If it had been anybody else in Percy’s boots, they might have found the giant tortoise a challenging opponent. Hidden within its fortress of a shell, they would have likely needed to somehow bait it into extending its limbs and its head out of their chitinous shelter before they could land a hit.

Luckily, this wasn’t much of an issue for a soul-user like him.

A flock of burning scythes was about to cleave right through the monster when a complication emerged. As the weapons spun mere metres from the beast’s vulnerable soul, an elephant-sized bird flew between them, chased by three more avian creatures. Under any other circumstances, Percy would have continued with his attack regardless, happy to take another opponent down with the tortoise. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an option right now, as the bird in question was none other than his own familiar.

‘Damn it, Micky! Watch where you’re going!’

Percy was forced to steer some of the constructs out of their original path, while shattering the few closest to the crow so that they wouldn’t injure him. Micky didn’t have it easy either, as he was close enough for the tortoise to nearly snap its reptilian beak at his wing. He was forced to fly out of the way clumsily, crashing on the ground.

At the same time, one of Micky’s pursuers – a large eagle-like beast with an even larger wingspan than him – shifted its sights to Percy, probably thinking he would be an easier target. Its long talons dug where he had previously stood, barely missing him by a couple of feet as he moved out of the way.

Granted, the situation wasn’t that dire.

Percy and Micky didn’t have much trouble regaining their footing and making quick work of all four of the beasts – and all the others stupid enough to attack them. Yet, that didn’t change the fact that their blunder just now could have cost them dearly.

About half an hour later, Percy split the last of the creatures’ souls in half, before plopping down on the mountain of giant carcasses. Micky landed nearby, strolling around the ravaged battlefield in search of cores still in a decent enough condition for him to eat.

‘Well, that was pretty embarrassing.’ Zoris suddenly said.

Percy sighed.

‘Tell me about it… I guess we could use a little more practice before we leave the Valley.’

Strictly speaking, Percy and Micky were more than strong enough to handle a beast wave by themselves right now. They’d deliberately held back earlier, as they had focused on practicing their coordination.

In theory, Soul Harmony allowed them to keep both of their connections in their empowered states effortlessly, giving them constant awareness of each other’s location, and even the ability to share their senses freely.

Sadly, that was too much information for them to process as they fought.

Percy already had his hands full with all the complicated facets of his boosting art – from the circulating mana to the projections produced by his eyes, and all the constructs he had to command. Micky had it a little easier because he had a clone helping him, but the crow also had his fair share of spells gnawing at his attention. He also hadn’t fought any difficult battles in a long time, so his senses had dulled a little.

The fact that Percy’s fighting style involved countless spinning scythes flying over the battlefield didn’t help, as they frequently collided with the crow. Micky’s ice projectiles inhibited his own mobility too, albeit more rarely.

Regardless of the reason, the two kept getting in each other’s way.

It was quite disheartening, because there were so many more things Percy wanted to test. They had yet to try controlling each other’s spells or fusing their affinities. Yet, here they were, still stuck at the first step.

But he shook his head a second later.

‘Oh well… It’s probably best that we temper our expectations...’

Hoping to master everything in a couple of months had been unreasonable to begin with. For now, they should probably focus on not getting each other killed. The rest they could figure out later.

Either way, Percy had already decided to leave the Valley a couple of weeks from now. It had already been around two months since Acton’s death, so half a week should have passed for the rest of Remior. This was already getting pretty dangerous. If the Root had any way to tell when a Holy Child died, it wouldn’t be long before the news reached the guards stationed outside.

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‘Where are we even going?’ Micky asked.

Percy grinned.

‘How would you feel about returning to the Fungal Spire?’

‘Seriously?! Can we even do that?’

Micky asked, his voice incredulous.

Percy shrugged.

‘Not right now. We’d have to pass over many populated areas, and near the headquarters of several noble Houses. We’d definitely get killed. But the Spire is our eventual target, so keep that in mind.’

While Percy didn’t lack elixirs at the moment, he was still quite interested in getting himself his private source of nectar. It would give him the option of just hiding in some corner of the world for a thousand years until everyone had long forgotten him, quietly producing his own elixirs and sending out his clones. Even if he was forced to flee Remior at some point, he might be able to take the wasp with him.

And that was without considering what alchemical insights he could gain in the process. Perhaps a second core or the wasp’s mutations would open new doors for him, giving him a way to advance faster. No matter how he looked at it, creating a wasp familiar was arguably the most profitable venture he could possibly embark on while still on Remior, so he was going to work on it at his own pace.

‘Then what are we doing until then?’ Micky asked again.

‘Well, the whole planet is about to be furious over Acton’s death, and you’re basically impossible to hide, so I expect a lot of people to come after us. Our first priority is to survive and lose our pursuers.’

‘Can we even handle something like that?’

‘Hopefully.’ Percy said, before elaborating. ‘Nobody will bother sending any Greens, as it would be suicide for them. I believe they still won’t send Violets or Whites either though, because those people are busy leading their Houses. So, it’s only going to be Blues… And I think we can just about deal with them.’

Percy wasn’t arrogant enough to think he could suddenly defeat any Blue just because he’d taken Acton down. He knew there were much stronger people around. But he was confident he and Micky could escape from most of them.

‘For the time being, we’ll head north. There are more unpopulated areas there. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’ll be safe. Many of those areas fall under the jurisdiction of a noble House – some even belong to House Ypnos. And who knows what sort of trackers they might send after us. But we’ll do our best to ditch the people chasing us – or kill them, if it comes to that – and find some corner to hide. If we’re discovered, we’ll just run to a different spot. Rinse and repeat.’

It was far from ideal – obviously – but Percy had prepared himself for this eventuality since the day Acton captured his familiar. He’d known Micky would have never been free as long as the Green-born drew breath, and that people wouldn’t stay quiet after the Holy Child’s death, so their fates had been set in stone all along.

That said, he was confident they could salvage the situation. They were strong enough to take care of themselves. They just needed to buy as much time as they could, to grow even stronger.

‘How long are we going to keep that up?’ Micky asked, clearly not entirely convinced.

Percy shrugged.

‘As long as we need. We aren’t in a rush this time. We’ll build up our strength and hone our spells until we’re ready to infiltrate the Spire. Anyway, waiting is good for us. If we’re lucky, the commotion will die down a little after a while, making our lives easier.’

Even before Nesha and Elaine left the group, Percy had had enough elixir to last everyone for nearly six years. Now that his friends had left most of their share behind, he and Micky would have enough Aurora Dew for over a decade. He didn’t think it would take that long to complete his current projects, but his clones were bound to bring him more things by then. He and Micky would likely loot more elixir from their enemies too, so the entire timeline was quite flexible. Percy would work on whatever made the most sense at any given time, until he deemed himself ready to commence his mission.

‘But even if we grow strong enough to beat a bunch of Blues without issue, how will we invade the Guild? I thought they had five Violets stationed there!’

Percy nodded. Indeed, he didn’t think it would be easy to surpass a Violet in so little time, let alone a whole group of them. As for his next promotion, it was over a century away. But this wasn’t a problem.

‘Who said anything about invading the Guild? All we need is a wasp egg. We just need to fly to the top of the Spire and kill a Starry Commander on the fifth level. I’ll shove a clone in its body and we’ll have it steal an egg for us from the hive. Meanwhile, we’ll escape and return later to collect our prize. We’ll be in and out before those geezers even realize what’s going on.’

Of course, that didn’t mean it would be easy. There were several problems Percy would have to solve before then. They’d need to get strong enough to take down a Blue beast quickly, and he’d have to get even faster at preparing his clones.

Even if that worked, convincing a Starry Commander to not only let him possess it, but to also steal an egg from its mother would be a whole other challenge. The Orange and Yellow wasps Percy had fought before had been dumb enough, but the Blues wouldn’t be.

And all of this was assuming they even survived until then. Either way, it was too early to be thinking about the details of their plan. At the rate he was improving, Percy had no idea what he’d even be capable of when the time came.

‘Sounds good, but what are you going to do if the gods lose their patience and chase you down directly?’ Zoris suddenly asked.

Percy frowned. This was the possibility he was afraid of the most. Or rather, it was what he had been afraid of for years– ever since he decided to go against the Divine Root in the first place. He still didn’t know why the gods had let him be this long either. Perhaps, they just couldn’t be bothered to get their hands dirty with mortal affairs, or maybe there was a voice of reason advocating on his behalf within their ranks. Whatever the case, he’d be a fool to take this for granted now that he’d killed a couple of Holy Children.

‘If it comes to that, we only have two options. Either I try to negotiate with them on the basis of my bloodline, or we escape to the Vault.’

Percy wasn’t happy with either choice, but there was nothing more he would be able to do in that scenario…