Chapter 1004: Aether

The raging storm in the Origin Expanse died down and was replaced by peace and the period of growth. The population in Michael's territories expanded, and the Untamed Jungle also continued to stretch everywhere.

In the meantime, Michael's time outside the Origin Expanse was interesting, to put it lightly. He didn't join too many battles and focused on creating more Soultrait Symbols for his people, finding suitable Symbols to integrate into the Soultraits of the Super Awakened and the other Awakened working for him, but also learning more about his Soultraits.

Michael might not possess a Divine Seed, but he could learn more about his Soultrait Symbols. It might not be feasible for him to create his own Divinity without a proper Divinity Seed - the Seeds of the God Curses might be part of Michael and belong to him, but Michael couldn't create his personal Divinity with them - but it was possible to study the Laws and Authorities of the cosmos and maybe even gain minor mastery over them.

Unbound Laws and Authorities were much weaker than those infused into Divinities, but since Michael had so many Soultrait Symbols and the knowledge and mastery that more than a dozen Demi Gods and hundreds of Divine Lifeforms had acquired, Michael's chances to understand the Laws and Authorities was higher than the norm. It would be interesting to put them into action in the future, given that he acquired some Authorities in the first place.

Other than experimenting with Soultrait Symbols for his people, and studying his Soultraits, Michael practiced with the God Curses Divinities almost daily. He tried nourishing the Divinities to access more of their power while also using them for a prolonged period. Their growth wasn't quick, but Michael noticed a minuscule improvement every single day. The improvements weren't noteworthy, but given enough time and effort, which Michael was willing to give to strengthen his Divinities, they would soon transform into properly sized Divinities.

Months went by after the Fae Union's destruction, and Michael's Divinities continued to grow. While their growth had been slow at the beginning of his practice, Michael had finally gained enough mastery of some highly effective methods to practice with his Divinities while nourishing them. The results of mastering his Divinities through practice and nourishing them simultaneously were tremendous. In comparison, the gains Michael gained from the expanding Untamed Jungle or from nourishing the Super Awakened were lackluster. Still, they couldn't be underestimated either. Just like it couldn't be underestimated what a few powerful Soultrait Symbols could do to some Awakened. Their boring lives, or lives filled with struggle and problems, changed entirely. They turned upside down from an item that wasn't even valuable to Michael at this point. He had more Soultrait Symbols than he could count and accumulated more SoulStar Fragments than ever. Michael had yet to figure out what he wanted to do with the SoulStar Fragments. Would it be a good idea to strengthen the Super Awakened even further, pushing some of their Soultrait Symbols to 8-Star, or was it better to give them more 5-Star and 6-Star Soultraits? If he wasn't supposed to upgrade the Super Awakened's Soultraits, should he strengthen his Soul and create more empty Soul Sockets, or was the best solution to accumulate more SoulStar Fragments and upgrade one Soultrait - probably Extraction due to the long-term benefits - to 10-Star?

Michael had countless options, but the right answer didn't want to come to him. He could also infuse the SoulStar Fragments into his Aethyr until it would attain full glory once it transformed into full-fledged Aether, but Michael was unsure if that would cause more problems. In the first place, Aethyr hasn't been as useful as it used to be in the last few battles, and it was uncertain how effective it would be against Gods and the Primal. Michael considered trying Aethyr, but the situation wasn't that simple. The Aethyr sucked his SoulStar Fragments dry without granting Michael any great benefits. The amount of Aether inside the Aethyr increased, which also reinforced the structures formed with Aethyr, but there was no increase in his actual combat prowess. At least Michael didn't notice a massive benefit.

The claws formed through Curse Fusion were only slightly stronger and sharper once a layer of Aethyr formed around it. However, the Aethyr Claws without Curse Fusion were much weaker. The same applied to shields and protection. Aethyr Shields were strong, but a Divine Lifeform could pierce through it. However, the serpent-scale armor, which could already block the blows of a Divine, was slightly enhanced when Michael coated them with Aethyr. The effect was present, but it wasn't worth investing tens of millions of SoulStar Fragments into it. Not if the gains were only minuscule. The amount of Aethyr didn't increase enough to consider it a worthwhile investment.

[I think you're forgetting how powerful Aether is and why Aether is so valuable to most Gods and the Primal especially.] Jormungandr noted when the World Serpent sensed Michael's debacle. "What do you mean? Until now, nobody was affected by the Aethyr. They weren't even surprised when I revealed it. It's almost as if Siegfried's comment a few years back was nothing but a lie. Is my Aethyr really this valuable?"

Michael clearly recalled the day Siegfried Dragoon saw his Aethyr. He remembered how shocked Siegfried had been, especially after telling his story, and how multiple Lords attacked him to acquire the tiny trace of Aether he had acquired in an ancient ruin. Seeing Michael with much more Aether infused into an alloy to form Aethyr had shocked him to the core.

But since then, nothing big has happened. It was almost like nobody cared about the Aethyr and the growing amount of Aether within it. Not even the Demi Gods he'd fought.

[That's because they were focused on the fight and didn't sense the Aether in your Aethyr. You have so many Soultraits that most cannot even differentiate what you are doing with which Soultrait. There is no clear boundary, especially with the power of three God Curses, the Nature Heart, your curse powers, and so forth. Using Aethyr could have been a Soultrait as well, which was why nobody bothered trying to sense what was hidden deep within the Aethyr alloy. They should have sensed it if they had enough time to focus on it, but you killed them long before anyone realized.]

That did make sense, somewhat, at least. But it didn't explain why Aether was so valuable.

"So...what's the point of Aether? Why exactly will Gods and the Primal be excited if I nourish and release Aether?" [Excited? No. They will be anything but excited. Trust me with that one!] Hel chuckled.

Jormungadnr hissed in acknowledgment, [Nobody will be excited to face you when you release pure Aether. They will be afraid instead. Including the Primal.]

"Afraid? If Aether is dangerous to Gods and Primal, it would make sense why they're going crazy after it. Maybe it would also make sense how Divine Lifeforms don't think too much about it since they're not affected by... by what, though? What exactly makes pure Aether so dangerous? I cannot sense anything special from it even though I have three Divinities and a growing Divinity Fragment inside me?" Michael asked in confusion.

[The Aether is bound to you and will thus not harm you or us. But to put the lethality of pure Aether into simple words. Pure Aether is the only effective method to harm someone's Essence. The Primal are so old and were born in the Origin, basically, if we believe their legends, and are thus mostly made of Essence. Essence is their existence, and Pure Aether is one of the few means capable of harming Essences with a single scratch.] Fenrir growled.

[Gods, which you should have noticed by now, are different from ordinary Divine Lifeforms. You have a Divinity, and you should be able to tell that you cannot transform ordinary energy into the power that fuels Divinities. That is because Essences fuel the Divinities. You learned early on how to create Extraction Essences, but even those weren't proper Essences. You should be able to tell the difference between your first Extraction Essences and the Essences residing within the Wolf Divinity.] Hel added.

[Thus, being able to harm Essences effectively via Pure Aether allows you to damage the Divinity of Gods and drain the power accumulated within their Divinities rapidly, whereas the Primal have even more problems to take care of if you manage to cut them with Pure Aether.] That was unexpected, but it solved Michael's issue. After the God Curses ' commentary, he knew where to put his SoulStar Fragments. "That's amazing! But why did nobody tell me about this earlier?" Michael asked as he started to infuse SoulStar Fragments into Aethyr.

[First, you didn't have enough SoulStar Fragments. Now that you have enough SoulStar Fragments, it's fine to tell you. However, you should also take note of a particular problem.]

"What problem are you talking about?" Michael tilted his head.

Jormungandr sighed deeply.

[Pure Aether can be detected by the Primal. The more Aether accumulates in one spot, the easier it is for them to sense it."

"Oh..." Michael furrowed his eyebrows.

That was indeed problematic.

[But you have not yet enough Aether to attract anyone's attention. The Aethyr alloy helps you cover and insulate the Aether, which is quite surprising. I would have never expected a backwater galaxy with a tiny organization such as the Tritan Alliance to create an alloy capable of blocking Aether as efficiently as Aethyr.]

The Tritan Alliance did a good job, indeed. They were the real MVPs!