I teleported us to the location of the breach, only to see a large ship breaching through the planar border with shocking ease, causing almost no chaos. “Stay back and look intimidating, while my avatar handles the talk,” I warned Seldanna even as I gathered my mana around and cast the strongest invisibility spell I could manage.
At the same time, I let my avatar radiate a flood of nature mana and create two roots that grabbed the ship before they could retreat — impressive, but clearly not offensive. The avatar acted just like what I had seen in the memories, arrogant and reckless.
The amount of mana I spent on that display could destroy a city in seconds, a great display of power, yet it didn’t turn offensive.
The ship didn’t try to run away, recognizing that it was a display to impress rather than attack. I was glad, as I had no doubt they had many tools that would help them escape. While I had a plan in place to slip into their ship if that was their strategy, I much rather sneak in slowly.
Soon, the front of the ship opened, and someone appeared. “We are mere merchants between planes, great one,” he shouted even as he fell onto his knees. “We didn’t know that this dimension was under the control of a great being such as yourself. Please forgive us.”
My avatar didn’t answer immediately, and I used the opportunity to slip out of the plane, slipping out of the planar border. It was only the thick cover of nature mana that was constantly radiating off the avatar that allowed such a thing.
Once in the Primordial Aether, I drew the weakest protective layer I could draw around me as I moved toward the ship, betting for the chaotic nature of the Primordial Aether shielding me from their detection capabilities.
“And what do you trade that would make you daring enough to travel through the Primordial Aether,” my avatar spoke.
The self-proclaimed merchant pulled a box, and revealed a crystal, one that was stuffed with a Nature Spark of shocking quality, around two hundred points, a piece that would be challenging for even the gods to create, as absorbing and splitting them created significant challenges.
A considerable gift, and a very important strategic resource for a god that was just setting up his forces, allowing the creation of a strong and loyal warrior cadre quickly. Too bad for them it was completely useless for me.
“How daring, mortals daring to touch the blood of the gods,” my avatar spoke, the voice alone triggering an earthquake. “I remember a bunch of meddling kids during the great betrayal. It seems that those bunch of rats didn’t die off yet.”
I continued to swim even as I used my avatar to observe them, getting tenser as I did so.
The attitude of the Eternal was interesting … for all his surface-level subservience, he was arrogant. And, more importantly, he was not showing any sign of fear, as if despite being caught, he was confident that he was still in control.
There was a chance that his attitude was just unfounded arrogance, but that was hardly a risk I could take under the circumstances.
“You’re lucky that even a dragon might parley with rats under dire circumstances,” my avatar declared loudly.
“We’re glad for your wisdom, great one,” the merchant declared. “We offer you a great trade. An equal trade between the essence of those cursed undead. We want nothing more than the destruction of those abominations, and we will support you as much as we can.”
That was an interesting choice, I thought as I finally reached the outer hull of the ship, and connected myself using a tendril of mana. Carefully, I started examining the surface, but didn’t find a way that I could slip inside … luckily, I didn’t need it, not when I could just continue to hang on the surface.
Luckily, that was not needed.
“Acceptable,” I declared. “I have thousands times more of that cursed essence ready to be exchanged,” I added, and noted the expression on the merchant’s face. Not greed, like I expected, but victory.
Clearly, they had a different plan than just an equal exchange. I decided to interrupt whatever plan they might have.
“However, even a dragon could be brought down by the poison of the rats. You’re going to leave what you have here, and I’m going to examine it carefully. You can visit six months later for trade,” the avatar declared as it waved its huge tree hand. “I would love to leave my home defended while I go and destroy those undead for daring to invade my land,” I added.
An arrogant statement that seemingly revealed my strategy, combined with a small time request. Together, they would be enough to make the Eternals wait patiently.
At least, that was what I hoped … though I had quite a number of defensive measures if that was the case.
“That is more than acceptable, great one!” the merchant declared.
“Good, leave,” my avatar declared, once again accompanied by a great explosion of nature mana. “Come here three months later. A day earlier, a day late, and I’ll destroy you before attacking your pitiful organization.”
With that declaration, the ship started to move … dragging me along as I stuck on the outer shell …
Which triggered a long, boring journey.
In terms of monotony, it was even worse than the first time I had gotten lost. At least, then, I was struggling for my life, which meant I had to constantly pay attention to my surroundings. Here, I had nothing to do but wait.
I didn’t need to struggle to hide myself, because the ship was unable to extend any detection wards out of its structure as no mana other than Tantric could resist the intense bombardment of Primordial Aether for long, which they didn’t use.
Unfortunately, the same applied to me as well. The structure of the ship was incredibly solid, made of thick, interlocked mana and material, impossible to analyze without destroying. And, I couldn’t destroy it, not without actually breaching the surface.
So, I got stuck on the surface as they traveled in the primordial aether, visiting certain planes on the way.
Interestingly, every plane they visited actually had some kind of magical port allowing them to approach, suggesting some kind of semi-permanent access. Out of the eight planes they visited, six of them belonged to the undead, showing the extent of their spread.
Yet, two of them belonged to different entities. One of them was more of pure mana, suggesting a heavier Arcana usage, and the other, the current one, interestingly, light.
I wanted to try my hand at breaching the two, but considering their strong relationship with the Eternals, I decided against them. Still, the rapid succession of visits suggested that they were having a far better time finding their path in Primordial Aether.
Pity I was yet to acquire their method.
Maybe I should attempt to sneak into the dimension. Of course, to do that, I first removed my own Light Spark and put it behind several Tantric wards. I still remembered how the Necrotic god was able to affect it.
Then, moved away from the magical construct the Eternals were using as a port, and moved toward the other side of the plane. Then, I brought a crystal from my hidden spot, one that was holding Necrotic Spark, using it to convert a great amount of necrotic mana.
In the depths of the Primordial Aether, generating about a million mana only took a few seconds. I could have converted more, but replicating the divine spells took a lot from me, even with my new endurance.
That was just insurance.
I approached the planar border, created a mana capsule, and pushed inside, which was as small as I could manage. It was a buried detection ward, one that would be able to slip through the current detection capabilities of my own planar border.
It allowed me to detect the interior — which was filled with harsh light mana. It was impossible for an ordinary human to survive there for even a second. Worse, I detected a greater problem. Only a few seconds of detection, and they reacted, bombarding it with long-range light magic.
Wanting to destroy my mark, I smashed the necrotic mana I prepared, breaching the planar border.
The magical alerts exploded around, and immediately, an army of angels teleported to the border, ready to attack.
Worse, I could feel that Divine Spark was active and aligned, suggesting the presence of a god.
Which was enough for me to abandon my attempts to push for more and retreat back to the port. This time, the Eternals stayed for a bit longer, no doubt exploring the reason for the sudden undead presence, but that was just an extra half a day.
Soon, we were on the way once more…
And, a day later, I was finally looking for a plane that was thousands of times bigger than the fragmented planes I had been encountering.
Home…
{Strength: 45 Charisma: 45
Precision: 45 Perception: 45
Agility: 45 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 45 Intelligence: 45
Endurance: 60 Wisdom: 45}
{Purified Divine Spark: 32920}
{Pseudo-HP: 1103 Mana: 2410}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
GODDESSES
Elven Goddess}
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