Eldritch Creature's Guide

5th Floor of the Tower, somewhere on another unknown floating island.

For the past few days, Yvraine spent them training with Lord Moon Sword as someone who has mastered the ways of the Silvermoon Swordsmanship; his combat prowess and skills with the Silvermoon Swordsmanship were out of anything she had seen before, and it was no wonder that he was hailed as one of the strongest swordsmen in the Cosmos.

The training regiment was rigorous and strict; never in her decades-long life, had she undergone such a strict and brutal training regiment, as Lord Moon Sword was an absolute slave driver with no mercy when it came to the training and walking on the path of the sword.

Not to mention that Lord Moon Sword completely reworked the entire training and she was forced to learn the basics of the Silvermoon Swordsmanship once again, because when it came to this, everything started with the basics.

"Again."

Said Lord Moon Sword, who was sitting cross-legged on the nearby boulder and looking at the Silvermoon Crown Princess, who was slashing and hacking with her sword. It was just a simple stance that she was repeating until she reached perfection itself with the stance itself.

While Yvraine was very proficient in the Silvermoon Swordsmanship, by the words of Lord Moon Sword, what she lacked was the essence of the Silvermoon Sword. Told in other words, she was pursuing the higher perfection so much that she neglected the basics themselves entirely, and the entire sword style suffered.

And this continued for several more hours until Lord Moon Sword was satisfied enough to let her have some slight pause. When she was that Lord Moon Sword gave her a nod for her to rest, she sat down in the same meditative position as he, and she started meditating to recover faster.

This place was also very rich in Mana due to the presence of the same trees, which were relating the tranquil aura, which was created as the best place to reach enlightenment. One of the side effects of this act was that the Mana density on the 5th Floor, especially on certain Islands, was unusually high.

Especially in the islands that were occupied by the strong Legendaries, and of course, the Holies took the best islands for themselves. These Floating Islands were like second homes to many of them, and there were even some Holies who were technically here for such a long time that they were already living there.

"How long will we be taking this, Lord Elraroth?"

Elraroth Daeric Yaennernamis was the whole name of Lord Moon Sword, one of the pillars of not only the entirety of the Silvermoon Species but also the whole Nesser Dynasty as a faction because he was one of their strongest Holies.

"For as long as it would be necessary for you to master the basic essence of the Moon, without it, the Silvermoon cannot achieve its true might, never in your entire life. So, don't complain and try to rest... we will be continuing very soon."

Answered the Lord Moon Sword Elraroth, who slightly opened his eyes and looked at Yvraine with his strict, piercing gaze, which made her lower her head as she continued in her meditation; any attempts to resist were futile, as the training was without an exceptions.

Both of them were in a meditative position for the next hour in absolute silence. Sometimes Yvraine thought that she was turning to a monk as they were sitting in solace and silence, contemplating the meaning of life.

Especially the practitioners of certain long far Worlds, where the Path of Immortals was invented, as people in Mana Rich environments typically they meditated on rocks and absorbed the ambient Mana from the environment. It was pretty stupid and boring, in her opinion, sitting on some piece of rock for decades and doing nothing else than just absorbing the ambient Mana so you could safely increase your Levels...

Nobody said a word until Lord Moon Sword Elraroth suddenly opened his eyes as a small blue magic circle appeared on his hand, some an image of a male Silvermoon Elf was displayed on it.

"Ancestor."

Said the Silvermoon Elf's voice as he bowed to Lord Elraroth. Among the elves, there was a strict sense of social hierarchy, not as extreme as when it came to the Blood Races, but still, it was strong enough.

And even though both of them were members of the same race, there was still a greater disparity in their status. Of course, then aside from that, there was a great disparity in seniority, as Lord Moon Sword was a very old Silvermoon Elf despite his relatively youthful appearance.

"What is it, Kaeros?"

Questioned Elraroth why he received the call from the Head of the Imperial Intelligence, usually the people like him are not bothering with the mortal matter anymore, especially after reaching the later stages of the Legendary; most of the experts of their respective factions would let go of the positions of power to focus completely on their progress.

So, as long as it was not a matter of something which was threatening the existence of the Nesser Dynasty, the old men like Elraroth won't be bothered by their juniors. So seeing that the Head of the Imperial Intelligence was personally calling him, it must be something significant.

"A new Holy Legendary has emerged in the Tower."

Stated the Head of the Imperial Intelligence Kaeros.

"Who is it?"

When some Legendary reaches the state of the Holiness, it is every time a significant ground-shaking matter because it will drastically change the political landscape among the many factions of the Tower and the Cosmos.

Right now, in the worst case, it could be someone from the Underdark. For the past thousands of years, the Underdark has been steadily growing in its strength, producing many powerful Legendaries and even producing a new Holy Legendary one thousands of years ago.

Of course, Holies often go here and there, some of them subsequently achieve Transcendence and ascend to the Higher Dimensional Worlds, but some of them remain in that stage until the end of their lifespans.

"It is Cardinal Shen Long of the Hall of Kadath. He achieved the state four hours ago in some random High World that the Mind Flyer Fleet invaded. Cardinal Shen Long achieved his breakthrough in his duel against Holy Legendary Mind Flyer whom he killed and forced the entire Fleet on the retreat."

Reported the Head of the Imperial Intelligence as the Lord Moon Sword Elraroth was in deep thought right now. Currently, across the mortal parts of the Tower and Cosmos, the Hall of Kadath, The Guild and Vaultbank are the most powerful factions among the 13 Gates.

There was not even known how many Legendaries or how many worlds these factions controlled, especially, The Guild was the most mysterious of all of them. At the same time, Vaultbank was basically a banking organization, albeit an extremely strong one.

They, too, had their own military forces and many strong Legendaries because they had plenty of resources to create new Legendaries and cultivated their fearsome Punishment Divison, which was in charge of protecting their banks.

"The Hall of Kadath gaining another Holy... Shen Long has already been stuck at his Level for more than five thousand years."

Reaching the Holy State of the Legendary could be done in two ways. The easier one was basically failing the Transcendence when someone who was Limit Legendary attempted to Transcend, but ultimately failed, but managed to survive. In this way, one could achieve the state of Holiness, though their state is unstable, and there are many hidden dangers or consequences to that.

The second method is if someone who was Limit Legendary to advance to the state of Holiness. This was an extremely arduous thing to do, as it required a high amount of talent, and usually, only a very few people are able to do this. The greatest perk of this method is that the people who became Holies on their won then would have high chances for Transcendence.

And of course, there was a third method, and that was when someone was elevated to this position by the Transcendent Level powerhouse, but such thing was rarely done because for Transcendent, it would require a lot of effort, and it was not worth them due to certain reasons.

"Mind Flyers are attacking en masse one more?"

This was certainly the most troubling news. Usually, the Mind Flyer Fleets operated only when they were under the leadership of the Transcednet Level Mind Flyer or perhaps even some of the stronger Fleets under the leadership of the Elder Brain.

Otherwise, the weaker Fleets without the Transcendent backing followed the instruction of those stronger. The hierarchy between the fleets was clear as the sun, as nobody dared to move without the orders of those at the top, and everything returned back to the Elder Brains. In a certain sense, the racial hierarchy of the Mind Flyers resembled a pyramid.

And aside from that, they were just cooped up in some random worlds, trying to cultivate one of their own to reach the Annulled State.

"Are there other worlds attacked by the Mind Flyers?"

Asked Lord Moon Sword as the Kaeroth, the Head of the Imperial Intelligence, nodded his head in agreement because such was the case. Mind Flyers were considered as one of the scourges of the Cosmos, together with Swarm, Orks and Daemons, albeit for different reasons.

Orks were destroying everything in their path and even not in their path due to their endless pursuits of Waaaggghhhs, while Daemons were turning everything into the extension of the Abyss, turning once vibrant worlds into ashes and dust of the Abyssal flames. Swarm is the name for races of Void Insects that devoured everything in their path, worlds or stars; everything became food for them.

And Mind Flyers were enslavers of the Cosmos, who preyed on the weak worlds and those with weak protectors, so they could enslave their population and crudely say, eat their brains to boost up their own psionic potential.

In this way, the Mind Flyers were able to produce many Transcendents and countless upon countless Legendaries. This made them an equal if not greater threat than even hordes of Fiends because they could match the denizens of the Abyss with their advanced psionic technology and great armies of slaves.

"Hmm... this is indeed a grave situation... it appears that the wheels have started working already."

Stated Lord Elrorath as he cut a call with the Head of Imperial Intelligence.

"Girl, I heard that you have been fraternizing with one of the Hall of Kadath?"

The elderly elf questioned Yvraine as he raised his brow, looking at her carefully and observing any changes in her expression. Yvraine, now unsure how to react when one of her elders was interrogating her, just slowly nodded her head in agreement with his statement.

"Good... I now got the news that another of their Cardinals, Cardinal Shen Long, achieved Holiness, and the Hall of Kadath is stronger once more, and most importantly, he achieved that during the fight with the Mind Flyers that attacked one of their worlds under their protection."

He stated while Yvraine remained deeply surprised or outright shocked. Attacking any worlds under the protection or which directly belonged to the Hall of Kadath was suicide itself. And the fact that the Mind Flyers did it was a very bad sign.

It was a signal that something big was coming, and the Mind Flyer Fleets were becoming active once again, after countless years of just roaming through the Void of the Cosmos, occasionally pillaging some worlds or two.

No, this was begging for something bigger.

"But the Mind Flyer Fleets have not attacked any worlds under one of the 13 Gates or those factions with strong Transcendental backing for countless millennia."

Yvraine stated as just this fact made the situation countless times worse.

Contrary to Orks and Fiends, Mind Flyers were crafty bastards. They purposely avoided all worlds that were under the control of the powerful factions not to suffer any heavy losses. Orks didn't care, and the same of the Fiends, and not talking about the Swarm, which purposely chose those worlds as they were most rich on strong biomass.

They chose their targets very carefully, always targeting those weak factions with little to no Transcendental backing or those whose Transcendents were weak, where even Mind Flyer Transcendetns directly participated in the battle.

"Yes, they broke their usual pattern, meaning something big would soon be happening across the entirety of the Cosmos, and for that, we need to be prepared as much as possible. It is highly possible that they would be attacking our worlds next... as the apostle of the Mood Goddess, you have the greatest chance to become Holy within one thousand years with your unique situation if we play our cards well. For that, we need to adjust the training regiment."

Stated Lord Moon Sword, as Yvraine, grimaced, but in the end, there was nothing she could do about it, as it was needed the right thing to do currently. Even though the current training regiment was outright torturous, it was beneficial for her to increase her strength and combat prowess tremendously in a short span of time.