Chapter 256: Harmony. Part 2.

"You know why I let you come to my place the first time?" Overlord Seris asked.Lee got startled hearing her voice. She disappeared for days only to show up from nowhere all of the sudden.

"Is it because of my looks?" He tried to joke.

"Don’t get cocky – you’re a six at best. And that’s a stretch!" Her sarcastic words stabbed right in Lee’s heart, and once again he regretted suggesting her to grade his jokes.

"It’s your ability to use the different elements." She turned serious again, "Any elemental warrior would’ve aged two hundred years before they got here. But you, kiddo, grew only stronger. There is the downside of you being in a constant pain, but ignoring that – you’re not an elemental warrior, you’re basically an elemental master ... except one who practices four elements."

Lee, of course, had figured it out on his own, therefore she continued, "Unfortunately for you, the main characteristic of an elemental master – growing in strength, is going to lead to your demise. You can’t stop it, and even if you don’t cultivate, you’ll have hard time to postpone the inevitable. Because of Trexian’s seal, the cycle will repeat until the seal dissipates or the sparks detonate your consciousness along with the soul, ending your existence."

"Fuck me ..." Lee cursed, turning increasingly grim.

There was no need for the overlord to pamper him with unnecessary hope or put down by exaggerating things. She clearly formulated everything as it was, and, more importantly, most of what she said Lee had already figured out by himself.

"That leads us back to the basics." Seris said, and Lee immediately woke up from his misery. This was something similar to what he kept saying to himself during the time in the Nethermoon sect while working in the library.

"Harmony!." She continued, "While in theory your for sparks counterbalance each other, in practice they aren’t yours and can’t co-exist in harmony."

The first thought Lee had was that elemental warriors didn’t have to live in pain, even if they had more than one spark, but immediately realized they destroyed their lifespan every time they lifted a finger. It was anything but elements existing in harmony.

But how elemental masters differed? Even if, for example, a fire elemental master had only his own fire spark, how come it didn’t destroy him? It’s an incredible amount of concentrated elemental energy, so why didn’t it burn a person to a crisp from within?

The old madam patiently observed the changes in Lee’s expression, and then, guessing his thoughts, said, "Even if there is a dominant element, it still exists in harmony with the world, or the cultivator. More importantly, it exists in harmony with the other elements! That’s what you should’ve been focusing on all of them this time!"

Not looking back at her, Lee said, "But even if I try to balance them, it’s a process of cultivation and inevitably lead to me dying in body and soul. It’s a closed loop."

"Yes and no." She said, "You think in the correct direction, but you’re missing the main point. You have large amounts of concentrated elemental particles, but they can never be balanced if you are lacking the rest."

"You mean ... spatial spark?" Lee weakly said, but the loud gulp gave away the horror he felt. Swallowing another spark was the last thing he wanted to experience again.

"It’s only a theory." She said, "I have no clue whether you can pull it off in practice. That’s why your joke wasn’t that funny."

"So your idea is – I should get all sparks ... and then what?" Lee asked.

"And then you fuse the elements." Seris said with a shrug, "I don’t know how. I’m only the master of wind. But think of the Old Gods. They could absorb the other elements in their original sparks. That means, it can be done. The problem is that they do it naturally, hibernating for centuries. You, on the other had, will have to come up with a unique technique. I doubt anyone will be able to help you."

"What are the chances of me not going insane for a few more lives if I remain as I am?" Lee asked, weighing his options.

"Honestly? Pretty slim." Seris said, "You have grown somewhat resilient to the pain, but my guess is that the worst is yet to come."

Lee wasn’t afraid of swallowing another spark. He would experience a couple months of hell, but afterwards he would be more or less fine. What he was terrified of was the day of the hell coming into his everyday life.

The old overlord didn’t have to lie to him – most likely what she said was true. The problem was the inevitable agonizing end.

All these lives Lee kind of behaved like an immortal. He didn’t care if he died – he would be born again. After finding out there was a limit to the lives he could have, he became more careful, but in general still didn’t care much. If there was a problem – he could always solve it by starting over in a new life.

Now, though, no matter how many times he died, there was no way to escape for the predicament he found himself in. He was completely fucked.

Maybe Seris’s suggested idea wasn’t half bad after all. Yes, he would suffer after absorbing a spatial spark, but if he failed the fusion process, he probably would die for good. Wasn’t it better than slowly going insane from pain in the span of several lifetimes?

***

"Hollowreach." Overlord Seris said, "It’s probably your safest bet to get a high quality spatial spark."

Before departure, Lee asked her advice where to go, and contrary to the previous time, she came up with only one name.

"It’s not a well known world, but they have quite unique resources they export, so I think your friends should have coordinates for it. If nothing has dramatically changed in the past few hundred years, I’d say you won’t even need to fight anyone to get a spark there." She said, "Watch out for spatial storms, though."

"Thank you, madam Seris!" Lee said, but she was already gone. As usual, the moment Lee was out of jokes, she lost all interest in him.

On the way back to Freeheaven Lee thought of a way to prank her a little. He suggested Simone Lamart to build an overlord’s statue, and announce the first day of every month to be a Day of Jokes. The city would hold a small festival by the statue, and people would compete in telling jokes in front of a larger audience. That, in turn, would increase the mood if the citizens as well as entertain the old lady living hundreds of miles away.

Lee did warn Simone that there was a possibility that this action will give birth to a new religion, but unexpectedly the elemental lord liked the idea. He had visited worlds were religion was used to control populace, and if done correctly, it actually had a positive effect.

Getting to Hollowreach turned out to be challenging.

Not for Lee – he hung around the castle while Simone found the coordinates and opened the rift. Lee ate and slept, and practiced archery with Donk – basically was on vacation in all-inclusive hotel. Simone was the one who was met with challenges.

Like always, he meditated for a while, focusing on finding the world, and afterwards the place to drop Lee off. The problem arose when he tried to open the rift – the dark purple screen appeared, flashed a couple of times, and before Lee could go through, vanished.

Simone’s pale face clearly showed he hadn’t expected it, but when he coughed up a mouthful of blood, it became obvious that the elemental lord had suffered internal injuries.

He didn’t pass out, and didn’t need to rest for a month. Lee’s best guess was that it was the man’s ego that was mostly hurt, because the next day Simone, cursing under his nose, opened a stable rift on the first try.

Before Lee stepped through it, Simone said the same thing madam Seris said, "Watch out for spatial storms!"