Elemental Choice

AN: So a massive chapter mixup happened in Pathless Orgins where chapters 27 and 28 and 29 were mixed up. Some where in the wrong order and one even had the wrong title. Sorry for the inconvenience caused sigh. Anyway its fixed now so please reread Pathless Origins from Chapter 26 so the story makes sense. Thank you for reading!

...

Like with Pathless Avatars, one can access the attributes of your family of Spiritual Avatars. How much you can access or imitate is up to factors like talent and compatibility. 

Artillian already knew what kind of Spiritual Avatars he wanted for his Family Avatar. But his desire was a tricky one to fulfill. Hence sent the problem and a solution he had to Hestia via their connection for her to mull over. He was confident she could tell whether or not his idea was doable, as she also had access to the Medici Matrix and lots of experience.

She had a reservoir of knowledge that spanned across millions of years. After all, she was a bonafide deity. A daughter of Zeus, present since the dawn of time. How could Artillian's soul compare to her pedigree? Even if she was reduced to a tiny fragment of herself, divinity was still divinity. 

Artillian could contract seven types of Spiritual Avatars. This was determined by the seven stars that had descended from the sky. He could only contract one Spiritual Avatar per level of peerage so he had to wait for Hestia's judgment. And she was not disappointed. 

"Your out-of-the-box thinking is superb. This kind of Spiritual Family arrangement, I have seen it used by a few unorthodox fighters so I can use them as a reference and create a training regiment for you. That way your individual weapon mastery should improve faster as well as your ability to use multiple weapons at once."

Artillian's idea was to use 4 sets of weapons. He planned to have Hestia create martial arts that can fuse these weapons in certain ways.

A sword and shield were two different weapons, but there were martial arts that allow for the two to be used together. This was considered an orthodox pairing of weapons. What Artillian had asked for was a rather unorthodox group of weapon pairings.

He would only summon 4 types of Spiritual Avatars. 3 would be of weapon types that coincided with his Pathless Origin weapon masteries. While the last set would be a sword Sword Type Spiritual Avatar. 

Artillian would have to summon the Spiritual Avatars outside because he could not host them in his vault. He was neither strong enough nor knowledgeable enough to casually bring in foreign entities.

'I will only be able to bring the Spiritual Avatar in here when I have fused with it perfectly.'

Once the Family Avatar had been contracted and everything planned out, Artillian moved on to his next Avatar. The Origin Pyramid Pulsed and another Orb escaped.

The same process that had resulted in the Family Avatar repeated itself. A Naked Avatar appeared before Artillian and Hestia. 

"You have ten elements. Space, Metal, Water, Spirit, Family, Starlight, Fire, Earth, Nature, and Purity. So are you sure about your decision for this Avatar's element? Once it fully materializes you cannot go back!"

"I'm sure." Replied a sombre Artillian. He already knew what was ahead of him but he was not afraid. Not anymore. His efforts in the last few hours had given him confidence. 

Hestia smiled with an ambient charm that Artillian could not help but stare at for a moment.

"Alright young man. I will back your decision as it has logic to it. Then let us proceed. Metal it is."

…

Within the dense foliage of a forest, a handsome young man in simple robes was jumping from tree branch to tree branch with practiced ease. 

His silhouette left after images as his visage flickered with each jump.

"Swoosh!"

Each jump was a bit forceful, producing sounds that scared little creatures away. The young man cared little for the events around him as he was lost in thought.

'I was supposed to come and check up on Artillian in 3 months, but I have been called back after only a month and a half. If it wasn't for Kane's insistence and those files being sent to me, I wouldn't have come back so soon.'

The normally relaxed Eden was frowning, because he had received some rather unbelievable news from one of his most trusted servants, Kane. 

'I told Kane to personally guard and look after all of Artillian's needs because he is observant and hardworking. So I should at least trust his words, but this is extreme."'

As Eden's silhouette jumped, his hand reached into the folds of his robes and he took out a handheld device. Very similar to smartphones on earth. 

Atley was a nation of scientific researchers who used magic to create new technologies called magitech. The Cattermoles were heavily involved in the magic research side of things, which is why they had a large collection of knowledge. To safeguard their secrets, they kept a lot of books on paper. Paper could not be hacked and with simple enchantments, it could last for millennia. 

Hence despite being in the magitech-reliant Atley, the Cattermoles were still quite analogue at their core

Eden could only receive text messages because media such as video and text were difficult to hide from spies. All mobile devices were connected to the internet and that allowed them to get hacked. Cattermole devices had good security measures in place but they also had many eyes on them. This all information was sent in the phone of encoded text. Eden scanned the contents of the long text messages that had forced him to leave the front lines earlier than he had expected.

'The lads can handle this fight. If Kane's message was true, then it was worth coming here. If only I had come online sooner to see these texts, I would have actually arrived earlier. They didn't really need me there..'

Very soon, Eden reached his target.

It was a large clearing a few kilometers in diameter. Eden reached the periphery and appeared in the midst of a group of men standing on top of tree branches. They were standing on seemingly weak branches, but their postures were as steady as a mountain.

"Young Master!" They all said in unison as they bowed in Eden's direction.

Eden nodded and looked toward a specific spot in the clearing with narrow eyes.

"Kane. Update me, have there been any changes since the last text?"

A figure appeared on the same branch as Eden. It was the man who always stood guard outside of Artillian's compound. If the boy needed food, he delivered it. If he needed resources, he delivers them. If Artillian needed a sparring partner to give him some tips and pointers, he stepped up. He was Kane Cattermole.

Kane had short dark hair and a sombre disposition that showed his militaristic nature. He was muscular and had broad shoulders, with hard-edged eyes that had clearly seen many a battle.