Up until now, Percy had only experienced a relatively mild season on Gallimus – something akin to spring on Remior. The heat had been rising steadily, but it had remained bearable. Before today, the extreme weather effects his host had warned him about had yet to come into play.
Suffice to say, Percy’s shock was palpable when he saw the tide of dust and shattered vines sweeping toward them from the south, a towering cloud rapidly advancing over the hills. His first instinct had been to run, but it didn’t take long for him to realize how foolish that would be – they’d never outrun a worldwide disaster. Bracing for impact was their only option.
Even before the raging winds reached them, Percy felt dizzy. It was lucky he wasn’t the one in charge of their body, otherwise he would have fallen off balance by now. It was like somebody was pulling them toward a certain direction, trying to topple them. He’d been feeling like this since yesterday, though it hadn’t been as much of a problem. Still, the tug had steadily grown stronger, and it was starting to get quite uncomfortable.
‘What the hell is going on?’ he asked.
His host had warned him things had been about to change, but he hadn’t delved into too much detail.
Duwa sighed, shifting their gaze toward the orange-hued heavenly body looming in the northern sky, clearly visible even during the day. It had been growing larger over the past few weeks, until it eventually blocked out one of the two stars entirely. The smallest of the crimson suns hadn’t risen today, and Percy suspected it wouldn’t do so for a while longer. The prolonged eclipse had already plunged their surroundings into relative darkness and caused the temperature to plummet, giving Percy the impression that the heavens themselves were winking at them mischievously.
‘Due to our planet’s current tilt, Vagus will be pulling us toward the north throughout the season,’ the Green-born explained. ‘The sideways component of its gravity is why we're struggling to stay upright – and also the reason for the winds. Just try not to focus too much on your surroundings until you get used to it. I’ll handle things for the next few days.’
Percy had more questions, but the violent tide struck before he could voice them. Duwa dropped to all fours just in time to endure the crushing wave of dust, barely keeping contact with the ground. Thankfully, Gallimus’s natural gravity was strong enough to anchor the boy in place. Brittle chunks of plant matter rained down, but most of the debris shattered harmlessly against Duwa’s tough skin.
Navigating the hill-covered plains would be annoying for the foreseeable future, but the storm seemed like it would be more inconvenient than downright dangerous. Despite the frigid temperature, the difficulty standing and the reduced visibility, Percy guessed that the local wildlife had probably long adapted to the planet’s violent whims. Even the nearby creek looked mostly untouched. Water was far heavier on Gallimus, and the storm lacked the strength to lift the liquid over the hills encasing the narrow river.
‘Wow. You weren’t kidding about the harsh climate…’ Percy said once he realized they were safe. ‘I can see how a Green like you can handle it with relative ease, but how do your cities – or your Red-borns – survive this stuff?’
The boy shrugged.
‘Boreastrum – the current season – is admittedly one of the worst we have to deal with. Lower-graded people are usually advised to stay indoors while it lasts. Luckily, seasons this violent only come around once every three or four years. The rest aren’t that bad. As for our cities, we build and enchant them with this in mind. I don’t know what our ancestors did before we had a way to advance, but many of our gods and titans help nowadays, working tirelessly to minimize the damage.’
Percy swallowed hard, imagining how even the lofty existences standing at the very peak of Gallimus’s hierarchy had their hands full with this. But he didn’t say anything, opting to resume his training. Sparring against the beasts would be a lot harder until the weather settled, which would rob them of the best opportunities to practice splitting their willpower from their mana. However, that didn’t mean there was nothing they could do.
Percy still had a few channels to clear, the boy having already allowed him to repair his second core. In fact, he had been quite excited to realize that Duwa’s new mana network didn’t resemble any he had personally possessed, indicating that the boy’s second affinity would likely be a rare one.
Getting a feel for the exact mana type hadn’t been easy, as it was mostly ambient mana from the outside that he was using to clear the channels. Based on the vague shape of the network, he thought there was a good chance it would be a life affinity.
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‘This kid is probably the luckiest person I’ve ever met. Green-born, saved from the brink of death, handed a second core without issue and even my first host to ever get a rare affinity…’ He sighed internally. ‘But I suppose he deserves that much, given how nice and hard-working he is. It’s such a pity my clones don’t have my bloodline though.’
While Percy clearly understood how much better his version of the ability was, he’d always wanted to play around with Archibald’s version too. Had the petal he’d stolen from House Tantalus contained a life affinity instead of water, there was a good chance Percy would have eaten it himself, even sacrificing his pure affinity for it. Not that he’d ever regretted his decision to keep it, but he would have found it difficult to resist the temptation of, not only a second rare affinity, but also one guaranteed to be compatible with his bloodline.
‘Well, whatever… It’s good for the boy… For now, let’s just focus on getting the new core ready.’
Boreastrum was supposed to last for around four months. The lateral gravity pulling them north kept increasing during the first half, slowly climbing to a point that even Duwa struggled with – at least for a few days. At the same time, the foreign planet had continued to enlarge in their vision, covering more and more of the sky with each passing day. Thankfully, Vagus never quite managed to conceal the second star, or the temperature would have dropped even more steeply, likely causing some serious trouble for the Gallimians.
Over the third and fourth months, the planet looming over their heads gradually shrank again, the horizontal gravity it exerted over Duwa’s world weakening in the process. The temperature hadn’t recovered yet, however, since Vagus was still blocking the first of the two suns, and would continue to do so until the very end of the season.
The good news was that Percy and Duwa had been able to resume their training way sooner than that.
The storm they had endured at the onset of the new season had only lasted for about a week. According to the Green-born, it had been caused by Vagus’s gravity pulling much of Gallimus’s atmosphere to the northern hemisphere of the planet, only stopping once the pressure differential reached a tentative balance.
Apparently, the reverse would occur at the end of the season, with a southbound storm returning the accumulated air to the southern hemisphere over the course of another week. That hadn’t happened yet, though Percy wouldn’t say he was looking forward to it.
In any case, the end of the first storm had returned the visibility to normal, allowing Percy and his host to spar against the Yellow beasts for most of the season. The extreme cold and the lateral gravity had still made everything needlessly irritating, but their targets had to endure the same conditions, levelling the playing field somewhat. At the end of the day, Gallimus’s fickle climate helped more than it hurt, as it offered them with another hurdle to overcome, and thus another opportunity to hone their wills.
‘I’m still glad this nonsense will be over in a few days…’ Percy told the boy over a meal.
They had both made a ton of progress with their nascent domains, and Percy was confident he had already caught up to the boy. If they were to awaken their second core right now, they’d probably both have the Decree by tomorrow. Sadly, Duwa wouldn’t hear it.
Working towards the Approval wasn’t the only thing Percy had done, however. He had also hoped to stumble upon some gravity ingredients to bring back to Remior. Perhaps, he’d been silly to think they would be more common on a planet with strong gravity, but he’d still kept his eyes open. Having given all the mushrooms to his host, he had a lot more space in his seal, after all.
His current favourite was a Red plant with dozens of leaves rolled together like the petals of a rose. Curiously, it was a lot lighter than everything else on Gallimus, which filled him with hope that it used gravity mana to fight against the planet’s pull.
Of course, even if it ended up possessing the correct affinity, his main body might no longer need it. Percy had been on Gallimus for nearly five months, so there was a good chance his other clones had already beaten him to it. Even if the other clone currently roaming the universe had failed to find a gravity ingredient, the one residing in his girlfriend’s body might have purchased one in Twilight City.
Regardless, Percy didn’t want to put all his eggs in one basket if he could help it.
Leaving aside his ambitious plans of upgrading his boosting art to induce an artificial advancement, he was looking forward to registering the compression principle. Not only would it render his potions and his tattoos useable again, it might also raise his brewing yield, allowing him to get more Aurora Dew out of his stash of elixirs.
Overall, Percy was more than happy with this trip.
A few days before the end of the season, Percy and Duwa appeared to have reached a critical point. They often found themselves gathering a near-tangible amount of willpower in their hands, the ethereal substance dissipating just half a step short of forming a nascent domain.
Knowing they were both on the verge of completing the trial, Percy stopped training alongside the boy, to give Duwa a chance to obtain the Decree first. If Percy did it before the Green-born, his host would likely refuse to awaken the new core, potentially missing out on the Approval because of his stubbornness.
‘Or maybe I’m just being paranoid and we’ll both get it regardless, but it’s better not to leave it up to chance.’
Over the next couple of days, Percy watched his host spar against one enemy after another, patiently waiting for the boy to take the final step. And sure enough, the Green-born’s year-long efforts bore fruit soon enough.
Unfortunately, they did so at a most inconvenient time…