On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Two Hundred And Six

We surged through the Ring gate, ruby light dancing around us. As the familiar sights of my Territory burst into view through the thicker curtain of crimson light, I cried out my instructions urgently. “Get the Tree down, it doesn’t have long left!”

“Grul knows.” He rumbled behind me, as I dropped to my knees, exerting my aether to its maximum. The heavy tree, which was lightened to a fraction of its weight but still massed a handful of tons, struck the ground. Hyacinth and Shaeula hopped off the tree and helped Grulgor push it upright. The barrier of air surrounding us intensified, Shaeula hissing with the effort, and Hyacinth immediately began to use her nature energy to unfurl the few remaining roots that weren’t rotten with fungus, digging them into the ground.

“Right, I’m going to try and heal it.” I declared, with no time for rest. The almost-dead tree was covered in toadstools and rotting fronds of slimy fungus, the bark peeling away and the heartwood beneath black and grey with corruption. It wasn’t healthy before, but with a day without Asha to protect the grove, the corruption has advanced at an alarming rate. It was too late to save the Rank 2 one… when we had returned to the remains of the grove, a few tongues of Foehn still fitfully consuming the surrounding vegetation, large swathes of the infected forest having burned to charcoal, bare, dead earth all that remained of patches several hundred metres across, we were appalled at the sight. The verdant earth energies had been choked by the fungus, and giant, virulent purple and red toadstools had sprouted, leaking a mist of spores into the breeze.

The Rank 2 Tree had died off, my Eye identifying it as rotten and infested. Still, the Rank 3 one, roots open to the sky after our efforts to save Asha and her own Tree, was still barely alive, despite being in such horrible shape. Many of the exposed roots were now sprouting mould, and the remaining bark was dripping like melted wax. Shaeula, Hyacinth and I immediately worked some life-saving maintenance, before Grulgor and I had torn it free from the ground and lifted it onto our backs, my aetheric manipulations massively lowering its weight. Shaeula and Hyacinth had hopped on, Shaeula to heal and surround us with wind, trapping any corruption, and Hyacinth to keep it alive with her nature energies. We then ran full-tilt back to the Fae Stones and through to the Ring Gate, ignoring the few Myconids that crossed our paths.

And here we are now. A quick in-and-out raid, mere minutes, and the Tree is ours. If it survives… I was rapidly regrowing new roots which were snaking into the earth-element rich soils, desperately pulling energy into the failing Tree. Seeing us arrive, Asha was dragging on her protective suit, and I had to avert my eyes from her ample assets as they bounced as she tried to zip up the front. Shaeula gathered up the spores and fungus we were removing and incinerated it in a blaze of yellow fire.

“The poor Tree.” Asha whispered through her mask as she entered the wind barrier, using all her power as a dryad to try and stabilise the sick tree. “As I suspected, without me, the remains of the grove were doomed.”

“Yes, that’s true.” I said, smiling at her reassuringly. “But you did the best you could until now. The other Tree didn’t make it, but it only had a short time left, and I hope it would be happy we saved your Tree and this one, if we can.”

At my words Asha nodded, her resolve strengthened. “I shall help. I do not fear the taint any longer, for if I grow sick, you will heal me, will you not?” she shook off her hood, and her long auburn hair turned into roots once more, snaking into the ground and pouring her energies into the tree.

“Yeah, I gave you my Oath, right? That you would live a long and healthy life here, you and your tree…”

********

“Finally.” I breathed out, drained mentally. I had just finished purging Asha of some spores that had tried to sprout on her while she helped us save the other Tree, which now was stable, leaves starting to bud on fresh branches, the bark once more soft and supple, glittering with ruby motes of light. “That was a pain.”

“Even so, I am grateful. I weep for the Tree that was lost, but…” she ran her hand over the newly-grown bark of the Rhyming Tree. “… this one shall live and thrive.” She took a deep breath. “The earth energy here is not as deep as when my grove held a dozen saplings, and several grand trees. Still, it is enough for me. One day this whole hill shall be the new grove of the dryad Asha.” She shook her head, long hair cascading behind her. “I once more thank you, on behalf of this Tree. If you have any request of me, any at all, then I shall grant it. I owe you that, at least.”

“Master has charmed another ooone.” Hyacinth giggled, bringing us all some of her fruit juices. Asha had also taken a liking to the small fruit trees and bushes Hyacinth was growing at the back of the shrine, and her energy was also fortifying them, increasing their production and improving the taste.

“Hardly. We have a relationship of mutual benefit.” I disagreed. “I just want you to look after the shrine and the surrounds when we have finished purifying your Rhyming Tree. There was one other thing I thought of, but it’s a bit stupid, so…” Yeah, I shouldn’t have even mentioned this.

“Is master making a mooove? Why, when he has nooot even used me to warm his bed?” Hyacinth pouted, but Shaeula disagreed.

“No, I fear Akio is not-not such a smooth male. Or rather, he is good at charming females, but never seems to take the logical next step. He is surprisingly cowardly when it comes to relationships, it seems.”

“I can hear you, you know!” I complained, and was then shocked by Asha laughing deeply, holding her chest as she doubled over.

“Oh my, by the King and Queen, you are all very amusing.” She managed when she finally stopped laughing, wiping tears of mirth from her cheeks, smiling brightly. “Please tell me what you wish, and if I can grant it, I will.”

“All right then. Well, your Tree is very beautiful even now, and will be more-so when it fully heals, right?”

“Flattery is not needed.” Asha’s already blinding smile broadened. “I am already willing to aid you in any way I can.”

“Right, right.” I scratched my head, embarrassed. “Well, I was wondering if we could add a terrace to the crown of your Tree, a place for us to relax and take in the views over our Territory, while being surrounded by the beautiful smells of your blossoms.” Trying to bring some of the flavour of the Material here is my next long-term goal. Having some sort of café will surely raise the motivation of our troops. Besides, I’d love to show if off to Eri, my sis and even Hinata and the others.

“A terrace?” Asha was puzzled by the term, and I then explained that I wanted to construct a series of wooden platforms along the expansive branches of the crown of her Tree, as well as a staircase up to the top that circled it. I think we could probably use her and Hyacinth to grow one that can expand along with the Tree. It’d be quite the feat.

When I had explained it to her, Asha shrugged. “If it will not hurt my Tree, I will of course consent, as I promised you. You are quite the unusual man, aren’t you? Who would think of using my Tree for this?”

“I believe it would be quite-quite similar to the high-rise restaurants of the Material realm.” Shaeula observed. “I do believe bringing some culture to this Territory would make it much-much more fitting for me. I approve!”

“Of course, if having too many people around your Tree would cause you issues, I can drop it, it’s just a silly idea…”

“Oh, no, I was just surprised. In times past many people visited my grove to bathe in the rich earth energies and see the beautiful flowers and bushes that grew there. I give you my permission.” Asha declared softly.

“Great. In that case…” I sketched out some plans in the dirt, and Hyacinth and Asha began working, while Shaeula and I decided to continue to purify the large barren expanse of her Tree, growing fresh new bark and replacing branches…

********

“And now I’m about done.” I admired our handiwork. Most of the Rhyming Tree had been purged of Myconid spores and the associated fungus now, and only a few areas lacked bark and had dead branches. It was likely that with Asha being herself again, and the earth energies present, the remaining corruption would be purged in time, as without the constant breeze filled with spores, Asha’s nature element would be able to cleanse it.

“I am also rather tired. Still, we have done good-good work.” Shaeula responded, leaning against me, her eyes dull.

“Yeah. And not just us.” In addition to our efforts, Asha and Hyacinth had helped, and also there was now a staircase of wood and vines looping in a spiral around the tree, and a growing wooden platform at the very top. It still needed a lot of work, but would be a pleasant place to relax and enjoy some peace and quiet later. Which we’ll probably need soon… damn, what’s going to happen now?

While I had been working, a strange, ominous feeling had started prickling at the back of my mind, sending a chill down my spine. It was very similar to the workings of Foresight that were foretelling the yakuza attack on Shirohebizumi shrine, if less intense, although it was gradually growing stronger, more pressing. Last time I didn’t take suitable precautions, well I’m not going to make that mistake again. “If only it was possible to know just what danger my Foresight was foretelling, this would be so much easier. Instead, all I get is a feeling some trouble is brewing.” I complained, and Shaeula’s weary eyes shot open.  

“You too?” she asked, surprised. “I have also been feeling rather irritated lately, as if a thorn was niggling at me, digging-digging into my skin. I thought it was merely worry over the Myconids or the Wild Hunt, but perhaps not?”

Yeah, something going wrong attacking the Spring would seem to make the most sense, but then, last time we were at war with Kondou Kazuo and Kiku, yet the premonition of doom was only tangentially related to them, more being about the horrible risk to Kana, Marika-san and the other people at the shrine. My Foresight is a lot higher than Shaeula’s, especially now, yet it seems she picked up on an issue first?

“I see.” I rubbed at her head reassuringly. “Well, let it not be said I don’t learn my lessons. We’ll have a meeting with Ulfuric and our other elites, make them aware there could be danger, and then go over our battle plans for the next stage of our war with the Myconids. If there are any obvious flaws, we can patch them. Oh, and we’ll need to find Azuki too. I know the shrine has Fujiwara Security Services guarding it now, but that doesn’t mean I can be complacent. I’ll need to warn Eri too, make sure she and Aiko aren’t doing anything dangerous, and that our families are safe… damn, when you look at everything, we are spread quite thin.”

“Calm down.” It was Shaeula’s turn to enfold me in a hug, soothing my tempestuous worries. “What will be, shall be. But we are doing all-all we can to make sure our allies are safe. Let everyone share your burden. Together we will make sure-sure nothing terrible happens!”

“Right.” I agreed, returning her embrace. Hyacinth, on seeing our open affection, once more tried to strip her maid clothes and rush me, while Asha watched on with amused interest, her pale skin tinged pink…

********

“… and that’s the general plan for taking out the Myconids. Can anyone see any obvious dangers I’ve missed? So far they’ve acted pretty much as anticipated, and we even manged to escape them with Asha’s Tree. I expect that they’ll be stronger and more numerous around the shrine, but we have the Fae Stone barrier to fall back to, so we can always retreat if we are careful.”

“Hmm.” Ulfuric rumbled, impressed by what we had achieved so far despite his misgivings. Beside him sat Ixitt, who had sat out our last Tree rescue, instead working on creating more ammunition and a better gun. We also had the Kamaitachi, Danaera, Tillyae, the four Kamaitachi and others, forming a war council of sorts.

“I fear you might be underestimating the Myconids. Yes, they are weak individually, as are their plant slaves, assuming you can resist their deadly poisons that have felled all our armies in the past. Even so, numbers can tell. Your rate of growth does astound me, consort, and yours as well, princess, but even you have limits.”

“Besides, it would be remiss of me not to add that just because our gear and your abilities can resist the toxic spores we have been exposed to, that does not mean they do not have other kinds more virulent and deadly we may have lesser defences against. I believe in the protective gear.” Ixitt said proudly. “They are masterful indeed. But even so, I think it wise not to grow overconfident.”

“Yeah. That makes sense. In addition, we saw our first Noble Myconid. Perhaps they have other, more dangerous Myconids and plant-minions we haven’t seen. I wonder if we can get any intel on them from the Seelie Court without causing issues? The more we know, the better we can adapt the plan.”

“It also hinges a lot on the work of Hyacinth.” Ulfuric observed. “I do not claim to understand the concepts involved, but in principle the outcome would be simple enough. You hope that she can turn their strongest weapon against them, thin out their numbers so that you remove the risk of being overwhelmed and can leverage your greater strengths. But if it was to fail, your whole strategy is flawed.”

“Hyacinth will nooot fail!” she promised, looking indignant. “She wants master to reward her, just like mistress prooomised he wooould!”

“Hey, I said I’d think about it.” I protested, but she chose to ignore me. Still, that wasn’t relevant now. “Even if her modifications don’t pan out, we have other options. Sure the forests around the Spring are massive, around the size of Tokyo proper, I’d guess, but with Foehn we could scorch the earth to the hills at the centre, or we could… well, none of the options are good, but we would still win, if given enough time.” I shook my head sadly at all the potential gains we’d lose doing it that way, but the aim was to retake the Spring so Shaeula could accrue the achievements she needed, so if we had to give up benefits, we’d do it. Though the thought of us doing that before this and ending up burning Asha to death is not a pleasant one.

“The longer a battle continues, the more chance your enemy has of countering your plans, or turning the tables on you.” Ulfuric warned. “Do not let your early victories, as impressive as I must admit they are, blind you. Arrogance has been the downfall of many great champions.”

Yeah, I guess that’s true. I do have a tendency to get overconfident when things are going my way. “Yeah, good advice. It’s a weakness of mine I need to work on. So, I’ll listen to what you have to say. Anyway, I think the most likely threat is the Myconids, as you started feeling troubled when we went to the mansion Shaeraggo gave us, right?”

Shaeula nodded. “Indeed. More precisely, ever since the Wild Hunt were defeated, I have had an ominous itch I could not-not scratch. I thought little of it, for we have been doing many-many dangerous tasks. But if it is indeed Foresight, mine, feeble though it is, seems to have-have detected some peril.”

“Interesting that my higher one has only started reacting now. If it is related to the Wild Hunt, that could be a problem. They seem to be able to breach the Seelie Court almost as they please. The last thing we want to do is get dragged into a three-way war between the Seelie, Myconids and Wild Hunt. Still, I think it unlikely. That just doesn’t feel right.” I turned to Azuki then, the little Zashiki-Warashi sitting far away from Hyacinth, kicking her little legs idly. “Azuki, can you pass on a message to Kana, tell her to make sure everyone at the shrine should be careful, and also get her to inform Karen-chan, Hinata and Eri. They can spread the word. I don’t think they are in danger this time, but I don’t want to take any chances with their safety.”

“I’ll do it.” Azuki promised. “That Hinata girl, she has already hassled me about your safety. Congratulations on ensnaring another young girl, master!” she sighed, irritated.

“It isn’t like that, but… in that case, talk to Hinata as well. If her grandfather could liaise with Fujiwara Security, make sure there are no problems and everyone is protected, that would definitely put my mind at ease.”

We continued to discuss possible countermeasures. The Territory itself was pretty safe, and growing stronger all the time, so the danger was likely external. The itchy sensation was rising, growing in intensity, as if the danger was growing. Damn, I wonder how high I’d need to get my Foresight before it actually started giving me hints on just what was going to happen? Or is that impossible? I wish I knew…

********

“Right, so our expansion plan. I want to get everything firmed up before we commit to our war.” I declared to Shaeula and the others. About an astral day had passed in total while we rescued and healed the tree, worked on Asha’s tree, then tried to create countermeasures for this unknown threat. That meant we had resources to spend. I’m not planning on using the blue Etherite though, even if its worth quite a sum. It’ll be another emergency trump card if I need it.

The first thing to do was assess the gains we were making. Now I had my Eye, I was able to divine more detailed information, and on seeing approximate numbers, the benefits of having secured the two Trees was plain to see.

Before now it seemed we were gathering roughly twelve thousand ether from the Territory and its facilities, not counting what ether our expansion was bringing from defeated enemies and smaller Rank 0 Territories we crushed. The breakdown seemed to be somewhat more than half from the Territory itself, while the Ether Spires were bringing in around four thousand a day. A Rank 2 Spire seemed to pull in roughly three-hundred and fifty ether on average, depending on the density of ether around, which was helped by both the Anchor Spires we had built. Then there was the Dark Rhyming Tree, which was functioning as a top-end Rank 3 Ether Spire, generating sixteen hundred ether per day alone!

So that means… Yes, the Earth Rhyming Tree at Rank 3 was doing the same, but more importantly, Asha’s tree… I think I need to sit down… As my eye analysed it, the huge bounty it offered was obscene. Even though it was not yet fully healthy, and so working at a slightly reduced efficiency, it was still bringing in a bit over twenty-thousand ether! Damn, that’s like… nearly double what I was getting before just for one Tree! It seems reasonable that if the numbers increase like they have been, it might reach twenty-five thousand an astral day when the tree is in perfect condition!

“So, let’s see. A Rank 3 Ether Spire costs 75,000, at fifty days and would be 300,000 to rush-build it instantly. It would then generate somewhere around 1,350 ether, but could be as much as 1,600 in the right spots. Then Rank 4 would be 375,000 and take 250 days, with the rush-build costs being in the millions… ugh… we’ve already reached that point in the pay-to-win mobile game where the build queues get loaded and we can’t do anything unless we pay ludicrous sums…” Even so, with Asha’s tree, getting all the Spires to Rank 3 seems doable for now at least, and that would significantly increase our generation and they’d pay for themselves even counting the rush-build costs in a reasonable timeframe. Above that… well, we need to make hard decisions about how to use our queues.

As our Territory expanded we also accrued further ether, although we did have upkeep costs for the barrier, as well as the extra buildings my Territory was accruing. Still, my mind was made up on what the next steps should be. I need to clear the Build Spire queue and one other build queue first…

I could clear the three Barracks Rank 2 upgrades to do that (and the extra forces that would give us to defend our Territory would be a welcome bonus as well) and that would set me back a bit under seventy thousand, which we almost had enough for. But there was no point until we had the extra hundred thousand ether on top of that, as I intended to queue in the Rank 2 Build Queue Anchor Spire, at a hundred thousand ether and fifty astral days. Doing so would deactivate that queue while it was upgrading and tie up the other queue, leaving me with only two again, but long-term the option to build Rank 3 and 4 buildings with the Build Spire Queue would allow me to contemplate Rank 4 Ether Spires and other such luxuries. After all, I have the new Rhyming Trees, which means I can use one queue for costly and slow builds like the Throne of Heroes Rank 2, while I rush-build stuff with the other… I was going to need to improve my Silos as well, it seemed…

Looking up from my contemplations, I addressed Asha hopefully. “I don’t suppose there are any other groves that you think may have survived around the Spring is there? I’d love to liberate them from the oppression of the Myconids.” And plant them here of course. A Rank 5 Ether Spire to match her tree would be 3,750,000 and 2,500 days, and that isn’t even counting the upgrades beforehand!

“There were other Rhyming Trees, those of wind and water, of course. But… I doubt they would have survived.” She said mournfully. “My grove only endured due to the dense earth energies supplying my nature element, and also the unwilling sacrifice of many of my sisters…” her face fell, and I cursed myself for a fool, bringing up her painful memories again.

“Well, we can’t change the past, only live so their sacrifice meant something. So, another better question then… what about the Wild Hunt and the Unseelie? They must have more Rhyming Trees, right?” I grinned greedily. After all, if it takes too long to make Ether Spires, why not go loot some more natural ones?

Ixitt laughed beside me, admiring his new gun, which was a sleek rifle. “I daresay they do indeed have many trees. Stealing them would be quite the impossible task though. No-one even knows where the Wild Hunt truly dwells, and Pandemonium, the heart of the Unseelie Court… well, if you set foot there, you would surely die.”

“Indeed. Pandemonium will fall one day.” Shaeula agreed. “But not-not yet, for we are nowhere near strong enough to take on the Dark-Dark Queen of the Unseelie and her traitorous followers. For now, the Myconids come first.”

“I will always follooow you wherever you gooo, master!” Hyacinth affirmed. “Though Hyacinth remembers the Dark Court. It is… nooot nice there. Master should stay here. I will hold you clooose and comfort you, cook for you, clean the house, wash yooour back…”

“Grul says be silent. Grul is eager to continue crushing the worthless fungi. No more distractions!”

On seeing everyone ready and eager for the next stage of our battles, I shrugged. “All right then. Yeah, it’s time to go. Hyacinth, now is your time to shine. We’ve done all we can to prepare for trouble, so we can fight with all we have.” Entering the Ring Gate we were engulfed in red light, and as we emerged in the Seelie Court once more, that foreboding feeling only intensified…