Shifter - Infinite Transformation-Chapter 96: Now?

Gareus of House Gaia left the fortress with his army. The other forces left as well, their destination as obvious as it could be. Too curious to ignore them, I transformed into a flying monster and followed the armies.

As much as I wanted to close in on the Eserian to hunt and expand my repertoire of Accessible Shifts, I kept my distance. And as soon as the forces entered the Eserian, I returned to Fern and Clove.

Then, after days of silence, the first news reached us. Precisely, the reached Bork who replaced Gareus Gaia until the Official’s return. Jer must have eavesdropped to his father, and he did the only thing he could have thought of: He came to us right away.

"The Eserian monsters have been crushed." Jer explained excitedly, "Only few monstrosities and a minority of monsters are still alive. As far as the scouts can tell, the forest will shrink by a lot in the next few weeks. The Fiars and the Tias of the House Nebu have begun to burn down the forest, which was apparently necessary because there are simply too many enemies spread throughout the Eserian."

The minotaur demihuman had to stop for a moment. He gasped for air until he had his body finally under control again.

"Apparently, Gareus and the other commanders are surprised with how many people they found in the Eserian. They’re not only human!"

Jer didn’t know what the other people were but they were neither demihumans nor fae. Nor did they belong to any of the Forea Alliance’s Houses. The other parties were enemy forces and attacked them as well. But not only were they enemies of the Forea Alliance, they attacked the Zetrian Empire’s forces as well.

"Nobody really knows what’s happening but the corpses are disappearing. Some think the Eserian’s absorbing them, others believe our enemies are using them for devious rituals. The scouts have no idea though. All they can tell is that the Eserian did join the war as well."

War. This was no longer a simple fight. It involved multiple forces, some of which had yet to be identified. Others not so much.

"Do you know if any of the forces has been using Greater Beings?" I asked when nobody else asked the question.

"Do you think it’s that easy to become a Greater Being?" Clove asked, half-mockingly half-seriously.

Even Fern raised an eyebrow at me, but I just shrugged. "Less than one in a hundred Chosen reach the 3rd Tier. Even if they do, most of them won’t ever reach the requirements to advance to a Greater Being. Their Cores are either filled with too many impurities by that point or their Cores are too small from previous breakthroughs."

I did...not know that. Honestly, I didn’t know all that much about the average Chosen. It never really mattered that much to me. After all, other people were not I.

But to think less than one out of one hundred Chosen reached the 3rd Tier, that sounded quite bad.

"Advancing takes a long time. Or you have to put yourself in great danger. One way or another, staying too long at one Tier may led to the calcification of your Essence. Once that happens, you either advance or you wait until your Essence turns solid. By then, you won’t be able to use the Essence to advance, which will make it impossible to reach a higher Core saturation." Fern explained when she saw the look in my eyes. "You did know that, right?"

I waved dismissively. I knew about Essence stagnation and calcification. Neither of which were of my concern just yet, although it would be if I wasted too many years at the 1st Tier. Not that I planned to do that. Stagnation wouldn’t set in until three years after the Choosing, and it would expand further down the line once I reached the 2nd Tier. Just like my lifespan, both stagnation and calcification would be pushed further back with a breakthrough.

"Most breakthrough to expand their lifespan when they realize that their Core grows too slowly. Rather than putting their lives in too much danger, they accept their limits. They won’t ever break through to the 3rd Tier, but they will reach the 2nd Tier." Jer nodded, but his words sounded off. Like he’d just said something he read somewhere. Or like someone told him the exact words dozens of times already.

"Camp Ashborn certainly had some Greater Beings when the Nature Dragon mother attacked." I shrugged again, "I thought it was weird since I’d never seen a Greater Being before, but it played into my cards. If not for the Eserian, the dragon, and the High Humans stalling each other, things would have been tough for me."

"Dragon? A gree, Nature Dragon?" Jer asked excitedly, "I think I heard rumors about one. She was seen in the Eserian, injured but alive."

That was good to know. I was happy the dragon mother survived. Alas, I couldn’t be certain that she wouldn’t search for me again since I could transform into her little baby...after killing it.

She spared me one but nobody could promise me that she would do it again if we met.

"I really should stay away from the Eserian." I mused to myself, which earned me a pointed look from Fern.

"Yes, you should. Just stay away from the forest." She grumbled, "No matter how much you could gain from the war, it is far more likely to kill you."

"I wonder when they’ll start throwing Greater Beings at each other. Considering the Zetrian Empire used some before already, it shouldn’t take too long. But...we still have some time." Clove mused, licking his lips.

"Not you as well!" Fern let out a suffering groan.

"What? We could sneak into the Eserian, locate the few Tier-2 monsters and monstrosities that are still alive and help Xavier breakthrough to the 2nd Tier. Once that’s done, we could join the war, kill our enemies and earn honor for ourselves. Not enough for anything big, but if we contribute well enough, we could–..."

"You could." Fern intercepted him, her eyes no longer emitting the same warmth as they usually did. "You want to earn glory to return to your family and show them how powerful you have grown over the years. But what do you want from them? Do you want them to take you back? To accept you back into their House after they abandoned you? Because that they did. They threw you away because you didn’t fit their asthethics!"

My mate sounded a lot more agitated than normally, but so was Clove. He glared at Fern, his lips parted for a snarky retort, but his lips sealed shut. A moment later, his body turned ethereal, and the young fea disappeared.