That fight against the false devils had been tough, and Mordecai felt bad about how overwhelmed their younger people had been, but for him personally, it had helped a lot.

The potential for great power was etched into his flesh and spirit, and the core patterns of advanced skills and techniques were present, but both body and spirit were young, however old the mind was that had crafted them and made this copy of itself.

Testing himself in battle, pushing his limits, and finding new ways to use his abilities, these were how he was forging larger patterns and expanding the power of his spirit, and it was quite satisfying to examine himself to find the condensed patterns of chi, mana, and spirit within.

Direct examination of one's spirit this way wasn't exactly something everyone could do, but Mordecai had given himself every advantage he could. But some of the details of the topic he did not discuss with Kazue or Moriko. Neither of them were particularly comfortable with the idea that this avatar had a different spirit from the spiritual form that had occupied his internal avatar.

It shouldn't matter; in both cases, his avatar's spirit was simply an extension of the core's spiritual energy, all of which was bound to the core, where his soul resided. But people who were not spiritual nexuses had trouble feeling comfortable with the idea, and Kazue was likely to take decades or more to accept this truth at an emotional level. Her avatar's spirit was also different than the one that had occupied her internal avatar.

But with that bit of introspection and examination complete, it was time to focus back on the others. He and Paltira were the two most experienced healers in the group, so they were both making occasional rounds to check on everyone. Most of the physical wounds were simple, but wounds by fiends could hide infernal diseases and curses. While these false devils wouldn't have the actual afflictions, the cores inside of them had been enchanted to create potent duplicates, though the duplicates had the additional limitation of requiring nexus mana to persist.

It was also a good opportunity to train the less experienced members of the expedition on how to detect and treat such afflictions.

When he wasn't doing that, a fair amount of Mordecai's time was spent simply being with Kazue, ready to talk about anything she needed to talk about, with Moriko doing the same. Not that Kazue was the only person who needed support, but there were also plenty of other people providing it for those who had been emotionally impacted the most.

Shizoku was more upset about Derek's injured hand than Derek was, and continued to fuss over him even when they'd finished healing it, and the young man wisely just let her do what she felt she needed to do while offering thanks and the occasional comforting words. But the pair were often checked on by others as well, making sure they both felt cared about, and giving them the chance to talk if they needed to.

Fuyuko clearly needed to talk, but she'd had trouble finding the words to talk with her parents, and eventually she'd sat down back to back with Amrydor, wordlessly at first, and then after some companionable silence, they talked. They were the same age, but his training had steeled him more for such experiences.

Mordecai suspected that part of why she'd picked Amrydor for her chosen peer to talk to was his actions just as Fuyuko was coming out of her battle fugue, though in other circumstances those same actions would not have won him any favors.

He'd fetched two water skins out of his pack and sprayed her face with both of them at the same time. When she'd sputtered and glared at him in outrage, he'd just grinned, shrugged, and said, "Bug juice is not in fashion", then tossed the half-empty flasks to her to use to finish cleaning herself off with. Which she'd been hasty to do when she'd realized what he was talking about.

It had been a solid blend of sympathy-based action and humor, without dwelling on the potentially embarrassing situation. He understood and helped, without making her say anything. So she'd gone to him when she needed a peer to talk to.

If Mordecai had thought that Amrydor's actions had even a drop of manipulative intent behind them, he'd have taken the boy to task. But the only bias in helping Fuyuko had been in helping her first; he and the other trainee champions had been very proactive in finding out who needed support and acting as they saw fit.

While that was part of their training, taking to it readily was part of passing that training. Most of the gods had this requirement in one form or another, but Zagaroth was especially stringent here — he did not want champions who would have trouble providing emotional support to civilians in the aftermath of a battle. That was part of their mission as guardians and protectors.

It was here that the difference between power and training/experience was shown. At the other extreme was Takehiko, one of the more powerful people here. But he'd been visibly shaken in the wake of battle, and Paltira had spent some time talking with him, as had both Kansif and Bellona. Takehiko's growth in power and magic had not included the same sort of training that theirs had; there was a difference between a simple fight and a pitched battle, and it was not just about numbers. Battles were always brutal.

Even if a day of rest was not needed to recover everyone's stamina and energy, Mordecai would have called for a rest day just to deal with the emotional recovery for everyone. Which still wouldn't be enough for full recovery, after all, this was a lot to process mentally. But he judged that it would be enough for everyone to be able to do one more push before they called an end to the delve.

Given how close that last fight had been, Mordecai would have suggested ending the delve there, were it not for one thing that the others had not seen. Far above the canyon, Dersuta's avatar had been circling slowly, intently watching everything. His core's focus had been there too, of course, but having the avatar so close meant a much faster reaction time. And Mordecai did not doubt that the avatar was a very capable and powerful caster and healer. There was no reason not to, given how large a power budget Dersuta had for an internal avatar.

One more day should be enough to maximize the growth that could be achieved on this trip. While physically the group should be able to continue advancing every two to three days, mental fatigue would take its toll, and that would both make things more dangerous and reduce the advantages of pushing themselves.

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Eventually, it was time to settle in for the night, though Mordecai elected to meditate instead of properly sleep, as he had been doing since that first night in the fey sanctuary. He had been inspired by Moriko's kindling of immortality, though he had not informed her or Kazue about it, in part because he wanted to tease Moriko later about not realizing it.

While Mordecai's avatar did not require that first stage of immortality to be ignited to retain eternal youth, that first stage was required to reach the later stages. It had never been worth it to chase immortality for his previous avatars, as they were simply retired eventually. But if he was planning on keeping this avatar active indefinitely, that extra layer of power might be a good idea, and there was no reason he should be unable to achieve it as well.

Of course, having never pursued it before meant that he was starting from scratch to build the proper foundations. Power was one aspect, but someone like Gil had a combination of power and legend. This took time to build, and was harder to guarantee, though Mordecai supposed he had some share of fame and infamy, depending on one's view. Moriko, on the other hand, had achieved the first stage through pursuing it as a goal and practicing the right combination of mediation techniques to reinforce body, mind, and spirit while maintaining harmony.

Mordecai had quickly discovered that his own path was going to be more complicated in some ways, but he should also be able to shorten the time it took. He was weaving together meditative techniques, alchemical mixtures, and layers of magical rituals in ways that most people could not even attempt, but he also had to accomplish this in order to maintain harmony between all his forms of power in addition to the harmony between body, mind, and soul. Well, spirit, technically, but that spirit did resonate with his soul, so it should still work.

He wasn't sure if a spiritual nexus had ever awakened this sort of immortality in their avatar before. Well, someone must have done it, but Mordecai could understand why few would be inspired to do so.

The hours of the night passed in silence as he regulated and shaped the flow of mana, chi, spiritual energy, and life energy in his body, and infused it with the strength of his will. The complex structure of interweaving energies was beautiful and entrancing, and it would be easy to lose himself in the contemplation of it.

But long ingrained habit always had a small part of his mind aware of his senses and the outside world.

His eyes snapped open as he felt something vast moving far beneath them. "Everyone up and out! Move! Critical gear only! Move west!" One of the things that everyone had been taught to do was to keep weapons and a pack next to their bedrolls, and those packs often had expanded spaces that contained backup armor.

Mordecai did not quite follow his own orders. His job was to make sure everyone else had time to do their jobs. He rolled to his feet and leapt up to the east side of the campsite's walls, and then launched himself further out as he gathered his power. Then he dove down and slammed his fist into the ground along with a pulse of chi and mana.

The energy he spent didn't do much in and of itself, but he felt the massive presence pause to evaluate what it just sensed. This, in turn, gave Mordecai time to analyze the reactions and reflections of chi and mana.

Earth, fire, lava, metal, and a hint of crystal — those were the elements he detected. So he sent another pulse of energy into the ground, this time attuned to water, ice, and air. Then he shifted into his battle form and launched himself all the way into the air and continued to move east, creating more distance between himself and their camp. He also kept climbing, wanting as much elevation as he could possibly get.

Far below him, the ground began to ripple, even though the creature he'd challenged had yet to reach the surface. The disturbance continued to grow as it chased after him, and Mordecai soon felt another aspect to the monstrous aura. It was a dragon.

The dragon's sinuous form finally breached the surface of the earth, launching itself into the sky after Mordecai, snapping its wings open to continue the chase. It was absolutely massive; Mordecai thought it might have been able to swallow the entire camp whole. He wasn't certain that he'd ever seen a dragon that large before.

He spun to the side to dodge a ball of lava the dragon spat at him, then shifted to his war form. It was less agile than his battle form, but it did have more raw speed. And he needed the distance; there was no way he could actually fight that dragon and win.

Which was a thought that bothered him. This had to be one of Dersuta's raid bosses, but a fight was not the challenge. So what was the challenge?

Mordecai began whispering descriptions of the giant dragon across the earring's link to his other self, and his core began asking questions for more details. He was on the defensive the entire time, dodging attacks and countering spell manifestations that tried to form directly on top of him. A counterattack seemed rather futile, given the situation, and he was fairly certain that the dragon was toying with him rather than trying very hard.

Once his core verified his suspicions and provided additional information, Mordecai started making his plan. There would be one counterattack, to make a point, but he needed to do it right. Weaving together a speed-enhancing spell and a size-increasing spell at the same time, while modifying them both to take effect gradually, was not a particularly easy feat and it took him a few tries to get the spellforms correct. Fortunately, he knew that he could afford the mana that each incorrect spellform cost.

This combination should make it so that Mordecai's growth was disguised by his increasing speed. It would make him appear to be the same relative size, if his calculations had been correct.

While that was taking effect, he worked on the next part of his plan and began organizing his earth and weight-related spells and techniques. When he was ready, Mordecai suddenly twisted in the air and dove. Chi formed into an aura that drew him downward, earth calling to earth as it tried to tie him to the ground below, while magic directly multiplied his weight temporarily.

The dragon was clearly confused by his sudden change in actions, and she took a moment to react properly as she began to recalculate his size, distance, and speed. But by then it was too late for her to get out of the way of Mordecai, who had aimed himself for her midbody to ensure he could avoid her jaws.

Despite the active reinforcements he'd applied on his way down, the impact was enough to shatter several of his bones. But he maintained his concentration, and the earth-bound chi refused to let his distance to the ground increase, thus forcing almost the entirety of his momentum into the dragon.

He got the primary result he wanted, as his charge drove both of them down onto the ground, but Mordecai would have been happier if he had done more than barely crack the scales he'd slammed himself into.

The impact with the earth made him bounce and slide off the side of the dragon, and he hastily swapped out the earth formation of chi for air, softening the impact of his landing.

"Thalmirush," he growled out, "that's a hell of a way to greet your old boss. Also, you're a lot bigger than the last time I saw you." The giant dragon started chuckling, then she began reducing her size and form, which Mordecai was grateful for. Each roll of her laughter was enough to make his body vibrate, which made it harder to focus on his healing prayers and changing back to his ambassador form.

Before too long, Thalmirush had reduced herself until she was only a little bit bigger than Mordecai's war form, which seemed about as small as she could go in this form. "Dersuta was dubious of my suggestion, but he's a stick in the mud," she said with a grin. "Besides, you don't seem to be too upset. Nice trick there by the way, I didn't have time to counter it."

Evidently Mordecai had done something else in his previous life that needed karmic balancing; his former inhabitants all seemed to enjoy messing with him.

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