On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Three Hundred And Forty Three

“Simply put, we can use these to convert between lightning element and aether at will. That is spectacular enough, though I confess the lightning element generated is weak, a far cry from the power and fury the Queen, or even our princess commands.” Ixitt admitted, looking down for a moment before recovering his enthusiasm. “I would expect improvements in time, but for now…” he grinned, tapping the strange purple and transparent crystals. “The ambient ether density determines the amount of lightning element generated. In the lands of the Fae, it is higher than here, and while I need to run further tests in your Territory, as well as outside of it, in ether-poor areas, I believe it is a linear equation. The higher the ether, the more lightning is generated.”

“Makes sense.” I agreed. “But there are two problems I see.”

“Yes, well the first one is easily solved. I have been widely studying when I visit the mortal world. I am grateful you seldom restrict me, and only call upon me when I am needed, such as the recent battles.” He laughed, his good humour evident. “With access to the internet, many books, and also a wide array of like-minded correspondents, I have easily created a metal that changes the lighting element, by stripping out the spiritual aspect to the lightning, only pure, comprehendible power remains. And better still…” he slapped the silver dome. “… with powdered Etherites added to the bluesteel, and careful intent while alloying it, I have created bluesteel that can retain electricity, like a true battery. In fact…” he grinned. “I do believe that compared to these lithium-ion batteries you mortals often use, these bluesteel-Etherite batteries, as I call them, have a significantly higher ability to retain electricity. Bluesteel is as dense as aluminium, so … well, if we measure by the litre, a lithium-ion battery is two and a half kilograms. The bluesteel-Etherite battery is around two point three kilograms. So it is a little lighter, and far less complex. But it is the ability to store and release energy is where it exceeds it in every aspect.”

“Uh… I may be off-base here, but… if that’s the case, why do you even need to make anything else?” Shiro said, scratching her head. “A better battery would basically take over the world. Everything pretty much uses batteries nowadays. Phones, Cars, Laptops…”

“Just how much better are we talking?” Eri asked. “It’s strange, I was answering questions on this sort of thing for my schoolwork earlier. Are we talking twice as good? More?”

“It depends on which Etherites are blended in during the process.” Ixitt smiled. “But as I have only used up to yellow, since we need our green and blue ones for Artificial Spires…” he paused.

“We will stick to by the litre, since it was the metric I used before. Consider the average, to be roughly six hundred and fifty Watt-hours, or around two hundred and forty Watt-hours per kilogram. Whereas the bluesteel-Etherite batteries, they can easily hold ten times that amount without any issues, and in my testing, I have even doubled that, though the efficiency of charging does drop noticeably much past two thousand five hundred Watt-hours per kilogram. Not that this is an issue, with the passive absorption.”

“Shit, Aki? Ten times? Ten times!” Shiro was stunned. “Well, no, it’s too soon to be excited. There’s still other issues. What about throughput? How quickly can it release the energy?”

“It can discharge the entire amount in one go, should one wish it.” Ixitt smirked. “And before you raise concerns about having such a density of energy and the radiant heat…” Ixitt once more slapped his prided device. “… heat is an aspect the batteries can absorb, so much of the waste is recycled as electricity. I confess it not being at all efficient, entropy again, alas, but of the emitted heat, ninety percent is reabsorbed, though only around ten percent of that lost energy will be used to recharge the battery.”

“What about battery life?” Eri asked next. “I always hated it, having an old hand-me-down phone.” She looked mournful at the memory. “Not that I was particularly materialistic, or cared what others thought of me having one so out-of-date. But… the battery would barely last a few hours on a full charge. It was old.”

“The battery does not degrade, as it is not a chemical process. It is applying spiritual laws to a purely physical process.” Ixitt said proudly.

“So, ten to twenty times the capacity, slightly less dense, better throughput, no degradation, and it even deals with the heat issue?” Shiro slumped down, flabbergasted. “Aki, forget whatever the hell you were planning! We are in the battery business now!”

As Ixitt laughed, explaining that the generator contained a significant amount of these batteries as well, so power could be saved while not being used, I pondered.

“No, there’s still several insurmountable issues. Firstly, the batteries are here. They haven’t been tested on the Material, so we can’t be sure any of this actually works there, and we can’t even get them there. Sure, we might be able to revolutionise my Territory, the lands of the Fae and more…” In fact, that’s worth doing in itself, right? Shaeula always does moan she wants mortal entertainment… it might not be impossible after all…

“Of course, I intend to vigorously work on these issues. I shall test it in the most ether-poor areas I can find. In addition, as for getting the batteries to the mortal realm, eventually, the two shall merge, correct? I believe then it shall be possible. But is there not a better way?”

Laverna’s Divine Favour. “Of course, that would work, but there are issues with that too. Firstly, the batteries would disappear when the blessing expires, which makes it useless. Secondly, relying on one person to move such a large amount of goods, even if we could, it would be too risky and problematic a supply chain.”

“Hmm, you are quite correct. I have ideas for a solution to the first issue, as for the second…”

“Well, putting that aside, could we even supply enough bluesteel and Etherites to create enough to supply Japanese industry? Our mines are producing well, but as for the Etherites…”

“All good questions. However, it seems that the hills around the Spring have a number of suitable mines. If managed carefully, they could provide significant rewards. There are likely many more in the mountains in your land here in the Boundary. We would need workers but…”

“Etherites are the bottleneck. Just how many went into this generator and all the batteries?” I asked.

“Well, three yellow, and quite a number of orange and red ones. Though I expect efficiency to rise. And perhaps…” he grinned, pointing to the field of Artificial Spires. “… it is likely possible to create our own Etherites. Currently they are a side-effect of the process of drawing in Ether, but could this be extracted and streamlined, I believe we can create a facility to create Etherites as well. Certainly up to yellow, perhaps even green.”

“So, let me get this straight.” Shiro pointed out the obvious, and Eri was running the numbers too, looking pale. Motoko and Natsumi had the same response.

“You can make an Artificial Spire with a green Etherite, right? That pulls in ether. You then use that ether to eventually make another Spire. Now you have two pulling in ether, so you can make a third Spire twice as fast. Ugh, isn’t this an infinite loop of ether? Wouldn’t you be able to do anything that way?”

“I wish that was the case.” Ixitt sighed. “Alas, the Artificial Spires are currently crude imitations of the perfection of the true Spires you blessed by the Gods can create. If we had forests of these, then the ether density around us would wither away, and it would cause issues akin to the overabundance we have in Kyoto.”

“Yeah, but… you’ll improve them in time, right? And we want to lower the density here, and in a lot of other places, like China, right? To buy us more time before the Boundary pops?” she persisted.

“True.” I agreed. “For now, it’s beneficial for us. But again, there are too many problems. But…”

“Well, problems can be solved.” Ixitt grinned. “I have run calculations, and this generator here, were it to be sited in your Territory on land you own, at the current ether density, would be able to generate a constant two to three megawatts. As the density increases, this would no doubt rise. I believe you are already working on the Ether Density Anchor Spire? I can check your build queues due to the fact I am one of your Chosen Heroes, after all.” he snickered.

“And if I was to Rank the Territory up to four…” that alone would massively spike the density. “It can already theoretically replace a wind turbine, and it’s a hell of a lot smaller and easier to manage. It doesn’t have to worry about days without wind, or without sun for solar, no polluting emissions… it can store power that isn’t being used…” My mind was struggling to process it. I could feel my Resilience fighting its second losing battle of the day. “Hang on…” my Split Thoughts were running calculations, and all my Intellect was screaming at me there was a solution, at least for the generators, if not the batteries.

“Shiro, can you give me a buff?” I asked.

“Sure. I was going to before we started fighting, anyway.” She said.

“Don’t do the general one just now.” I warned her, and she looked puzzled, so I explained. “I’m confident I’m strong enough to handle Kyoto right now without it, and I want to test duration. So, just give me the specifics on something I want to test. Hmm, let’s go for Kin Bonding and Restoration.”

“Fascinating. I do so love that my master has an experimental mind. I trust you will clue me in on these experiments?” Ixitt asked, tail lashing again in his excitement.

“Of course. Now…” As Shiro raised a hand and sent a surge of aether into me, I felt it pour into my Bonds. Suddenly it was as if my head was splitting, and it wasn’t just me. Shiro, Eri, Motoko and Natsumi were all affected. Eri was writhing around in agony, her cat ears and tail standing up, her eyes wide. Shiro doubled over, clutching at her head, and Motoko and Natsumi were hugging each other, pale faces twisted into an expression of pain. This… this isn’t comfortable…

The Lovers’ Link within my skill had obviously suddenly strengthened too, and was affecting those who were bonded to me, Daiyu and Ixitt looking on, puzzled. In addition, the spirit lights around me were moving erratically, the aether I was giving them suddenly spiking. Ugh, so tiring, but…

Some of the smaller lights, weaselkin who had perished during the Kyoto battle, suddenly drank deeply from my stocks and vanished. With my Eye I could see their departure, and they chose to be reborn beside Shaeula, which made sense. Well, only the weakest ones were filled instantly…

“Well, that was sure something…” Shiro said, recovering first, rubbing at her temples. “It always seems to be painful with you, Aki. I bet my weekend will be as well.” She winked. “I hear the first time hurts a lot.”

“Don’t be crude.” Eri sighed, from where she was lying on the floor. “If it bothers you that much, Ether Healing can take away the sting. I don’t recommend it though. These two didn’t.”

As the sudden expanding of the skill settled, I sent a silent prayer to Hinata, Shaeula and Hyacinth. Hoping they hadn’t suffered too greatly from the sudden pain, I observed the almost amused bobbing of Ginneka’s spirit light. It was still quite a long way from restoration, as I had been starving it of aether up until she had helped Eri, but now it was filling at a far more rapid rate, I could see her return being far sooner than anticipated. Well, that’s for another time. Tsukiko-san’s light too was drinking aether in at a faster rate, though I couldn’t yet get any clue to her emotions or thoughts, so recently was she deceased.

Helping up Eri, and giving my girls some Ether Healing to remove the lingering pain, I noticed that the girls seemed to be moving faster and more elegantly than before. Looking at the description of my Ranked up skill, which had temporarily been elevated past the first bottleneck, I noticed that it now gave two percent of my stats per rank of Lovers’ Link that a girl possessed, up to my maximum. Damn, that’s quite a stat boost considering my stats are growing all the time…

Obviously there were other benefits, such as the faster rate of Restoration, but for now that wasn’t important. “All right then. Well, we’ve learned that you can buff Unique skills, that’s good to know. For now though, we might as well get to training. Got to grind those levels when we can. We’ll keep an eye out for any Etherites as well.”

********

“There’s another one there!” I pointed out, and Motoko and Natsumi nodded, both nocking arrows to the bows they had. In addition to Bjarki and his dwarves making them weapons, it seems Ulfuric has gifted them some. I guess I’ll have to thank him.

The fleeing creature, looking like a hunched-over monkey wearing human clothes and a baleful, fang-filled grin, the teeth stained with blood and rotten flesh, staggered as an arrow struck it low in the back of the thigh. It let out a roaring howl, but it was to no avail, as having learned from our last few encounters, I had called upon wind energies, preventing the cry from alerting more of its foul brethren. A second arrow pierced it below the ribs, and dark-smelling blood scattered.

“I shall finish it!” Daiyu declared, darting in on light feet, her stance elegant. “Jade Yang Stance: Crushing Palms!” Her strikes landed true, and the limping monkey fell, neck snapped.

“Not bad.” I said, praising them. “These damn Sarugami sure are everywhere now.”

As we had pressed on into Kyoto away from Haru-san’s Territory, we had passed numerous shrines that had been destroyed by the Chinese Chosen. We had found a few survivors who had returned to the defiled places, spiritual beings and lesser kami, and after some discussion they had agreed reluctantly to leave their shrines and temples for now, and seek shelter with Haru-san, or up at Kinkaku-ji. Sadly, as we pushed on even further, fighting off a couple of attacks from the large bird-Yokai that lived on the hills outside Kyoto, collecting a few more bundles of feathers and other materials from their corpses, once we passed the ruins of Mibu-dera, south of Nijo Castle, we ran into packs of these aggravating monkey Yokai, which my Eye identified as Sarugami.

“It’s a shame these aren’t part of the Night Parade.” Shiro observed, as another pair of the monkeys appeared from around a ruined building. One was holding a bloody scythe, with the second placed his hands on the ground, earth element surging, and the stone turned to foul-smelling mud which was hurled towards us in a disgusting wave, the monkey grinning evilly, fangs showing.

“More of the shit-throwing. Lovely.” Shiro cursed. Flame sparkled yellow and she unleashed a crashing wave of fire to meet the mud. The resulting explosion sent the foul-smelling smouldering muck everywhere, but I called forth more wind to deflect it.

“Thanks Aki. Fire isn’t so great against earth. And I don’t want to get any more of that crap on me…” The monkey reared back, an arrow in his eye, Motoko clenching her fist in delight at her great shot. Not wanting to be outdone, Natsumi put one in his throat, while Daiyu was leaping towards the second monkey. It ducked, swinging the inelegant scythe, but Daiyu pivoted gracefully, evading it by what looked like a mere hairs-breadth, but from my training with Ulfuric, I knew that was the sign of skill, not fortune.

“You take me to all the nicest places.” Shiro observed. “This is surely a highlight, having monkey demons constantly hurl what might as well be shit at us.”

“If you don’t want to be here, then you can go home!” Eri said, baiting her. She was concentrating on her own attacks, forming a laser of light that drilled into the monkey that had been pin-cushioned with arrows, dropping it, smoke rising from the hole bored in its skull.

“Well, I didn’t say that, did I?” Shiro retorted, a third monkey that had wandered in suddenly surrounded by a bubble of flames. It screamed reflexively, which was a mistake, as flames seared down its throat, charring it from the inside until it burst into a spray of ether. “I’m just building up some sympathy so wherever we go at the weekend will be suitably impressive.”

“Motoko, shall we move into close quarters next?” Natsumi was saying. “I’ve watched them, and one-on-one I believe our skills should prevail.”

“We should not be arrogant, but… I believe we have adapted to the change in our status.” Motoko affirmed. “Spears though, not swords. I have no wish to get too close.”

“I could kill these stupid monkeys, if only my body obeyed me.” Eri mourned, so I patted her head.

“It’s fine. Working on your elemental skills is just as important as your axe skills. Besides, I’m not doing much either, am I?” I was focussed on support during our power-levelling trip, but that was in part because all my concentration was on observing the effects of Shiro’s blessing from Anesidora, and the rate at which it was fading, and whether I could extend it by adding my own aether. My Eye is a godsend for this.

“Well, that’s because these trash-mob monkeys probably aren’t worth your time, right?” Shiro shrugged. “Come on Eri, cheer up. I know it’s a pain Aki can’t help you with your problems, but you’ll be fine in time, I’m sure.”

“I know. It’s just frustrating. Motoko and Natsumi will get stronger, and I’ll lose my advantage.” She watched as the two of them used their long spears to keep more Sarugami at bay. One was pierced in the gut, but with an angry howl grabbed the shaft Natsumi was holding. I made to move, but stopped as I saw her calm confidence. Releasing the shaft, she unsheathed the sword she carried and darted forwards, blade slicing deep into the monkey’s neck while it still struggled with the spear keeping it off balance. She then backed off and pulled out the spear, returning to her position next to the approving Motoko.

“That one levelled you up again.” I said, and Natsumi smiled brightly.

“That makes me wonder…” Shiro said, thinking. “What would happen if you were level-capped, then I used Anesidora’s blessing on Lovers’ Link? Would you be able to exceed your cap? Would the levels go away when the buff wears off? Would something else happen?”

“I’ve been thinking about that myself.” I admitted, stopping another monkey from howling to alert his comrades, Eri striking it with a wave of darkness that seemed to confuse and disorient it, leaving it easy prey for Daiyu. “But it’s not something I want to mess with right now, not after the pain we felt with Kin Bonding.”

“Your call.” Shiro agreed, before sighing as another half-dozen of the Yokai came scuttling in, clutching crude clubs and calling forth more torrents of disgusting mud. “Damn, no end to these bastards. Well, I guess I best go get my share of experience points…” As I watched Shiro join the other girls, flames flashing yellow as she burned a monkey, I grinned. Well, at least everybody is getting plenty of gains…

********

“If I never see another monkey again so long as I live I’ll be happy. Oh, wait, Yasu is at least close kin to them… a shame.” Shiro joked tiredly. She was helping Eri walk, her legs having stopped obeying her a little while ago. Beside me, Daiyu walked in contemplative silence, replaying the battles in her mind over and over again, looking for ways she could have done better, and Natsumi and Motoko were in high spirits, having gained a number of levels.

“Yeah, but in the end they stopped coming. You all must have killed a hundred or so of them by then.” I agreed. “If there are more of them down to the south, I guess they might end up being a problem for Haru-san at some point, so we’ll check again tomorrow. I’ll actually be in Kyoto, so we can meet up there.”

“The funeral, huh?” Eri observed, and I had a complicated expression on my face.

“Yeah. Those who died, including Tsukiko-san. They want to do it quickly, since the situation in Kyoto is pretty tense right now.” As we passed through the Ring Gate, we emerged back on the hill. “I should definitely be there. Not just because I’m effectively the frontrunner for the faithful right now, but because… well, I need to see it, feel it.”

“You’re not still blaming yourself, are you?” she pressed, and I shook my head.

“Well, not really. I knew she could well die, which is why I took the precautions of making her eligible for Kin Bonding. I can accept this outcome. It doesn’t stop me from wishing that I’d done better though. But a good enough is still a win.”

“Hey, Aki’s learning. I’m impressed.” Shiro laughed, only to stop as we came face to face with most of our trainees, who were waiting for us despite the late hour, Hyacinth grinning broadly. So, what’s going on here then?