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There was some chance Nilima could take on the entire army by herself… but she knew she absolutely shouldn’t. Cultivators had to face adversity to become strong. She might have done her best to keep members of Haven from dying but most of the fighting was left to them. She couldn’t protect them all… but they also needed to make a show of force. Not that Heavenly Mountain and the new Ivory Peak would have much chance to act on that information.
They had a few masters around the area, causing trouble. She couldn’t be everywhere at once… but she could certainly take out any of them that were causing trouble right now. Perhaps they shouldn’t have gone easy on them the previous time. Then again, Ivory Peak would have just moved in and acted much the same.
Few grandmasters could resist Nilima’s attacks for long- regular fourth or fifth tier masters wouldn’t last even a second. The prized bones of the Heavenly Mountain cultivators cracked and exploded as her energy tore through them, and then she was on her way to the next group. Now that she had truly acted, they would sense her… but only a few would be able to run. Mostly, they were those she let go. They wouldn’t have been any more merciful to Haven.
When everything had settled, Urvi came to find Nilima. “Grandmistress Nilima,” she bowed. “I had heard of Grandmaster Barrett’s return, and hoped you would be with him.”
“Urvi,” Nilima nodded her head. “You’ve improved. You have much better control. The berserk energy was quite hard on you before.”
“It’s still not particularly peaceful… but I have reached a more sustainable situation.” Urvi looked around, “We appreciate your support. It would have been very difficult to hold off against this group, even with the advantage of the terrain.”
“You’ve held your own for quite some time. It just seems people needed a reminder who was backing you.”
Urvi shrugged, “Heavenly Mountain never got along with us to begin with.”
—–
Lord Nagarkar sat in his audience chamber. The disinterested and bored look on his face wasn’t just for show. Even only the requests that reached him were numerous, though he didn’t hold council every day. If that was the case, he would just be a glorified bureaucrat. He was at least slightly more than that. Once he became a grandmaster himself, he would feel more secure in his position as region lord. He could make more decisions he wanted to instead of decisions he felt he needed to.
There was a commotion outside the audience chamber, and then the doors flew open. In stepped a cultivator that he recognized. Master Kulkarni, a sixth tier and current leader of Heavenly Mountain. He showed the barest amount of respect, inclining his head slightly. “Lord Nagarkar. It has come to my attention you are keeping one of our masters from Ivory Peak locked up at the behest of… Haven. Return him to us.”
Lord Nagarkar showed no change in expression. “Of course. I will gladly do so.” He turned to one of his attendants. “Would you bring Master Sharma here? The original plan will do.”
“Of course, my lord.”
Lord Nagarkar put on a basically pleasant face, “Is there anything else you wish to request?”
“Haven has recently slaughtered many of our people. They should be punished.”
Lord Nagarkar nodded, “I have heard of the incident in question. Proper punishment will be administered. Ah, here he is.” He waved the servant forward, and they tossed a sack to Master Kulkarni, who caught it.
“What is this?” he asked.
“Open it,” Lord Nagarkar prompted.
Out of the sack wafted the smell of blood… and Master Kulkarni pulled out Master Sharma’s head. His hands trembled in rage and his berserk energy rumbled throughout the chamber… but the aura of the two grandmasters behind Lord Nagarkar pressed back against it.
Lord Nagarkar’s voice took a commanding tone. “You think my laws are a game? That adding more cultivators into your group gave you the right to do whatever you wanted?” He stood up from his position and walked down the stairs between them. Flames radiated off of him and his body glowed like the sun. “You should have come in here begging for forgiveness. From me… and from Haven.” If Heavenly Mountain currently had a grandmaster and Haven didn’t… Lord Nagarkar might have been less bold. He still wouldn’t have let them off with nothing, but he was currently limited by his ability. Lord Nagarkar’s fist surged towards Master Kulkarni, striking him in the chest. Fire scorched around him and burned through him, sending him flying out of the audience chamber. “For your insolence, half of your territory is forfeit. Return and tell that to your boney co-conspirators.”
As a berserk energy cultivator and a warrior, Master Kulkarni was quite durable. Thus the attack hadn’t significantly injured him… but he turned and fled as quickly as he could. Lord Nagarkar was at the peak of sixth tier, bordering on grandmastery, and there were also the two grandmasters behind him.
Lord Nagarkar’s eyes settled on a figure standing out in the waiting hall. “Are you going to remain out there, Grandmaster Ravenhall?”
The heavily armored man gave off no sense of energy and only a small trace of magic. He stepped into the audience chamber and the doors swung shut behind him. “I merely came because I heard of his presence. I must say it was worth the trip.” Lord Nagarkar nodded, the fire around him settling down as he turned around to return to his seat on the dais. “If I may, Lord Nagarkar, I see you are on the peak of sixth tier. The fire you radiate is quite strong.” Lord Nagarkar nodded. That sort of praise was normal. Next he might congratulate him in advance for becoming a grandmaster. “I’ve seen better though.”
Lord Nagarkar twitched, though he kept it as inward as possible. “Is that… so? Some grandmaster?” Was he just asserting his dominance? It would be best to keep friends with a sect that had two grandmasters after all…
“Not a grandmaster…” Grandmaster Ravenhall drew out the wait long enough for Lord Nagarkar to frown. “A natural phenomenon. Deep underground. Perhaps I could help you find some final insights.”
Lord Nagarkar relaxed. At the very least, having such an offer was a sign of friendliness, though he doubted whether it would result in anything. “And you would do that… how?”
“All you have to do is burn me.”
—–
Lord Nagarkar had been reluctant to accept Barrett’s proposal, and Barrett couldn’t blame him. However, with his two bodyguards watching there was little chance of Barrett harming him and getting away unscathed. Or at least that was probably what he chose to believe. Barrett didn’t want to look down on the two men, but they were somewhat older and while he might have trouble fighting the two of them together he could certainly escape. Unless they were hiding much more power deep within.
Barrett had a good reason to want to help Lord Nagarkar. He was, as cultivators with power went, quite a reasonable man. Barrett wasn’t planning to stay forever, so getting him to be more on Haven’s side and stronger… would be good enough.
While Barrett wasn’t a fire cultivator and couldn’t raise up a student who used it… he was still helpful in training. His own fire was irrelevant in terms of cultivation attacks, but he was able to give a chance to practice increasing the power of fire as well as accurately representing the results.
At the current moment, flame washed through his body. It was much lower in power than the uncontrolled flames in the depths of the earth under Voscea, but of course much more guided. Even so, it flowed through Barrett and couldn’t hurt him. Not to any real degree. Even Barrett’s normal state would have been sufficient to be only negligibly harmed by the fire in a short period.
The flame could be hotter. Of course, saying that wouldn’t do any good. Any fire cultivator would know that… but how to achieve it? Just pouring more energy into it wasn’t the solution. The technique mattered. “Fire consumes. You know this. It consumes and grows. It doesn’t think about how it will grow… but you are not fire. You cultivate it, make it more than it might be.” Barrett continued to sit in his meditative pose. “At this level, your fire cannot hurt me. More than that, anyone who knew its maximum strength could protect themselves without worry. It needs to feed… on the surroundings and itself, growing stronger and stronger. Now it is like a river… but you need an avalanche or flood.”
Everyone learned differently. Barrett wasn’t necessarily sure how to explain what he thought was best, nor what would actually be best for Lord Nagarkar… but eventually his words sparked the response he was looking for. The flames grew stronger, hotter, climbing in intensity until they started rapidly damaging Barrett, charring him all throughout his body… and then they burned out. Lord Nagarkar collapsed exhausted on the ground… but Barrett knew he would be able to repeat the same in the future. Barrett looked inside himself and began to coax his body to recover to the best of its ability, until it was better able to resist what he had just experienced. There was no point in making it too easy, or wasting potential training time.