Chapter Forty-One

Elysia surveyed her surroundings, finding nothing but dull gray stone leading up to a towering mountain. Lightning of random colors struck all over, filling the air with lightning essence. So much lightning essence that she felt her body recharge at a rapid pace.

Within a few seconds of standing, she gained almost a thousand charge. Despite its ugly appearance, this place was a perfect environment for a lightning elemental. Personally, she would prefer a forest-covered mountain, but the lightning had a pretty look to it.

Purring to her right drew her attention down at Ione, who had her head pointed toward the sky, eyes closed as she basked in the lightning. Elysia didn’t need her bond to tell her Ione enjoyed the environment. If she were to close her eyes, she couldn’t deny how nice it felt either.

Before beginning her journey, Elysia remained where she was, letting her charge fill only to freeze then break out in a grin as notifications began to flow in every couple of seconds.

Max Charge +1

Max Charge +1

Max Charge +1

It was tempting to take her time. She didn’t even need to do anything to grow. As she let her charge tick upward, she checked her bond with Sereia, only to gasp when she found she was well over 10,000 kilometers away.

Then a moment later, the distance shrunk to only a couple thousand kilometers, likely because her sister received the same portal treatment she did. Hopefully, it was to a perfect environment for her.

Unlike last time a great distance separated them, her bond remained strong enough for her to send images. She took advantage of the boon, sending a series of images relaying her current location.

A few seconds later, she received a similar status update from Sereia displaying some underwater cavern and a confirmation of the space elemental giving her a similar quest. There must be a divine vault for every type of elemental, or at least the major ones. He did mention that divine elementals used to rule. Maybe these vaults were remnants of that era. All the more reason to keep whatever was inside away from undeserving hands.

Elysia began walking, only to stop when she realized she was still barefoot. Upon glancing down, she released a groan. Why did she think it was a good idea to leave her armor in the penthouse?

She should have known better. Something crazy always happened. Fortunately, the stone was smooth, and it wasn’t like she had fragile human skin any longer. Still, to avoid any unnecessary injuries, she glanced at Ione, who was still basking in the lightning essence.

A quick image broke Ione from her trance. Rapid-fire images filled with excitement bombarded Elysia as Ione lowered herself to allow Elysia easy mounting.

Elysia obliged, immediately noticing a difference upon sitting on Ione. The feline felt slightly bigger than last time, though it had been a while since the last time she rode Ione.

Hopefully, Ione didn’t grow much bigger. Soon she would be too big to ride or even fit through doors.

Once sure her mother was comfortable, they took off in a sprint up the mountain, blurring past several creatures of lightning. If it weren’t for the growing potency of the lightning essence, it would’ve been tempting to hunt the lightning attuned creatures. Though it wouldn’t have been much of a hunt when both of them were immune to lightning, at least lightning those creatures were capable of using.

Soon the notifications increased to +2 Max Charge, sending warm tingles through Elysia’s body. It wouldn’t take her long to return to 10,000 Max Charge. Maybe she could consolidate her lightning again. This was the perfect environment for that.

Nothing really stood out to the duo as they climbed the lightning scorched mountain. The lightning essence increased in potency and the amount of creatures roaming grew in numbers, but like when Sereia swam under Mezo, every creature avoided them, whether out of fear or respect she didn’t know.

Despite finding several ledges perfect for a break, they continued to push forward full of energy as the lightning refilled them faster than they used it.

As they climbed, Elysia noticed Ione grew a couple of centimeters. Fortunately, several minutes later, the growth seemed to plateau at least physically, causing Elysia to sigh in relief.

Magically, however, Ione’s aura continued to grow. It didn’t have the overwhelmingly oppressive feel that hers or Sereia’s had, probably because she didn’t have divinity of her own only borrowed but her appearance more than made up for it.

Hopefully, in the future, they could find divinity for her. Ione was a fearsome feline, but it was mostly because of her powerful body, not her magic. She was the opposite of them, but that was a good thing. Neither she nor Sereia had much in the way of physical attacks, after all.

Even though they traveled faster than a human eye could follow practically a violet blur, they only reached the halfway point after running for at least 10 minutes, though without a watch it was hard to know.

At that point, her max charge increased by five every couple of core pulses. Upon checking her max charge, she found it reached 12,000, tempting her to consolidate again. It wouldn’t hurt to have stronger lightning in case they faced something further up. There had to be something guarding such an amazing treasure.

Who needed some divine vault when she could hang out on the mountain until she became super powerful? There had to be a limit, though. Otherwise, every elemental living in an environment perfectly suited for them would be unbeatable.

Maybe they were. She doubted every elemental had the honor of visiting the mountain, so only the upper echelon had the advantage. None of the elementals she faced other than the space elemental and earth elemental were all that strong. Her experiences could be skewed from facing some cannon fodder.

All the more reason to improve her lightning when she had the chance. Elysia pointed at a small ledge while sending an image of what she planned to do to Ione.

Of course Ione obliged, taking a sharp turn to the right, then slowing to a stop on the indicated ledge before lowering herself to allow Elysia an easy dismount.

However, instead of climbing off, Elysia simply closed her eyes and pushed her lightning threads together consolidating her lighting in record time.

User’s split core has been consolidated. +50 Divine lightning, Lightning affinities, -50% Max Charge.

As a side effect, the aura bursting out of Elysia absorbed into Ione, shooting up the feline’s strength as well.

A series of rapid-fire images telling her mother what her aura did caused Elysia to pause before she calibrated her body. She waited several seconds until Ione’s aura growth calmed before calibrating her body, worried her divine aura would draw attention to them.

That plan at least in part failed, as Ione’s aura gained a divine tinge of its own. It was far from the divine potency of her own aura, but it was definitely noticeable.

So much for taking the stealth route, not that they had much chance of that in the first place. There was next to no cover, even if they hid their auras. She wouldn’t be surprised if whatever lived further up already knew of their presence. All the more reason to improve herself as fast as she could.

Elysia glanced at her Max Charge, finding it at about 6500 causing her to wince. Cutting her Max Charge by 30% hurt but 50% could be disastrous.

Maybe they should stay where they were for a little longer to bring herself back to at least 10,000. It might not be a good idea to consolidate at the lower limit, especially since her Max Charge dropped by a higher percent this time.

What if it dropped by 70% next time? She should wait until she reached 20,000 max charge to consolidate again. If she could consolidate again.

Out of curiosity, she tried to activate the lightning form once more but yet again it failed, proving she had further to go before her lightning was pure enough. Her eyes widened upon checking the steady stream of notifications.

Max Charge +15

It was +5 before her consolidation. Did that mean the lower her max charge was, the faster it grew? That could explain why lightning elementals living on the mountain weren’t gods.

Though a lack of divine essence might also limit them. She didn’t know enough to know for sure, but it didn’t make sense. There was probably some upper limit.

Even then, it was an amazing environment. She could play with her lightning to her heart’s content and recharge in a matter of minutes. It would take an extreme output of lightning to run her dry with how much essence flowed in.

To prove her theory, once she reached 8000 Max Charge, the growth dropped to +10, then back to +5 at 10000.

Once she reached 10,000, they continued on their journey, both much stronger than they were before they stopped.

Unfortunately, their easy travel ground to a halt about two-thirds up the mountain. A grand villa stuck out the side of the mountain, prompting them to circle around only to find it wasn’t a single villa but instead a massive complex running the entire circumference of the mountain, blocking further travel without entering. That was the point.

Elysia expanded her senses but before she could pinpoint anything, she received images from Ione detailing several elementals residing within. Far too few for such a massive complex, but enough that they weren’t sure they could sneak through.

After a moment of thought, Elysia shrugged her shoulders. They probably knew they were coming a long time ago. There was no point in hiding. According to Ione, they seemed evenly spread out, as if to guard the complex from every direction, which proved her theory.

Since stealth was out that circled around the complex until they found a massive gate on an artificial-looking ledge. Of course, that gate was closed, but upon nearing, it opened so silently she almost thought the gate was an illusion.

They stopped in front of the open gate, trying to decide if they wanted to enter. It screamed a trap, but they doubted they could break in without setting off some other trap.

Besides, according to Ione, none of the elementals within were anywhere near the strength they possessed. In fact, Ione graded their combined tastiness as lower than the space elemental.

That didn’t mean they were harmless, though. She was sure they had some trick up their sleeves. Maybe some defense system though as lightning elementals the defense systems may not work on them. With such a strict hierarchy, why would they create systems to counter their own race?

Despite not believing her thoughts, they ventured forward through the gate, which slid closed the moment they stepped inside.

Several seconds passed as they surveyed the boring gray walls of what appeared to be some outer courtyard before Ione tensed, then relayed images displaying the elementals turning on one another, with one side quickly dispatching the other.

The dozens of elementals dropped to only ten before the chaos calmed. Said remaining elementals rushed through the complex toward them, prompting Elysia to ready her lightning.

Before they entered the courtyard from another gate, they organized themselves, then calmly entered.

Confusion reigned as the first thing they did upon opening the gate was bow deeply auras subdued, as if they submitted themselves to Elysia and Ione.

The strongest among them was a slender woman, who raised first and approached, only to stop several meters away to keep a respectful distance. “It is an honor to meet your divine highness.”

Elysia’s essence jumped with joy, but Elysia internally groaned. Wonderful, more fanatical elementals.

At least they weren’t hostile. Though she just about wished they were, it would make things so much simpler.