Spirit's Awakening: The Path of Lightning and Water-Chapter 412: Preparations and Judgments

Lassim sat across from Sect Master Volten and his Array Master, Rlyis, his fingers drumming lightly against the polished stone of the conference table. The room, located in one of the chambers of the sect's core administrative tower where the testing hall was, was reinforced by powerful inscriptions that muffled all external sound. It was the same war room from the Sun Sect war where high-level logistics, military movements, and research projects were discussed in private.

Rlyis, dressed in her usual practical clothes—stained with faint traces of construct dust and array ink—leaned back in her seat with an amused yet satisfied expression. Beside her, Volten exhaled, arms crossed. The Sect Master's eyes had a certain weary edge today, as if carrying the weight of a decision he had been turning over in his mind.

The meeting had already been going on for half an hour, covering minor details about sect resource allocations for the new Volt Engine, but finally, the topic Lassim had been waiting for arrived.

Rlyis tapped her knuckles against the table, then gestured toward the massive sealed storage box positioned off to the side of the table between them. "Your devices are mostly in place already and prepared to go into their next phase, Lassim."

Lassim raised an eyebrow. "Already?"

A smirk tugged at Rlyis' lips. "While you were busy watching alongside Volten and terrorizing your fellow disciples in the tournament, I preemptively shipped several of the mass-produced Teleportation Arches to key locations across our bases or controlled cities within the Southern Continent. The major trade cities, the Stormgate Outpost in the east, the newly named Sun Scar Ruins where the former headquarters of the Sun Sect was now have fully prepped and functional teleportation points. Each is awaiting final spatial synchronization, which just has your final adjustments in person."

Lassim leaned forward. "That's… faster than I expected."

Volten spoke up at that moment, "The war with the Sun Sect and Abyss-corrupted forces last year taught us an important lesson and your tools allow us to achieve that idea of yours—mobility and response time mean survival." His orange-lit gaze locked onto Lassim's. "Your invention changes that. I fully support your creation and see the benefits it will bring to the entire planet once its use is widespread."

Lassim nodded. He had always known the strategic importance of what he had created, but hearing the Sect Master confirm it helped solidify the urgency behind the project that he also believed heavily in.

Rlyis stood up and then tapped the storage box lightly. "That brings us to these." With a flick of her fingers, the array locks unsealed, and the container clicked open. Inside were twenty spatial storage bags, each one lightly humming with the unique mana signature of the devices within.

"You're taking these personally," she continued. "We couldn't send everything to all of the locations on such short notice and figured you'd be able to manage what was left. Each of these bags contains exactly two Teleportation Devices, for a total of forty. The locations I need you to install them at are far less accessible or rather, we just didn't have the man-power available with people we trusted outside of the ones we've already deployed."

Lassim reached out, picking up one of the bags. A brief pulse of his spiritual sense revealed the neatly stacked components inside.

"And where exactly am I headed?" he asked, glancing back at Rlyis.

She pulled out a marked map of the Southern Continent, unfolding it across the table. Several points shimmered faintly with special rune ink-etched indicators.

"Some are obvious," she said, tapping the former Sun Sect headquarters and two Endless Desert oases, two important examples for the more annoying or important areas for the sect. "But others are more... politically sensitive. Places where the local rulers and factions aren't entirely aligned with us, or where the last Abyssal activity caused particularly devastating problems.."

Lassim exhaled, nodding. "Understood. I'll handle the installations."

As he placed the storage bag back down, his gaze flickered toward Volten. "That being said," he began, "shouldn't my device have been announced at the awards ceremony like planned? The whole point was to integrate them into sect strategy and shock the world with its creation, but also get everyone on board, right? What happened to that?"

Rlyis leaned back slightly in her chair, crossing her arms, her expression suddenly very interested in how Volten would respond.

The Sect Master sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose before giving Lassim a flat stare. "You want to know why I didn't reveal your devices yesterday?"

Lassim tilted his head slightly, waiting.

Volten exhaled, leaning forward. "Because timing matters. Right now, the world believes that the Lightning Sect is the strongest force on this continent, not because of anything other than overwhelming talent and martial superiority. That is what we needed to reinforce with the results of the Elder Summit. For the time being, that is what needs to sink in."

Lassim remained silent, absorbing the reasoning.

Volten continued. "Your Teleportation Devices change everything, but revealing them too soon could make us appear to be stretching ourselves too thin after just coming out the other side of the sect war. I want our enemies, and all of those still on the fence about our new status as the overall rulers to fear our power first, before they even begin to understand that we have infrastructure to make us even more unstoppable. It won't be a long wait, but that's why I waited."

Lassim thought it over, but in the end he found himself acknowledging the logic behind it.

Rlyis finally chuckled. "You should take it as a compliment, Lassim. The Sect Master wants to use your creation as an ace up his sleeve for just a little longer."

Volten smirked slightly. "And I'll be the one to reveal it when you travel back to your family on the Veridian continent and eventually visit the Western Continent like you mentioned for your next steps. By then, the word about the results of the Elder Summit, your shocking power, and everything else. You'll have set up all of the gates at that time, and it will be too late for anyone to do anything to sabotage the installations. They'll have no choice but to accept that the world has changed." His gaze sharpened. "And that it was my personal disciple—Lassim Rohese Vanther of the Lightning Sect—that changed it."

Lassim considered that for a moment before letting out a short breath. "Fine. I see your point."

Volten's expression relaxed. "Good."

Rlyis clapped her hands once, drawing their focus back. "Great. Now that the politics are out of the way, you've got installations to handle."

Lassim grabbed rows of the storage bags, securing them at his belt, barely having enough space for them all, but the weight of the magic pouches was negligible. He turned toward the former war room's doors, already mentally mapping out his route, knowing the expanses of wilderness, desert, fortified cities, and territories he would need to cross.

Rlyis smirked as she leaned back in her chair. "Try not to break the devices the moment you set them down," she teased, "You might be strong enough to be able to brute force your way through a Spirit Mystic stage opponent now, but you're not going to easily replace our handiwork if you mess the installations up."

Lassim huffed a small breath of amusement. "I'll treat them like the delicate little treasures they are, Master Rlyis. No promises beyond that."

Volten's voice cut through the banter, firm yet uncharacteristically softer than usual. "Alright, my disciple. Go. If you need anything, be sure to send a message via the communication disc. I'll see you when your journey is finished and you return to the sect."

Then, Volten hesitated.

It was subtle—so subtle that most wouldn't have noticed—but Lassim did. The briefest flicker of thought behind those orange-lightning filled eyes. A weight in his words that wasn't usually there.

Volten's gaze lingered on him for a moment longer before he finally added, "And… just remember that no matter how long you're away, you'll have a place to return to here in the Lightning Sect."

Lassim turned his head slightly, meeting the Sect Master's gaze as he replied, "By the time I return," he said, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips, "this continent and its neighbors will be connected together in a way it's never seen before."

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Volten merely smiled faintly, an unspoken approval in his eyes but also a strong sense of worry over something his disciple would soon face, something beyond his control. Lassim had grown beyond what even Volten had initially imagined, and an unspoken rule of advancement within the world of Nexaria was going to present itself to Lassim.

His disciple would find out soon enough once he reached the Western Continent and learned why the average power level of both his home continent and the Southern continent were at the levels they were at—and what that would mean for him when he reached the Western Continent which had an entirely different belief system for fighting back against the Abyss. A belief system that fundamentally altered their society and the most powerful within it.

With that, he stepped forward, his figure vanishing in a crackling pulse of storm-infused lightning as he activated [Storm's Dance], leaving nothing but a faint rumble in the air as he departed the room.

As the last traces of his mana faded, Volten leaned back in his chair, gaze still fixed on the spot where Lassim had just stood.

"You didn't tell him," Rlyis noted, her voice carrying a rare hint of concern.

Volten's fingers drummed lightly against the table. "That's the thing about prodigies like him," he muttered, almost to himself. "You don't get to decide their pace and it's not like anything we say would change the pace at which he's growing. The Gods have already decided that he'll reach their level quickly and we're powerless to stop what he's about to face."

The silence stretched between them before Rlyis finally chuckled. "Guess we'll just have to hope the rest of the world can keep up and join him in a reasonable amount of time. That way he won't be there alone..."

Volten didn't answer.

Because he already knew the answer.

They couldn't do anything else to push things along faster than what the current rules dedicated for average Spirit Warriors..