Bonded Summoner - Book 5. Chapter 6: Array

Everyone was about to file out of the room after some small conversation and putting on clothes, when Berri asked, “What happened to that array thingy? Are we going to use that now?”

Fhesiah hummed. “I suppose my tempering was a success, and I’m confident we’ll be able to continue this way for some time. This was only a Tier 1 Manual, but even if not optimized exactly at the second Tier, it should still have some effect using higher Tier energies. I should be able to alter it for my Cultivator Core, or we can hope that this is how the Framework might help us. If Jake receives an ability, you’d think with how he’s linked to us, it should aid each of us in some way.”

She retrieved the original Body-tempering manual, and handed it to Jake. The girls all gathered around to watch, as he retrieved the special item from his storage bracelet.

He activated the strange item on the manual, the golden light of the Framework descending on it. Golden hexagons enveloped the manual, until it shifted and became a proper Framework skill book.

[Body and Soul Tempering Manual: Chaotic Voidborne Soul Harmonization]

[Uses yin and yang energies from loved ones to temper the void body and both harmonize and temper the soul. Requires a strict balance to properly temper both the body and soul.]

The resident speed reader, Fhesiah, took the manual and flipped through it. The pages moved faster than Jake could even follow, but she was only scanning the words with her divine sense as they flew by.

Judging by how her smile went wide as she did, he knew that the general spirit of the tempering manual stayed the same.

She had only worked through about half of it, and she closed it, becoming thoughtful and pausing for a moment.

“This is good! I’m just thinking of how I should apply it to me. You can still temper and harmonize with us all as planned, but I am just concerned your void lungs and cells will strip some of what I need away. Since it worked well even as it was, I have some hope still!”

Fhesiah smirked. “I’m willing to give it a try, as many times as it takes! We’ll get it right, eventually.”

Berri clapped. “Yay! It’s still leveling up from breeding? I like smashing bad guys, but that’s even better!”

Tanda’s tail was wagging a little. “That sounds like fun! S-Still, my death is yin right? Where do we get yang? I guess, my auril is more life energy, or something?”

Ophelia frowned, as she wondered what this meant for her. She didn’t have yin energy, or yang. Mana was neutral by default.

As Fhesiah had flipped through the book, the gist that Jake gathered as it raced by in her mind was a large portion of the guidance for Jake was on using his void lungs. The technique’s purpose was a lot like how she drove her end of the tempering.

Only now he would be doing that, with his void lungs and cells and harmonizing with his bloodline. In a sense, he would lean on his bloodline to become more like the creature, to enhance his traits. Much of the technique was the same, aside from this.

The book was chock-full of information about various yin and yang energies and balancing them, and Jake could tell this manual had immense practical value. Like the [Advanced Energy Manipulation] manual, much could be learned about the multiverse just from the information contained inside.

Fhesiah nodded at Jake’s thoughts. “I’ll work on transcribing the information, at least, for Amara, when I’m not busy. Still, there is a problem.” She focused on Ophelia.

“W-What, this isn’t some sex thing, is it? I told you–”

“It is, but it isn’t. The technique explicitly states that balance is required. I am balanced by myself–or rather, I hope to be soon. So is Blood and Berri, why, they are as balanced as they come. That leaves…”

Fhesiah focused on Tanda and Ophelia.

Tanda could see where this was going. “Sister, just because we are both going to mate with Jake, doesn’t mean we have to do something together! I don’t mind if you’re there… Oh! Maybe we can just put in curtains in the room–and, maybe, use earbuds, or something?”

Ophelia smiled at Tanda trying to be so accommodating for her. “It’s not that I find being with Jake and you gross or anything, it’s just that I prefer my time with him to be private. For Jake and you, I can do it, sister. You don’t need to go that far. But, that isn’t the only problem…”

Fhesiah nodded. “That’s right. You see, right now, it’s like this.”

[Fhesiah: Yang Body/Energy, Yin Body/Energy]

[Bloodberri: Chaos (Chimeral) Body, Yin/Yang Soul]

[Tanda: High Vitality/Life (Yang) Body, Death (Yin) Soul]

[Ophelia: Neutral Body, Neutral Soul/Energy.]

[Jake: Void Body, Yin/Yang Soul]

“Ideally, to match well with Tanda, you would need a yin body and a yang soul to contribute properly. You see, if you try to gather energy for the technique, it’s not just that you won’t temper yourself–it’s that the energy gets altered in some way as it passes through you.”

She continued, “But not being tempered will eventually put you out of balance with Jake. It’s true that, for a while, you may be able to use Hestia’s flames to take part in the technique–by transforming your mana into it. However, as his body and soul is tempered and yours is not, he will advance and require more and more energies to continue. Eventually, those energies will be too much and destroy you.”

Fhesiah let that hang there for a moment. It was a sobering thought. Fhesiah added, “I think the body issue can be overcome with a more generic manual, at least for a time. For example, from the contribution store–”

She was interrupted by a notification.

[Message from Goddess received. Please visit a shrine of Hestia as soon as possible.]

A collective sigh of relief came from Jake and all his girls.

Berri looked toward the entrance to Hestia’s shrine. “What a relief. You guys work on fixing too many problems already. It’d be nice if they can help, Lia!”

Blood hummed. “The timing seemed by design. Come to think of it, the date for our meeting with the gods is nigh. It was a tentative timeframe, and we are not far off from it.”

They all left and filed into the shrine. As soon as they entered, Hestia descended into the statue.

“Greetings, Hart Family, and Welcome, Tanda! It is a pleasure to finally meet you, in a sense. Of course, I know so much about you already, and I’m so glad you ended up joining the Hart family!”

Tanda’s tail was wagging as she smiled brightly. “Thanks, Hestia! It’s nice to meet you, too!”

Hestia continued, “Now, as you have guessed, we may be able to address your imbalance issues. We didn’t want you to jump the gun, as it were. It was a little bit of a surprise that the seal was broken so soon, and broken where it was. Odin expected it to break at the second Tier, perhaps during combat. So your cultivator wife caused an unforeseen…consequence.”

Now Tanda was worried. “It’s not bad, is it?”

Hestia sighed. “It’s not all good. While it might help you in the conflict to come, when Tartarus sees your strength it is going to paint an even larger target on your back. We would have liked it to remain hidden a little while longer.”

Jake asked, “Can you tell me anything about it? My…ancestors?”

“It’s more or less as you guessed, to an extent. Your great-grandmother was visited by the creature of the void. Seeking a special connection to the tangible dimension and world of Earth, it created a very human-like form, fell in love, and had a child. The reality is, it was more like a man-shaped beast. It left nearly as quickly as it arrived.”

She continued, “Not all that special sounding, but it was. For Earth, a Tier 0 world, the creature had to break in through the Framework’s protections. This is an extremely rare event, probably happening less than once a millennium on similar worlds, let alone while being compatible or actually having and leaving a child.”

Jake realized that a void creature being so attracted to Earth and some woman would in fact be quite rare. But it was both a relief and a little disappointing that his situation was so…mundane. On the other hand, it meant he kind of had a father out there?

“It is out there, somewhere. Perhaps, one day you could meet it, but even we don’t know where it lurks. Back to the original topic, we shall meet as planned tomorrow. A demigod’s party and various other warriors and allied Divine from your Sector will be there. Brother Guan Yu and his allies would like to meet you with an offer to be your mentors. If you accept, they shall spend a bit of time with you.”

Sensing Jake’s questions, Hestia continued, “There are few downsides to the meeting, as they have paid the Price to both be present but also meet with you–we will only be there as mental projections, rather than there in truth. As for the Mentorship, If they weren’t trusted, they could gather unlimited information about you. In addition, while they wouldn’t be able to directly harm you, they could cause you to walk down a harmful path.”

Jake understood what she was saying. A malicious party could find all of Jake’s weaknesses, or even create some with poor guidance. Then, the mind is not something that the Framework protected. He was sure some form of hypnotism or suggestions could get through its protections in some way.

Hestia continued, “Later, once this world has completed its Trial and they could meet you in person, they could also provide items that could harm you. The Framework’s protections lift further as you rise in Tier, and there is a lot more out there that is not easily quantified than just the cultivator’s mysterious magics. The mind is a good example of this.”

“Now, your choice of Tanda the Ravenwolf for your Hearth Bond has changed the balance of your family. We–as in, those most trusted within my Pantheon, have long since been guiding your family towards a proper balance. Because of that, Athena might not be the best option for Ophelia any longer.”

There was a near collective frown on Jake’s family at the idea that these many gods and goddesses have had an influence on their families, but Hestia laughed.

“I suppose depending on how you look at it, that sounds a bit weird, yes? Fhesiah, you are not the only one who likes to play matchmaker. Of course, there was always free will involved, just as there is with you choosing to become the Champion of us Gods and Goddesses; us Divine. Do you have to? Of course not. There are other options, even for your current predicament. However, if you seek power, it is the quickest path to it. Not only from the immediate enhancement, but each Trial you win will be more challenging, and the reward should you succeed will increase your potential even further. To reach your ultimate potential, there is no superior path.”

She continued, “Of course, before you even arrived on Highlands, I knew Tanda was a likely choice for you. But that didn’t mean you were hers, or that things would have worked out. Fortune and fate are unpredictable. If you hadn’t expended effort with the censers, or if Tanda hadn’t seen Berri feeding the children, she may have remained antagonistic of you for longer, and been less decisive with Aisling’s message. Long enough that events might not have happened as they did. The entire fate of the world could have changed.”

If Jake hadn’t been right where he was on the offensive, they wouldn’t have seen the portal near Vesuvius’ hidden tribe. They would have been met and converted by the betrayers, most likely. On top of dozen butterfly effects all over Highlands, Cernunnos fading away was probably the most significant.

Fhesiah asked, “I take it Bastet is still the best option for me? Why is Athena not the best option for Ophelia?”

Hestia replied, “That’s right. You resonate well with Bastet, and I think she will help you achieve a wonderful balance. In general, we Divine are quite varied. Dualities and Multiplicities are common among us, but there are plenty that are focused on a singular area. The other Divine beside myself and Odin merely understood your balance was important, which is a common path to Divinity.”

Jake’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but he realized that Hestia was right. Many gods and goddesses among various myth had dualities and multiplicities. Multiple heads, multiple personalities, a balance of light and dark, creation and destruction, and more.

The idea that they would understand Jake’s path or otherwise may have some kind of requirement for balance wasn’t all that strange. However, it left him with an odd realization.

“You and the other Divine are expecting for us to strive for divinity?”

She chuckled. “Of course, the Framework and us Divine’s goals are to make all warriors, especially Champions, capable of reaching divinity. Few warriors make it all the way to the fourth Tier, it would be a terrible thing for of those, few were actually able to reach the final stages to aid in facing the great enemy. In the Core Sectors where knowledge is more available, it’s much more common for one’s Path to be plotted out early, almost from birth.”

Fhesiah whistled. “Sounds a lot like how high-Tier cultivators will plan the lives of their offspring.”

Hestia replied, “That’s right. Now, for Athena, her divinity is what many might consider a net neutral. She embodies creation and destruction in nearly equal measure, and so she should have been easy to balance with your final party member, just about no matter who it was.”

Hestia focused on Ophelia, “But it wasn’t just the choice of Tanda for your family. You embraced the path of a loyal guardian, and that lead Athena to not be the best choice for you. Then, another option just became more fitting on our side. We could make Athena work for your current problem, but Guan Yu is much more fitting. And, a unique opportunity.”

Yiming had mentioned that Guan Yu was approaching Godhood when they met. The details were blurry for Jake even after having read the book on Champions. The premise was that somewhere around mid to peak Tier 4, a Champion could leave the service of the god or goddess, and take a portion of the Divine Sparks they earned for themselves.

Using this, they could form a Nascent Divinity. It would start by them essentially becoming their own Chosen Hero, and they would earn Divine Sparks and other components until they ascended to the 5th Tier, becoming a God in truth–Eternal.

During their time as a Nascent Divinity, they could create Champions at this time to earn sparks at the cost of one, and could have followers in their faith empowering them and gaining faith energy as well. Of course, the specific details on this were miles away from what Jake could get information on, but this was well known as the high-level overview.

Jake looked over Ophelia. Thinking about it, he did think what he knew about Guan Yu was very fitting for her, drawing various parallels. Guan Yu was known for his profound loyalty and courage, at least within the Three Kingdoms story.

The story itself was romanticized, so all the events within the story might not have been real; it was not a true historical document, detailing true happenings. However, there were multiple instances where the powerful warrior and general’s loyalty was tested by others, the many Lords and Generals wanting him for their armies. But they were always rebuffed–his loyalty and courage for his Lord Liu Bei was known to be unmatched.

Hestia continued, “The unique opportunity here, Jake, is that by Ophelia becoming the Champion for a Demigod within your Sector, your family can more greatly influence the outcome of the War for Ownership of it. By empowering Guan Yu, you can ensure he has the strength necessary for victory. Then, Ophelia will actually be among his first Champions. Becoming a Chosen for him is not impossible.”

Jake frowned. Having his wife be a Chosen of some other guy–

Hestia chuckled. “I can see how that might be concerning. There are certainly Chosen that are close to their Divine in terms of relationship, but it’s far more common for them not to be. There will be no expectations of her in that regard, and Guan Yu will have no power over her. It is a business relationship if that’s what they both want it to be, and I know that to be the case for her just as well as you do. I also know that he is making his offer because he respects her loyalty to you. Her resonance with him is high because of this, and for her to break that loyalty for another would completely destroy her value.”

He supposed that was enough for him, the idea that she would break her loyalty for another man would make her worthless in Guan Yu’s eyes was a similar thing for Jake. Jake valued his women’s loyalty heavily.

Jake asked, “Is the mentorship offer separate from the Champion one?”

“It is. As I’ve stated, you have always had a choice, and you always will. I want those in my service to be like family, always looking out for one another’s interests, but also there to help when they are in need. In the background, I have taken many offers from within my Pantheon, and presented you with what I consider the best ones. Not only for your personal futures; your paths. But also your party as a whole, while balancing the impact on the Great War. This was also considering your personal circumstances, Jake.”

Tanda interrupted, “Oh, what about the Heart of the World?”

Hestia chuckled. “That was a big surprise! While I certainly hoped she would be interested, mutual attraction is probably just as capricious as fortune and fate itself! I can’t say much as I am limited, but me hoping for it should be enough, yes?”

Berri said, “That’s great! I want to see her again. She needs to get started on our castle.”

Jake chuckled. He supposed that giving details about another party, especially a world involved in the conflict was a sort of limitation. Still, he had witnessed the Heart of the World. Like several of his wives, she certainly had a duality going on with her, of life and death.

Of course, fitting into their current family was important. He certainly thought she was beautiful too, but so what? He already had a shape-changing wife that could even create illusions of anything he wanted to see, most likely. Jake was spoiled for diversity even among his wives, he had a hard time imagining desiring another for himself.

Adding a woman to his family for power or safety was also a little more…business than he liked. He was sure he would do it, but wasn’t his party already full? Each girl he added would mean less time for his current girls, who already couldn’t get enough attention.

Then, his Hearth Bonds, should he really add another to that? Could he even add a woman that was also somehow a planet to it?

Hestia chuckled again. “Your devotion to your current wives is commendable, Jake. You should know that your lack of desire is influenced by your bloodline though, so do keep that in mind. You are only interested in powerful emotional connections, and while you have desires, this profound need mutes them. Now, I am sure you will get to meet her again in the future, and then you can see if you can find harmony and truly fit one another as always.”

Jake and his girls were shocked at this revelation. Thinking on it, even back on Earth, he had always sought a deep attachment rather than a simple one. Now that he had what he always desired, it was hard for him to desire something more.

This explained why he was primarily driven by his wives’ desires, rather than his own. The idea that his bloodline drove him more than himself then started to bother him. Suddenly, he felt helpless, and his fists clenched in frustration.

His girls all gathered around him, leaning and hugging into him, but it was Hestia that spoke.

Hestia focused on Jake. “You are more than just your bloodline, Jake. There are many types of attachments you could have fixated on, but you chose family, deep down to your very soul. From power through dominance, to social attachments and leadership, you could have strived for many types of relationships. Instead, what resonated with you was family.”

She continued, “Now, think about Guan Yu’s offer, you may give him both answers after you meet him. We shall meet tomorrow, a sort of informal party and meeting among the Divine within this Sector, those that are my trusted friends. Just come to this shrine at the appointed hour, and your mind will go on a journey. I will make sure you are dressed to impress.”

Hestia’s spirit left the statue, leaving them standing in the shrine. They had already learned a bit about this Guan Yu, but they would learn more before they met tomorrow.

Fhesiah was excited. “Oh, this should be a lot of fun! Hmm, should I go as a Dragoness or a Kitsune, I wonder?”

Ophelia said, “I am a little worried about meeting them, but also excited. The idea we’ll meet a ton of great warriors is neat. I’m sure if Hestia thinks Guan Yu is good for us, then things should be fine, but we’ll do our due diligence on it.”

Tanda said, “I wonder what our mentor will be like. I already have a lot to learn from you guys as it is!”

Fhesiah chuckled. “That’s true, but this seems to be a much more long term guidance. These people are near the peak of the fourth Tier, and much more qualified to guide us on our chosen paths.”

Jake nodded. “Guan Yu and his party if they are all from Earth should be at least two thousand years old. I could understand they likely have many subordinates and understand many paths, having fought thousands upon thousands of enemies. Perhaps millions.”

Blood was a lot more excited than Jake had even realized, having a beautiful proud smile. “I am excited to meet the various Divine and important people of the Sector. Berri and I couldn’t get the time of day from the Dark Goddesses, and now many Divine are taking time to meet us. We are more important than I ever imagined, and it’s all thanks to Lord Husband for summoning us.”

Jake felt a wave of pride and joy coming from Blood over their bond, the happiness for their long list of accomplishments transferring over to him. “You girls have earned it. We’ve all come a long way.”

Ophelia began equipping her armor. “Well, it’s about time we get to it for the day, don’t you think? We must clear as many Rifts as we can, and buy our allies some leeway for while we’re gone.”

Everyone quickly got ready. It was time to work.