Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Pef wasn't a rash youth anymore and his plans were somewhat more well-thought. Or maybe not.

Anyway, once the body of Paragon was burned, he retreated into his sauna and didn't come out for a month. Only Lady Lia would visit him once a day, and never for more than a few minutes.

When he did leave the solitude of his wooden sauna, he took off at speed, first towards Green Gea, then towards Vesuvius. Lastly, he arrived at the Patriarchy, and remained there for a year.

Then, he flew around the planet, sometimes diving deep under the ocean, sometimes smashing through mountains and glaciers, looking for exotic ingredients.

'I have found a thousand tons of platinum and gold. What else?' he asked his glove as he emerged from a ruined mountain.

'Steel and silver should be plenty in the Monarchy, Soldier. Now you become an Ardent. It may hurt a bit.' the trusted glove whispered to his mind.

Becoming an Ardent was mostly a matter of managing heat. And then becoming immune to it. Over then next month Pef suffered under Firali's ministrations, getting baked into a metal cake. It wasn't pleasant, but at this point Pef didn't mind pain, or at least physical pain.

Having 4000 tons of various metals melted into his dantian was supposed to upgrade his core. Or so the glove said. He opened his eyes and tested the new ability with some hesitation.

His qi core had indeed increased in radius, while his body and soul got stronger from the ordeal. Keeping an eye to his inner chart, he flexed his powers.

Body stats:

-Strength: 1475.

-Agility: 1733.

-Endurance: 1087. (Entangled Soul/Body. Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

intelligence: 145. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Wisdom: 102. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Charisma: 152.

-Ki force: 11500.

Cultivation stats:

-Spiritual affinity: Water 9%, Sword 4%, Fire 5%, Thunder 1%, Void 1%, Metal 1%. (Wind, and Earth under 1%)

-Core size: Medium. (1.871 cms radius)

-Core inner volume: Medium. (Ocean world. Ki ingestible pill +2)

-Ki purity: 5%. (~2% transdimensional injection)

-Soul Aspect: Binary-White/Silver. (Combat/Exploration affinity)

-Soul defence: 598. +90% bonus (open meridians 1+11)

-Soul attack: 199. +10% bonus (Veritas Knife modifier +1000)

-Sword Ki abilities: 4%. (One with the Sword stage. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)

-Water Dao abilities: 9%. (Medium Water Domain, ~600 kms radius)

-Fire Dao abilities: 5%. (Minor Fire Domain, ~120 kms radius)

-Void abilities:1%. (Voidsplitter skill. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)

Divine stats:

-Ki sense: Medium (~7000 kms radius)

-sword intent: Negligible. (Swordforce stage 1, 15%)

The rest of his stats haven't changed or at least not significantly. But it didn't matter. He was ready now.

'I am ready now, right?' he asked, just to make sure.

The glove computed a suitable response for half a second. In truth, the Fire Saint beside the magma plate was much stronger in divine abilities than his ward. But in the end, that didn't exactly matter. 20% extra skill in manipulating divine strings was nice, but every new Divinity would start at 20% anyway.

Just like in manipulating gravity strings or heartstrings, a higher cultivation level would automatically grant a minimum of ability. And that measly minimum would equal a genius of a lower level.

'You're in no way ready, Soldier. But it doesn't matter. You will ascend and exterminate these pests anyway.' the orange glove said in a command tone.

"Get ready Firali. And snap that silly ice sword as well. They are meant to be used, not kept as pets." Pef told the older Saint. In his palm, the gift from Cellia appeared, a tiny dagger made of perma-ice.

Pef's fingers closed into a fist, and he began digesting the lessons left behind by the Lady of Winter.

As he expected, her insights into the Dao of Water were way below his own, but she did have a solid background into the Dao of the Sword. Stances and katas, attacks and parries, energy constructs and swordforce thoughts were layered in a birthday cake, easy to ingest and then deposit in his soul.

An eternity passed inside him, while our hero began his own Ascension. Outside however, in the underground hall used to prepare Ardents for Volcanis, it only took a minute.

Reality wobbled, divine strings scattering and dissipating into gas. Then, unexpectedly, the gas coalesced back into a human form.

"Errr. I don't think you've done it right, Lord Pef. You're still here, in the flesh." the Fire Saint mused while searching himself for his treasure glasses.

'Uh? I failed at Ascending?' Pef wondered a bit confused. He did feel himself much stronger though.

With a thought, he brought back the user stats chart.

-Veritas Legion Adjutant-User data file

Name: Pef Xi

Alias: Monarch, Emperor, Saint, God?.

Rank: Local universe CIC, Legion Soldier: 1st class

OS: Standard Veritas Legion Indoctrination method: compatibility 0.477

Race: Physical God (improved +28%)

Body stats:

-Strength: 4577.

-Agility: 5866.

-Endurance: 4335. (Physical God. Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Intelligence: 197. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Wisdom: 133. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Charisma: 387.

-Ki force: 414000.

Cultivation stats:

-Spiritual affinity: Water 10%, Sword 9%, Void 2%, Fire 5%, Wind 1%, Thunder 2%, Metal 2% and Earth 1%. (Life, Yin, Yang and Entropy under 1%)

-Core size: Large. (3.149 cms radius)

-Core inner volume: Large. (Ocean giant.)

-Ki purity: 11%. (~2% trans dimensional injection)

-Soul Aspect: Binary-White/Silver. (Combat/Exploration affinity)

-Soul defense: 1170. +90% bonus (open meridians 1+11)

-Soul attack: 985. +10% bonus (Veritas Knife modifier +1000)

-Sword Ki abilities: 9%. (One with the Sword: stage 2. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)

-Water Dao abilities: 10%. (Large Water Domain, ~3000 kms radius)

-Fire Dao abilities: 5%. (Medium Fire Domain, ~500 kms radius)

-Void abilities: 2%. (Voidsplitter skill. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)

Divine stats:

-Ki sense: Large (~41000 kms radius)

-coresense: Minor. (~40 kms radius)

-telekinetic field: Minor. (Divine strings manipulation: 20%)

-add-ons: none

-sword intent: Minor. (Swordforce: stage 1, 28%)

-transmutation/alteration: Large. (water: stage 7, fog and ice: stage 6, plasma: stage 2, condensation: stage 1)

-divination: Negligible/???. (trans dimensional injection/soul aberration)

-heartforce: Minor. (Iceheart: stage 2. 80% complete)

-kharmic luck: Minor. (Minor reincarnation)

-logopedic dao ability: Minor. (Soul digestion stage 1, 20%)

-Extra abilities: water clone: stage 5, fire clone: stage 1, dojutsu: stage 2, mindforce: Minor.

A wave of his hand condensed some water into a mirror. Then he stared at the reflection for a minute.

"Okay. At least, I'm gorgeous now. So there's that. My wives will be happy." Pef spoke while making faces at the mirror.

Firali instead kept examining him through his wonder glasses, while grumbling in his beard.

"You're still an idiot, boy. But a divine idiot of some sort. Almost like you ascended laterally, instead of up. Guess the heavens do care, after all..." the old Saint muttered after a long examination.

'Physical God?' Pef asked towards his glove.

'Well. You did try to ascend while carrying 4000 tons of metal in your dantian. Kept you grounded, I guess.'

'You guess? I am allowed to make mistakes, since my brain is human and such. But you knew!' the new godling exclaimed in outrage.

'Actually, this is not bad at all. You can Ascend again and bypass Tier 1 entirely. It is possible that Loose Divinity stage is for failures, and keeping your body is the normal result.' the glove said to ease his mind.

It was indeed possible, like anything in the multiverse. Just not very likely.

'Oh? So I am genius as well? Ha! Take that Cellia! I have a body and you're only gas.' Pef exulted inside.

With a simple step, Pef arrived next to the work bench were Firali had been smithing his mysterious formations. His senses were so keen now that he immediately spotted the mistakes made by the Fire Saint, and then he proceeded to repair them. 

Took him half an hour, but he've done it. The gold bracelet shone triumphantly in the red light cast by the nearby magma. 

"Take a look, old man!" Pef demanded while throwing the bracelet towards Firali.

The grumpy Saint examined it for 10 minutes before giving up. "The formation is perfect. As good as I can make it. And twice as durable..." the man admitted with a sigh.

"See! Why waste a million years? Any idiot can make them, once they reach my level." Pef proclaimed proudly.

A tiny ice sword appeared out of nowhere and smacked Pef on top of his head.