Book 3: Chapter 40: Life and House Arrest
Two hours had passed and during that time, Lone and the matriarch hadn't deviated from their path to War Leader Clari's Spirit Pavilion even once. There was simply that many rolling hills, flower fields, and other Spirit Pavilions, between Lone's new home and the home of his attacker.
"Man, the clan is huge. No wonder though I suppose when you have a council full of X-ranked elders and an even more powerful group of elders behind that one," Lone commented as he took in the sights of all of the distant Spirit Pavilions.
They were all so varied and magical in nature. The sheer number of peaceful and friendly spirits both far and near to them was mind boggling to Lone. A Spirit Hawk had even landed on his shoulder and nuzzled against he face before flying off at one point.
Lossa's eight tails swayed peacefully in the wind as they walked. "Not all beastkin clans are like this even though we all share the same Elders - the ones behind the local ones. But yes, many hundreds of thousands of years and conquests, both honourable and otherwise, have led to the clan being of a notable size."
"I like it. It feels more personal and private than a city state or a kingdom, though those both have their own charms," Lone replied, choosing to ignore the mention of how such land was acquired. It was like that for every nation, so there was no point critiquing it when Lossa likely knew that as well and the past couldn't exactly be changed.
"I'm glad that even if we started on the wrong foot, at least the scenery and atmosphere of our little clan is pleasing to you," Lossa replied with a motherly smile.
"I was a history teacher before my summoning so I love interesting stuff like why a community has developed the way that it has. Besides, I love the aesthetic here, and particularly the almost zoo-like vibes of this area with all of the spirits. There's something special about the oriental touch to the buildings too. It's very unique thus far," Lone complimented.
"I wouldn't say 'zoo' to others. It could be viewed as offensive, even if you are a nine-tails and a foxkin just as we are. So, you were a teacher before you became a hero? I'd love to here more about that," Lossa expression.
Lone smiled. "And I'd love to hear about how it is you awakened to Life. I've never naturally awakened myself. I was manipulated into doing so by Void, Sky forced his way in to fight Void, Darkness was forced into me to save Sarah by a Djinn I pissed off, and I tricked Death with the help of Darkness to get a new Primal Skill. It's sadly useless for my immediate needs."
'It most certainly is not! You need only train it for it to have a noticeable impact on your eventual clash with this Arch Demon Zel character,' Death cried in indignation.
'Arch Devil Zel,' Darkness corrected.
"... So you really are the Avatar of them? Even Death? I wasn't aware of that. Of course, I had my suspicions since I can see the grey in you, but still... if it is not too much to ask, how are you maintaining your sanity? How have you not been taken over by one or all of them as all Avatars are?" Lossa asked. "Of course, I don't mean to pry. I'm happy to tell you my story. It's no secret."
"Same here. My soul is very strong. I'm curious what a Soul Oracle would see when looking at it, but yeah, it is abnormally strong, or so Darkness likes to tell me. Don't know much more about it than that. I can house entire Primals within me and keep my sense of self, that's good enough for me right now, though I intend to look into it in the future," Lone replied.
Lossa stopped in her tracks. "You... You can commune directly with the Primals?"
Lone pursed his lips. "Less commune, more listen as they complain in my head."
'Loney-boy, out of the five of us, you complain the most without contest,' Darkness noted.
The matriarch wore a look of veneration on her face. "To be so close to such godly beings... I envy you."
'Power is power. I don't get why you lot worship these guys. Their power is godlike but their history, actions, and personalities, certainly are not.' Lone shrugged. "Do not covet another man's blessings, for doing so only blinds you from your own. Or something like that. Lot of spirituality on my home world and a lot of people have dedicated themselves to it. Envy is a sin, of the seven deadly ones, in fact. I do wonder what Envy is like. The adventurer, that is."
"Haha, the people of your world sound wise," Lossa laughed. "I know not of the Seven Deadly Sins adventurer group beyond that they are tremendously powerful. Getting back on topic, I do hope you mean it when you say you'll look into the fact you have not turned out as all Avatars do, and why you can commune with the ones hosted within your soul."
Lone replied, "If there's one thing I'm serious about besides my commitment to Sofia, it's my desire to learn everything and anything I can."
Lossa smiled. "I'm glad. It is an honour to be an Avatar of anything, a Primal even more so for our people, but the loss of the individual is always mourned. If we could find a way to ensure the one chosen isn't simply lost to us in the process... I'm getting ahead of myself. Avatars are rare. Very, very rare. Though suspected candidates litter the continent... Anyway, my story? Simply put, the twins. You've met them. Do you recall the two?"
Lone nodded. "Of course. Tiera and Trella. The eager trickster and the reluctant brother."
Lossa laughed. "Apt descriptions. They were never meant to be born. Their mother - my daughter - was deemed infertile by the clan's healers and doctors. It was not a curable condition. She was... cast out by the elders politically for this. My son in law was enraged, of course. We all were. He left with her for over a century to find a solution with my blessing even if it pained me greatly to see her go."
A look of sorrowful nostalgia washed over the matriarch.
Meanwhile, Lone thought, 'He clearly returned, or at least her daughter did with the twins. I wonder what healed her? Something like a Djinn's wish? Maybe a unique skill... Bloodline skill is possible too. I'd love to learn a new skill that can do what Creation Magic can when it comes to healing.'
Lossa sighed and continued, "He's never told us how he did it, but he returned with my daughter, the both of them injured beyond belief but they were clutching two young babes. I was overcome with joy to see my daughter again and two lovely new grandchildren... The emotions were far stronger than we beastkin are usually allowed to express. We love the Primals, of course, but our eternal youth is valued quite highly culturally speaking. Life blessed me on that day."
"Stay friends with me and I can reset the ol' ageing clock for you when the wrinkles start popping back in," Lone chuckled. "What kind of skill did Life give you, if you don't mind me asking?"
"You know not of how temping such an offer is... Or perhaps you do. My Primal skill, yes? It's quite simple and very public. It's called Youth Preservation, ironically enough. It allows me to cure children of any and all harm. Life threatening injuries, emotional trauma, the loss of innocence, just a scraped knee. So long as they are a child, I can preserve their youth, though I cannot prevent them from growing up," Lossa explained.
Lone nodded thoughtfully. "A scary skill if used without consent on the emotional front. No child deserves to be scarred mentally, but in some way, you're denying them the chance to grow into the person that scarring would have turned them into. I wonder who I would have become if that skill was used on me as a kid."
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"Oh, did you... have a difficult childhood?" Lossa asked carefully.
Lone shrugged. "Somewhat. I was just thinking out loud. I assume you're responsible with the skill. You seem to be the motherly type."
Lossa smiled brightly. "That's very kind of you to say. Ah! There's War Leader Clari's Spirit Pavilion. You can see it just over that hill."
"Is... Is it floating? Fuck, that's cool," Lone admired.
In the distance could be seen a collection of pagodas and garden gazebos connected with stone pathways all supported by a cloud-like structure a hundred metres off the ground.
"It's one of the few Spirit Pavilions that does, entirely naturally too. There's no magic involved," Lossa claimed. "Now, I'll go and announce your visit. This wasn't part of what the elders wanted so she isn't aware that you're here. Or she might be at this point. She is rather proficient in detecting auras, I just don't know the exact range."
Lone nodded. "I don't want to fight her, so please make it clear I'm here to talk."
Lone could see Lossa walked down the flight of ethereal steps towards him with a strained look on her face.
When she had reached him, he asked, "No luck? I won't force it since she's so strong, but I expected some courtesy considering she almost murdered me."
Lossa sighed. "No, no, she'll see you... she... she's just in a very foul mood. It's quite embarrassing for her to be put on house arrest while the elders cover up what happened to you. She's very prideful and was quite invested in our mock war with the Azure Foxkin Clan, you see. Come, let's see if your personality will help her. You and my great-aunt have a lot in common."
"I'm not really here to cheer her up, but she's related to you?" Lone asked as he followed alongside the matriarch, fully enjoying the novel experience of walking on steps made of cloud.
"Yes and she's disappointed in me for awakening. She's much less on the religious side and much more on the eternal youth side than some," Lossa chuckled. "I will say though, she didn't believe it was me at first. I feel so much younger and it apparently shows."
"I can only imagine she wasn't best pleased when your features got tainted by a sunny yellow. She tried to kill me on the spot just for being an Avatar of Void," Lone joked but received only an fake smile in response.
Before too long, the awkward silence he had created was lifted when Lossa said, "There she is. I'll wait here but I'm within earshot so if you need me, please, just call. Until I report back to the elders, you are my only concern."
Lone appreciated that. He nodded and then approached the war leader. She was sitting under a gazebo in a reclining deck chair with a leather ball in her hand that she was tossing from one hand to the other.
Getting a good look at her now that he wasn't under attack or actively on fire, he could see that she was, like all beastkin he'd met so far, stunningly beautiful. Her hair was shoulder length and straight, with a deeper than normal crimson tone to it. Her face was angular yet feminine and she was wearing a crop top and a simple set of shorts, both made entirely of silk.
"Huh. It really is you. I'm good at illusion magic and seeing it, so even though it was a tough sell from her, that's definitely my grand-niece over there watching us nervously. How'd you make her young again? No one in any of the clans can do that, which means something powerful did it. You didn't die to me, which means you're something powerful," War Leader Clari stated casually. "The guildmaster too. I remember vetting him before the clan allowed him to take up the position. He only had one eye, but now he has two."
Lone reached into his Dimensional Storage and pulled out a wooden chair of his own design. Sitting in it, he shrugged. "I'm one hell of a healer."
"Okay, don't answer the question. Not like I have a right to be demanding. I'll say you've got balls though to wanna meet me. Then again, that was made obvious when you didn't want me to cancel my fire skill," she replied uncaringly. "Cool trick with the chair. That wasn't taken from an item like an adventurer's pouch and I felt no magic, so a unique skill, then. Makes sense since Golden Foxkin are extinct."
'So she thinks my people are all dead? Most assume they disappeared. It's interesting to hear a new perspective,' Lone thought.
"Weakened Stream of Ezekial," he said as he flickered some freeform fire magic between his finger tips. "A spell with a fascinating history according to its skill description. I look forward to levelling it. I won't beat around the bush. I ain't here to make friends. The elders don't think it's wise to let me get compensation from you or them beyond a low-tier Spirit Pavilion and some pennies every month. You getting house arrest isn't really a punishment either, but that's not my business."
'Soph and Sophie will take care of that when they decide it's time to murder you for trying to decapitate me,' he thought privately.
A thin eyebrow was raised as the X-ranker's tails wagged curiously from behind the hole in the recliner where they were resting. "You're going against the wishes of the elders? Really? Look, I get I attacked you impulsively. I should have finished reading the report that stated the true Elders had sanctioned your stay here, but let's get real, yeah? You're hardly much different from an abomination. You're Void-touched. We don't like 'em, but the Church of the Primals did the world a favour when they tried to erase that Primal from history."
Lone leaned back in his chair and stopped playing with his freeform magic. "What's an abomination? I can guess, but I assume it's a word with more meaning that just an insult."
"Those who have awakened to Void. I've never seen one in person though a few still live from before Void was sealed. Well, maybe more will pop up now that it's in you instead of locked away. They have the nastiest tendencies and are very hard to kill. Their gifted Primal skills are something else. You've got one, right? Mister Multi-avatar. Bet you could kill me with it, what with it being an Avatar Primal skill and all," War Leader Clari mocked all too seriously and nonchalantly.
"I could, but I've never used it and don't intend to start now. Anyway, I'm here to talk about compensation, not my peculiarities," Lone replied.
Clari shrugged, still tossing her leather ball from hand to hand. "Then talk."
"I have over 60 beginner skills that I want to make intermediate. Stress and danger makes levelling skills easier. You are going to become my training dummy and will assist me in levelling those skills while also teaching me all of the skills that you know that you are allowed to. I don't want to get in the way of any contract magic or the like," Lone stated.
A powerful aura washed over him rooting him in place and making it difficult to breath but at the same time, his stats were multiplied by six times due to the rank difference, making the burden much more endurable.
Clari seemed surprised Lone wasn't a wheezing mess on the floor by now. "What makes you think I would ever agree to do that? The Elders are the only reason I haven't made it my life's mission to kill you."
Lone smiled though it took some effort. "I can see lifespans and yours is lookin' pretty grim. I could perhaps extend it were you to help me with my training."
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Aura Pressure Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 6.
He saw the war leader's eyes scan his tails, hair, and eyes, and then panic a little upon clearly seeing the signs of Death in him. "You're not lying?"
Lone felt disappointed when her aura vanished, resulting in his stats returning to normal. "No, I'm not. The weaker my connection to a person, the clearer their lifespan is. Your connection to me is pretty weak though talking to you now is strengthening it. Still, I'd wager you've got three, maybe four months. That'll go up a lot if you help me."
Clari furrowed her brow. "It's convenient that the only person who could verify this hates me now. Stupid dragonkin... I'd need more than a promise based on a Primal skill you supposedly have. For all I know, Death lets you eat rotten flesh without getting sick, not see lifespans."
'it is not seeing! It is interacting! He is neglecting the skill due to his biases and hasn't experimented with it yet!' Death yelled.
Darkness sighed. 'You say that like she can hear you...'
Lone ignored the two and smiled. "We both know I have unique skills. You sussed that out during your ambush, probably. I have more than one. True Contract Magic is a skill I possess that is infinitely more powerful and trustworthy than standard contract magic. It can verify my words and ensure a fair deal between us. Want to figure out some contract terms and get this all sorted out? Or would you rather not trust me, not make amends for trying to kill me and for still wanting to kill me for no reasons, and die early?"
War Leader Clari clenched her fist, popping and utterly destroying the ball in her hand. "You're a demonkin, not a foxkin. Leave."
Lone got up, stored his chair, and shook his head. "Your loss. It wasn't nice knowing you. I will not be attending your funeral."
He turned and immediately left with Lossa. She didn't ask questions and he didn't speak up to explain anything she had overheard. Once the two of them were a decent distance from War Leader Clari's Spirit Pavilion, Lone contacted Soph.
'Pick me up, please?' he requested softly.
Not a moment later, the short woman appeared next to him. "Hi!"
"What?! Where did she come from?!" Lossa exclaimed in shock.
Soph stuck out her tongue. "Unique skill. Bye! Teleportation."
And just like that, the very confused public leader of the clan had been left on her lonesome while Soph and Lone had returned to their Spirit Pavilion.
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