Percy clicked his tongue in annoyance upon sensing the disturbance in the cord. He’d been expecting the clone to return at some point – since he’d been gone for a while – but interrupting his work was always unpleasant.

‘Oh well… I suppose I was going to scrap this batch anyway,’ he thought, ripping the construct to shreds and letting it scatter in the wind behind Micky.

Technically, Percy could have stored the magical cloth away and resumed his efforts later – he’d even made sure to weave a lot of self-repairs into the material this time, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about it degrading. However, he’d made several mistakes he didn’t want to end up in the final version, so it was better to start over.

His joints made popping sounds as he rolled his shoulders and straightened his back. The air around him was colder than ice, thanks to his familiar constantly absorbing, converting and expelling ambient mana in his efforts to upgrade his boosting art. The frigid gas licked Percy’s exposed skin, causing his hair to stand on end, though he didn’t let it bother him too much, being used to it by now.

Leaning on the crow’s back, Percy looked somewhere to their left, his eyes tracing the shaky cord to a faint glint in the distance. He patiently waited for the grey wisp to arrive, honestly not expecting much. The last three clones had returned empty-handed, after all, having spent months ignoring all the barren worlds and lesser springs in their path, holding out for something better – in accordance with his instructions.

‘Okay, I guess one of them actually did something productive,’ he corrected himself.

A few months back, a clone had finally picked up Sol’s signal. Percy had obviously been elated to confirm that his friend on Melodia had survived the harrowing journey back to her homeland, after not hearing from her in years. Sadly, the clone had lacked the means to communicate the news to the main body, since they hadn’t kept their cord in its empowered state, and he’d already flown too far from Remior.

Not that it had made that much of a difference. He would’ve had to return anyway, to swap out the contents of his spatial seal. After replacing the green mushrooms with Aurora Dew, the original had created a new clone, equipping him with Zoris’s ring and coating him in a protective layer of phantom mana, before sending him off.

Luckily, they’d acted fast enough for Sol’s signal to still be available. The trip to Melodia had been uneventful, the clone breaking through the blockade of spectral fiends more easily than ever before, thanks to his blessing and higher grade.

Upon possessing the girl, Percy had been relieved to hear that not just she, but also Latt and Doh had made it home safely a few months earlier. She hadn’t reached out immediately, because they’d been too busy defending their cities and coaching their people into learning the boosting art.

The Melodians’ homeland was in hot water – regularly raided by hordes of hungry beasts – but the situation wasn’t as dire as Percy had feared. They still had several years before their cities fell, so they had plenty of time to master Circulation, even without the assistance of the Elemental Source. The Refined spell would probably be enough to change the situation, or at least buy them even more time to upgrade it to the full Dance.

Percy would have loved to stay a bit longer for sightseeing and to study a new soul spell or Spectral Art, but he’d understood how swamped Sol was with responsibilities. In the end, they’d only focused on the most important things.

He’d passed her, Doh, and Latt enough Aurora Dew to get them all to the next grade. With two Green cores, three traits, and the Dance, Percy was confident the girl would be as powerful as a Blue the next time they met. As for Doh, he would probably become Melodia’s first actual Blue.

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If Percy was being honest with himself, giving Latt any elixirs wasn’t the smartest allocation of the resources, since a Yellow advancing to Green would hardly make a difference. Even so, he hadn’t wanted to skimp on a friend he’d spent months travelling and fighting with. Still, the Yellow-born had clearly understood the situation just as well, so he’d decided to pass his share to another Green-born, where it would arguably have a greater impact – to which Percy had no objection.

Strictly speaking, Sol’s elixirs would have also done more good in the hands of two Green-borns, but both Percy and Doh had insisted that she used them herself. After all, the girl was Percy’s only connection to Melodia – something that everyone knew was a lot more important than an extra fighter or two.

Percy would have loved to give them more resources, but his reserves were finite. He still had over fourteen years’ worth of Aurora Dew for himself and Micky, but less than a third was brewed, and he hadn’t been able to loot any lately, since his pursuers hadn’t followed him to the ocean. Having no idea whether his plans with the wasp familiar would bear fruit, he couldn’t afford to be too generous.

Percy and Sol hoped that her people would find their own source of stable beast mana eventually – once they had the strength to push back against the beast tide and explore their planet properly. For the time being, he’d shown her how to cleanse her cores both with and without the elixirs. The latter wasn’t very meaningful for her or Doh, as chipping away at the impurities without beast mana would take a thousand years to get them to their second promotion, but it would allow the other Green-borns to reach Blue in a century if they didn’t find something better in that time.

Finally, there was the ring.

The original agreement had been to have Sol absorb the blessing and return Zoris to the Mirror Lake the first chance she got, but the former god had surprised everyone with a new offer. He still had no interest in helping out the rest of the Melodians, but he’d decided to pass the blessing to both Doh and Latt. The two had initially rejected the god’s kindness, but Zoris had insisted. Moreover, he’d even requested not to be returned to the Elemental Source after they were done.

‘Are you sure?’

Percy had asked. ‘I thought you wanted to resume your research into rebuilding your body.’

‘I do,’ the ring wraith had replied, before elaborating, ‘but I’ve since realized that silent contemplation for years on end might not be the best way to go about it. I think I’ll have a better chance if I keep following you around.’

‘I’m flattered by your trust, but I’ve no idea how to help you,’ Percy had said.

Naturally, they’d discussed the possibility of turning Zoris into a familiar – like Percy had done to save Micky, or like he was planning to do to help Nephthys. However, they’d concluded that it wouldn’t work. Unlike the others, Zoris wasn’t just a disembodied soul – he’d been turned into a heaven-defying artifact through the power of a Decree, wielded by the very titan who had cast it. They had no idea whether damaging the ring would be safe, or whether Percy’s bloodline could interact with it properly.

‘I know,’ Zoris had responded with a mental shrug. ‘I don’t expect anything unreasonable from you, nor am I in a hurry. But I’d love to stick by your side and watch your progress, if you’re fine with it. I’ve a hunch that I’ll have more opportunities in the future, once you grow stronger.’

Percy hadn’t said anything else, happy to follow the god’s wishes. Zoris had already done a lot for him, so he was more than willing to help however he could. He wouldn’t insult the former god by reminding him of the danger he was in as a wanted criminal, as he was certain Zoris had already considered everything carefully. Either way, their reunion would have to wait until his next visit to Melodia – perhaps even later, since the god had to pass the blessing to three people first.

With everything settled, he’d then returned to Remior.

There was a lot more he could have taught Sol – such as alchemy and runecrafting – and plenty that he wanted to learn from the Melodians, but he’d already given her enough to keep her busy for the foreseeable future. Anything else would have to wait until their situation stabilized.

They’d agreed to have Sol broadcast her signal once a week, however, so that Percy would only have to wait a few days at most if he needed to visit Melodia. On the flip side, the girl would reach out more frequently if she was the one in need, to let him know that something was wrong.

The wisp finally slammed into Percy’s soul, jolting him back to the present. His glowing eyes couldn’t help but widen in shock as he realized that his haul this time was far, far greater than he could have ever imagined…