The joy of traveling around with a snap of Maja’s finger diminished quickly. Being able to warp space and travel thousands of kilometers in a day was great, as it helped them relocate several weak communities like the Unitas, but it also showed them the reality of the Earthen Union’s condition.

  First, they discovered several wastelands that hadn’t been tended to. David practiced the Domain of Vitae and deepened his understanding of the Vitae-woven Intent while cleansing the wastelands, which brought him great reward. The Corrupted Divine Heart grew stronger. It thumped louder as Vitae strengthened it.

  The planetary bond with the Earthen Union was growing stronger as he cleansed the wastelands, which further improved his gains; however, Orhain’s expansion was, by far, the best. His Sworn and thousands of loyal residents worked tirelessly to create more living space for newcomers, and the progress proceeded smoothly.

  David felt the residents’ satisfaction. They were happy with the tasks they were given to help the Sanctuary and those around them. Some thought their tasks were not important, but David and others took care of those doubts quickly. They dispelled them and made sure everyone understood how crucial their tasks were; every occupation was needed to ensure the community could work and expand seamlessly.

  Ample preparations were needed to expand Orhain, which was what David and others provided. Classers of all kinds, resources, and a suitable workforce were all Orhain needed to transform it into a small but bustling city. It was still a small Sanctuary, but its size had already almost grown to rival Arc. And it had attracted some attention. Not only from Melach and other Protectors with special means to contact their home world, but also from several Familiar members with tightly knit connections to the Champions of the Pantheon and their gods.

  Several men and women of great renown, according to themselves and their cronies, of course, sought his attention. They desired to engage in negotiations, but that was not something David wanted—not for a few weeks, at least. He prepared to push Orhain to advance to a mid-sized Sanctuary and to relocate another batch of close to 10,000 survivors to increase his standing and to expand his territory to better leverage his advantages against the Familia and everything they could offer.

  Trading hubs connected to all System Sanctuaries across the Pantheon’s domain would be great assets to have, but Maja had already established several business relations with three small System Sanctuaries located near Kamia. Her portals were required to conduct business. Otherwise, they would have to use winged mounts and large spatial devices to travel to and from the Sanctuaries once a week, but traveling was still preferable to being on the losing end of negotiations with the Pantheon and the Familia.

  “Yes!” Maja squealed, leaping into his arms as an oval portal flickered to life in the middle of the recently built plaza.

  “You made it?” David asked, eyeing the portal suspiciously. It didn’t look much different at first glance, but his first peek at the portal’s inner structure unraveled a complexity he didn’t expect. The portal, if it could still be called that, was a hundred times more complex than her normal portals. It was also connected to his territory and the Weave, using traces of Might to… anchor it?

  “We need to wait a few days until the connection has solidified, but it should work.” Maja beamed at him. “Sure, we will have to infuse a lot of Aether for it to function properly, but it won’t collapse.” She quickly added, “It shouldn’t.”

  Ambient Aether was pulled toward the portal, stabilizing it when David thought it would collapse and disperse. That worked out a lot better than expected, and it pushed them far ahead of schedule.

  “How many portals can you create? Do you need me to amp you up with Might?” he asked, not even trying to hide his excitement. If Maja could form a dozen permanent portals—even half a dozen would be great—they could link them to the three Rifts in the former land of the dead, the crystal cavern Rift they’d located on the island outside Liear, and the Rifts he’d found in the mountains. If they had a dozen permanent Rifts, they could connect one with a System Sanctuary and spread the rest across Kamia to build more towns, set up a few more Idols, and expand his territory swiftly.

  “As many as you want me to, darling~” she teased and pointedly ignored the second question. David told himself to infuse more Might into her for every permanent portal she created. One way or another, his investment could hardly compare with the potential gains.

  “But I can only form one portal a day, and it will tire me out. The portals need to be anchored on the other side as well. So, it would take two days to form a complete gateway, and they shouldn’t be used for one week, allowing them to settle in the Weave.” Maja added in a slightly more serious tone. “Furthermore, we shouldn’t drain too much of the ambient Aether, or Orhain will transform into a desert.”

  She didn’t mean it literally, but David understood what she meant. Orhain and the surrounding regions were Aether-dense, and it would be best to keep it that way as it allowed everyone to grow a lot stronger. That was exactly what they wanted—for everyone to grow stronger. Even those who rarely used their abilities grew stronger thanks to the ambient Aether. It was slow, yet essential to increase the portion of Might their bonds provided.

  “I can get us a few Rift Cores,” David said, even if it was Electra making the offer. She was still hibernating in the Beast Core, and it was uncertain how much longer she would stay there. “Or we purchase an Aether generator. That’s something we should put on the priority list, even if we’re not planning to build the portals in the plaza.”

  Maja was deep in thought but shrugged. “It’s your decision. Rift Cores are imperfect, just like the generators. Furthermore, both have high demands. Knowing you, I was certain you’d wanted to relocate the portals to a different place. Somewhere far from Orhain, possibly a place where unwelcome guests can be removed or captured.”

  It was certainly dangerous to place too many permanent portals within Orhain. The incident with the Sworn Giants and the prehistoric Rift was still on their mind, the terror they had caused etched into their souls.

  “Can we secure the portals? Add a security protocol that allows only those with bonds of Favor to step through?” David considered the use of tokens, or allowing everyone with a connection to the territory—be it Favor or Conflict—to step through, but that was foolish. He didn’t want those with a bond of Conflict entering his territory.

  Maja winced, her eyes drifting back to the portal. “Maybe? I… can give it a try, but it might not work.”

  David considered his options. “We could create a teleportation hall underground, but that wouldn’t change much. One permanent portal would have to be installed in Orhain to connect us to the teleportation hall, which would lead us back to the same issue: how are we going to secure it?”

  Installing Guardian Idols in the teleportation hall was a possibility, but they wouldn’t be strong enough to stop Ascendants. Except if Maja could bar Ascendants from using the portals. He shared his thoughts with Maja, who nodded slowly, her brows creased in deep thought.

  “If you don’t want to use the Rifts, I could destabilize them a little.” She didn’t look certain, but he let her ruminate on the ideas swirling through her mind. “The portals would fizzle out and disperse the moment an Ascendant tried using it.”

  That sounded promising enough.

  “But how can I make them stable enough for prolonged periods to contain Diamond Classers, while keeping them too unstable to hold an Ascendant?” she muttered, ruffling through her hair.

  It felt like Maja wanted to create an imperfect portal, but that was too much for David. He was already troubled enough with his studies of the Ancient Law. The Law of Unbinding was exceptionally useful when combined with Rend, but it was a nuisance in and of itself. Studying the Law of Unbinding with [Dao Comprehension] worked more or less, but it consumed a lot more time than he was willing to sacrifice. He had yet to reach the peak of [Reinforce] with Body and Energy Pathways, [Mind Palace] and [Soul Domain] were not yet at one-tenth of the peak of Transcendent, and most of his Sparks had been neglected in favor of his studies.

  He spent weeks using his Skill Runes in mundane ways to increase their ranks, but only [Healing Sphere] advanced to Tier-3. The rest—Class Skills and ordinary Skills alike—improved a little here and there, though the increments were barely worth mentioning. David would rather focus on his Intents, Vitae, the Divine Seed, and Cycle’s Embrace. The Arcana was hard to train, and David reconsidered removing Cycle’s Embrace in favor of another Arcana. William’s powers had been very useful, and it was worth mentioning that David would possess two Arcana once the Divine Seed advanced to 2-Star. Then again, Cycle’s Embrace was one of the major contributors to the survival of hundreds of Protectors and residents of the Dwarven Sanctuary. The Arcana helped him survive. It weakened William slowly but steadily while revitalizing David.

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  “Kamia will be a safe haven as long as everything works out. It needs to work. It has to!” Maja muttered, nibbling on her lower lip until she bled. David flicked her forehead and cast [Transcendent Restoration] on her lips.

  Was that too much? Probably. Did it help her get her act together? Nope.

  “One step at a time. Focus on the normal gates at first. We—and with that I mean you—can always modify them once you know how to do that.” He winked at her, but that did little to ease the tension. “For now, we will be fine. There shouldn’t be many Ascendants in the Earthen Union, and even fewer will take note of us. Even if someone finds us, the Idols will defend Orhain. I will be informed when they move, and we can return to Orhain as long as I’m with you, Ms. Portaligist.”

  “You can also ask others for help. If you don’t think you can create imperfect Rifts with the criteria you want, ask the Artificers or others for help. They’re not Portaligists and probably have no idea, but we can always outsource the ability to dispel your portal to devices or other abilities. A device that will dispel a portal or redirect the portal if someone with a certain power level wants to use it. Or a device that requires a specific aether frequency to activate our portals.” David shrugged, not really thinking about it.

  He was still trying to figure out how to place the portals in the best possible way, while leaving the “how to protect” part to Maja. She deserved his trust, and he was fairly certain she was more creative. Plus, her grasp of space and everything revolving around the spatial attribute was leagues above his.

  “You…” Maja looked at him wide-eyed and kissed him passionately. “You’re a genius!”

  David stared blankly back at her, but Maja was no longer present. She teleported away, leaving him to himself.

  “I am?”

  ***

  Maja was busy. She disappeared with the Tirac Artificer, the Junkyard Artificers, several Engravers, a group of Earthen Mages who’d been constructing watchtowers, fortified walls, and houses, along with many other crucial personnel.

  Nobody was angry at her, since she had installed several temporary portals connecting Orhain to all the resource depots—mostly Rifts—which the Sanctuary needed to continue expanding. It was a nuisance nonetheless. David spent days redirecting the workforce, and he learned to hate managing the Sanctuary. He was good at healing and fighting, but he was definitely not a born leader, even if his parents had once planned a different future for him.

  A few days into Maja’s disappearance, he located her and the others. He discovered several familiar life signals in the depths of Kamia and willed the Weave to unravel the secrets they were trying to hide. The price was tremendous, forcing David to cancel the Weave-fortified vision after a few seconds, but he discerned what Maja and the others were doing: they were creating an underground Portal Hub.

  David saw everything only for a moment, but his head was already thrumming from all the arrays and devices he saw. The Weave unraveled everything, exactly as David had wanted, yet he hadn’t intended to uncover the secrets of all the runic letters etched into the walls, nor the deeper workings of the devices they’d installed. However, the Weave had heeded his command and showed him everything. Not that he understood much.

  All he could tell was one thing: the arrays and devices were supposed to block Ascendants from entering the Portal Hub. As far as David could tell, the Portal Hub would be concealed from Ascendants, and the portals would forcefully fizzle out the moment an Ascendant tried using them. That was exactly what they needed, though it looked like Maja and her team would have to invest more time and research into the concealment effect.

  Since he didn’t know much about arrays or more technologically advanced Aether devices, David visited a few newly formed Rifts. Orhain’s Scouts could have handled the new Rifts, but he was tired of managing Orhain and chose to use the Rifts to relieve stress. He examined the Rifts, assigned a danger level to them, and closed them if they turned out to be interconnected Rifts using the Law of Unbinding.

  If they were unpredictable or created by other Ascendants and gods rather than the Earthen Union, David severed the gods’ connection first—provided the Rifts contained enough rare resource deposits to justify exposing his ability to sever connections. That was rarely the case, but it did happen once in a Rift of mazes containing mithril and aetherium golems. They were too valuable to ignore, so David seized the Rift from an Ascendant.

  Examining the newly formed Rifts didn’t take long, so it was no surprise when the Portal Hub was still incomplete upon his return to Orhain. The construction was bound to take longer, but the unwelcome guests weren’t waiting.

  David was about to reach the Sanctuary’s outermost wall when the Guardian Idols stirred. Dozens of distressed signals reached him through Favor bonds, and he rushed to the massive life signal that had appeared out of nowhere.

  Dark thoughts flashed through his mind as he feared the worst. A Rift near the temporary portal spitting out a few monsters would have been the best-case scenario. But there was only one life signal near the plaza with the temporary portals, and it was powerful.

  He arrived at the plaza—Vitae, Origin Essence, and Might rampaging through his body—only to see a familiar man walking around. Zachariah, caked in blood and scaring everyone around him, looked about and greeted David with a simple wave.

  “Maja’s doing?” he asked, pointing at the portals as David landed before him.

  David ushered the Guardian Idols to return, then turned to the frightened people to ease their minds—but they had already fled.

  “She can anchor portals,” he nodded, which seemed to satisfy Zachariah.

  “Not very safe,” the Regressor said, though his satisfied smile didn’t falter for a moment.

  “We’re working on that issue.” David waved dismissively. Zachariah looked intrigued, but the explanation he wanted never came.

  “You look like you’ve been busy. How about you stay in Orhain for a few days?”

  “And share the Weave’s power with you? No, thanks. There’s a reason why most Ascendants have their own domain. The Ascendant with a claim to the land will always be prioritized. Worse even, the Weave forces other Ascendants to pay rent for staying in another Ascendant’s territory. I can already feel a trickle of power flowing into the ground.” The Regressor shook his head, but added, “Maybe I’ll stay a day or two. My network has yet to locate a few people. Hopefully, they’re not dead. If they are…”

  Zachariah sighed deeply. He tried to hide how conflicted he was, but failed miserably.

  “It looks like you’re doing fine,” he added, trying to change the topic. His eyes flitted to Orhain and beyond. They turned milky white for a second, and his features froze. “Our Paths are very different. Your Path is… surprising. It doesn’t suit you at all, but you managed… somehow.”

  “Since you managed, and the Weave seems very satisfied with your actions, I should help you a little,” the Regressor smiled, but it never reached his eyes. “When I look for the others, I will meet people in need of help. I cannot bother helping them, but you may want to help them.”

  If Zachariah could redirect survivors to Kamia, that’d be even better. His off-hand comment about the survivors’ value was a bit of a mess, but David ignored it. Zachariah never bothered to hide his agenda. He wouldn’t mind the death of tens of millions if that were needed to salvage the cosmos.

  David knew Zachariah’s ideals, and he understood them too. To a certain extent, he agreed with them, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try to help as many as possible. After all, he had the perfect Paths to either kill and wreak havoc, or to protect, heal, and help.

  The Regressor’s lips parted, but they snapped shut as Maja appeared nearby. Space barely distorted when she materialized, but it must have been noticeable enough for Zachariah to take note as he looked at her. His eyes widened for a moment, and his gaze flitted to David and back to Maja, understanding dawning upon him.

  “Where’s the enemy?!” Maja shouted angrily, her hair disheveled and her eyes sunken from exhaustion.

  David offered her a pitying smile and pointed at Zachariah. “False alarm.”

  She sighed in relief and turned back, sending a ripple through the space around her—until Zachariah motioned for her to stop. He retrieved a scroll and handed it to Maja, whose frown was replaced by shock.

  “I will share the location of settlements that cannot protect themselves for long. They will fall by the time the integration ends,” Zachariah said, glancing briefly at David. “You’re on the right path. Keep helping David, and you may contribute to the end of this mess.”

  David muted Zachariah’s commentary and looked at the scroll in Maja’s hands. It was the live-updated map.

  “I will mark the settlements so you can relocate them. Just make sure you convince them first. Conflict bonds are useful too, but not in your territory—let alone a Sanctuary. Conflict and Favor are rarely compatible.”

  “How will you mark the areas?” Maja asked, intrigued.

  “With a bit of terraforming,” Zachariah responded with a flat smile. “You will notice the difference, believe me.”

  He turned to David, looking conflicted, but shook his head. The reaction was similar to his first encounter with Vitae. When Zachariah learned about Vitae Nihilum, what it could do, and how it ensured my survival in the Naughtrealm, he had been conflicted but silent. His shock had been a pleasant surprise when I told him all about the things that happened in the Naughtrealm, and he didn’t utter a word after I showed him visions of my time in the Naughtrealm with a Dreamer’s help. Well, a Dreamer and a Mind Reader.

  Both were ridiculous Classes, and David didn’t like either. Fortunately, [Indomitable Will] blocked their Class Skills as long as he wanted to. He only showed them the Naughtrealm, traumatizing them. Their trauma was unintentional, but Zachariah had to see David’s memories to know that he was not dangerous to the cosmos. Unfortunately, the Regressor was the only one who wasn’t traumatized.

  Still, he looked defeated as he said, “You need to grow stronger. To… Just do whatever you have to do to grow stronger. Clearly, you have everything under control.”

  “Fortify your Will. You need to decide what people should think of you. Are you their Saint and Healer, or will you be a tyrant? You can still change your mind. Paths as different as yours grant you great versatility. You can be anything.”

  Aren’t you a little late with that talk? David thought, but he could only shrug.

  He could be whoever he wanted to be—that much was obvious. However, David already felt good in his position. He was a Lifeweaver, even if he no longer possessed the Class.

  David liked what the Class stood for.

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