Chương 178: Chapter 4-177 – A Weaving of Fire and Ice

185/185% Attunement. I gathered the ultimate was 200%, maybe, but that couldn't happen until I became a Sage and had a Universe of Stars to support them. Still, a matched 3. 5 multiplier to both Elements was something when it stacked like I could do! The stars inside my Wings were burning brighter, the silvered edges were longer and sharper as I regained my awareness and was able to finally extend my Awareness around me.

Were anyone reaching their senses up here to follow us, they would believe that three Luans were flying along through the sky right now, with one being a mere Noble. Yes, a lesson in Fire and Ice. It was an easy hundred degrees F below zero in Eternal Ice's Domain, while Endless Fire's was several hundred degrees above. Neither affected the other Luan, of course, but there was still a line between them, a line I was sitting right on as they coaxed my Seed back to its proper course.

I literally reached out into their Domains, grabbed threads of them, and began to stretch them into one another. Fire pulsed and extended like burning silk into Ice. Frost fractured like crystal strings and reached up into Fire. The nature of Ice Magic was naturally inefficient here. Magical force was directly used to stop molecular motion and form ice and make things cold, while a secondary portion of the Ice Element reached out and grabbed or created water to freeze solid.

I ignored all of that, and instead of the Ice Magic bashing against atoms in motion to slow them down, they closed in on them and conducted that motion away. The temperature of Her Domain dropped another hundred degrees Fahrenheit in a matter of seconds. Liquid nitrogen was dripping off swirling strands of Fire, and Flames able to melt iron were igniting on reaching webs of Icy crystalline gossamer. The temperature of Endless Fire's Domain doubled to a thousand degrees F as rapidly as Eternal Ice's fell.

The Domains continued to rise and fall respectively, both Luan watching wide-eyed as without any expense of energy on their part, their Domains interwove and fed one another, and were growing, and growing! Eternal Ice was leaving a misting, supercold rain of condensed air behind Her, while Endless Fire was creating a superheated updraft in the rarefied air here at twenty thousand feet.

"If Your Majesties switch positions, you will create a tornado," I told them calmly, surrounded on all sides by swirling, living threads of constantly forming and evaporating strands of Fire and Ice. Their eyes lit up, and they tucked their wings in and rolled over and around me in perfect synch, wings spreading out again with snaps of thunder, the exchange of positions taking the massive Birds only seconds. Wasted rising heat was sucked back in by the cold, rising air fell back down.

The swirling circular flow picked up speed, hastening the building and the exchange of energies as it did so, and the Domains got hotter and colder once more, the ties binding them ever stronger as a horizontal vortex began to spin around them, building with ever-greater speed as it did so... and only the most minor use of their shared Air Element was needed to keep it intact! Slowly and carefully, they began to expand their Domains.

Carefully, because a doubling in radius was a cube in area covered, and so the energy involved spiked very quickly indeed! Oxygen started falling as liquid, and Endless Fire could have been a forge furnace for the heat He was radiating. Fire and Ice danced in a tight vortex, near plasma-levels of fire raging next to liquified air as Fire and Ice Mana Sang together, each made stronger by the other instead of cancelling one another out. I knew the Luans didn't reach the full extension of their Domains.

They were cutting a massive burning path across the sky, impossible to miss, and I'd seen how big the personal Domains of an Emperor could get. This was all new to them, and they would need to practice, even with the exquisite harmony, skill, and teamwork of millennia together helping them along. Also, we were moving REALLY fast, as they borrowed the power of the vortex to speed us along without having to exert themselves beyond what they might normally.

"THIS IS INDEED AN UNDERSTANDING WORTH A BOON," Endless Ice Emperor chimed, and Her mate nodded His head in agreement.

"This one recommends Your Majesties pay a visit to Fire Phoenix Emperor," I Said, my Magevoice also carrying through the roar of the howling Vortex around us, Thunder Resistance ignoring the loudness.

"His Imperial Majesty's understanding of the Chaos Element should lead to more understanding on how to unleash your combined power together, as opposed to just fueling your Domains." Fire Phoenix was naturally their nominal Ruler as head of all Fire Avians on the world, not their rival, with a relationship probably similar to His own with Thunderbird. There would be no problems with coming to visit him, although seeing the mated pair would probably make Him heartsick for His own mate...

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

The Imperial Luans escorted me all the way to the edge of the Amazon, traveling the whole distance from the Heart in only an hour. I had promised to display the other Magicks I knew for them when they visited Fire Phoenix Emperor, as I was still visiting Him regularly to make His Pyramid, something else they were curious about and wished to see.

They watched as, instead of proceeding on my own at great speed out over the Atlantic, I just fixed my eyes on the horizon, my Mask of Clarity doubled up with Eagle Eyes, and I Linejumped way, way in that direction, trailing a momentary streak of stars and silver as I did so. They knew exactly how much distance I covered, because two Feathers with their Wills upon them were hanging from Noble, and could naturally be tracked by an Emperor around the entire world if I allowed them to.

I was off to Deepest, Darkest Africa and Auric Tyrant Emperor's domain. My Linejump took me to the edge of space, another one brought me right back down, incidentally avoiding all those prickly Ocean Rulers and Emperors who might take umbrage at me flying over them and try to shoot me down with reverse-rains of water bullets while I was discretely passing by at twenty thousand feet. Like any formal approach, I didn't pop down out of the middle of nowhere inside the domain, as that would be taken very, very badly.

I Linejumped down to the planar imbalance that marked the edge of Deeper Africa, a point at which Humans were not unwelcome, but were so insignificant that going beyond it was equivalent to a death sentence for most. The number of Humans who had made it to Deepest Africa in history could probably be counted on two hands. Deepest, Darkest Africa was only myths and legends passed on by other powers, back when Human Tribes were on better terms with the Great Beasts.

Thunderbird didn't have any problems talking about the place, however. Surprisingly enough, it was not ruled over by Infinite Sands High Emperor, whose domain was the entirety of the Sahara. Naturally the High Emperor could do whatever He damn well pleased and the lesser Emperors could only obey, but basically Infinite Sands was content with His massive desert and its labyrinthine depths, and did not bother the Deepness of Africa.

Thus, the functional Emperor of Africa was not its most powerful, but the towering figure of Auric Tyrant Emperor, who had been ceded such authority by Infinite Sands. By Thunderbird's account, He was remarkably well-informed of events in Africa, probably because He had to be careful of Infinite Sands' might and power despite his own lofty status.

So, even though He dwelt in the great and forbidden Deepness of Africa, He knew very well that a Great Flood was underway, and the outer Nobles and Emperors were preparing to move to meet the threat from the sea. Like the Amazon, the Deepness of Africa on the great Plateau that dominated the continent's middle was a dimensionally-expanded land. This did not come from the conjoined Void Magic and power of countless sapient Trees, however.

No, this came because this section of Land was the oldest inhabited by Great Beasts, and the closest location on the planet to the Beast Realm! This was the birthplace of the Summoning Element! As far as I knew, there were no Beasts with the Summoning Element, but this might be a place where the Beast Realm could talk to the Mortal World, so who knew what might happen... Bearing the Wills of five Emperors, I winged my way into Deepest, Darkest Africa...

The Beast Realm... Hooooo..., Reynard thought to himself as he soared along, taking a good look at all the fantastic slender and sculpted mountains all about them. They were all kilometers in height, carefully selected to rise higher and higher as they approached the middle of the Phoenix Territory. There were many, many flying creatures around, and not all of them were Avians.

Still, the Birds naturally predominated everything, especially the powerful ones, and ranking here, as in many such places, was displayed by how high you were capable of flying, and how high you dared to fly. That was a restriction on the air itself, which was suffused with cold, biting force that would tear at anything that dared to ascend higher and higher.

Powerful creatures could naturally both withstand the Wind physically and push it back with their power, but lesser creatures naturally had a far more difficult time. Bearing the Will of Fire Phoenix certainly helped with the latter, although not completely.

His Void Magic was more important at warding it away, but it was quite plain to him that rising to the utmost heights where Sun Emperor Phoenix lived was not something he was going to be able to fly to, and teleporting his way in without announcement might just get him summarily crushed, being an outsider like he was.

At least he had wings, meaning he was not completely out of place, although he attracted a great many curious eyes, as they had never seen a golden winged Fox like himself, the one and only Celestial Golden Ghost Fox, Reynard! That meant he would have to fly to the lower heights of the Sun Emperor's mountain, and climb his way to the top physically.

It was an effective means of showing fliers and non-fliers alike their place below the Emperors, as the Avians would have a hard time ascending on foot, while flightless creatures paying call would have to start from the bottom and face a longer climb. Of course, he was a Fox, not a bird, and so coming to the Central Spire of the Sun Phoenix was going to be fine. It really was not much different from visiting his Ancestor, who did the same thing with Void Magic.

If you could not hop between locations, it was a very long and boring trek to get anywhere near Flowing Silver Emperor, who would doubtless be watching you the whole way and judging your perseverance. He was absolutely certain his presence had been sensed, as the Will of a foreign Emperor would basically be screaming his location to every Bird with half a brain in the area.

He could feel the many layers of attention swinging in his direction, measuring him, inspecting him, and doubtless getting more and more curious as they did. After all, there were no others like Reynard the Golden Ghost! He would have liked to have tried to sneak in and see how far he could have gotten, but that would have required him entering the territory on foot.

Given that he had traveled literally a million miles to arrive at Sun Phoenix Emperor's territory, and it was thousands of miles across all by itself, he had decided that being sneaky was a waste of time and he should instead make an impression on behalf of all Foxes! His Contractor had said he must remain polite. He had seen how she deferred to the True Emperors, but she was not of a true Noble lineage... or was she?

That Void Phoenix Bloodline she had stirred all manner of odd feelings in him and all Beasts who looked upon her when she popped her Wings. Very pretty those things, at least as pretty as his own golden coat and wings were... and from the same source?