After confirming the integrity of the keep, the roughly sixty participants had spread out across the three battlements. Crenellations allowed archers and casters alike to stand on the edge with cover to shoot at the incoming enemies below. The keep walls were made of dense gray stone, with wards for protection as well. Even the underground would be challenging to dig through, but not impossible.

  If the enemy started digging through it, it was possible for Jake and the rest to reinforce and make it take so long it likely wouldn’t be overly worthwhile. With the fact that their nature druids and treants could dig their roots deep and fight off any digging enemies, Jake wasn’t overly concerned.

  There was a large gate in the center with a ramp and wide path leading up to it, but Jake imagined the incoming ant people and their mounts were not going to feel it was worth the effort. The ants could just climb over the walls and each other, no doubt. With the goal to strike the floating orbs in the three courtyards and destroy them, there was no real advantage from destroying and entering through the gate either.

  The star-shaped fortress was up against a mountain and elevated, with nothing but a sheer cliff face pointing to the right and left flanks. Seeing how the large amount of ant people were lining up in the entire valley, however, it was rather obvious they were going to come from all three sides. Thankfully, there was also a magic barrier or shielding that prevented aerial attacks, and there was a separate barrier for each of the three sections.

  Jake spread out his Champion Presence wide, making sure to cover his entire force or as close to it as he could from the center of the keep. The keep was tall, and for a hundred potential defenders, probably a little too large to cover well. As it was, Jake’s teams could only have about twenty for each section or point of the star, which would make the area look rather sparse.

  And he wondered if there were other types of opponents coming. Flyers, stealthers, just what would they need to defend against over the hour? Who even says they’d only have to face ants? The prompt sure didn’t.

  Nevertheless, as always, Jake had some confidence in his people’s success. He chose to place his family largely in the center ramp so that they could defend against the bulk of enemies and also reinforce the other groups quickly and easily. Then, his goal here was to reduce the damage to the barrier, saving its integrity for as long as possible.

  In terms of Battle Power, his party had a little more, but the central ramp looked designed to draw a larger number of enemies. The Ravenwolf Clan took their left flank looking outward, and Baron Jantaka and his single party of truthseekers took the right, along with a mixed set of forces. Each flank had a party of Sons of Rome, Love and Justice, Warrior Brotherhood, and at least two mixed parties of Elysians and Highlands Beastkin.

  Avalara, Bree, and Tanda all took to camp near the middle of the ramp–just within Jake’s radius from the top of the keep. Jake’s Aura radius could reach well over the length of a football field in each direction now without draining his mana too heavily, which could reach their allies. Jake was quick to call out Jasmina, knowing she would do a lot of work indirectly here by enhancing the Highlands Beastkin with her song. He also took on the State of the Guardian, wanting to be ready for whatever their opponents might do.

  The Highlands jungle formed at the middle of the ramp from Avalara and Tanda’s Sublimations, and a treant had picked a place on the cliff face on both sides as druids buffed and caused them to grow. Roots were lodged into the earth, and the giant treants were well prepared to defend against the horde of ants.

  Jake thought this was an important strategy because the spheres, or nodes they were protecting, were relatively vulnerable to siege attacks if not for the barrier. Once the barrier fell, all it took was some kind of arching attack, and they may be targeted and destroyed. By keeping a forward defense, they could react to such an attack more easily and have a place to retreat to, besides.

  The one-hour timer began to count down, the battle beginning. The vast army of well over a thousand mixed ants and ant people started their march. At the front of the army were some giant ants without riders, and arrows and superballs were immediately fired to strike into them.

  And to Jake’s surprise, a number of the riding ants cast spells, waves of roiling energy covering them before shifting. A special buff landed on the ants in the front, a crystalline black and blue barrier surrounding them.

  Arrows were fired to meet the incoming enemies, and even with Jake’s explosive Presence adding onto their attacks, the ants were durable and didn’t go down with a single blow. It took several arrows to shatter their defenses and cause limbs to go flying, unless they were struck with a superball or one of Tanda’s ballista bolt-sized arrows.

  The ants climbed the cliff faces rapidly, running up the walls as if they were the ground itself. With how many enemies there were and how they weren’t taken down, that meant they were quickly reaching the defenses laid out for them. Ants stormed into the jungle, vines whipping and attacking the newcomers. Avalara and Bree were waiting for them, crushing them with their club or tearing them down with their attacks. Overall, nothing to be concerned about for his party.

  And the buffed-up treants on the cliff faces swung their oversized polearms downward, cleaving into the incoming ants. Thorny vines whipped into others, and Jake noticed that each had some enhancement from a Divine. In addition to Jake’s explosive Aura, one had Lugh’s sunlight, and the other had Arawn’s winter cold enhancing him.

  With courageous shouts, the Roman warriors threw javelins imbued with the special energy, and the talismancers and warrior maidens from Warrior Brotherhood fired arrows with their special enhancements.

  The Sons of Rome could create powerful Phalanx defenses using the same special energy, and the Clerics of Vesta or Priests of Mars could also repurpose or enhance this energy easily.

  Valor and the Roman energy type, Virtus, had similarities in the foundation of their strength in courage and fighting spirit but couldn’t be more different. Jake thought Virtus was closer to the War Energy that the followers of Ares had been using, as it created a large pool to be used by a group. Valor was the power of the individual, and Virtus or War Energy was the power of the legion.

  Instead of being powered by the chaos and brutality of war like War Energy, Virtus was powered by the order of brave soldiers in battle, fighting in formation, and their actions driven by duty, courage, and camaraderie. The strength of Virtus was in fighting as a well-coordinated unit for the glory of Rome, and it molded and replaced a person’s mana entirely.

  It seemed that part of the reason Antonius had struggled was that he hadn’t wanted to give up his individualism. To become a Soldier of Mars or a Paladin of Vesta meant sacrificing personal strength for the team and the purpose of Rome, removing most chances of individual glory. It was a path that resonated well with Jake, or would have, but it appeared not to for Antonius.

  Then, it seemed his compatibility with some of the Roman Divine his family was on good terms with wasn’t great, limiting his options. Valor was a path that resonated with him once he discovered it, and he took on a Trial in order to activate it instead of Virtus. With it, he still fought alongside the legions, and the energy was just compatible enough to enable him to be empowered by his people, albeit less.

  As always, the dryads and fauns launched their elemental attacks down on the enemy, joining the multicolored light of the auril-infused arrows from the beastkin. The attacks rained down on the unending horde of ants, while Jake’s wives targeted the casting ants and thinned the herd that entered the jungle.

  Jake’s new invention, the cubic conjuration machine, produced an earthen sphere covered in runes, depositing it next to Bloodberri.

  Berri beamed as Blood floated it up to waist height, and she swung her bat-shaped weapon into it with a crack. “Hehe, this thing isn’t bad! It can make a superball nearly every 30 seconds here. But less if I give it more mana or mana crystals.”

  Tanda frowned at it, continuing to shoot her arrows and send explosive wolves into her targets, destroying barriers in the first shot and then taking out their head in the second shot. “You shoot them a lot more than every thirty seconds, though. You can hit one every other second.”

  “Yes, but those are freebies. If we each bring one and then feed it mana we can have plenty. And that’s after I run out of what I brought. And if we bring Garona, we can have as many as we want!”

  Jake nearly facepalmed at that. He had made the damned thing so she wouldn’t beg him to bring Garona! Still, he had to admit that Berri was effective, and she was worth his efforts. Every strike of her superball was devastating, like a shot fired from a cannon.

  Not only would one ant be destroyed per strike, but shrapnel would spread from the blow and wound or kill several others. Even though their central path was getting nearly double the amount of enemies, they were keeping up with them just fine for the moment, and it was definitely in part thanks to her efforts.

  Ophelia rode around on Valora, slicing into troublesome-looking enemies that she saw casting spells. While the ants stormed into the Highlands jungle to be slaughtered almost like fodder, many ant riders held staves that enabled them to cast a wide array of spells.

  They had a mortar-style attack, which was precisely what Jake had been concerned about. Like whipping some kind of seed over their head with their staff, the fiery payload would arch over from above and explode, raining fire down onto the jungle. Thankfully, it didn’t appear that it had too long of a range, as they had to get relatively close to the jungle to use it.

  The ant rider casters could also cast necrotic beams and cast a pestilence spell that also ate at the jungle. Ophelia, Nessa, and Ruby flew around or used the lake to sneak around and cut these enemies down, keeping them from wearing away at their defenses much.

  Fhesiah would occasionally team up with Sati to drop a large fiery bomb on the horde when they saw opportunities from too many enemies clumped up together. And Avalara’s beaming flames of conquest would shred through a large group every several minutes.

  Jake’s family was used to fighting marathons, so they didn’t use more than what they could recover. For the first fifteen minutes of enemies spawning from portals somewhere in the ravine ahead, he didn’t see any issues with them managing this. He still set up his Mana Font up on the battlements anyhow, making sure anyone could come back and recover rapidly.

  So having confirmed that they could maintain the defense for now, he moved on to test some things. Jake had been working on several things these last few days, and now, he wanted to try them out on the field.

  He brought out Pyros, the flame taking shape in his hands into a vague staff with a focus at the top. The odd flaming weapon was truly divine, a unique fire that responded to his Hearth Control. It could harden into a more gem-like structure to become unbreakable at a mere thought, and Jake’s ability to infuse mana into it, or even use his hearth mana to briefly enchant it, was entirely possible.

  It could also remember forms, allowing him to easily shift it between configurations rather than having to mold it like clay with his mind every time. Pyros was incredibly fluid and responsive to his thoughts, so even if he had to mold it, it was quick, but it followed his wishes to known forms almost instantly.

  The weapon was like a living weapon and spell, and Jake was happy for its existence. But he thought that maybe he wasn’t using it to its fullest potential.

  The mages of Grecian Origin had used physical spell components to cast their spells, as if they were making a sacrifice to their Divine to use their magic or to empower it. The casters were more like priests of their gods than they were wizards, as far as Jake could tell, generally reciting their prayers to cast or to enhance their spells.

  Faith appeared to be a significant component in their casting, and perhaps, they were far from the only ones. Even the dvergr–the Nordic Dwarves–runic casters among the Obsidian Mercenaries were rune priests. And Baron Jantaka, in a way, was an emotional and faith-based caster as well. And all that made Jake wonder.

  Was Jake missing something obvious, a path to power among the many he already had? He had practiced and researched his balanced runic spells for years, discovering dozens of options for each of his wives using his scientific approach to runic casting.

  And why wouldn’t he? He had made a few attempts with other symbolism and methods, and none of them appeared to bear fruit for him. And it was the same for Amara and his other magical researchers. The balanced, hexagonal, or pentagonal formations had better outputs.

  His wives would often do some of the work for him by finding something useful with their special hearth mana and demonic runes matching their paths or finding which Nordic rune spells were compatible with their special flame mana.

  Then, Jake would spend time on the Sudoku-like puzzle, weaving them into larger, more powerful spells or transforming the spells for their personal usage. The most powerful spells of the bunch were the ones they most often ended up using, but Jake wasn’t able to just skip to the end. He started from the bottom and layered on the complexity as he built and balanced them.

  With how many wives he had with unique flames and Daoist Paths, he had enough work on his plate the past few years. But perhaps some level of faith was missing in Jake’s designs and his research. Runes had countless combinations, and when it came to making a balanced equation, it felt like he had hit a dead end. He had only created a few spells that pushed the limits of the Tier, but none that had transcended it, and he felt like he wasn’t even close.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Maybe he just needed to approach it from another angle. Jake found resonance with his Passionate Sage, Fhesiah, and began weaving the flame of his Champion Hearth with his own. The staff turned into the Spear of Hestia Construct, a rather simple spear of holy fire with a few Divine Glyphs distributed across its surface.

  Jake was still trying to parse out the nature of these glyphs, but he was struggling. Perhaps their symbolism was more like demonic runes, and they meant whatever the divine themselves wanted them to mean in that context.

  He added the meandering Greek key pattern across the spear’s surface, investing more hearth mana within it. As it took its shape, he pondered the nature of the different Origins and their magics.

  The Celts had the power of the seasons, the cycle of life, death, and rebirth in nature. The Romans had the glory of Rome, the hierarchy of faith, and the power of the organization, and the Egyptians appeared to have a somewhat similar faith-based focus on their rulers and even the afterlife. Cultivators and the Hindu and Buddhist Pantheons appeared to have their power based on the truth of the universe, enlightenment, and the nature of the self, and the Nords had the power of rules and law, the covenants, and wisdom.

  And the Greeks had the power of faith and sacrifice. Jake was sure that Hestia was no different–even if she had moved away from their Origin. When she started teaming up with Odin, Vesta, Bastet, Athena, and others, she diverged from Zeus and the rest, no longer a part of their Pantheon.

  When they first received their spells of Hestia after Ophelia swore her Oath and Jake had become a Champion, he had enjoyed their effectiveness but lamented the sacrificial nature. Giving up health and endurance was dangerous and somewhat limiting. In a way, it counteracted the advantage of their incredible hearths, reducing their staying power. Then when they arrived at the First Tier, it became much simpler to substitute their special Hearth mana for these sacrificial costs of creating Hestia’s holy fire.

  Jake used his hearth mana to add onto the Spear of Hestia, searing the surface with his Nordic Runes as he usually did. On top of being the attack powered by the goddess’s flames and a physical attack, he added his usual Runic Spear of Fire, the usual formation of over fifty runes establishing the Tier 2 spell on the spearhead, and pushing it to the peak of the Second Tier.

  Then, he added a little more to his meandering pattern and the Divine Glyphs, pushing through a sacrifice of his health and endurance, his body straining with effort as he focused his will and his belief into the weapon.

  It was not his Divine Energy he was weaving with his sacrifice of health. It was his belief that Hestia’s flames were strong enough–his faith in them. That they were powerful enough to protect his family, and that he only needed to believe in her holy flames, and they would purge the enemy from their doorstep or protect or heal those in need.

  It was nearly anathema to how Jake behaved and thought. He was all about preparation and personal strength, to master what he could and face his enemies with all his family’s strength. He would never leave anything up to chance if he could help it, and never leave it to anyone else entirely. But there was a simple shift of his mindset that allowed his belief to come true–to become unshakeable.

  He just had to believe that Hestia was a member of his family. Like trusting one of his wives with all his mana at their request, he wove it all into the Spear of Hestia, with his health and endurance, the flames brightening with immense power and heat.

  The spear enlarged, and the fires burned brighter, taking on a golden hue despite various colors of his family’s hearthflames being invested into the Construct. The flame’s weight on reality increased as Jake’s will, the weight of his bonds–his Dao of Family–was added, and then he raised it above his head. It launched toward the incoming horde at the base of the mountain like a ballista bolt.

  It pierced right through several enemies, and the explosion was massive. Like a flower bulb spinning as its petals unfurled, numerous streams of flame radiated outwards in a swirling path. Ants and their riders were pierced by the blasts and engulfed in the fires of Hestia, scorching them away just from proximity to the streamers.

  The monsters screeched in shock and pain, and the barriers protecting them were torn apart. Nearly an entire football field’s worth of enemies was slain, and hundreds drowned in a sea of flames from the singular attack. Golden fire was left on the ground, engulfing the newly spawned enemies in deadly holy fire for nearly thirty seconds after his attack landed.

  Small streamers of flames swirled toward him from the explosion, reforming into his divine weapon in his hand. Jake slumped a little as a result, exhausted from the attack. He received a prompt confirming his Expert Champion Magic had advanced to the fourth level, which wasn’t all that surprising. He wondered if he had been missing that knowledge and skill as part of his advancement for some time, and it was a reminder that even within a singular skill, there were different ways to progress.

  Fhesiah smiled. “You did it, Husband. I knew you would soon enough. Though once again, you figured out some other Tier 3 spell before the Nordic Magic you focus so hard on, it looks like? That spear was Hestia’s for sure.”

  It was true. Jake definitely just accomplished what was effectively a spell at the strength of Tier 3. Fhesiah’s flames of Celestial Alchemy could achieve it, and so could Avalara’s flames of Conflict. Sati’s Pure Heart Flame was certainly close as well, though only on corrupted or malevolent targets.

  His Scorching Ray with Divine Essence infused certainly achieved it on some level as well, with enough mana. But as far as Jake was concerned, that wasn’t the same thing. Now that he had achieved this with his own efforts, he could use Divine Energy and exceed even what he just displayed.

  The faith and sacrificial aspect might be all he needed to bring his Scorching Ray to the next level. What was amazing about the spell he cast just now was that he had not used Divine Energy, which meant he could use the spell every day without concern. He had used a bit of mental energy from using his Dao, and perhaps this conviction or faith also used some of that. Even with unlimited mana, he knew Morwen couldn’t use faith-based spells limitlessly.

  Baron Jantaka flew over from his side, arriving next to Jake. “What power, what conviction! I felt it.” He clapped Jake on the back with three of his arms, perhaps a little too hard again. “Now your casting feels more like a champion's! I felt your faith, your piety, in those flames. Hestia’s flames are truly wondrous, to be so powerful but so full of…love. The opposite of mine! Hahaha!”

  The Baron flew back to his side of the keep to defend, having said his piece. It was true–Baron Jantaka’s flames were… rather terrifying. The feeling Jake got when he used his fire was actually quite similar to how Jake felt when Ophelia had briefly died, and he was in the Wrath State. The Dharmapalas was so full of red-hot rage that Jake couldn’t help but feel it too, just from being near. It was such a stark contrast to how jovial the man behaved outside of combat.

  Jake was tired from the attack. He spent nearly half of his mana on that singular spell. His health and stamina were recovering, but Jake could feel it. Despite his special regeneration from his bloodline, there was something beyond the usual that meant he could not simply heal the damage done to his body and organs and then just do it again and again. Even with the mana font and his wives healing him, he couldn’t just spam that spell over and over.

  The sacrifice had cost him something, and it would take time to regenerate from it. It felt a little silly, but Jake took out a leg of auril beast meat, heated it up with his flames, and began to eat to recover from the top of the keep walls.

  He reasoned that it was because of his body’s immense vitality that he was able to sacrifice enough to increase the spell’s power by so much. And a bit of Ophelia’s health and stamina was consumed as well, her Eternal Oath absorbing some of the cost.

  Seeing Jake’s display, his wives were all fired up to advance their own spellcasting in some way, especially those who were priestesses or champions of a divine. Echidna was originally of Grecian Origin, but had diverged very early on while the multiverse was still young. Jake wasn’t sure how Bloodberri could advance their magic, other than to eat some spellcasting monsters or just increase their core density, or perhaps increase their faith in their Divine.

  Ophelia’s righteous, flaming lightning was unique and would already transcend the Tier when mixed with her Asura Seal’s deathly energies, but perhaps there was a way she could improve through enlightenment or faith.

  Tanda’s druidic casting and her Cyclic Strike were both able to dish out a powerful, focused attack that transcended the Tier as well. But Jake was struggling a bit in creating powerful Celtic Rune spells that achieved something significant. So far, Tanda just had a handful of spells, and they were more like buffs that enhanced her physical attacks.

  And maybe there was some way where Fhesiah could use the empowerment of faith in her casting. It could just be that she needed some followers of Bastet in their forces, of which there were not that many.

  Jake spent fifteen minutes recovering just in range of the Mana Font, the girls handling the non-stop stream of enemies for a time. At the thirty-minute mark, some new enemies started spawning. They were tall, humanoid hornet people, reminding Jake of the Loviatar Champion. They wielded bows and arrows that were huge, likely able to fire arrows competitive with what Tanda was shooting.

  Then, some larger, burrowing centipedes. The earth rose up around them as they nearly swam through the ground. It appeared their goal was to make it less of a climb for their allies to approach the other two sides of the keep, because they slowed their approach and stayed safe underground as the earth grew up around them. They were building additional ramps, which Jake imagined would make it easier for them to strike with their arching magical attacks.

  Jake flew down to the middle point, wanting to help his wives cull these burrowing enemies. While he didn’t think it would matter much thanks to their current strategy, he preferred to not let them get a foothold. Already, Ophelia, Nessa, and Tanda had no issues with assassinating and targeting the hornets, but the underground enemies were proving a little challenging.

  “Gonna check out Bree’s new state, Lia. That means Valora can have some fun.”

  Jake, Bree, and Valora all got larger, and Jake’s Presence took on a new, monstrous air. In a way, the State wasn’t quite complete, as Bree was not Hearthbonded. But thanks to her special Divine Trait, it still granted him a little to work with. He was able to connect his Resonant State to it, and he wondered if he could do the same for Nessa’s once she achieved it for her poison, to accomplish the same thing.

  Bree grinned over her shoulder at him as her paw swiped and tore right through a large ant’s torso. “I love our State together, Chief. Both forms of it.”

  Jake had found resonance with his Savage Forgemother, Bree. Making the connection took longer thanks to not being Hearthbonded, but he had decided on her state: The Pack Predator. He felt that this matched a class from Bree the best, one that embodied her disposition better than anything else.

  And most importantly, the state would also embody her sisters. While they had different elements and might take on different aspects of themselves as they found their own personal paths, he listened to Bree when she said her sisters were more like mirrors of her.

  Whatever they ended up choosing, if they became members of Jake’s family, they would be pack predators through and through. They had lived as a pack of one, or three, kind of, for thousands of years. Old habits like that die hard.

  When Jake took on the melee state of the covenant, it used the fires and auril within him to make his body grow and become stronger–as the flames within his void-divine hearth became Bree’s Savage Forgemother flames. It was in his plans to use this state to face off against Bree’s sisters–at least at first.

  Avalara beamed. “I like it too! My mate is so studly right now!” Even in her giant avatar form, her little deer tuft in the back fluttered, the girl excited about Jake’s increase in ferocity.

  Chuckling at that, Jake cut through the oncoming ants with his Hearthblade, Pyros in the shape of Ophelia’s halberd as he cut down the ramp toward the burrowing enemies. His increased strength and size were formidable against the trash-level enemies, allowing his hearthblade to shred right through their bodies with ease.

  And he stayed close to Bree, fighting by her side as Avalara covered them, fighting near their flanks with her storm of violent vines. Already, Bloodberri had taken out one of the burrowing enemies with her cannon-fired superball, but there were numerous others, and they were rapidly building up an earthen defense underground. It wouldn’t work for much longer, and they, along with Tanda, targeted the burrowers on one side. Jake, Ava, and Bree moved to clear the other.

  The other half of the covenant boosted any summons or templates, especially beasts or those compatible with pack fighting. In all, Jake had wanted to test out what was possible, and he found that he could enhance them enough for it to be worthwhile. So now, Valora was benefitting; the dragon horse’s size was increased by around 30% or more.

  Ophelia at the moment was significantly weakened, not able to perform much aside from buffing and infusing her mana into her hearth guardian. It was also empowered, though not as much as Valora was.

  The dragon horse happily stomped and crushed the various ants, wind, and lightning mana swirling around her and blasting into enemies as she whinnied proudly. Hooves flashed outward, crushing their heads, its movements far too fast for the large ants to follow. She rushed toward the hornets, lining them up for Ophelia to cut down or biting or kicking into them herself.

  Having reached one side of the base of the ramp, Jake extended his Hearthblade and cut downward into the ground with a blast of flames. He dug through the ground and reached the monsters, their large claws and jaws surging toward them as they felt the danger approaching.

  And Bree’s maws were waiting–extra manifestations of several of her toothy jaws ready to bite down and tear into their chitinous flesh. Jake finished them off with a few swings of his polearm, sending the auril mixed with hearthflames cutting and burning into their bodies. They were in danger of getting surrounded as monsters continued to spawn, so Jake, Avalara, and Bree backed off to the jungle now that they had slain the burrowers.

  Meanwhile, Valora, Ruby, and Nessa had taken out the ascended casters. Overall, Jake was happy about the results of his test of the state, but he moved on to try the other half. It still took him about ten to fifteen seconds to swap his portion of the covenant from within the jungle. When he did, now it was Ophelia that was enlarged. She could still ride on Valora, but it defeated some of the advantages of the enhancements provided.

  And now, he summoned several templates at once. The heroic stag, boar, hound, and lion were templates Jake had captured, and they could fight well near Avalara’s jungle. Jake then buffed them up using his Divine Reinforcement, and then he flew up into the battlements of the keep. The four buffed-up monsters were nearly the size of Bree herself, and while they weren’t as powerful as her, fighting at her side as a pack, they were quite effective.

  Thankfully, it appeared that the centipedes were largely a one-time spawn, or they were infrequent, at the very least. The hornets were now a common spawn, but Tanda was able to focus on sniping them.

  Jake was a big fan of this State, as it greatly enhanced his summoned templates, and it enhanced Ophelia in a unique way, shifting her flames to be more like Bree’s. In this state, he could really only buff during this time and heal or attack using Bree’s Savage Forgemother’s flames, but that was good enough.

  After thinking on it, he realized that he could probably use several of the features in his other states. To differentiate them, to increase their value in certain situations.

  Now that he had more to choose from, he didn’t see a reason why not to make them more varied. Jake was also looking into how he wanted to evolve or advance the skill. What should it look like in the Third Tier once he gets there? If he had a choice, what would the skill accomplish?

  He imagined a powerful next step would be for the states to more heavily integrate Fusion Ascension or merely to have more powerful covenants that boosted their effectiveness more. Another idea was to focus on something new rather than caster and melee roles between him and Ophelia or to simplify into fewer roles or classes to boost more of his wives at once.

  It was just another thing for him to consider as time continued to count down, their forces easily managing their resources as they defended against the oncoming horde of ant people. Jake saw that Warrior Brotherhood and the Sons of Rome eventually moved down to the ledge with the treants, finding stable footing made of reinforced vines to fight closer to the action. Love and Justice and the beastkin still focused on their ranged attacks, raining spells and arrows on the casting ant people.

  At the forty-five-minute mark, things shifted again. Larger boss-level enemies spawned to head up the three paths, and Jake realized that his people would need to earn their victory.