Beth let the team move forward in front of her as they navigated across the surface of the planetoid to a cave opening they had spotted from the air. She often stood back when the team was moving through areas that weren’t all that challenging, particularly to her, the sa as she had done when they were with Bai’s team and had mainly let Bjorn, Sera, and Bai’s team handle the fighting. She was still at a point where she was their strongest fighter right now, only discounting Veren, and he showed up rarely enough that she didn’t really tally him in any counts of who ranked where. Using her to kill level three hundred or even four hundred enemies was like using dreadnought to blast mosquitoes, so she mostly kept to the back. The experience of fighting was more valuable for the rest of the team, anyway, considering that Beth spent so much ti fighting in her gate, far more than anyone else on the team. In terms of battle experience, she was probably at the very top of the team as well, again excepting Veren, who was almost always by himself, so she didn’t really need to take valuable fighting ti and experience away from the rest of the team. She liked operating in a role where she could watch the battlefield, give command decisions, and step in whenever a heavy hitter was needed, such as in the case of the level six hundred she had just killed.
Beth was also the least affected by the gravity by far, though Blood was a close second. The wolf had such incomprehensible Dexterity that adjusting to moving and fighting at a lower gee wasn’t a challenge, not in the sa it was to so of the others. Bjorn was having a tough ti as he couldn’t really maneuver that well with the lower gravity while he was used to putting a ton of force into every movent, especially considering his size and weight, and doing all that without the sa gravity pulling him down proved difficult. The others had varying levels of success, with Beth having to occasionally grab Andrea, who just seed to not care about adapting to the gravity, though she described it as limit testing, and set the small woman back on her feet and in the proper direction. Val was alongside Blood in having an easy ti, both because of her Dexterity and because of her very long, many-jointed limbs that made moving and adapting to strange conditions much easier.
The journey to the center of the planetoid wasn’t all that long, especially considering the overwhelming power the team brought to bear against the beasts of rather middling level, none of which were anywhere near the strength or ferocity of the wurm. Beth ability to just vaporize anything below level four hundred within a couple miles of herself also helped; she could summon a small fla right next to a beast with her Ideal and then manipulate it with her Mana Physique and dominion into burning away that beast in less than a second. That was not even ntioning her other skills like her Light Beyond the Edge or Tyrannical Destruction, both of which she could use at an extensive range even when they were still in silver. She was starting to realize that she might be just a touch overpowered for her level at this point, though she knew there was plenty of stuff out there that could still clean her clock. She just had to think back to the monster that had basically obliterated Delonne with a single attack back on Red II to rember that she certainly wasn’t the top dog. She even doubted soone as insanely powerful as Zane was at the absolute top, though he might be able to tromp all over the Milky Way without competition.
They weren’t stomping the Milky Way right now, however, but this small planetoid, getting to the center in just a couple hours, at which point they had yet another set of arrays and frawork to break open to get another gem. Beth was interested to note that this was so kind of purple gem, perhaps an athyst or sothing similar, and the arrays around it were far more complex than anything they had yet encountered. She didn’t think that they were getting more complex as they went, but rather so of what so of the gems were being used for or intended for was far more complex. They just happened to have saved one or both of the most complex of the gems for last. It was enough that a few of the Empyreans, not any less interested in the strange set of jewels, popped out to help Val and the others with interpreting the arrays and the surrounding complexities. Beth didn’t even offer to smash everything this ti as it was pretty clear that wouldn’t work with this one as the gem would clearly be damaged from the back blast, and for a second good reason, the others were getting a lot out of studying the arrays.
“The runes clearly invert fire,” Val said on the other side of the cavern at the center of the planetoid.
“It clearly concentrates fire. Argue with again when you’ve got five thousand years more experience,” Zel snapped back.
“You think she does it just to get under his skin?” Beth asked Liveria, who was floating right next to her and examining Beth.
“I’m sure she does. Even Zel is not ignorant of social cues enough to not understand that,” Liveria muttered, floating around Beth.
“What’s your fix?” Beth asked her.
“I think I can make my Ideal,” Liveria declared in response, though she was quiet enough none of the others heard.
“Would that free you?” Beth asked, frowning at the forr empress.
“No,” she imdiately stated definitively. “It wouldn’t free , but it would give more options. It would present a danger, however, which is why I haven’t yet tried.”
“Explain,” Beth said, locking eyes with the woman.
“If I beco an Exalted,” Liveria said quietly, moving right next to Beth’s ear, “we might have a big problem. The reliquary was ant to contain Ascended. It was constructed in a very specific way, and if soone who’s soul is trapped within suddenly exceed a certain threshold-“
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“Big problem,” Beth cut in, Liveria close enough she could feel her nod without even glancing at her. “What’s the solution, then? Surely, you’ve thought of sothing?”
“All of us need to do it,” Liveria replied simply.
“How close?” Beth asked.
“Not very,” Liveria responded instantly. “Apogee or Ragnheiðr will be the biggest problem.”
“Apogee I get, but why Ragnheiðr?” Beth asked in response.
“Titans are a bit special. She would have to explain more,” Liveria replied, hovering next to Beth and shrugging while she studied the younger woman. “The fact you took the concept I had started, using the power of the fla in a new way, totally transforming it, led to a breakthrough. I think I can finish my Ideal, just with a small little push, but I’ve been actively not working on it. I’m scared what could happen if I just suddenly comprehended it.”
“Yeah, I just comprehended what to do and how it functioned all at once,” Beth explained. “I’d been thinking about it, and then sothing Mortaine was doing just triggered sothing in my brain that made it all click at once. It’s really difficult to actually explain what happened.”
“That’s the way epiphanies work,” Liveria said, now hovering beside Beth. Beth wasn’t exactly sure how the woman was doing it, considering an Ideal would be the easiest way to fly and Liveria didn’t have one yet, but the mana fluctuations around the woman read like a skill to Beth. “Don’t worry, your team is doing incredibly well considering their age and tendencies. I’m sure several of them will figure out what to do even before you get close to The Wall. It also helps, not just having you around them constantly, but having so many other Exalted you consort with. I still can’t believe you know Baelvyr.”
“Hey, sotis luck and coincidence are funny things. I don’t think there was any grand design there, I just think it happened that his team needed a rest and my ho world was next on the docket for integration. It was even luckier that he picked the backwater Hall right next to my house to be in charge of, otherwise I might not have t him,” Beth said, shrugging as she watched the others finally getting the arrays sorted.
“It’s true; I have found that sotis, chance can be a very funny thing. It does seem to bend around particular people at tis, but I’ve seen luck abandon the lucky just as often as anything, so don’t even start to rely on it for success,” Liveria warned.
“I’ve never let luck speak for ,” Beth said, setting a hand on Liveria’s shoulder and giving it a brief squeeze. “I just happen to be in the right place at the right ti sotis. And don’t worry, we’ll get her back, and soon.”
“Thank you, Beth,” Liveria said, returning the gesture before disappearing back into the reliquary with a puff of silver fla.
“Alright you lot!” Beth bellowed, her voice echoing in the cavern. “Where are we at?”
“We’re just about done, if you can keep your damn pants on for five minutes,” Val retorted hotly. “This isn’t easy, you know!”
“Take your ti, take your ti,” Beth replied, which she knew would get under the tall girl’s collar, so to speak. It did, in fact, have that exact effect, Val going a bit red and stamring for just a mont before not-so-quietly swearing as she and Zel worked on the last piece they needed to isolate the gem.
“You tease her too much,” Sera said quietly as she drifted over, having finished her smaller piece of the puzzle. The dragon wrapped around Beth, all four limbs and her tail entwining the smaller woman before Sera nuzzled against her neck.
“It’s funny to watch her brain short circuit,” Beth chuckled, wrapping her arms around Sera’s torso and pressing her head against Sera’s. “She’s was the responsible adult in the room for so long with the Young Scions that she still hasn’t stopped trying to be the mature one. When a person more mature-“
“Very arguable,” Sera interjected.
“When a person more mature,” Beth plowed on, “and definitely more powerful and skilled than her acts foolish, her brain just jams up. She wants to scold and get in line and do all the stuff she does with the Young Scions even still sotis, but then she realizes I’m both stronger than her and just fucking with her, specifically, and she doesn’t know what to do.”
“She does get really cute when she’s flustered,” Sera murmured against Beth’s neck. Before they could go down that line of thought anymore, Val and Zel ca to a head in arguing about sothing, but it looked like the older man was right, as he did sothing and the gem was suddenly isolated from the mana around it.
It was easy to tell what was happening, as there had been very powerful lines of mana that mimicked leylines feeding into the gem. Whatever Zel had done had stopped all of those lines at once, not destructively (Beth hoped), but in a way that ant the gem was just sitting in its cage doing nothing, rather than acting as a nexus for mana. Beth was going to go over and break the cage open, but Sera didn’t let her go, just tapping her lightly, so Beth stopped and watched as the others converged on the cage. It took a minute longer not using Beth’s preferred thod of physical recalibration, but she was sure the others gleaned a few insights from the frawork supporting the gem before they managed to disable it. Finally, Val popped over and handed Beth the gem, which she promptly dumped in the reliquary before having the team retrace their steps to the surface.
The Empyreans all returned to the reliquary, though the ones interested in what was happening had converged on the gems and were tweaking whatever asurents they had. The one imdiate result of that was that, by the ti the team was back on the cruiser, Zel presented them with a more accurate heading reading for flying towards the seventh and final gem. Beth was started to feel that slight tingly anticipation in her stomach that always happened before finding sothing amazing; she could recall having the sa kind of feeling back on Christmas Eve as the presents were put under the tree or when playing video gas and she knew that she was just about to get a piece of amazing loot from a dungeon or quest. It was even better now, as the thing was just a cool ga to play or an item in the ga; whatever they were about to get would prove useful for the team going forward. Hell, if all seven gems didn’t do sothing when combined, they were still extrely valuable with how they had been made into massive mana focii, able to absorb and concentrate huge amounts of mana at an extre speed.
She was sure there was more to it than that, and the fact they found most of the gems in so kind of structure helped in filling in her hunch a bit. It was further spurred along when the last gem was in a tower on a small moon that seed to have been trapped in one of the fourth planet’s Lagrange points. The moon wasn’t getting any closer to the planet or any farther away, which was a general feature of Lagrange points, though they often weren’t exactly a hundred percent perfect in keeping an object in place. They were desired places to set up space stations and orbital fortresses, however, as the amount of fuel and maneuvering needed to keep a body in relative proximity to a planet at a Lagrange point was very low. It seed that this moon, sothing probably half the size of Luna, if Beth’s quick estimation was correct, was being held in exactly the center of the point by so focus of so kind of mana, but they’d have to investigate a little more thoroughly to figure out was going on. What they wouldn’t have to investigate more thoroughly to find, however, was the gem, as the large tower that contained the gem, which caused Zel’s array for tracking the objects to light up like the aforentioned Christmas tree, was as obvious as a sore thumb on the moon’s surface. The moon was coated in a very pale regolith while the tower that was now their destination was made of so kind of almost pure black stone that stood out in very stark contrast against the bright white surroundings.
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