Fates Parallel Chapter 393 - Multiplicity

Without Yu Meiren coordinating them, it was only a matter of time before the demons were driven off. Those that tried to retreat behind the shield formation found that it kept them out as surely as their enemies, while those that tried to flee were intercepted by the Silver Orchard’s demon hunters with ruthless efficiency.

Once the outcome of the battle was clear, the xiantian demons fled as well—with the exception of Fan Zhu, who didn’t stand a chance against the collective might of Sun Quan and Seong Misun.

Dae emerged from Jung’s tent to meet Yoshika, chuckling nervously just like he used to do while they were still students.

“What now? I finished the formation, but there’s no sense activating it now that she’s gone.”

Yoshika shrugged.

“Keep it there—I’ll be more comfortable knowing that my family has an escape route. That’s a different design from the ones you were setting up in the camps, isn’t it?”

“It is. Those needed to be operated by war mages, so the most complicated calculations are pre-encoded into the formation. A simple network that jumps from circle to circle with limited range.”

“And yours?”

Dae beamed proudly.

“More flexible! Er, at the cost of being impossible to activate by anyone who doesn’t understand the formation. In theory, I can target any location as long as I can calculate the right resonance and supply enough mana. In practice, the range is still quite limited and I need strong anchors to join the space together. I was planning on just jumping us to the nearest partial circle.”

“I see.”

Yoshika didn’t understand, but it was clearly a significant accomplishment, and she was happy for him. His pride was hers—far beyond the empathy she was accustomed to. The new powers of her domain were going to take a lot of getting used to.

Kaede peered out over the distant battles, even though she could sense them all clearly in her domain.

“We should regroup with the other leaders and debrief. The battle is won, but that’s no reason to get complacent. I’m also going to need some time to meditate soon—I can’t focus on this battle and Chou’s tomb at the same time.”

Dae furrowed his brows at her.

“Miss Hayakawa, forgive me but are you still merged with Yoshika? I overheard something about ascending—congratulations, by the way—and while I don’t pretend to understand all the nuances, could you not simply unmerge?”

Kaede blinked.

“Oh, right—of course...”

She paused, frowning. A cold pit of dread formed in Yoshika’s stomach.

“I, um, don’t know how.”

Jiaying and Dae exchanged worried glances, and it was Jiaying who voiced their concern.

“What do you mean you don’t know how?”

Yoshika sighed.

“Joint cultivation has always required a direct link. The sharing of essence between me and another. It takes focus, and stopping it was as simple as just...stopping. We started like that, but after our ascension we just sort of are.”

Dae winced.

“So you’ve accidentally integrated Miss Hayakawa into yourself forever? I suppose it was bound to happen eventually with the way you’re so cavalier about dual cultivation, but you’ve managed to choose a particularly problematic victim.”

Kaede crossed her arms and frowned.

“I don’t appreciate being called a victim. Besides, I still feel like myself, just...more. It’s not just me, either—look.”

Yoshika focused on the parts of her domain that she’d been trying to tune out ever since her ascension. The endless storm of thoughts and feelings from all of her friends and loved ones, the connections to the people she cared about all across the world. She brought them all together within her and offered what reassurances she could.

Whoever and wherever they were, she would do everything in her power for them. They were under her protection.

Jiaying and Dae both stirred. Jiaying looked down at herself and shivered.

“Woah...I can feel that.”

Dae nodded.

“It’s...reassuring, but also disconcerting. For a moment, I thought I could feel everything you did.”

Yoshika smiled apologetically.

“I’m still trying to make sense of it myself, but I’m connected to all of you. It’s just a lot stronger with Kaede right now for some reason.”

“I do hope you’ll be responsible with that kind of access to people’s private feelings.”

“I don’t think I can feel anything people wouldn’t want me to, and it’s really hard to make sense of it all at once anyway. I definitely don’t want to violate anyone’s privacy.”

Dae scratched his head.

“I suppose you truly are a xiantian cultivator now. Perhaps you can simply withdraw your domain from Miss Hayakawa for a moment?”

Kaede shrugged.

“Worth a try.”

She pulled her domain in, creating a void in her senses where Kaede’s body was. She felt no different, but as soon as she revoked her domain, Kaede collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, her eyes glassy and empty.

Yoshika panicked. She reasserted her domain and forcibly moved essence back through Kaede’s body, gasping as her heart began beating again. As she rose, her entire body trembled, and after a brief coughing fit, she shook her head.

“I don’t think that’s going to work.”

Dae rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“I’ll say. What just happened?”

Yoshika closed her eyes to consider it, but she didn’t like the answer she came up with.

“I think I died.”

Jiaying smiled helplessly.

“You sound so casual about it.”

Kaede grimaced.

“Well, I’m not happy about it, but there’s little I can do. Yu Meiren’s technique destroyed my heart completely. I was dead in an instant, but Yoshika’s domain preserved me.”

“You can do that?!”

“Apparently. For now, I’m still me, regardless of who else I might also be, and that’s good enough. We can worry about the implications later. Let’s stop wasting time and regroup.”

Yoshika shook her head.

“After we check on our sisters. I want to reassure them that everything’s alright.”

Kaede paused, then nodded her assent.

“Right, of course. We’ll do that first.”

Dae and Jiaying watched in bewilderment as the two of them made for Jung’s tent. Jiaying bit her lip.

“Is it a good or a bad thing that they’re talking to each other like that?”

The mage scratched his cheek and chuckled nervously.

“I...think it’s probably far too soon to be making hypotheses, Miss Pan.”

—-

With the demons in disarray, there wasn’t much for the coalition leaders to do. Yoshika made some excuses about needing to recover from her fight, and left the cleanup to the others. It was a little suspicious, retiring both Kaede and Yoshika at the same time, but she spared them the details of her newfound transformation for the time being.

Back in Chou’s realm, Yoshika was startled to discover just how much essence she’d recovered. Considering the miniscule trickle she’d been able to access through Meili and Kaede’s bodies at Geumji, she’d expected her progress to be slow, but she was practically overflowing with power.

Spreading herself across realms had its downsides.

She rose to her feet and began surveying her surroundings. Yoshika was alone in the mud hut, Zheng Long having been moved elsewhere, and she could sense the others spread out across the town.

Jianmo’s voice greeted her.

“Well good morning, cuties! You certainly took your time. I was starting to wonder whether I’d be stuck staring at mud bricks for the next ten thousand years.”

Yoshika smiled—in a strange way, it was good to have Jianmo’s voice pestering her again.

“How long has it been?”

“Just a few days, but it felt like forever. Couldn’t you have left me with a book or a puzzle or something?”

“Sorry. Maybe we can make you your own body now that we’ve recovered. I’m thinking about making a few more avatars anyway.”

Jianmo whistled.

“Look at you, all grown up. I don’t hate the new and mature Yoshika. Don’t worry about me, though—I’m very particular about my form.”

“If you insist.”

Yoshika closed her eyes and held out her hands. Once, she’d needed outside help or a base to work with in order to create an avatar, but now that she had her own divine essence, it was different.

She was in a hurry, and didn’t want to risk creating another Meili, so she stuck to the principles she’d applied to her spirit form avatar. A painstaking recreation of herself, with everything it needed to live autonomously, but lacking a will of its own unless filled by her soul.

Yoshika created one for Jia, and one for Eui, and a third for her spirit form—Meili would occupy that one. Then on a whim, she made one for Kaede as well.

Internally, they were all the same. Jia lamented having lost the physical alteration she’d made to support her Lightspeed Traversal technique—she’d have to work on a more thorough recreation of her original bodies when she had more time.

Kaede also noted that her Gravity techniques would be more difficult to perform in a body that was aligned with Warmth, but since she also had Yoshika’s repertoire to draw from, she didn’t expect it to be an issue. She armed herself with a Void-aligned straight sword from Jia’s ring—not her usual style, but she’d make do.

Heian’s form returned to Yoshika’s soulscape to rest, tuckered out from all the exertion. She was still just a young spirit, and while she’d enjoyed the sensation of being a powerful demigod for a bit, she needed a nap.

Jianmo laughed as Meili handed them to Eui.

“Wow! You weren’t kidding about making more avatars. I suppose it makes sense given that you’re made up of different identities—whoever taught you that technique must have been incredibly clever and beautiful to have such foresight.”

Eui rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, thank you for that. It’s probably the only useful thing you ever taught us, and it wasn’t even actually you doing it.”

“It was my intention, wasn’t it? Surely that counts.”

Meili pursed her lips.

“It wasn’t all good. You kinda tricked us into rushing ahead with it before we were ready—though that’s on us for not listening to the warnings other people gave us.”

“Well it’s obviously worked out in the end, so I’m taking credit! Don’t be so ungrateful.”

Kaede sighed and shook her head.

“We have a visitor.”

They all shared senses, so the statement was more for the benefit of their observer than for each other.

Yue’s astral projection chuckled as she emerged from within the floor.

“Can’t hide anything from you, can I?”

Yoshika frowned.

“Why are you using that technique here? That’s really dangerous! What if Yang Qiu tried something?”

Yue giggled.

“I’m touched by your concern, but the demon is quite toothless while you’ve got her core. She’s been well-behaved in your absence—deferential, even. One wonders if the rebellious act is something she puts on just for you.”

Eui grimaced.

“She would, wouldn’t she? But seriously, that technique is risky to be using in unknown territory.”

“Well for one, your domain has rather thoroughly permeated the area—to the point that it’s difficult for the rest of us to even cultivate—and for another, I’ve been practicing. Go ahead and try to cut my soul away from my body.”

Yoshika wasn’t about to do that, but she did test the boundaries of Yue’s exposed soul. She had taken cues from Yoshika and sheathed her soul in a bubble of her domain. Yoshika could suppress it, if she wanted to, but doing so would just push Yue’s soul back into her own body rather than cutting it off entirely.

“Huh...not bad. I take it you’re trying to improve the range?”

“Indeed, now come—let’s go update the others. Some of them have been quite anxious to move on, and it’s been a challenge keeping them from rushing off without you. I’m sure they’ll appreciate knowing you’ve returned.”

Kaede raised an eyebrow at Yue.

“You’re not the least bit surprised about our new bodies? Or that I’m here?”

She put a hand on her hip and snorted.

“It would be exhausting to waste energy on being shocked every time you do something absurd. So no. There’s four of you now—one of which is Hayakawa for some reason. So be it—just another Yoshika thing. I’m simply done being surprised.”

“Huh, I see. I suppose that’s only fair.”

Yue led them out towards the northern gate, where she could sense most of the others were gathered. As they approached, Melati flew over to meet them, only for her eyes to practically bug out of her head when she noticed Yoshika.

She tumbled to the ground, then sprung to her feet in one smooth motion. A tiny pair of fist-sized drones clung to her shoulders and giggled as she pointed incredulously at Yoshika.

“Wh—Yoshi’s hive got bigger! Wow! Human babies grow up so fast!”

Yue covered her face and sighed, but Yoshika had to suppress her laughter.

That was more like it.