Sitting on Micky's neck, Percy couldn't help but examine his familiar's body once more. More than fifty percent of it was made of ice by now, as the crow had suffered countless injuries over the last few months – some much more serious than others.

By the bird's own admission, the wounds didn't hurt in the slightest, nor did the chunks of living mana that had replaced them feel all that different from flesh and blood. After overcoming the initial shock of seeing his body gradually turn into a frozen sculpture, Micky had grown used to the changes.

'Thank Phoebe for that… I don't think his body will ever go back to the way it was… Not on its own at least…' Percy thought, flicking one of the pale feathers on his familiar's plumage and listening to the crisp ting as it bent under his fingernail.

Well, more ice meant less hunger and stamina consumption, so they welcomed it with open wings.

Sighing, he opened the pouch at his waist, tossing the now-empty spatial amulets in with the rest. Dozens of them at this point – more space than he knew what to do with. Sadly, the devices couldn't be nested inside one another, nor stored in his seal, their overlapping effects forcing him to carry them like this.

Taking a moment, he mentally tallied his total stash again, factoring in the newly looted elixirs. Curiously, most of the Blues they'd killed over the past year had carried some – even the Orange-borns.

Normally, this wouldn't have made much sense. Blue was the highest grade they could have ever hoped to reach in their lifetime, so continuing to cleanse their cores would have been a horrific waste of resources. The fact that their families had chosen to equip them with elixirs only spoke to their optimism that they would get their hands on some Aurora Dew one day.

In other words, Percy was the reason these people had elixirs on them to start with, and he was now benefitting indirectly from his own influence on Remior!

The exact amount each person carried varied – depending on how rich their family was. On average, Percy gained just over three months of unbrewed Aurora Dew for himself and his familiar from each group they took down.

'Micky, our stash has gone up to seventeen years!' he exclaimed.

Most of the elixirs still had to be brewed, of course, but he was converting his stash faster than he was growing it, and he was growing it faster than they were drinking it.

Percy had spent almost all his time working on the magical silk, with the occasional distraction every few days – whenever they had to fight or run from a group of Blues. He'd only set aside a couple of hours per day for alchemy, yet he'd still managed to convert just over a third of their stash into Aurora Dew.

At this rate, he'd be done in another year – though he might need Nesha's clone to top him up on secondary ingredients once he returned from Twilight City. That shouldn't take long now, since they were both getting close to his armour's upgrade.

Regardless, Percy had already amassed enough spare Aurora Dew to deliver some to Sol the next time they met. Admittedly, he was starting to worry that she hadn't reached out yet, but he kept telling himself that she and Doh were more than strong enough to make it home safely.

'If they keep throwing Blues at us, we might not even need the wasp familiar!' Micky replied in a joking tone.

Percy chuckled, though they both knew that wouldn't be the case. Leaving his promise to Nephthys and his own desires aside, Percy would need that wasp egg at some point. Their current situation just wasn't sustainable. Remior only had a few thousand Blues in total, and only a tiny fraction would ever come after them. Most of the ones who would, already had.

As early as a few months back, Percy had noticed that the groups hunting them had grown rarer – especially the smaller ones. It wasn't until Nesha informed him of the increased bounties that more of them arrived in the region, most teams too strong for him and Micky to take on.

Percy had grown a lot stronger after fighting so many tough opponents.

He'd taken advantage of every opportunity to weave his Winding Corridor technique more seamlessly into his fighting style, using it to freely engage or disengage his opponents at a speed they could hardly fathom. He'd also grown better at preparing and unleashing his Thousand-fanged Maw, as well as fighting alongside his familiar without getting in each other's way.

That said, he still hadn't felt confident attacking a trio of Blues – at least until a couple days ago.

The problem wasn't just the number of opponents – it was also the number of domains. On paper, the addition of a single extra mage would raise the difficulty by a relatively modest fifty percent. In practice, it was more like going from a four to a nine.

Thankfully, one of his clones had returned with the answer, after being gone for half a year.

Looking at Micky again, Percy's gaze sank deep into the crow's channels, marvelling at the fine, ink-like strands swirling chaotically within the bird's mana. It wasn't Percy's first time seeing this, but he was still amazed by how prevalent one's willpower was within the substance.

Whistling in amusement, he couldn't help but pull up his Status again, his heart skipping a beat as he read the most recent additions for the hundredth time. Percy was already intimately familiar with the new entries, but he saw them in a new light after having experienced their effects in battle.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

___

Percival Avalon

Mana cores:

[Mana core 1 – Yellow – Soul]

[Mana core 2 – Yellow – Pure]

Domain:

[Pulse – Dormant]

Bloodline:

[Clone]

– Create a copy of yourself. Effect varies by affinity.

Blessing:

[Blessing of Permanence] –

Enhance the durability of your soul.

Mutations:

[Sovereign's Eye] –

Draws from the cumulative knowledge listed in the Status to enhance one's vision, allowing them to discern details previously unseen.

Spectral traits:

[Weaving] –

Boosts one's proclivity in manipulating one-dimensional structures.

[Insomnia]

– Eliminates the need for sleep.

Spells:

[Wild Art: Alchemist's Intuition – Crude]

[Soul-to-soul – Crude]

[Secret Art: Soul Harmony – Refined]

[Frozen Shards – Refined]

[Soul Conversion – Refined]

[Spiritforged Cauldron – Refined]

[Spectral Art: Phantomscale Regalia – Masterful]

[Spectral Art: Phantomspun Silk – Masterful]

[Wild Art: Carnival of the Savage Gods – Masterful]

[Hybrid Art: Core Bestowal – Masterful]

Alchemic principles:

[Extraction]

– Separate and condense an ingredient's essence.

[Pacification]

– Delay an ingredient's activation rate.

[Redirection]

– Adjust an ingredient's effect.

[Deattunement]

– Prevent multiple conflicting ingredients from reacting with one another.

[Bonding]

– Enrich an ingredient with crystallized pure mana.

[Restructuring] –

Alter an ingredient's phase.

[Scaling]

– Brew a greater volume of ingredients at once.

Decrees:

[Phoebe's Decree]

– Grants access to your Status.

[Iapetus's Decree]

– Grants a bloodline.

[Moirais' Decree]

– Grants a second mana core.

[Metatron's Decree]

– Open a one-way portal to the Vault of Magic at will.

[Ea's Decree (Modified)]

– Augments and enhances your Status. Grants the Sovereign's Eye.

[Obatala's Decree (Modified)]

– Augments and enhances your Status. Allows you to effortlessly deploy your domain in its strongest state.

___

Sure enough, the Decrees had completed their fusion without much trouble.

Percy had repeatedly tried to manifest his willpower in the same way he'd done on Gallimus, without much success. That had proved once and for all that not only would he be unable to transfer the "locked" domain between bodies, but also that awakening even a "nascent" pulse like Duwa's wouldn't be easy with just a couple of Yellow cores.

Not that he wouldn't try, but he wasn't in a hurry to waste his time with something that wouldn't make the slightest difference before his next promotion – over a century from now.

He should be able to unlock that power a lot sooner with his clones, while they possessed Micky or Nesha, though he didn't see much of a point in that either. The so-called pulse wasn't very useful in combat, and his companions wouldn't benefit from it even after their advancement – it would be the clones owning the improved domains, not his friends.

As for the clones, they might be able to manifest a stronger domain at Blue, assuming they remained in Micky or Nesha's bodies from Green until the end of time, but their efforts would probably go to waste the moment Percy retrieved and replaced them with new clones.

That didn't mean that his new Decree was useless, however.

Far from it.

The mere addition of the domain section to his Status had injected a ton of information into Percy's eyes – much more than the average spell or alchemic principle did. Percy likened it to when he first obtained the mutation, when the modified Decree had forced him to keep his boosting art active for three days and nights, gradually fusing both his Mana Sense and Soul Vision into his eyesight. Unsurprisingly, something similar had happened again, upgrading the mutation into the Sovereign's Eye.

Beyond the fancy name – which he didn't disapprove of at all – Percy could now perceive willpower directly. This was precisely what had allowed him to bridge the gap to the daring trio of Blues that he and Micky had slain earlier.

His biggest issue when fighting such powerful opponents was dealing with their domains – the invisible sneak attacks that he struggled to predict, the oppressive pressure constantly bogging him and his constructs down, and the tight defences that made it so much harder to land each hit.

Well… it turned out that most of those problems could be solved – or at least severely mitigated – by his new ability.

Domains weren't uniform – especially when spread across a wide area. Upon close examination, they were riddled with flaws ripe for exploitation. Through them, Percy had swiftly identified the cleanest routes toward and away from his opponents, bypassing many of the negative effects acting on him and his scythes.

Following the flow of willpower had also let him predict the domains' movements – finally covering the most serious blind spot in his Greater Foresight spell. Even better, he now had a fourth channel of information to tap into – alongside the shifts in his opponents' souls, the flares of their mana, and their physical movements – perfecting his glimpses of the future.

'I should still be more careful from now on though…' he reminded himself.

Despite his new advantage, three Blues were still a lot for him and Micky. The only reason they'd won so easily was their opponents' relative weakness. Recognizing the rival House's insignia and the common mana types they'd possessed, Percy had known not to expect a nasty bloodline or rare affinity.

Even so, things might not have gone as smoothly if the youngest of their opponents hadn't been so inexperienced. The poor guy had probably only been a Blue for a few months at most, not even knowing how to properly wield his domain. It was thanks to that – and Percy's decisiveness – that they had broken through their formation so quickly.

'Well, I don't regret it. That's one less family Galahad has to worry about. I doubt their patriarch will get any more funny ideas after this…'

Regardless, Percy was keenly aware that he'd have to grow even stronger if he wanted to deal with all those pesky trios of Blues looking for them. And he should probably hurry up, because their enemies would likely switch to groups of four once the rest of Remior heard about his latest victims.

Luckily, he was about to do just that – many of his and Micky's projects were nearing their tipping points.

'Time to start incorporating the new affinities into our spells.'

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