The Guilds withdrew after the fighting but Tim knew they were not gone for good.
“I think I need to step away and go into seclusion for a while to stabilize my foundation. Every other stage of cultivation has made sense but this ultimate stage does not.”
“I may be following you in a few years, but I want to keep my eyes peeled for the guilds.”
*
It was a series of quiet years, as far as war was concerned at least. 4 other nations joined the empire in the Northeast Treaty.
Emperor Veer granted Daimon and our group a small plot of land, and some of the militia members we had trained started to build homes in the area. Especially the 8 who had been empowered by Daimon vowed their loyalty. To him.
Daimon’s late teens and early twenties were spent with these men and woman and with Lucille who gave him a crash course in administration.
It wasn’t really a large enough holding to call Daimon a king, but the settlement and their joining in the Northwest Treaty brought them a bright future.
3 years into his mother’s seclusion, Tim went into seclusion himself. Mom was still secluded in Emperor Veer’s palace while Tim stayed at the new home Daimon’s followers had built for him.
“If war breaks out again, wake me again,” he said.
Daimon trained with his militia members and occasionally with Veer when he traveled over to stay with Daimon.
He was in mid-shadows but he had to remind himself that Mom and Tim had trained for hundreds of years.
**
Lucille was a favorite representative for the Northeast treaty members. She helped navigate disagreements, and brought in some new treaty partners who offered substantial concessions to join the growing power bloc.
Her cultivation of the Word advanced into the Crystalline realm.
Tim was surprised to not see Anna when he left seclusion.
Together with Daimon they went to the palace she had been staying in and found she was gone.
“To solidify my cultivation, I must travel. I will return, my loves.”
***
It started with just a few expeditions of guilders. None of them were Divinely promised, and no one even noted the battle that ended them. A hostile Divine-bearer was reaping their expeditions.
Gathering into few groups, the Mission continued in shows of forces.
The first time a Divine-promised died with no sign of a fight, the leadership became quite panicked, a pattern emerged, the assassin must have come from a particular plan to he able to reach their targets,
The call of the six guilds was made, including their members back home, but they had encountered a foe beyond what they knew existed.
**
From an eternal perspective, every moment is as real or unreal as the next. Anna did not possess that eternal perspective on everything, but only a certain micro fracture around swords.
At first she had wept when Aida/Aiden and the spirits of the Consort sword and the Covenant sword appeared. Aida contained the eternal memory of her first sword, to lose it was fallacy.
If she had once fought with five swords so she had always. It was a different style of fighting than the old divine multi-sword technique. The connection of her hands renewed the sword she held more greatly than the others.
She would have stuck with Aida as her primary sword, except that a few weeks after her advancement, the spirit of Daimon Sr. Imbued with the covenant sword.
So, not really knowing the full ramifications she began to wield Unveiling and Covenant.
Daimon was the one who pushed her to test her abilities against the guilders. Now she was rushing into battle against four semi-divine cultivators.
She saved her third sword to strike the other camp full of cultivators. Aida was her defense and Daimon struck with a roaring power.
It was weird transcending the old elemental perspective. Aida used water, but Daimon was air aspected like he really had been.
Rooting out the source of their power Aida and Daimon struck together severing another cultivator’s divine connection.
Aida then cut left and Daimon right as they deflected strikes coming at them. Weaving the two swords she stopped tracking where each struck.
The reverie paused for a moment when she realized she cut through a mental attack like mortal sworders cut through fruit.
The Sword and Fan guild struck and she took a minor blow from one sword to cut through three ideas and their wielders. Lucille was much better.
Considering that she had dove too deep she began to retreat, putting pressure on the juniors, and leading to a panic in the enemy group.
**
There is some new danger the guilders now fear: after some investigation, I think it is an individual of the peak realms.” Lucille told Daimon.
“Is it my mother, seeking revenge?”
“She would have to be more powerful than she was during the siege of 9 sects. She rosé temporarily into High Divine stage during that time.”
“Crystalline stage could go that high if no one we know had even been mid-crystalline.”
The concept of peak Crystalline state was absurd to Daimon, given he was still struggling his way up to high tier shadows.
***
Life at court and cultivation continued for Daimon, but one day, his new advisor told him that a traveling cultivator would like a word with him.
It wasn’t that unusual to greet a traveler and sometimes they had become part of his court.
Daimon had a pretty strong perception of a cultivator’s core, and this woman had no elemental leaning at all. There was simply a solid feeling to her frame.
It was almost how he would imagine his maternal grandparents being.
Permission was given and the traveler introduced herself to Tim.
Tim was the Empire’s strongest cultivator until mom came back. He had advanced to mid-crystalline stage.
Daimon had never seen the swords that his father gave his mother. He knew mom mentioned Aida or Aiden a lot.
The mystery cultivator started battling Tim with two swords. Tim was confident after one sword of his challenger shattered but it reformed in moments.
Then Tim stopped as two spirits flowed sout of the stronger’s swords.
“I can’t even tell that you’re water aligned.”
“Eternal realm leaves behind elements. It’s not easy to describe until you reach the realm.
*^
The guilders avoided attacking members of their alliance, which lead more polities to join them.
It was hard for Tim, being unable to withstand Anna’s full power and that hindered training for both of thrm.
So he went back into seclusion in hopes of unlocking its power.
Tim had had a sparring partner and excellent training his entire cultivation career. As he pursued the Eternal path, he realized he hadn’t established his own identity very well. If he wanted to truly be an equal partner with Anna in life and love he needed to have something of his own to bring back.
Anna had only known his mom in her last few years, but when mom was young she taught flexibility, yoga and judo.
He enjoyed instructing people just like mom did.
**
Anna sat to the side of his throne as he accepted visitors at court.
4 members of the militia had become his royal advisers.
“We have a problem out west. There’s something unclean out there.”
**
The alliance grouped all Opening+ cultivators in the same bunch, so some 80 cultivators from the beginning of elementalism to the Eternal realm
Hundreds of shimmering tier cultivators, most of them Sword and Bow wielders and thousands of iron fist joined the battle.
Lucille quipped, “this is one time talking won’t help.”
Hours later, Lucille controlled a line of skeletal monstrosities shouting, “rest awakened one’s. You deserve rest. Seek it!”
The monsters stumbled, some turn back and some collapsed.
Anna fought one terrifying monster after another. Three lichs, a skeletal dragon, a porcupine like giant undead monster.
It was odd to see two swords and no water from her sister.
She stabbed a howler wolf with a dagger from her fan and smashed the fan into the next one.
There was something odd with her fan, she continued fighting anyway, and what was left to fight dwindled rapidly.
**
Daimon organized a large feast for all the participants who hunted undead.
He toasted his mother and aunt for their contributions.
Aunt Lucille had a shocking announcement.
Emily was a fan-spirit. Few had heard of fan cultivation in this parts and knew its deepest ways like his aunt.
Emily was dressed impeccably looking almost like a very young Lucille. That’s what mom said at least.
He met many of the cultivators that night, one of the most memorable was a young shimmering Saber cultivator.
“Thank you for your service,” he had said to her.
“Your highness, thank you, our home grows safer with these solutions.”
“Cultivator Murray, how goes your saber training?”
“Well, you’re highness, there’s not a lot of saber masters here, I’ve mostly taught myself. It just seems like the right art for me.”
Danae Murray didn’t expect the Emperor to respond by starting an informal dueling ring for shimmering stage cultivators.
She was quite good amongst the early shimmering group, defeating the Emperor once and a couple other rising stars that had transferred from the militia to the new empire volunteers.
After the spars settled down the group chatted over cocktails and Lucille’s famous crazy bread.
“The saber is traditionally a counter-attacking weapon, quite good against sword users but not as good when you need a relentless will to charge into danger.”
“I believe Lucille’s son was a saber user. I guess he’d be my cousin but he left the family and joined the main branch of his father’s family, so no one’s seen him in years.”
“It’s crazy to think your mom’s spent hundreds of years of training and real battles. What’s the Eternal realm like?”
Nathan, another member of the group responded first. “Grand Elder Tim said he couldn’t spar with First Elder Anna. We’ve heard of Divine stage and Crystalline stage cultivators before your elders arrived, but no one has ever heard of the Eternal realm.”
Daimon responded, “Mom’s sword spirits were destroyed the day I was born. When the guilders attacked the palace. But in Eternal realm, her first sword spirit returned to her, and they are able to bring the sword back into existence when she fights. The sword my father gave her is now inhabited by his spirit, shucking is even stranger since he was a person not a weapon spirit.”
“So you never knew your dad, that’s sad,” Danae asked.
“Never. But we can move on to lighter topics.”
Later, Daimon stood on the balcony with Danae and a few members of his staff as the sun went down.
“Does your family live in town?” He asked.
“My family just wanted to stay safe. I took a chance to join the training your mother and uncle ran. They are in Osiren. At least the Guilders are finally gone from the region.”
“Yes finally. If Tim becomes Eternal realm also we will be more than prepared to respond if they come back.”
“Let’s hope so. I hope to learn from your aunts example too. Her path is rare in this region but she has progressed well.”
“Commanding the undead to change their ways , if that is not astonishing power I don’t know what is.”
“I think some of the early shimmering group were going to meet at East City Dojo next week, if you want to come,” Danae asked.
“As long as we don’t have surprise visitors I’d love to go.”
***
Anna established her bedroom and training in the west wing of the newly expanded palace built for her son.
Many martial artists and cultivators had settled near the original town Emperor Veers had granted to her son. The ton was becoming a city, as merchants saw an opportunity and many farmers and laborers sought protection under the Nascent empire’s wings.
Often alliance business was discussed in their capital as well.
She was concerned, when she discovered that the power of the Divine source within Daimon was growing stronger. If it reached full power, someone would make a connection and she wasn’t sure if Daimon could endure the steady state of power flow. Their empire was still small though it had grown in loyal followers.
She suspected that cultivation was more difficult for her husband and now her son as they more fully accepted the divine source. But Daimon Jr had always had control of the source which was beyond his father’s control.
**
The sense of power was unmistakeable. Lucille’s quarters were close to Daimon’s bedroom and morning room, as she was serving as chief of staff for him.
She ran over to see Daimon looking surprised. “Aunt Lucille?”
“I just suddenly recognized your power boost. Are you ok?”
“I didn’t even realize. It must be like what father dealt with. I don’t feel drained anymore? But I haven’t paid much attention to that power source in a long time. If it becomes a problem will you help me work through it?”
“Of course.”
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