Soulstream (Rise To Omniscience Book 10), page 8
Warning!
If you decline your ascension now, the option will forever be lost to you.
Will you ascend?
Yes/No
Once again, Morgan selected no, and this time, the message vanished, leaving him to read the effects of his new Classification.
Classification: Titan Slayer
Effect: For 1 minute a day, you will have access to a Divine Form.
That was it. No other explanation. Morgan’s brows furrowed as he thought it over. He remembered battling Strangler and her taking on a different form while they fought. Her power had grown exponentially, and he had to wonder if this was the same thing.
Deciding he would have to test it later, Morgan moved on, opening the description for his new skill.
Beast Soul: Project your inner beast into the outside world. This projection will have all of your attributes and skills (with the exception of Ultimate skills) and fight autonomously.
Cost - 4,000 RP
Duration - 120 seconds
Cooldown - 30 minutes
Now this he could get behind. Did he really have a skill that would give him a double of himself for a full two minutes? It could change the very nature of a fight.
Morgan imagined fighting one of the gods, then pulling this skill out. They wouldn’t know what hit them. He’d always been the one who was outnumbered, but now, he could outnumber an enemy at any time.
Sure, there was a time limit and a pretty long cooldown. But still, something like this could completely change the flow of a battle.
Morgan was so excited that he nearly closed his status before examining his last skill— his new Ultimate skill. Another message popped up as soon as he tried to read the skill’s description.
Notice: The Superior Skill: World Breaker has been upgraded to an Ultimate skill, as you have reached the Pinnacle.
As soon as he finished reading the message, it vanished, leaving the skill’s description in its place. It seemed he had his answer to his earlier question. The skill was supposed to be a Superior skill, but since he’d reached the pinnacle of power, it had been upgraded.
World Breaker: Embody the power of the four World Beasts and infuse it into your very soul. You will gain access to one skill from each of the beasts while this skill is active. Firebomb, Corrosion, Quake, and Rend.
Cost - 15,000 RP
Duration - 3 minutes
Cooldown - 48 hours
Morgan had no clue what any of those skills would do, but he was excited to find out. It was hard to forget how powerful the World Beasts were, so he was looking forward to testing it out. However, he would need to be careful when using it, because just as with his other Ultimate skills, the cost was prohibitive and had a two-day cooldown.
He did a quick check over his other skills once he finished and was pleased to see that while they hadn’t increased in power, the costs and cooldowns for several of them had gone down.
The ones he was most excited about were his Bestial Might, whose Cooldown had gone down to twenty seconds instead of thirty, and his Eternity Beam, which had come down from a full week to just forty-eight hours.
“So?” Sarah asked as he closed his status.
She must have been watching him the entire time, as the question came as soon as he focused on the world around him.
Morgan turned to look at her. She was still in the makeshift tub, her body hidden by frothing bubbles, though one of her legs was extended out of the water.
“Was it worth it?” she asked.
“Yes,” Morgan replied.
“Are you strong enough to fight two gods in a row?”
“I certainly hope so,” Morgan said.
If he still couldn’t win after all of these upgrades, then there was no hope for this world, and Morgan refused to believe that.
12
Despite having reached their goal, Morgan decided to stay in the Beast Zone for another couple of days so that they could boost Sarah’s rank, and by extension, her survivability. She was still at rank 76, and while powerful, getting an extra few ranks’ worth of Constitution might very well be the difference between life and death.
They refrained from fighting the Arc, instead choosing to leave the zone once Sarah hit rank 78. The cost to increase her own rank was quite high. Though not nearly as high as Morgan’s, they decided that after she’d gained two ranks, trying to gather enough energy to push her past the breakthrough rank would be too difficult and time-consuming. This was despite Morgan’s wishes to the contrary.
Sarah wanted them to have a couple of days to recover before they were forced into yet another battle.
“If I’m going to be some god’s punching bag, then I’m taking a few days off,” she said when Morgan had tried to argue.
With that, they left, traveling back to the fleet of ships to see how they’d been faring while they were gone.
“Well, that’s not good,” Morgan muttered as the two of them emerged above the fleet.
The bad thing was immediately obvious, as the fleet had been reduced in size. Six ships were missing, and Morgan couldn’t think of any good reason why they would be gone.
“You’re back,” Katherine said as the two of them alighted on the deck of her ship.
She was dressed in her armor, with scales of dark red covering her chest, abdomen, and legs. Her arms were bare, as was her head, and the massive mace she normally kept in a small pocket dimension was currently slung in a harness on her back.
“What happened?” Morgan asked, looking around the ship and taking note of some minor damage to the planks on the deck.
“What do you think happened?” she asked. “We were attacked by creatures of the sea multiple times. We managed to fend off the first attack completely. But when the second came, we weren’t so lucky. This beast came back after it had been killed. We were lucky that it wasn’t a Pinnacle beast, but it managed to sink a couple of our ships before we took it down.
“We had to weather two more attacks after that one, and we lost more ships. We managed to find a few survivors, but for the most part, everyone on the sunken ships is dead.”
Morgan did some quick math. Each ship carried one hundred and twenty people, which meant that they’d lost a lot of people.
“Seven-hundred-and-twenty,” Morgan said out loud.
That was how many people had died because he was busy training somewhere else.
“You can’t blame yourself for this,” Sarah said sternly. “It’s not your fault.”
“She’s right,” Katherine said. “It’s not your fault. We can’t expect you to be everywhere at once. This is war, and war has casualties.”
“Is that how the other leaders feel?” Morgan asked.
The way Katherine’s lips pulled to a tight line told him exactly what he needed to know.
“It may be best to avoid them for now,” Katherine said. “The ships that were lost were carrying their people, not mine. If it makes you feel any better, they’re angry with me too. That gnome Fortuna seems to think that I took special care to protect only the ships with humans on board.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Sarah snapped. “Are these people forgetting who risked their lives to get them onto these ships in the first place? And is that gnome conveniently forgetting who started this damn war to begin with? Have they suffered a bout of convenient circumstantial amnesia? Because if not, I feel like we should be seeing some freaking gratitude!”
Morgan placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm the angry woman.
“People are irrational when they’re afraid and mourning,” Katherine said. “They lost their homes and have been trapped on these ships for nearly two weeks now. They’re all packed to capacity, giving little room for privacy. Rations are short as well, and the knowledge that they’re going to be stuck on these ships for weeks more isn’t helping anything.
“Now, add to that the fact that we’re being attacked by sea monsters, and you can understand why they’re acting the way they are. That said,” Katherine continued. “I find myself starting to lose patience with these people. I have half a mind to just go home and leave them here to deal with these problems themselves.”
Morgan took a closer look at Katherine then. She was looking even more haggard than before, almost as though she were ready to keel over at any minute.
“When was the last time you slept?” he asked. “And be honest.”
Katherine let out a long breath, the trailing ends of her honey-blonde hair fluttering up from her cheeks before settling back down.
“Not since we boarded these ships,” she admitted.
“That is unacceptable,” Sarah exclaimed. “Come on. We’re going back to your palace in the North Kingdom, getting you a proper meal and bath, and putting you to bed.”
“In case you didn’t notice, I’m sort of needed here,” Katherine said, her tone growing a bit icier.
It seemed that she still wasn’t over the woman coming back to life and ruining her chances with Morgan. While the two had been cordial, they hadn’t ever really been friends. Sarah’s jealousy over Katherine’s stunning looks and the woman’s constant attempts to get Morgan to choose her probably hadn’t helped.
Nearly three years had passed since then, and Morgan had hoped that over the course of the war, the two of them might be able to make up and get along.
“Morgan will stay to guard the ships,” Sarah said. “If you think you can do a better job than him, feel free to stay.”
Katherine opened her mouth to argue, but this time, Morgan cut in.
“She’s right. You’re exhausted and need some sleep. I know you, and so long as you remain on board, you won’t get any. So go back to your palace and rest up. You can come back tomorrow.”
Katherine glared at him for a few more moments before her shoulders slumped. She let out a long breath, then nodded.
“Fine. But I’m only going away for the night. After that, I’m coming back.”
“That’s fine by me,” Morgan replied.
“I’m coming with you,” Sarah said as Katherine opened a red-edged portal back to her palace.
“Suit yourself,” Katherine said, turning her back on the woman and walking through the portal.
“You’ll be fine without me for the night, right?” she asked, half-turning to look at him.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked. “You and Katherine aren’t exactly friends.”
“I think that’s mostly my fault, if I’m being honest with myself,” Sarah replied. “It’s time to get everything out in the air. Don’t you think?”
“A few days before we’re going to fight literal gods?” Morgan asked with a raised eyebrow.
“What better time?” Sarah asked with a shrug.
She moved away from the portal, standing on the tips of her toes to kiss him before turning and running back to the portal.
“I’ll see you tomorrow. Try not to miss me too much!”
Morgan sighed as the portal snapped shut behind her, leaving him to stand in the middle of the deck, with about a hundred people staring at him.
“What?” Morgan asked, looking around at the North Kingdom soldiers.
They all looked away, leaving Morgan to himself. Despite that, he didn’t feel comfortable staying on the ship. So, after just a few minutes, he took off, streaking high into the sky and stopping some four hundred feet up.
From here, he got a good view of the ocean, as well as all of the remaining ships in their fleet. He folded up his legs, then reached into a pocket dimension and removed a piece of meat still attached to the bone. It was cold, but he didn’t care, biting into it and ripping off a large chunk.
The wind, still warm despite the altitude, buffeted him from all sides. All the way out here, in the middle of the ocean, the wind was quite strong. There were no buildings, walls, trees, or mountains to break it, so the wind gusted by unimpeded.
Watching the ships as he ate, Morgan noted how slowly they were going. Even with the sails up and people rowing, the ships seemed barely to be moving. He wondered if there were some way they could speed up their journey. Perhaps Mages with water abilities could push them along, or those with wind abilities could increase power to the sails. Maybe Supers with strength-based skills could help row faster.
There were so many applications and combinations of skills and abilities that he couldn’t understand why they weren’t moving faster. Additionally, if he’d thought of it, he was sure someone else had as well.
Perhaps the ships weren’t built to take that sort of power?
Then again, if he really thought about it, couldn’t he try bringing the ships directly to the Five Kingdoms using his Rift skill? Sure, he’d have to make nearly a thousand trips back and forth, but something like that could probably be done in a day.
Morgan took another bite of meat, deciding he would ask Katherine once she returned. That was, if she and Sarah didn’t kill each other while they were alone. He really hoped they wouldn’t.
Morgan began to grow a bit worried as he thought of the two of them locked in a room together. Should he go and check in on them just in case?
He was debating doing just that when he felt a flare of power from below. A large shadow appeared beneath several of the ships, signaling the start of another attack. Sighing, Morgan tossed his unfinished lunch to the ocean below and prepared himself for the fight.
It seemed that fate had intervened before he could go check on the two women. He’d promised Katherine to keep the fleet safe while she was gone, and he couldn’t very well go abandoning them, especially now.
His body glowed as he used his Bestial Might, reaching the surface of the sea in a flash and diving beneath the water. Even as he engaged the beast, his mind was racing with worries about how Sarah and Katherine were doing.
He sincerely hoped they were both alright.
13
At the very moment that Morgan started battling the sea beast, Sarah was following Katherine into a luxurious spa area she’d had built in her personal wing of the palace. The woman hadn’t said so much as a word to her since they’d come through the portal, right outside the entrance of her private wing just a few minutes ago.
Sarah was too busy admiring their surroundings to notice, however. As the daughter of a noble, she’d grown up surrounded by finery, but nothing could compare to the extravagance and luxury of royalty.
Just the spa area alone had to be the size of an entire wing of her childhood home in City Four. Not to mention the sheer number of areas it contained. Sarah wondered if there were some sort of enchantment or script worked into the place, as it seemed far too large to fit in this part of the palace alone.
“Welcome, Your Majesty,” a woman dressed in white robes said, quickly rushing over. “We weren’t expecting you.”
“I wasn’t planning on coming,” Katherine said. “But she insisted,” she said, pointing a thumb back at Sarah.
“Guilty as charged,” Sarah said with a grin.
“What can we do for you while you’re here?” the woman asked, moving to a small counter and ringing the bell sitting at its center.
Seeing as no audible sound rang out, Sarah guessed it was probably some sort of magical construct created to summon those who normally worked here.
“Just a bath is…”
“What services do you have available?” Sarah asked, cutting the woman off before she could pick the most boring option.
The woman looked questioningly to Katherine. She clearly wasn’t going to take the orders of some stranger over her queen. Much to Sarah’s surprise, she motioned the woman to answer, albeit with an accompanying sigh of resignation.
“Right now, we have a variety of options available, though not everyone is in at the moment,” the woman said, sounding a bit nervous. “I do apologize for that, Your Majesty, but as I said, we weren’t expecting…”
Katherine rolled her finger in a ‘get on with it’ motion and the woman – after nervously swallowing – started listing options.
“We have the wading pool, artificial hot spring, masseuse, foot scrubber, and regular baths available. But if you want, we can…”
“Perfect,” Sarah said, cutting in before the woman could apologize once again. “I definitely like the sound of the massage. I haven’t gotten one of those in ages! Oh, and the hot spring sounds wonderful! We should definitely do that too, though I think we’ll probably need a bath before we can do anything else. We’re both kind of dirty.”
Katherine looked down at herself as though only now noticing the dirt and gore clinging to her armor.
“Your Majesty?” the woman asked, once again acting like Sarah wasn’t there.
“Yeah, fine. What she said,” Katherine said, still not looking at Sarah.
“Very well then,” she said, quickly moving around the counter and fetching a handful of towels and puffy robes. “If you will follow me.”
They followed the woman through the large room, Sarah noting several darker areas with things she would have to try when she returned. The actual bathing area was stunning, done all in white marble and natural stone. There were several deep pools, all filled with steaming water. Soaps of all kinds in dozens of different scents littered the area, and there were even private changing stalls.
“Wow. You really went all out here!” Sarah exclaimed, looking around with wide eyes.
“I didn’t want this,” Katherine said, finally addressing her personally. “Bell made me.”
She walked into one of the changing rooms and closed the door with a bang, leaving Sarah in the space alone.
“And you actually listened to her?” she asked, continuing the conversation as she moved to get undressed in her own changing booth.
“Unlike some, I actually value the advice of my aide,” Katherine replied, her voice coming out slightly muffled through the wall.
Sarah was quick to strip out of her clothes, wrapping one of the towels around herself and marveling at its softness. She exited the booth, though Katherine’s door remained closed. She figured that since the woman was wearing armor, it would take her a bit longer to change.
