Two weeks after the Prism Madonna's name spread across Shenlu Cheng, Veneri left the city.
By then, the entire place knew who he was, which made moving around as his usual self pointless. So he used Body Reconstruction again and settled into a more ordinary Immortal appearance with ram horns. It was practical but also annoying. The Love Pentarch stayed behind in Shenlu Cheng for now, working his way up inside the Pleasure Faction until he earned the right to leave the city on his own terms. That meant one part of him was still there, learning a different path, while the original body moved on with the others.
He didn't see Agnar again after the announcement.
That was fine. Their business had already been done and Veneri had left Eunecia with about ten thousand Archivist Stones for her parents to use, since as a Split of Time he didn't need them at all. In his case, making the stones had been easy because the source and the structure were already tied to his own title as a Split. By the time he left, the city had already settled into the aftermath of what he had done there.
Now he sat on Biolumine's back again, only this time she was in cat form with her white fur bright under the open sky. Parasphlen floated beside them like a soft ghost of light that never quite touched the ground. They were outside the gates, finally clear of the city's attention, with Shenlu Cheng shrinking behind them and the wide open land of the Immortal Anchor stretching ahead.
The Immortal Anchor has a strange relief after the density of the city. Most of its land was open meadow, broad landscapes, fields, long roads and distant structures that looked more like scattered civilization than packed urban life. It gave the whole place a freedom that the Immortal cities never really had, even if that freedom was only cosmetic. Veneri had the map Agnar gave him before they had parted ways so he already knew the rough layout of the Anchor and where the better travel routes were and where it was safer to move quietly.
For the moment though, he was simply enjoying being able to breathe without someone whispering his title.
He shifted on Biolumine's back, then slowly altered his appearance again until he looked like his handsome self rather than the ram-horned disguise. The change took only a moment and once it settled, he exhaled as though he had finally taken off something too tight.
"Now I'm relaxed."
Parasphlen, drifting just over his shoulder, gave a tiny hum of amusement.
"You look much better this way."
Biolumine snorted from below him.
"He looked ridiculous as a ram humanoid."
Veneri leaned back on his back and gave them both a flat look.
"That's rude."
"It's true,"
"It was a disguise."
"It was a bad disguise."
He clicked his tongue and looked ahead at the road stretching through the meadow.
"It was effective enough."
"You were clearly irritated the whole time."
"Because acting like a ram humanoid is annoying, Biolumine."
That got a short laugh out of Parasphlen.
"So you're admitting it."
"I'm admitting it's annoying, not that you were right."
"Okay fine. Where are we going, then?"
Veneri folded one arm across his chest and looked off towards the open countryside.
"We're going to spend the next two hundred years forming and managing a moving merchant shop."
Parasphlen blinked once.
"Two hundred years?"
"Rough estimate."
"You say that like it's a casual afternoon plan."
"For me, it is."
That was partly a joke.
A moving merchant troupe made sense for a lot of reasons. It would give them an excuse to travel. It would let them move stones, goods and useful items through the Immortal Anchor without looking like they were establishing a power center. It would create a legitimate cover for recruiting people, storing resources and moving between cities without attracting immediate Faction attention. It would also let him sell Archivist Stones in a way that looked like commerce rather than a direct challenge to the system. If the factions got too interested too early, they'd start restricting access, trying to control his routes or pressure the market before he had enough independence to resist.
He had already thought through the problem. Dynasty Richinaria is a merchant Dynasty after all.
He listed a few of the reasons aloud as they walked.
"We need manpower and labor. We need people who can move goods, maintain the inventory, handle recruitment and keep the shop running while we travel. We already have money so that part isn't the problem. We've got hundreds of millions already."
Parasphlen made a little sound.
"Still ridiculous to hear you say it that casually."
"It's true. The Pantheons gave soldiers enough money to stay with them so they'd have something worth fighting for after the war ended. Turns out I killed them and took their money."
Parasphlen drifted around to his other side.
"And the circus part?"
"That's why we're going to Skazka Illyuzia."
Biolumine looked at him and scoffed.
"That name sounds fake."
"It does not. It's Russian, if I remember correctly. It's the hometown of circuses on Planet-4697. If we want to recruit some members or work with an existing troupe, that's where we go. It'll make a good base to build a moving merchant shop around and it'll be easier to sell Archivist Stones through a traveling show than through some dry merchant stall that screams 'target me.'"
"So the circus is the disguise."
"The circus is the cover, Paran. The shop is the business. The route is the excuse. The entertainment is useful because people always gather for a show."
"You really do think like a criminal merchant."
"I think like someone who doesn't want the Factions breathing down my neck."
That got a quiet laugh out of Parasphlen. He settled back again and looked at the fields as they moved. The road cut through open green stretches, then past a small cluster of low structures and a field where travelers were moving goods by cart. In the distance, the landscape rolled into gentle hills. A few birds or bird-like creatures lifted from the grass when Biolumine's movement slightly shook the ground. The scene was absurdly peaceful for a world built around survival.
Biolumine, apparently deciding that this was a good time to be annoying in a different way, asked a question.
"You've really never been to a circus before?"
"No."
"That's strange."
"I was busy."
"With what?"
"Being alive."
"That's one way to describe your entire first life."
Veneri let out a tired breath through his nose.
"I heard about circuses in my past life. Just never went to one."
"Now you're suddenly interested?"
"Why not, Bio? They have performance, spectacle, travel, tents, food, music and enough space for people to pretend they're doing something normal while secretly doing something useful."
"That's your idea of entertainment?"
"It's my idea of laying low. Also, it sounds fun."
That got a more genuine reaction out of both of them. Biolumine's whiskers twitched and Parasphlen's glow shifted in a way that suggested she had decided not to argue with that one. Veneri himself leaned into the back of Biolumine's neck and looked up at the sky for a moment. The open road, the open sky, the lack of immediate conflict, all of it was enough to make the day feel peaceful.
After a while, Biolumine broke the silence again.
"You remember a lot from Earth for someone who's been gone a century."
"Memory can be stored in the soul, not just the mind."
"Aeterium memory?"
"Yes."
"That means you don't forget easily."
"Not the important things at least. Though I don't remember everything. Just more than most people would expect."
"So you're saying your soul is a library and your brain is a bad filing cabinet?"
"That's one way to insult me you lousy cat."
"It was said with love."
"Love my ass. The Timeless Realm will fall to oblivion once you say 'I love you' to me."
Parasphlen floated beside him and looked be smug.
"You're acting like a normal traveler now."
"That's because I finally am one. You know, when I used to read reincarnation stories on novels, I used to imagine myself being overpowered and travelling while just using my knowledge of Earth to make myself rich. In a way, I'm doing that."
"So you're happy with this, Master?"
"Of course I am, Paran. Everything in life has a reason as to why it exists. That's why I live life by my own decisions because at the end of the day, I know I'll just end up enjoying myself even after struggling."
"That's a carefree way to live."
"It sure is. Too bad my beloveds aren't here. Even though I miss them, I don't regret what I did. I should keep moving forward."
The three of them kept moving.
Somewhere in the distance, a caravan moved along a crossing road. A pair of small creatures ran through the grass and vanished behind a hill. The world was big enough to make their goal feel distant and manageable at the same time, which was the kind of feeling Veneri liked best.
He rested one hand lightly on Biolumine's back and smiled.
Two hundred years as a moving merchant troupe.
It sounded ridiculous which, naturally, made it worth doing.
"If I was in a book, it would be called, 'The Time I Became A Crystal Merchant In Another World'. That sounds good, right?"
------
In one week, Veneri reached Skazka Illyuzia.
He and the others did not rush it, mostly because there was no reason to. The map Agnar had given him was accurate enough that they could avoid trouble and more importantly, they could avoid the Decay Zombies that wandered the countryside. Those things were one of the ugliest consequences of the Timeless Realm. When Decay overpowered a being, the body didn't simply die. It rotted like someone inflicted with extreme leprosy. The flesh kept breaking down while the soul stayed behind for decades or centuries, trapped in a state that was neither life nor peace. They wandered, mindless or semi-mindless, depending on how far the soul had decayed. It was an obscene kind of torture. Veneri could have handled them without much trouble if he wanted to, but drawing too much attention before reaching his destination would have been stupid. So he kept to the roads, passed through a few villages, stayed in inns, paid properly and moved on like a respectable traveler instead of a walking catastrophe.
That part, at least, felt normal.
Skazka Illyuzia itself did not welcome them immediately. They stopped outside the city first in a quiet area with enough open land to work in. That was not on accident. Veneri had chosen the place deliberately because before they entered a city full of circus culture, trade and opportunists, he wanted one final thing done properly.
He wanted to test Paran's body.
For ten years staying in the Obsidian Runic Spire with his daughters and subordinates, he had done a great deal with his time. One of the most important things had been working with Luciana's puppetry. At first, the puppets were still crude by the standards he wanted but the foundation was there. He helped improve them using sapphire, soul structure, and her Pinnacle Tether. With his guidance Luciana eventually crossed fully into Divine Witch territory. That had been a big step for her because once she understood how to combine skeleton, function, and soul habitation properly, the puppets stopped being mere constructs but manufactured life.
The bodies had skeletons shaped like humanoids and artificial sapphire pseudo-cores that could absorb energy because of his [Energy Absorption] enchantment. Luciana handled the functions and soul inhabitation while Veneri used Body Reconstruction through the soul to build the physical vessels themselves. It was not natural life but it was close enough that calling it fake felt dishonest. It had been an artificial way of making life and the first successful prototype became the template for the later bodies Luciana made. Over time, she improved the process enough to build a body that could finally hold Paran properly.
Paran, short for Parasphlen, stood before the finished body now and stared at it.
She was a Forge Furnace Guardian, which meant that even though Veneri could touch her and interact with her, her true nature had always remained incorporeal. She existed but not in a way a normal body could fully contain. Over the decades, Veneri had gathered souls during the war but some were too damaged to be used. So he refined those souls down into Soul Energy and fed them into the puppet project instead, building energy reserves into the body until it could finally sustain a being like Paran without breaking.
Now the body stood complete.
It had green hair, golden eyes and flesh instead of spirit haze. Artificial golden blood was coursing under the skin. It had a voluptuous frame with large breasts and a seductive softness to the body that made it look more like a divine woman carved with intent than a puppet assembled from parts. She wore a white sleeveless dress that fit her neatly without hiding the fact that this was an actual body now.
"Even though I asked for this a century ago, it still feels strange seeing it again."
"It's had more than ninety years absorbing energy. Thank goodness I remembered it when my inventory was opened."
Now that he had modified it with [Limitless], it could store far more energy than a normal puppet body ever should while consuming less. It was a long-term energy vessel with serious potential.
"You really made it that strong?"
"Yes."
Biolumine watched from the side in silence. Veneri stepped forward, touched the body gently and began pouring Soul Energy into Paran's soul.
The process was not difficult in principle. It depended entirely on the soul itself. If the soul resisted, it could take days. Paran's soul, however, was not weak. It was powerful enough that a careless attempt would have turned into a fight for control and Veneri had no intention of wasting that much time outside the city. So he pushed steadily, using almost all the Soul Energy stored in his pseudo-cores to get her soul to settle into the puppet correctly. The body began to glow faintly as the soul and vessel aligned.
He was panting by the end of it not because he had failed. It was successful.
Omniphage immediately started siphoning energy from the surroundings, especially Nature Energy, which existed everywhere in the open country around them. His Omniphage Superimpose Form converted that influx into Soul Energy. Veneri felt the energy. In a few minutes, he would be full again. That was one of the reasons he appreciated Omniphage so much. Only this time, he didn't feel extreme pain while it activated.
Paran woke up.
She blinked slowly and looked down at herself. Her hands moved. Her fingers flexed. She stood at around two meters by default, though she could alter herself up to seven if she wanted to. She looked at her own arms, then her legs, then breathed in and abruptly froze.
"I can feel the wind. I can breathe too."
She looked up at the sky, then back at the grass, then touched her own face as if verifying that she really had skin to feel at all.
"I can smell the grass. I can blink and look at the sun. I can hear myself speaking."
Her voice broke on the last part. Soon, she started crying.
"I missed this feeling. It's been more than two hundred thousand years since I had a body..."
Veneri stood there, letting her have the moment. She looked at him with teary eyes, then down at herself again, still trembling a little with the shock of it,
"You can absorb energy too. I gave it the [Indestructible] enchantment. It won't be easy to destroy. And because of the [Limitless] enchantment I just put on it, it can store even more energy while using less of it."
She looked at him as if she had to decide whether she was about to break again or laugh. Then she made a sound somewhere between both and rushed forward.
She hugged him hard.
Veneri froze for a second and hugged her back with a sigh that had no real complaint in it. Paran buried her face against him and started thanking him in a broken rush, telling him he was the best master ever. The words kept coming out between tears that she couldn't stop them once they started. He let her cry into his shoulder and patted her back.
"You really are a crybaby."
That only made her hug him tighter.
Paran pulled back at last and looked at him with a trembling smile. Veneri sighed, looked at her face and smiled back. He had built her a body that could feel the world again and now she was going to remind him of it every time she got emotional about sunlight, grass, or even breathing.
That was probably going to be annoying.