The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 179 - When Life Gives You Obsidian, Make An Obsidian-Aid

Chapter 179: Chapter 179 - When Life Gives You Obsidian, Make An Obsidian-Aid

The narrow cave entrance nestled between two gnarled tree roots seemed almost deliberately hidden. The heiress tromping through the dark with a burden nestled and hugged in her arms was surprised her companion had even managed to find it. She looked up at the Skydancer perched on a branch above.

Its twilight-hued feathers puffed up in clear distress at the object’s very presence. She tilted her head at it and asked it to come inside with her, but it refused to follow. The twisted form its owner was carrying was an affront to its natural senses!

Every time it looked directly at it, North suddenly felt like West... and West also felt like West, but only sort of. The remaining sense of direction became just as jumbled and it did not want to be near its queen’s strange egg, no matter how much it felt like her.

"Oh, don’t be so dramatic. It’s just a little hunk of something that isn’t meant to be. When you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all."

The brunette’s monotone announced over top of far more ’amusement’ than reassurance as she ducked inside. The bird made a squawking trill in response and turned its back on the entrance. Keeping watch was a fine enough task!

The passage widened quickly as it fell into the earth, eventually resulting in a modest sized earthen chamber. Limestone walls and floor were worn smooth by the flood waters of ages past. The natural formation would help contain some essence emissions during her work, though she still planned to make some quick adjustments before she began.

She’d been preparing for this since before arriving at the camp and brought everything along in her satchel. Elua had spent an hour the night before etching a portable ritual into a pair of scales she pried out of their inset positions. The leather notebooks that had been given to her at the wedding had gone rather ignored until then.

After setting the melon-sized thing in her arms down, she walked back to the entrance and placed the first interesting creature’s scale on the ground. With the other one in her hand, she walked away and a screen of darkness that even spiritual senses would struggle to penetrate ballooned out between them.

It covered the crevice as she walked, until she placed the second on the ground at the end of the path. With that, she now had completed one set of ’defenses’ against being discovered. There probably would not be any great flashes of light from her work - and the cave faced away from the camp - but it was better to be safe.

A few candles were set up to help her see and then the next couple hours were spent striking enough sigil formations into the walls to help capture and mold any tainted essence that might be released.

She moved the twisted mass to a relative center flat section of floor. The first time she had attempted something like this with a Divinity’s relic was at a Defier level of cultivation. The obsidian mirror felt unusually heavy as she withdrew it from the satchel and unwrapped the cloth from around it meant to hide it from unlucky sightings if she reached for a snack.

’Now then. I know being a Peak Demi-God taught me enough control for this, but I don’t actually know how long it will take.’

The experience with both items was also unique. The connection in the mirror to the Upper Realm cultivator didn’t seem to be one that was all that ’active’. It was not so little for her to think the existence of them was now gone, but enough for her to think they stopped caring about lower worldly matters.

Then there was the material. In her past, she had spent effort and time infusing something with spiritual energy that she would then use to modify and improve the seals and protections as she ’borrowed’ the item. The realmshard she had once repurposed for her old voidspace was subverted through a similar method.

’I should have enough time before anyone notices I’m gone. Though explaining why I’m exhausted tomorrow might be tricky...’

The ancient cultivator placed the obsidian mirror face-up next to her ’terrifying’ melon. She traced one finger along the gilded edge while probing for the weak sections in its connection to the Divinity with her spiritual sense. Outside of the dreamscape, the item was rather opaque... but what she had already done to it back then was enough to guide her.

"Hm. Seems they really did stop paying attention. Makes this much easier."

Her voice held a touch of judgment as she began to work a stream of unaspected essence into the gap. She placed a hand on the other material and the mirror’s surface ’rippled’ like black water as she carefully widened the breach and improved the strength of her seals.

Not enough to break the connection entirely - she needed that framework to remain so that the Obsidian held its odd strength... but enough to insert her own influence on the item. The twisted mass pulsed in response, recognizing her spirit but moving a little unconnected from her intent. The impossible angles it held seemed to stretch closer toward the mirror of their own accord.

She had to suppress a laugh at the energy’s seeming eagerness to return to her use, even in this roundabout way.

"Patience. We need to do this properly."

Hours passed as she meticulously wove the two items together. Occasionally she had to pause when the geometries threatened to spiral out of control, waiting for the ripples in physical space to settle before continuing to inject the contaminated energy and refine it within the mirror.

Only an hour was left before dawn would break when she finally sat back, against the cool stone wall. The repurposed item looked deceptively ordinary - just an obsidian mirror with slightly more depth to its darkness. The gold trimming also held a bit of new ’texture’ along its edges now.

But the important part was, like her dress, she could feel how it thrummed with contained power. Hers. A small foot stretched towards where it sat a distance away so that the two essence fields - hers and the objects - interacted. It pulled ’itself’ to her like a hovering magnet and floated up and across the limb into her lap.

"Perfect. Or close enough."

When coming up with a plan, Elua always liked to accomplish much more than one thing if possible. This time it removed the markers of her own spirit from the twisted material, made the mirror safer to keep around, and above all made a relic less resistant to her manipulations. Now it was truly a tool she could use.

"I could have practiced Adhesion in this young form with nearly anything. Leave it to me to pick something complicated~"

She smiled faintly while pushing herself to stand. The candles she brought had burned to puddles one by one. She couldn’t be bothered to hide that weak evidence.

However, the spots where she had carved sigils were different. She systematically walked through and ’gripped’ the wall. Her Ogre Physique cracked and tore specific chunks with little effort. While it still looked suspicious and unnatural, it at least wasn’t a ritual site.

Though what she would do with the few hunks of Obsidian that had been generated in the containment spots during her efforts, she wasn’t sure. For now she put them in her satchel with everything else, taking up the space the candles once had.

Elua lifted the remnant hunk of rippled material that now looked far more ’natural’. Without any signs of her spirit remaining, she could plant it back in the camp storage.

"It would make a good memento though..."

The Skydancer’s concerned trill from outside as she held it into the air was not about the ’egg’ this time. It quickly flew over and pecked at her ear with a tiny emotion that... suggested she looked as exhausted as she felt.

"I’m fine. Just need to get back before someone checks my tent."

And if anyone asks why she slept in a little late? Of course, she will say she had a nightmare~

---

Pigeon-blue eyes opened to pre-dawn darkness. Qatrand’s hand moved automatically to her chest to be close to the spot where Elua’s fragment resided.

"Good morning, El."

The blonde murmured while sitting up in bed. Her morning ritual of greeting her wife felt different when they weren’t in the same city, let alone the same bed. The usual warmth seemed distant and unreachable. No answering pulse came.

The swordswoman stretched and rose to her feet in her room at the Yecine estate. Her hand found her sword without even looking at it as she plodded towards the training dummy. After days of traveling, it felt good to be back in her own space.

Her blade moved through familiar patterns for minutes on end. Each stance flowed naturally into the next as she steadily worked at extending her spirit through the movements. The training tool had spoken of using essence techniques efficiently and accurately at a distance by combining both controls.

She was determined to reach that point. Of course, some of her tendrils still reached unconsciously toward where the fragment lay quiet within her. Because deep inside, she couldn’t stop protecting and cherishing her wife.

’Soon the competition will begin, and after that...’

Her sword traced another arc through the air. The attempt to focus on the future failed the moment she lowered her sword, replaced by the concerns of the present. Whatever her wife was doing in that camp, her spouse trusted she could handle it and that the reincarnator wouldn’t go too far.

That didn’t stop her from missing the chance to kiss the heiress this morning... or any of them that were missed. Qatrand er Yecine had stood at the station when getting back to the city. She almost rode the last train towards where the cute girl was the night before.

If only to be present for a single quick meeting of lips.