[Ogre camp]
Listening to Darganth's recounting of the events since his rebirth, Scalladras jerked back in shock when he reached his reunion with Alicia.
"She's your sister? More importantly, how do you even have a sister?" He asked in disbelief.
Suppressing the chuckle that escaped her at that, Jennia didn't miss the opportunity for a slide remark, "One would think a god as old as you would know that."
Pausing in response to her snide remark, Scalladras slowly turned toward her before nodding with a mix of respect and resignation.
"Good one. A low-hanging fruit, but not many have the courage to joke about me like this. Though maybe I shouldn't be so surprised, you're Darganth's wife after all." Scalladras said.
"God or not, everyone deserves to be made fun of from time to time." Jennia answered him with a shrug.
"Absolutely. Though maybe don't test that philosophy with just any god, at least until you are strong enough to defend yourself against the reaction."
Already having received this warning from Darganth, Jennia wasn't surprised by his words and acknowledged them with a nod. Most ascendants had a rather large ego, something that was at least partially deserved considering the difficulty of reaching that state, so they might react unpredictably in the face of perceived insults.
At the same time, Darganth answered Scalladras' original question, "All jokes aside, I can't tell you. I have theories, but I can't prove any of them, and I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to. But it's not like it matters. Even the fact that our mana signatures are as similar as they are in most siblings doesn't really matter. I consider her my sister, that's the important part."
One of these possibilities that Darganth had thought of was that his soul shard influenced those close to him. But while the general fact that an individual's presence could influence their surroundings was well established and did happen reasonably often, especially among ascendants, for it to transform a soul down to the core was without precedent. In fact, changing a person's mana and soul signature in general was considered impossible for even ascendants, so this was the least likely.
The second option was that his parents from his life as Victor just had a naturally compatible mana signature to him. Though he never heard of such matches between people who aren't related to each other, it was still theoretically possible. Furthermore, this would also offer an explanation besides pure chance as to why his soul core was reborn into that life after his death.
The third, and most likely, explanation was that it happened due to the void. While he had created it, during the eons of its existence, it has already displayed multiple traits he never intended. And as Alicia's transformation into a dragon was already a case where intent shaped the result, more specifically with it being shaped by their view of each other as siblings, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to speculate that the void affected her more intrinsically than Darganth had even considered possible.
"That sentiment I fully agree with. Especially with my kin. While I could live with referring to Visuria and Nemoress as my sisters, I'd rather jump into the void before calling the other three anything even remotely similar to brother."
Surprised by these words, Yldra raised an eyebrow, "You primordials are siblings?"
"Vunreon created all of us, so by definition, yes. Your father and Azeal also see each other as something akin to brothers, don't they? Though in our case, none of us really considers or refers to each other as such. Well, Visuria and Nemoress might've done so back when they were still on good terms, but the rest of us always tolerated each other at best. And we certainly don't consider Vunreon our parent. So even if you were to insist on defining us as a family, we'd be the most dysfunctional family possible."
"That's saying it lightly. Honestly, it's a wonder that the conflict between Visuria and Nemoress remained the only major war that broke out between you guys before my disappearance." Darganth added.
Squinting his eyes, Scalladras didn't seem to entirely agree with Darganth's words. Not the part about it being a surprise, but rather the statement that only one such war broke out between them. While it was true that Visuria and Nemoress were the only ones among them who directly fought one another on the regular, for someone with their influence that wasn't the only, or even most common, way to fight.
"I'd argue that the constant clashes that have happened between the various pantheons since forever do count. But yes, the fact that none of them escalated is a miracle, and I say that as the most likely suspect had it happened."
"Well, gods fighting doesn't seem to need you guys. At least I don't think you are involved in the war happening between the three rulers of this place." Jennia said, sort of backing Darganth's assessment.
At her words, the two ogres who were in the room with them stiffened. Having risen from their kneeling position at some point in the conversation, they had stood to the side until that point and didn't interrupt.
But at the mention of the realm fragment's current political situation, they couldn't help their anticipation any longer, especially with it coming immediately after talk about proxy wars between the primordials. Thanks to Traleor's help, their tribe had come to be the dominant force in the wilderness. Only the smugglers and certain powerful creatures were able to fight off even just their raiding parties, so their people's ambition had naturally also started to grow beyond the wilderness.
Catching this reaction from the corner of his eyes, Scalladras paused instead of answering Jennia. Glancing behind himself with a raised eyebrow, he turned his attention to the two ogres.
"So you're the ones Traleor has granted power in my name. I'd say that I hope that it doesn't bother you that I prioritized my reunion with my old friend, but as a god I can feel your faith and devotion, so I can answer that myself." Scalladras said.
"Of course not, we're happy to serve you, your highness." The larger of the two ogres said.
"I've had mostly good experiences with having your kind serve under me, so I'm glad to hear that. Though I admittedly don't know your deal with Traleor, so you'll have to tell me about it."
"He gave us better prey. Opened paths to hunts beyond this world. Through this, we grew strong enough to fell all but the mightiest of the creatures in this place. But one day we'll surpass them too, and then he'll guide our hunts beyond this world so that our children can grow strong as we did."
This didn't come as a particular surprise to Scalladras, especially the part about helping them to other universes. Unlike how it is for nearly all other species, becoming the undisputed strongest force in an area is actually quite a dangerous position for an ogre tribe.
As the growth of their innate powers relies on consuming the meat of powerful creatures, a lack of these is guaranteed to stifle an entire generation of ogres. Furthermore, while long-lived compared to humans, ogres aren't immortal. Instead, their lifespan increases with power similar to how it is in mythic ranks.
But whereas mythic ranks of other species can absorb ambient mana to prolong their life, in theory even being capable of doing so indefinitely, ogres can't. And once there is no longer enough powerful prey in reach to meet the requirements for an ogre, their strength stops growing entirely. Because in contrast to the universal power systems of magic and aura, an ogre's growth happens in bursts whenever they consume enough material.
Once they have done so, they undergo an evolution, though this has little in common with the same phenomenon in beasts. Among ogres, there are in fact multiple different kinds of evolutions, with each strengthening the ogre in its own way. This ranges from simple enhancements to their physical or magic abilities, over the awakening of innate abilities or the gaining of special knowledge and skills, to full mutations of their body. The only real overarching facts between them are that an ogre will be stronger after the evolution than before, though by how much depends on various factors, and that the ogre's lifespan will increase with it.
Despite this potency, in situations where powerful prey becomes scarce, this system shows its most glaring weakness, namely that it doesn't work if the threshold for evolution can't be reached. The problem with that is that the mana and matter extracted from food to fuel this evolution can only be stored for a short time, both in the dead flesh and in the ogre's body itself. That means there isn't even a gradual growth for them once the resources in an area run out, unlike regular mana users who can at least still get minuscule benefits from even areas with next to no mana.
As such, ogres that are trapped in an area that they have surpassed are doomed to lose their position of dominance. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem until they dominate not just an area but an entire universe, at which point the difficulty of transporting a large number of people through the astral nonetheless often leads to the same result.
However, in the wilderness, they don't have an unprotected area nearby to which they can migrate, and no sane person would let an entire ogre tribe travel through the city in search of new hunting grounds. Worse yet, the entire edge of the wilderness is either fortified with walls or leads directly into settlements inhabited, or at least protected, by powerful local rulers.
Thus, the tribe was more or less left with two options for their long-term development. Either they'd use portals to travel elsewhere as Traleor offered them, preferably even outside the realm fragment, or they could ally with someone who could allow them to turn their sights onto the humanoid settlements.
Both of these options were something Scalladras could easily offer them, so the question only remained what was better suited for the situation. Turning back toward Darganth for this, Scalladras didn't even need to voice his question before the former answered.
"Traleor did a better job than I could've hoped, even if it might be an accident on his part." Darganth said, suspecting that the Asfyrii had hoped to prepare an army in preparation for the disturbance that had called him to the edge of Irsyr's territory in the first place.
"How so?" Scalladras asked intrigued.
"There's a mana spring nearby." Darganth answered him.
Raising an eyebrow in interest, Scalladras briefly paused as he pushed his mana sense outward. Moments later, a frown formed on his face when he didn't find what he had expected, causing him to turn to Darganth in confusion.
"You also didn't sense it, right? That's exactly the problem. According to what I've found in my time here, the spring was strong enough that it was reasonably possible to sense it from where we set out from, but it suddenly vanished a few decades ago."
That made Scalladras understand the situation. Mana springs were simply put, the outlets through which the mana that gathers in planets or sufficiently large planet-like objects escapes to the surface. This typically happens at spots where something like underground caves or especially mana-conductive minerals gives the mana an easier path to the surface. Though because there normally is a constant stream of mana from the universe or realm fragment that coalesces in these planetary objects, these mana springs can form anywhere if enough pressure has accumulated.
But independently of where they form, for the surface, mana springs mean a massive increase in mana density. Like water at the head of a river, a constant stream of mana flows out of the magic wellspring and spreads into the surroundings, with the output of larger mana springs supplying entire continents with their ambient mana.
In the process, some of this energy also bleeds into the surroundings. And due to the sheer amount of energy involved, this often makes the vicinity of the wellspring the most mana-dense area in the part of the planet it influences. This not only makes it a haven for all mana users, but it also makes the mana spring light up to their mana senses, making it easily findable and resulting in its surroundings often being crowded.
But while most are satisfied with this byproduct, some try to monopolize the mana spring. In the most extreme of cases, this even extends to the streams supplying the entire region with mana. And Scalladras was quite sure in the bet that exactly this was the case in the wilderness, as it would explain the lack of a large signature from the mana spring.
Already guessing that the creature responsible was one of the remaining powerful beasts, he turned toward the ogre chief, "I can work with that deal. The travel to other universes might take a couple of years, but there is a powerful beast my friend wouldn't mind your help with."
"Then I'll prepare the tribe." The chief said, excitement oozing from his tone.
Watching the ogre bow to Scalladras with those words, Darganth couldn't help but comment on their success, "Well, that was easier than expected."