(I'm increasingly getting everything squared away, but I'm afraid there's going to be one last hiatus at some point due to events stacking up in my schedule. It'll be forewarned and I'll try to push it to a point without a major cliffhanger. Other than that, we're moving toward the climactic sequence.
It should work out so nobody has to pay for part of a month, people will get a full month and then more as a free bonus. This is presuming a charge at the beginning of the month, which Patreon doesn't guarantee anymore, but I'm trying to make things fair as thanks for everyone's support.)
At first Kai had thought that a plan to take down an Insanity was absurd, but he'd begun to change his mind even by the time they returned to Omilaena's camp. It included Troulon, which didn't surprise him given their history together, and Gorutiel, who was completely out of left field.
"Look at this guy!" Gorutiel rushed up to clap him on the shoulders. "Damn, you're stronger than me now, even before you bring out those strange powers!"
"I'm guessing you're here to try to consume the invaders?" Kai asked. "Their power is phased, so I'm not sure that will work."
"I don't know what the fuck that means, but I know that we demons are the only ones with the balls to try to take on these fools. Well, other than you and your lady, of course."
They had sort of spoken for a while, but the truth was that their bond was a strange one forged by necessity. Actually, Gorutiel was a predatory demon who had killed plenty of people and some would argue was better off dead. But Kai had collaborated with him once, even helped him eat someone, and in times like these he couldn't afford to refuse potential allies.
Once he got away from the garrulous Gorutiel, Omilaena swatted aside everyone else to give him some space. That was when Kai began to really think about the problem, and he quickly realized that he had very strong opportunities available to him.
His human power might be similar to what it was before, and his newest essence was marked for future cultivation, but he had a large stable of other abilities:
<
Dragon's Might - V (epsilon)
Behemoth's Heart - XIII (nu)
Thunderbird's Wings - XII (mu)
Tyrant's Claw - XIII (nu)
Manticore's Spine - VII (eta)
Baleful Breath - IX (iota)
Void Gaze - X (kappa)
-
Famished World - VII (eta)
Mutefang's Stealth - XVI (pi)
Isulfr's Bite - XII (mu)
Sahagin's Soul - XV (omicron)
Greatshark's Presence - III (gamma)
Monstrous Tail - VIII (theta)
Legion Bite - VI (zeta)
Wallcrawler's Feet - V (epsilon)
Abominalgum - III (gamma)
Slime's Immortality - II (beta)
Silver Demon - III (gamma)
Voidmaw's Bite - III (gamma)
Bloodtail's Armor - V (epsilon)
Deathmaw Essence - III (gamma)
Voidshell Essence - III (gamma)
Sacred Dragon's Qi - II (beta)
Coiling Island Qi - II (beta)
>
He had been thinking primarily about defensive abilities lately, but it was immediately obvious just how many essences he had dedicated to biting or consuming. Not just the obvious, either: the Silver Demon essence he'd taken from Anaelina so long ago now seemed very relevant.
Isulfr's Bite had long been an effective technique for him despite being based on only a single monster, so he thought it had great potential if improved. Even in its present form, he'd been able to bite into the Colossus, so he just needed to improve the offensive power and he might actually be able to finish it off. That would potentially solve one of their problems and get them close to solutions to the rest.
When he ran the idea past Omilaena, she didn't seem to object at all, just dropped into his lap to listen. "Works for me," she said. "I've been buying what time I can, but it's hard to manage both the Colossus and the invaders."
"You really think I'm ready to take on an Insanity?"
"Oh, we're past that point now, and I have no room to talk." Omilaena bounced in his lap strategically. "Come on, show me what a big strong man you are."
"Calm down." Kai put a hand on her face and pushed her away, but he was smiling. "I wanted to make sure there was a spiritual component to the bite, though, and I was planning on including a demonic component. Do you think you c-"
She was already standing again, snapping at the nearest demons. "Hey, you! Get over here and tell us what you know about demonic arts!"
Remarkably, they obeyed Omilaena's orders... or perhaps not so remarkably, given how much she overpowered them. So Kai spoke to the gathered demons, including Gorutiel, learning about how they drained power as well as transferred essence to others for demonic arts.
The demons served as clear examples, but weren't very good at explaining things: they operated on instincts and simply hunted power, almost as controlled by their hunger as monsters. Troulon proved to be surprisingly helpful, since he had learned a demonic art of his own before surrendering it, giving him some sober insight. He was smart, too, and Kai could easily understand how he and Omilaena got along.
Even though Kai was picking up everything almost instantly, it still took them a few days to cover such a complex topic. As he worked, Kai was unpleasantly aware that Rosemount was falling apart around them. The Colossus hadn't destroyed any cities, because it was slowing slightly, but it had crushed several holy sites and it was still on its way toward Traeton.
No one else had brought it up, but Kai grimly wondered if the Colossus was moving toward the Royal Crest. If the coin from outside could power a city, surely it could give the Colossus some of the power it needed. That raised the question of why it hadn't done so before... perhaps if the Royal Crest hadn't existed when the Colossus first fell into hibernation... but there was no time to think about idle theories, not when Jonijix and his followers were still causing chaos.
That was what bothered him most of all. The encounter with the Colossus had repelled them from the Elven Expanse, and they were doing less harm after the shock, but they were still causing suffering all around them. Kai wanted to take a shot at them and waiting made him furious.
At least, once it was finally time to fight the invaders, he would have his jaws ready for them.
Once he had trained his Silver Demon essence, even coming close to developing a demonic art of his own, Kai prepared it along with all of his other abilities.
<
Isulfr's Bite - XIII (nu)
Voidmaw's Bite - X (kappa)
Deathmaw Essence - X (kappa)
Silver Demon - X (kappa)
>
He thought he had an impressive set of four. Isulfr's Bite was the core of it, of course, bringing the shape of the technique and years of development. During his honeymoon on Darkmist Island he'd eaten the Voidmaw, which could transform its entire body into jaws. The Silver Demon essence provided a spiritual offense and a draining aspect. And finally the Deathmaw that Omilaena had killed during the incursion was almost all mouth, providing a lot of raw power.
That would be good enough, or so he hoped. He'd considered some alternatives, like sacrificing Legion Bite to this ability, but he'd decided that wouldn't offer that much benefit, and it was really operating on a different biting principle since his goal was a single maximally powerful bite. Otherwise, he had the abilities evenly matched so they shouldn't absorb one another, which meant he should be ready.
Since he'd taken the time to build up all of the essences, they moved easily within him, fully under his control. Kai considered their spiritual shapes, making sure they could fuse together properly one last time, then began the process of consumption within himself...
And, for the first time in ages, he recoiled.
The problem wasn't the process itself, which was going smoothly - if anything, all too smoothly. It had nothing to do with revulsion, since he'd accepted all these elements of himself long ago. No, as he reconsidered his negative reaction, he realized that it was a subtler trap.
Right now, if he tried to fuse this new ability, it wouldn't have proper space to establish itself in his soul and the ability would have ended up stunted. Not obviously, since it would definitely have been effective, just falling short of its true potential. If he had pushed forward fearlessly and without hesitation, he could well have crippled the future ability, so Kai gave thanks for reasonable self-doubt.
What was holding him back, then? He didn't think the problem was complex at all, his human soul just needed to grow further to accommodate such powerful monstrous abilities. After all, Dragon's Might had been growing rapidly, and Behemoth's Heart had improved while fighting such dangerous opponents, so his monstrous strength had increased significantly. He briefly felt annoyance that he couldn't break through with his cultivation, since that would open up more than enough space, but he suppressed that reaction since he trusted that Zae Zin Nim was looking out for the long term.
Thinking of her reminded Kai of the obvious: he didn't need to figure this out entirely on his own. He went to Omilaena and pulled her out of her meeting with Troulon to explain what was holding him back. Part of him had been afraid she'd be disappointed, somehow, but she just nodded seriously.
"That's a solvable problem," she told him easily. "In fact, we can go back to our strategy of dealing with one Insanity using another. We have another one right here on Rosemount... you remember the problem with the Glorious Tree, right?"
"It grows fruits that allegedly grant so much power that they make people explode." Kai remembered discussing it years ago and winced.
"Oh, but you don't need to worry, not with your regeneration and everything else. I'm willing to bet you can survive."
"That's not the part that bothers me. Isn't that one of the national treasures of the Flaeren Dominion? I don't think they'll be willing to just hand it over, and I doubt even you would start another war at a time like this. We'd have to be careful with the Windlord, even now."
"Look at you, thinking about fighting a great power!" Omilaena gave him a predatory smile. "No, I just mean we need to convince them of... the righteousness of our cause, shall we say. The Windlord wasn't cooperative earlier, but things have gotten a lot worse, so he might be willing to listen."
Kai accepted that this was their best option, but he didn't like it. Given that this would require Rosemount politics, he wished he could just fight the Colossus.