He filled up the empty space in his chest and kept a small portion of highly compressed air but he was trying to practice a skill to breathe through his skin, hopefully without the use of mana or mental capacity. 'I suppose a second stomach temporarily. The other 'lung'…I can use it to store coagulated mana. That should increase my mana capacity further.' He felt like he was adding organs to his body.

His stomach needed to work. Having spare storage would reduce the need to physically eat in a long battle. Not to mention, the lungs had a larger volume compared to his expanded stomach. If there was no need and he was only hungry after a long sleep, then he could change both to coagulated mana storage or two mega factories for his Unique Skill, which sounded fun. He could experiment with that in the near future.

Ebony's scouts found the Apex Apes knocked out, caged up and bound by chains. He also noticed that several people he had sealed were badly injured. They were not the strongest race of Grandmasters for nothing, not going down without a fight, even against dozens of Kings. One of his Apparitions released them but didn't wake them up. They would probably see the sealed figures and go berserk. Apa wasn't around, if he were, Ebony didn't see how the Apex Apes could be captured so easily.

'The three Frost Elven Kings' mana signature is all over the place too, did they fight too?' He had vague figures of Korta Ind, Christy and Nutash shown by Dusk.

Vent had other duties and left and he didn't sense any mana as strong as Vent so he must not have been around.

Ebony raised his palm and caught Dusk the staff. Leaving the tree with a couple of Apparitions at his house.

'That's Na. He's finally walking around outside. That parasitic plant inside him has already evolved into a Grandmaster. He still can't get too far away from his Dungeon Portal but he can roam freely around these parts. Plainston is…not controlled. Hmm, Tuffock is there.' With a few microadjustments, his Flickers weren't causing shockwaves anymore and he arrived at Plainston in a moment.

Na was interacting with Tuffock. No surprise that the dungeon knew one of Ebony's first party members.

"Woah! You scared the shit out of me."

"I don't smell shit," Ebony replied. Hardock the brawler was the one in control of their body. "Catch me up."

"Well good morning to you too. You're a little late. Scarlet was caught two days ago. She's a bit further. I heard they dragged the fight to Fragadal's Sea. I tried to help when the fight was around these parts but she got herself targeted by a Spatial Demon. Hector informed me that she was last seen around Fragadal's Sea's outskirts but was recently suppressed."

"Any sightings of Frost Elves?"

"A couple of them. They are helping with taking back a City or two. The Prince and Princess are tracking Scarlet down and probably attempting to save her for the past 2 days. Need help?"

"Where. Who."

"Vittale City. It's now called the Jolly City. The one who took over is a famous bastard who has been around since our time. I didn't know he joined Lure."

Ebony listened to Hardock's introduction to the forces that he was aware of.

When the Tuffock trio evolved into a King, he was found by the Saint who put their souls into one body.

Then, he was promptly removed from Lure's hierarchy but surprisingly not hunted down. Out of all the talents that Tuffock had been gathering, less than 30% stuck around and followed him.

Now all of them had bounties in Lure's internal system, so they were already irreconcilable. Not that members of Lure had any sense of belonging to the organisation.

According to what the stone mage knew. They were roughly split between factions under a Saint each. This particular attacker was under the Saint that put Tuffock, Hardock and Pettock into their current state. She strengthened people higher up the ladder with her control over souls. The only rumours that Hardock knew were that she supposedly extracted a soul's Potential and injected it into people.

However, even after decades, the stone mage had never risen high enough to find out the authenticity of these rumours. Understandably so, Grandmasters and below felt like children compared to Kings and Emperors that roamed the universe.

Scarlet and Ebony were already an oddity when they travelled across Worldcores and Sector Stations. There were other Grandmasters and even Masters, but they were usually guided by a stronger family or guarded by a team of bodyguards.

"So she's the one you needed my help with?"

"No, she's mine. But she has 3 protectors, the Soul Lords. They aren't afraid of the Xeng since you only have 2 Saints. Though in my opinion, they just don't understand how terrifying y'all are. The Cosmic Tyrant is known not to meddle with anything to do with the Xengs. Otherwise, we wouldn't be seeing any trace of Lure here."

'They are not wrong.' The two Saintesses who were supposedly watching over him also didn't do anything.

To them, this may be children frolicking in the playground, and they see no reason to interfere.

Ebony hasn't even tested himself in battle, but he felt so much power in his body and mind. Simply incomparable.

He must have looked cute to proper Kings like Vent or even Navin and Oplot.

'Many nobles died. A shame.'

The person who took over Vittale City was known as the Ecstasy Lord, a servant of one of the three Soul Lords. The Ecstasy Lord uses mental magic to sway all living creatures towards him, and his targets feel ecstasy as he extracts their soul. It was an Emperor of a race of demons.

Too many generations away from the demonised humans to be considered Sub-humans.

All of his physical, mental and magical spells inflict pleasure. Even words.

That allowed him to 'Lure' all creatures to his bidding. While attracting any of his enemies to him by their own will. Making his job of collecting souls extremely easy, as his targets willingly give their souls up.

The nature of souls and minds were hard to defend against. Personally, he ruled over 4 Worldcores, but he was from a different Region and not even from Hex.

Hence, Tuffock's surprise when this person came in person. He was convinced the Saint was personally messing with him, other than the fact that Elcra was a very good target that had been fattened up for thousands of years.

'Mind and soul attacks, that's what we're particularly resistant against.' He had the genetics of a mind from a non-human and his wife descended from a clan of mind mages.

That alone may not be enough since he didn't have active skills for these defences. The same couldn't be said for his wife. She had active mental defence skills. He also trained both of their souls. It was likely insufficient against a specialist two evolutionary ranks above her.

He was a little worried that he was too late.

He can't compare Mr Guru with this Demon, but he was supremely confident with his mental defence while his soul has only been injured by the roar of a Soul Basilisk carried over by a possible future version of him, and Vent's fancy box.

Nothing else has hurt his soul so far, and he'd even tempered it with his essence attack.

However, he wasn't about to let his guard down.

Ebony didn't bother asking or bringing Hardock along and was already on his way to Vittale City. A city near one of the Three Great Farms and Tidal needed quite a lot of time to get to. Almost a full day with his old speed.

Despite his evolution and supposedly exponential increase in baseline. He still took a few hours to get Vittale City in sight.

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This was a City known for its alchemists. The younger folks basically all produced some form of potion for enhancing agriculture. A City that Sophia sourced some of the potions required for their farmland. They've suffered since Eidolon was introduced, but not enough to cause the alchemist society on Elva to collapse.

During his move, he Primed himself.

He was very embarrassed. He was moving his legs as if they were his arms.

The increase in limb length and the overall change to his body were throwing him off his game. Not to mention, his muscles were knotted up. He did not design himself to have arms and legs at this length, width or girth. At least his proportion seemed to be constant so it wasn't all bad, and he didn't necessarily cause harm to himself, but it needed a lot of training to get used to.

On the way, he found Icicle's new limit for mana. He didn't wear his robe because it didn't fit anymore.

His boots and Dusk were taking his mana like an endless sink.

After this small test, he sheathed Icicle and conjured a bladed edge for Dusk.

Perennial Everfrost Armament already exceeded what Icicle could do. And Icicle's Spirit never woke up or matured enough to make a difference like Xin's swords.

Testing something, he performed his Arts and shadow-boxed.

'Almost there, my Shades almost match.' His body swung Icicle, returned it, then swung Dusk. His mana traces picked Icicle up to swing after his body returned Icicle to its sheath. Causing him to land both Icicle's swing and Dusk's swing at the same time, on different locations from different angles.

Yet again, it was an oddly familiar action.

Just like how a small portion of his gravity cube's mana was awkwardly pulsing within his veins. This wasn't any Fortifications, nor was it a passive, but his mind subconsciously casting it.

'I'm not getting enhanced by this either….' He would've loved to hole up in his training field to learn everything new or changed about himself. It was like he had millions of new spell formations to test out and see which was suitable to become a Skill or mutate one of his existing skills.

He'd expected to find his wife fighting. 'Caught' meant a lot of things and he couldn't imagine she would be bound by chains or locked in a cage. With space magic involved, it wasn't impossible, but he just couldn't see that happening.

He did not expect her to have their barriers placed up and was trapped with Hector and Mallory.

To be forced into such a passive state, was she injured or out of energy?

The second seemed more likely, it had been weeks since she bled in their house.

Ebony couldn't see everything from the Scout Pigeon's senses. Not after they were destroyed the moment they were near the city. Having confirmed his wife and friends were alive was enough. He should reach before Mallory's barriers go down.

It wasn't just them either. There were a few members of the Lord family and many other familiar mana signatures of nobles.

They weren't fighting against demons or soul puppets.

They were fighting each other.

'Mind magic huh…'

Unlike various Cities overrun and tended by subordinates or Imperial Citizens left alive, the Ecstasy Lord handles his City with Imperial Citizens themselves, exceedingly happy to serve him.

The Lord family were a good choice against the Ecstasy Lord because they could lock up and heal Imperial citizens and nobles who were under the influence of mind magic.

Ebony calmly searched for the space magic user who dragged Xin away from their house, and also if the advanced armour user was around. Especially the space user. If another Ezekiel were here with an item that could send them across Sectors, he wouldn't be able to catch up even if he had a month.

Before he found any trace of space magic or a man with high-tech gear, he arrived at Vittale City. Cautious, he should be invisible to the naked eye from any direction. He also had Will of Sequester running through his Embodiment skill.

'I'm doing this too naturally. This Will is copying Entity Evanscene to erase my presence? Interesting, the birds and insects aren't running away from me, they can't feel a drop of my mana?' As amazing as this stealth ability was, the usage of Will was…unreasonable. He wondered how long he could keep this up before someone found him but was immediately stopped by the City barrier.

'All of them are trapped inside, including the Lord family members?' It was almost ironic that the barrier mages were trapped by a barrier. However, the City barriers were all built by Navin himself and wholly maintained by him alone. The rest of the Lord family barrier mages help with barriers for the numerous towns and mere buildings within Cities.

"Who's there!?"

Ebony felt something enter his mindspace.

A mental attack.

Ebony didn't feel any damage to his soul, the shout was likely just a probe.

"Stop hiding, your mental energy is drowning out every mind I feel within the surroundings." A purple-skinned figure stood right beside Ebony and stared at him as if he could see Ebony.

'Mental energy, something like brainwaves? A mind mage's perception Skill?' Ebony guessed that this person could see his soul as well. His spell probably didn't hide either.

More importantly, he didn't even see how this person appeared beside him suddenly. Much faster than his eyes or mind could react.

Mana Discern couldn't appraise the purple-skinned figure.

Ebony didn't even ask questions and attacked first but his target faded when Dusk bisected at the belly.

Unbelievably, his mind was tricked into seeing something where there was nothing.

'Looks like the shout wasn't just a probe, I've already been infected. I better not randomly attack. I might hit a friendly.' He learned these mind magic tactics from the Ning Saintesses.

The mind was very susceptible to non-harmful tricks. Hard to damage didn't mean impossible to deceive, and the brain was easily deceived.

"So she's your wife! I hold the power here. Submit and put your mental defences down and I can spare her."

Ebony didn't reply, he didn't have time for negotiation, nor did he want to negotiate. As far as he was concerned, it was already beyond negotiation.

Yet, he was in a tough spot. He didn't have good control over his mana or his body at the moment.

'It was just an optical illusion, no wonder I didn't sense any gravitational waves or vibrations.' He should've trusted his mana perception more than his eyes.

First of all, the barrier that stood in his way.

The people inside who hadn't been affected were too busy fending off past allies and were in no position to break the City barrier.

This wasn't Tidal and the people within were few; clearly, many had already been killed or had their souls extracted. Knowing how the City barriers were powered, Ebony believed there was a good chance it was currently weak and possible to get through. Yet Crystalline Avalanches had already shown failure. Not even a scratch on the crystalline outlines that appear when he touches it.

He was even hit by some creepy crawly mana that wasn't interrupted by his magic body. They dissolved or were washed away by mana so he didn't know what curse effects were supposed to have landed.

No more optical illusions came his way. He was either ignored or the Esctacy Lord trusted that the barrier could keep him out.

The people inside still didn't know he was here; the City wasn't only covered by a barrier but also traditional walls. Wondering if any barrier mage inside could assist, he Flickered up and stood on top of the edge of the barrier.

'I can't casually bomb this place, they are all friendlies inside and my control has no precision at the moment.'

He had no idea how strong his spells were. He was already confident of breaking a random City barrier when he was a Grandmaster, much less now. Tidal was a different story.

Sadly, the barrier also cuts off mana perception, and the people inside weren't exactly free enough to look up in the sky for a tiny figure.

'What gentle methods can break the barrier without accidentally wiping out the people inside…' Ebony saw his wife and friends inside.

Xin had sunken cheeks. She was scrawny, starved.

His attempts to physically break the barrier didn't stop, but he was able to scan the situation within the city.

'I see. She's not affected directly but she is sensing the emotions of all the people affected and….Athena, she's affected too.' With her best friend mind controlled or fallen prey to Ecstasy Lord's skills, Xin must have been shaken emotionally.

They didn't have many friends to begin with. Unlike him, she was much more attached to bonds, much more emotionally connected. With her ability to feel emotions, whether she liked it or not, it was hard not to.

Athena never treated her any differently, no fear, no reverence of power, no envy. Just another female friend. And they had similar experience and position where both were 'stronger-than-most' women in a male dominated world of combatants. Or so it was like on Elcra.

Perhaps it was her instincts, but Xin looked up just then and saw him.

Yet he didn't see a smile, only an exhausted look of sadness. Helplessness.

Something clicked in his head when he saw that.

How dare they carve that expression on her?

There was a simple solution to not killing friendlies while also producing a spell strong enough to break the barrier.

Exhausting the power source of the arcane barrier.

Summoning as much mana as he could, he wanted to break through a focal point but figured it wasn't helping without a proper Skill, so the entire City was covered instead. He was able to extract as much mana as he could regenerate at the moment so he might as well cover as much surface area to exhaust the barrier faster.

Absorbed in the barrier mana exhaustion, he didn't realise that the barrier under his feet swirled, compressed and uncompressed. Wrought by instability.

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