Over the next several days, Hector tried to get a handle on the Sweaty Fire Technique. He was bad at it. Rather than let that discourage him, Hector took his initial failures as motivation to work harder. This was a secret noble technique. There was no way in hell he wasn't going to train it obsessively. It didn't even matter if he couldn't hold the final stage of it for more than thirty seconds at a time. That just meant he needed more experience with it.

The other members of the Lord General's retinue left him alone other than to fetch him for meals. They seemed to understand he wasn't really one of them. Nor was he a temporary asset like Volithur had been. His status was more – dare he even think it – along the lines of nepotism. The boss liked him. He was a potential son-in-law.

If he'd had any desire to integrate with the group, it would have been a lonely existence. Hector had better things to do, though. There was his new method of training his domain, of course. But he also had been given access to the full collection of regular techniques. He read through so many technique manuals.

Most of them were of little interest to him. There were notes written in the front pages by senior family members indicating how effective they considered the contents. Many manuals, it seemed, were retained mostly because of historical reasons. Their techniques weren't great, they were noteworthy instead due to who had once practiced them.

Then there were the techniques that were incredibly niche in their application. Edge hardening techniques for weapon type externalities couldn't be used by someone with a transit sphere. Of the techniques he could learn, many were of questionable use. Hector certainly didn't want to dedicate hours a day to learning a convoluted mental technique for keeping accurate time.

Fortunately, he found some gold among the scrap. There was the One Minute Nap Technique, which used a specific tempo of cosmic energy pulses alternating between the mind aperture and the brain portion of the body aperture to simulate eight hours of sleep in a short time – though it was actually more like five minutes than one. The manual for that one warned users that they should get a night of real sleep on occasion to make sure their mind didn't become unstable. The recommendation was to have one night a week of rest.

Another technique he picked up was simply called Basic Sensitization. It was a series of exercises for improving the mental sense. For those with transit spheres, there was a manual explaining a technique to improve the ability to sense through the externality while traversing the primordial. It was written by none other than Thrakkar Shaocheth himself. That manual held no techniques, but rather a simple method to follow. It boiled down to pausing once the sphere was submerged, then paying attention to the environment instead of frantically moving towards a destination. Porters tended to fixate on getting out of the confusing primordial as fast as possible, but Thrakkar believed they should instead learn to appreciate chaos as their second home.

There were also several techniques for training auras that Hector read up on. He might have passed on the Sandwich Technique, but he did want to improve his aura. The techniques were nothing he would consider innovative, but every little bit helped. Every manual mentioned how useful blocking strikes was for training auras before moving onto their central technique. That much was so obvious he questioned why they wasted words on it. Hector had been blocking with his aura since he first stepped off of Earth.

The special method that they used at Tian Tower was in the library. It was simply letting someone wrap cables around the body and resisting with the aura. Some manuals discussed things like rapid flutters of the aura, attempting to maximize the expansion of the aura, and maintaining a flared aura for as long as possible. There was only one technique that really interested Hector, though. It was called Reverse Priming.

Normal priming of the aura was when a small amount of cosmic energy was placed in it from the soul reserves before cultivation. Reverse Priming did something a little different. Instead of placing energy into the aura, the practitioner expanded the aura, squeezed some cosmic energy into the gap between body and aura, then reabsorbed it. There was no gain in energy like with cultivation. It was simply mimicking part of the process with recycled energy – and actually losing a small bit each time to inefficiencies.

It worked, though. Hector had no idea why, but Reverse Priming left his aura aching for hours after just half an hour of work. If he held to his typical muscle analogy, then the soreness was a positive sign that he'd stimulated his aura to get stronger.

While not practicing his new techniques, Hector cultivated like crazy to replenish the energy that he lost to the Sweaty Fire Technique. Perhaps invested was a better term than lost. It certainly made him feel better about the fact that his energy reserves were trending downward.

Four days passed while the Lord General's army gathered. His retinue remained available to him at all times, but his elite, common, and reserve units disbanded between deployments. They lived in geographically diverse locations and had private lives apart from serving at a Lord's whim. Well, they had those private lives to the extent the Lord General allowed them.

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Hector knew that the staff of Stronghold Gamma had to be in a panic at his extended absence. They probably would not be happy when he showed up to inform them that he'd unilaterally changed the plans his superiors put together. Hopefully one of the most powerful armies in the multiverse could at least buy them some time. Maybe they would even allow him to participate in the Reconquest again in the future. Surely the miasma mitigation program was worth forgiving him.

Though… this wasn't just one disaster, if he was being honest with himself. He brought twenty untested Xian to Stronghold Gamma without permission. Then he disappeared without warning. Now he was returning with an army belonging to a psychopathic warlord. He was the definition of a loose cannon. Ultimately, he was failing to respect his superior officers. People who had dedicated their lives to the cause of humanity didn't deserve to have him wreck their plans repeatedly.

Nor did he deserve a hundred second chances just because he was a valuable asset. He wanted to be better than the people from Tian. A Lord who remained a good man. That meant he had to fix this disturbing trend before it became the standard pattern for his actions going forward. If he accepted special privileges, he wasn't respecting the system that everyone else had to operate under.

When the army was gathered, Hector brought out a bag of food he collected for his Xian contingent. It was nothing special. Just shelf-stable scraps that he'd saved instead of eating himself. Salted nuts, crackers, and sun-dried mango slices. Stowaway, typically a loner, approached to study the bag. "I could have carried food for you."

"I didn't realize helping the retinue members was part of your duties."

"I exclusively serve the Lord General," Stowaway said. "That doesn't mean I can't do favors to others. You are bringing​ a real army to Aes."

Hector inclined his head. "I hope it makes a difference."

"From my understanding, it won't. But we should put up a fight before the inevitable."

With the army gathered, the Lord General summoned his transit sphere. He motioned for Hector to come closer. "Wait until the opening begins to close before you leave."

"Understood."

The Lord General glanced at his still-growing sphere. "I can't make it any size other than its maximum. The process also cannot be stopped once I begin. My insight is a great advantage, but it does cause some inconveniences."

The disclosure of a weakness felt incredibly intimate, violating as it did the rules of decorum that existed between Lords and their subordinates. It inspired quite a bit of concern in Hector. This on top of receiving a secret family technique made the Lord General's thoughts on certain matters clear. He assumed Hector would soon be part of the Shaocheth clan. Disappointing that expectation might not be healthy.

Hector led the way to Stronghold Gamma, arriving near the command center. He jumped free of his sphere and jogged towards the operations room while the Lord General's sphere swelled in the background. A lieutenant saw him and rushed to the colonel's office. He followed.

"He's back? I hope he's ready to pay for his absence."

Hector stepped inside while Colonel Quinn was still reacting to the news. "I'll apologize later, colonel. At the moment there is a situation you need to be aware of."

The colonel's brow drew down. "Give your report, lieutenant."

"While on Tian looking for resources I became tangled up in some business with the Lord General. I'm being recruited to serve under him on a tour with the Coalition Army."

Colonel Quinn's face began to turn red.

"That's not everything, colonel. I convinced the Lord General that I had a responsibility to Stronghold Gamma and couldn't leave before a rift was closed."

"This is ridiculous, lieutenant. That mission was scrubbed when you disappeared. Rescheduling will take time, which we may not have. All signs at the moment indicate high command will be closing Gamma."

Hector held up a hand. "I mean no disrespect, colonel, but you want me to finish my report quickly. The rift is being closed today. If there are any other threats in the area you want cleared out, put them on a list."

The colonel's anger had been swapped out with confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Just then the sergeant major burst into the room. "The damn Lord General just appeared!"

Every eye turned to Hector. He shrugged. "I told him I couldn't join his army because I had to close a rift here. It didn't work out quite like I expected. Instead of letting me off the hook, he decided to close the rift himself."

The sergeant major swore. "What the hell is a major Lord cozying up to you for? Who are you, Hector?"

"Uh, he thinks I'm romantically involved with his daughter."

The sergeant major rubbed his head.

Colonel Quinn stared. "Are you?"

"Excuse me, colonel?"

"Are you romantically involved with the daughter of the Lord General?"

"...I don't think?"

The lowly lieutenant who had reported Hector's return snuck out of the room while the colonel cursed softly. "Doesn't fucking think so. That's the least compelling denial I ever heard. Fuck. Damn. Shit. Hector, you're the biggest pain in the ass of any soldier I ever worked with. I can't figure out why Transit won't let me fire you. Let's go talk to an Amaratti Lord."

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