”

  “I did, okay?” Reivan scratched his head. “I have tea with a few of them sometime in the morning and another time in the afternoon. Dinner is with Helen, Hector, and the usual crowd, though… You’re there too, now.”

  Satisfied, Rodin nodded. “That’s good enough. Considering their number, they should understand you can’t see all of them every single day. Just the fact that you’re giving any concubine attention should be good enough for now. You must be careful, however. You have to eventually give all of them attention.”

  “Yes, yes. I have a checklist to make sure I'm not neglecting anyone,” Reivan tiredly said as he rolled his wrist. “Gwen is helping me come up with a timetable so I can efficiently spend time with all of them while not particurly adhering to some set order to avoid being too artificial.”

  “Oh? She’s helping you come up with one? Not doing it for you outright?”

  “Yes, well… I feel like this is something I have to do on my own.” Reivan scratched his cheek sheepishly. “It’s a private matter, after all. And it would seem insincere otherwise.”

  Though these women all had their own agendas as to why they were here, he was still technically their spouse while they were in his care. He intended to do right by them. Even for things they would never see.

  ‘A force of five hundred women is going to be rough to deal with in any way, though.’

  Reivan had a literal logbook where he could note down when he spent time with each of his concubines so he could make sure that he gave each one an equal amount of attention. Obviously, it was mostly empty right now. But give it a few more years, and it was going to get crazy. He really had to thank the Sun God that he had a good memory.

  Nonetheless, he was looking forward to it. His mother had done well choosing them, so his concubines were very easy to get along with. In a way, it was quite fun to slowly get to know each of them.

  ‘I have to remember to spend even more time with my actual wives, though.’

  Reivan sighed, gncing at his father suspiciously. “Wait, why do you have so many things to say about this? It’s not like you have concubines anyway, but you’re giving some fairly sound advice.”

  Rodin shook his head in exasperation. “You don’t need to experience everything to make a decent decision. I know people. And I have some insight into how their mind works and how certain environments will affect them. Your concubines are people, too. Hence, I can infer things about them. Simple as that.”

  “You know, I should just step down from my seat and let you be the Hierarch.”

  “Now that would be a story for the ages. A son abdicating to his father.”

  “You know what they say, we must seek great pastures. Always and forever.”

  Rodin’s brows furrowed. “I don’t know where that’s from…”

  “I just made it up. Sounded cool.”

  “You brat… it does sound a little cool, yes. I’ll have a scribe log it in the royal book of wise quotes. Under your name.”

  Reivan’s steps halted as he turned to his father in horror. “Wait, please don’t. If I’m going to be in it, I’d like the quote to be something cooler.”

  “Too te. It’s going in the book.”

  “Damnit…”

  This was what Reivan got for fpping his mouth around a former king. Now he was going to be immortalized by a half-decent quote that he pulled out of his ass.

  Samsara had expanded its territories by a lot recently, but it wasn’t as if every city and vilge was being poputed now.

  They stuck to three residential blocks with a bunch of restored or repurposed locations that now serve as defensive forts. The tter were made quickly but carefully by earth elementalists and spirit beasts.

  Knights didn’t grow on trees, however, so the forts were mostly manned by Samsaran volunteers—who were mostly very young and passionate young men and women. With their blood so hot, Reivan expected some of them to drop out of service due to pregnancy at some point.

  All of them were equipped with rifles supplied by the kingdom, however, so they were limited in lethality. If the empire ever came, these volunteers would only ever be a match for peasant levies and inexperienced legionaries.

  But they were numerous and willing to work for peanuts. So they got the job.

  The actual firepower behind these forts came from the sorcerers and battlemages that manned them. Knights were more like rapid-response forces that were stationed near the forts and were ready to reinforce any that were attacked. That said, it was still up in the air whether the empire would march a human army toward Samsara soon. Honestly, they might just charge a horde of those giant monsters to trample everything instead—at which point, battlemages and knights would be equally useful.

  In other news, the three residential blocks were Lageton, Kreuzens, and Vernaut.

  The other two hadn’t been named by Reivan or anyone in his staff, since they wanted the people themselves to decide what their cities were called. Also because Reivan didn’t like naming things, but nobody else needed to know that.

  Kreuzens was a more archaic version of the Arkhanian word for “Hope”. While Vernaut was the word for “Grit”, but stylized so it sounded more like a city's name. Anyone who spoke the nguage would immediately get the reference though.

  The Samsaran people were sending a very strong message through those names, he thought. And he was proud that he had a hand in stoking that fire. Well, he also had a hand in causing the catastrophe that created the need for it, but anyway…

  It was Kreuzens that Reivan headed to after a warm breakfast with his wife, child, and father. They hadn’t had the time to set up a teleportation portal, so he headed by riding on Zouros’s very rge back.

  Ten minutes ter, he was already there.

  Zee was just fast. And also, the cities weren’t that far apart to make maintaining security easier.

  By now, Zouros was a bit famous, so everyone on the ground stopped to stare at the Hierarch’s preferred mount. It would have been great if the giant serpent remained a trump card, but the imperial ambush on the way back from the Western Expedition made Zee stand out a lot. The darkin dies liked Zee a lot as well.

  Despite the serpent’s somewhat ominous appearance, the common popuce didn't see it as a big deal. Which made sense, because Arkhan had been a pce defended by mages partnered with spirit beasts. The people of this nd weren't strangers to weirdly-colored animals that could flicker in and out of existence.

  ‘Ooooh. It’s going really well.’

  Kreuzens was the settlement that would be focusing on agriculture from now on, aided by a delegation of Sormon Priests.

  And they had clearly gone to work on this pce because the fields looked ready to harvest, even though it hadn’t been that long since the project started. This was simply the magic of Sormon’s light, he supposed. It was still amazing how they managed to restore the nd in such a short time and even help the farmers who worked the restored nd.

  There was a reason Aizen could still feed itself even though most of its small territory was used to house its popution or businesses—and it wasn’t just because of the forcefully domesticated species of regenerating giant lizards. As usual, the Sormon Faith was paying for itself.

  There were stone houses too, built by the same elementalists and spirit beasts that created the forts. So it wasn’t all just fields and snow.

  If there was one downside to the heartwarming proof that there was still “hope” in recovering from the disaster that ravaged Arkhan, it would be that outside of the fields, it was still mostly wastend. Frozen wastend, because Reivan had just conducted a White Day in the area. But melt away all the snow, and you’d see a nd that would grow nothing.

  Amazing as they were, Priests weren’t gods. They couldn't just snap their fingers and voi, all the problems were solved. They had limits, too.

  The Saintess could probably snap her fingers and fix a rge chunk of the republic, though. Maybe the entirety of Samsara’s current territory, even. Perhaps more. But that's beside the point. She wasn’t here, and she couldn’t be here anyway.

  ‘Baby steps, Reivan. Baby steps.’

  Things were getting better and that was what mattered most. If the state of the nation was just a little better than it was yesterday, wasn’t that just the best thing ever? And it would be better if tomorrow, they could say the same thing.

  One lit candle at a time. Until the darkness was banished once and for all.

  ‘Elsa, Elsa, Elsa, Elsa…’

  Frantically looking around to catch a glimpse of his fiancée, Reivan disappointedly had to admit that she may not have been outside. Or perhaps she was already on her way back to Lageton from her inspection of Kreuzens.

  Elsa was becoming something of a community leader in Lageton. Partly because she was already well-connected from the start, but also because she selflessly helped people during the worst of it. Some of that help had been supplied by the kingdom, but it wasn’t as if none of it was Elsa’s.

  Honestly, if Reivan decred that Samsara would revert back to a republic, Elsa would probably win the election that would follow.

  That wasn’t going to happen, however, because democracy was inherently fwed and Aizen would never intentionally bring it back. Especially in an era when word-of-mouth was the only way to get to know candidates. Rumors and snder would become sharp weapons, easily wielded with enough shills.

  ‘I guess I’ll just see her ter then.’

  It was unfortunate. But such was fate.

  Anyway, he wasn’t even here to see her. Officially, he was making it appear as if he was inspecting the nds—which was partly true because he was inspecting it at the moment. But his main agenda here was to meet with certain people.

  Reivan fearlessly jumped off the giant snake’s back even though there was still about a hundred meters between the snake’s belly and the ground. He easily stuck the nding, however, though he was not happy about the dust it kicked up.

  Zouros fpped its wings to blow away all the dust in the air, though. Which was a big help. A moment ter, its massive form disappeared, returning into Reivan’s soul and ready to be called on once again.

  “Good morning, Your Excellency,” greeted a young man dressed in priestly garbs who’d been waiting nearby. Luckily, none of the dust had gotten on his pristine white robes. “You’re extremely punctual. We weren’t expecting your respected self until much ter.”

  Reivan nodded amiably at the priest and said, “Well met. I’m early because I didn’t want to keep anyone waiting. Shall we?”

  The young priest bowed low before leading the way to a two-story building that had been allotted to the priesthood in this settlement. Its interior was shabby, even if it was very clean and orderly. But none of that mattered because they were headed for the extensive underground chamber that one could only reach by going through the cssic staircase behind a bookshelf.

  “I hope Reverend Isolde is safe,” the young priest uneasily confessed as he stood near the wall of the simple basement hall.

  “I hope so as well.” Reivan nodded. “Please understand that she did volunteer for this.”

  “Oh, no. I didn’t mean anything by it, Your Excellency.” the young priest chuckled sheepishly. “It certainly is Reverend Isolde’s decision. And besides, we’re all very intrigued by… uhm, Sir Zouros and his ability to safely keep people inside his stomach. If I were more courageous, I would have also done the same and jumped into Sir Zouros’ maw.”

  ‘He’s not a he, though. Or a she, for that matter. But whatever.’

  Reivan saw no need to make some well-meaning chap guilty over such a small matter. Besides, in his defense, Zouros was indeed a bit confusing. Also, Zouros didn’t care about such paltry human concerns.

  “Zee, please,” he said, secretly crossing his fingers behind his back.

  The underground chamber was big and clearly occupied more than the building above’s basement. But it was nowhere near rge enough to house Zouros at its full size. So this favorite snake companion thankfully resized itself just big enough to easily spit a person out.

  A conscious person.

  Reivan had his friend swallow many living beings many times before now. But during all those times, the recipients were either never meant to make it out and were hence digested, or they were meant to be spat out and were knocked out before being swallowed—which spared them from the potential horrors they would experience inside a world-devouring serpent’s stomach.

  For the former, Zouros sometimes swallowed them while they were aware. Mostly, this was applied to nightmare spawns. But sometimes, Reivan fed Zouros rapists and pedos. Thankfully, there weren’t many of them, though.

  Never had Zouros swallowed a conscious person before and then spat them out to see how they handled time stasis inside the stomach of a cosmic horror—a baby cosmic horror, but still a cosmic horror.

  Until now, that is.

  “Reverend Isolde…?” Reivan hesitantly called out to the kind-faced priestess sprawled out on the floor, trying very hard to force his eyes not to wander somewhere inappropriate. Curse these priestly vestments for not being bulky enough.

  She was just kind of staring into space with her eyes wide open so Reivan feared for the worse, but she suddenly bolted up and gasped. “Oh dear. I’m out. That was certainly a strange experience…”

  The young priest from earlier beamed widely as he csped his hands together. “By Sormon’s grace, you seem to be fine, Reverend!”

  Isolde looked to the source of the voice, her face breaking into a smile when she saw who it was. “Castro. I’m sorry for worrying you.”

  Castro merely shook his head. “If you are fine, Reverend, then all is well.”

  “Are you fine, though, Reverend Isolde?” Reivan asked just to make sure.

  Isolde stood up quite steadily and patted her clothes, which didn’t have a speck of mucus or saliva. Or anything, really. Her vestments were just as pristine as they were three days ago. “I barely noticed any time passing. Actually, when I was spat out, I was confused. I thought the experiment was being canceled, and I was spat out immediately after being swallowed.”

  “So you really didn’t notice time flowing?”

  “No, not at all. It was just very dark for a second. Like I closed my eyes. Castro’s reaction told me otherwise, however. He’s already fifty, and yet he’s still such a worrywart, I swear.”

  “Please don’t reveal my age so easily, Reverend…” Castro muttered from the side, causing Isolde to giggle.

  Reivan left them to catch up and sunk into his own thoughts. If there were no repercussions to swallowing a conscious person, then that expanded the ways he could utilize Zouros’ innate abilities.

  Previously, Reivan had knocked people out before depositing them into his serpentine companion’s stomach. After they were spat out, however, they would remain unconscious for a time.

  Now, however, he didn’t have to knock anyone out. Which then removed the need to wait for them to wake up after they were withdrawn from the stomach that seemingly defied temporal ws. That also meant that the people who were spat out could act somewhat immediately after being regurgitated.

  That opened up a lot of options in military operations.

  Reivan could hide a thousand knights inside Zouros and just drop them in the middle of enemy territory. They might not just get up and start whacking, but the enemy would be far too unprepared for such a strange thing to happen, so it would potentially even out.

  Maybe with practice and clear expectations of what would happen, knights could act immediately after being popped out.

  The possibilities were endless.

  ‘Hehe…Hehehe… Muahaha! Those Argonians are dead meat. Choo choo, motherfuckers! Z-Express is coming for you all!'

  That name was going to need a bit of work, he admitted immediately after thinking of it. But the point still stood. Railways id out all over Arkhan were out of order now, but this train was back in business.

  “This has amazing implications, Your Excellency,” Isolde gleefully broke him out of his thoughts. “Now I can feel safer depositing patients with incurable conditions inside Sir Zouros while we look for solutions to what’s ailing them. Or those nearing the end of their lives who’re just waiting for us to develop a way to extend them.”

  “Eh? Ah, yes. Yes, of course.” Reivan nodded, recalling why the Reverend had been so eager to volunteer for the experiment.

  Was he just too bloodthirsty?

  His first thought about all this was how easy it would be to transport troops around during military expeditions.

  Yet look at all these pure, innocent priests who’d dedicated their lives to improving and bettering life in general. They literally didn’t care about how the newest discovery affected the war front. All they saw was yet another way to help people.

  The kingdom’s people, for that matter. And Samsara’s too, by extension.

  ‘Alright. I should try to dial it down a little…’

  Even as he thought that, he couldn’t help but feel giddy.

  Argonia’s most recent attack had sparked a grudge festering in Reivan’s heart and he was eager to let it loose. Now he just had another way to do it.

  AnnouncementChapter Word Count: 4804Last Edited: May 07, 2025Lire