Truthful Transmigration

Previously, Crystin had been with John the majority of the time. That continued even after he officially relinquished his status as clan head. Her loyal protection had been critical to John at multiple points throughout his life, so whens he actually requested something for herself he took it very seriously.

Of course, it wasn’t entirely for herself. Crystin’s desire to advance to the Ascending Soul Phase would be greatly beneficial to the Tenebach clan and their allies. Strong allies were usually an effective deterrent against trouble, but having someone directly present was far better. Unsurprisingly, despite the recent efforts to bring people together the region wasn’t fully unified in just a few decades after long histories of conflict.

Even if Crystin simply wished to advance to know she could, it would have the same benefits when she succeeded. John believed her success to be likely, but he couldn’t be sure. He provided his best advice, doing his best not to focus on insights personal to himself and his own experiences. The most important advice he had was not to rush the process. While urgency could be a valuable tool, it also came with greater risks. And if it was not truly necessary, rushing was usually a mistake. John found that true in all walks of life.

-----

His semi-final opponent was… larger than he remembered. Then again, Ciaritzal was a spirit beast and didn’t necessarily have any defined size. John had also interacted less with Ciaritzal after he attained his current strength.

Well, whether the size was a legitimate threat or a mere attempt at intimidation, he had to deal with it regardless. They stood in a bare section of the constructed underground, but John already knew it would need repairs after the battle.

“I’m ready when you are,” Ciaritzal said.

John nodded. “I am ready.”

There was little need for any sort of official referee, however they still had members of the clan watching from the sidelines. There might be something they could learn from the battle.

Against a creature of darkness, attempting to conceal his actions with darkness was pointless. At best, the results he achieved would still lose out to the effort. Thus, he focused on a more straightforward tactic to start. John began with several throwing daggers, charged with lightning.

The indistinct form of Ciaritzal bent and swayed, easily avoiding all of the attacks. That wasn’t John’s intention, but it was predicted. If he couldn’t hide the elements involved, he could at least still keep his plans secret. If they had hit, it would have been to his advantage… but their current position allowed lightning to arc between the three of them, forcing Ciaritzal to leap out of their path.

In the moment the beast was in the air, John slashed forward with his sword, covered in flames. He aimed for Ciaritzal’s side and… clashed against an unexpected claw.

“Nice try,” the guardian beast said when he landed, fading into the shadows- even to John’s enhanced vision he was little more than an indistinct blur. Picking out anything but his general location was difficult.

It was his very focus on trying to spot Ciaritzal that got him in trouble. He watched the darkness, and nearly wasn’t ready when it came from his side. As for why Ciaritzal attacked his side, he would actually have been more wary of his back. Wisps of darkness within the local darkness struck at John, forcing him to take the hit directly, blocking with earth element and tumbling across the floor.

Rather than being undetectable, the sense of Ciaritzal suffused the area so deeply that picking out which part was real and which was not seemed impossible to John. He found himself cutting at shadows, yet he always found himself striking nothing, leaving himself open to further attacks.

Constantly weathering blows was going to get him nowhere. Tracking Ciaritzal’s movements was obviously not working for him. He seemed to possess impossible speed. Or perhaps… he wasn’t moving at all.

John once again gathered fire on his blade, slashing outward at a perceived threat. When his attack failed, he was not surprised. Spectral jaws nipped at his heels, but his fire element joined with water, empowering it. A burst of steam blasted away the attack and filled the room.

With that, John was able to confirm what he suspected. Ciaritzal wasn’t moving faster than he could react, he simply wasn’t there to be struck at all. At the moment he was little more than spiritual energy spread throughout the room, diffuse and unable to be attacked. Meanwhile, he could attack from literally any angle.

A powerful move, but not without its weaknesses. Whether or not John would be able to exploit them was another matter. Spirit beasts had bodies for a reason, so it was unlikely Ciaritzal could keep up the technique forever. However, even if John could drag out the fight long enough to tire the guardian beast, he didn’t necessarily want to end it that way. And he wasn’t sure it was actually possible.

Five elements circled through him, bolstering each other in the minor cycle aligned with darkness and the cycle of core elements. Rather than trying to hide what spiritual energy he prepared, John simply kept all of it ready to react depending on the circumstances.

It was pointless to attack nothing, but John still kept his blade empowered with flames. He simply waited, anticipating the next attack. It seemed Ciaritzal also wasn’t interested in a stalemate of sorts, and a claw manifested over John’s head.

Fire led into water which bolstered air, creating a layer of lightning atop John’s head, outside a hardened layer of earth element. The claw struck him, but took at least as much damage as it caused. The quantity of darkness element in the area diminished.

Good, if there were truly no ways for him to counterattack he could only run… though John decided if he found himself in such circumstances in a real situation, that would be the most appropriate. Choosing to fight in a battlefield slanted against him was valuable for training, but not so much for surviving.

The two clashed repeatedly, John doing his best to anticipate Ciaritzals method of attack and Ciaritzal in turn trying to predict his counters. John froze the attacking appendage, wreathe it in flames, and simply covered his body in spikes. His final tactic was to try to use his own darkness element to disperse the surrounding spiritual energy. Ciaritzal didn’t let him take control and absorb any of it, instead wrestling with John’s efforts to make sure both of them were drained.

In the end, it all came down to a final move. John spun his sword, stabbing forward and to his left, opposite his sword hand. Ciaritzal had only just begun to form a claw there, and John managed to land a solid hit, stopping it just short of reaching his own side.

“How?” Ciaritzal asked.

John shrugged. “I know you, and I know that you know me. With my left hand empty, that’s my weakest side.”

“Why not directly to your left?” Ciaritzal asked.

“Same reason. You knew that was the weakest, so you didn’t focus there. Only one of your first attacks, to see if I could guard against it.”

“Hmph. That’s what a strong affinity gets you, I suppose.”

-----

Nightfall came, and with it Ereli’s promised insight into her totem. John went looking for her, and stumbled across her meaning along the way. She was right. It was easy to see, if he looked right.

John looked up at the moon, shining brightly in the sky. That was how he recognized it was not the moon that was Ereli’s totem. The moon was only part of it. It was the light… and the rest was the darkness.

He understood now. The moon was only a source of light at night. Not that it couldn’t be seen during the day, depending on the circumstances, but nobody would say they were bathed in moonlight.

Her totem wasn’t the moon, but the very feeling of looking up at the moon in the night. Finding it as a source of light in the darkness, yet in its own way not a source of light at all. Most days, it couldn’t be seen at all, and only faintly when it was- dim as it was in true light.

It was a consistent cycle of light in the darkness and darkness in the light. A totem of balance between light and darkness, and the way that circumstances changed one to the other. Staring up at the night sky was the place John saw the greatest natural balance of light and darkness.

John continued his mission to find Ereli, spotting her sitting by a pool, staring at a reflection of that same night sky. “You chose well,” John said. “A natural balance rather than one manmade. And something fitting yourself rather than something others recommended.”

“It was the only one,” Ereli said. “Nothing else fit.”

John nodded. Understanding more about her totem, he also saw how her energy was subdued. Not weak, though clearly far from the explosive results regarding the interplay of light and darkness. Nearly the opposite of her father Nik, who had focused on the mutual destruction and chosen to master his control over it. But of course, it was perfectly fitting for one who had to live with the elements, instead of simply combat the other- or train with someone controlling the opposite.

“Have you thought about your next totem?” John asked.

“No,” Ereli answered straightforwardly.

That caused an awkward break in the conversation. She might have said she was still some time off from stepping into the next rank and reaching the Foundation Phase, but instead she responded in that way.

And maybe that was fine. She was still young. Besides, John realized that there was a question that hadn’t been asked.

“Do you want to cultivate?”

Being born with light and darkness within her, she didn’t really have a choice. She couldn’t just ignore it, like any single element- or even other combinations which would mainly end up viable.

Ereli looked down at the reflection in front of her, stretching her hand to cover what John thought was the moon. “I don’t know,” she admitted.

“I think you should,” John said. “But you need to figure out your own reason why. And trying to keep up with your cousin might not be good enough. You should find something you enjoy.”

John wasn’t quite sure why he said what he did. Ultimately, he didn’t intend to push her away from cultivation… but Ereli forcing herself if she didn’t want to could only end poorly. It might not be great for the clan’s image, but the Tenebach clan could handle a single individual not cultivating. Melanthina didn’t necessarily need to pass on leadership of the clan anytime soon.

Even when Matayal had been around, they had still intended to stay clan heads for a few more years. The only reason they wouldn’t have remained in their position for fifty years or more would be the separation. However, Nik was together with Melanthina the majority of the time, instead of being apart half the year or more. It wouldn’t be odd if she remained as the clan head for as long as Luctus had.

Then again, as long as the clan was strong perhaps the clan head didn’t need to have a high cultivation. It would require someone like Crystin as a constant guard, but as long as one was a competent administrator the clan could benefit. But there was plenty of time to figure out the future of the clan. Nor did they have to strictly limit themselves to a single child. The world had changed enough that there were opportunities available, and blindly sticking to tradition was pointless.

The point of a single child was to limit strife in passing on the mantle to the next generation, but the Tenebach clan had unity beyond simple obedience to the main line. There were also outside forces that kept them stable in their allies. In short, they could afford some changes.

Though John really did think that Ereli would be better off cultivating, and would continue to gently encourage it. The opportunity to grow was something not easily passed up, and it would only bring more opportunities with it. Ereli also clearly had the talent, simply by the fact that she still lived.