Fates Parallel Chapter 405 - Purpose (Patreon)

Yue knew they were getting close to their destination when they arrived as a small encampment that was connected to, but distinctly separate from the support corps.

Zheng Long stared up at the enormous sphere of ice dominating the open area of the camp, frowning.

“Must have been quite the battle...only a xiantian could have done something like this.”

Yue could still feel Lin Xiulan’s power emanating from it, but the icy prison was empty. Its target had either escaped or avoided the attack, but the magic persisted still. Things like that were the reason xiantian battles could be so devastating. By those standards, the ball of ice was a fairly minor form of collateral damage.

Heian led them to one of the larger tents. It was the sort of semi-permanent structure usually reserved for command centers or similarly important strategic locations in a battle, but the interior was designed for comfort.

Yue’s first impression was that it must have been something set up for Seong Misun—the princess being the most likely candidate to insist on such an extravagance. However, closer inspection suggested that it was a living space for two.

Not that any of it mattered now—the previous occupants had been evacuated and the furniture haphazardly shoved aside to make room for a large magical circle. In the middle of it, the creator of the formation was hard at work expanding and improving on it. Not that Yue had any idea what any of it meant.

Hyeong Daesung had, to Yue, always been a perfect representative of Goryeon spellcraft. More than his master, Do Hye, or even the stuffy lecturer, Hwang Sung, Hyeong committed himself to his studies with an obsessive fervor matched only by Lee Jia.

Unlike Jia’s generalist approach to cultivation, however, Hyeong Daesung was a specialist to the core. But it was not magic that he specialized in, so much as knowledge. He practiced martial and spiritual arts to further his understanding of them. He engaged in duels and practical exercises because he valued first-hand data.

Bluntly, Yue didn’t like him very much. He was friendly and loyal, but his obsessive pursuit of knowledge left him oblivious to things that ought to just be common sense. Things like his own embarrassing crush on Lee Jia.

Still, he’d grown up nicely since their academy days. Even hunched over his formation she could tell that he was taller, and thanks to his martial arts practice his scrawny frame had filled out into something far more to her taste.

“Well, here we are. Heian, I don’t suppose you know how we’re supposed to actually communicate?”

Heian shook her head, but to Yue’s surprise Hyeong himself immediately turned to look at her.

“Miss Yan?! What are you doing here?”

He squinted, adjusting his glasses as he peered at her—why did he even still wear those?

“Oh! I see—you’re not actually here. Or...you are, but only your soul? No, no, that’s not quite it either...soul resonance applied to the physical form? Perhaps some sort of...”

The young mage trailed off, muttering to himself. Another reason Yue didn’t like him—he tended to get distracted very easily.

“Magus Hyeong, if you can see and hear us, what does it matter how? We’re still in Chou’s realm—Yoshika’s realm, now—but she needs your assistance.”

He stood up and brushed himself off, bowing politely.

“Of course, Miss Yan. My apologies. Is everything alright? I assume that it must be urgent if Yoshika isn’t able to simply ask me herself.”

“It is urgent, but I’m afraid I don’t have the details. I’m certain that you’re the one we need to speak to, but Yoshika is indisposed.”

Hyeong held his chin and frowned thoughtfully, observing the group accompanying her.

“A puzzle, then. Information first. I recognize Heian—even if she’d gotten bigger—and Sir Zheng, but who are the others?”

Melati waved.

“Melati is Melati!”

Yue sighed and shook her head.

“She’s a fiend from the islands across the sea. Her cultivation is similar to Yoshika’s, so we are using her bodies for swift communication, her presence here has no particular meaning. Neither does the demon’s—she’s only here because she has to be.”

Yang Qiu turned away, scowling. Yue ignored her, gesturing to Iseul.

“The last, I’ll allow to introduce herself.”

The elemental rose to her full height, composing her humanoid body to be as solid as she could manage.

“I am Iseul, mud elemental and companion to Ja Yun. We have not met, Magus Hyeong, but I know you well.”

He blinked.

“You’re that elemental? I’ve read the reports, but they didn’t mention that you were so...”

“I do not know which quality you are alluding to, but my form and demeanor have changed dramatically from when any such reports would have been written. The emissary Muddy was a tool created to serve as a bridge for communication between the human leadership and my creators. I am Iseul, an individual fully capable of self-determination—you may consider me to be a wholly different being to the one of which you read.”

Magus Hyeong bowed.

“Very well. It is good to meet you, Miss Iseul. It’s quite unique for such a young elemental to adopt human form and communication.”

“Yes, it is.”

He chuckled.

“Well, I suppose you’re still an elemental.”

Iseul frowned.

“If my demeanor is disturbing to you, I can adopt a more emotive facade. I’ve stopped doing so recently because my mothers asked me to be more honest with my feelings.”

“That usually means being more emotive, but I think they are probably correct. Frankly, I thought you already were. If that’s genuine consternation on your face, then I’m far more fascinated in your real emotions than any sort of simulation.”

Yue rolled her eyes.

“She’s a year old, Hyeong, stop hitting on her.”

She ignored his indignant sputtering and snapped a fan shut for attention.

“Time is of the essence! You can research Iseul another time. The fact that we’re having this conversation at all means that the time compression has already failed. We need to catch you up, and fast.”

He scratched his cheek.

“Actually, I’m using my soul sight spell—which is how I am seeing and hearing you at all—and accelerating my thoughts to keep up. You’re still quite a bit faster, but if my math is right then you are correct about the time compression failing. You’re slowing down.”

“Right, let’s start there, then...”

Iseul raised a hand to cut Yue off.

“Actually, I think that might be my role here. You and Heian have used the ways of spirits to determine our course—irrational though it may be—but what Magus Hyeong needs now is plain fact, unpolluted by human interpretation or emotional context. This is the domain of elementals.”

Hyeong Daesung smiled stiffly.

“You’re not suggesting a direct transfer of thought, are you? Heian did that to me once and I had a headache for days. While I’m capable of limited thought acceleration, I haven’t mastered it nearly to the same degree as Yoshika.”

Iseul nodded as her hand fused together into a glowing tendril.

“Ja Yun estimates your capabilities to be greater than her own by a factor of approximately one million. I will make sure to keep that tolerance in mind to prevent you from being overwhelmed.”

He waved his hands urgently.

“Wait, Miss Iseul, I think she was probably exaggerating about tha—AAAAGH!”

Iseul cut him off by jabbing the glowing tendril into his head. He twitched and blinked for a moment, then gasped.

“Gah, please warn me next time you—oh, that wasn’t so bad, actually. Yes, I see. I think I understand now.”

The elemental smirked.

“I was joking. Did you find it amusing?”

Yue paled. Sometimes, Iseul’s understanding and lack of understanding could overlap in horrifying ways.

Hyeong Daesung grimaced and changed the subject.

“I believe that Yoshika is hoping to escape from your assailants by bringing the demi-realm here, so that you can exit safely. In order to do that, she needs to prevent them from entering, or otherwise eject them before the transfer, and she needs an actual method to enact the transfer. You were led to me, because I happen to be standing on top of that very method.”

Yue glanced down at the spell formation. She didn’t recognize it, and her arcane arts were not nearly good enough to simply read it on sight.

“What is it?”

“A teleportation circle. I was initially going to use it to evacuate Lee Jung and Lee Narae, but Yu Meiren was repelled before it became necessary.”

“So you’re going to teleport us?”

Magus Hyeong shook his head.

“No. That’s completely impossible. The mana required grows exponentially with distance, and I don’t even have the theoretical foundations required to guess at how interdimensional distance will affect it.”

“Was this all just a waste of time, then?”

“Maybe not...Miss Iseul’s theory is that Yoshika’s domain has already bound your immaterial space to this physical one. In a very real sense, you are already here—just not in your entirety. That overlap is what allows us to communicate, albeit only because of my spell.”

Yue frowned.

“What does that mean for us?”

“My teleportation circle already joins spaces together. Normally it's fighting against the natural shape of the world in order to force a temporary connection that someone can pass through. In this case, if I forget about the latter part I may be able to modify the formation to complete what Yoshika has started and merge the spaces together entirely.”

“And that’s easier than just teleporting us?”

The mage shrugged.

“In that it is theoretically possible, sure. This formation won’t do it. I’d have to scale it up dramatically—at least to the size of the shield formation—and it would have to be matched on your end. How much time do we have?”

Heian cocked her head.

“An hour? Maybe more if our enemies fight each other.”

Hyeong Daesung grimaced.

“Even if I had already calculated the modifications, I can’t expand the formation quickly enough in that time frame.”

For the first time since they’d entered the tent, Zheng Long spoke up.

“You said it needed to be as large as the shield formation—why not use that?”

The magus gave him an appraising look.

“Forgive me for asking, but why are you even here, Zheng Long?”

He smiled wryly.

“I’ve been asking myself that a lot, lately. Goryeon shield formations are designed such that they can be extended with other formations—like the artillery spells you use for defense. This would also kill two birds with one stone—Miss Yoshika is already replicating the shield formation here, and would most likely reincorporate any changes to it immediately.”

Hyeong chuckled nervously.

“You know quite a bit about shield formations, for a foreigner.”

“It was the one thing I paid careful attention to in my arcane studies. It’s an open secret that the only reason Qin participated in the academy at all was to learn how to recreate or circumvent Goryeon shields.”

“Well, it hardly matters—the academy’s formation isn’t standard by any stretch of the imagination, and even if it was, that sort of modification can only be done from inside.”

Zheng Long shrugged.

“Then do it from inside. Respectfully, Magus, you wouldn’t be here at all if you didn’t have a way to bypass the shield. Keep whatever secrets you must, but the lives of everyone here are on the line.”

Magus Hyeong narrowed his eyes.

“You’re being unusually helpful. I thought your interests would align with those of your sect.”

Zheng Long sighed, staring up at the ceiling.

“I don’t know where my interests lie anymore. I’m a failure in every sense of the word. The world is changing and whatever form the future takes, I no longer see my place in it. I feel adrift on currents of fate, but as foolish as it may be, I can’t ignore what’s right in front of me.”

He met Hyeong’s eyes, and Yue could see a hint of the flame that once drove him in that gaze.

“So yes, I will help. I don’t know what difference it will make, or what the consequences will be, but they don’t matter. Miss Yoshika is not the only xiantian asset we have, no matter how broken I may be.”

Hyeong Daesung groaned and ruffled his hair.

“Very well. We’d better get started right away, then.”