Chapter 13-372: Places to Go, Things to Do (2/2)
-------
“I know you don’t want to go with her,” I told The Old Steed calmly. “But you know that she is going to make a great future Rider for you, and you know I will not allow you to come with me.
“Your place is here. You will be the eventual Firelord of Yellowstone, but you need a mortal anchor. She has the Phoenix Bloodline. She is literally perfect for you!”
The Old Steed huffed as he glanced at Morningfire. -She did not kill an Old God!- he /whuffed to me.
“And she is not Bound to the Shroud. A Phoenix flies free, and so should you.” I patted his horrid beak-fanged maw of a skeletal head fondly. “She’ll not be going as Deep as I, and if I can get you to Firelord, your power will not fall if you choose her as a Rider, but you will still be able to interact with the mortal world through her.
“More to the point, she needs someone like you. Someone faithful and strong, who she can trust unconditionally, without being slave or master,” I went on in a low voice. “She has been hurt very badly that way, you know.”
The Old Steed huffed, fully aware of what had been done to the Morningsun family. -She must get stronger!- he /stated firmly.
I nodded. “And she shall. She is not going as Deep as I am being forced to, so her power is rising much faster. By the time I leave, she should be able to sustain a link at Twenty-One with you with no problem whatsoever.”
My link with him was currently at Eighteen, restrained by Class Levels of Sorcerer, Binder, and Blighter. Were I maxed in Depth at Ten, that link would be at 22, and he could take over as the true Firelord of Yellowstone as a Legendary Eidolon.
All things in their time. I could only do what I could do.
Those coming behind me were catching up quick, simply because they didn’t have to go sideways like I was, and could snatch up the key and powerful things I had to teach them to speed them to power.
I had already informed Morningfire that I wanted her to take over as the Rider of The Old Steed, rather shocking my mother at the idea. After all, she was very into appearances, and The Old Steed looked like something out of a burning nightmare, not a lovely and dazzling firebird or something.
However, the fact that he was going to be THE most powerful Eidolon at the planet with a proper Fire-Templated Rider, and his appearance could be expanded and adjusted as he grew stronger, certainly got her thinking.
The thought of being the most powerful Fire Druidess on the planet certainly didn’t hurt, nor did the fact that despite not being beautiful, The Old Steed had been the mount of a true Divine entity, if an old one, and was extremely impressive and eye-catching.
Anyone who rode him would definitely be the same. The fact there were Binder spells that could radically change the appearance of an Eidolon for a short time also warmed her up to the idea, especially when she understood that part of his gothic horror appearance was because my Druid Levels were Blighted, and because both his old master and I were tied to the Shroud. An Eidolon bound to a Phoenix-blood would probably look VERY different...
Yeah, she was totally on-board after that, and started adding Binder Levels to her Leveling schema. The Class ran off Charisma anyway, and had the Greater Teleport, so everyone who could should pick it up anyway... and the extreme limitations on its Summoning power would all go away once the Shroud fell. What that might mean was a problem I was not going to be able to help much with...
I was telling him this because he was going to be working with the Morningsuns on expanding their Lived-Lines. When moving overland without Wardriding or Veilwalking, The Old Steed was as fast as Sleipner, but Sleipner was much faster over open ocean, or Veilwalking roads. The Old Steed promised that his next advance would be Veilwalking, just for that reason.
I had a lot of ocean to cover. Tripling my speed and more while covering it would be extremely beneficial to everyone and what we were planning to do.
And if I got to lean on my Warlock’s back and hug them for many hours, well, that was just an amazingly useful coincidence!
It turned out you could Waterjump from any of the Hollow World’s seas to basically anywhere on any of the oceans above, and vice versa. You just had to know where you were going.
Cue the woman who had to zip all over the oceans anyway. Naturally enough, you could also two-use this as a way to get anywhere on the oceans with two Jumps, one down and one up. You just had to know where you were going.
Trips to the Hollow World were in a lot of people’s futures now, just for that reason.
Thus, Legion joined me once they finished obliterating the drac-bloods who were ruling the Kingdom of Cold Blood, as well as dueling their erstwhile scaled brother and devouring him in the proper way of sending off a half-sibling among the Abyssal Maws. Their tail grew spikes, and their frill was more ornamental after that.
This fight had involved using their mutual Bloodline links to track down without fail thousands of drac-blooded lizard men with the Abyssal Maw Bloodline, butchering them, the fields of eggs hatching new members of the bloodline, the dinosaurs also being bred with the Bloodline, and feeding them all to the Land, which was very appreciative of them cleansing away this demonic Taint from itself, even sleeping as it was.
It also depopulated the Empire of Cold Blood of over ninety percent of its scalefolk, and a third of its dinosaur inhabitants. The slaughter was extremely thorough... I popped down via Waterjump and helped out with the last day of it, just to make sure none of them got away, and checked via Commune with Nature to make sure there wasn’t anything left of the Bloodline.
-----------
“Tasty?” I asked, as Legion walked up, licking their lips.
“Oddly enough, yes,” they replied, swishing their newly spiked tail, and burping once. “You recognize this?” they asked me, a bit startled that I knew what it was.
“I was expecting it when I heard what the drac-King named his little fleabag domain.”
The Portal was massive, big enough to let the oldest of wyrms fit through without a problem. It was built of ancient basalt and carved with leering Rune-Glyphs in the draconic style. It pulsed with a LOT of power... power that was completely shut down and suppressed under the Shroud.
“Oh.” Legion was impressed. “You’ve heard of the true Empire of the Cold Blood?”
“This isn’t the first world they’ve infiltrated like this, although I’m sure you know that. They also took a stab at Terra-Luna.”