Reshaping a country required more than just two or three people. Perhaps if they were Exalted Soul Phase cultivators it would be a different story, but there were limits on how powerful an individual could be.

Astrid brought along with her a number of cultivators from the Summer Sun Sect. Even if she had officially handed over the reins to Nicolas, they wouldn't just refuse a simple request from her. Besides, this was a matter that was relevant to the continent as a whole. Melanthina also brought earth cultivators from around the Tenebach clan along with herself, Nik, and some clan members. All would be compensated for their time, even if the results weren't precisely what was expected.

The confidence that Astrid felt wasn't easily overcome, however. She knew that it would work- that it had to work. She trusted in the assessment of her peers, and she personally felt she had something to prove. That was why she hadn't included any members of the Six Elements Crossroads.

They didn't need to be part of everything anyway. Sometimes, it was best to let others be involved. Like a vast number of locals. The leading sects of the Gloom Desolation joined them as they traveled around the country one last time. They were looking for points of weakness in the elemental binding that kept spiritual energy sealed. Whether they wanted to actually interact with said weak points was a different question. They might not actually want the unraveling to happen at maximum speed, but instead to guide it to a slower release.

Ultimately, they decided to start with other sections with the knowledge that things would likely accelerate once they neared the weaker points of the sealing formation. To that end, some of their cultivators were stationed at key points to help stabilize things. The visitors could only spare one or two per key point, but the population of the Gloom Desolation was still sufficient for them to have a couple dozen in any particular section. This was a project that affected their entire region, after all.

When it was done, they should have more spiritual energy- even if not all of it was precisely the sort they wanted. Having to work against the light element might actually help their development, and earth as a supporting element was probably the part that had been holding them back the most. Even if they had just a small amount it would have helped. However, the region should have had a prominent enough earth element to count as a proper secondary element.

Tenzing, Shukrat, and Merjem would be cycling in and out of the main group for the duration of the project, as they wanted to monitor various areas. Overall, they anticipated at least a month of effort to undo the seal. Even if they could move faster than that, they weren't sure they would want to. If they actually had to pass back and forth over every stretch of land, it could increase to several times that much.

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There was a bit of doubt inside Astrid as they began the project. She, along with others, began pulling upon strands of spiritual energy deep within the ground. It would be impossible to dig down everywhere and draw closer to them, but fortunately they could be reached- even if they were a bit stubborn. Astrid found herself uncertain if they could actually do it as the first strands held strong. She also wondered if they should. What if she had made a mistake?

Then perhaps she didn't deserve her position. She couldn't really say she had reached the Ascending Soul Phase under her own power. What would John say?

… Probably something about her learning from her mistakes. And about how nobody reached a high phase on their own. Whether sect or clan, everyone had some support. The ancient legends of loose cultivators reaching the peak all on their own simply weren't feasible. None of the current prominent figures fit into that category… except perhaps Lucanus. Then again, that was only what she had heard about his early exploits. He'd still been tied to John and the Milanovic clan for the majority of his career.

The string of energy felt like it was going to snap, but that wasn't what Astrid wanted. She sent her fire element deeper, looking for some sort of end to things. She ran face-first into concentrated light element, dazing herself for a moment. She was quite capable of handling it, but it was still unexpected. It took her a moment to unravel the earth element from the light. She let the latter gradually seep out as she held the earth element in check. Her former disciples followed her lead.

Eventually, she reached a point where she could stretch things no further. She carefully severed a section of earth element on one end, and she found that it rapidly sprang to the surface. She used her own energy to suppress it. It rose as a puff of dirt instead of an explosion of rocks and soil. Even if the latter wouldn't harm most cultivators, they didn't want to deface the land they were trying to restore.

Others around her had mixed success. The local energy was a bit stubborn, even if it wasn't actively resisting. Sometimes, four or five had to work together to unweave a single section deep beneath the topsoil. The erupting earth was disruptive, but most important was to handle the way light released. It was minimal in any section, but the actual danger was that it was being drawn towards other parts of the elemental seal.

It wasn't as if the entire country had never had other earth or light element trickle into it. Obviously the seal had to reject it or incorporate it in some fashion, or over centuries it would have done little more than nothing.

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The spiritual energy of Melanthina and Nik ranged far and wide. The former calmed the darkness element, readying it to accept a small portion of light among it. The latter dispersed the light element more or less evenly, such that it didn't concentrate too much. He also helped keep it away from the still sealed area, where it might be absorbed.

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Day by day, the process was much the same. They left behind them areas that Astrid's current view considered much more healthy, even though at some point in her life she might have made the same mistake about sealing away light. Or if she'd been on the opposite side of things, perhaps she would have been part of the Sunfields, sealing away darkness with fire to try to enhance their light. Her style never would have developed, and even if her prospects as a pure light cultivator would have been decent, she would have been so limited.

As expected for any large project, the minimum estimate was far too generous. They found that they had to leave behind some of their cultivators along the borders of areas they traversed to keep the freed elements from being resealed further along. A single cultivator could cover a wide area where casually drifting spiritual energy was concerned, but they were talking about the scale of a country.

They had unfortunately chosen the longer dimension of the Gloom Desolation to begin with, so they stretched quite a distance. As they pushed further, pulling apart additional layers, the presence of guardians along the 'border' became ever more important.

They considered alternative dimensions. If they continued as they were, they would have a large line to cover for the entire duration of their project. On the other hand, if they tried to include a narrower dimension the area they had to cover actually increased by more than a quarter, but it would eventually shrink once more and then they would find themselves dealing with less and less as they pressed onward. Or they could continue as they were with a more or less set distance.

The choice was made based on their eventual fatigue. At the end of the project, everyone would be more tired. If they still had to deal with the same border, people could become careless. Mistakes would be worse. Thus it was that they took on more immediate work, cutting in at an angle to slowly work their border along the narrower dimension of the country. If a similar project ever took place, they would be several times more efficient. This time, a simple truth had slipped through their grasp until it was too dangerous.

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When they came upon cities, they had to change their tactics. It was of course important to not have eruptions of spiritual energy if they could prevent it, but even more so inside of cities where there were structures to destroy. It was a bit more difficult to reach into the ground where worked stone covered it, and they also had to consider how the local formations would react to a sudden presence of light element. As long as they prevented any shock damage, however, anything else could eventually be refactored.

They expected some mistakes. That was what one portion of the allocated resources was going towards. Another portion was spiritual elements to help refresh the cultivators working to unseal the region. The last bit was used to create temporary formations that served the same purpose as people standing along the border area, directing the flow of light and earth away from the seal.

There was one city that happened to have one of the weak points of the seal at the epicenter. It was within the territory of the Midnight Bolts, but they gathered the leaders of all of the factions together for that portion. Together, they were a greater factor than the few Ascending Soul Phase cultivators. Area coverage was important, after all.

Even if the darkness cultivators weren't especially suited to safely extricating the light, they had grown used to the diffuse density over the past weeks as they roamed about. They were also informed about how they should adjust their own darkness element to minimize attraction between the two opposite elements. Nik knew what he was doing, obviously, but Melanthina was more familiar with things from the 'pure' darkness perspective.

As soon as they began, Astrid knew that things wouldn't go smoothly. For the most part she had been casual about the task, as it was an endurance race rather than a sprint. She had adequate time to rest every day, but they never completely ceased their tasks. A half done project might be worse than doing nothing at all.

Astrid was easily able to handle light element spilling everywhere. When it began to increase in volume, she simply sent it into the sky. Whether some amount of it annihilated with darkness there or it mixed in with air and stabilized, it didn't matter. No matter what happened, it wasn't going to truly fade away. The locals might even prefer that some portion of light was temporarily lower while they adjusted to the changing environment. Ultimately, the earth element should make up for any inconveniences, but they would still have to adapt.

Breaking down earth element with fire was also well within Astrid's capabilities- but she found herself having to accelerate the process more than expected as things began to unravel. She actually spread her energy further to cut off the decay as much as she could. In other places, things began to get out of control.

Earth cultivators rushed through the streets, fortifying the foundations of the buildings and if they had spare capacity the streets themselves. In some places, freed energy was rapidly absorbed by the next portion of the seal, which only made the results more volatile.

Every element was riled up by the event. Ambient air and water rushed around, not controlled by anyone in particular. How strange, that the least plentiful and mostly incidental elements would be causing them the most trouble. Astrid had to help handle that. She had no expertise in controlling either, but at least air was an allied element. Conversely, water was dominant against her own fire element… but she'd worked with it before.

She couldn't hold the elements within her safely, but she still understood how an elemental balance should come into place. She had dual cultivated with John often enough to get a sense for how it was done, both with him mixing his energy with hers and her with his. He probably would have handled it trivially, but Astrid was still an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator. She spread herself throughout the city, guiding the energy. She let it cycle for a moment in an amplifying direction, then she reversed the flow to calm the spiritual energy. She couldn't hold that, however, so she had to let the cycle oscillate back and forth- but under her control. She just had to continue until the current part of the seal was finished with its fluctuations.

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