Chapter 1501 (2/2)

“When I first recovered my senses, it struck me as strange that this practice has largely disappeared. After some investigations… I believe it’s because of what happened to Elhume’s body.” Edraine pursed her lips. “The details are unknown, but it is clear that at some point, Elhume’s body reached a tipping point. There was so much energy in his body that it began to attract more energy. From what I can glean, Aether began to crystalize around his body, eventually sealing its movements completely.”

Octavius shook his head slightly and cleared his throat. “There are some records of Elhume’s body moving in the past, briefly forming a crack in the crystalized Aether that allows the body to have some influence in the outside world. The results were… catastrophic to areas nearby. So he was moved. But just as quickly as it is formed, the ambient energy heals those flaws in the seal around him. So theoretically, if we had enough power to endure those brief attacks… we could safely utilize his body as an energy source.”

Randidly’s mind began to whir. He looked down at his hands, wondering if his pursuit of image physicalizations would eventually lead him toward a similar result. Certainly, he would gain a lot of power but getting there, but someday, would the purity of his power draw Aether to him and crystalize it around him…?

Yet some part of that train of thought felt suspicious to Randidly. If you gather enough Aether in a physical form, is this really the only result? Without the use of Nether to ground the Aether, I definitely can see rigidity becoming a serious problem. The more I observe the energies, the more I see how depriving Aether of matching Nether makes the energy turn brittle. But… wouldn’t Elhume be aware of Nether and its usage? He was the one who created the System… He definitely is aware of how to manipulate it...

So why did Nether stop working as a way to balance out his physicalized images…? Was it because his mastery of Aether severely outpaced Nether?

It was something Randidly would need to reflect on carefully in the future, but for now, he comforted himself with the depressing truth that he was still very far from the amount of physicalized images that it would end up being a risk.

Everyone else also seemed to be mulling over that information, leading to another stretch of silence. Edraine studied each of them in turn. “Now, assume for a moment you all agree to assist, I can guess what you are thinking: how we will be able to find and steal Elhume body?

“Each of us has a role. Randidly, you will be working as the Head Drill Instructor in order to earn merits was the Nexus military repels the invasion of the Fifth Cohort. If you perform well, or more accurately, your recruits perform well, you should be rewarded with a Nexus Citizenship coin or two. I’ll get to why that’s important when I speak of my role, but to get access to Elhume’s body, we need more Citizenship coins.”

Edraine looked at Lady Iellaya. “Supreme Commander Iellaya, you will pour everything you have into training. You will be the one to act as our shield when the time comes. During this operation, I predict we will need to be able to resist at least one or two attacks from Elhume’s body. Your goal will be to increase your strength to the point you can survive him cracking his seal briefly.”

Randidly recalled that horrible, jarring noise of the crystalized Aether shattering and shivered. Expecting Lady Iellaya to reach that much capability...

“Meanwhile, Octavius will be researching Engravings. To transport, further seal, and utilize the ambient energy that all that crystalized Aether releases.” Edraine glanced at the Overseer. “In addition, if a few more planets pass through the first Calamity, Octavius will earn some honorary Citizenship coins. Again, more on that later.”

Edraine pointed a long finger at herself. “Meanwhile, I will be responsible for infiltrating the Nexus proper, locating the hiding place of Elhume’s body, and then distracting Elhume’s attention while you three actually steal the body. But to start doing that, I’m going to need Tier 3 Citizenship to fully gain access to the forbidden areas.”

Now Edraine gestured at the coins remaining on the table. There were five of those blue coins and four of the normal golden Tier I Citizenship coins. She quickly picked up two of the blue coins and one of the golden ones. With a flourish, she made the coins dance across her fingers. “Citizenship Coins can do one of two things: either grant you citizenship or open a Path to the Pinnacle of the Nexus. Setting aside the second option for now… You can upgrade your citizenship coins by combining three of the same Tier. But one of those three used in the combination must be an entirely pure gold Citizenship coin.”

She pressed the coins, one gold and two blue, together between her palms. There was a flash of light and suddenly there was only a single coin in her hand. There was a ring of gold near the center of the coin, but the rest of it was blue. “The honorary coins are generally the mundane rewards given out by the Nexus. Only in special circumstances and on planets still facing the Calamities do genuine gold coins appear. Which is why we needed to seize the opportunity of the Head Drill Sergeant position.”

Then Edraine grimaced and pressed her palm against the pile of three Citizenship coin on the far side of the table. When she moved her hand away, a thick golden coin that glowed with an inner light sat on the wooden surface. “Thanks to the two coins you brought, Mr. Ghosthound, we have an entirely pure Tier 2 Citizenship Coin. Which is the most difficult piece to assemble. To raise me to Tier 3 Citizenship, we will need two more genuine Citizenship Coins and one more honorary coin.”

Randidly was confused. He pointed at the other coin in her hand, with the gold ring. “Why can’t you use that? Then we only need a single more gold citizenship coin.”

“Unfortunately…” Edraine tossed the coin at Randidly and he caught it between his pointer and middle finger. The metal was strangely cold against his fingers. “You need to have Tier I citizenship in order to accept the role of Head Drill Sergeant. We might have fudged your application, but as long as you show up as a citizen it won’t matter. So make sure you train these fools well, alright? It’s an investment.”

Then Edraine looked at each of them in turn again and chuckled. “...not that we are in any rush. We aren’t ready for this operation, not even close. But this is the only answer I could come up with to change the Nexus. Let’s try our best, people.”