It felt like it’d only been a few weeks since he’d last been in the World Tree. But somehow Reina had transformed the place again.

  The main thoroughfare, snaking up the main branch, was packed with carts. Carts stacked full of Interspatial Rings marked for The Deep Earth Hall, or Mount Thundercrest—sigil after sigil went by. Each was marked bottles of essence or healing, shipped out in neat order.

  There were even a few carts that got armed Minor God escorts. Those had vials too dense to fit in pocket dimensions; they were meant for the heavy-hitters. It was that bottled moonlight she’d been working on.

  He remembered what Reina had written—she’d been trying to fix up True Gods who’d been badly wounded. Most elders, if they’d lived long enough, were wounded permanently to the soul or body. Some had stumps for legs or missing fingers. It meant a blow to their combat strength.

  But that kind of healing had been a lost art.

  Then Reina pulled up her sleeves and got stuck into it.

  The trouble was the World Tree Faction not only lacked the skills, but also the knowledge—it seemed a total dead-end. Then she pored through dusty archives, picking out lost tomes written in forgotten tongues, tongues even the System didn’t record. She learned those tongues, and pooled all the knowledge of her staff, and managed to reconstruct the formula after a week of non-stop work.

  But she still lacked the masters to make it—during the Arandors’ reign, standards went slack. They’d shut out some of the World Tree’s best brewers to raise their family’s own. That slimy dealing made most of the Grand Masters resign in disgust.

  So she personally visited them—six of whom were in seclusion in far-off star systems—and charmed them all into working together again.

  The impact on Steelheart alone was huge; even now it was rippling across the Galaxy. The Elders and Ancestors were the bulk of a Faction’s power. In a week Reina had hugely buffed the whole Galaxy’s fighting strength.

  The thing was, Zane was pretty sure it was just a side project for her.

  He stood there, taking it all in.

  She really was something else.

  He felt the urge to tell someone. But he figured the folks bustling about here already knew.

  Then he was spotted by a guard—a fellow in a gold-leaf helm.

  It wasn’t that hard a thing. He was double as wide as every other fellow there.

  The guard waved—“Master Zane!” He stood at attention. “Welcome back, sire!”

  The guard beside him gave a three-fingered salute—the elves’ sign of respect.

  Unlike Reina, he wasn’t the best with picking up on these cues. But he was pretty sure the elf-folk hadn’t looked at him quite like that before.

  Now that he looked around, he saw elves inclining their heads to him—he heard many a “Master Zane” and “Sire Zane,” even from the folks in golden nobles’ silks.

  He was used to some of these nobles looking over their noses at him—at the time he figured they were just elves. He didn’t think too much of it. Reina felt it was something more, though; she made sure to chastise them whenever she caught it.

  On one occasion some fellows—especially pretty young male elves, one with Titles like Duke or Lord next to their name—made a point of standing near him in a council meeting, and loudly saying to each other he was just some big lunk—not worthy of their queen. They seemed to think they’d make better Consorts.

  Zane was quite used to men making a fool of themselves when it came to Reina. He wasn’t much concerned about what they thought.

  Those fellows didn’t notice that Reina wasn’t far behind him, though. She got so angry she nearly expelled them. It was enough to shut them up forever—Zane had seen his share of Monsters in this world, and none of them were half as scary as an angry Reina.

  As he wondered about it, he saw an Arandor crest go by. It was an Elder, supervising one of the elixir payloads. Like most of the elder elves he had no beard, and his face was ageless—you could only judge the fellow’s age by the whiteness of his hair. He flinched when he saw Zane, went a little pale—“Ah! Greetings, Master Zane!”

  At Zane’s look—

  “The Courier told us of your exploits,” said the Elder, swallowing. “It was said you resonated with a million-year Sacred Bone—the Arandors would like to offer our deepest congratulations—and apologies—yes, apologies—if any whelps of ours spoke rashly in their past...”

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  Oh.

  “Please, Master! A token of our sincerity—”

  The Elder handed him a Heaven A-grade Spirit Stone for no reason, as far as Zane could tell.

  “Thanks,” said Zane, vaguely amused, and took it.

  He noticed these Great Faction noble houses tended to get offended quite easily. They seemed to think he’d be too.

  If someone came up to him and started running their mouths, he was happy to pound them. But they seemed to think he spent his free time thinking about these things, holding grudges. That seemed to be the way of it around these parts.

  It always seemed a bit silly to him. He wondered if these folk didn’t have more important things to think about.

  Speaking of…

  The guards led him to Reina.

  He found her at the top floor of a new mega-factory, watching as sorcerers slotted in heaven-grade steel beams, putting in the finishing touches.

  It looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks—there were bags under her eyes, and she seemed rather tense, judging by the stress in her body.

  She couldn’t help but fix something if she saw something was wrong. He quite liked that about her, but sometimes it worried him.

  Even in this state, she was still Reina. She gave a little smile as she spoke to a young attendant, and Zane saw the fellow’s wits leave his brain in real-time—she still had her usual effect on men.

  There was something else to it, though, now he looked closer. She was bursting with life in the Astral Plane.

  She still held herself high as she ordered white-haired True Gods and Empyreans about, every bit a proud queen.

  The attendant looked over, still in a smitten reverie, and saw Zane.

  …He sensed quite mixed feelings from the fellow.

  Then Reina noticed him, and gasped. She lit up.

  …It turned out he didn’t fare any better than that attendant fellow.

  Then she bit her lip.

  For a moment he got the sense she’d planned on being cool with him, like last time—especially in front of all these dignified elves. He remembered how wound-up she’d been, and felt a twinge of nervousness.

  But some other impulse won out in her. A moment later—

  “You’re back,” she breathed into his chest.

  Then she looked up at him for a moment and studied him.

  She seemed a bit cross all of a sudden. He blinked.

  “I heard you went and challenged a half-step True God,” she said, folding her arms. “With two Monstrous Bones, when you had none—more than a full power level higher.”

  “…Maybe.”

  “Next time you do something that risky,” she said, chin held high, “I’ll be there too. Someone’s got to make sure you don’t end up in bits.”

  She poked him in the chest. “It’s very important to me that Zane stays in one piece,” she said. “No one I’ve found comes close to him. He simply can’t be replaced. Is that clear?”

  He nodded quickly.

  He was just pleased she hadn’t heard about his charging that Minor God army.

  Then she smiled at him again, successfully blanking his head again, and led him to the highest floor.

  ***

  Now that he was so close to Minor God, Reina believed it was important he leveled vigorously. It was a very convincing argument, Zane thought.

  Level up!

  Level up!

  Essence Level 495 -> 497

  Later, as she lay sprawled on him, breathing heavy, she told him about her new physique. Its full name was ‘Vanna’s Blessing, Sacred Pure Physique’. Vanna was the old name of the World Tree.

  Its main unique passive Skill was a game-changer by itself—Corruption fled in its presence. Any Monsters near her would get hammered by a 50% power debuff, no matter the level. Only Malzareth himself would be immune.

  She’d gotten a new unique healing Skill too, which would come nearly as handy.

  More and more, Zane’s Laws became geared toward pure destruction. Especially after his sparks of Destruction. Some aspects of Elemental Fire had been useful for healing, way back—but they couldn’t keep up with his needs. The bulk of his regeneration these days came from his Titan Rhino side.

  It would be nice to have her there, especially when he had to go at big armies with no rest.

  …By the determination in her eyes, he was pretty sure he couldn’t stop her if he tried.

  She also showed him a unique buff Skill she’d gotten—an extremely powerful one. ‘Vanna’s Touch’ let her draw from the World Tree itself to bless her allies. They’d gain a sacred glow, and all their essences would gain a 40% buff in efficacy. The equivalent of dozens of Levels, for most.

  She tried it on him, and found it was over 10% more effective than its base rate.

  It was only a little surprising. Zane was used to her spells working extra on him for some reason.

  He took out his souvenirs for her—the crystals he’d gotten on the Dragon’s Teeth Peaks, and that one shell Sacred Bone. He was right about her being delighted by the geometries.

  Then he told her about how her plan for the bees had worked out, and they had a meal.

  Strange thing—she hadn’t gotten any rest since he’d come. But as they walking through their gardens, her head on his chest, a little smile on her face, the bags had gone from her eyes. There was no tightness in her body at all anymore.

  It warmed him to see.

  ***

  It turned out the elves’ reactions weren't a fluke—it seemed news of his Skill had spread. Reina said the new consensus was that it was only a matter of time before Zane became a superpower.

  Reina was quite pleased with this development. Even the snootiest elf elders didn’t dare challenge her choice of man anymore, even subtly.

  They’d gotten a bit of a shock—they weren’t used to having the power levels closed on them that fast.

  It hadn’t been that long, in the grand scheme of things, since Zane had been a Nascent. Now he was on the verge of threatening True Gods.

  Zane felt she had trouble seeing him objectively, which was a bit strange, since she was quite objective with everything else. But she’d always been sure he’d become the strongest there was.

  She was just glad more folk were catching on.

  ***

  That afternoon, Evan and Avery tumbled out of the portals.